4 months - when going to the hospital can bring good news too

my baby boy,

you have made many marvellous milestones, such as bring able to clasp your hands together, to turning your head back, as though in search of something. once, you even unintentionally rolled over! mama and papa continue to be amazed by how God helps you to grow and pick up new skills. you seem to have found your feet, and you are always rubbing them together. toys appeal to you now, and you jump into excited fits when we start to read a book together :)

we can't quite imagine life without you, because you have brought so much joy to us with your constant smiles and funny antics.

this month, i do not have much to say about your milestones, because all that is etched on my mind is what happened recently. 

you fell sick. you have never been entirely, completely healthy since you were born (who is? such is the result of sin in this world :(  ) but this recent bout of cough really caught us by surprise and made us worry and fear, alot. for once, i truly experienced the worry of how you may never recover. initially, when we first saw the doctor, i was not extremely worried. you had no fever, and you will still active, although the phlegm caused you some breathing difficulties every now and then. days passed, and you soon got a runny nose, and your cough never went away. this added to my worries. 

when feeding you medicine :( :(

we went to see the pd again, and to our dismay, she diagnosed you with bronchitis! for a little one like you, with an illness that already sounds like a mouthful, it was very very worrying. before we left the clinic, we had to sit through 5 minutes of the nebulizer. as i held you in one hand, the other holding the nebulizer, my heart ached. i felt guilty, as though i did not take proper care of you, and at the same time, sad that you had to be subjected to something like that at such a young age. we returned home with an array of medication, including antibiotics :(

our worries mounted when yiyi reminded me to look out for chest retractions. i studied your chest and oh dear, there were retractions indeed. unsure if that was what she meant, i sent her a video and she confirmed with yi zhang that they were something serious. subcostal retractions, they call it. a google search was enough to send chills down my spine, because that meant that you were having acute respiratory difficulties. "i think you should go to the hospital..." were yiyi's words, and my heart sank :( 

at the same time, i was thoroughly confounded. although you were still coughing and sometimes gasping for breath, you were at times happy and you could sleep through the night. what's going on? is there something really serious that i did not pick up? baby, are you that tough, that even when you are SO sick, you can still seem ok?

off to the hospital (children's emergency) we went. junior doctor examined your lungs, and said that they were fine. huh? what about the retractions, we asked. she frowned and told us that she would check with the senior doctor. senior doctor came in, clearly knowing what she was doing. to our surprise, she said you had no bronchitis, and that you did not require any other medication besides nose drops!

going to the hospital can bring good news too. 

what is the purpose behind this? God has put this into our family's lives that we may learn how important it is to trust in Him. to make mama realise that it is not the doctor or the medication that is going to make you better. to teach us how to suffer long, and to cling unto God in such a time of desperation. and to help us realise how many prayer warriors stand by us, making their supplications known unto the King of kings, on our behalf. we are truly blessed, Ezra, that we are under the care of God Almighty. 

the hands-on brother

we kinda liked the dining table from star living, as mentioned here, but it was a little too small. PP and i were looking for a versatile dining table that could open up to fit more guests and this was a perfect match :) however, it seemed a little too common. thank God for a fantastic younger brother who really went all out to customise it for us! our inspirations came from here, here and here :)

colour dipping, is what it's called :)

first, he tried it out on a small portion of the table. (and even took a snapshot to show me!)

taped half of the table legs with masking tape and newspaper..

sanded and primed them..

before painting them many times over :)

it looks easy, and the tutorials online make it look so simple, but it is actually very tedious work! he even offered to paint the sides of the table top, and the outcome was really fabulous :)

my brother's labour of love was a big big help when i was heavily pregnant and now the dining table fits seamlessly in our house! even our carpenter, Mr A, asked us where we got it from! thank you so much brother :) you really went the extra mile and made sure that the paint job was done to perfection. your masterpiece is going to stay in our home for many many years to come!

tots on parenting #3

the privilege of a Christian mother (words of wisdom from popo)

the privilege of a Christian mother is prayer. in times of desperation, when we are alone at home, helpless with no one to give us a hand in looking after a helpless baby, we know we have a Heavenly Father who is only a prayer away. Yes, He is watching over us all the time, but prayer reveals how much we need Him and trust Him to provide for what we need. 

my mother has touched me very much recently, with her words of wisdom and sweet gestures of love. according to her, she says she is also still learning till now, and how i have so much to learn from her! she shared how she had to take care of us (3 little ones, oldest being 8) in the past, and how she would be busy from daybreak till dawn. even going to the toilet was a challenge! how den, i asked. and she said, 

i just had to keep praying and praying.

this is a privilege that Christian mothers have, and it is such a means of grace to us! without God, who can I look to? who can I commit my cares to? who will understand my needs? I thank God that I am a Christian mother, and with this means of grace, may I accomplish what He desires me to do! 

ezra's one-month-old thank you favours

we have been blessed by the love of many who showed their support in different gestures since Ezra was born. some have been patient with us, some pray for us. one sweet sunday school boy has constantly been praying for good health for ezra! wow. some keep us in their thoughts, offer words of advice, others shower us with hand-made cards and thoughtful gifts. thank God for all these people, who are blessings sent from God.

while we do not like to stick to tradition and give cake vouchers/gifts for the sake of the one-month celebration, we are grateful to these people. we hence wanted to do a little something, as a token of appreciation. here's what we came up with, by God's provision. 

materials needed:

- a badge front (in this case we got someone to laser cut some wood pieces) 

- badge pins

- foam double sided tape

- glue 

- a card with a heart-felt note

thank God that it was relatively easy to stick everything together and we completed these (100+ pieces!) rather promptly :)

front of the card

back of the card

the card is an adaptation of our wedding card, which we felt was meaningful because truly, by God's leading, we are on to another phase in this journey of life :)

we felt that this would be a nice souvenir for everyone to have, to point people to our Creator as we celebrate the 1 month of life God has given to Ezra. truly a.t.w.o.s.l.u :) 

All the way our Saviour leads us...

three months

your cheeks are so round they look like you have two fishballs tucked in them :)

baby dear, 

you are three months old, a wonderful milestone! thank God for His goodness, in sustaining you day by day, feed by feed. 

the highlight of this month is definitely your smile, that you dish out so unreservedly to everyone around you :) all you have to do is flash that sweet smile, and it brightens up everyone's day, including mine :) i thank God that even though you are young, still a baby, you have already been used by God to bring joy to others. and i pray it will continue to be so! 

you have learnt to recognise people, and the best thing about that, is how you smile the moment you see me! it is almost a certainty that when i smile at you, i get a smile in return, even when you are fussing about something :) im so blessed to be your mummy, you are truly a gift from God. this is the month where you have started to learn how to relate to others, whether it be your grandmas, grandpas, aunties, uncles, even mama's and papa's friends. you're truly blessed - there are so many people who love you very much!

you are becoming a real chatterbox. we hear less and less of your crying, as you learn to express yourself in other ways. though no proper words are used, we get an idea of what you are try to express through your facial expressions and tone. it's a joy listening to you. you may feel very vexed as we crack up in laughter while you are complaining away. that's because you do sound very adorable!

bathtimes remain your favourite :) the sound of water splashing is enough to make you squirm in joy. you get so excited to go into the water that you start fussing when we shampoo your hair. speaking of your hair, it is getting longer and longer! papa and mama are reluctant to give you a haircut, but we probably have to do so soon. how we will miss your glorious head of golden brown hair, which so many are enamoured with. auntie ying even says you look like a korean pop star?!!?

there were some feeding hiccups this month. one moment you seem really hungry, the other moment you just don't want to feed. we have resorted to so many means just to get you to drink your milk... rocking you to make you drowsy, turning on the aircon, distracting you, suspecting that you are teething. you are so easily distracted by everything, from the sound of the traffic to mummy's sneezing. sometimes, even when mama and papa talk, you stop to eavesdrop hehe! at the end of it all, i must say that your feeding has been something that i have learnt to commit to God, because i have so little control over it. there have been times that mama just loses patience and gets tired of trying. yet, thank God that He always works it out well day by day. i am learning not to fret so much, and just pray with you at the start of each feed, that you will drink your milk with less discomfort. you seem to have lost weight. we miss your tummy :/ 

all in all, it is amazing how God has seen us through the past 3 months. when i look at you, it is unbelievable to see how much you have grown. we are thankful for that, but it is truly not by our own efforts that you grow day by day.