Happy Birthday to mum

After a few consultations + the first ultrasound, our gynae had predicted that Baby Bel would be born on 26 Nov, as the theoretical conception date was about 26 Feb. Baby Bel's parents disagreed, as the knew their own "programme" and they figured that the conception date had to be earlier *grin*

In any case, Baby Bel's mum did not have the intention of spending her birthday (25 Nov) in hospital nor did she want to share her birthday with her daughter.

As it turns out, Baby Bel's mum was relieved that the little one's big day was earlier than the gynae's prediction- 16 Nov. So, we all managed to celebrate Ivana's birthday together.

Check out the cakes, from famous Paris-based Japanese patissier, who's an expert at green-tea macha chocolate cake. For those of you that visit Paris, do check him out

http://www.sadaharuaoki.com/

Baby bel's mother's mother loved the cakes too so I'll definitely go look for more soon. Yummy!

Argh-Colic

Ever since she was a foetus in her mother's womb, Baby Bel has had hiccups. Sometimes, the hiccups would even wake her mum up in the middle of the night.

Today, beyond hiccups (which doesn't seem to bother her), Baby Bel looks like she has colic .... argh... colic.... I've read books and surfed the Internet quite extensively on this subject, and I've found out that the doctors have not fully figured out the cause nor the remedy for colic. On what causes colic, I've read that one theory is that the baby has an immature digestive system and hence cannot process the milk fully. Another theory is that the baby starts crying a lot when he/she is over stimulated, hence all the crying helps him/her to block out all the external noise stimuli. There are 3 remedies that are widely recommended to cure colic:

1) The colic arm hold

2) A passifier for the baby to suck (see how well it works in photo attached)

3) Gripe water - which was difficult to find in France initially, since I couldn't find the translation for it. Nonetheless, I described it as "a mixture of herbs to help colicky babies" and my pharmacist said that many parents in France use a product called "CALMOSINE".

Anyway, Baby Bel loves all three remedies, especially CALMOSINE, she looks as happy to drink that as she does her daily dose of Vitamin D.

Wish us luck, we hope Baby Bel will stop crying so much :-)

Be ma, be ma, be ma baby

Baby bel's mother took this shot of her in her new autumn look. Don't you just LOVE the pink flowers on yellow? And also notice her fashionable bracelet. Ain't she cute?

In fact, it's a hospital tag on her wrist - that's to make sure that we didn't go back with someone else's daughter. The Amercian hospital has a fail-safe system, as they tag both the wrist and the ankle of the baby once he or she is born.

Don't you feel like singing the song "Be ma, be ma, be ma baby".... ?

But hey, don't sing too loud and for too long, or else Baby Bel may just want you to shut up! After all, she's read in the "babypolitain" magazines that all princesses need their daily dose of beauty sleep!

Passport photo

Did you know that a baby born to two Singaporean parents overseas does not get Singapore citizenship automatically? The parents have to do tons of paperwork to request Singapore nationality for the baby! One of the things required in the application form is a "proper" passport photo, i.e. colour, taken with the baby's eyes open, and against a white background.

It was certianly an uphill challenge for Baby Bel's parents to get such a photo of her, given that she is only 10 days old, and hence, spends most of her time sleeping (i.e. eyes closed). And even when she's awake, she doesn't really take the trouble to look at the camera!

The whole photo-taking session lasted about 2 hours, and Baby Bel's dad must have taken about 30 photos altogether. And as the lighting in the house was not bright enough, aluminium foil and a torchlight was used... think supermodel photo shoot = ) (Some examples attached).

>"Hey, I'm sleeping, please give me some peace & quiet?"

>"Okay, okay, I will try to wake up, but give me some time! What did you want me to do?"

>"Oh, let me try to make a funny face for my passport. Will this work?"

Her parents were so happy when they managed to get a shot with her looking at the camera! But then, another 30mins of work was necessary to edit the photo digitally to create the white background.

Voila, the final result - Isabelle's first passport photo!

Note: the white background you see was done through the pain-staking efforts of using a touchpad to colour in bit-by-bit, the area of the photo surrounding her head. You can see the quality of the work, as Baby Bel's hair has not been erased from the photo! :-)

Happy Birthday to you

After a "false alert" on 15 Nov 2006 morning, Baby Bel's parents were sent home by the hospital, and advised to get some rest. They were told to come back when "real" labour began, i.e. "when there was a lot more pain" . Baby Bel's mum was advised to take a suppository to take away the base level pain so that she would know when she was in "real" labour... eeewww!

So, 15 Nov 2006 was spent at home. Baby Bel's dad cleared his emails, waiting for the big moment, while Baby Bel's mum got some much needed sleep. The pain continued all through tea with a friend and dinner. When the contractions started getting more frequent and more painful, Baby Bel's parents headed to the American Hospital in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, a close Paris suburb, . They left home past midnight, then had a long wait at the hospital as apparently, Baby Bel's mum was still not in "real labour"!

So, Baby Bel's parents waited in the "monitoring room" from about 2am to 9am, drifting in and out of sleep. In the middle of the night, the mid-wife had to give Baby Bel's mum so glucose/morphine derivative concoction just to calm her...

Then at 9am, Baby Bel's mum got promoted to the "delivery room" and was given epidural at 930am, after which she became a lot more relaxed and sleepy. She even had to be reminded by the gynae, Dr Brahmi to wake up as she had to deliver Baby Bel. The delivery was quite a sight, especially when the mid-wife jumped on top of Baby Bel's mum to try and assist in pushing out the baby!

Finally, Baby Bel was born on 16 Nov 2006, at 11.40am to two ecstatic parents. Once she was put on the incubation table, Baby Bel's dad started singing the "Happy Birthday" song to her. And guess what? Baby Bel stopped her crying during the song... must have recognised her dad's voice :-)

After an initial clean-up, Baby Bel was brought to the nursery for more cleaning and dressing up. Welcome to your new world, Baby Bel!