JoyJoy 1, Daddy 0

One morning I was playing with the little girl in bed when I needed to pee all of a sudden. I told Daddy to watch the baby. "I'll be back soon!" I said.

Whilst in the toilet I wondered what was happening outside. It was strangely quiet. "Why is Daddy not talking to JoyJoy?" "Why is JoyJoy not talking to herself?"...I'm not really used to silence since we had the little girl.

I searched my memory bank and this image came up:


The last time I asked him to watch the baby.

The more I thought about it, the more worried I got, since JoyJoy now flips at the speed of lightening (I might be exaggerating just a tiny bit).. was Daddy doing a good job at looking after the little girl? And, gasps, could he be sleeping?

Curiosity got the better of me and I ,ahem, rushed nature along. Guess what I saw when stepped out of the bathroom into the bedroom....

Mummy burnout

In the past 2 weeks, my days went like this...

Friday: Very sick. Out of office. Had to look after the little girl anyway just because I was home.

Saturday: Very very sick. MIL went to JB, FIL went for his walks. The dutiful son was also summoned to send the PIL to JB for their trips and he had RT in the evening so a sleep deprived Daddy wasn't able to help.

I raised the white flag and brought the little girl over to my parent's place. It helped a little although she hadn't seen them for some time and cried if they took care of her for more than 10 minutes without me.

I got slightly better after that and just when I thought we were

Sunday: Very sick. Looked after the little girl on my own. Daddy was beginning to fall sick too.

Monday: Sick. Worked from the office. Had back to back calls and used my hoarse voice until it finally decided to die on me. Also well and truly frozen because the aircon was faulty.

Tuesday: Very sick. Out of office. Got better after I had 2 precious hours of sleep in the day although I still had to take care of the little girl. But then at night, just when I thought we were coming out of the rut, she had the consecutive attacks and we hanged out at A&E till late. Daddy was sick too.

Wednesday: Very sick. Worked from home. Took time to settle the little girl in between whilst chasing after my nose. Daddy's condition got worse as well. This was the day I needed to be back in office the most because of very important calls the next day. Hardly had time for food / nature's call.

Thursday Very sick. Worked from home intensively. I had 2 very very important calls (my head might roll if things were
messed up). Squeeeeeezed time to take care of the little girl. Daddy was still sick. Hardly had time for food / nature's call.

Friday: Sick. The neurologist visit took our day. The little girl was over tired and very fussy. I was entirely spent by evening.

Saturday: Sick. Looked after the little girl on my own. Cooked for her, nursed her and took on all the mummy duties although it was Daddy's turn to do breakfast duty this week.
Sunday: Sick. Birthday but same as Saturday. I had a great day.

Monday: PIL came back from JB early in the morning and claimed that they were sick (actually tired). Worked from home and took care of the little girl in between. Hardly had time for food / nature's call.

Tuesday: Sick but things got better and we're almost back to normal.

I felt like I was threading on a line. Just a little off balance, I should be on my way down to an abyss. It might be a good thing, I can finally close my eyes and get some rest before I hit ground and break into pieces.

It was tough.

I had to decide when to take care of the little girl, take care of Daddy, being responsible for my duties at work and answering to the asia pacific sales team + a very demanding boss and take care of myself.

I've learnt that you will survive such times because when the crunch comes, you have little choice. Just have to do what you have to do, clench your teeth and tide it over.

I had a great day because..

(1) This little imp only had 4 attacks today, compared to 12 yesterday.




(2) I sent Daddy on an expedition to the supermarket for 3 tomatoes, 1 sweet corn, 1 organic carrot, 1 organic potato and he managed to return home with 5 tomatoes.




(3) The little girl knows kungfu. I was washing up after her breakfast when I heard cries from the room. I checked and realized they were made by Daddy.








(4) Daddy decided where we would go for dinner although I had to order in the end because there were too many options for him to handle. Dinner was good and relatively cheap.



(5) I didn't give up the idea of getting out for a dinner due to sheer exhaustion from taking care of the little imp who (clearly) had more energy than Daddy and I combined.



(6) The little girl was good company at Dinner.




(7) The sister in law got me a brownie surprise.

(8) 56 people wanted me to have a happy birthday.

(9) I chanced upon 21 photos that restored my faith in humanity

Woo, it's my birthday

The little girl has a habit of going "woo" in the cutest way before she opens her mouth and take a big bite of my breast. It is so endearing, I smile to myself whenever I think about it.
Daddy is similarly smitten when the little girl does that.

Just after the clock struck 12 today, I went "woo" I want to watch this DVD. And then "woo" I want to eat sea salt potato chips. And then "woo" I'm thirsty. And then "woo" I can't finish. And "woo" I'm thirsty.

when he ignored me, I went "woo" it's my birthday.

Daddy says.. this must be my longest birthday ever. I told him that that was just the beginning of my birthday.

When we were done with the DVD and I retreated into the coolness of our room, I saw this:




which you can't really see.

It put a huge grin on my face and I felt my heart swell up until it felt like it was going to burst.

Here's how it looks like, heavily edited:




I've received the best birthday present. Ever.

The neurologist said..

that the little girl's probably having what they call shudder attacks which she is likely to outgrow. That being said, they are concerned that some parts of her attacks resembles fits, although other parts are totally uncharacteristic of fits.

So I heaved a sigh of relieve only to suck it all in again.

To be reasonably sure of their diagnosis, we need to monitor the little girl over a 4-6 week period and note down:

(1) Time of the attacks
(2) How long they last
(3) What she was doing before the attacks
(4) What she was doing after the attacks.

Additionally, we are to observe whether she turns blue / tired after each attack. If the attacks lasts more than 1 minute less than 5 minutes, we're to make an appointment with them immediately. If the attacks lasts more than 5 minutes, we are to call for an ambulance immediately.

Good news is, we are told that the little girl is progressing well developmentally, which is uncharacteristic of children suffering from neurological problems.

The wait was extremely long yesterday and the little girl was understandably tired. She had an attack when we were into our first hour of wait and I had a gut feeling she would do it again. So I got ready to video with my phone and managed to get a good recording:

Only the upper portion of her body is stiff during the attacks. Her legs are relaxed. She doesn't look up, doesn't black out, doesn't turn blue, doesn't appear tired after that. The attacks are not rhythmic and she wasn't crying before that which rules out breath holding spells for now.