Yesterday after fetching Ivan home from school, I urge the children to take a nap. Izac took a nap between 3.30pm until 4.30pm and was awaken by Ivan. Ivan, who didn’t sleep all this while, said he wanted to sleep when 6.00pm came around. For me, a naptime before 4.30pm is still considered ok, any later than that and the kids will be “owls” come night time.

So instead of letting him sleep, I took out the box of chalks which I bought from Ikea recently and told them that they could draw on the cement floor outside (these are the times I’m thankful for our unrenovated porch area). Of course the kids were excited… can get dirty and not be scolded *hehehe*. At the same time, I was able to let Ivan do some drawing which he loves to do nowadays. Below are some examples of his “monsters”…

Izac on the other hand, just had fun getting dirty… he didn’t do much drawing, probably coz mommy was busy snapping pictures and not helping him with it (next time, I promise!). After some attempts at scribbling or rolling the chalk around, the little one took off his slippers and started walking around barefooted. I kept reminding him NOT to go inside the house and to let Supini carry him straight into the toilet for a bath. As usual, no one heeds advise and I get chalky footprints on the kids’ day mattress o.O”.

It was a short but fun activity, something to do in the evenings when the sun is not scorching. It also kept the kids (Ivan, in this case) from sleeping before dinner time. So I guess, this was a win-win situation *winks*.

I took leave to go to the clinic to collect my prescription and test result from the nurse today. She didn’t say much, and I kind of didn’t have much to ask as I have also done my own reading on GBS after I received the phone call. Only thing she told me was to attach the result to the admission letter and bring it on the next visit (yeah, I forgot to bring the admission letter :P) so that Doctor could add some remarks to it. At the pharmacy, I was given a weeks’ worth of Penicillin tablets (costs only RM8.40)… to be taken 2 each time, 4 times a day.

Some quick information about GBS (extracted from BabyCenter):

• Normally screened at 35 to 37 weeks of pregnancy.
• Usually harmless in adults, but could cause sepsis (an infection in the blood), pneumonia, and meningitis in newborns if the bacteria is passed to the baby during labor / birth.
• If you were GBS positive and didn’t get treatment, your baby would have only about a 1 or 2 in 200 chance of becoming infected.
• If you are treated with antibiotics during labor, you reduce your baby’s chance of getting the infection even further — to about one in 4,000.
• If you are GBS positive, you’ll need to have IV antibiotics as soon as your labor starts or your water breaks, whichever comes first. Ideally, you’ll want to get started on the antibiotics at least four hours before you give birth.

Until my next visit, I guess I’ll just have to hope that this course of antibiotics will help clear the bacteria (although I read that oral antibiotics taken during pregnancy has not been found to prevent infection in newborns).

(WARNING: Light ranting ahead…)

Remember I updated on my checkup saying I did a swab test for Group B Streptococcus (GBS)? Well, the nurse just called with the results… it’s positive. I didn’t have this bacteria during my previous two pregnancies, so this is something new to me. Positive result only means that I carry the bacteria, and this bacteria can come and go. It’s actually not harmful to the mother, but a newborn passing through the birth canal could get infected. Therefore, I will need to go to the clinic and get some medicine (antibiotics, I think) so that I can start on it as soon as possible, before I pop.

More updates tomorrow, after I have seen the nurse and asked a couple of questions with regards to this. In the meantime, you can read up the link on GBS if you’re interested.

::::::::::: SUE’S RANT :::::::::::

I have totally no mood to work now and requested my superior to let me off early to go to the Doctor’s so that I can save my leave tomorrow… not only the stupid fella didn’t give me a straight answer, but he pointed to some work that wasn’t mine to begin with and say, “Why is that box still there?”

Oh, and what kind of a superior complains about a pregnant woman taking a full day’s MC everytime she has to go for a checkup? This is the best time to utilise all my MCs *hehehe* and also to have a rest. I seriously wonder what he will say to his wife when it’s her turn to be pregnant… hmph!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I’m still here. I didn’t go and pop a month earlier than my due date. I’m just lazy and tired, so I end up sleeping rather than blogging. Without further ado, let me jot down Ivan’s 2nd birthday celebration at my mum’s house last last Saturday (28th June) which is his exact birth date.

We didn’t have anything elaborate, just steamboat dinner with family members. Went to the market early in the morning to grab all kinds of fish paste products and vegetables. I made some konnyaku jelly with fresh orange and some with canned longan which the kids love. Everyone ate at their own pace, with no games planned. We did have cake cutting and then having the birthday boy open his presents.

Too bad I wasn’t the photographer for the day *LOL*, I was busy preparing the jelly and the food. My brother stood in for me and he had the DSLR on auto mode. That was just fine too, except that I think his finger was in the way of the flash so quite a few of the pictures turned out with a dark area (as seen in the picture above) *faints*.

Overall, I think it was a fun night. I certainly hope the kid was happy… his presents for this birthday:
Mommy, Papa & Izac - Transformers Figurine
Ah Ma - Rubbermaid Water Tumbler
Ah Ee Poh - Ultraman Figurine & Knife
Ah Ku & Ah Kim - Set of Clothes
Aunty Mimi & Siti - Shirt
Ah Ee Leena- Power Ranger Mask & Figurine
Amat & Has - Water Gun
I think he loves the Ultraman the most, he’s still so crazy over this hero *hehehe*.

Happy Birthday Ivan Dear! Mommy love you… sooooo much!

I have a few friends who are bikers. One of them was looking for used Harleys, which makes me wonder why he needs so many bikes *LOL*. Personally, I have never experienced riding a bike before. I think it will be too scary to go zipping around the city, weaving between cars. Perhaps a Harley would be different? At least with the bulk of a Harley, there’s no way one could squeeze between he cars, and it would be safer.

We must really practice caution when using any exercise equipment without a spotter. My aunt, who have a history of epilepsy, fainted while jogging on the threadmill and had a terrible fall a few weeks ago. It was really terrible to see bruises all over her hands and legs. Now they’ve all turned into scabs, which will later leave a scar. I sometimes worry that my kids will fall too as they like to run on that threadmill every once in a while.

I really love picture frames, especially dark wood ones. I would love to hang pictures of my boys all over the walls in the house but I find most frames too expensive to buy. Most of the frames that I have are gifts and they’re very small, even smaller than a 3R photo. I really must get SIL#1 to help me buy again during the Jusco sales as she seem to be able to find cheap and nice ones.

Ivan is always playing with the pens in our house. He says he want to be like his papa, writing down orders whenever customers call up (he has a fake phone too, you say die or not). These days, I noticed that our boxful of promotional pens getting lesser and lesser. It turned out that the cheeky boy started taking those pens to school (and end up leaving then in his papa’s car), saying his “customers” might call, and he need to jot down the orders *faints*.

Checkup:
Mummy’s Weight: 73.4kgs (OMG! Sue the fatty bom bom!)

Baby’s Weight: 2.0kgs (Baby is a wee bit smaller than the 2 boys at this stage.)

Baby’s Position: Head down

Doctor’s Comment: I had the vaginal swab done today to check if there is any infection. It’s a common procedure, done to all pregnant mommies. I asked Doctor about the pressure of the baby’s weight on the urethra, which is really quite bad for a few weeks already. He told me that its normal, the more babies we have, everything inside (and out) tends to get looser o.O”. Thus, if I’m lying down or sitting down properly and the pain goes away, there is nothing to worry about. If the pain persists even when lying down, then there really is a problem.

Sue’s Comment: Okay, I’ve really piled on the weight these past 3 weeks. No wonder I’m feeling more sluggish than ever. I really hope that this weight goes off after baby comes out… *sweats*. On another note, this baby seems to be smaller than both my boys at this stage… I hope she puts on more before she comes out. Doctor said she would probably be around 3.3kgs at due date, putting on another 1.2 kgs or so in the remaining 5 weeks. How come my babies getting smaller and smaller ah? Normally subsequent babies tend to be bigger and bigger. There really is nothing much to be done now except wait for baby to come out. Feels like sitting on a time bomb :P.

EDD: Around 6th August 2008

Ivan celebrated his birthday during school hours, in his class last Thursday (26th June), since this is the first year he is able to celebrate it in school. I arranged two celebrations which were very simple indeed (2nd one at home with the family, post coming soon), as having an eleborate one for 2 kids yearly (including a 3rd one coming) will be a wee bit taxing on my sanity *LOL*.

I ordered 26 cupcakes for RM114 (varies depending on design) from Tracey one week before as I felt that cuppies will be less messy for kids in school. I kind of forgot to tell her to make it less sweet, but the cupcakes turned out great! The Ultraman and Spiderman patterns were sweet and understandably so, as the icing are all made of sugar, but the cake itself were fluffy and buttery. The cupcakes were collected a day ahead, on Wednesday night.

When I brought him to school with the cakes, the teachers instantly know that there’s gonna be a birthday celebration that day. I guess it’s all part and parcel of teaching young school goers. Izac and Supini tagged along, Izac loves sending his brother to school whenever permitted *grins*. So I checked with the teacher when they normally have their meals and suggested that the party packs be given out after class so as not to disrupt the attention of the kids.

After dropping him off in the classroom, rather than going home and coming back again in 1 hour, we hanged out in the car (where some camwhoring of Izac went on *LOL*). When time was nearly up, we waited outside the classroom. As I sat unknowingly, the teacher set up the cupcakes and came out asking me if I wanted to take pictures. So fast *LOL*… so I went in and took some auto shots as the class was in darkness (lights were off for the candles… I really need the external flash!!).

It was very organised how the teacher arranged the kids to stand beside Ivan and they were all told ahead NOT to blow the candles *haha*. It was over very quickly, with the teacher offering to take a family picture for us. After that, I went out of the class to let the children eat (can hear the boys saying, “I want Ultraman!”. Teacher instructed Ivan to bring out cuppies for me, little Izac and Supini.

After finishing the cupcakes, I packed the leftover into the car, and had another round of waiting, as it was a waste of time to go home and come again (not forgetting waste of fuel). Although this is such a simple party, I hope this 4-year-old boy was H-A-P-P-Y, like it said on the cupcake.