The Poo Theory

According to Ivan aka 'Poo Master', the key to a successful poo session has to have the following:

1. Good comfy potty
2. Sit like almost squat position with legs apart
3. Nice, relaxing environment
4. Able to de-focus to other activities eg. read newspaper, magazines so that not too stressful thinking of it

In order to achieve this, we first need to replace her existing potty. We bought her a nice one from Babyland, almost like a bumbo sitter, with a panel for her to lie back. The potty is a bit too big for her, so we added a towel to support her.

I was quite pleased when she first sat on it. No more holding on to her from the back. And I noticed this potty made her legs spread a little. Yes. Then I gave her the cloth book for her to 'read' / 'lick' / 'suck'. Ivan's keywords 'De-focus.. de-focus'. Whatever... as long as she would sit in it. And surprise, surprise, she happily sat on it, enjoying her freedom to turn around and played with her book.



Mommy and Daddy then took turns to hum 'Ngmmmmm Nggmmmmm', showing her the 'push' expression. After about 10 mins or so, Valerie suddenly stopped playing her book and pushed. Within seconds, a pile of nice poos came. Yes, they were all soft. HURRAY!! The potty works!! I couldn't believe it, but sometimes Ivan's nonsense wasn't so nonsense after all :P

We tried a few more times with this potty and over the next few weekends, she poo-ed without problems. She is still on medication twice a day, but we will slowly reduce the dosage. But for now, I'm just so glad those enema days are over...

The Mock Run

It was the Raya weekend and we had 4 days off at home with Valerie. A year ago, I would be very happy to have a long weekend off but not since the baby. This meant I have to 'work' 4 days straight taking care of Valerie.

So in order to knock 2 days off, I decided to book a short trip to PD during the Raya holidays. But the main drive behind this was the Mock Run. I called it the Mock Run because we would be going to Pangkor Laut for 5D4N in a few weeks time. I thought of testing with a short trip, just to have an idea how going on trip would be like with a baby around.

Well for one, we found out Valerie would not last long in a car seat. Max she would sit still was 30 mins and then she would be wailing to get out. I have tried giving different toys to distract her but nope, she'd just throw them away after 1-2 mins. I'd also think we need a car seat leveller to make the seat more slanted. Currently she sat too upright to be able to fall asleep.

We stayed at the Legend Water Chalet, minus the water chalet. It was quite pricey given that it was a Raya weekend. So we took the premium sea tower instead. The room turned out as expected from the website.

View of the water chalet from our room
Valerie in a better mood
Taken from the room balcony

In order to be able to have our meal properly, we found that it was easier to feed Valerie at the same time. This way she would sit longer in the high chair while you enjoy your food as well.

Cheeky baby with daddy after her porridge lunch

We took a walk in the evening along the water chalets. It was pretty windy and baby Valerie tried to catch the wind with her hands. How cute :)

Valerie with grandma enjoying the wind
Taken at the windy 'pondok'
Spot the 'piggy' face!

We took Valerie first time to the pool. It was pretty packed with kids around. Too bad Daddy was too lazy to bring the camera so we had no shots of it. The next day, we decided to let Valerie play in the big bath tub instead. She seemed to adopt quite well at the pool / tub, not afraid of the water :)

See how she loves to splash water !


One thing I worried most about going away was baby Valerie not being able to sleep well at night since this would be a new environment for her the first time. Thankfully she fell asleep around the same time and only woke up twice at night for her milk. After milk, she continued sleeping.

So this wraps up our first baby trip out of the house. All in all, it turned out quite well and we learned a thing or two from it. Now we're more prepared for the next big trip.

A family photo

Daddy Comic Strip 6

Baby Valerie: urgghh...I am starving.. .mommmyy..










Baby Valerie: ahaah...Noodles..??













Baby Valerie: yumm yummm....






(Published by Papa Bear Production Ltd)

Daddy Comic Strip 5

Baby Valerie: Yummm Yummm... This rubber ducky is SUPER NICE......









Baby Valerie: You don't think so.........????














Baby Valerie: who caresss... it's your losss.... Yumm Yummm...*Continue chewing*





(Published by Papa Bear Production Ltd)

Jumperoo Acquired!

Okie.. I admit it.. I'm a shopholic mom. I couldn't resist it. But the jumperoo was on sale at Robinsons!! Ivan was complaining we were a few hundred ringgit poorer by the end of the outing. But who could he blame? It was not me who wanted to go shopping in the first place. In fact I had no intention of going out because of the H1N1 flu.

But Ivan's mom called and said she needed to go to Midvalley cos it was the last day of Merdeka promotion. She wanted to get the Tefal iron with a RM100 rebate in exchange with an old one. So we brought her there while we hanged out at the Gardens. The crowd was lesser at the Gardens. Valerie couldn't keep her eyes closed while we walked around. Poor baby, so shopping deprived. Eventually, we reached the Robinsons entrance and went to the kids department. There we saw the Jumperoo on display and my face lighted up. With itchy hands, I placed Valerie on the display set. And there she went. Jumping and smiling to her heart's content.

Then Ivan pointed to the price tag. It says RM599 with a free gift for card members. I immediately asked one of the staff how to become a member. 2 minutes later I'm a Robinsons member! Aha! While we're paying the Jumperoo, the cashier told us Mastercard holder gets another 5% off. Woohoo.... we were so meant to buy this.

Anyway I rationaled this could be used for a few babies and if I do sell it as a 2nd hand, I wouldn't lose much, would I? The amount could be viewed as loan charges, couldnt it? Besides Valerie gets to play a brand new model. Oh heck, who cares? I already bought it :P

Constipated Baby @ Week 6

We dreaded the long Merdeka weekend, simply because we knew we have to make Valerie poo either one of the days. On Saturday morning, after 2 days of non bowel movement, we put her on the potty. As usual she tried to wriggle her way out of it, arched her back and cried. We then squeezed some glycerin suppository into her anus and waited. After several minutes, it happened. She was pushing hard and out came the first piece and then the next, and the next. She was crying every now and then and there was blood at the end of it.

Poor daddy couldn't take the last bit and was traumatised. While I was cleaning Valerie up, I asked Ivan to snap a photo of the poo so that we could show it to the doctor. We went to another paedi for a 2nd opinion. This one took the matter more seriously and examined her abdomen. When we showed him the poo photo, he said this was definitely not normal. I asked him what could be the cause, he simply said, no reason and no cure. Some babies are just like that. We just had to deal with it.

He gave us some medication, which I think it's lactulose. Twice a day at 3.5ml as a start. He said to wait for a few days to see the effect. If it doesn't work, we have to up the dosage little by little until it works. If nothing happens still, we have to come back in 2 weeks time.

So I have been feeding her lactulose the last few days. And I also added half teaspoon of prune extract into her porridge. As expected, no bowel movement on Sun and Mon. We were a bit dejected by end of Mon. Sigh.. still nothing happened.

By around midnight, she suddenly let out a cry and woke up from her sleep. Ivan went to pick her up and said something smelled. I took a sniff and I knew immediately she pooed. Whoopi!!! We have never been soooooo overjoyed :D While I carried her, Ivan cleaned her butt and analysed the one piece of poo which came out. Mind you, I found this quite hilarious. Here we were, holding our baby's poo as if it was the most precious thing ever produced by her.

I don't think you could find another set of parents looking forward to baby's poo so much. And I laughed at Ivan, remembering how much he used to object to being near a poo soiled diaper. He would run away at the smell of it. But this time round, he stayed and savoured the stinky, smelly moment. Gosh.. my hubby is a changed man. LOL...