October 2007 – Page 4 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Varicose Veins

That’s my thigh and the unsightly varicose veins that have been expanding as my pregnancy progresses. The veins started to appear when I was pregnant with Sherilyn. It only started to subside, but not completely gone after I had given birth. Now that I’m pregnant again, the veins are starting to expand again like roots to a tree and I can feel pain and heavy pressure at the site of the varicose veins whenever I stand. It’s really ugly and I look like an ah soh with bulging varicose veins. I can forget about wearing mini skirts even after I’ve given birth. I know one of the ways to reduce the symptoms is to lie on my back and raise up my legs. I’ve been doing it for at least 15 minutes everyday but I can’t see any improvement though.
I’ve read from the internet that if the problem gets way too serious, surgery can be opted to remove the veins, but purely for cosmetics reason. It’s not a life threatening condition though. This condition is hereditary as my mum also has it. Anyone has any natural, safe and easy way of reducing the varicose veins to share?

No. of times viewed = 177

Blessed With Wonderful Friends

I’d like to say thank you to two of my great blogging buddies for helping me today. This mummy has always been a great supporter of my blog from day one and I really appreciate that support shown. You should visit her blog too, it is awesome! I love her writing – she has such flair and great talent in her writing and I just love the way she thinks and her style of writing. This other mummy has also always been a great friend to me, always going all out to help me and I can feel her genuine warmth and sincerity though we have never met before, save for talking with her over the phone a number of times. I’m really blessed to have found such wonderful friends.

No. of times viewed = 173

Tag : 5 of 5

Have been tagged by this mummy. I am to answer 5 questions with 5 answers to each question and tag 5 friends. Ok, here it goes :

5 things found in my room:- TV, VCD player, king-size bed, baby cot, a drawer filled with kids’ books.

5 things I’ve always wanted to do:- Tour a country that I’ve never been to, relax in a spa, shop till I drop without having to worry about how much I’ll be spending, donate more to charity, to be able to wake up after the sun is out without having to worry about the kids.

5 things found in my bag:- Wet wipes, wallet, antiseptic wipes (for wiping toilet seats), hair brush, packets of tissue papers

5 things found in my wallet:- Cash, medical insurance cards, credit cards, My Kid cards for the gals, my own My Kad

5 things I’m currently into:- Doing paid blogging (and loving it), 13th week of pregnancy, worry about my unborn baby, praying hard to God for a healthy and perfect baby, teaching my gals to read.

5 beautiful mummy to tag: Shern’s mom, Sasha, Elaine, Barbara, Momibee

No. of times viewed = 194

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from 14 October 2007

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No. of times viewed = 1301

Nasonex Nasal Spray

Because of her sensitive and allergic nose, Alycia is now on 1 month of Nasonex nasal spray. It’s a real battle every single night when it’s time for me to spray this into her nose. A lot of power struggle is involved. I’ve tried coaxing, sweet-talking, hugging, kissing, bribing and threatening but nothing would make Alycia want to have this sprayed into her nostrils. She would run, hide under the covers, cover her face with her hands, toss and turn, kick and struggle to avoid me. My maid would help me to hold her body down whilst I would have to use my left knee to hold down her hands before pressing the spray into each side of her nostril at lightning speed, lest she kicks me on my tummy. Seconds later, she would cough and pretend to puke and I would quickly put the bin in front of her and force her to drink some water. She would then scream in defiance and demands for tissue paper to blow off the spray from her nose. Such is the battle scene in my room every single night. Last night, daddy sprayed for her but she puked after that. For those of you with kids on nasal spray too, do they put up such fuss too?

No. of times viewed = 3640

I Want To Follow You Kakak!!

When my maid left the house to go Raya shopping with my hubby’s staff several days ago, Sherilyn was very upset. She kept screaming “I want to follow you kakak” and bawled till she almost puked. It freaked me out when I saw her choking and coughing and on the verge of puking. If she puked, nobody would be around to help me clean up the mess. For almost an hour, she sat on the floor sucking her thumb to give herself some solace, facing the front door and pulled open the sliding mosquito net door, waiting for kakak to come home. What a ‘chai leong’ (pathetic) scene, like a little girl being abandoned by her mummy.
I wonder how she will take it when the day comes when my maid has to return to Indonesia for good. And I wonder how she will react to her new kakak. Hopefully the new kakak will get along really well with the gals.

No. of times viewed = 313

Do You Allow Your Maid To Go Out?

My maid asked me yesterday if she could go out with other maids in the neighborhood during the Hari Raya holidays as she has been invited to follow. I could have just said a big ‘no’ to her but I told her to ask Sir (my hubby). Based on experience with my first maid where I had no choice but to leave her alone at home, she has had the time and luxury to go out with other maids when my hubby and I were out for work. Consequently, she turned out to be really rebellious, lazy, kept asking to go out more and one day upon the advice of my neighbor’s maid, put some ‘charm’ and urine into my drinking water which I drank.

It is also the advice of the maid agent never to give this freedom to the maid, unless we are ready to face the consequences. It is also stated in the maid’s contract that they are not allowed to go out during their 2 years’ contract with the employer.

Later when my hubby was back, he told our maid that she can’t go out with her friends during the holidays. He told her that we can bring her out for a feast but going out with her friends whom we don’t even know is a big NO. My maid was obviously very upset with the decision, moreover my hubby told her off rather strictly. I think she later wept in the bathroom. Later, I told my hubby that he should not have been too harsh with her with his words. Feeling a little bad, my hubby then offered my maid an alternative, that is for his staff to drive her out for a shopping spree. She happily agreed and off she went to the new Giant at Bukit Jalil with my hubby’s staff and his wife who is an Indonesian an hour later. My hubby even paid for all her shopping expenses, totalling RM150 for clothes and shoes. That’s our Hari Raya gift to her. Tomorrow, we will also be bringing her out for a feast.

To those of you who have a maid, do you give your maid a rest day in the week though it is stated in the contract that no rest day will be allowed? For those of you who allow your maid to go out, do you see any negative impact it has brought?

No. of times viewed = 454

Outstanding Assignments Cleared

I’ve finally completed all my outstanding assignments and only left with 1 that I had received yesterday. It’s a feeling of relief yet itching for more assignments. Have not been receiving many offers for the last few days. It’s funny that when I am bogged down with many assignments, I feel the stress but when I don’t have any, I feel upset and itching to have some. Humans are just never satisfied with what they have! Well, at least today I can start writing more personal posts and spend some time reading to the girls.

No. of times viewed = 140

Smiling Award

Does my blog make you smile? I sure hope it does and this capable mommy to 3 kids thinks it does make her smile, that’s why she has given me this sweet Smiling Award. Thanks Jo-N.

Now, I’m not passing this award specifically to anyone coz I find most of the blogs that I visit do make me smile.

No. of times viewed = 169

Oh No, Not Again Alycia!

It happened again this morning. Alycia was fine in the morning when she woke up – she finished her milk without any fuss, did her poopie business in the loo and then….. just when Alycia saw the toothbrush in my maid’s hand, she started to fake puking again. In the process of faking it, she actually induced the vomitting sensation and puked her stinky curdled milk onto the kitchen sink, eeuuu! I can’t believe Alycia! How can she hate something so much till she has actually developed a phobia just by the sight of it? Daddy was not happy with Alycia, so was I. But what are we to do? Force her to brush her teeth every morning, at the expense of her health? Puking every morning is really unhealthy. Maybe I should just keep the toothbrush away from her in the morning for the time being.

No. of times viewed = 238

Site Statistics

Looking at the site stats of my new blog available from the host, I am surprised to see that I have an average of 1,681 hits a day, sometimes the figure reaches 3,700. But what confuses me is the stats also show number of visitors which have a different figure. These are the stats shown for yesterday :

Date : 10 Oct 2007
No. of visitors : 164 (the figure is low here as I still have 200+ visitors to my old blog)
No. of pages :367
Hits : 1879

Does anyone know how to interpret it, i.e. what’s the difference between no. of visitors and no. of hits? What are pages too – is it the number of pages that the visitors had viewed from my blog?

Also, I am surprised to see from the stats that most of my visitors are from Australia (8,444 hits), USA (8,678 hits), Netherlands, Japan, HK and other countries abroad. It surprises me more that hits from Malaysia only stand at 500+. These blogging stats are really mind boggling!

No. of times viewed = 186

Thank You

I’d like to say thank you to everyone who had given me their well wishes, comforting words and prayers. Today, I found out from two of my friends that fetus with dilated kidney is quite a common problem. One blogging mom told me that her gynae also detected from the ultrasound scan that her son had a dilated kidney, even up to the time when she was about to deliver him. After he was born, miraculousy he was fine with no kidney problem. However, in some cases, the child would have kidney reflux and would require antibiotics for the rest of his/her life and in the worst case scenario, surgery is required. Another friend of mine called me today and told me that one of her friend’s baby also had dilated kidney in utero but after the bb was born, she was fine too. Hearing these stories gave me some relief but then again, I still can’t seem to get the worry off my mind.

No. of times viewed = 205

Cute Quotes

Sherilyn’s speech is improving everyday. She is now very expressive and loves parroting what we say. She even knows how to scold Alycia when Alycia whines and cries for no reason. Sometimes when Alycia is being naughty and gets scoldings from me, Sherilyn will say this to Alycia “you stubborn girl, stop crying. No reason to cry!” as she wags her forefinger at her sister.

This morning, Sherilyn was feeling a little lethargic and was just lying on the couch the whole morning and refused to budge from the couch. This was the conversation between my maid and Sherilyn this morning :

Kakak : Kay Yi, don’t be lazy. Go upstairs and bathe.
Sherilyn : Are you crazy!

I think she doesn’t really understand what the word crazy means but she sure knows how to answer back in rhyme! Must be all the Mother Goose rhymes that she’s been watching that’s wiring her brain to speak in rhyme!

No. of times viewed = 245

We’ve Chosen Yet Another Indon Maid

I’ve just returned from the new maid agency’s office (run by Alycia’s classmate’s parents). Looking at the bio datas of the available maids, we finally selected an Indon maid who looks pleasant and matured. She indicated her age as 26 years old in the bio data but I doubt that’s her real age as she looks like she’s in her late 30s or early 40s. Anyway, looks are very deceiving and can reveal very little about a person, based on my experience with my previous maids. This maid has had 2 years of experience as a domestic maid in Singapore. At least, I don’t have to teach her from scratch the basic household chores. She also indicated in her resume that she has high school qualification which I’m quite happy as I prefer to have a maid who’s more educated.

Well, I’m just praying that she’ll fit in and meet my simple requirements. We have to wait for at least 3 months for the maid to arrive, which means that she’ll only arrive earliest mid January 2008. Luckily my current maid has agreed, albeit quite reluctant to extend her service for another 1 month. My hubby has promised to give her a bonus for agreeing to stay on. And guess how much we have to pay all in for this new maid? Close to RM7k and that includes the agency fee of RM3,600 (agency fee would be RM4,300 for a Cambodian maid), 6 months advance salary for the maid at RM500 per month and some miscellaneous charges. As a goodwill gesture (since we are from the same neighborhood and his son is Alycia’s classmate), we didn’t have to pay the RM280 insurance for the maid.

One worry off my mind now.

No. of times viewed = 205

What’s It With The Toothbrush?

I found out recently that one of the reasons why Alycia has been puking in the morning after her milk is because she hates to brush her teeth with toothpaste. I’ve been keeping the toothbrush away from her in the morning and all she needs to do now is just to rinse and gargle her mouth after her milk. But daddy doesn’t like the idea of Alycia not brushing her teeth and going to school with a stinky mouth. He insists that Alycia brushes her teeth, at least without the toothpaste if that’s a bit too much for her to bear in the morning. So yesterday, at the mention of “Alycia, brush your teeth”, she started to fake vomitting. When Alycia saw the toothbrush in my hand, she immediately puked in the kitchen sink! You tell me, did she fake the whole episode or she genuinely can’t stand having a plastic in her mouth early in the morning?

No. of times viewed = 158

Nuchal Translucency Scan

Today, my gynae did a Nuchal Translucency scan on my baby. Everything looked fine but the baby’s kidney looked slightly dilated. There could be a blockage somewhere that prevents the urine from flowing. My heart was just crushed when my gynae told me that. I could see the baby sucking its thumb and it was very active and moving around. I would have to go back for another NT scan next week to check the bb’s kidney again. My dr said that in some babies, the problem is transient and during subsequent scans, the kidney would look normal in size again BUT if the problem is still there, then I’d need to do an Amnio test to check the chromosomes. My mind is blank now – I can only pray to God that he will have mercy on this baby.

No. of times viewed = 192