Why do you keep burbing ??

According to reading material, babies on breastfeeding had a lower occurrence of burbling compared to bottle feeding. However, Carissa burbs after every breastfeeding meal, it does not go away even though you may had been patting her back for a long time. A case or wrong technique ?

Sometimes while patting, the air does comes out, but within 30 mins of lying in her bed she starts burbling again. This is affecting her sleep especially at night.

The solution so far we found is to bottle feed her warm water or breastfeed her again.
Yesterday's poo had a sour smell... overfeeding ?? Well gonna wait for tomorrow's poo to find out more.

God bless..

"I want it and I want it NOW !!!!"

Til now Carissa is quite a nice baby. Not making much noise unless there is a need to. But on 1 subject, she will not accept any compromise. She will make some noise for toilet. If you dun respond to that, she will do her business in her nappies then she will cry on and off. After a long neglect, she will then only start howling for attention.

For food, is entirely different. She will make some noise to attract attention then she will turn left and right.. pointed lips or sticking out tongue looking for food. Within 5 mins of ignoring that, she will erupt into uncontrollable cries for food and does not stop til food is served into her mouth...and sometimes still crying when food is already in her mouth...

Guess she is a gal of strong principles or a gal of utter stubbornness when she comes to food ???

Hairy Crab season !!!

Its hairy crab season again !!! You see them everywhere. People selling them from roadside makeshift stalls, wet market, supermarket.... everywhere you would get to see. The famous place to eat hairy crab is 阳陈湖 (yang cheng lake). Season starts in Oct but the best is in mid nov when the northern wind blows. It is rumored that the crab meat, eggs and roe is the best at this time.

But anyway we had a headstart last month... ;)

I don't need the spare parts....

Recently went to the market to market to buy food for Jessica. They had live fish, prawns and also chicken. Chicken stores just like what we used to have in the wet market. Not sure how we weigh the chicken last time, but here the fold the wings of the chicken to the back and the chicken will lie quietly on the scale.

While waiting for my chicken to be killed and defeathered, I didn't had a chance to take a photo of the chicken on the scale, but just nice someone was buying pigeon and they fold its wings to the back as well. so next time to prevent chicken/bird from running around... fold their wings...



When I reached home to chop the chicken up, I found all the spare parts still inside the chicken. The last time I bought a black chicken from supermarket. Same thing, delivered with all the spare parts.

Also we bought live fish to make soup. Here 鲫鱼 (Ji yu) is a popular fish during the confinement period. So following the tradition here I went to get 1 life one. Told them to clear and clean up for me. When i reached home, the fished was scaled and the gills removed, but the stomach was still there.

So today spent quite a bit of time clearing spare parts... *yawn*

I have new shoes

Auntie (Jessica's cousin) just knitted me a pair of shows... are they nice ??

my new shows


looked nice on me ??

Starting Work Soon.....

Wow... time really flies, before you know it, it will soon be time to work (Can i dun work for now ?? haha). Past few weeks had been full of action, lots of changes, lots of adaption, lots of judgment, decisions to make and a lot of emotional upheaval .I would say it had been a trying period. There were a lot of joy of cause but with it there was also a large dosage of frustration ( dunno what the bb is crying about.

The first week was a good transition period. Carissa was behaving like a well written computer program. Shit, pee...change diapers eat, sleep for 2.5 to 3 hours...and the whole cycle runs again. During this time, the adults started trying to fill up the roles they were playing... washing the poo poo... cooking mommy's food .. helping with the baby feeding... of course some minor clashes along the way in the sense this is the better way to do things, no that is better.. but it was alright as things finally do get sorted out itself and we were finally settled into a comfortable routine.

Then Day 7
Carissa had a blocked nose... Mommy got worried...insisted on going to hospital, finally we ended up at a nearby children hospital. The queue was horrible.. I almost fainted looking at the queue..lucky Jessica went to the information counter to confirm which queue, looking at out baby (due to Carissa's age) we were referred to the A&E Dept where the queue is much much shorter.

We had a 10 min wait and we were in the doctor's room. She confirmed Carissa had a block nose but couldn't find anything else wrong. To confirm its not a virus attack, she called for a blood test. So poor little Carissa, sleeping soundly suddenly got a jab at her finger to draw blood for the test. Oh my god, she was wailing out of control. Must be a rude shock to be awaken with a nasty pain.... *hugs* dun cry ... and quickly the pain went away and she stopped sobbing and fall back to sleep.

Blood test results were quick, showing all normal, we were sent away with some medicines. Quickly we rushed back home hoping Carissa will not catch a cold from the cold weather. Back home , Jessica read the notes and it said safety not garunteed for baby below 1 month old. We decided not to give the medicine and Carissa's nose block so far is up and down. Some days good some days bad. Yesterday was quite bad but today was much better. Read on the net, apply Vicks to baby feet and chest helps to ease off the nose blocks. I had a friend coming over. Hope she don;t forget...

Carissa all dressed against the cold


Carissa looking better later in the day


Carissa having fun


Carissa having fun


Carissa finally falling asleep


Day 8
Carissa seemed to has diarrhea. Her poo seemed more watery then usual and her stomach makes lots of noise. Again, we were thinking if to send her to visit the doctor. After much talking around, and looking at forums and health articles from the net, I managed to convince Jessica on a wait and see approach.

Day 10
Carissa is feeding quite often <2 hour 3-4 times> and Jessica is feeling engorged, so we decided to express out some milk and feed through the bottle if she is feeling hungry after breastfeeding. We tried the manual pump which we got earlier but it was painful and of little effect. After a long while only a little milk is expressed. Luckily through Livia, she recommended us the Avent pump which works perfectly and comfortably.

So when Carissa expressed hunger not long after a breast feeding session, I took the bottle and started to feed her .. thats the first time Carissa feed from the bottle. Too bad no pictures on that ;-p

Just as when we thought her diarrhea was getting better, she started to cry very very loudly and intensely.. for the 3-4 hours that she was crying, we were all very worried. We were taking turns to carry her singing song... playing white noise sound all to no avail.

Finally she stopped and appeared to be normal again. Again phone calls were made, chat windows opened and again google became the most popular site. We suspect Carissa could be suffering from Colic based on the symptoms showed so far. Luckily (touch wood) there is no recurrence up til now. Also Simon, here on holiday managed to get the stomach oil(which i managed to get from him 1 day after the cries) which we applied to Carissa. Hopefully all this measures helped to prevent a recurrence.

After the day when she cried for hours, Carissa started to vomit milk when she burbed. She was not observed to do that before that day.

Day 17

Nowadays Carissa seemed to be very active and had long hours of wakefulness. Sometimes she spent the whole afternoon awake or worse at night. She feeds quite often and her poo is normal.If anybody got suggest do let us know. Thanks.

One good piece of news. Carissa is slightly toilet trained. For a few times before she actually pee/poo, she actually cries out. So if you read her body language accurately you can bring her to toilet to do her business. A few times after hearing her cries, I opened up her diaper to check the condition, it was dry. While I was wondering why she was crying all the stuff starts coming out. So far only grandma is ahead of the game. Once she checked she is cleaned she would bring her to toilet to poo. Success rate 70%. Well sometimes still dunno why she is crying ;-p

Lots of challenges, luckily we can manage it. Hopefully the coming days will be easier.. the latest challenge now will be to get the baby back into routine.



I am sleepy


Sound asleep ??


Nose blocked la...


I loved powder *wink*

Below is my latest photo... did I looked better ?? ;-)









Some of the articles that we read from the net :

NUH Article on Infant diarrhea
UK Baby Centre Article on baby poo
Colic Articles
Colic Articles
Colic Articles
KK Article on breastfeeding
Burbing babies
Burbing babies

Her first giggle

Today Carissa caught us by surprise by her first audible smile... so when is she going to call daddy ??

nay nay nay nay nay



sleeping soundly



*yawn*



with papa



with mama


kua si mi ??


i'm cute right ??


si bay sianz..


ok... time to sleep..

Passport Photo

Just went to the Consulate Shanghai today to apply for Carissa's citizenship and passport. She is effectively stateless at the moment as we did not register her for citizenship here.

As usual with all this paperwork, photo was needed for the application. Spent a long time trying to get a good shot, but alas I failed... sometimes face facing sideway, most times eyes are closed or hands are in the way ...finally took one ... though not so nice but the best that we can mangaged for now haha...

The final product :


Carissa Ong


Dosen't she looked cute ?? ;-) Anyway the processing will take 1-2 mths. Hopefully it will be ready in 1 mth's time then i can bring her back to singapore with me for a little tour haha...

First Shower at home

It was afternoon, we were waiting for Carissa to wake up so that we can shower her for the first time ourselves. While waiting, we started to get all the gear ready ... so that we can get our act together once she wakes up. Checklist start running off... tower... shampoo.. hot water .. cold water .. thermometer....etc...

As usual with all this paperwork, photo was needed for the application. Spent a long time trying to get a good shot, but alas I failed... sometimes face facing sideway, most times eyes are closed or hands are in the way ...finally took one ... though not so nice but the best that we can mangaged for now haha...






Anyway, we were ready for a long time, but Carissa still remains in lala land.. enjoying herself and refusing to wake up and then the sun started to set.... We decided any later will be too cold to carry out the shower, we went to the room to wake her up... Just as we opened the room door she woke up.

Happily we carried her to the bath rooom and just as we were about to strip her... "broop broop broop" well thats the sound of waste dump...so happily we joked that we were a bit slow so we can avoid having shit spewing all around us haha...

Finally all undone , just before we put her into the tub, she started peeing sky high.. luckily i was the destinated photographer standing behind who got too busy laughing to take some photos haha...you can imagine what happened to the rest.





water is smelly .. must be from my pee.....





washing my beautiful hair....





i am done... are you guys ready yet ??





after shower shiok.... can sleep again....z.z.zzz

Finally Sunshine

It had been gloomy and wet the past few days... and quite cold too.. especially in the night... looks like Autumn has firmly set in...

Today, finally is a sunny clear day with blue skies. The view totally misleading and you will find out the truth when you step out the warmth of your home and step into the cold air outside...well the sun does help to warm up a bit but... hehe... still cold la....so dun leave home in summer attire...

Making use of the sun today all our Carissa's nappies goes under the sun for a sun tan session... hopefully they would be dry at the end of the day ... if not , we gonna revert to pampers...

Also in need of a sun tan is Carissa herself... to prevent her from turning yellow... but cause of the cold environment... her mom made sure that she will not catch a cold while sun tanning...



also eyes must be protected from the direct sun.

To me is ... must well dun sun tan hahaha...

Supergal position

1 interesting position we noted is that Carissa from born dun like her hands to be at her side. In the hospital, despite being binded , she always had her way to get at least one hand out, drawing much curiosity from the other moms and the nanny helpers.

Back home, since we dun restrain her, we found that her favorite sleep position is the super gal position haha...jokes aside, experienced daddy and mommys, your babies does similar things ??

we also had to put her gloves on to prevent her scratching her face...

From Angel to Terror....

Like almost every legend... there is a terror haha... well Carissa had most of the time been a good gal... cry shit eat sleep... Just as we settle into the 3 hrly routine... (macham SAF guard duty)... things started to change. 2 nights before she started crying the whole night, despite doing all that we know best, changing nappy feeding her haha..and then wondering why she is still crying... nappies are dry, she refuses to drink milk...

Anyway it was a long night, 1 hour stretch to 2 to 3 before you know it, it is already day break... we were all so tired... finally she burbs out quite a bit of air and then she settles into her nice long sleep.. we too hit straight at the bed ... exhausted...

The only guess we have is probably the air in her stomach is keeping her awake.. otherwise... wa ma ming chai si mi (i also dunno)... haha