little miss kay

We took much less photos of our little lady than of her brother. The woes of being the second child. And we did not write down her developments as often either...

According to my notes, she has started sleeping well at night since the first week of February. Only waking up for feeding... oh well, not really waking up too, she just searches for my breast and contently drinks while sleeping. Since we co-sleep, breastfeeding at night is very easy for me too. Most of the time, I couldn't even remember whether I breastfed her at night.

This little girl has a preference to be carried upright and has a neck strength that amazed the grandmas. She started smiling when being talked to when she turned two month.

Unlike her brother, Kay threw up a lot during her first two months. Most of the time because of overfeeding (she continuously wanted to suck even after being full). But since she is plumping up alright, I am not too worried. She only threw up when she was coughing now (still sick, poor baby).

These few days, Kay has enjoyed her tummy time so much. Sometimes she asked for it! She would whimper or cry a bit and stopped when I placed her on her tummy. She even smiled after that. Soon, I won't be able to leave her alone on the bed!

Health update: Jove has recovered but Kay was still coughing.

get well soon, pleeease!

Jove has been sick for about a week now. Cough and cold. He had stayed at my mother's to prevent baby Kay catching the bug.

Then, Daddy got sick three days ago. So baby Kay and I moved to stay at my mother's.

Jovan has started to get better now after taking the medicine prescribed by doctor grandpa.

Yesterday, the two-month old baby Kay got the coughing and the sneezing as well! My heart is just broken looking at her gagging with phlegm and trying to wipe her runny nose after a sneeze. She has vomited milk four times in these two days.

The weather has been crazy with alternating hot sun and heavy rain in a day. We're on our way to recovery, or so I prayed.

still with cold

Boo hoo. Jove still suffer from cold and no sign of getting better. He's still cheerful, playful, and active as usual... but his nose is often blocked when he sleeps. We are hoping (and praying) hard that he will be fully recovered this week as we will fly to Singapore next week.

Hubby is currently on a business trip to China and I stayed with mom and sisters. Jove loves it here, being adored by so many women everyday. Hee hee.

sweet recovery

Three of us are just recovered from cold. Yay.

Husband and I had cold since Good Friday. The packed weekend made us worse and little Jove caught the bug on Tuesday. Thanks to his good immune system, his cold was mild and he was recovered on Wednesday night. But these two days and nights have been tough for us. Jove is also teething at the moment (I suspected major teething involving more than two teeth), and the cold made him uncomfortable sleeping. So he woke up often during the night and twice he cried loudly for five minutes, both of us tried everything to calm him to no avail. During the day, he wouldn't sleep lying down, even after being bribed with yummy breastmilk. He only slept in the sling with me singing and swaying around. Even after he was fast asleep in the sling, he would wake up if I put him down. *sigh* I finally gave in and let him sleep as much as he wanted in the sling while I did my stuff.

Jove is also extremely clingy when he is teething. I'm looking forward for brighter tomorrow...

Happy Easter

Husband and I are having cold throughout the Easter weekend (until now). After successfully deflecting the cold virus for the last few days, Jove is beginning to experience blocked nose this morning. I hope he would not get a full blown cold like us. I read somewhere that breastfed babies have a high immune system, even if they catch cold, they will have a mild one. Let's just hope so.

This Easter, I understand slightly more about the Love that made Him died on the cross. Being a mother has taught me a lot about sacrificing oneself for love. Started with the pregnancy, my freedom was diminishing with the increasing tummy size. Then there was always the labor pain and the sleepless nights that follows. Myself does not come first anymore, now Jove is always on top of my priority list. This process of having and loving my son has made me realise the importance of sacrifice in loving.

Mother Teresa said 'give till it hurts'. If we give something that does not have any value for us, it wouldn't hurt. It would even be easy. The act of loving requires us to give something valuable for us, something that needs some effort to be given.

I wonder a lot of times why God created human in such a way that our human nature made it difficult for us to follow His teachings. We are selfish and He calls us to be selfless. We want to be rich yet He says blessed are the poor. We hate our enemies but He demands us to love them.

Maybe this has something to do with loving Him. Going against our human nature is difficult, maybe it could be a form of sacrifice to show our love.

Happy Easter!

mommy down with fever

I was down with fever yesterday. I woke up with horrible feelings, painful joints, bad headache, nausea and fever. I took Panadol and went back to sleep after hubby went to work. Woke up, still feverish. I called my sister to pick us up.

Jove is blessed with aunts-on-their-Christmas-holiday and available stay-at-home grandma, so sick mommy is not a big issue. I spent the day sleeping, waking up only for meals and feedings. The fever went down in the afternoon, but went up again at night. I took another Panadol and went to sleep. Little Jove slept with the grandparents. Bottles of breastmilk were ready in the fridge.

After an uninterrupted night sleep, I did get better. Have done loads of activities today and I'm still okay. Thank God.

healing the moon

We gave Jove CTM (chlortrimeton) four times on Friday. The dose was prescribed by our personal doctor, Jove's grandpa. He said that the medicine was quite safe to be used for long term due to its insignificant side effect. But being safe, it took a long time to work. By Saturday morning, the rashes were still all over him, and the scratching continues. We put a topical cream for the scratch wound at the back of his head, it was healing, but Jove kept on scratching. I took the liberty of giving a dose of Avil and Kenacort to him. The medication was prescribed by Jove's pediatrician the first time he identified the allergy outbreak and cleaned all rashes. However, according to my father-in-law, Kenacort contained corticosteroid and not safe for babies. I have considered this decision for two days, it was out of desperation when I gave him that dose. Two hours later, the rashes started drying and the healing began.

We went to the bioresonance therapy clinic in the afternoon. Jove was tested allergic to his Zwitsal shampoo and soap, tempe goreng, Quacker oats, and our house's dust. He had 30 minutes of therapy while watching children's show. This time, he only started to fuss two minutes before the therapy ended.

That evening, Jove started using Sebamed baby soap and shampoo. Then at night, grandma carefully wiped his whole face and body with warm and slightly wet towel then put Protopic cream on the rashes.

Sunday morning, Jove woke up clear and bright. His face shone with the new smooth skin and that made our day. I boldly decided to start the investigation in the afternoon, I ate fish. I hold my breath during the first feeding after lunch. He seemed to be fine. Dinner, I tried another fish and a little bit of ox tail. Jove continued to be fine till bedtime. Yay.

Both of us quickly turned on the light when we woke up this morning, and after taking a good look at the sleeping angel, we laughed. Jove's skin was still clean. Even until now when I write this, after a chicken soup breakfast and tempe lunch, he is still clean. No red rashes, no scratching. Only one little happy round moon.

(So it was the soap and shampoo all these time!)

Thank you Lord.

still red

We decided to give Jove the doctor's prescribed medicine for his allergy. His rashes are getting redder and he scratched till they bled and stained the bed sheet (I was pretty terrified and hugged him for a couple of minutes after seeing the blood stain). Eating rice and vegetable only for the whole day did not help to reduce the rashes. Maybe the outbreak has gone bad.

We're going to try the bioresonance therapy on Saturday. Hope that helps.

On a happier note, today is Emak's 81st birthday. Called her in the afternoon. She sounded happy. The hospital's nurses threw a surprise birthday party for her, they brought a cake, sang birthday songs, and took pictures. Wonderful sweet nurses! God bless them.

another outbreak

Red rashes strike again. They are everywhere, on both cheeks, neck, chest, tummy, the whole back, armpits, and some spots on the chubby arms and legs. Seems itchy.

Jove was tested allergic to chicken and quail's egg, cow's milk, peanut, cashew nut, chocolate, white sugar, red snapper fish (ikan kakap merah?), prawn, squid, chicken, pork, beef, wheat, yeast, some fungi, cat dander, some metal, prawn cracker, Kraft cheese, yellow food coloring, orange essence, and Indomie. Ikan Tenggiri (mackerel?) is labeled OK by the therapist.

I ate quite an amount of pepes ikan tenggiri (mackerel cooked in banana leaf with some spices) for breakfast and lunch yesterday. Then I drank a glass of chocolate flavored coffee in the afternoon. Oh, and I also ate a piece of chocolate cake. The outbreak began in the evening.

I ate some pepes tenggiri last Sunday and drank the same drink a few days in a row last week, no outbreak of rashes. I assumed that they were okay. Apparently they are not.

I'm going to take some food and drink to the clinic this Saturday to be tested directly to the baby. Meanwhile, I treated the rashes with Protopic cream. Hope the little guy gets better.

bioresonance therapy

Jove's cheeks and tummy got worse today. Red rashes popped out everywhere and he scratched them like crazy. I called a cousin of mine and she told me about this clinic that gave a kind of therapy for allergic people. My father called soon after and after I told him about this clinic, he offered to drive us there this afternoon.

He arrived to pick us up in 30 minutes, sacrificing his lunch hour. He'll do practically everything for his grandson!

Jove was tested allergic for a lot of things, including chicken, pork, local beef, cow's milk, and peanuts. Wow. It's good to finally know the food he's allergic to, now I can plan what I eat instead of doing it in trial and error way. The therapist said that Bioresonance therapy that they would be doing could eliminate his body resistance to those allergens and therefore made him an allergic-free kid. It could even prevent him from having asthma like his father and grandfather.

We're still contemplating about getting the therapy now. Hubby is still rather sceptical about the whole thing. Maybe we'll visit the clinic again with him and see how.

From the clinic, we had lunch at home then set off to the airport to pick my mom who came from Semarang.

Mom dashed out the moment she saw Jove without waiting for her baggage. She took him from my arms and asked me to take her baggage! When my dad complained, she said she has asked the security guard who said it was okay to do that. Whew, what a grandma!

atopic dermatitis

Jove has this red rashes on his cheeks, neck, and tummy that started about two months ago. It started on his neck and cheeks, we thought breast milk and tropical heat were the cause of the rashes. But after a check with the pediatrician, it was an allergic reaction. He prescribed medicine for allergy, and within three days, all the rashes disappeared!

He advised me to keep notes on the food I ate and to observe if certain foods triggered the rashes. So, no egg whites, seafood, and peanuts for me. Problem came when the medicine was up after five days and the rashes started to reappear. I still could not pinpoint on which food was the cause. Three days has passed since then, and the rashes countinued to get slightly worse each day. We are going to try Protopic cream now, one of the cream prescribed by the peadiatrician. Hope that can help in reducing the rashes.