Negative result for stool test and eczema swab

The clinic called back with Faith's results for the stool test and swab taken of her eczema-infected right ear. Verdict was that both results were negative i.e. stool test found no traces of bacterial infection nor allergy reactions to dairy product. Similarly, her eczema was the same too.

While it may be a relief, its not a satisfying answer for me on why there were blood streaks in her stool. Until there are future instances of blood streaks found in her stool, I do not have to abstain from dairy products for now.

Oh well... so, I still don't know why there's blood in her stool??

Our smiling baby :)

It's no secret that Eve and I love Faith's smiles. And the nice thing is she seems to do it quite effortlessly and naturally. In the morning, one of the rare moments of the day when I actually change her diapers, she'd unfailingly put on her morning smile when she sees me. And I notice how she smiles when she looks at Eve too. Just this evening, Faith was seated on my lap and when she saw Eve sit down beside us, she also looked at Eve and smiled.

I think every parent wishes for their child to grow up happy and loved. And we hope for Faith that she will continue feeling happy and secure growing up. Of course there are times when we sometimes ask ourselves if we're going to be the overly-pampering parents who give too much love and too little discipline. But I think there's a time for everything. At the age of close to 4 months, I think Faith still needs all the love we can give her without us worrying too much about spoiling her. That time will come I'm sure, when we'd have to wield the stick to discipline her in the perhaps not too distant future if she goes out of line. But for now, we're just two happy parents, with one smiling baby :)

Two new feats... and one persistent dilemma

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to get Faith interested in holding and grabbing toys with her hands without much success. Yes, she's able to grip items when you wrap her fingers around them. However, she is not able to comprehend that she's holding something in her fingers nor would she be curious enough to bring her hands up to her face to look at the toys.

So, imagine my surprise last night when she suddenly stared at her hands with fascination. Encouraged, I quickly started giving her her favourite "Mr Sun" rattle and her wrist rattle for her to play with. Thus, my little baby was engrossed with her new found capabilities for some time.

This morning, Faith also managed to flip onto her back while lying on her stomach. I've been giving her tummy time every morning to strengthen her neck. For the past 2 weeks, we've noticed that she would sometimes lean her head on one arm and try to kick her body, as if to flip over. Usually, we would give her a little prod and help turn her over.

This time around, Faith managed to do the little feat all by herself. I've managed to capture her on video. Unfortunately, when my mom came in the afternoon and we tried putting her on her tummy, Faith refused to flip any more and was making noises all the while. Hmmm... if my baby could articulate her thoughts, she probably would be indignant and say: "What? Do you guys think I'm some performing monkey??" ;)

Nonetheless, as Faith is getting older, she's definitely more articulate about her likes and dislikes. For the last 2 days, she absolutely refused to take much from the bottle (about 50 ml each feeding). I think my mom has given up becos she told me to just breastfeed her from now. She's now gone down to the coffeeshop for a cuppa. Sigh...

Frankly, I don't mind breastfeeding her exclusively. Afterall, I will start her on solids and slowly wean her off when she hits 6 months. However, I only hope that there would be a less tedious way of making her drink her milk in the future... whether its through sippy cups or straw.

Productivity gifts

It's an understatement to say that Eve is overjoyed with her new toy. While E has been nice enough to reassure me that she'd try to minimize influence on my dear wife, I must say, it is at least much more practical (and cheaper) than buying say a new diamond ring. At least with the phone, Eve is now keeping up with the news on AsiaOne, reading her blogs, checking up things on Google etc while feeding Faith - what a marvellous idea!!

In fact, it's been a while since I bought Eve anything that practical. And the fact that Eve actually beat me to that idea means I now need to look for an alternative for her b-day....sigh. Since Faith's arrival, we've gotten a new room filled with office furniture, a colour printer, new SD card, upgraded PC and now, a new handphone for mummy. I wonder what new gadget we'd get next - one thing is for sure, it wouldn't be very long before we get "it" - whatever it is.

Blood in stool and eczema

On Thursday night, I've discovered Faith's stool had blood. Concerned, I called her paedi and was advised to bring her in the next day for a stool test as there could be 2 reasons for the blood, namely, bacterial infection or allergies.

It was a visit that killed 2 birds in one stone becos its been nearly 2 weeks since I've applied the medication by the paedi for her eczema. Unfortunately, there hasn't been any progress. In fact, her eczema was spreading to other parts of her face. The reason? I supposed the eczema must be itchy and causing Faith much discomfort. As a result, she keeps swiping her hands at her right ear and also rubbing that same hand all over her face.

I'm still waiting for the paedi to revert to me about the results of the stool test. But in the meantime, as a precaution that the blood could be an allergic reaction to milk products, I'm to abstain from ALL dairy products. Possibly, the avoidance of dairy products may also help pinpoint if her eczema could be a result of allergy too. Guess what that means? No more cornflakes, drinking of my favourite Milo tetrapaks, chocolates, ice-creams and as I go along, lots more food with dairy content. Geez... and I thought during pregnancy that it was a torture that I couldn't eat unpasteurised cheese.

As for the eczema on her right ear, it had become infected and inflamed. In the course of our conversation, it finally dawned on both of us that while he had prescribed Fusicort, a cream with steroid, the clinic assistant had given me Fusidin, a similar cream by the same pharmaceutical company but without steroid. No wonder I had zealously applied the cream for nearly 2 weeks and there wasn't any improvement to her eczema! The paedi was very apologetic about the error and ensured that this time around, I was given the right cream.

One of the staff at the dispensing counter was asking if I remembered which of the assistant was the one that dispensed the medication on the last visit, asking if it was herself. Of course I couldn't remember who it was. At that time, I was only too relieve to know that Faith's eczema was not becos she wasn't responding to the medication.

After 3 days of application, Faith's eczema on the right ear has recovered. The additional moisturiser and eczema cream (separate creams as they had lesser steroid in them) that I asked for to treat the other eczema on her face and body have also helped clear the problem. Now, my pimply-faced baby is pimply no more. Her face has now revert back to the soft, smooth skin that a baby should have. YAY!

Knowing that her discomfort could have been prevented, I'm now feeling rather annoyed with the assistant that gave me the wrong cream. Too bad I didn't notice who it was. Lesson learnt? Yeah... I shall endeavour to remember the faces of the persons dispensing medications in future.

The verdict on the stool test? Well... I'm still waiting to hear from her paedi on the result of the test. *fingers crossed*

On a side note, Faith could sleep for an hour for the 1st part of this afternoon in her new sarong. Its an achievement cos its the longest afternoon nap that she has taken for months. My mom could eat her lunch leisurely and read the papers while she napped too. Yippee to automated sarongs!

Rock-a-my-baby... in the sarong

My friend, E is a terrible person - she's a bad influence on this newly minted SAHM :) After just one visit to her home, I've ended up buying 2 items over the weekend; an automated sarong and a new mobile phone.

Alright, alright... before I start losing friends left right and centre, I have to declare that its not her fault. Au contraire, I really have her to thank for. She and her hubby have been telling us about the automated rocking sarong for the longest time when they knew that Faith has problems sleeping in the afternoons. Louis and I were adamant that we didn't want to have too many gadgets or props to help Faith sleep as it would mean one item more to have lug along if we travel with her. Or so we thought.

And so, for the past few months, Faith has to be held and rocked to sleep while cradled in someone's arms or placed in her stroller and rolled along to sleep for two mere 1/2 hour slots every afternoon. When I was at E's place, Faith was rocked to sleep by the up-down motions of the sarong and managed to fall asleep in it for a good 45 mins -- I suspected that it could be longer as we switched off the automated rocking so that she would slowly rouse herself from her sleep for her next feeding. Louis' lightning response when I messaged him about this "new wonderment" that lulled his daughter to sleep peacefully was that we go get it ourselves. Just goes to show you how often you're made to eat your own words after a kid comes along in your life ;)

As for my 2nd purchase, I have to say that I'm very very pleased it with. Its the Nokia E65 phone. In my opinion, the killer-app is the WLAN. See... when I'm breastfeeding Faith, I'm mostly twiddling my thumbs in boredom in her room. Its a bit hard to lug my laptop from the study room and surf the net while cradling her in one arm. With the WLAN capabilities, I can now check my emails and surf the numerous blog sites easily. For a tiny device, the loading capabilities and GUI is pretty fast and good.

All in, the visit to E's place yielded me with 2 wonderful purchases that I'm still congratulating myself on. While she has generously invited me back to visit again, I'm rather fearful to go... no telling what other purchases I would end up buying the next time I do a "trial-test" at her place ;) Our once minimalistic house is really piling up with all sorts of equipments and furnishings.

D*%M the heat...

The weather is killing these days! Faith is developing rashes on her inner elbows and parts of her thighs. Actually, I'm not too certain if they are heat rashes or eczema. The eczema from one of her ears has now spread to the other (I think its from the heat when I hold her in my arms while feeding). And her face... geez... she's starting to look like a pimply baby.

Part of the problem stems from her mittens. She likes to suck her hands and with the mittens on, it would be soaked with her saliva in no time, Then, Faith likes to rub her hands all over her face and behind her ears too -- I think she scratches her ears becos its itchy.

So, at the expense of my mom and MIL telling me not to do so for a while longer, I've now taken off her mittens in the day as much as possible. I guess scratches on her face will be part of the learning lesson for her. The only thing to look out for is that she does not scratch or gorge her eyes with her fingers *fingers crossed*