Roseola

22-24 Dec: Fever Daze

Ying Ying had fever (which peaked at 38.9 deg) over 3 days. She was listless and ate very little. Thank goodness I could still nurse her to give her all the nourishment she needed. We didn't take her to see a GP or pediatrician because we thought the fever was due to the MMR (measles mump rubella) vaccination she had a fortnight ago. The nurse told me she could have fever between 3 days to 2 weeks. So we just fed her liquid panadol as prescribed to her and pasted one of those cooling pads on her forehead which she kept taking it off. She resisted taking the medicine and we had to turn on the TV to distract her. Spongebob happened to be on and we watched it together. Hubby thought Spongebob was really funny. We named her cooling pads Spongebob.

24 Dec: X'mas Eve

The fever subsided much to our relief. I wanted to check out the 'snow' at Mt Faber but we ended up at Vivocity instead. Then hubby suddenly suggested taking a roundabout cable car ride to Sentosa and Mt Faber. I thought it was a great idea because Ying Ying has not taken a cable car ride before and we wanted to make X'mas eve memorable for her. (Maybe we could make it an annual family tradition!) The overall experience was quite surreal. It was quiet high up above the sea and there were stars, pine trees and presents 'floating' past us - actually, they were X'mas lightings on the exterior of the cable cars. I have a bit of height phobia and kept thinking of the 1983 cable car tragedy whenever I looked down towards the sea. Ying Ying was also a bit nervous initially and clung onto me tightly. I think she didn't realise she had been so high up in the sky until she looked down and saw tiny vehicles moving below her when we approached Mt Faber. We didn't manage to stay on for the 1130pm snow show because Ying Ying was very tired and cranky by then. Anyway, I tried to capture the beautiful harbour scenery using the night mode on my camera but it turned out like this:

25 Dec: X'mas Day!

Went to a good friend's church for a X'mas concert in which she was co-hosting. We took Ying Ying there last year so we wanted to do the same thing for this year. She was only abt 3mths old then and I could still recall her being very shocked and frightened whenever the audience gave a big applause. This year, whenever the audience clapped, she copied them. :) We enjoyed singing the X'mas songs so much that I told myself we must bring Ying Ying to a X'mas concert every year.

We noticed some red rashes on her back and her chest. Could she be allergic to the durian gelato she ate the day before? Or could it the piece of fish and tofu cooked in the steamboat herbal stock?? Or could it be the brand of soap I used to bathe her??? I had no clue!

26 Dec: A Visit to the Doctor

The rashes had worsened and spreaded to her face. We were a bit worried and decided to take her to see a GP. Turned out she had roseola aka false measles! We have never heard of roseola until now. The doctor said it is contagious among young children and so common that almost every child would get it in their lifetime. No medication required. The doctor even tore off a printed handout from one of his files for us to keep - he said he had printed many copies 'cause roseola is just so common.

Ying Ying must have gotten the virus from one of the kids in the kindermusik class since she developed fever the day after she attended the class! The virus is passed via salivia, running nose and cough just like SARS. I remembered letting her eat her finger snacks after the class without wiping her hands first! It's all my fault!!! :( But as the doctor put it, she is bound to get it eventually so I shouldn't be too hard on myself. Anyway, I will be extra careful about hygiene from now onwards. Breastfed babies can fall sick too! (Though not as frequent as formula babies. Heheh.)

30 Dec - 1 Jan: Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007!!!

We spent the New Year holiday weekend doing the typical Singaporean thing - shopping!! There were two concurrent sales (Metro and Book) held at Expo. It was hard to resist esp when the place is a mere 15mins drive away. We went there not once but twice because we left the place in a hurry the first time round. Bought a couple of household items but the rest of my purchase were mainly clothings and books for Ying Ying. I am still obsessed about children's books even though Ying Ying has accumulated tons of them already. I just love looking at the beautiful and creative illustrations. :)