MTGS

Just now before seeing wife's cardiologist, we went for lunch at Penang Street @ NUH Medical Centre. They have quite a selection of famous Penang street food, deserts and beverages, char kway teow, prawn noodles, chendol, milo dinosaur and etc. We ordered: Chendol with soya milk $4.80 Milo Dinosaur $2.80 Their signature nasi lemak $9.80 Char kway teow $8.80 Fermented chicken $6.80 I think all are great, I like the nasi lemak, the rice is so soft and cooked just right, the fried chicken is freshly fried when ordered, sambal chilli also power. Total bill came to $38.84 including service charge and GST. I find that I might as well eat here than eat at the Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe at level 2, that one is more expensive and I don't find their dishes nice, maybe only the chicken chop curry noodle is nice but the rest is so-so.

Nothing much, just take a look at baby and also check wife's heart beat, to see him in 6 months time, but he is concerned with changing my wife's mechanical valve because he doesn't think it will last too long, and wife still have to continue her Warfarin and Aspirin medications. Now we will follow-up at polyclinic for adjusting her Warfarin dosage, probably next month I will go return the coagucheck test kit, finally it is over now, this baby really didn't come by easy, the paediatric cardiologist say she is miracle baby haha.

Recently I noticed increased earnings from my Adsense, seems like my visitors have been supporting me well, so thanks everyone for the support, I will continue to update this blog regularly so that hopefully my experiences can help people. Looking back, it's been a long way, phew, so many things have happened since I started this blog 4 years ago, thankfully, most have been for the better so I am very glad.

Today went to polyclinic, baby supposed to get her Hepatitis B Dose 2 but her jaundice is 222 so nurse say cannot give, she say must be below 100 then can give. So Monday need to go back again, doctor also cannot find anything wrong, liver test everything normal, I am guessing it's breast milk jaundice, I did some research online and found that it should go away be 12th weeks, but need to follow-up closely to ensure the jaundice level doesn't go too high, if too high then probably have to go hospital again. Overall baby is well, she is also gaining weight, 3 days ago she was 3KG, today she is 3.1KG, that means she is feeding well. She is also getting stronger, her kicks are now stronger and she seems to have more control over her neck and hands. But breastfeeding really not easy, for baby's case, wife have to feed 2-3 times every hour, but there are some sleep times where baby will sleep for a few hours so that is good chance for breaks, it's hard to determine when ...

The doctor did some basic tests, he said baby is well, just need to follow-up with the paediatric cardiologist, to see him 3 months later. So glad that baby is healthy, only heart have some issue, everything else is normal, that is great! They also weighed baby, today is 3KG, last week was 2.7KG, that means baby is feeding well, wife breastfeeding is good enough, baby's tongue also seems less yellowish compared to last week, now her tongue looks more pink, her body also looks more pink.

Yesterday I opened my mailbox and saw the authorization letter from MSF to open the CDA account, the letter is dated 17 Jun 2015, it stated that I can bring the letter, my ID card and baby's birth cert to OCBC or Standard Chartered Bank to open the account. So this morning I went to the Holland Village branch, since today I am on childcare leave, thanks to government for the 6 days haha, anyway I wanted to open the account with OCBC but that branch opens at 11am, I was there at around 9.30am, so I thought I might as well try SCB since it's just beside and it opens at 10am. I waited until 10am and went in, the teller told me they no longer open CDA account, I was so surprised, so I asked her if other SCB branch can open and she said all no longer open, ok, so I called the baby bonus hotline at 1800 253 7707, the lady apologized to me and told confirmed that SCB no longer accept new account request, she told me to try OCBC and said that there will be new agent bank for the CDA ...

They will be leaving the day after tomorrow so today I went and bought some Bak Gua for them. I bought 1KG of Lim Chee Guan ($50) and 1KG of Fragrance ($40), two different brands for them to try but personally I prefer the latter because it's softer, and cheaper lol. I also changed 4000 Thai Baht for them, the exchange rate was 1SGD to 24.93THB, also saw that 1SGD is 2.80 Ringgit, lol drop until so low, I think 3 Ringgit coming soon, the Malaysian government also don't seem to bother much so 3 Ringgit very possible, luckily I'm not Malaysian, heard some many negative stories about the country from my Malaysian colleagues, if me I quickly get PR here and never return. Anyway I also intend to give MIL $100 SGD for them to buy something on the plane home, if never use then they can change to Thai Baht at Thailand airport. Initially wanted to give a $1000 Ang Pao but MIL don't want, and I thought $1K is very little already, considering she cleaned my house, washed my cl...

Next Wednesday MIL and wife's cousin is going back to Thailand, so this morning wife said to bring them around and she said Sentosa and the casino. So we took a taxi to the casino at the basement, they didn't go in because they are not in the dress code, so ended up they took some pictures outside, me and wife don't want to go in because have to pay $100 each, no point since we don't gamble, but I saw so many Chinese, they come in tour group lol. Next we went upstairs, I was very impressed with the environment, it's so beautiful, the view is magnificent, if go behind the Sea Aquarium can even see cruise ship, the cruise ship is massive. Today I was really impressed, it's my 4th time to Sentosa, first time was very long ago when I was still in primary school, next two times was company dinner and dance but I didn't tour at all, just ate and go home. Sentosa is really a very nice place but it is obviously a tourist trap, one can of coke or the small bottle...

Just now me and family went to Yum Cha Chinatown, total 7 adults, 2 kids, 1 teen and my baby, the bill came to $471.30 including GST and service charge, really eat until super full, I think order too much, in the end my sister's family probably managed to finish the rest as me, wife, baby, MIL and wife's cousin left early because baby tired. I ordered 10 of those Guan Tang Jiao, this one damn good, the soup is really power, one serving is quite big, actually can just order 5 and share. One serving is $8.80. Also ordered a chilli crab, I think it's a really huge crab, also ordered 10 Man Tou (10 pieces for $10), I think just the crab and Man Tou can eat until full already. The crab is $86.40, I think it's charged by the weight. I don't eat crab so I don't know whether it's good or not, but I guess it's good since in the end family ate finish. Then there is the Peking Duck, I don't find it nice, they cut the skin and wrapped with some sort of yel...

Actually I don't know why the full month is such a big deal, my parents think that it is very important, for me it's just another day, if I get to choose I probably won't bother with any celebration, maybe just a good meal at a restaurant will do, to me most important thing is wife and baby are healthy. Initially my mother wanted those catering buffet, I said can but I don't want to collect ang pao, people come just eat and share happiness, mother say if I don't want then she collect, then I said no, where got such thing, I hold buffet she collect ang pao then later people full month I have to go give back ang pao, what a hassle, really don't understand this ang pao thing but I believe there is no such thing as take for free, people give me I have to give back, then even more pointless, see how pointless it is. In the end I booked a table at Yum Cha Chinatown, yeah love the food there, really looking forward to going there, so just eat, finish I swipe card a...

We have such great systems, seems like government agencies share our data around, even HDB knows that I have a daughter now, they added her as an occupier, I noticed when I login to the HDB page, was thinking of adding her now no need to add haha. Speaking of housing, been living here for almost a year now, I wonder if my estate will get enbloc, if can then great because now that I have a daughter, we will need a room for her, surely she can't be sleeping with us when she is bigger, I think until 4-5 years can, older then she should have her own room. Maybe wait MOP see how, if never enbloc then I might just try for sale of balance, BTO have to wait, pay a bit more never mind, I don't like to wait.

Finally I got my second promotion after 4 years in the company, first one was when I submitted my degree, my pay that time increased by about 29.5%, this time my pay increased by about 14.1%, way better than I expected, I was expecting around 4-5%. As for bonus, I got around 3.43 months, also way above my expectation, was expecting around 3. I certainly feel great now, my boss even called me to congratulate me, he said double happiness since my baby was born last month, but of course he would have already known since he was the one who recommended me by giving me high rating. Personally I feel that my wife and baby brings me success and good luck, my life certainly improved significantly after marrying my wife, initially was tough of course, that time was earning $2200, still have to pay study loan of $268 a month, but it all got better afterwards, now my pay will be increased to $4500, it may not seem much to some people but with this pay I think I can give my wife and baby a co...

Went to NUH Clinic A, the nurse weighed baby and came to 2706 grams (or 2702, didn't see the last number clearly), birth weight was 2369, about 14% increase over 26 days, I think it is not bad but the doctor said she is underweight, she encouraged us to help baby gain more weight, at least 700 grams over the next 1 month. I think probably because baby didn't eat enough, so I asked doctor if I can buy formula to supplement breastfeeding and she said ok, she also prescribed multivitamin and iron drops. The vitamin and iron drops only $1.40, I was quite surprised how come so cheap, then I see the bill total price is $20.79 less $19.39 subsidized by government, seems like baby medications are heavily subsidized, that's like 93% subsidized. So just now I went to the NTUC at Medical Centre and bought the Enfamil A+ Stage 1, it's the same brand as the one they use when baby was warded so I think she can accept it, 900 gram tin for $59.10, baby milk powder so expensive, ...

Brought MIL, wife's cousin, baby and wife to Yum Cha, food there is great as I remember it, this was my second time there, first time was with company. Still not used to the system, usually we sit down, get a menu and order food, it is different there, you sit down, they ask you what tea you want, they have so many types of tea and I heard Pu Er, Long Jing and Xiang Pian out of the many types of tea the waitress said in quick succession, so I ordered a pot of Xiang Pian ($3.60, 2 quantity, think it's 2 teabags or something). So instead of getting a menu, they will give you an order sheet, it's to keep track of what we have ordered and then they have push carts going around, for steamed food, for fried food, for Pau, for Cheong Fan, porridge and etc. Once you selected your items from the carts, the person in charge of the cart will note down in your order sheet whatever you ordered. All are great but what really captured my attention was the You Tiao with Mango and Pra...

I just checked my bank account online and noticed an extra $3000 in my bank account lol, I thought how come haven't payday have more money, go checked the details actually from MSF meaning it is part of the $6000 baby bonus, that means still have $3000 more, $1500 in the next 6 months and the final $1500 in another 6 months. Now I'm waiting for the letter to open the CDA account, will use the $3000 to top-up to baby's account, this is saving for her future. I think when she grow up she can still use the same bank account for her own savings and uses.

This year company doing well, I think can get at least 3 months bonus, boss also recommended promotion for me, hopefully can get it, wonder how much increment I can get this year, 5% also not bad but if promotion I think more than that, how much I don't know. Hope baby bring me luck!

By the time we realized it, clinics have already closed on Saturday, they only open in the morning on Saturdays, so wife ate paracetamol, it helped to reduce the fever but it won't go away. It got worse on Sunday, her underarm temperature reached 40.7 degrees, but clinics were closed on Sunday, wanted to bring her to A&E but she refused for fear of getting hospitalized again, MIL blamed it on the longan and red date drink that I bought for her but I don't think that is the cause, I think it's more to do with infection, that's why she have a fever, it's how the body deal with infection. So today I checked her temperature and it was 39.8, brought her to Queenstown polyclinic, they gave her a priority queue number so didn't have to wait very long. The doctor examined her and doesn't think there is infection, told us to come back 2 days later, I asked whether he can give any antibiotics, in the end he ordered a blood test, he said to wait 1 hour and I sai...

This is for period of 05 May to 03 Jun. My MIL and wife's cousin came on 01 May, baby came home on 26 May, wife was hospitalized from 05 May to 26 May though, but somehow the bill isn't as high as I think it would be lol, I was expecting $200-$300, no idea how come it's so low, the last bill was $77.77, by the way I checked there is no rebate, it's the full billing. Just on Friday I spoken to one of my co-workers, his bill is usually $200+, sometimes $300+, he have 6 children so total 8 people in his household, I guess more children will use more water and electricity, maybe children don't yet understand how precious these resources are.

Today I called her ward and the doctor said her jaundice dropped to 155 and baby is doing fine, she also said baby can discharge so I quickly called my wife to pick her up. Two days of not seeing baby and I miss her already haha, today when I saw her I am very happy, her cute little face make me smile ;)

Today took half-day leave to accompany wife to gynae to check her c-section wound, everything is fine, wound is healing fine and they removed the bandage, wife can now shower, actually she can shower even with the bandage but need to waterproof, anyway too late, she haven't shower since 20 May lol, but of course she have been cleaning herself with warm wet towel. Wife say still have slight pain sometimes but wound have closed, but still got to take it easy, cannot let her carry heavy stuff, lucky MIL is here, it is indeed essential to have someone to help out after pregnancy. Wife also mentioned period seems to have returned. Anyway we also dropped by baby's ward, she is doing great, jaundice have dropped to 190 from 281, they are going to continue the photo-therapy until 10.30pm, tomorrow should be able to discharge. And yesterday while going through the wife and baby hospital interim bills, I noticed that baby was charged citizen rate from delivery day to discharge, I a...

Actually it's not that serious, today wife brought her to polyclinic and the jaundice reading came at 281, so the doctor gave another referral letter and told wife to bring baby to A&E. So I left work slightly earlier and brought wife and baby to NUH Children's Emergency, I think total waited about 2.5 hours and they finally sent baby to ward 48 sunshine nursery. They will do the photo-therapy for baby, not sure how long they will keep her, I'm guessing maybe 2-3 days. At least tonight wife can get a good sleep, breastfeeding not easy, can see she is very tired.