Eczema

Eczema - That's what Claire is having now!

I bought her to see Dr Chan last Sat and she is diagnosed with Eczema. Her whole face is covered with red, angry rashes and not to mention her body too. Poor little Piglet, her rashes is so itchy that she can't sleep well at night and she will scratch her little face! When i was bathing her yesterday, it pains my heart to see her whole body covered with those angry, red rashes!

Dr Chan prescribed her a steriod cream (heard that it is no good for the skin actually!) and moisturiser to apply. Also, to change her milk formula from cow based to soy based. Unfortunately, Claire seems to have hard stool this morning. Furthermore, no soap, no fragrance products for Claire, she can only use hypoallergenic products!

Mum kept on insisting that her Eczema is a reaction due to the her 5-in-1 jabs and it has nothing to do with her milk formula. Frankly speaking, I m pretty upset by Mum's insistence. Her insistence made me feel that i failed terribly as a Mother even though i know she is concerned about Claire. Mum told me that she will let her TCM doctor to check out Claire's condition, perhaps TCM might help Claire!

Interview

I went for an interview yesterday. The company used to be a statutory board but now privatised.

From this interview, it sets me thinking about loads of stuff and shred some light about myself at the same time. I had been wanting to leave my current job before I gave birth to Piglet due to human factors, benefits and renumeration.

Human factors
The management of the company doesn't allow us to take half days leave or nap at our workstations during lunch hours. Our manager also enforced the rule of us taking our lunch in shifts, not only that she will interfere on who we lunch with at times! All these nitty-gritty stuff is nothing but it makes the workplace inhumane.

Benefits & Remuneration
Frankly speaking, they are nothing fantastic to talk about. The remuneration is worse, it does not compensate for the amount of work we do. Plus there has been some preferential treatment of staff given, this made us even more pissed off!

All in all, there is 1001 reasons for leaving my current job but the most crucial is actually Progression in my career!

This is what the interviewer had set me thinking. I was surprised that my direct & frank personality impressed her even though i m deemed as a job hopper in her eyes and especially when the potential employer is a used to be statutory board.

Whether or not will I clinch a 2nd interview, I m grateful for the advice that she had dished out to me and she highlighted what I had lacked - Perseverance. This is what I had lacked! Perseverance & endurance will definitely get me through work stress and the stress in looking after Piglet now. I seriously have to embark on my goal on being a manager in another 3 years time. Just give me the strength and courage to tide through this period!

100 Days Old!

Claire is 100 days old! That means her Mum aka me can eat whatever nonsense i want!

Actually, i had already eaten seafood & those banned food except for duck & yam after my confinement!

Well, I had gotten Claire's shaved bald last Thursday and she looked like a boy! My family was surprised to see her bald and commented that her Mama is cruel to shave her head bald before Chinese New Year! Anyway, its quite funny to see Claire trying to tug at her hair during bedtime!

Claire has a bad bout of rashes after her jab and I got blamed by the elders for subjecting her to those new jabs.. Blah & blah... I know they re concerned about her but it equally pains my heart to see her in rashes and nothing can be done to soothe her itchiness away!

My little rascal wake me up at 4am this morning with a wide smile and she screamed murder when Mum changed her diaper (I was in the kitchen preparing her milk) as Claire thought that Granny will feed her instead of changing her diaper!

She has given me a sleepless week. I keep my fingers crossed that i will be able to get a good night sleep during the weekends!

Fever!

Claire went for her 1st 5-in-1 jab on Thursday and she was down with fever yesterday.

Thank god, the fever subsided this morning! Boy, she was real cranky yesterday. She cried, refused to sleep and we had to rock her bouncer so that she could sleep. Her sleep wasn't that fantastic either, she will doze off for a while and be awake again. This cycle goes on and on.

Added to that, I had to attend my company D&D yesterday. This made me real worried about her during my time at the D&D.

Something to lament about! I bought Claire to the polyclinic for her jabs and she needs to be examined by a doctor before her jab. As she still has the blocked nose, so I double check with the doctor whether Claire is ok to go for the jab. Guess what that doctor asked me, "How do you know she has blocked nose? Since babies can't talk, they can only cry!" I was like, "WTF" inside my heart. The way this doctor examined Claire is as if treating Claire like a toy, so rough etc!

And as usual, Claire was crying like nobody's business during that dumbo doctor's examination! Even though, polyclinic's fees are like 10 times cheaper than at the pediatrician's clinic. Still, that can't explain the doctor's lack of care! When i complaint to my Mum about it, she told me that I m being too picky!

Seriously, I might consider going to Dr Chan's clinic for all Claire's jabs despite the cost after this experience!

PS: Claire never wailed as loud when she was at Dr Chan's clinic when we bought her for the Rotavirus & Prevenar jabs as compared at the Polyclinic for her Hep B & 5-in-1 jabs!

Back at work!

Today is my 3rd day back at work after 12 weeks long of maternity leave.

There has been a reshuffle of job duties, new colleagues and not to mention tonnes of things to be done!

Looking at the work load & deadlines set for the coming month (Feb), I really dread it big time! Imagine having to finish the month end closing within 6 calendar days aka 5 working days. I dun get to enjoy my Chinese New Year that much!

Also, I m stressed up by family too! My Mum is doing me a great favour by taking care of Piglet. Its just that i have to be worried about her health and i got blasted by her for not helping out in the household chore! I was so torn man! Torn between work & family, Mum & me and finally Pirate King & her.

Now, i m really tempted to throw in the letter and take care of Piglet full time but what's stopping me from doing that is financial independence! Sigh, i just got to take things at a time and see what the future holds!

Darth Vader

Darth Vader - That's my Claire now!

She is having a blocked nose and the way she breathe is a mini Darth Vader in action!

Blocked nose & bad skin are due to her short stint in the infant care centre (air - conditioning!). It pains my heart to see her unable to sleep at 3am in the morning as her nose is blocked!

Keeping my fingers crossed that the mediciation will work!

Back to work blues!

14 Jan 08 will be my 1st day of work after 12 long weeks of maternity leave!

Somehow, alot of thoughts swirlling in my head. Will I be able to adapt to the working environment? Will I miss Claire? All these thoughts had been there and it just made me dread going back to work!

My poor Piglet is suffering from a blocked nose & bad skin due to her short stint at the infant care centre! She is like Darth Varder.....

Just keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to survive the 1st day of work!

Phew! Relief!

Today is Claire's 8th day & last day at the infant care centre!

Mum's fren, Auntie Zhu agreed to be Claire's babysitter thus, the decision to withdraw her out of the infant care centre!

I m relieved that Claire does not have to be at the infant care centre. When i went to enrol her last Dec, the centre is not short handed. Since Day 1 that Claire is in the centre, the centre is short handed and she can't receive as much care & attention at home.

During her short stint there, Claire's skin became dry and her skin rashes worsened! The thing that pissed me off at the centre is the fact that when i fetched Claire back home. They did not clean the spit up milk on her hair and the 2nd occassion is they did not finish feeding Claire her milk, they just pass Claire to me & told me to feed her the remainder of the milk! I can understand that they re understaffed but this is simply too much!

Upon seeing such things happening to Claire, my Mum proposed this to me, get Auntie Zhu to come up to her place. Both of them will take care of Claire for me at my parents' place. In fact, it pains my Mum and I to send Claire to the infant care centre!

Just Claire!

Claire has her own personality since the day she was born!

If she wants to sleep, she can sleep through any noise and anywhere regardless of your efforts to wake her up!

If she wants her milk, you better give it to her fast. Otherwise, she will tear the house down with her cries & screams!

Many instances, she will smile sweetly to you when she has peed or pooed!

Every morning when she woke up, she will smile sweetly to me when i greet her with a "Good Morning!" She will turn into a screaming machine later on when I gave her daily morning exercise => Force feeding her with water!

No matter what, Claire is a rascal and just being herself!

Teary Mum, Blur Baby!

It was such a tough decision to send Claire to the infant care centre!

On the first day, I cried when the teachers carried Claire into the centre. From the window I observed, Claire was being herself whenever she is put into a new environment! Ie, she became a lead actress in those Tamil/Hindi movies by turning her head from left to right, right to left.

She seemed so blur on her first day! Today is her 5th day in the infant care, she is the last to reach and the earliest to leave (coz i m still on maternity leave). Things will be different when I go back to work next Mon, 14 Jan 08.

"Happy" New Year

Today is the 1st day of 2008!

Its an lousy day for me! All the pent up negative emotions exploded and i felt that i had failed as a Mummy to Piglet!

Piglet is going to the infant care centre tomorrow and I really can't bear to let her go there.

I felt very bad for scolding Piglet today. We went out today and she was fussing when she came back. I really felt that i m a lousy mother.

In fact, i can't bear to leave Piglet out of my sight!