Our first "stay-cation" not... In Mount Alvernia Hospital

Finally we will be going home today! 

Just a recollection of events.. 

It all started with meimei having high fever on Sunday.. 

Poor little girl. We thought she was teething...but decided to bring her to Dr Zainal to check. Thankfully we did..coz it wasn't her teeth that's causing her fever! It was just a viral fever. After nights of sponging and medicine, she soon recovered on Wednesday. 

Then, it was Melody's turn! 

Previously she had phlegm and cough already..and we had fed her medicine to make it go away. Before that was done, she was suddenly hit with a bout of diarrhoea and high fever! She was pooing watery stool up to 8-9 times a day.. And her fever was shooting past 38.5 degrees. 

We decided to bring her in to Dr Zainal on Thursday early in the morning. He suspected that it was stomach flu..and did a urine test, which was damn hard coz Melody couldn't pee on demand! We had to stick a collection bag on her. As you can imagine, she struggled real bad. 

Anyway, the first collection wasn't successful as she pooed instead of peeed..and it contaminated the bag. So round 2..we managed to collect a small sample and did a strip test. Dr Zainal said there was a slight indication of bacteria..but not conclusive because the sample was too small to send for lab test. So he gave us medication to control her temperature, probiotics and medicine for her bronchitis! We didn't know she had slight bronchitis!! That explains the choking in sleep and awful sleeping snorting she makes in her sleep. 

Other than her fever and poo, she looked relatively alert actually. 

Her face was always flushing red. 

We went back, continued monitoring..and then the fever n poo didn't get better... So Friday night, we went to KKH A&E... 

Not a good decision as we had to wait almost 4 hours to see the doctor. End up, the blood test just says the same.. It is virus causing the fever and stomach upset. The doctor just gave panadol, bifen (a type of ibuprofen) and lacteol fort satchets! Boo... 

So we continued monitoring till Sunday... My parents came over, and unfortunately, she was petrified by mummy..who kept trying to offer her food and hoax her to take her medicine..and kept trying to hug her. Her intention was good, but she really frightened her bad... So bad till she cried whenever she came near or touched her. 

In the end, Melody was really disturbed till she couldn't really eat. And she complained of pain down there... No choice, we decided to seek a 3rd opinion. We went to mount alvernia and asked for Dr Lilian Lim of Kid's Clinic to come in coz they said it'll take another 2 hours to see the GP. Might as well ask for specialist. It was mandatory for her to be warded before Dr Lim will see her. 

We were given a 4-bedder room as there wasn't any single rooms left. Sad! 

Based on initial diagnosis, it is still stomach flu.. And she had to be put on drip as she wasn't eating much and there's slight dehydration based on the initial blood test. 

Poor little girl... She was really traumatized when the doctor and nurses wrapped her up in a big blanket to prevent her from struggling. She screamed and screamed and cried and cried "Mama help!!" 

My heart was shattered. I'm sorry baby..we need to do this in order for you to get well.. She really fought us.. By the end of it, she was trembling and crying and crying and hugging onto me really tightly... 

She refused to come down..

Until she was dead tired...

My poor little girl. 

So the next few days were a struggle between trying to prevent her from pulling the tubings too far from the stand, trying to get her to eat her medicine and change her diaper was a big challenge, feeding her whatever she felt like eating..and that includes Baby Bites biscuits and Vitasoy..and trying to keep the poor little girl entertained because she couldn't get off the bed. 

Tried letting her watch tv using the headphones...

Trying to ensure she doesn't flip too much in her sleep in case she snaps the tubes. 

The dreaded antibiotics which had to be administed thru the tubes since she didn't want to take it orally. 

The moment she saw the nurse come in, she would scramble to me and hide in my embrace. 

She had to stay still for at least 30 mins before the whole dose of antibiotics gets in. 

It was tablet...

Tablet....

And more tablet... Just to keep her entertained...

Trying to wash her up after poo was an even bigger challenge! We had to drag the whole stand with the drip along to the toilet..initially we were at the 4-bedder room..had to use the public toilet outside.. Then the next day we managed to upgrade to the 2-bedder which was slightly more comfortable..and finally on the day before discharge, we got to our single ward! Like finally!! Peace and comfort!

On the last night before discharge, we did some drawing..

Poor girl she could just hold the pencil with 1 finger supporting 

Her art piece

She napped a lot during the day...

Papa came and fed her rice with soup

She wanted our soyabean drink..

My nostalgic supper. I had that at the same place, just different floor.. 2 years ago with Melody..

Biscuits and more biscuits..

Finally on Wednesday, doctor gave the green light for discharge! So happy!

But the urine test came back and there's UTI. So she needed to go do an ultrasound scan before going home..

Finally it was done and the tubes were removed... And we were home bound...

Meimei was so happy to see us!

Then it was my turn to be sick... I was down with throat infection and fever.. Look at the disgusting ball of phlegm that I accidentally coughed out.. Yellow and bloody... 

Oh well.. What an eventful week! Hope the viruses all stay away for a long long time!!

Crochet sushi

I had a dear friend who loved sashimi and sushi as much, if not more than me. Was cracking my head over what to get for her on her birthday. 

Finally, I asked someone closest to her, her hubby, for some clues as to which sushi she loved. Turns out, she liked Chutoro Tuna, uni (sea urchin) and scallop sushi. 

So I was on a quest to look for the pattern. I even posted on fb groups to request for it but to no avail. 

No choice I decided to rely on my imagination. Haha

I googled the actual stuff to aid me along the way. 

So here it is! 

Chutoro sushi

Uni sushi

Scallop sushi

And I saw a pattern for a very cute rice ball so I decided to make one too. 

Group shot

It's a little childish but I hope she likes it. 

Perhaps when I have time I should write up the uni sushi pattern. :D

Crochet granny swap potholders project

Despite a very busy 2 months, I was determined to take part in the swap again. It was too fun not to! 

This round, we were divided into smaller groups of 3s and at max, each person can only join 2 groups if I'm not wrong. 

My teammates were Jamie Anderson from US and Jo Nicolls from Canada! 

I was faced with a lot of challenges for this potholder, partly coz I didn't get the most friendly pattern to do. 

I had to frog it twice just to make the size of the 2 circles fit. 

And due to time constrain, I had to use double yarn for this piece instead of double layers. I tried and it works...but still, so sorry Jo... 

So here are the back and front views. 

Quite ashamed.. Coz I saw from the group posts of other pot holders... It's really really nice. Mine is really quite badly done compared to theirs..

And..I still owe them the recipe!! 

Will have to work on that soon!! 

Catch up post

It's been way too long since I last blogged. Too many events to list down, so I'm just gona do a real quick summary. 

Not sure if I had posted that I received Pat's delicious yarn..all the way from Pittsburgh!

They are so yummy, I couldn't bear to use it. Hahah

Next was my beloved Melody's birthday celebration on 25th March. 

Then was the crochet granny swap potholder project.. This will be a separate post on it's own. 

I made Melody a bird's nest. 

I made Jen a pair of baby booties. 

I made belub a mini coaster for his whiskey glass. 

Then was a dear friend's birthday and I crocheted our favourite sushi for her, also a post on it's own. 

Hmm..not much of a summary. Ha 

It's May already. Time flies when you are busy I guess. I had been neglecting my hooks and yarn... Hope to pick them up again real soon! 

Baby booties round up

Finally finished 2 pairs of the Galilee baby booties..one in blue for newborn and the other in pink for 3-6 months. 

Cute? 

The blue pair....took me a long time to complete..coz I finished one side, and end up making the other side bigger..and it wasn't due to the tightness of my stitches! 

Imagine my horror after I finished off the last slip stitch. 

I thought I had read off the wrong pattern. Perhaps I accidentally scrolled to the 3-6 months portion halfway through the project. But doesn't seem like it. 

Then, I checked the soles....

Baaaaaah! It was wrong from the start! Looks like I have accidentally stitched the double crochet instead of the half double towards the end of the sole. Booo.. 

So I did what I do best...

And just for the record, I took down the length of yarn for each colour. Lol 

It is...in excess of 

960cm of colour A (brown)

562cm of colour B (dark blue)

370cm of colour C (light blue)

Haha! 

And just to round up the booties that I have successfully completed...

To be frank, I think the Sirdar DK yarn is much much softer compared to the Vanna's Choice yarn. But the shape of the bootie looks nicer with the worsted weight. Oh well..can't have best of both worlds..can we? Maybe I should try to make a bootie with the "I love this cotton" yarn when it comes! 

In the meantime, more pictures! Haha

I can't decide how to place them..

Still a lot of room for improvement with regards to the colour change technique. 

The last stitch always seem to show. I've sent a pm to the designer of this bootie..hope she will respond with some tips! :) 

Btw, you can find the pattern for this bootie here:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/galilee-booties

Till then, happy hooking!

Mamachee's galilee booties work in progress

Another complicated bootie work in progress!