My baby girls! 😍

2015 vs 2021 (6yo)

2019 vs 2024 (5yo)

Today:

Toys on the dining table? Irritated about it today, will miss it when they grow up... 🥲

Babywye turns 2!

Babywye is no baby no more, she just turned 2!

Lest I forget, these are what she can do now:

- Sings songs, able to sing ABC, twinkle twinkle, songs from Baby Jojo etc

- Follows her sister. Almost her first thought every morning. Always excited to go down to pick her up from sch.

- When she wakes up, she hugs one of her soft toys and comes out looking for me, sometimes greets me "good morning".

- Drinks 180, 150, 18ml. Started drinking independently about 2 months ago. Likes fresh milk too, but we avoid giving her too much as it's chilled.

- Loves strawberry blueberry durian

- Loves carrot cake

- Can speak in (mandarin) phrases comprising 5-6 words

- Identifies herself as her name, but says "mei mei, mei mei" when she asks for sth, like how we usually call out to her

- Automatically hugs nai nai when we visit. Finds yeye with toys after she's done with dinner

- Enjoys hopping

- Doesn't like to pose and/or look at camera for photos

- Sleeps about 11pm+ to 8+ am in the cot without waking up (occasionally if she does, I'll hush her and she goes back to zzz), then latches/ co sleep with wifey until 9+-10+ am

- Doesn't seem ready for toilet training, she signals only after her poop is out

- Porridge for her primary meals still. Tried rice the other day and she took ages to bite. Adept at self feeding.

- Vocab is expanding rapidly every day! 

- When she hears a commotion, she'll invite herself nearer and ask, "Se mo?" (什么?)

- If our response is "huh?" (like, are u sure?), she goes, "Zhen de 真的！"

Babywye's milestones at 20m

Last photo with this funky shades until she broke it 20 mins later

Realised I don't pen down babywye's milestones as faithfully as I did with her sister's. Is it #2ndchildsyndrome? Haha. It could be. Like, not as much novelty and amazement when you see your child achieving certain things e.g. singing a song, both feet in the air jumping etc.

Shall attempt to do so! She's 20m and 3 weeks now. Photos are from within the past month.

• Able to recite 1-10 in both English and Mandarin really quickly!
• Recognises who the clothes in the laundry belong to (like her sister! Is it a baby thing?)
• Can sing the first and second lines of "twinkle twinkle little star"
• Understands and able to follow simple sentences, such as "go to xxx and do xxx", "come and change diapers", "tell jie jie to xxx", "do you want to eat/bathe/sleep?", etc
• Very active, likes to climb and jump and roll around
• Can identify more than 30 animals (thanks to flash cards)
• Reads on her own sometimes, but not more than 2 mins
• Plays on her own sometimes, but not more than 5 mins
• Enjoys watching Simple Songs and Wiggles
• Quite adept at feeding herself, as in she holds the spoon quite steadily and can put the food cleanly in and out of her mouth
• Likes to eat almost anything, asks specifically for vegetables and egg
• Able to take minimal degree of spicy food! Her reaction is, "辣，辣" before asking for water, but she doesn't scream or grimace
• Informs us when she has peed/pooed but she can't differentiate the two yet
• Asks for jiejie when she wakes up
• When she sees us lying down, she slams on our bodies and says, "爸爸，起来！" (learnt this from her sis)
• Drinks 150ml for breakfast, 120-150ml for tea break and 150-180ml before bed
• Loves to eat almost anything and everything, curious to try what others are eating. Favourite foods are egg, blueberries, strawberry, kiwi
• Able to lift both feet off the ground when she jumps!

• Can't really grip and use the pen well
• Doesn't like swimming, wails when near the pool (like her sister!)

Babywye's sleep routine 16mth

Babywye had just emerged out of a growth spurt. She's coming to #16months in a few days.

The so-called "wonder week" was really terrible and stretched my patience beyond its maximum, I exploded. She rejected milk totally. Prior, she was having like 360ml a day; during the wonder week she only took 0-20ml. We were at our wits' end. She wouldn't reject the teat but wouldn't suck on it for a good 20 mins. I was so furious I vented my anger on my table, on the milk bottle etc. Thankfully I received some good advice and support from fb and learnt to 'let go' a litle bit.

After a week or so, babywye displayed the following noticeable changes in behaviour and growth:

- Understood more words and extended her vocab

- Could identify family members and recognise places (e.g. when we reach the exact spot at the void deck, she knew that's where ah gu walks a separate way, ye waves and says bye)

- Sleep pattern became more routine and predictable, yay!

- Began taking to milk again! :`)

Looks for minnie mouse for her naps

This has been her typical day for the past week plus:

10.30am - wakes up
11.00am - milk 120ml
12.30pm - porridge 1 bowl
1.30pm - 1st nap (30 min - 60 mins)
5.30pm - 2nd nap (usually 3 hrs from the time she wakes up from her first, for 30-60 mins)
7.00pm - porridge 1 bowl
10.45pm - night routine
11.30pm - 7++am - SLEEPS THROUGH! (occasionally needs a quick carry once or twice)

Babywye milestones at 8 months

I'm guilty of not documenting babywye's milestones frequently enough. Her boundless physical activity is overwhelming our mental ability to pause and breathe!

Ok maybe it's the 2nd child syndrome ._.

Babywye at 8 months:

- Sits very firmly. Able to transit comfortably between crawling and sitting
- Crawls very quickly on fours
- Holds something for support and stands quite firmly
- Sleeps (rather soundly) from 11pm - 4pm.
- Loves food. Always eyeing intently on our adult food. Able to do blw rather well (soaked bread, biscuits, brocolli).
- Drinks about 3-4 bottles a day of 100-120ml each. Very little, but we've changed to a bigger teat and a sweeter brand of formula milk to no avail. She just doesn't want to drink more.
- Doesn't take to books or flash cards. Distracted very easily by sounds and movement.
- Begins to understand and follow when we say, "clap hands"
- Doesn't like to lie still when diaper changing
- Can drink water from a cup rather comfortably
- Likes the company of her sister. Smiles when she sees her. Always turning her head to look at her. Wants to touch the same things as her sister is touching.

She's really a handful, as compared to her elder sis who was more bookworm and sit-still type. Nevertheless, babywye is starting to grow on us with every day!

Yx's comic

Recently, Yx is very much into drawing.

She will sit at her table, grab a pen and quietly doodle.

A few days ago, she came up with a few sequential drawings of her family and herself, they seem almost to form a comic of a morning routine. I love the fact that she draws happy faces of everyone and that she's integrated her baby sis into her perspective :)

Description of the drawings, as explained by artist Yx herself:
1) Yx and meimei waking up in the morning
2) Morning toilet routine
3) Yx makes milk for her sister
4) Yx carries her sister to choose what clothes to change into
5) Yx and sister entering their parents' room, who are still asleep
6) Sister lying on the sofa, and Yx peering over the back of the sofa
7) Playing in the living room.

Welcome our 2nd born - WYE!

Day 5 post delivery - Here I am, at Canopy Café, sipping hot latte whilst enjoying the beautiful greenery and calm breeze. 

Absolutely captivating breakfast view

I’m not here for leisure or golf; my car is at the workshop beside and being given a 5-hour thorough interior steam cleaning, carpet washing and air-con tube cleaning. Sent my elder yx to my parents’ home this morning (more about how important it is to have additional grandparents’ help, in another post) and at home, wifey is resting and coping with our 2^nd born with the divine help of our confinement nanny.

Introducing our precious 2nd daughter, babywye! :)

Her name is given as such obviously because we want her name to bear some resemblance with jiejie's:

- ‘Ying’ means bright/ lustrous of gems (well ‘bright’ can be also used to describe intelligence and/or a positive outlook);

- ‘En’ is to give thanks to the creator. By the way, we used a more unconventional 蒽 after finding out from my friend @Jingx that Anthracene is a beautiful crystal that is formed under extreme pressure (implying strength and resilience), which can then be used to form many other useful products (versatility and value-adding). We’d like Wye to be resilient, versatile, and be able to deal well with pressure.

True to the reason for choosing this Chinese character, this pregnancy wasn't a smooth-sailing journey. We believe we’re blessed with Wye as she didn’t come easy – you will learn about why in the following paras.

The Initial Discovery

In Dec 18, I was in the kitchen doing chores when wifey came up to me and showed me a pic of a preg test kit that displayed 2 lines. My first response was, “huh is this real or not?” I wasn’t elated or surprised; the feeling was more of scepticism and disbelief, cos we’ve been trying for a 2^nd for some time already to no avail. And when wifey was a few weeks’ preggy with yx, she displayed some emotional fluctuations. She hasn’t been behaving unusually this time. To make sure, we scheduled an appointment with our previous gynae.

Doc confirmed that wifey was preggy at 6 weeks! :)

The Shocking Oscar Result

At about 12 weeks of gestation, it was usual for preggy mothers to take a non-invasive Oscar test. Detailed ultrasound would be done and one is able to see the nose bridge, hands, legs, brains, heart, shin bones etc etc.

We weren’t prepared for any unusual results because Yx’s test didn’t show any. However, when the results came back, there were 2 concerns:

1) Sign of renal back flow and not life threatening. Doc said nothing can be done, just has to be monitored over the course.

2) One of the measurements taken during the ultrasound swas the thickness of the back of the neck (NT). The NT combined with the mother’s age and risk profile, showed that the chances of our baby having Down’s Syndrome was 1 in 64.

Mathematically, this means a 0.0156 chance. Being engineer-trained, I thought to myself of how small a percentage this was. It’s like, if you’re standing in a circle comprising 64 people, what are the chances that you will be chosen? If you’re betting on one number on a roulette that has 64 numbers, it’s almost definite that you won’t win, right?

Well, the keyword is ‘almost’. It’s not definitely definite. You wouldn’t bet your fortune on not winning the roulette, would you? Unfortunately for us, science (or is it gynaecology) considers 1 in 64 a considerably high risk. Here’s what I like of our gynae Dr Wong – he really took time to explain the test results and the possible meanings. Oscar has a 90% accuracy rate which means the test itself poses a high possibility of a false negative case, which has not been uncommon. Dr Wong advised to take another detailed test which is 99% accurate. Of course, there is amniocentrisis but although it gives a very very detailed analysis of all individual pairs of chromosomes, the procedure is invasive and poses a 1% chance of miscarriage. Thus we opted to take the non-invasive Panaroma test. The blood sample would be air-flown to a lab based in USA and the results would be available in 8-10 days.

The Wait

The wait was most anxious. It didn’t help that it occurred over the celebratory CNY period and I would be lying to say the anxiety didn’t affect our mood. We just prayed. We researched and learnt more about Down’s Syndrome. I reflected hard about the negative Oscar result. One day, I texted wifey and shared with her that maybe it was God’s message to us – He wanted us to be more appreciative of this pregnancy. Indeed, we haven’t been and instead we were carrying out with our lives like usual… with Yx occupying our time and mind most of the time. Coincidentally, the same revelation came to wifey just before my whatsapp msg to her.

The Assuring Panaroma Result

Dr Wong knew we were worried. Of course, which parent wouldn’t? He called wifey before our appointment and revealed the Panaroma result over the phone. TG, the chances of Down’s Syndrome were very, very low. He also revealed the gender without first asking for our consent. Haha. But at this point we didn’t really care about the gender, we really genuinely wanted nothing more than a healthy baby.

We sat down with Dr Wong the next day and he explained the detailed test analysis very professionally. It was clear that DS chances were minimal. But one other possibility of a thicker than usual NT was that there still posed a chance of heart defects. Can’t do anything and not life threatening at this point of time.

Shared this piece of good news with my family and learnt from my sis that many of her students have heart problems e.g. hole in the heart. It was assuring to know they lead normal lives as the other children.

The Subsequent Months

We went for usual gynae check-ups once every 3 weeks. Some time later, doc said that the ultrasound measurements of the bones seem to depict that baby was quite small-sized. We weren’t really surprised when Dr Wong said this – our firstborn just tipped the scale at 2.54kg so we expect the 2^nd to be more or less the same. But he explained that wifey wasn’t gaining weight and neither was baby. He advised to eat more nutritious foods, rest more and skip caffeine.

From Oct 18 to Apr 19, wifey had been working on a part time arrangement (i.e. 2.5 days a week). In May, she left her job completely and devoted her time to Yx and our home. She was constantly moving about, engaging in activities with Yx, bringing her to places, managing some household chores – couldn’t sustain the hectic schedule without coffee.

My mom was concerned and bought ‘power foods’ and cooked nutritious soups for wifey. I also did my part – from nagging at her to sleep more regular hours, indulged her in durian and discouraged her from taking coffee… they all seemed to help slightly, especially the durian intake haa! After 2 months or so, baby’s weight increased to within the acceptable range… yay. On our 36w check-up, gynae confirmed that baby’s weight will fall within acceptable threshold when born.

The Engaged Position – not yet?!

We went for a usual gynae checkup at week 37.

A night before, wifey suddenly woke me up at 5.30am and claimed she was having contractions. My first thought was - was meimei's delivery going to be an early morning incident just like yx's??? But the contractions subsided after awhile... braxton hicks probably, PHEW CLOSE CALL! (After that day I handed over all my work stuff and was basically on standby the next 2 weeks, haha. My heart raced whenever my phone rang.)

Doc commented that wifey’s stomach looked abnormally huge for a baby about 2.4 kg. It was huge because there was a lot of amniotic fluid, he said. A possible sign of Gestational diabetes (GD), he did a prick test but nothing unusual came up. He followed up with a finger poke test to feel if baby’s head is engaged aka in breech position. Alas, he couldn’t feel the head!?

Using all his years of practice and experience, Dr Wong felt the rest of the tummy and confirmed that baby was in an oblique position… she wasn’t ready to come out? Dr Wong said the reason why baby is not engaged yet could be due to excessive amniotic fluid, baby is like “swimming and floating” in the water. He added that if baby isn’t engaged when the real contractions come, emergency csec would be recommended and even so, the delivery could be tricky too. This got us very worried. :(

Wifey read up extensively on what can be done to encourage breech position. There was no time to lose – wifey actually felt some contractions over the last few days and knew baby was coming out anytime. Here are the things she did: 1) getting down on fours, 2) me talking to baby from the position we want her to turn towards, 3) prayed, and 4) moxibustion. The latter was a rather unorthodox and uncommon method but if you google you will realise that its benefits are wondrous! My MIL was suffering from rheumatic arthritis and some other condition that prevented her from walking, she was kinda confined indoors and highly dependent on the wheelchair for movement. However, after doing moxibustion for 2 years, her legs were given new life; not only is she able to climb stairs easily now, her legs recently brought her to the summit of Bukit Timah hill all by herself! So anyway, we were rather desperate for baby to move down so MIL visited and did moxibustion on wifey, we continued the treatment by ourselves the next 2-3 days. On the 2^nd day, wifey claimed that she could feel that baby has turned… we can’t be entirely sure so we continued doing what we could.

(By the way, the mucus plug came out on 19 July.)

The  30-min Delivery

21 July 19 - The day before meimei's delivery was a huge day for me too. My best bud Busy Roys was getting married (finally?) and I had promised to help out with the Brother's tasks to the best of my ability, subjected to baby's arrival (which is anytime!). In the morning, wifey felt some light contractions which increased in intensity gradually. She said to me, "I have a feeling it will be today." Besides keeping a close eye on my phone, I also asked my parents to standby, in case wifey needed to go hospital immediately. Despite this, wifey was still able to make a short visit to Roy's abode to send her congratulations, and have lunch too. But it was evident she wasn't feeling at ease... constantly monitoring the contractions and not wanting to move about too much.

Before I left house again to prepare for the evening ROM and reception, I reminded wifey to call me asap if there's a need. Kept monitoring my phone for updates... my worry was slightly alleviated by in-laws' presence with wifey and at about 9.15pm, wifey texted to say that the contractions are getting more painful now and I should come back earlier if I could. By then I had already completed 75% of my AV duties (and 50% of the 7-course dinner) and so I quickly handed over the duties to Ivan and J. It was my laptop that was connected to the system and yes there were some personal documents in the drive but I didn't had the time to care less. I managed to stick around until Busy Roy's delivered his personal thank you speech that was dedicated to Jx and myself, ensured Ivan and J were up to date on the tasks, briefed them on the equipment to safekeep for me, before I ran off at 9.50pm.

10.20pm - Got home. Situation was per normal and my in-laws and KY were just about to leave. So alright, waiting game resumes.

10.30pm - Changed out, bathed and carried out the night routine with Yx - read book, brush teeth etc. Wifey felt a pain contraction and was half curled on the bed... It went away shortly and I came out from the room leaving wifey and Yx to sleep.

11.15pm - Didn't feel full from the 50% dinner earlier. As I was anticipating anything to happen at anytime, I decided to cook myself a bowl of noodles. Can't go to war on an empty stomach, can you?

22 July 19, midnight - Wifey came out from the room and asked if my mom could come over to sleep with Yx. She took a pee and felt her water bag had burst. HOSPITAL TIME!

My mom had been as anxious as us and had packed a sleepover bag 1 week ago, actually. So she reached our house within 10 mins. In that time, wifey and I had washed up, changed and were ready to leave. Yx wasn't asleep yet (probably from all the anticipation and movement) and I remember we said bye to her before my mom shooed us to leave asap.

I SMSed Dr. Wong on the way to our car, hoping that he'll reach earlier rather than leave us at the mercy of the inexperienced midwives that we recall from our previous experience.

12.20am - In the car along PIE. Tuned in to 92.4FM trying to maintain calmness and normality when suddenly wifey's exclaimed, "Oh no!"

I thought what, baby crowning?!? So quickly?!

Water from amniotic sac flowed out all over the passenger seat. It was dark and I couldn't see; not that I cared, I was just concerened on reaching the hospital as quickly as I could! Wifey kept apologising for the mess. I assured her that it doesn't matter and just to feel relief that we're already on the way! My mind was focused on the traffic and how fast I was going - 120 km/h. Fortunately for the empty highway!

12.35am - Uh oh, wifey was experiencing great pain and wincing slightly! Reached the front door of Thomson Medical Centre. My experience with our first delivery was that there was someone manning the door in the wee hours. Even before our car got through the carpark gantry, I honked to alert someone to come quickly! I got down from the car and passed instructions to the nurse - need wheelchair! 38 weeks! Oblique position!

Wifey was clenching her teeth through a contraction and couldn't get out of the car seat. When she finally could, the nurses helped her onto the wheelchair and into the delivery ward.

12.45am - After cleaning up the passenger seat slightly, I went straight into the delivery ward to check how wifey was doing.

She had already changed into the gown. There she was, curled up on her side, breathing heavily into the gas mask like her life depended on it. To her, I'm sure she felt it was. She screamed into the mask whenever the contractions came... when the pain subsided momentarily, wifey teared and kept apologising for coming in so late. You see, she was 8cm dilated! :O

Days before, wifey had earlier decided to come in early to be in time for epidural, but at 8cm dilation epi was too late and even if the doctor was to fly down and administer it, it wouldn't have been of significant effect (and still cost $800).

This time, there were 2 midwives who attended to us. They seemed more calm and experienced and even assured us with a smile, "Even if the Dr isn't here in time, we can still do the delivery of the baby." Even if she was lying, she did a great job at lying cos that sentence coupled with her steady composure and voice put me at great ease. I noticed the gas mask was 100% sturdier than the previous time. I tried to make small talk with the midwives to distract ourselves from the pain and to soothe nerves... which proved unsuccessfully with wifey, of course.

1.00AM - WAHAHA Dr. Wong arrived 10 mins later! What a relief to see his face. He was a collected and fully focused face - he did not bother with the eye contact or hellos, he dived straight into his job. He took a quick look and so urgent was his need of attention and intervention that I didn't even notice if he washed his hands or put on a gown. He worked with the midwives to lay wifey into the delivery position, against the reluctance and numbness of her body to move at all.

(Editor's note: BY THE WAY I'M STILL FEELING BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH AS I'M RECOLLECTING THE EXPERIENCE! DEEPLY INKED AND VIVID AND TRAUMATIC!)

The next few moments were deeply scary and traumatic.

Wifey was now in the delivery position - legs propped up and opened wide. Then, something happened which prompted Dr Wong's and the nurses' attention. Don't ask me what happened cos I restricted my view to between wifey's head to her pelvis, absolutely nothing south. Dr Wong needed wifey to bend her legs so he could assist, but for the last few mins wifey had been going through pain beyond imagination. Even if she could muster any energy, she needed to harness whatever joules to save herself and her breathing, what about the legs??!  Dr prompted her to bend her legs again, in a sterner voice. Catching a few whiffs in between her relentless breathing, wifey cried, "I can't!"

One of the midwives tried to say something but she was crudely interrupted by Dr Wong, whose usual smile had been replaced with dilated eyes and raised eyebrows and he resembled a school's discipline master. "C, you have to listen to me! If you don't, your baby will die inside!"

Dark thoughts flashed through my mind.







We have never, never heard him raise his voice and tone to this extent. You know this saying that if an authoritative figure is always fierce, children will gradually learn not to listen and disobey; on the other hand if that person is usually nice and only flares up occasionally, the desired action takes effect quicker? This was true - as if wifey was suddenly hypnothized, wifey suddenly paused her quick and loud breathing and reverted to normalcy. "Okay! I'm listening," she replied audibly as she somehow found strength and let go of the contractions of her leg muscles, allowing the nurse to bend them.

Push, Dr Wong encouraged.

My recent revision of labour suddenly flashed to my mind at this juncture. I reminded wifey to tuck in her chin while I support the back of her shoulders. "1, 2, push!" I urged, clenching her right hand.

On the 3rd push, baby girl was out! She was laid resting on wifey's tummy, eyes opened, body stained and bloodied, alive and breathing. ALL IS WELL! Nurse directed me to the digital clock just beside, "Nah see papa, what time is it?"

1.10am - I was plain relieved and glad to see baby girl alive and breathing. Dr Wong didn't ask me to cut the umbilical cord, nor did I remember about this until much later. The midwife didn't count baby's fingers and toes in my presence, I didn't care less. Dr had assured baby would be 2.5 - 2.7kg; though she weighed only 2.49kg this was one of my last worries. Thank God mother and baby are fine!

Our first family portrait of the 3 of us:

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Post-delivery

Due to background of renal backflow, baby underwent kidney ultrasound on the next day. Results showed no abnormalies. TG!

Our first complete family portrait:

Many decades more to come =)=)