Ethan at 1 week old, Caden as a loving Brother

One week has passed, Ethan has so far been managable except for night time at abt 1-2am, when he will usually be wide awake and requires lotsa of effort to make him sleep.. I have also managed to provide exclusive b-milk for him for the past one week and hopefully this will sustain for the next 6 months as his demands increases.

We went for a-week old medical check up at Mt E on Tuesday to see how Ethan is doing so far. He is now weighing 3.5kg, up from 3.165kg when we discharged from Thomson last Thurs and everything else is fine for him (except for slight jaundice in his eyes..). Least I know that the b-milk is sufficient for him as of now..

Caden has been a very loving big brother as well, each night when he gets home, he will rush into Ethan's room and take a look at DiDi without fail. And each time, when he helps to open the hampers that we have received so far, he will put those accompanying toy on Ethan's cot for him to play (as though Ethan knows how to appreciate these toys now)..And without fail, he will want to stroke DiDi on his head, hands or body to show his love.. which is very heartwarming.. On Sunday when PaPa decided to bring Caden out to McD for afternoon lunch, he asked PaPa if Ethan is coming along with him.. and wanted PaPa to bring Ethan along as well.. such a nice brother Ethan is getting!

3 men of the Koh Family

Ethan's awake time (which is hardly during the day!!)

Little Ethan has arrived on 22 October 2007

Finally our little bundle of joy has arrived safely on the Monday afternoon, after 30 mins of the operation. Mummy was having jitters when she was wheeled into the OP theatre awake (didn't have the experience for Caden cos I was already knocked out due to emergency c-section). Shortly when Mumy was awake, the doc told her that both Mummy and child are fine which has put my heart at ease.

The first thing when Mummy saw PaPa as she arrived her ward was, "he's 3.325kg!" and the elated face on him. Mummy was totally shocked and asked in her drowsy state and repeated, "3.325kg???". I have only put on a total of 7.3kg and Ethan has took up 3.325 of my gain.. we are happy that Ethan has been born healthy and safely despite going through the threaten abortion way back 7mths ago and constant issue of weight gain throughout the pregnancy.

Caden was excited to see Ethan as his cousins Kimi and Samuel were too. They all rushed to sayang Ethan in his cot trolley but Caden was very much distracted when we gave him a new toy and explained to him that it was a gift from Ethan DiDi. Caden of cos, wasn't silly to believe that as he replied, PaPa bought him the toy when Ah Gu asked him later who gave it to him.

As expected, Caden was crying badly for me when its time to leave the hospital. PaPa had to coaxed him and explained that Mummy cannot come home only after a while...

Mummy before the op

Pictures of Lil' Ethan at birth :

On the day of discharge from Thomson Medical Centre

Counting down to the arrival of Lil' Ethan

Finally, its now abt 16hrs away to the birth of Lil' Ethan tomorrow. We have finally packed the hospital bag, set up his room and cleaned up the house. Most of the manual and hectic work are completed by PaPa, as Mummy has been experiencing bad cramps, contractions and even worst ever rash on her legs and hands in the last 4 days.. Dr Cheng advised Mummy not to move abt too much in order to sustain till tomorrow's planned C-section, as the tightening worsens. We had a last check-up yesterday at Dr Cheng and to our surprise, Ethan's weight has dropped to 2715g, and mummy's weight has also reduced.. not sure what's the reason, but maybe the Monday check-up may be a bit misleading...

Today, we spent our day with McD's breakfast in the morning as we reckon that Caden will have to wait for quite some time before he gets to eat McD's breakfast again.. We then trty to spend quality time with him one-on-one so that he would still get the best attention out from us on this last day before his lil sibling comes along.. heee.. Unfortunately, his cough worsens today and esp tonight which worries us (made me can't stay in the hospital with a peaceful mind in the next few days) and hopefully, it will be better by tomorrow.

For now, with only less than 2hrs away, Mummy needs to go and load on her fav food first before she has to stop all food and drinks by 12 midnight in preparation of the operation in the afternoon tomorrow.. Watch out for lil's Ethan's pictures soon...

Enjoying himself in school

I went to see Caden for the second time yesterday late morning to catch him in action during meal time and playtime. Saw Caden obediently sat there drinking water, waiting for his lunch and self-feeding subsequently. He was one of the first children to finish the lunch and proceed to sit by himself near the shower area (which is the usual routine). A little gal joined him later and they were engaging in their own world of children conversation. I can't really hear what they are talking abt, but definitely there is this part which I find it very amusing :

Gal: So funny (digging her nose)
Caden: (digging his nose too) Pi Sia! So funny! (chuckling away)
Gal : (laughing at his dirt!)

then they both continued to engaged in some conversation.. subsequently, I saw him mingling with other children who don't get to bathe(cos on half-day programme). And eventually he even joined the nursery class children in their sing-a-long session.. When I decided to appear at the door near 12pm, he was delighted to see me.. this moment is really very heart-warming!

I asked Caden on our way home what he has learnt in school, he thought abt it for a while, and said " San" (mountain in mandarin). I would presume that its Chen Lou Shi who had taught him this during the coloring session. He kept telling me that he didn't cry in school proudly and appeared to be much happier compared to the last 2 weeks..

For the past few days I have been spending more time with him, in consideration that my operation is scheduled to be on coming Monday.. hopefully when Lil' Ethan arrives, Caden is ready to welcome this little additon to the family..

Caden's Playgroup development

Finally Mummy has the chance today to see for myself how Caden is doing in school. For the past few days, Lynn (our maid) has updated us that Caden didn't resist that much and cry when she dropped him off in school and was updated by the teachers that he didn't cry as well. This came so sudden as PaPa had just experienced his crying last Tuesday when he brought him to school and that was when we decided to pull him out of the centre by next month.

When I reached Bright Kids this morning at 915am, the centre sounded very orderly, I didn't hear any crying within the centre. I was frantically trying to look out for Caden without letting myself exposed to the rest of the children and teachers of my presence (in case teacher purposely give him more attention as a result). In the end, I found Caden sitting near by the window in the centre of the room, doing his coloring session. Chen Lou Shi was spending her 80% of dedicated time on him by guiding him on what colors to put on in the workbook. I was quite proud that he continued on his own with the coloring when she moves on to the next child. At times, he even turned to his classmate sitting next to him mumbling some words. then he did watched another child who threw tantrums at the other side of the class and continued with his coloring activity..

Caden even pulled down his own pants and inform the teacher that he wants to pee.. subsequently, he continued to move on to the next activity which involved some craft work where he paste some colored papers on the alphabet B...

I managed to catch hold of the principal and asked abt his progress, she also mentioned that Caden just stopped crying all of a sudden since last week and had since adapted well.. so I told the principal that we'll probably keep him here in this centre and withdraw our termination letter...

Ethan @ week 37.5

Mummy has finally started her maternity leave today, much awaited, especially she doesn't have chances to even work on a four-day work week in the last 2 months. This morning, Mummy went for her routine gynae checkup and was measured to have put on add'l 0.3kg from last week. Surprisingly, the 300g that I have gained, all goes to Ethan! Ethan is now weighing 2786g, up 300g from last week. His head circumference is now measuring 34.7cm.. very close to Caden's birth head @35cm. Dr Cheng said, the baby is growing fine and urged me to take as much rest as possible. I have a last medical appt with Dr Cheng to go come this sat before the C-section happens on Monday afternoon to finally see our Ethan boy...

Today, after the check up is done, Mummy got stuck at paragon due to the heavy downpour.. in the end, to Mummy's benefit, she managed to seize some really fantastic quality of lingerie @50% - which is very good deal.. talking abt deals, in the last one month, Mummy has continued to grab some bargains from motherhood forum - chicken essence, best denki vouchers, free glass milk bottles from Mummy's forum friend, John Little and Robinson's sales for Caden's shoes, baby wipes, diapers.. etc.. my last conquer would be GNC's fenugreek @ $15 per bottle which is now under negotiation..

36 weeks checkup

Lil's Ethan has now weighed 2.425kg at Mummy's week 36 check up. We have decided his birthday to be on the 22nd Oct. Dr Cheng advised Mummy to stop working one week before the delivery date in order to have a good rest at home and not to have any natural symptons which will bring Mummy into labour before the planned C-section date. Mummy has put on a total of 7.6 kg to date.. the last 3 weeks have recorded a 2.6kg weight gain! I can't remember what fattening stuff I have taken.. but perhaps more snacking helps... Today's scan seems alright.. which puts both Daddy's and Mummy's minds at peace since we didn't have a chance to see Dr Cheng. Now my hospital bag has been 80% packed.. we'll be looking forward to the big day in 2 weeks time!

Week 3 in school

This is already Caden's 3rd week in school... and the situation seems to worsen.. he is still crying on the way to school, pukes in the morning as my MIL left him... cried from 1130 onwards as he is aware that it is time to go back home... Teacher wanted to talk to us this week but she didnt have a chance to call me.. I wonder how much longer he needs to settle down.. today, he had lost his voice slightly, my MIL said that its becos of prolong crying.. it is heartbreaking to see him like this.. but we can't possibly pull out and stop school.. if it happens to him this way again in N1, N2, does it then mean he doesn't need to go K1? so we decided to be slightly stone-hearted to monitor Caden's condition in the next 3 weeks..