November 2006 ~ TRISTUPE.COM

Thursday, November 30, 2006

My Son has my Toes

Maybe it's just me, but see the pics for comparisons.
:)

Remember this when i showed you all Ryan's foot inside his mummy's womb?

Ryan's feet at Week 20

At newborn, his feet was at least 3 inch long from heel to toe. I wear a size 10 shoe.

Stretching to make the feet wider to act like flipper when swimming

look at the big toe....

now look at mine!

Now look at ours!

And no, i do not have any feet fetishes, in case anyone is wondering.

Stupe Blog in Bahasa - Almost LEGAL way to tint your car

:) Hamba bukan kedekut, tapi pasal next year ada operasi besar besaran untuk tangkap keta yang tinted gelap gelap, hamba tak nak ambik risk la. adding that i have a baby now, budget also shrink sikit la...

keta dah ada satu layer tinting biru, tapi tak cukup puas pasal kalau cuaca siang hari, for sure mata sepet aku tak leh buka.

Memang planning nak kasi tinting sama itu cermin besar belakang, cermin passenger and the two triangle.

so, hari tuh, hamba gie jalan jalan kat Tesco. Jumpa car visor yang jenis letak kat cermin. Dapat pulak yang besar pulak tuh. Turun balik and ukur balik cermin keta...cermin passenger matrix belah belakang is 480 x 600. Yang dioffer jual at RM4.90 per pair is 480x 550.

apa lagi, hamba siap rembat 2 set....kira satu set kasi pasang satu cermin, kasi overlap, kasi gelap.

this is how it looked like:

lepas tuh, ada pulak issue cermin besar belakang. Cermin belakang keta kiter is 1000x380 kira kecik tuh beb...(ukuran diambik di tengah cermin)

yang dijual pada harga rm5.90 is 1000x500, for sure tak muat...

tapi nampak yang boleh dipakai di kancil is saiz 990x400...kira boleh la tuh!

yang triangle pulak, hamba pakai surat khabar ambik saiz, kira macam buat moulding la...

lepas tuh, hamba ambik static screen yang dijual pada harga rm9.90 sepasang dan gunting ikut mould.

harga siap pasang tinting almost legal is RM4.90x3 +RM9.90 = RM24.60

effectnya almost macam dah tinting belah belakang macam MPV yang besar-besar/recond dari Jepun.

Kalau ada road block JPJ, cuma tanggal jer dah jadi fully legal.
:)

Belakang mali

Tepi - before

Tepi - After

Tinting macam nie pun pasal si Ryan. Mana tau, kang masa bawak jalan si matahari kuat menyinar, nanti Ryan buta. Lepas tuh, mungkin jugak ada privacy sket masa nak menyusu kan?

:)

More of Ryan & Aunt's Daughter too!!!

I know, by now, most of you would had expected me to write more things other than my son.

Big Boss

But don't blame me. He is the joy of our life and nevermind that he pee and poo like some manufacturing line churning out, err, pee and poo, he is adorable and completely make all our sacrifices worth it.

My aunt, the one that came back from Brazil, gave birth via C sect too last week, friday. She however, opt to have it at GH because of financial constraint. Her baby is a girl. So, that makes Ryan to have Aunt which is younger than him. Anyway, any idea what my son should call the daughter of my father's sister? The girl is my cousin, but does that make her my son's grand cousin? Is there such term?

She has to deliver 2 weeks in advance because her blood pressure was sky high and she has been in and out of GH ever since she got back from Brazil. Noting that the doctors there didn't reccomend her to deliver at 7 months plus, she hanged on for a month more before "enough is enough", as per what the doctor said.

The baby girl, which yet to be named, came into the world on the 24th November afternoon.

My aunt opted for a shared 4-in-1 cubicle ward which cost her RM25 per night stay. Compared to what we paid at RM128 per night, i can't help but feel bad for my aunt. Cubicle ward? yes, you heard me right. It's essentially GHKL at it's worse, rows of bed end to end, separated by cubicle which houses 4 bed per cubicle.

My aunt wasn't able to produce any milk due to her blood pressure. After more than 1 week being a father myself, me and wifey know breastfeeding isn't easy and it takes a lot of patience. We didn't give up, in the end, it all paid off. But poor aunt of mine. However, she was lucky that her cubicle mates were kind enough, each of them gives their extra milk to be fed for the baby. She was borned and weight in at 3.2kg, slightly lighter than Ryan.

Then, came the big surprise. My cousin is down with jaundice. 3 days after her birth, the doctor came and tell her that her baby has jaundice. Bad enough that the GH does not help wash the babies after delivery to clean them off the aminiotic fluids, it takes them 3 days to tell her she got jaundice? And the level was 500 plus plus counts! That's critical! I suspect because over the weekend, there isn't any doctors checking on the babies, or there was simply too many babies to be cared of in the nursery of GH.

With his big feet, Ryan wants to kick the doctor that did not check his aunt properly...

So, what did my aunt do? She was shocked, didn't help her blood pressure, no ma'am. Doctor came and say "if the level remind this high by tonight, i'm afraid we have to do a blood transfusion for her".

OK, bad enough that she has to deliver via C because the "doctor has to go for a meeting", bad enough they did not help bath the baby off the fluid, bad enough she didn't have any milk, and now, blood transfusion?

I know some of you would be saying that it's RM25 per night and the C sect most probably will cost her only RM200 instead of Ryan's thousands. But that is not my point. My point is, Our health system and delivery has to improve!

Having said that, i've heard horror stories from a friend based in UK about her close friends' delivery where the doctor did not sew her up properly and resulting in a second stiching needed. And anohter friend did not have her perinium sew properly, resulting in an almost disastrous event. Yes, in UK my friend, in UK, a land where the more effluent Malaysians sing song off.

So, as luck would has it, her baby's Jaundice level went down to about 400 points the same day, later at night, doctor ordered more observation and decision has to be made the day after.

The UV treatment (photovoltaic) yield good results as by the second day afternoon, the level drop to 250 odd points.

hmmmphh...

The baby is currently making good recovery. My aunt is now less stressed. Milk not coming as yet. Still relying on other good samaritans in the ward. But things are looking better compared to 2 nights ago.

Me and wifey just feel so blessed as we were in the position to provide the best for Ryan. The rental of the UV light units were enough to cover her delivery and stays in GHKL alone. We did consider wanting to help, but i do not think we have that capacity to help her, where private hospital is concerned.

Ryan's is less jaundiced now, bathing him for 3 straight days in quinine seeds and i've just bought enough supply to do so for anohter 2 days to help lower the jaundice count.

Apart from that, mum has asked me to buy a bottle of Guiness Stout.

So, there i was, at the Tesco check out counter, with 2 boxes of nipple pad and a bottle of stout.

Others must be thinking i'm some bastard husband and father, still drinking despite having a baby. Hahahaha!

Stout, and it must be Guiness, are traditionally used to relieve heatiness in babies. As you see, Chinese confiment has it that the mother needs to take a lot of ginger, chinese wine and other herbs. So called to "repair" and prevent "wind" in the mother. Because the kid is breastfeeding, the baby will eventually digest alll what the mother ate in her milk. (does that meant that my aunt's baby has eaten indian, chinese and malay food via the ward's breast milk???)

Adam King?

Or just Ryan Lim?

So, yesterday, we bath him in 1/3 of a bottle of stout. Can't put in too much as he might get drunk as the alchohol absorb through his skin. Nah, don't worry, no babies were harmed in any way for years that my family practices this.

Burp...

Worse case scenario, the baby, in this case Ryan, will just end up looking drunk like the pic above. Hahahaha!

Even at 10 days old, Ryan has shown a lot of promise to be a sports man. He enjoys his bath time, as that will be the closest he would feel like inside his mother's womb. And at second day of anohter 1/3 of the stout bath, he was already liking it and was seen practising breast stroke.

No Ryan, Triatheltes swim freestyle, only your dad uses breast stroke!

There is 1/3 of the stout left. Lets see if he drinks them tomorrow!!! Hahahah!

But i want OJ instead...can???

Not updating and here it is to make up for it.

Sorry for being missing in the blog-sphere. Been pretty busy and tired with the new joy in my life.

My day doesn't seems to end and all biological function seems to be in total complete wreck. Slept is really a luxury now. Being able to clock more than 2 hours undisturbed is a bliss. More often than not, it takes us 30 minutes to cup feed the baby, then another 30 putting him into sleep. by then, we are left with 2 hours of sleep at night before waking him up for the next meal!

His jaundice level was a bit high 2 days ago. 266, Dr. Yong, his peads said. He suggested we rent home a UV unit to bbq him. Jaundice usually happens to most babies and has no reasons for major concern, unless the figure touches 400. but being new parents, every single thing makes us worry, even his breathing makes us think if he is alright!

As of today, his level went down to 171 after almost a full 16 hours under the UV lights. We have until tomorrow afternoon before the rental of the unit ends, and by then, we hope the level would drop further. I've also introduced him to sunbathing. For the past 2 morning, i've been under the morning sun at 7.30am with him until 7.45am. No way i would wake up this early before Ryan came along. LOL!

Anyway, here is some pictorial of him, over the past 7 days.
:)

Day 1

After my brief encounter with him in the OT, i had to look at him through this opened curtain for almost 30 minutes before i'm allowed in.

My first touch with him was in the previous post, where some of you readers claimed he gave me the finger! Well, if he really did so, it's to you all, not to me! :)

Day 2

This is by far one of my fav picture. Him sleeping in his hospital cot on day 2

His jaundice level was 133 at this point of time, you could see the yellow tinge on the skin around the eyes. With what seems to be like white head on his nose, i might need to send him for facial!

Day 3

Here looking at you, world!

It was his and his mother's day of discharge and i was holding him after the nurse gave him a sip of water. He wasn't feeding as well as we thought he would. but things has been pretty good now.

Day 4

Wrapped up tight like a dumpling inside his own cot. A picture of peace!

Starting them young without any need for any typical chinese household baby bouncing spring contraption. He slept without any problem after his feed. Only need a few good pat on his chest and back and he is on his way to Mr. Sandman's castle.

Day 5

Everybody now say...AWWwwwwww

I recieved 8 complimentary tickets to A1 GP this weekend from Alex Yoong's dad and i had to give it all away. Can't possibly go to see the race, no? Grandstand ticket somemore! Dang it!

Good Luck Alex Yoong!

Ryan do wishes Alex Yoong a good race too. What more because his dad (as in me) had to miss the race!

The very same day was when Dr. Yong told us about phototherapy, so, we rented an UV unit. Wifey and me call it the briefcase. Hey, it's afterall, modified from a President's briefcase! Seriously!

Will DIY next time

Day 6

Earth to Enterprise, Capt Kirk, you read me?

Mum in law call him Batman for having this eye piece over his head. It serves to protect his eyes and gonads.

My mum was especially upset. Not because of the jaundice, but because she can't carry and hold him while he is in the briefcase! Case of Nanny getting upset!

Day 7

Not so yellow-yellow dirty fellow

Taken this morning when he wakes up. Makes me and wifey's sleepless night worth it all. Joy of seeing your own son looking at you. Though you know that this day he won't remember when he grows up. But this picture, and blog, will serve to remind him that he was a curious cat even at day 1, what more day 7?

yo, wassup...i'm 10 sen, far cousin of 50 cents.

I know, the above caption is corny. Who say i wasn't?

:)

18th Nov 2006

He's here!

Click here to view some of the pic i uploaded via mobile blogging, but only today i realise it did not show on the blog page! Dman it!

Anyway, for you people that is too lazy to click on the link above, here you are, my son, Ryan Ambrose Lim Jo-Hann!!!

Ryan - D-Day Minus 1 and Pikachu!

He is due tomorrow. 18th November.

Till today, 17th November, there was no sign of water leakage or even contraction. No tummy ache. No painful feelings in the the tummy even. Only thing is that Ryan is moving as per usual, pushing against wifey's tummy, as per usual.

So, this morning, before breakfast, i tended to my beautiful plants first. They need watering and TLCs as well. Got to try not to kill them like i did last time.

Then suddenly i saw in the pot, something that looked like Pikachu.

And suddenly Aini's comment rang in my head....

Pika!!! (Translated: Yo, wassup y'all)

I do not recall sticking anything into the pot a couple of days ago. I don't even recall watering the pot in the past 2 days or so. I let the soil dry in between watering.

So, imagine my shock when i saw this Pikachu inside my plant's pot...

Pika, Pika? (translated: What the F....)

It was as yellow as the original Pikachu.

Years of watching Discovery, National Geographic and Animal Planet told me that anything that is bright in colour are usually poisonous, or deemed to be poisonous.

Not to take any chances, i used a tissue paper and grab hold of Pikachu.

Pulled it out, which wasn't very hard as it wasn't planted deep into the root or eating up the plant's root for breakfast.

"PPPPIIIIIiiiiiiKKkkkkaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Pika pika...!!(Translated: NNNNOOOOoooooooo!!! You son of a...)

The yellow spores were all over the tissue. I almost wanted to strap a bomb around it to bomb the evidence. But i need Peace Hill's help la on this. Last i check, the officer and anohter man was already somewhere near some happy place, so, no such luck.

Many things went through my mind. One of them was if this is an indication that Ryan will be here soon?

Ryan Star came and went...but where is my Ryan???

By the way, if any of you want to google ryan star the supernova rockstar, please spell his Star with one R and not two Rs. 2 Rs will get you a female singer.

No doubt that me and wifey is getting anxious. Who won't if her bump is looking this big?

Probably the very last pic before Ryan comes today...or tomorrow...or the day after...

Birthday Celebration with Friends!!!

My usual Light and Easy Babes and Hunks

We had a small gathering yesterday at Mohsin TTDI to celebrate my belated birthday. The guys and girls actually went to run Kiara in the middle of the rain yesterday evening before coming over for dinner.

Not only that, they then went cycling around Bukit Damansara-KL-TTDI loop.

Thanks to Karoline for the wonderful picture.

Later that night, I went over to Iqbal's place in Ulu Kelang for yet another celebration. This time spending with the buddies i grew up with like sisters and brothers. The celebration might be belated, but it surely does makes you feel grateful that you have friends that sticks to you through thick and thin!

On my birthday a couple of days ago, me and wifey went over to Castell at Sect 16 for dinner. She insist that she wanted to buy me dinner. I of course do not believe in spending so much money on food. My birthday celebration has always been a slow and low key thingy. But i guess age must had caught up with me and she decided that i must stop thinking about spending money on food, moreover, good(possible) food that only happens once, or twice a year.

So, i went on to order the Prime Fillet. Done Medium Well. Wifey went for the mixed grill and we both secretly hope that Ryan won't pop out during dinner, though if he did, it would be great nontheless, but we want to eat first.

Wifey even joked that if Ryan do wants to come out, at least she was properly dressed and with make up on. Enough about women going into labour with clothing that has seen better days.

The food was good. I must admit that the quality of the beef fillet was the best i've had so far, well, not that i had had many steaks to begin with! For RM48, it was sure expensive, but i guess it was worth the price.

I did not take any pic as there were many people around and this was one time i really felt shy snapping away! It got to be AGE!

The next day, ie Tuesday, wifey went out for dinner with her best bud at Delicious and came back with something from Bakerzin.

"Happy Birthday, again!", she said, refering to me not having any on my birthday itself.

Wifey said this was the most expensive desert she has ever bought...

Layers of chocolate and nuts and wafers....

Looked too good to be eaten...but at room temperature, it's either my tummy, or let it melt!!!

Best la the dessert. Best la my wife.

Maybe i should make her one jersey with the Number 1 like the picture below....

Congrats!!! Congrats!!!

Congrats to Zabil for the arrival of his Baby Girl yesterday morning!!

And Congrats to Ismadi/Chips on the arrival of his Baby Boy yesterday evening!!!

With so much bundle of joys running around, there will be a champion triathelete and champion rugby player in the near future!

Again, Congrats!

Time Capsule

I received an email which i set to sent to myself a year ago.

What? Set to send myself an email???

(The following is an e-mail from the past, composed on Thursday, November 17, 2005, and sent via FutureMe.org)

Dear Ee-Van,

It's me writing to you from the past.

If everything goes according to schedule, you must had:

Races:
1. finish KLIM
2. Participated in all the Duathlon
3. did Lumut, Desaru and Titiwangsa tri.

Personal Life:
1. Is Wifey pregnant?
2. Ee-Von changed jobs for how many time since? To date (17th November 2005), she already did change twice.
3. Where is Ee-Svun? She's taking her SPM now at the time of this being written.
4. How is mum and dad?
5. Is mother in law walking again, like she should be?

Working life:
1. Still in the same company???

I couldn't recall that i did send me an email a year ago.

So, receiving this email was indeed a surprise.

But i would like to answer the above email to myself.

Hi Past Ee-Van,

Races:
1. Yes,i finished KLIM in 5hours 55 minutes. That is my personal best time for marathon. Would future Ee-Van beat that record?
2. I managed to do both the duathlon this year. One in Dataran and one more in Putrajaya.
3. I only managed to do Desaru Long distance. Lumut was a no go as Wifey was expecting. Titiwangsa tri is non existence this year.

Personal life:
1. Oh yes, she is very pregnant. Due soon.
2. nah, she is still with the same company. But the company that she is working now got boughtover by anohter person though.
3. Ee-Svun is currently in Lower Six. Doing Bio Maths. She has since appeared in more TV than i did.
4. Mum is fine. She will be a granma soon. More reasons for her to be happy. As for dad, his motor coordination has not been fully regained back since the stroke 2 years ago. He tend to mumble sometimes.
5. Are you kidding? She is linedancing like nothing even happened!

Working life:
1. ahbuden....

Oh ya, I've also written a letter to Future Ee-Van. We shalt wait for his reply in a year's time!

Yours Lovingly,

Present Ee-Van

The Green Fingers In Me

I admit, i've not had any green fingers.

Over the period of one year, i've murdered and killed numerous plants on different occasion. The main culprit was overwatering.

I thought i was doing the plant a favour by watering them. But i was wrong, there is such thing as killing them with water. Root rot was the main reason why they died.

On different occasion, i over fertilised and totally burned the leaves, but managed to save them on time, by removing the top soil and replacing it with fresh soil.

Only on two occasion that the plants succumbed to parasites. Namely the mealy bugs. These pesky pest would multiply under the leaves and initially you would had thought some spider made some nest underneath with some spider-webby-looking ...err...web.

Notice the whitish looking thingy on the stalk of this calathea variant??

Out of the two plants with mealy bugs infestation, i managed to save the one above. The other one, a palm tree, was beyond salvage as the root was also infested and the only way is to rid the whole pot away.

For the record, i've also killed 1 Pandan leave plant and also 1 Kari Leave plant. How is that for being green? Both was because of over watering.

Lessons learnt about watering. It took me almost a year to realise that i wasn't doing any good to the plant if i over water it.

Rules of the thumb is that i should only water after the top 1/4 inch of soil is dry. Or just let it dry between watering. 2 to 3 days interval works fine if the plants are exposed to the sun. Otherwise, some plants only need watering once a week!

Fertiliser shouldn't be used like it's some miracle drugs for growth. Use it sparingly, if the instruction says to use 2 tablespoon, just use one. It's safer that way.

Cactus..aint they pretty?

Money Plant on kitchen's window with the cacti above

Wifey always love Dieffenbachia and also Crotons. Which explained why we had this much of these plants at home. However, do take note that the sap from the plants could be toxic to a certain extend. hence, proper handling and also respect for the plant must not be taken for granted.

Dieffenbachia

Another variantion of Dieffenbachia

And anohter...

Grim reminder of the once large Dieffenbachia

Some crotons...

and anohter variant of crotons

Anohter Crontons...this time a tree like looking one.

One of the crotons i overwatered and repotted to save it...

And this too, this almost died because of overwatering....

Then, there are other plants where the scientific names are not even pronounciable by mere green finger wannabe like me.

A small mother in law plant...

Some big leaves plant....

Japanese Bamboo

Some very fragile shrubs which needs loads of TLC

This looked like the Pachira, but it isn't...

can sometime tell me why my aloe vera looked like it's dying???

The calathea making a full recovery!!!

Gardening is soothing. It could be frustrating sometimes when it doesn't go the way it should. I hope that these plants, which were planted with much TLC by the nurseries where i purchased them, would not die in my hand. I tend to them everyday, removing any dead leaves and checking for pest which might be present.

Currently, my balcony is almost camouflaged by the plants. Wait up while i paint my face...