A baby's tyranny and Murphy

I've made a huge discovery over the past week. Murphy's law was established based on, a baby.

You see, you can go ahead and make whatever plans you want, whenever. But, babies, oh babies, they work by their own clock. And they, pretty much do whatever they want, whenever they want. They're not gonna spare any regards to your date night/weekend shopping plans. Neither are they gonna bother about whether or not you need to work/sleep/rest when you're ill. They're tyranny like that, babies.

1. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway. 

The thing about babies...You give them the whole suite of immunisation jabs, make sure their fans have e-ion modes, install air conditioning with specific patrol sensors, give them organic food, separate their laundry from yours, use ultra gentle baby detergent, wash their sheets three times more often than you would yours, wash and sterilise their bottles meticulously, rinse their pacifiers in hot water before you pop it into their mouths, wipe their small hands every so often, and you obsess over every minor detail you might have missed in fear of every germ that might sneak up on the little fellow. Its almost like you built some kinda sterile, vacuum bubble around them. I mean, so much effort has gone into painstakingly ensuring that bubble doesn't burst, so how could it? IT WILL ANYWAY.



2. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. 

You wake up one morning noticing unsightly, red patches starring back at you, on your baby's most adorable chubby cheeks. You've read enough "baby literature" to deduce it could be just baby acne which is hormonal and would likely go away quickly.
Baby throws up after his feed. Ok. Not his first "merlion moments". Lets wait for the next feed and we'll see. After all, someone said "chillax" is the best parenting policy. So hey mummy, chill and relax already.
And then he starts running a fever.


3. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

The chillax parenting policy dictates: "thou shalt not over-react, unnecessarily". Baby seems to be active and happy still. What am I missing...?


The red patchy spots started getting worse. It was spreading all over his body and threatening to leave a scar on his cutsie face. One particular patch on his right cheek measured 6cm by 7cm. That is mother huge given his face is still really teeny weeny.

We went to our regular 24-hour GP cause it was a Sunday and our PD's clinic wasn't open. GP's diagnosis was consistent with PD's previous diagnosis, cept this time round, it was SEVERE infant eczema. He wrote us a letter and hurried us to the KKH A&E for fear any delay in treatment would cause the poor boy permanent scarring.

At the KKH's children A&E, we registered and waited at least 3 good hours before we caught a glimpse of a doctor.  While we were waiting, the lack of proper isolation facilities for children running a temperature unsettled us a bit. We tried our best to stay in an obscure corner and we hung around anyway. DUMB parents.

Later that evening, when daddy picked him up after his evening feed, he threw up. And then he threw up again. And then, again. Repeat x 7. The next morning, repeat x 3. And he started running a temperature. We brought him back to the PD where he was given a suppository (since he couldn't keep anything down) and were told to monitor him for the next few hours.

Continues on repeat x 3.

And you had to be admitted. My baby. In the hospital, where he was born. Not because he had to be borne.

I cried buckets. Imagine trying to cannulate a chubby baby. It took four points of invasion, a whole hour of screaming (him), crying (him plus me) and exasperated consoling (daddy) to find the elusive vein and thread through that.

That stayed in for four very very long days.

Dr Cheng concluded it was gastroenteritis (which you probably caught from some kid at the A&E). Since you've already gotten your rotavirus jab, mummy was convinced it belonged to the norovirus family of bad bugs. I HATE THOSE BUGGERS.

You've recovered pretty well since then. Not without first passing the virus to mummy, and then daddy. (which further reinforces mummy's norovirus conjunction; it is highly contagious). Daddy and mummy are still recovering from the viral episode. But our isolation procedures (quarantine ourselves at home) have apparently bored the daylights outta ya.

The boy has no patience for daddy and mummy's downtime to pass at all. His lethargy has worn off, he wants his entertainment and he wants it right now. Babies, they're tyranny like that.