Baby cold

Oh no, we are so sad. Baby was only 23 day old when he suddenly developed cold symptoms. Yesterday 3am, baby woke up for milk but after drinking, he still woke up at 4am, 5am and 6am, crying but not drinking a lot of milk when I offered him nipple. He started coughing a lot and making weird noises with his nose. We realized that its not normal and wanted to take him to polyclinic as we had planned to bring him for his jaundice check up. But in the morning, hubby and I decided its better to bring him to pediatrician instead. He seemed to be feeling really terrible.

Dr Ong saw him and explained to us some coughing and sneezing is normal but checked and said baby has a lot mucous. But he dun recommend babies this young taking medicine. He said there are babies who stopped breathing altogether and turned blue after taking medicine that cause drowsiness. He told me us to use a saline spray to spray into baby's nostrils to let the mucous come out. He said baby will sneeze it out or it will come out as runny substance.

We used it once yesterday and baby was crying and crying. We had to hold his head. Poor thing! We used it again this morning and afternoon. He seemed more relieve after using the spray. We'll use it again this evening a few min before his feed and then let him sleep. Hopefully he'll be fine. My poor baby. I hope he will get well soon. In the day he's ok. The worst usually happened at night, usually when he wakes up for night feeds... and that will be my problem alone coz at that time, nobody can help me :(

What's worse is that mother in law had cold and its probably her who passed the virus to baby even though she already took good precaution like wearing a mask. So its more tiring because we dun dare to let her carry baby. We have to care for baby on our own and hubby has to learn how to bathe baby. Sigh. Its all so tormenting... but I shall survive this, and baby will get stronger!

Fussy evenings

Phew everything is getting so much better. Baby is no longer so sleepy that he refuse to wake up for feeds. Infact, he wakes up almost every 2 hours to demand for milk! I'm a happy mom! In ther afternoon, when it's warm and he's snuggly swaddled, he will just sleep and sleep, so I've to wake him up but he feeds well after be woke up and realized he's hungry. So far, baby is feeding about 10 times day, sometimes drinking only 5min to quench his thirst and sometimes drinking up to 45min. He's asking for more milk at a closer interval which means he's growing up and needing more!

Baby's fussy evenings started this week and at first we were caught off guard, not knowing exactly why he kept crying n even spit out a lot of milk. Baby would demand for feed, but pull off or cry and cry when I offer him the nipple.

Now we catch Yun Xuan's pattern. During the fussy phase, he needs a lot of hugs, hear papa and mummy's voice talking to him, singing to him, and rocking him gently. I feed him milk when he's calm enough so that minimize the fussiness. His fussiness starts sometime around 7pm. Sometimes he can fuss until midnight or later, making us feel so exhausted. He just refuses to sleep and keep demanding for attention and feeds. I do not dare overfeed him though because there was once I fed him too much at a short interval and he vomited out the milk.

My lovely baby Yun Xuan is now putting on weight, apparent from the chubby look he now has, and he has grown so much taller! Mother in law says he's a really tall baby. He takes after his dad, thankfully! I dun want him to be 2cm short of 1.6m like me, haha.

Next week, we are bringing him to the Polyclinic to check how his jaundice is. Hopefully, the bilirubin level in his blood will go down. I have a feeling it has because he is so much more wakeful and alert now, and the yellow colour on his skin doesn't seem to be there anymore although the whites of eyes still has some yellowish stain. He doesn't seem to be a jaundice baby anymore. I wish Yun Xuan will be given an all clear by the Polyclinic doctor, otherwise it means more jabs and more blood test. So heartache.

I can recognize my baby's cry among the baby's cry at the nursery in the hospital. His cry is very unique and unlike other babies, his cry is very soft and gentle, not the loud wailing kind. But he likes to protest by making "errrr" sounds. He also makes this sound when he stretches while he sleeps. Very adorable!

I've to go back to cuddle my baby although I'm really tired. Lucky hubby is around to help me during his fussy evenings. If I handle him alone, my arms will break n I'll be so exhausted, I'll cry.

Jaundice fear

We were so afraid that baby's jaundice will persists and his bilirubin level will go up because lately, he still looks so yellowish. You can see his skin is yellowish and his eye whites are yellowish. I was so worried that I cried and cried. My hubby too was very very worried. We consulted our friends, anyone we could think of who can give advices, read online articles, forums etc, and looked for another pediatrician to seek a second opinion. The previous one whom we saw kept asking me to feed baby water in the day and infant formula at night so I am very unhappy with her.

Hubby's aunt told us about a pediatrician that her ex-colleague recommended. I read online that he's good and highly recommended by many mothers in the forum. Sure enough, Dr Ong EK of International Child and Adolescent Clinic is experienced and patiently explained to me about jaundice and other baby issues like baby acne, white spots in baby's mouth, etc. He is very detailed and even noticed that baby's umbilical cord is not so well cleaned and clean the sides for us with alcohol swipe. Very nice doctor. Kinderclinic initially arranged for baby to do blood test again this friday. I asked whether we could change the blood test to his clinic instead. But the nurse misunderstood that I requested for baby to have a blood test done. Lucky another nurse saw that the bilirubin level is 12.6, not that high and said my baby should not be required to do another test. She went to check with Dr Ong again and he said it is not necessary. Lucky! Coz I dun want my baby to undergo another poke and drawing of blood again unnecessarily. So heart pain.

My dearest baby still is very sleepy and won't wake up for feeds every 2-3 hourly. He also falls asleep very easily 5-10min into the feed. If I'm lucky and he's very hungry, he can feed for 25min-30min with some intermittent stopping to burb or when he accidentally unlatch. My happiest is when he feed 35-40min at one feed! But that is rare. He usual pattern is feed 5min, sleep, wake him up, burb, feed 10min, sleep, wake him up, change diaper, feed 5min sleep. Sigh. When can my darling baby feed longer and wake up more?

I think I don't really want to worry about the night feeds anymore. Just let him sleep through the night since he is so sleepy. Coz last 2 nights I worried so much that I had nightmare and hallucination. Couldn't sleep well at all.

I am so concerned about his feeding because he needs to feed well and poo mustard yellow colored poo often in order to clear his jaundice. Every time I explained his situation to pediatrician, they say its normal for baby this young to sleep often but make sure he feeds well. But sleep so often and so easily how to feed well?! Sigh, the problem is my own to face. I told my hubby to not be stressed and worried like me, and instead be my support and pillar and keep me positive when I am stressed up. When both parents go crazy, its difficult to make good decisions. I'm so emotional lately that I'll cry so easily. I was so desperate for my baby to stay awake and feed just now, that I prayed to God to let him feed longer. Please God, bless my little baby and keep him healthy and glowing.