Vaccination for baby

Dearest Cepheus,

Your mummy and I brought you to NUH last Thursday for your checkup cum vaccination jab. Prof Prabha said that you are doing great and he shall see you in 6 months time. As usual, you are very well behave except when you are hungry. Throughout the visit, you were busy looking around with your curious eyes. Nevertheless you bawl your eyes out when the nurse administer both the 6-in-1 and the pneumococoal vaccination on both your thighs. It pains me just as much too just by listening to your cries. I regret to inform you that these jabbing processes will go on every few weeks till you are about 1 year old. Please forgive me and your mummy for putting you through this unnecessary pain but bear in mind that this is for your own good. You developed a slight fever after the jab too and became better after we fed you with some fever syrup. Your mummy actually cried when she found out that you are having a fever because she blamed herself for being a bad mummy for not noticing your rising temperature earlier.

I am not sure if it was those jabs that made you cranky but you didn't sleep much and wanted to be carried throughout the weekend and that gave me, your daddy, some good arms and legs training with all the carrying and rocking. My limbs are still aching as of now. ;)

P.S. I think you enjoy bathing, see how excited you are in your bathtub.




Love always,
daddy

Cranky baby

Dearest Cepheus,

You have been acting cranky for the past few days. It started on last Saturday afternoon after your mummy left for her dim sum lunch with her colleagues. You simply refused to sleep on your own in your cot and wanted to be carried at all times. The same thing happened again on Sunday morning 4am after your feed. I have to carried you for a couple of hours before you are willing to sleep. To make things worse, you started vomiting a lot of milk on Sunday afternoon. We were having Father's day lunch with your grandfather and you decided to vomit out almost half of your feed all over your mummy. It seems like bringing out extra sets of baby's clothing is not enough, I think we need to bring out an extra set of mummy's clothing as well. You vomited twice again on Monday over our sofa and living room floor. At the rate you are going, our flat is going to smell like your mummy's breast milk.

We are going to consult the paediatrician at NUH about this during your checkup this coming Thursday. Hopefully you are not ill.


Love always,
daddy

Bringing out a 5 weeks old baby

Dearest Cepheus,

We brought you out on 2 occasions during the last weekend. On Saturday evening, we went to United Square for dinner to celebrate your Grandmother's 54th Birthday. You were very well behave and didn't fuss much as you were sleeping most of the time. Below is a picture of you taken with your mummy, aunt April and your cousin Kaeus who is about 1 month older than you.



On Sunday evening we brought you out to VivoCity for some shopping. We were given a GAP gift card and your mummy wanted to buy you some clothings. Sad to say we didn't get anything as we did not see anything we like. You are very well behave on Sunday night too although the environment was alot more noisier than the restaurant on Saturday evening. You were very curious about where you are and kept looking around. Your mummy blogged about how well behave you were here whenever we brought you out. Seems like she wants to bring you out more often.

Although you were very well behave, bringing out a few weeks old baby is not as easy as what I have describe here my dearest Cepheus. Your mummy and I have to prepare and pack the diaper bag before we leave our home. We have to pack milk, diapers, napkin, baby wipes and pacifier. We made 2 mistakes during these few trips. 1st of all, we did not check where are the nursing rooms before we headed out. Some shopping mall are big and finding a nursing room may not be that easy as you need to walk quite a fair bit. During our VivoCity outing, I have to surf the net on my iPhone to search for the nursing room. The nursing room we went to is located at 1st floor next to bakerzin and it is horrible. It is situated inside the ladies room which means, me, your daddy cannot go in to assist your mummy. She had to single handedly carry you with your diapers and changing mat into the nursing room which is quite a difficult task as the toilet is quite busy with alot of people going in and out. This is where mistake number 2 comes in. We didn't pack extra set of baby clothing and you decided to pee when your mummy was changing you in the nursing room. As a result, your clothings were wet with your pee. We have no choice but to carry you around with soiled clothings.

*Lesson learnt today: Always find out where are the nursing/changing rooms before you bring your baby out and bring extra set of baby clothings as your baby may soiled themselves.*


Love always,
daddy

Choosing name for baby

Dearest Cepheus,

Some point in your life, you will probably wonder why on earth we gave you this name. I have already explained here why your name appear the way it is on your birth certificate. I have always wanted to give you a unique English name. The moment I knew that you are a boy, I search through tons of baby names websites like www.babynames.com, www.babyhold.com and www.thinkbabynames.com plus flipping through many babynames books to find ideas for your name. Names that your mummy and I have considered includes Xerxes, Cornelius, Schyler and Zacchaeus. In the end, I have decided that I want to give my kid(s) Greek mythology names that starts with the alphabet "C" and hence, Cepheus became your name. Cepheus is the name of two Greek mythology kings and also the name of a Constellation. We, as your parents hope that you can be as bright as the stars.

As for your chinese name 宇恒，it was given on the advise of a fortune teller based on some calculation of the date and time of your birth plus the five element. Your mummy likes this name alot. I like it too as there is reference to the Universe and Cepheus is a Constellation as well. I think both names are nicely matched. That's how you get your name my dear son.


Love always,
daddy

Baby Growth Spurt

Dearest Cepheus,

Your mummy is having a infection on her cesarean wound. Hence your primary caregiver for weekend is gonna be me and your grandmother. It seems like you have decided to become cranky while your mummy cannot take care of you. You have been crying and refusing to sleep since last night, waking up every 30mins. No amount of carrying and cuddling can comfort you. I suggested feeding you but your mummy and grandmother is worried that we will overfeed you as they have fed you not too long ago. Nevertheless they listen to me and after feeding, you went to bed quietly. It seems like you are going through a stage they called "Growth Spurt" which means you need to be feed more often and you will be fussier than usual.

It was really tiring for me as I have been carrying, cuddling, feeding and comforting you for the whole of today as your grandmother needs to cook and wash. I am sorry if we had accidentally starved you. As 1st time daddy and mummy, we are inexperience.

Learn from us son, so that next time when you are a daddy yourself, you know how to handle your own kids. I'm sharing my fathering experience(learn through the hard way as your grand daddy didn't share his fathering experience with me) with you through this blog. I will share more of my life experiences with you as you grow up. If you are well behave, I might even share some of my "girl wooing kung fu" with you but please keep it from your mummy. ;p

*Lesson learnt today: Feed baby on demand. If they want to drink, feed them. If they refuse to, don't force them.*


Love always,
daddy

Lunar full month

Dearest Cepheus,

Today is your Lunar full month day, which means you are 1 month old under the Lunar Calendar. Looking back the past 2 weeks, it has been tiring for both your mummy and me. Your mummy spent most of her time expressing breast milk and taking care of you. I think she barely has enough sleep, waking up every 3-4 hours to express milk and follow by feeding and changing you. For me, I can only help out till about 2am in the morning on work days and all I did was just warming up the milk so that either your mummy or grandmother can feed you. That by itself is tiring enough. I cannot imagine how tired your mummy is. I will try to feed you from now onwards as I managed to feed you successfully all by myself a few days ago. You visited the paediatric today at NUH for a routine checkup. You weigh about 3.78kg now as compared to 3.1kg when you discharged for the hospital. I hope that the growth rate of 300 over grams per week is normal.

Your mummy and I brought you down to the neighborhood for a little walk and bought 2 packets of sweets to distribute. According to Cantonese tradition and culture, when a baby reaches full month, there is a need to distribute sweets. This is to symbolized the forming of friendship with those who receive your sweets. Your grandmother and I also went around to distribute your full month cakes to relatives and friends. Look at how cute you are now.

Cepheus' full month cake.

Love always,
daddy