Renzo... the Poopersaurus that never sleeps... *yawn*

Being statistical people, Feli and I have been noting down Renzo's every activity since his first day back home on 14th August 2009, in hopes that we can find a pattern through the data gathered. These data includes things like the time he sleeps and wakes up, the amount of milk he was fed and how much he actually drank, number of diaper changes and brand of diaper, his temperature (taken 3 times daily... or at least we try to...=P ) , etc...

And after painstakingly gathering all the data, I shall try to make sense out of the data on our excel spreadsheet and get some information from it...

Accordingly to baby websites like BabyCenter.com.sg and a few others, at 6 weeks old, Renzo should be sleeping about 15-16 hours per day and feeding about 5-6 feeds of 150ml per session per day.

Contender	Hrs of sleep/day	No. of feed/day	Amt/feed (ml)	Total feed/day
Avg. Baby (6 Week)	15 ~ 16	5 ~ 6	150	750 ~ 900
Renzo Chan (5 Week)	14hr 43min	9.14	107.53	959.29
Avg. Baby (4 Week)	16 ~ 18	6 ~ 7	120	700 ~ 820
Renzo Chan (4 Week)	13hr 51min	10.86	81.71	884.29
Avg. Baby (2 Week)	16 ~ 20	6 ~ 7	90	540 ~ 630
Renzo Chan (2 Week)	13hr 55min	10.43	50.35	510.71

Note: Renzo's data is only until Week 5 as Renzo is into the 2nd day of his 6th week as of writing

So as we can see from the table above only during the second week of his life did Renzo eat less than he should... Probably his Jaundice caused him to have less appetite?

Anyway, it is confirmed that he sleeps less than the average baby and that coupled with the fact that he poops quite regularly (current record stands at 8 poop sessions in a single day) have earned him that title of Poopersaurus, the sleepless dinosaur~

Thomson Medical Centre Bills

This post is long overdue was in our draft for the longest time. Initially wanted to make it a Thomson Medical Centre review, but heck, decided to chop it down to only the charges and cost involved.. =P

HOSPITAL CHARGES

Mother
- Assisted delivery 1 bedded room 2 days: $1840

- Companion accommodation: $120

- Drugs/Medicine: $178.2

- Medical supplies: $74.4

- Procedure: $40

- Use of equipment: $216

- Parent retail: $2.8

- Facility: $30

Total with GST: $2676.50

**Medisave deduction: $1650
Balance: $1026.50

Baby

- 2 days package: $338

- drugs/medicine: $15.1

- Medical supplies: $41

- Medical laboratory fee: $39

- Procedure: $75

Total with GST: $543.67
**Medisave deduction: $507.29
Balance: $36.38

Doctor charges

- Dr Lim Teck Chye (for mummy): $950

- Dr Ong Eng Keow (for baby): $256.8

**Medisave deduction: $1095 ($950 for Dr Lim Teck Chye and $100 for Dr Ong Eng Keow)
Balance: $156.8

Grand total: $1026.50+$36.38+$156.8 = $1219.68 round off to $1219.70

We paid $19.7 upon discharge as we put $1200 deposit during admission..

Heh... when the nurses came to us with the bill, I even asked Feli, "Should we pay cash?" lol... imagine telling others "I pay cash for Renzo's delivery..." heh...that'd be fun... but eventually we still stuck to using our credit card as it would be easier for Feli to track our expenses...

We highly recommend taking the single room for all Daddies and Mummies.
1) Mummy gets privacy.
2) Daddy and Mummy get to be with Baby for as long as they want.
3) Daddy gets to sleepover with Mummy (at a small cost)

Renzo's development - Month 01

Renzo went for his first vaccination on Sep 14 at the polyclinic right opposite our block, which is the 2nd dose of Hepatitis B injection. Fortunately he did not cry out loud, brave boy!! The doctor did a brief check on him and commented that he's growing very well. I did asked her advice about Renzo's sleeping and feeding pattern, apparently our little boy is eating a bit more than what he should take at his age, but sleeping a lot less than most newborns. But it seems that even the doctor can't do much about it since every baby is different. We will just try our best to establish a proper routine for Renzo so that hopefully he can be fed every 3 hours and between feedings he could fall asleep easily.

The past one month is really tough for each and everyone of us, including Win, my mother and myself. Okay not just us, even my sister. Kelly came to my place a few times to help out, and even my little niece Cherry loves to sing song and pat Renzo to sleep (see our little helper in action - shaking Renzo's milk bottle).

My in laws did give quite a lot of comments about how to handle Renzo, such as giving him sarong so that he could have sound sleep especially during daytime. But I insist not to give in because I am afraid that as a result, Renzo will not sleep without a sarong, so it is going to be even tougher for us especially when we need to bring him out. Now then I realised that I am really particular about anything related to Renzo (that's for sure, he is my precious little boy). I would say that it is not easy to look after this little guy but it all worth the efforts. Good habit must be built since young, so sometimes we just have to let him learn through the hard way.

Here's Renzo's development during the past one month.
01 Month vs. At birth
Weight: +1.505kg
Height: +4cm
Head Circumference: +4cm


Major development:
1. When he is hungry for milk, he cries and swings his hands. From 11 days onwards, when we put him in sitting position, he knows it is feeding time so he stops moving around, and when we tell him "coming coming (in chinese as that's what my mother always says), he stops crying and wait for his milk bottle to be served.

2. On day 11, he started to turn his head from one side to another while sleeping, and I only realized it the next morning.

3. On day 12, he started to reject milk by pushing his milk bottle away with his little hands. Of course he does this once in a blue moon, we wish he could do this during every feeding so we could get his cue immediately and do not need to worry about overfeeding him.

4. On day 14, he laughed out loud to himself while asleep, with a funny sound, and his whole body was shaking, he still does this every now and then, that's so cute as long as it does not happen at midnight, haha..

5. On day 19, he tried to lift up his head for the first time.

6. On day 21, started to recognize people, especially my mother who feeds him often.

7. On day 27, "Potty trained!!", he pooped and peed into dustbin twice when I removed his diaper and hold him in position.

Daddy Chan and Mummy Chan's worries:
1. Renzo is not sleeping much especially during daytime
On average he sleeps about 11-14 hours in 24 hours time, but for baby at his age, they should be sleeping around 15-20 hours instead. Of course this is not going to affect his development, just that we as parents or carer need to spend more time looking after him. The unfortunate fact is, he can just wake up crying because he needs to pee, burp or even just fart.

2. Sensitive nose
I asked for malay massage service which is a 5 days session, but right after the first session, I realised that with the wraps on me, I could not even cuddle him properly and those herbs are making him agitated. So I immediately called it off and for now, I guess I cannot even do things like rebonding my hair or a pedicure session, I am sure Renzo is very sensitive to the smell of chemicals, just like his father.

3. Vomiting
Yes I meant really vomiting, not spitting up a mouthful after feeding. There were at least 3 to 5 times that Renzo vomit out at least more than half of the feeding and even through his nose. This is the most scary part for me so far. And because of that, my mother dared not to feed him for a few days. Now he is getting better, and also we are trying to limit his milk intake since serious vomiting could be due to overfeeding. And based on our record, yes it is quite true as those few times he really drank a bit more than usual. And because of frequent vomiting, we have to change his nappy only before feeding, or else he will easily puke his milk out when we move his body. Luckily he still can sleep with pee and poop on his golden butt, although not always..

4. Awake after bathing
His bathing time is usually around 730-8pm. And we noticed that usually he eats a lot after bathing, which supposed to be normal. But it seems he will just ask for more and more milk and refuse to sleep till about 10pm. Thus the feeding after bath can drag for more than 2 hours. And the more we feed him of course the higher chance of him vomiting everything out. So we decided to change his bathing time to about 930pm instead, and hopefully he will fall asleep easily after feeding.

5. Passing motion
Renzo had no bowel movement on Aug 27th, and I called the nurse immediately but was advised that it is alright, and I only need to bring him to doctor if he does not pass motion for 3-4 days. Luckily on the next day he pooped quite a bit. And he even had a record of pooping 8 times a day, that's where the nickname "Poopersaurus" from Daddy Chan originated from. But now with slightly less milk intake everyday, he has about 2-5 times of bowel movement a day, and his stool is soft, yellowish and seedy, which supposed to be quite healthy.

Pic courtesy of Renzo's Godpa, Mike Tan (http://4stillangles.blogspot.com/)
Now we just wish for his better development at month 02...

The 3 P's of Parenting Renzo...

So we are into the third week after Renzo's birth, but I can't say that Feli and I have quite settled into parenting life yet (despite that fact that my mother-in-law flew in from China just to help us along for this few months). Late night feedings that can be as torturous as you might have heard from other parents, earth splitting havoc during water baths, diaper changing that seems to threaten your limited supply... But it is through all that I have come to establish the three Ps of parenting... well... at least in Renzo's case... Fully understand the three Ps, taking care of Renzo will be a lot lack hectic... or so i hope..=P

The first P... PEE

During the earlier days of Renzo's life, he didn't really pee much... In fact on the first 2 days at home, he only peed twice... Imagine that when we checked on his diaper, it was clean... puzzling... and to make matters worse, on the 3rd day... his diaper had pee with blood stains (OMG)... It was during consultation with our pediatrician, Dr Ong Eng Keow, did we confirm that they were 'crystals' passed out by Renzo that could indicate dehydration.

So mastering the understanding of your baby's pee would increase your understanding of your baby's hydration condition... =P

Clear Urine - Normal health condition

Yellow/Orange Urine - Indication of dehydration

Cloudy Urine - May indicate blood traces in urine

The second P... POOP

Renzo has been a little Poopersaurus recently, though we didn't need to change his diapers for poops until the third day we brought him home. On his record day, he needed 6 diaper changes due to pooping (and that didn't include the bathe change and his pee changes). His poop started out greenish and more runny and we believe it was because of the breastfeeding early on, but have recently taken on a slightly more yellowish shade since we switched to formula milk as recommended by our PD due to his high jaundice level during breastfeeding.

Breastfed infants are more likely to poop than formula-fed infants, mostly due to the fact that breast milk is more easily digested (so breastfed infants are less likely to be constipated). The excretory take on a more seedy appearance and is more runny and yellowish (like mustard...ewww). Formula-fed infants produces more poop in a session (they poop less daily though) and the excretory are usually firmer and are dark-yellow-to-green in colour. The three colours that should alert you to contact your PD are: red (signaling fresh blood), black (not including the first few days as the black maybe due to the meconium that fills the intestines before birth), or white (which may be due to bile system problems).

The third P... PUKE

Renzo feeds in multiple small meals and will go for a short naps before waking up hungry again (as opposed to other infants who can down 90ml in one sitting and sleep for 3 hours). Problem is, if we try to feed him in excessive quantities, his body will reject and he will puke them out. Well, technically it should be a spit up actually (puking is usually referring to projectile vomitting and usually through the nose as well, which Renzo has only twice or so thus far). To lessen his spit ups, what Feli would normally do is to sit Renzo in an upright position to burp him... and meehhh, the little guy sounds like an adult when he burps (cute~!).

Anyway, spit ups are nothing more than a mess during the earlier weeks of infancy and rarely causes chokes, coughs or pain. But in the event that your baby spits up large amounts of milk, spits up green or brown liquids or isn't gaining weight, you may want to contact your PD.

Lastly, should you experience anything like in this video below... kindly sign your kid up for civil defense... the fire department may require his talents...=P