Here's the continuation of Parenting Tips that won't be found in parenting blogs or books:
When you want to feed the baby, make sure you find a comfortable spot first. Otherwise, you will be stuck in that position for a while. I've mentally make a checklist of things before sticking that bottle into his mouth:
a) Back Support?
b) Arm Support?
c) handphone within reach?
d) tv remote within reach?
e) Fan blowing at me instead of him?
f) Coffee within reach?
All checked? Ok, feed him.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Gingerbreadman's Parenting tips Part 1
There are some things/skills that new dads should acquire/learn that parenting blogs and books don't teach you. I'm going to make a post whenever I learn something new.
1) You should master the ability to prepare milk in 30s after waking up in the middle of the night. Not to the toilet first, not scratch your balls first. Unless you want your baby to scream the house down.
2) When the baby is asleep, many people look at how cute he is or how angelic he is and go awwww. WRONG. Go sleep. Because sleep is the thing you can't do when the baby is awake. And you will always want to sleep when he's not. Trust me.
3) When changing diaper, he will choose to pee when you remove the diaper. So put a tissue/cloth over this penis when removing/wiping.
1) You should master the ability to prepare milk in 30s after waking up in the middle of the night. Not to the toilet first, not scratch your balls first. Unless you want your baby to scream the house down.
2) When the baby is asleep, many people look at how cute he is or how angelic he is and go awwww. WRONG. Go sleep. Because sleep is the thing you can't do when the baby is awake. And you will always want to sleep when he's not. Trust me.
3) When changing diaper, he will choose to pee when you remove the diaper. So put a tissue/cloth over this penis when removing/wiping.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Letter to my son
Dear Son,
You are now only 2 weeks old, but I already have fears for the world you will live in.
This world is an endless race, everything is focused on getting ahead of the next person. Many other babies your age will start to have some sort of leg up given by their parents. Some peers of yours will start to go to infant school at 8 weeks. That's just 2 months into their life.
We still have not decided the best way to bring you up. I suspect a combination of research(reading), asking around and common sense will be the way forward. That means no ridiculous classes too early in life, no pressure to mold you into becoming something I want you to be. I will try to provide you the tools and the foundation, the rest is up to you. So please, show me this when you are 18 and I say no to you becoming an artist or vagabond or something.
We have started a modest savings fund to assist you, hopefully by the time you turn 18 or 21, you will find it useful, maybe for university or maybe for something else you wish to pursue.
Your dad, Gingerbreadman.
PS: Watch out for uncle cowboy caleb's daughter, she also has a (much larger) fund and she could be your boss one day.
You are now only 2 weeks old, but I already have fears for the world you will live in.
This world is an endless race, everything is focused on getting ahead of the next person. Many other babies your age will start to have some sort of leg up given by their parents. Some peers of yours will start to go to infant school at 8 weeks. That's just 2 months into their life.
We still have not decided the best way to bring you up. I suspect a combination of research(reading), asking around and common sense will be the way forward. That means no ridiculous classes too early in life, no pressure to mold you into becoming something I want you to be. I will try to provide you the tools and the foundation, the rest is up to you. So please, show me this when you are 18 and I say no to you becoming an artist or vagabond or something.
We have started a modest savings fund to assist you, hopefully by the time you turn 18 or 21, you will find it useful, maybe for university or maybe for something else you wish to pursue.
Your dad, Gingerbreadman.
PS: Watch out for uncle cowboy caleb's daughter, she also has a (much larger) fund and she could be your boss one day.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Gingerbreadkid, the first 2 weeks
Introducing Gingerbreadkid:
This Changes Everything.
It's 3 things in one body. It''s a crying machine, a pooping machine and a sleeping machine all rolled into one!
He's close to 2 weeks old now. He looks so angelic right, but don't be deceived! When he cries, it is like Banshee screaming. Some days even when he's fed, burped, diaper changed, he still cries a lot. It drove us crazy the first week, but now we are slowly learning to get used to it.
His daily routine goes like this: Sleep, wake up and cry, drink milk, poop. Rinse and repeat every 2 to 3 hours round. No pause, no let up, no advertisement break, no intermission.
Anyway, personally I have done the following:
1) Change diaper
2) Make the milk, feed him then burp him
3) Rock him to sleep
4) Sing to him
The only thing I have not done is bathe him. That's because he seems to hate bathing with a passion. Whenever he is being bathed, his arms and legs thrashed around and he cries so loud I'm sure the neighbours considered calling the police for child abuse.
PS. I hope someone got the Apple reference.
This Changes Everything.
It's 3 things in one body. It''s a crying machine, a pooping machine and a sleeping machine all rolled into one!
He's close to 2 weeks old now. He looks so angelic right, but don't be deceived! When he cries, it is like Banshee screaming. Some days even when he's fed, burped, diaper changed, he still cries a lot. It drove us crazy the first week, but now we are slowly learning to get used to it.
His daily routine goes like this: Sleep, wake up and cry, drink milk, poop. Rinse and repeat every 2 to 3 hours round. No pause, no let up, no advertisement break, no intermission.
Anyway, personally I have done the following:
1) Change diaper
2) Make the milk, feed him then burp him
3) Rock him to sleep
4) Sing to him
The only thing I have not done is bathe him. That's because he seems to hate bathing with a passion. Whenever he is being bathed, his arms and legs thrashed around and he cries so loud I'm sure the neighbours considered calling the police for child abuse.
PS. I hope someone got the Apple reference.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Story of Gingerbreadkid's Birth
So I think I'm ready to tell the Birth Story of Gingerbreadkid now. Warning: It is a long entry.
On 24 Dec 2011, we walked into the hospital to induce the birth of our son at 2pm. 55.5 emotional roller-coaster hours later, he was introduced to the world.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start the story in early December, when we asked the doctor and I quote the wife: "when should we start to panic?" "5 days later" was the reply. That's when the baby is full term technically.
So panic we did, the wife started packing the hospital bag and I googled for "signs you are going into labour". At work, I kept expecting the phone to ring and be told to haul ass to the hospital. I have visions of me rushing to the hospital while being stuck in a jam or something. The wife starting thinking about the worst places to go into labour. She once greeted me with "no I'm not going into labour" when she called me regarding something else.
1 week passed, 2 week passed, and almost 3 weeks passed. Nothing happened. Nada, nil, nothing, no baby. That was when we entertained the idea of having to induce the birth. We always thought natural is better. Let him decide when he wants to come out. So when the doctor gave us an appointment to induce him on 21st Dec, we declined at the last moment and opted to wait.
On the 23rd of Dec, we went to the doc again, and still no contractions. Being impatient and mang zhang people(actually just the wife) we decided to schedule an induced birth using Prostaglandin gel starting on the 24th. Prostaglandin gel is used to thin the cervix and to kickstart labour. In some cases, 2nd or 3rd doses are applied 12 hours apart. We scheduled this so that Gingerbreadkid will be a Christmas eve or Christmas baby.(I know, play cheat. But we didn't care) The nurse from the clinic gave us some friendly advice that night: "Go eat whatever you want, then go home, do squats and have sex to help induce the labour" So being obedient people, we did all three that night. The choice of food was the BESTEST hokkien mee ever in Ang mo kio Ave 10 market and the choice of.. erm nevermind, I'm just going to skip the rest of the night.
I woke up on 24th Dec thinking I could be a Dad by the end of the day. We checked ourselves in KKH at 2pm and in true I'm-pregnant-and-I-suddenly-have-a-craving fashion, the wife requested for a drink of coke literally just before going into the room to be induced. So I went to buy and pass her the drink while she's waiting at the door of the room. A sip of coke later and she disappeared into the room to have the Prostaglandin gel applied. Then came something I will have intimate knowledge of for the next 55 hours. The Waiting Game. I killed the first 2.5 hours by loitering kKH mall. I quickly realised 3 things:
1. The food at the food court sucks.
2. I will eat a lot of McDonald.
3. I'm fucked because no other shops are opened since it is Christmas eve.
Soon, we were sent up to the ward to wait since nothing happened after the first Prostaglandin gel. We started watching the first of many movies on HBO channel that were showing through the festive period. We were told to relax and to press the red button if she felt severe pain. But nope, nothing happened, which is becoming a recurring thing in this story.
25th Dec, Christmas Day. I woke up thinking I could handle being a Christmas Dad. The wife already had a 2nd Prostaglandin gel and nothing has happened yet. (see what I mean?) Her cervix had dilated a grand total of.....2cm, which is nothing because we need about10 cm for birth. Being a resourceful man, I googled "how to induce birth" and one of the ways stated was to take long walks. So we started patrolling the wards like doctors. We quickly finish our rounds on the 8th floor and proceeded to the 7th, 6th, 5th floor and 4th floor. For good measure, we loitered the ground floor as well and found a mr bean shop hidden away. Over soya bean milk and pancakes, we wondered when he is going to come out. And that's how we spent Christmas day. Patrolling KKH.
26th December, Boxing day. I woke up thinking if he don't come out, I'm going to have to box him out. By now, a third Prostaglandin has been applied and contractions were still weak.(cervix 3cm) The decision was made to induce by sticking a needle and pumping the inducing meds into the wife. So we started the day at 11am in the delivery suite with a drip in her. That was when we found out she can't eat or drink until the baby comes out. Perfect, because a breakfast of 2 chee Chong fang and 1 soon kueh is enough to last her through the day. NOT. So the wife's lasting memories of her labour will be the hunger and thirst throughout the day.
With her bound in a bed on a drip, we had nothing to do but watching HBO while waiting. The midwife started to advice us about the pain relief options, namely epidural. By now, the contractions can be felt but is still tolerable. However, the midwife advised us to take the epidural early because it is more risky to take the injection when in a lot pain. We mulled over it and then something happened that help made up her mind. The most gut wrenching, high pitch wailing could be heard from another room. It was so shrill and high pitched we looked at each other with eyes wide open. The nurse said that was another lady giving birth with no epidural. Ok, decision made.
She opted to take it early and it went without a glitch. Everything was ready for Gingerbreadkid to come into the world. Except he had other idea. After about 4 hours, her dilation were only 4cm. Even the midwife was saying :"your dilation very slow leh" The decision was taken to break the waterbag, which will in theory hasten up the dilation. A quite chio Dr Tan came in to break the waterbag. It was not as scary as it sounds, 'breaking' the waterbag involves poking it with a hook like thingy to burst it.It was over in about 2s and without pain, even the wife didn't know it broke. There was no gush of water or anything, just some weak flow of water. Take that Hollywood!
After that, at 7pm, her dilation became 5cm! A record so far! But not enough for anything. Thus, the decision was made to review the dilation at 9pm, and if still no improvement, we will go for cesarean. 2 hours and a movie later(I think it's Salt) still 5cm dilation, so the doc had our permission to do a cesarean.
Once the decision was made, all hell broke loose. It seemed like the entire hospital stuff swarmed into the room. One was shaving her, one was unplugging the tubes, one was injecting anesthesia into her and they were all talking to her AT THE SAME TIME. Another one was shoving the forms to her face so she can sign it. It was all done with great haste and urgency, it was like they couldn't wait to get her into the operating room. I was standing by her side bemused by all this.
Within minutes, they wheeled her into the operating theater and the longest 30 mins of my life begun. I paced like a mad men outside thinking all sorts of stuff. Like what if something happened to both or one of them. It was the single most helpless moment of my life. 30 mins later, they called my mobile(strange right) to go see the baby.
The first time I laid eyes on him, he was lying on his side, eyes open, with his little hands covering his mouth. That is the lasting image that I will always remember. First thing I said was: "Naughty boy! don't want to come out right" The wife told me later, that was the first thing she said too. The staff were very clinical and busy showing me that he has all fingers and toes intact and that he has 2 birth marks. I just held his little hand and didn't dared to hold him. In fact, I didn't hold him until the next morning. A few brief minutes later, they wheeled him off and I was left to wait for another 10 minutes before they wheeled the wife out.
And thus, that concludes the story of Gingerbreadkid's birth. But the real story of his life has just begun.
On 24 Dec 2011, we walked into the hospital to induce the birth of our son at 2pm. 55.5 emotional roller-coaster hours later, he was introduced to the world.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start the story in early December, when we asked the doctor and I quote the wife: "when should we start to panic?" "5 days later" was the reply. That's when the baby is full term technically.
So panic we did, the wife started packing the hospital bag and I googled for "signs you are going into labour". At work, I kept expecting the phone to ring and be told to haul ass to the hospital. I have visions of me rushing to the hospital while being stuck in a jam or something. The wife starting thinking about the worst places to go into labour. She once greeted me with "no I'm not going into labour" when she called me regarding something else.
1 week passed, 2 week passed, and almost 3 weeks passed. Nothing happened. Nada, nil, nothing, no baby. That was when we entertained the idea of having to induce the birth. We always thought natural is better. Let him decide when he wants to come out. So when the doctor gave us an appointment to induce him on 21st Dec, we declined at the last moment and opted to wait.
On the 23rd of Dec, we went to the doc again, and still no contractions. Being impatient and mang zhang people(actually just the wife) we decided to schedule an induced birth using Prostaglandin gel starting on the 24th. Prostaglandin gel is used to thin the cervix and to kickstart labour. In some cases, 2nd or 3rd doses are applied 12 hours apart. We scheduled this so that Gingerbreadkid will be a Christmas eve or Christmas baby.(I know, play cheat. But we didn't care) The nurse from the clinic gave us some friendly advice that night: "Go eat whatever you want, then go home, do squats and have sex to help induce the labour" So being obedient people, we did all three that night. The choice of food was the BESTEST hokkien mee ever in Ang mo kio Ave 10 market and the choice of.. erm nevermind, I'm just going to skip the rest of the night.
I woke up on 24th Dec thinking I could be a Dad by the end of the day. We checked ourselves in KKH at 2pm and in true I'm-pregnant-and-I-suddenly-have-a-craving fashion, the wife requested for a drink of coke literally just before going into the room to be induced. So I went to buy and pass her the drink while she's waiting at the door of the room. A sip of coke later and she disappeared into the room to have the Prostaglandin gel applied. Then came something I will have intimate knowledge of for the next 55 hours. The Waiting Game. I killed the first 2.5 hours by loitering kKH mall. I quickly realised 3 things:
1. The food at the food court sucks.
2. I will eat a lot of McDonald.
3. I'm fucked because no other shops are opened since it is Christmas eve.
Soon, we were sent up to the ward to wait since nothing happened after the first Prostaglandin gel. We started watching the first of many movies on HBO channel that were showing through the festive period. We were told to relax and to press the red button if she felt severe pain. But nope, nothing happened, which is becoming a recurring thing in this story.
25th Dec, Christmas Day. I woke up thinking I could handle being a Christmas Dad. The wife already had a 2nd Prostaglandin gel and nothing has happened yet. (see what I mean?) Her cervix had dilated a grand total of.....2cm, which is nothing because we need about10 cm for birth. Being a resourceful man, I googled "how to induce birth" and one of the ways stated was to take long walks. So we started patrolling the wards like doctors. We quickly finish our rounds on the 8th floor and proceeded to the 7th, 6th, 5th floor and 4th floor. For good measure, we loitered the ground floor as well and found a mr bean shop hidden away. Over soya bean milk and pancakes, we wondered when he is going to come out. And that's how we spent Christmas day. Patrolling KKH.
26th December, Boxing day. I woke up thinking if he don't come out, I'm going to have to box him out. By now, a third Prostaglandin has been applied and contractions were still weak.(cervix 3cm) The decision was made to induce by sticking a needle and pumping the inducing meds into the wife. So we started the day at 11am in the delivery suite with a drip in her. That was when we found out she can't eat or drink until the baby comes out. Perfect, because a breakfast of 2 chee Chong fang and 1 soon kueh is enough to last her through the day. NOT. So the wife's lasting memories of her labour will be the hunger and thirst throughout the day.
With her bound in a bed on a drip, we had nothing to do but watching HBO while waiting. The midwife started to advice us about the pain relief options, namely epidural. By now, the contractions can be felt but is still tolerable. However, the midwife advised us to take the epidural early because it is more risky to take the injection when in a lot pain. We mulled over it and then something happened that help made up her mind. The most gut wrenching, high pitch wailing could be heard from another room. It was so shrill and high pitched we looked at each other with eyes wide open. The nurse said that was another lady giving birth with no epidural. Ok, decision made.
She opted to take it early and it went without a glitch. Everything was ready for Gingerbreadkid to come into the world. Except he had other idea. After about 4 hours, her dilation were only 4cm. Even the midwife was saying :"your dilation very slow leh" The decision was taken to break the waterbag, which will in theory hasten up the dilation. A quite chio Dr Tan came in to break the waterbag. It was not as scary as it sounds, 'breaking' the waterbag involves poking it with a hook like thingy to burst it.It was over in about 2s and without pain, even the wife didn't know it broke. There was no gush of water or anything, just some weak flow of water. Take that Hollywood!
After that, at 7pm, her dilation became 5cm! A record so far! But not enough for anything. Thus, the decision was made to review the dilation at 9pm, and if still no improvement, we will go for cesarean. 2 hours and a movie later(I think it's Salt) still 5cm dilation, so the doc had our permission to do a cesarean.
Once the decision was made, all hell broke loose. It seemed like the entire hospital stuff swarmed into the room. One was shaving her, one was unplugging the tubes, one was injecting anesthesia into her and they were all talking to her AT THE SAME TIME. Another one was shoving the forms to her face so she can sign it. It was all done with great haste and urgency, it was like they couldn't wait to get her into the operating room. I was standing by her side bemused by all this.
Within minutes, they wheeled her into the operating theater and the longest 30 mins of my life begun. I paced like a mad men outside thinking all sorts of stuff. Like what if something happened to both or one of them. It was the single most helpless moment of my life. 30 mins later, they called my mobile(strange right) to go see the baby.
The first time I laid eyes on him, he was lying on his side, eyes open, with his little hands covering his mouth. That is the lasting image that I will always remember. First thing I said was: "Naughty boy! don't want to come out right" The wife told me later, that was the first thing she said too. The staff were very clinical and busy showing me that he has all fingers and toes intact and that he has 2 birth marks. I just held his little hand and didn't dared to hold him. In fact, I didn't hold him until the next morning. A few brief minutes later, they wheeled him off and I was left to wait for another 10 minutes before they wheeled the wife out.
And thus, that concludes the story of Gingerbreadkid's birth. But the real story of his life has just begun.
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