Helpless

How time flies for Ani has recently finished her contract with us and has signed another 2 year deal with a pay increment. We are happy that she has decided to stay for she certainly didn’t sign up to take care of 3 babies in the beginning. When she arrived we only had Isaac but along the way you can say that her workload has increased by 3 folds. So deep down the Mrs and I were a little concerned that she may want to see her contract out and look for something perhaps a little less hectic.

So she will be heading home for her well deserved 2 weeks break and unlike her we are certainly not looking forward to it at all. Over the 2 years we are spoilt by her for we need not have to worry about preparing the kids and packing the necessary stuffs whenever we plan to go out. All we had to do was inform her of our plans and give her about half an hour and we will be good to go.

Changing the kids is the easy part hence we do it ourselves. It is the huge bags that we bring out that are very challenging. You cannot imagine the different kinds of stuffs that she packs in there in anticipation of the kids (well mainly Isaac’s) demand. Some examples besides the necessities such as milk powder, diapers, change of clothes, hot water etc; are sweets like the gummy bears, biscuits, packets Milo as well as this yogurt drink and some other stuffs that I cannot think of now. All I know is whenever Isaac demanded for something more often than not she will have it in those big bags. When the twins get really cranky in the car she will also have the right snacks to pacify them.

Now with her gone for 2 weeks, I believe we will be at a lost to a certain degree and won’t be surprised that we will miss out on an item or two.

There are other issues as well. Since we learned that the Mrs was pregnant with the twins Isaac has been sleeping with Ani for obvious reason. Now we are taking turns to put him to sleep each night. The really good thing here is he doesn’t have to be put to bed by Ani which means we can do it but we need to know his bedtime habits too.

Originally the Mrs wanted to take a 2 week break from work so the both of us can try and take care of them ourselves but her boss wasn’t too thrilled with the idea. Then the alternative was to look for a part-time babysitter to help out at my parents’ place every day until our return after work. The Mrs went to the various forums to search for recommended nannies and agencies. We actually interviewed a couple of them even. The cost for this arrangement will maybe set us back by about one grand easy. Not too many nannies are too keen to take up the position as well once they learned that we have 3 kids even though we promised them that my parents and to a certain extend I will be there to help out. We assured them that they will not be the only one to take care of all 3 of them at any one time but they are still worried and I can also understand why. One agency was even crazy (or stupid) enough to propose charging us 3 times the cost for having 3 babies to which we responded wouldn’t it make more sense then for us to hire 3 nannies?!?! For the company’s sake I seriously hope she is not the owner.

In the end after much thinking, planning and discussion with my parents we have decided against hiring outside help. One thing is my parents are not too crazy about the idea of having a stranger over at their place and more importantly the kids may not take to her at all.

So here’s the plan. I will send Isaac and the Mrs to school and work every morning and I will then head back to my parents’ place to bath and feed the twins. My parents and I will take care of them until the Mrs come home from work around 2pm. Her boss has compromised with her taking half day everyday for the 2 weeks. In between I will also be going to pick Isaac from school. Since I am working from home and my work allows me certain flexibility I will arrange for my appointments and meetings to the late afternoon when the Mrs can take over from me.

On paper it certainly looked very doable but I know we (the Mrs and I) will probably be in for some shock when the time comes. I truly believe that this little experience will make us appreciate more what Ani and my parents have to do on a daily basis.

It will certainly be a very tiring 2 weeks for we have to wake up much earlier to get Isaac changed, fed and dressed for school. We will also have to feed the twins before leaving the house. Putting them to sleep will not be so easy as well for currently we take one kid each at night but this will not be possible then.

Planning on what to do and where to bring them during the weekends will also not be easy. We definitely cannot stay at home the entire weekend with the kids for we, the parents will probably go mad. However to bring them out will require much work, planning and execution. To care for all 3 kids who are now running (Isaac), walking briskly (Luke) and unsteadily (Hayley) will be tough. The twins are at the stage where they do not want to be carried or be left sitting in the stroller. They will be repeating “walk walk” non-stop and struggling.

If you would like to volunteer your time in helping or have any suggestions at all you know how to reach me.

Lessons!!

As most of you know parenthood is new to the Mrs and I hence there are many lessons to be learnt. Although we have 3 kids but as their age difference is small our experience is really limited to how we handled Isaac. However as we all know every child is special and unique in their own way handling them requires very different technique.

Recently we learnt 2 very important lessons and those of you who are on Facebook with me will probably know of it by now.

The most important one is: Never trust your thermometer 100%.

We are very blessed in that up until about 3 weeks ago we have never had to bring any of our children to the emergency ward of any hospital. We usually let them ride out their sickness and until they turn 1 we abstain from administering any form of medication. Like our PD always says, medicines really just remove the symptoms but it is not the cure. Even when they have fever we will sponge them and watch their mood before we decide whether or not to administer medicine. Watching their mood and appetite is the key thing.

About 3 weeks ago Isaac had fever and Ani was taking his temperature every few hourly and since he is already past 2 years old we are more relaxed on giving him medicine. Unfortunately his fever never really quite subsided and in fact got higher. In the evening when we got home from work the readings were around 39 degree with the highest for that day being 39.5. We could also tell that he is not his usually cheerful self although he wasn’t cranky just a little more “manja” then usual.

We decided to bring him to KK emergency ward and we were shocked that the readings the nurse doctor took was around 40.5 degree because we brought our own thermometer and along the way and while waiting for our turn we were frequently taking his temperature and it never passed the 40 degree mark.

Now the weird thing here was when I took my temperature with our own and then with theirs the readings match. But when it comes to Isaac the difference is about 2 degrees.

After the entire episode I went down to the manufacturer and got them to check the thermometer for me they advise me that sometimes even a faulty one can take accurate readings up to about 38 degree but anything higher it won’t be accurate anymore.

When they checked the thermometer they found out that the area around the sensor was dirty and a little rusty. That was the cause for the inaccurate readings and after cleaning it thoroughly it worked fine and readings above 40 degree was measured accurately as well.

Looking back it was a rather scary experience for this meant that Isaac was probably at about 41.5 degree at one time for the highest recorded was 39.5.

I hope you learn from our experience and get another thermometer to be kept at home and should the reading be above 38 degree then have a second reading with the spare one just to be sure.

Now on a lighter side of things, I learnt another lesson and this time it was thanks to Luke.

The funny lesson: Always cover the toilet bowl!

The children have a habit of using our iPhones to play and watch the many Apps that we got for them. In fact Isaac is so good with it he knows how to launch the YouTube and look for his favourite videos. This by the way was learnt all on his own. Before he turned 1 he already know how to slide to unlock the phone and he could do it upside down as well.

Anyway back to Luke. One morning as I was washing up in the bathroom the twins were just walking around messing things up in the wardrobe area. After a while they were trying to come into the bathroom with me. I used my leg to block Hayley from coming in while the door was half closed but little did I know Luke has silently open the door and walked in. Next I heard him say “Throw!” and before I knew it I heard something dropped into the toilet bowl and to my horror it was the Mrs’s iPhone.

I shouted “Oh No!!” and the Mrs came running in thinking that one of the twins had hurt themselves. When she saw Luke in the bathroom she thought what happened to him and carried him right away. I honestly believed that my instant reaction saved him for when the Mrs learned that he is fine then everything else is secondary including her iPhone. Plus I knew she wanted to change it long ago due to the many scratches and teeth marks but as it was in perfect operational condition she cannot have it changed.

Now I know many of you readers are iPhone owners and in case you’re not aware, when under warranty your Telco will replace your iPhone free if the problem is not caused by water. In our case where clearly it is due to water then the cost will be S$350 when under warranty.

Fortunately SingTel decided to replace mine for free and it was due to my monthly bill otherwise we all know who will be paying for the replacement.............Luke!