Baby is home!

Baby jaundice is down to 8.5 considered as normal level. The normal level for bililubrin is below 10 or so according to paediatrician. So baby had good care for 3 nights. Finally the long awaited home coming!

Initially the paediatrician wasn't keen to release baby and wanted further observation, but the results looks rather stable with the day before results at 8.9 and today's at 8.5. Besides I'm getting burned in the pocket and since it looks normalized may as come on home! Everybody is anxiously waiting for baby so may as well be today.

Just need to make sure baby gets a little morning sun everyday to build up the liver strength.

Got my parents help to carry baby back to my in-laws house where currently mommy is having her confinement period. Way too much taboos about her confinement and recovery from child bearing. No aircon and no fan! And weather in Malaysia now is oh so hot! Not easy to endure.

Finally baby is back and both my parents and parent in law dote on him. No wonder he got such a charming smile when he was born!

Enfalac A+ baby milk

Bought enfalac A+ baby milk. Mummy decided this would be superior than the Nestle Naan brand. I should think so too when I went to shop for it. Enfalac A+ was also expensive in comparison. So off I go to hospital with baby milk in hand.

The prognosis was good too. Jaundice level has come down to about 10.5 so by tomorrow baby can be discharged.

Everybody is looking forward to seeing baby and rather anxious of his current condition. Mum already send home for confinement recovery.

And me? Rather knock out from all the running around! Haha! That's parenting for me!

[update] Enfalac Price last checked August 2012

Enfalac A+ DHA+ Step 1
650gm = RM$71.60
500gm = RM$48.60

Enfalac Regular
650gm = RM$46.30

Related post:
Enfapro A+

Baby Jaundiced, uh uh

Apparently it is common for baby to be jaundiced soon after birth. I guess my baby is no exception. My wife and I were looking forward to bringing baby home but looks like baby will have to stay a little longer in the hospital. He will need a nice little sun tan in the nursery care ward to reduce the jaundice level. Hope it won't take many days. Hopefully his liver will be strengthen enough to overcome the jaundice condition.

In addition his glucose level was very low too. Probably mother's milk has insufficient nutrition or insufficient quantity. So looks like have to supplement with infant formula.

Meanwhile need to bring back mother home for maternity confinement care.

So looks like it is going to be a very busy week for me with many trips to and fro.

Baby Night Two

Everything is going fine although the paedatrician noted that there was some slight jaundice which she considered normal. The liver is still young and was just starting its filtration of the yellow pigment from the blood and will take about a week to function fully.

Anyway its about time for us to check out. So come monday morning we would pack our luggage settle the hospital bill and off we go to my in-laws place.

There are still many things to do and many things to learn. Definately an on the job hands-on training. You can read only so much but in the end you have to do it; practice makes perfect.

The timing of the birth was just perfect timing. Everyone prayed for God's timing and baby came at a time when the delivery fees are still considered weekday rate for a saturday morning. Were it to be past noon and it would be considered double charge. The weekend resting period was good timing too, where friends and family could come and visit coz it was not a working day.

Every timing was just simply superb. Despite some anxious periods everything fit out quite snugly I should say.

Day of bundle of joy

It was such a wonderful day. Anticipation and excitement on the arrival of baby has come. It has been a long wait, with the final anxious week wondering when exactly the due date would come. In fact the doctor suggested to induce the arrival of baby for fear that the placenta was way past due. Placenta that are "ripe" would mean less nutrients to the baby thus the suggestion.

But it was with much fervont prayer that natural birth process proceeded. In fact when the contraction started my wife wasn't sure it was an actual contraction and bore with the labour pains starting from 1am that early morning when I have just completed doing the laundry. I was a little tired, but had only fitful sleep as my wife was trying to determine whether it was an actual contraction.

Eventually by 5am she was rather sure, and we got ready to go to the hospital.

By 6.30am the midwife checked and there was dilation of 4cm. So it was finally coming! And time to admit her in. She was wheeled into the delivery room while I went to ground floor for registration. It took awhile to get it done so by the time I went to the delivery room the dilation has reach 8cm. My wife opted for epidural as she couldn't stand the pain anymore. Although it was considered a little late for such a procedure it still did its effect of numbing the pain. I guess the anesthesist was very good in his dosage estimation. I heard one instance where it was given too much until the mother do not have feeling at all and was not able deliver until it wore off. And took several hours! My wife case, the dosage was just right, enough to numb off the pain and yet still have some dull feeling.

By 7.30am the dilation was 8cm and by 7.50am it was at full dilation of 10cm and it was time to deliver. The gynae has just arrived for initial check. Then the midwife took over for the natural birth procedure. Try as my wife might, somehow she couldn't push properly. The midwife has to teach on the spot the technique of delivery to push from a certain set of muscles and push during the contraction. Somehow with the use of epidural there is always the chance of not doing it right because of lesser feelings.

So in the end, doctor has to step in and switch to using suction method of delivery. A slight incision had to made too to widen the opening for baby to come out. The doctor had to tug a bit to pull the baby out while my wife pushed on one of the contraction. Finally the baby head pop out and it was all over!

Baby came out with a cry as the nurses drain away the fluid necessary for breathing. Soon the cord was snipped off and baby was placed on mother for initial bonding before taken away for cleaning, while the doctor cleared away the rest of the placenta.

And of course I am now the proud father of a new born baby son and starting texting to get the word out on the good news! Such a biological marvel and how wonderful God in his creation! And of course the advances of technology meant I could tell not just my friends and family of the wonderful event, but the whole world too!

So happy birthday my dear child and welcome to the brave new world!

It's a boy!

Well we already know that. It is a healthy baby boy of 2.43 kg. A bit below average nevertheless a healthy baby boy. Has a nice smile and likes to blow bubbles! Awww he is so cute!

Mother is feeling a little hungry but otherwise alright. It was a fast delivery. Took about 20 minutes. Quite fast too.

Baby coming soon

The awaited day is now arriving. It has been a long 9 months wait but well worth it. Bundle of joy, coming into this brave new world. May God have favour upon baby. Mother is prep and now just awaiting the time when cervix dilate to its full proper size for actual delivery. Already hooked onto the CDG and the baby heartbeat is going pretty fast. The epidural is having its effect and mother is now able to withstand the labour pains. Just a little more longer for the full dilation as we wait for baby to come round.

209.126.254.214 hacking attempt

209.126.254.214 is trying to hack into my Wordpress website. Well whoever it is, ain't getting in! I seem to be getting lots of these hacks lately. What do they hope to get from hacking in? Besides my website is not a very high ranking, heavily trafficked website. This abuser seems to be hacking a lot of site based on a quick search on that IP address. Also noted in a blacklist site, this IP was sending spam, phishing emails and virus emails. There is no website hosted on this IP 209.126.254.214, so may as well blacklist this IP

Streamyx is slow again!

Again the Streamyx service is getting slow and laggy again. Does this ever end? How can Malaysia become an informational hub if even the basic network infrastructure is in such a shamble? I guess the school holidays is near and many people must be scrambling to do some research on where to go for their cuti-cuti vacation getaway travel destination. But why TM / Streamyx didn't take into account of the heavier bandwidth load during this period? So they felt they are more secure ever since P1 WIMAX had a bit of a tangle about their "potong wayar" promotion and also insufficient coverage on certain geographic location. During that time Streamyx service did improve and that sort of stop me from defecting over to P1 WIMAX. But now Streamyx is up to no good with their laggy slow internet connection yet again!

How's your walk with God?

So how is your walk with God? Good question. Just attending church and reading the Bible does not answer this question. You need to get personal with Him.



[update 28/8/2013]
Saw this post and decided to add additional points to it. Must have made this quick post during one of the Church sermons.

Our walk with God is not a straight path. More like wave, somedays we feel good, other days we wonder just where do we stand in relation with God. Our prayers seemed to head nowhere, and yet it has been said, we can't just tell God what to do as that would mean we are the boss! God is the King and He is fully in charge. Our prayers are just petition. Is like the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18). We need to be persistent with our prayers to bring about change to the evils around us, including ourselves too!

A pastor came some time ago with a strong discerning spirit. Apparently my wife and I need to immerse ourselves to study the Word of God more to fully get know God more. What with all the hectic schedule, one must find time to set aside, even if a short time, to learn a little and keep it in your heart, apply it as best as you can when the situation arises.

Many of the doctrines are very difficult to live accordingly. The bar was raised very high and it is easy to stumble. The door is indeed narrow (Luke 13:22) and many will not get through it. Sometimes I wonder where I stand and whether my faith is sufficient to get me through despite having shallow knowledge of the Bible. Though I take heart that some speakers did give encouragement and discern my worry on this very question!

I know of several church goers including my Pastor who could read through the entire Bible in one year! For me, I'm still struggling to even finish just the New Testament in one year plan. I think I would need a new approach to this procrastination.

Procrastination is certainly an obstacle to knowing God better! An enemy that many of us have to overcome. Not just for reading the Bible but so too in many aspect of our daily living. Putting off to another day for home repairs, work, and various other need-to-do stuffs!

Anyway, more things are needed to do, and more things get piled up every day and we will need to overcome them all, and hopefully with the help God and any Helpers that He sent along.

Fixed my index page

Since I have done up the template for my wordpress and blogger it was time to fix my website index page. My website is not the usual pure CMS based design. When I first started out I was going at it page by page using a website building software and uploading the html file one by one. It was a slow tedious process till I found out about CMS software. I was still a newbie then and I experimented with several CMS software like Joomla, Drupal, Xoop, etc till I happen on to Wordpress.

But I still wasn't sure which CMS software to use thus I still had a stand alone index page. Initially all my various sections looked different but I wanted the same look and feel across board. Not easy to do and it was a learning experience. I have to learn new codes and such but I enjoyed it. Although I can't say I fully understand most of it but I do know enough to cobble the programming codes together.

So there you have it. My newly revised index page for my personal homepages website. It is simple and clean. Basic but nice and does its job.

Wordpress installation

I wonder what my friend did to his wordpress installation that left it ended up with just a blank display. Can't do anything now as I'm away from my PC. I wonder what he did. Could be a faulty wordpress plugin. Unlikely to be htaccess file misconfiguration. With so many wordpress plugin this could be the fault too.

---

Finally found out why his Wordpress page disappeared. Nope it wasn't my fault! My Wordpress installation was fine. I found out that one of the plugins was causing havoc to Wordpress. It was just a simple matter of trial and error by activating and deactivating each plugin to find out who was the culprit. Turn out to be one of the three the Photoshelter plugins. Switching it off and the Wordpress homepage reappeared. No problemo. Just don't use that plugin, darling.

What to do?

Sometimes I just don't know what to do. The problem that comes is somewhat beyond my problem solving ability. Especially when it comes to dilemma predicament.

customer A is having a lot of delayed shipment from port congestion in USA. The cargo has been delyed twice and we are not sure if it even left the port from what we can see from the schedule. Weird. What is happening in the USA port?

Customer B don't intend to change product because they need to maintain product appearance but the factory is no longer making the material anymore and has requested them to test the new grade but customer is not evaluating it. Now they are down to one roll. How to help now?

I can only leave it in God's hand because this things are beyond my ability to solve.

=== ===

Meeting was over. The business is over. Customer B has decided to find their own source. There is not much I can do. If I do look for other source the material must have similar appearance. Not so easy to find. And if I do find, what's my company policy to support current supplier even if it doesn't match to customer requirement, if so, the game is over.

Wordpress installation

Wordpress installation is one of the easiest to do. But it can a little tedious sometimes. So what I usually do is to use the provided installed scripts by th webhosting company. For Bluehost they have Fantastico and Simple Scripts of which the latter is far more superior. For Exabytes which uses the same cPanel interface only provides Fantastico. While IPServerOne which is quite a nice budget webhosting provides the Installaron auto installs.

Of course when choosing a web hosting do try to find one which has auto install scripts. Those scripts sometimes provide interesting software that you would otherwise not be aware of. Like say a forum software instead of using the overly popular phpBB which by the way has a lot of security issues and poor spam buster you might discover other little gems like BBpress and PunBB.

Anyway I needed to reinstall a Wordpress installation for a friend and using the Installaron software provided by IPserverOne makes for a speedy Wordpress installation. Configuration took a little longer but that's a different issue altogether.

Traffic jam for no reason

The morning rush hour is rather stressful for me. Probably same for a lot of people too as we need to arrive office before work commence or boss will be cross! No leeway about it. No Malaysian rubber time so to speak as per most appointments in Malaysia.

But what I couldn't comprehend is why does the traffic slows down at a specific point on the road so much that it causes a massive traffic snarl? When I pass by that point on the road I'm scratching my head as I didn't see any accident nor any broken parts strewn on the road to indicate as such and yet there is a strange anomaly in the locality that all cars will slow down to a crawl for no apparent reason. It took me double the time required to clear that stretch and lots of frustration at the stop and go traffic flow.

I just can't believe there stretches of road that are jinx. You can't see anything there and yet the traffic will just slow down to a crawl? I know there are traffic scientist out there using algorhthm to determine the elasticity of traffic flow and what's not coz I read about it in some magazine. This would be an intriguing mystery to solve, yes?

Tiring day trip to Ipoh

it was a tiring day trip to Ipoh. one that was necessary as the visitors needed to understand the dire circumstances of the clay factory. The mostly accounting discussion of several hours really bore me to death! I think the driving was less tiring then the meeting. I was glad when it was all over and made our long journey back to Kuala Lumpur.

Interesting point about the discussion was about the Malaysian mining authorities who think that minerals like clay would provide a good royalty value. Do the authorities know that it is such a fine line to keep the mining operation going? They have just took back the competitors land and has started collecting royalty from them thereby increasing the mining and production cost. I wonder how long before their grubby hands will lay on this mining facility that is already in the red. Apart from royalty the mining company also need to pay taxes. That's really extracting their pound of flesh if I might say so.

Anyway this is not so much my concern as my duty was to ferry them around and listen in on their discussion.

Baby Loft in Desa Park City

Some more last minute shopping this time in shop called baby loft in Desa Park City. Looking for some small items here and there. I guess Lena is really enjoying all this baby shopping spree. I would have thought we have sufficient baby stuffs by now. We got most of the main gears already. Any other miscellaneous items we can get along the way when needed, right? Hmmm...

Desa Park City in Sri Damansara is a nice upmarket location with an interesting shops to serve the community here. Guess I would just have to hold in one of the cafes here while my wife hunt down some baby things.

Fortune comes to those who dares

I got this wallpaper that says, "Fortune comes to those who dares."

Having learned some hard lessons at trying some various business venture on my own with limited success I have come to appreciate this maxim.

Although it is difficult to venture out on your there is a reward when you achieved some measure of success. It also requires a certain amount of ingenuity as you think up ideas and plans to make your venture work.

So when you have a superior who fears the possibility of a bad paymaster eventhough there is a chance to start a new products sales does really sigh with exasperation.

In one hand he wants to expand the company sales and on the other hand not willing to take simple risk. Then how will the company grow?

Sure boss calls the shots but my efforts are just wasted. Well I could think out of the box and take the business elsewhere. I've been thinking out of the box for a long while, it is not easy but as they said, "Fortune comes to those who dares."

Countdown to delivery

Just visited doctor for routine weekly check up for the final third trimester. It seems the baby's head is engaged and the doctor gave an estimate of 14 days. soon a bundle of joy will come into this brave new world and the journey of life will begin outside the comfort of the womb.

Time is free but it is priceless

'Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.' - Harvey MacKay

 

Bad traffic in LDP

Somedaays morning rush hour is just so bad. This was caused by the usual vehicle breakdown and today I suffered from it again. This time at the overhead pass at the TTDI Damansara BU intersection. Wasted so much of my driving time that I was late by a minute to the office. Maybe you would say it was just a minute late only ma. Unfortunately the boss is very picky about punctuality and even a minute late he would reprimand. For some companies especially factories a minute is an issue because they are paid by strict time. For sales and management there is no strict time and extra time put in are usually not acknowledge but when you are a minute late they question you. Seems unfair but the fairness and unfairness are the result of people enforcing to the rule. Live with it or die with it. That's all.

Sales call done

Some customers can be very talkative but the off topics were quite engaging too. It was easy overstay perhaps of the various other topics that was discussed seems to be useful info. Apart from the nonwoven fabric material discussed for the moisture absorbing packs we also talked about travels and website creation. It is good to know about general knowledge and able to share your ideas. To promote a product you need to know as much as you can about it. Then the customer will know you are an expert in your field. "Drink deep or taste not the Priarian spring", ah as what Alexander Pope said about knowledge. Know it well and be a guru in your field then you are regarded as the top in your field if not the best.

Blogger layout finally working!

Finally managed to get the Blogger layout to work! This was really tough as it uses very strict XHTML convention. Any XML tags that were not closed will elicit a cryptic error message.

I had place in the XML code section by section to find out the errors and fix them. XHTML is very unforgiving unlike HTML.

My blogger template still have some minor layout issues which I can't figure out. But otherwise the overall look and feel is generally ok.

I will leave it alone for now and have a mini celebration for a working blogger layout template!