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Another baby post…

Being a new parent is like being on perpetual standby: you are never going to prioritize anything above the welfare of your baby.

Take for example my favourite hobbies. Assuming if I can find time first to indulge in them, my enjoyment of watching a DVD is contingent upon Chloe not crying during the duration of the movie. When Chloe cries, it doesn’t matter if Liam Neeson is in the middle of saving his daughter while single-handedly taking down the human trafficking gang in Taken, the movie stops and Chloe gets full attention.

The same goes for books and magazines, which have reverted to be nothing more than loose reading materials akin to those in doctor’s waiting lounges. They are there for you to pass the time before you have to attend to something more important like your baby’s cries.

The attention required by a baby is just tremendous.

Being so helpless, they rely on able-bodied adults to do their biddings. The weapons at their disposable are their ear piercing cries and their disarmingly cute face. And both in combination, when used in varying proportions, always induce a fully-grown adult to revert to a drone bent on fulfilling baby’s desires.

After 2 years of servitude to baby’s wishes and demands, I am going to do something different: payback time. Yes, I’m going to secretly train Chloe on how to clean the floor, the house, the TV console, defragment my computer, queue my favourite TV program in my bittorrent software, perform systems maintenance upkeep, wash the car and make morning coffee. And in the name of parenthood, I am going to draw up a schedule where she is supposed to do these “chores” so that she could improve on her “hand-eye coordination”. Hehehe…maybe it’s time to have an army of kids 🙂

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The Beginning of Sleepless Nights

Chloe’s Close-Up, originally uploaded by CeeKay’s Pix.

One of the most frequent reply that I got on SMS amidst all of the congratulatory messages was that I have to bid farewell to my nights. Little did I know that the senders were dead serious.

On average, I had slept no more than 4 hours per night since Tuesday. There were times when I was lucky enough to sleep for 2 hours straight. In the morning, I was rushing around, trying to get one thing or the other done.

It simply isn’t easy.

But something in her brings out that extra ounce of energy in yourself that you need to push yourself further beyond your breaking point.

After starting the day being heavily deprived of sleep, I was rushing from the one place to another, buying last minute baby items and ensuring that Cheryl is comfortable so that she can recuperate. After all that helter skelter of a day, as I was about to fall asleep, a tiny cry came from the crib in our room at 2.30am.

I walked there, feeling tired and I saw a priceless stare (as captured in this photo) from Chloe.

She could have asked me to walk to the moon and back and I would have happily complied. Luckily, for her and for me, she didn’t. However, 10 minutes after the photo was taken, she wailed until 4am. After trying all methods from feeding to swaddling, she eventually fell asleep on her mother’s bosom.

Babies are designed cute to elicit an emotional response from their parents to provide for them comfort, food and attention even though they could only cry and wail. After experiencing this first hand, I must conclude that this is probably one of the most brilliant evolutionary development in the human race.

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Welcome to the world, Chloe



Introducing Chloe Koay, originally uploaded by CeeKay’s Pix.

It was scheduled for tomorrow but she just couldn’t wait.

Cheryl was having contractions last night and it persisted until this morning. Fearing that we were going to go into labour, she called up Dr. Ravi who asked that we come in within the hour.

Upon arrival, Cheryl was strapped to some thing-a-magics that could detect contrations, her heart rate and baby’s heart rate. When the doctor arrived, he advised that we go ahead with the C-section today rather than the scheduled one tomorrow.

I was then whisked away to don on the blue surgeon robe while they prepped up Cheryl for the spinal anesthetic. We met again in the operating theater and the baby Chloe out less than 15 minutes into the procedure.

We are very grateful that the baby turned out okay and our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Ravi who handled the whole procedure professionally and to the staff of Gleneagles Intan Ampang who were very helpful.

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Spring in Oslo

City Hall Oslo, originally uploaded by CeeKay’s Pix.

I haven’t been to Scandinavia since the days when I was still in Cell Network, which was a good 6 to 7 years ago.

Recently, I was in Oslo for work. Perhaps not a lot of people (outside of the telco industry) know that DiGi is owned by the Telenor group. We are part of the 7th largest telecommunications company in the world.

We managed to take some time off to see Oslo. I’ll be uploading some photos as I get the time to do it.

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Finally, all settled in…

One word of advice, moving house can reduce your weight significantly.

I found this out the hard way when we recently moved into our new place in Lake Fields. Apart from the anticipated physical work of the move, there is also the mental anguish when contractors do not complete their tasks on time and vendors break their promises to deliver on time. Of course, all those are a walk in the park when one compares it to the ultimate definition of frustration: dealing with the civil service.

(A disclaimer: I was really happy with the water and power service and I think that they were professional, courteous and prompt. Dealing with a quasi-civil service private entity like Telekom Malaysia on the other hand…)

Two weeks on, we are beginning to really love our new home. The boxes are all unpacked, the CDs, DVDs and books have all returned to their shelf (in order), the clothes are all hanged and organized neatly in our relatively gianormeous closet. Really love the orderliness of the whole place.

I also love my trimmer tummy and I really do hope that it lasts.

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Tomorrow is moving day!

After 7 years in Bandar Sri Permaisuri (and 4 for Cheryl), we are moving to our new house tomorrow! Emotionally, it is a mix bag of sadness and happiness.

Firstly, we are really going to miss our current home. It is, after all, the home where I carried Cheryl into when we got married. We are definitely going to miss this small cosy nest.

Secondly, we are happy because we are moving to a new bigger place that is really us. All the aesthetic choices, fittings, extensions reflected our tastes. We hope that this new place will give us more happy memories.

Okay, gotta keep on packing before the movers come a knockin’ tomorrow at 9.30am!