Back!

Hi there! I know, I disappeared. Stress continued to build up in the last few weeks. I was overwhelmed and felt the need for a respite from blogging. So what has been up in our little household? Here's a quick update on the two girls whose name bored the title of this blog:

On Arielle:

We have begun feeding her solids. So far, she has eaten rice cereal (Bellamy's), papayas and prune puree. Milk feeds continue to be a challenge. On top of that, a visit to the pediatrician's office also made us recognize that constipation is another issue.

Things we do to get her to drink milk.

More importantly, after been stressed out for weeks by her feeding issues, I have learned to take things in my stride. So, yes, she may jolly well always have problems drinking milk and removing bowels.. Heck, even when these issues are resolved, there will be other challenges coming. The gist is, I learned to move by faith.

Food adventure begins!

Nom nom! Prunes are good stuff!

Today, we suddenly see remarkable improvements. I choose to believe it is by divine intervention because, last night, for once, my soul was still when I prayed faithfully for my baby girl. On hindsight, I didn't even realize that I was so unsettled. As I prayed, I was drawn to a vision of a soiled diaper with..(skip this part if you are eating while reading this).. oily poop. And so, I was led to pray for her digestive system to be oiled so that her poop will be able to slip out with ease.

After prayers, I did a bit of reading up in the Internet for viable home remedies for babies constipation. The first thing that caught my attention was this blog where a mother was sharing how she uses Q-tip dipped in Vaseline to do a swipe and swirl around baby's anus. The result was impressive immediate toothpaste-like projectile poop flying through the air. Highly inspired but slightly disturbed by the possible dangers of poking into my baby's hiney, I did a search on "q-tip Vaseline baby constipation". I could not believe the sheer amount of results yielded. I felt like I must be some mountain turtle ignorant of the use of such a seemingly vastly used method.

This morning, I sent the Husband to go in search for a bottle of Vaseline while I bring Anya for her music class. Full of hope, I tried it on Arielle the moment i walked in through our door with the bottle of magic stuff. Though half expecting poop to come flying out like what that mother described on her blog, I was not surprise when nothing happen after I performed the swipe and swirl. You see, i really learned to take things in my stride.

So, after two hours where nothing came out of Arielle (except for lots of grunting as she continued to push her bowels to no avail), we decided to bring her to our family doctor. Given today is the fifth day that she went without and second day that she has been heaving and grunting; must be quite uncomfortable by now right, we reckoned. To cut the story of the visit short: the biggest piece of advice we went home with was to (you might have guessed it) apply Vaseline on her hiney!

With that, we went home and religiously (A pun!) performed the swipe and swirl. An hour and some more grunting later, we had our first lightly soiled diaper in days. Praise God! By the time it was bedtime, we already have a total of three soiled diapers - the last one with good considerable amount of output. Yippee! 

Oh, and the divine intervention that we experienced today did not just stop there. Today, for the first time in months, she could drink her milk cheerfully at every milk feeds and wide awake! As I'm typing this, I've kinda gone teary-eyed. My heart is so full of thankfulness. Be it even for one day, just today only, that we get go experience such normalcy in feeding her, it is good enough. For I get to see God's intervention in our lives.

On Anya: 

These days, the toddler is picking up words and skills faster than we realize. As a result, we are often surprised by her (thankfully, more often, the surprises are pleasant ones!).

In addition, she is big on helping lately. I suspect it has to do a lot with increasing her sense of self-worth and feeling independent enough to help out. With that, whenever we are caught in a tricky situation with her, all we need to is conveniently drop in the word "help" in a sentence to get her to do something and she would gladly oblige. Woots! Catastrophe diverted.

"Anya, can you help to fetch Arielle's sippy cup?" / "Anya, do you want to help make your own milk?" / "do you want to help mommy as I bathe Arielle?" etc... 

Making her own milk

She is always so willing to help. So happy to be of help. So proud to be useful around the house. Likewise, our (the Husband's and my) hearts are brimming with pride and love, seeing our firstborn transforming to be this little person of her own.

Oh, and also, we continue to have some really enjoyable and funny conversations with her. Here is just two that I can remember offhand.

First scenario - we were eating a lunch made of McDonald's take-out. I asked, "Anya, what are we eating?". She gave my question some thought then sang,"E-I-E-I-Oooo...!"

Second scenario - Th Husband was bathing her in the shower room. He instructed, "Anya, turn around and face me please.". She wheeled round then repeated after the Husband, "Turn around.. Face Daddy.. " then, with her arms outstretched, she cupped the Husband's face and said "There.. Daddy's face.. Daddy's mouth, eyes, nose.. Ears!" .

Thanks to our little girl, there are so much needed laughter in the house. :)

Making us laugh even when she is asleep.

Despite the trials of parenthood, we are thankful to have y'all in our lives. The joy and love that came with you are immeasurable.

With that,i shall end off with a bible verse that has encouraged me greatly during this period of struggle. Maybe, just maybe you are needing some encouragement too. :)

Romans 12:12 (NIV)

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer."

Thankful Thursday: hitting a rough patch

Hello there! Right now, things are not going so well in my little household. We are experiencing some difficulties feeding Arielle again. 

While the new bottle teats are helping; the problem is not entirely resolved. Most feeds are taking one hour and we feel as if we are treading on thin ice every few hours. Feeding her, I will say, requires a great deal of observation as to what makes her tick, fine-tuning along the way and an enormous amount of patience. I imagine that if patience is a rubber band; my rubber band is presently stretched till nearing it's elasticity limit. Breaking point is not too far off. I reckon this is when i have to, all the more, put on the armour of praise. And I have so so thankful for the support that I get from the Husband and my cell members. 

The Husband, who sits me down and probes gently to get me talking, to listen and to advice, to support and to encourage, to reassure that we are one body doing this parenting thing together. The cell members present at meeting tonight are all ahead of me in terms of parenthood experiences, lending a listening ears and sharing little anecdotes of how they lost it too, at some point or another. Knowing from the more experienced mothers that they had their moments of feeling at their worse makes me feel, well, not so bad about myself. 

Most of all, it is especially comforting to know that God is at work, not to make things easier but rather, to make me feel better and to equip me to better handle the challenge. 

I think I am in the midst of picking myself  up. Now, what are you thankful for today? I love to hear from you.