{"id":4377,"date":"2009-07-08T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/07\/08\/father-mother-and-baby\/"},"modified":"2009-07-08T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T00:00:00","slug":"father-mother-and-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/07\/08\/father-mother-and-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Father, Mother and Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our confinement nanny finished her month long stint with us on Sunday \u2013 just before Hannah\u2019s birthday bash.<\/p>\n

A few weeks before this though, Ling was undecided about whether to continue engaging the nanny or not beyond the four weeks she was with us. After all, she did nearly burn down our kitchen LOL and Ling was getting real tired of confinement food by the third day she was with us.<\/p>\n

On balance though, I think her presence, assistance and sunny attitude really helped Ling a lot, so we did make the right decision to at least have the nanny helping us in the first month.<\/p>\n

As for extending her stay and period of assistance, I told Ling that the additional cost of hire for two more weeks wasn\u2019t an issue. Rather, what we had to remember was that any assistance provided by the nanny was only temporary. Eventually, we\u2019ll have to learn how to take care of Hannah on our own, whether it was from the 5th or the 19th July onwards.<\/p>\n

One of those decisions we\u2019ve kept to in the first 2.7 years of our marriage is that we\u2019d really rather not have home helper assistance to handle the household chores. I do house cleaning and the more physical (and menial) chores on weekends, and until my back starts acting up again, will continue doing so. So the maid option and weekend cleaning services weren\u2019t on the table for us for the time being.<\/p>\n

Mum did graciously ask Ling to consider moving to Lentor for at least the first couple of weeks after the nanny had left. That was a very attractive option \u2013 Ling wouldn\u2019t have to worry about meals for certain, and she\u2019d definitely benefit from getting more rest in between feeds.<\/p>\n

But I felt we should really try managing this on our own first and not turn to parents \/ in-laws as a first response.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"blog-fathermotherbaby\" The first day \u2013 on Monday 6th July \u2013 was hell though. Hannah had \u2018wind\u2019 in her stomach from not having burped properly, and bawling all day.<\/p>\n

We were suffering from (as Sharon our sister-in-law calls it) FTS, or \u2018First Timer Syndrome\u2019<\/em>. Ling was alone at home (she hates being alone at home<\/a>, with or without baby), and didn\u2019t have time for lunch or to rest.<\/p>\n

We got so worried that when I got back home from work, we raced to our Pediatrician at Rivervale Mall, only to return home after learning that it would had been a three hour wait to see the doctor.<\/p>\n

Ling was looking both rather resigned and at her wits end from Hannah\u2019s brawling even after two feeds in a row. So we had a mini-family conference, and I told Ling a couple of things: that evenings and weekends won\u2019t be a problem because I\u2019d be at home, and I\u2019ll supply the dinners on all nights. It\u2019s the lunches and day events and which she\u2019ll need moral support and a bit of help at least to maintain her sanity. I listed down all the persons she can consider getting help from during the day hours and to put those numbers on speed dial: parents, Doreen, Jasmine and cousin Ying Jia.<\/p>\n

So, many phone calls and SMSes later, we think we\u2019ve worked out a plan of assistance for the coming days. Parents came by with lunch for Ling on Tuesday yesterday, Doreen\u2019s coming on Wednesday to Friday, and Jas will be coming next week. And Sharon\u2019s providing advice too on Facebook mail LOL.<\/p>\n

We feel really blessed to be able to receive help in this first week until we\u2019re over FTS at least.<\/p>\n

Blogged for Hannah to read one day when she gets older.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our confinement nanny finished her month long stint with us on Sunday \u2013 just before Hannah\u2019s birthday bash. A few weeks before this though, Ling was undecided about whether to continue engaging the nanny or not beyond the four weeks<\/p>\n

Read More Father, Mother and Baby<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-4377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-children-blues","tag-confinement","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-7-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}