My Little Merlion

My sick bubba fell more sick on Sunday and now lies in a hospital cot at KKH. Not sure if she picked up some germs at Kinder Clinic or had an adverse reaction to the ventolin and nebuliser but she seems to have contracted stomach flu and turned into a little Merlion.

The ordeal started on Sunday evening, with Nat refusing to eat the porridge Arlyn had prepared. We thought she was just being fussy so Arlyn prepared some pancakes which she also rejected. I tried boiling pasta and we also offered toast to no avail. However she kept asking for water, and filled up on the stuff.

At about 7.45 pm while in my room, she coughed and sputtered and suddenly there was puke all over my floor and bed and her. The first projectile contained milk while the second one was mainly water. Thinking she might have been airy and thus would feel better after puking, we thought it was a one-off. However she continued drinking water, and minutes after Arlyn had just changed my sheets, she coughed up on my shoulder and hurled again. She nearly got the bed again, but I managed to put her on the floor in time. This time round, there appeared to be phlegm in her puke.

The third time was in her own room, another few minutes after she had been changed the second time. Again she coughed, followed by water and phlegm. She wanted to drink milk thereafter and that was a bad idea because right after she hurled all over Arlyn and the bed and the floor. 4 times in the space of an hour!

Not wanting to waste anytime, I decided to head to KK and Kevin and Swana picked me up. She puked a fifth time on Swana in the car! Had to bail on Uncle Alvin, Daniel and Chris whose flight back to Darwin had been cancelled and they were planning to come over and watch the Man Utd / Liverpool game. Ben and Wendy met us at the A&E and Nick joined shortly.

We didn't have to wait too long to see the doctor, and the cost was just $80. After examination, Nat was given paracetemol for a fever she had developed and a suppository to stop the vomiting. One hour later, we were to give her 25mls of electrolytes at 15 min intervals - she hated the stuff and ended up just drinking water. She puked the first but they said to keep at it, and she managed to retain the next 3 feeds and when nothing happened after the last one, the doc thought she had improved and prescribed some medicine for us to purchase.

However at the pharmacy, she coughed and vomited again, some on my shoulder but mostly on Nick whom I had passed her over to. That was #7 so off we went to inform the doc who then recommended she be admitted for observation and tests. Filled out the paperwork and by 1 am plus we were settled in Ward 75, Bed 16.


Of course we didn't sleep the whole night, I don't know how the patients do it. Nurses and doctors make their rounds, kids cry, machines beep, plus inconsiderate neighbours fall asleep with the TV flashing whilst snoring their noses off. The same neighbour's handphone ringtone is super loud and annoying, and he doesn't switch to silent when sleeping and it rings at odd hours but of course with his loud snoring, he is oblivious to it ringing and even fails to realise when his daughter's machine beeps. There goes the phone again...at 1.28 am...

Anyway, on her first night, Nat slept through everything. We opted not to put the drip yet, deciding to try and feed her liquids in small doses overnight as she wasn't too dehydrated yet. But this morning, her overzealous dad upped the dosages and in no time she hurled. When she puked a second time mid-morning and was refusing to accept any other drinks aside from water, we decided to go with the drip.


While I was on conference call, Nick accompanied her to the treatment room to administer the drip. Apparently it was like nothing he had heard before. Poor baby. Eventually the drip did the trick by bringing her sugar levels up but the problem is she doesn't sit still and moves her hand freely getting the tube all tangled up around her body.

She had a bag stuck on her bum to collect pee samples but most of it landed on her diaper. When the nurse tried to change the bag, she had a fit and Nick ended up carrying her, sans diaper. In her distress, she started peeing all over Nick but we managed to shove the collection cup near her and collect the necessary sample!

I went home in the afternoon to catch up on work and snooze, returning to the hospital at 7pm. Nat had several visitors today - Aunty Sarda, Arlyn, Ma, Swana, Kavi, Siva, Papa, Mildred, Ben and Wendy. I think she enjoyed having company.





It's now 1.36 am. Nick is asleep on a useless single cot that hurts the back and Nat is sleeping peacefully though I think her fever is back. Am gonna inform a nurse...

Sick bubba

We brought Nat to the doctor today, concerned about her phlegmy cough. Tried Kinder Clinic at Paragon which Swana recently started bringing Gigi to but somehow after today I don't think we'll be going there anytime soon.



It was a tad impersonal, and SUPER crowded, there was a non-stop stream of people entering but the names being called did not keep up! Not to mention the lifts at Paragon where forever packed and it took ages to catch an empty one.

The clinic is actual quite large with lots of sofas, but people had to stand around because they were all full. What struck me was the number of Indian expats at the clinic, I think they formed 70% of the crowd. In all the visit took 90 minutes, cost us $180 plus another $9.50 in parking...



Nat was prescribed Ventolin, and luckily we had a nebulizer at home, which we had bought for Arlyn to send home for her son, otherwise it would have been another $50 to rent a set. I could just picture Nick doing the sums in his head...what an expensive cough! But better to be safe than sorry!

In the evening, we met some of Nick's family for dinner at an AMK coffeeshop, had a chili crab craving satisfied but there was some durians next door that were beckoning but I decided to settle for mangosteens instead.

After dinner, some of us headed to Marina Barrage, it was my first time actually stepping foot in the place. Tonight was really humid though, and we were melting. Nat was in her element, charming Uncle Daniel and Uncle Chris and constantly raising her hands to be carried by them, along with Uncle Alvin. The rest of us were chopped liver!






Daniel and Chris followed us back to catch some footie on telly, but they were zonked from their long day and Daniel fell asleep on the couch...that was Nick's cue to send them home!

Tim & Shirley's Wedding

Nick's cousin Tim, who was best man at our wedding got married today to his girlfriend Shirley at the Regent Hotel.

I wore a Zara maxi dress I've been waiting for the right occasion for. Had to alter the length during lunchtime because I forgot until the last minute how long it was.


Uncle Alvin's sons Daniel and Chris had come to town for the wedding too. I had not met Chris as he couldn't enter this country till after he turned 21, so it was nice to finally meet him, since we are FB friends! The brothers look so much alike!



We didn't bring Nat as she was coughing and had a fever and everyone was asking where she was and disappointed to know she wasn't there!

Food was so-so, actually a tad disappointing but then again it could be my tastebuds which are currently out of whack. I found the table seating weird too, because all of Nick's relatives were split up across the ballroom and not grouped together. We sat with some cousins at the 'young' table away from the rest, and had fun commenting on what people wore. It was like Fashion Police, there was so many faux pas!

There was a girl in gladiator boots we nicknamed Ms Sparta, there was a not-so-slim lady in a short printed dress and ankle boots which didn't do anything for her legs. But the piece de resistance was a friend of the bride I think, who wore a very bridal-looking evening gown. In fact, before dinner started, I thought for a moment she was the bride, but then she had no make-up on! Couldn't resist showing you what I mean...kinda steals the thunder from the bride no?



It was Aunty Susan's birthday (mother of the groom) and the whole ballroom spontaneously broke out into 'Happy Birthday' when Tim mentioned it in his speech. That's her in the floral dress, I'm biased to her outfit, since I helped her pick the fabric at Spotlight...we both love floral prints!

Rayhan enters the world

Joanne has finally popped, after trying all sorts of things to make herself go into labour! None of them worked by the way!

She texted me on the afternoon of 20 Oct because I had been very quiet the last couple of days buried in work. She tried calling too but when she couldn't get me, she called Nick in Korea. Of all days, I had SIM card trouble after swapping phones with Nick.

Anyway, she wanted to tell me she was in labour, but dilation was taking ages and she was bored and hungry in hospital. We started texting and she was providing me exclusive updates, only hers and Tarek's immediate family knew the baby was on the way but we thought she wouldn't deliver till past midnight.

At close to 7pm my time, she messaged to say contractions were coming in fast and hard and was waiting for the epidural. At 8pm she updated that it took 3 attempts for the epidural to be administered because her spine wasn't straight...ouch!

After that I didn't hear from her, thought she might have turned the phone off for some peace and quiet but at 10.51 pm she called to say she had delivered 50 mins ago at 9.01 pm Vietnam time! She sounded so calm, that was fast!

And what a whopper the baby was, weighing in at 3.815kg! How that tiny little body of hers pushed him out will never cease to amaze me...hats off!

But here is little Rayhan Elawadi...welcome to the world bubba!


That's the 5th baby I know of born this month from Jane's sis-in-law, an ex-colleague from SSC, Yusnita, Desmond and now Joanne. It's baby boom time!

Boy perhaps?

I was watching an Australian program called "What's Good for You" this morning, and they had a segment on predicting a baby's gender using old wives tales. A host conducted experiments on 5 women using 4 common gender predictors and one in particular was accurate 5 out of 5 times. The women were all in their last trimester and didn't know their babies' gender so the results were only compared after all 5 had given birth.

Anyway, the 4 tests were using the wedding ring on string pendulum, mixing pee with a drycleaning agent, the Chinese lunar baby calendar and heart rate monitoring. The Chinese lunar calendar scored 4/5 and if I were to believe my chart, I'm having a girl.

The wedding ring test however, scored 5/5, uncanny eh? They say when you suspend a ring on a string above the tummy, depending on what direction it moves, it can tell you what the sex of your baby will be. Left to right means girl, and round and round means boy.


Immediately after the show, I took off my wedding band and when I couldn't find string, desperately removed the ribbon off a wedding invitation card. I did the test and I believe the ring did move round and round, I swear I didn't move my hand! That means boy! However when I checked online, some sites claim that left and right means boy, and round and round means girl.

We'll find out soon enough who's right, I'm hoping the Aussie show!

Deepavali 09

My little Bollywood baby was spoiled for choice on what to wear for Deepavali but we finally settled on a halter lengha before she outgrows it.




This year's Deepavali was quite low key, we had lunch at Kavi and Siva's house, where Nat once again screamed before entering the house, scared of all the strangers. She calmed down after a while when she saw all the tiny friends she could play with.

Troy, Luke and Marc are so big now, and a lot more mature, not to mention handsome. They'll be heartbreakers when they're older. Riley, Sarah and Nat loved Lukey and fawned over him like some groupies, Nat even sat on his lap and inspected his teeth at one point!



Nat also loves Ananya, she's always asking for 'nanya baby' and was glad to spend some time bonding with her cousin in the cot.



In the evening, we went to the folks' house where Ma was busy preparing for today. The house is so not baby-friendly, Nat and Gigi were wandering all over the place, opening cupboard doors and grabbing statues.


There was a mini open-house at the folks' place today. On the menu were the usual favourites of nasi minyak with dalchar, fried chicken wings, sambal prawns, raita, brinjal masala etc, mmmm....



Swana's in-laws came over for lunch, and my in-laws came over for dinner, along with Uncle Alvin, although I think the food might have been too spicy for him!




I was in pain throughout the day though, somehow I managed to sprain my neck whilst brushing Nat's teeth the night before, she leaned over the sink when I wasn't ready. Clumsy, I know!

Somewhere over the rainbow

The office was closed today, in lieu of the public holiday for Deepavali tomorrow. It rained in the morning and then I noticed a lovely rainbow outside the window. Got all excited and showed it to Nat. It started sinking after a while though, disappearing into the blocks.

I love rainbows, they're magical and happy. After that I couldn't get 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' out of my head!

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high.
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue.
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far...behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops.
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow, why then - oh, why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh, why can't I?