5 Apr 2009 - Morning fun at playground and sun tanning

I checked on the white portion of our little prince's eye and it seemed like the jaundice level had gone up. So we brought him down by the poolside this morning for some sun tanning under the shade. Tracy was with him while I brought Jerlene to the playground at the other side of the pool.

After half an hour of playground fun, we went to join Tracy and little prince. While little prince was tanning, Jerlene kept playing a fool at the back of the stroller........

At around 10am, we decided to stop tanning as the sunlight was getting stronger. Btw, Jerlene now knows how to take off her own shoes and keep it in her own shoe cabinet. She is a very systematic person. She needs to place the shoes neatly before closing the cabinet.

Tracy said that earlier on while little prince was tanning by the poolside, a Malay woman came by and told her that to "treat" newborn jaundice, one way is to bath the baby with a kind of yellow flower. Initially we thought she referred to chrysanthemum. However, I called my mom to confirm but she said that according to some confinement lady, it is a kind of plant called 金银花, which supposed to help in detoxifying the body. We do have a packet of such plant so we decided to give it a try.

Tracy's grandmother called in the afternoon looking for Jerlene. She used to call and chat with Jerlene in the past when Jerlene was being taken care of by my MIL. This is the first time I sees Jerlene really talking on the phone, and not pretending play. Though she did not say much, she was really focused and responded to questions every now and then. I believe she was on the phone for about 10mins before she said bye bye and put down the phone.

4 Apr 2009 - Bathing the prince

This morning is the first time I bath my prince in the tub. It has been more than a year since I last use the tub for Jerlene. Fortunately, I still remember how to bath a newborn. One thing different is that this time round, I'm bathing a prince, not a princess.....you know what I mean......heheh....... Anyway, that did not pose any problem for me, just a matter of getting used to it.

I had earlier bathed Jerlene and when she saw me bathing her 弟弟, she became very curious. It's quite enjoyable to bath your little ones. Try it if you have not and still have the chance.....trust me..... :-)

After bathing the prince in the tub, I quickly wrapped him round with a blanket. The next step is to carefully use an alcohol swab to clean around the "drying" umblical cord, which should detach itself automatically around the 10th day.

As we felt that our prince was still quite "yellowish", we placed him by the windows for the rest of the afternoon.

Jerlene got a new bag from her cousin today. She immediately carry it and walked around the house, like auntie goes shopping. So funny......

Ever since Jerlene recovered from her flu and diarrhea, her appetite returned and kept asking for food, especially BREAD! I really dunno why Jerlene is so addicted to bread, somemore it's just plain white bread with no spread or whatsoever. Sometimes I have to hide the bread from her sight, otherwise the moment she sees it, she will definitely ask for more. Just hope that she will grow well with such appetite.

Below is my little prince's smile after an evening washup.

Before we all go to sleep, Jerlene insisted that I wear the big pink cotton shoes for her 弟弟. After I did it, she just kept laughing......naughty 姐姐.

3 Apr 2009 - Little prince is finally home!

Just like yesterday, after we sent Jerlene to the childcare, we went for breakfast while waiting for Dr Tan to call. Today he called much earlier and it was good news. Our little prince's jaundice level has gone down a bit (to 10.2) after undergoing phototherapy the past two days. In other words, we can discharge him today.

We quickly drove to the hospital to fetch our little prince home. Before we left the hospital, we have requested for the Sister to do a presentation at the hospital chapel. We did the same for Jerlene two years back.

After the presentation, I went to pick up my car while the Sister and Tracy slowly walk to the hospital entrance. Our little prince was ready to go home for the very first time.

Welcome home, my Little Prince!

For that afternoon, we placed him by the windows most of the time to give him some indoor sun tanning, which may help with his jaundice. Do note that although his jaundice level this morning was not high, it can get higher in the coming few days. Usually jaundice level will peak around the 7th day before it comes down. Today was only the 4th day so we must be prepared. Below are some pictures (out of the hundreds) that I've taken for my little prince.

After I'd washed up my little prince, it's time to go pick up my little princess. The moment we reached home and Jerlene saw her brother, she was extremely excited and kept saying "弟弟， 弟弟啊!". Let's hope Jerlene will love and care for her 弟弟 forever. Time to take some pictures of my two little angels. :-)

2 Apr 2009 - Little prince still in hospital

This morning, I asked Jerlene if she wanted to go school and she was very excited. As she seemed to be ok and her temperature was normal, I decided to bring her to school.
Tracy came along as we may need to discharge our little prince from hospital later. After we handed over Jerlene to the childcare teacher, we went to a nearby coffeeshop for breakfast while waiting for Dr Tan to call regarding our little prince's condition. We waited for quite sometimes and he finally called at around 11am. He said that the baby's jaundice level was still considered high (13.2), which was worse than the day before. Dr Tan said if we brought the baby home and did not let him undergo the phototherapy yesterday, the jaundice level would be much higher. So he recommended to let baby stayed one more day in hospital and continue with the phototherapy.

For those who are not familiar with newborn jaundice, I'll briefly explain here based on what I know. A common condition in newborns, jaundice refers to the yellow color of the skin and whites of the eyes caused by excess bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is produced by the normal breakdown of red blood cells. Normally, bilirubin passes through the liver and is excreted as bile through the intestines. Jaundice occurs when bilirubin builds up faster than a newborn's liver can break it down and pass it from the body. Reasons for this include:
- Newborns make more bilirubin than adults do since they have more turnover of red blood cells.
- A newborn baby's still-developing liver may not yet be able to remove adequate bilirubin from the blood.
- Too large an amount of bilirubin is reabsorbed from the intestines before the baby gets rid of it in the stool.

According to Dr Tan, jaundice level below 10 is considered safe. Above it will require some form of treatment and if above 20, it's considered in danger zone. Anything above 25 may require exchange transfusion. For our case, the jaundice is probably caused by the still-developing liver and the incompatibility of mommy's and baby's blood group. Tracy is O+ while baby is B+. Such combination tends to cause high jaundice level for newborn according to Dr Tan.

We went back home after the call and planned to visit our little prince in the evening. Today my sore throat seemed to get worse and I knew if I did not get it treated quickly, most likely I'll be down the next few days. As such, I decided to see a doctor in the afternoon. The doctor said that my URTI was quite serious and needed a strong antibiotics. After that, I went over to the library to borrow a dozen of books regarding choosing of baby's name.

At around 5pm, we went to pick up Jerlene before going to Mt Alvernia to see our little prince. We requested to bring the baby out of the nursery to feed him. When Jerlene saw her brother, she was pretty excited. After I gave her a present, which I claimed to be a gift from her little brother, she got distracted and only focused on her present.

After I fed and burped our little prince, he showed me a very satisfied look below.....

After spending about 45mins with the little prince, we reluctantly brought him back to the nursery for further phototherapy. Quite a number of babies were also undergoing phototherapy in the nursery.

1 Apr 2009 - Mommy discharged but little prince got to stay

This morning, we were waiting for Dr Ang to confirm whether Tracy can be discharged. At around 10am, both him and Dr Tan (PD) came. Dr Ang confirmed Tracy was ok and can go home. We were glad to hear that until Dr Tan said our little prince was better to stay back as he got moderately high jaundice level (12.4). Dr Tan said that he would normally advise to discharge baby only if the jaundice level is below 10. As such, we reluctantly agreed to it.

Before we checked out, we took a few pictures with the baby and fed him.
So we went home without the baby but one good thing was we can then rest peacefully. Actually I started to feel a bit of sore throat today. As I've said previously, I must not fall sick now. What I can do now is to drink lots of water.

In the evening, I decided to pick up Jerlene from my mom's place since the little prince was not around. Initially I had a bit of concern as I was afraid that Jerlene may spread the bacteria to her brother. According to my mom, she looked better now, though still got a bit of diarrhea (twice after she came home). The moment Jerlene saw me, she rushed over and hugged me. She must have missed me as much as I missed her.