have you ever wondered what it would be like without wax

friday: picked hamza up from cik tina’s and the poor mite was lying helplessly in her arms running a temperature of 38.7. at home, gave him the paracetamol and sponged him down. he only slept at 10am plus, thanks to our constant sponging as he hates it when the cold cloth touches his skins. of course, us sticking the thermometer into his ear (albeit for a few seconds only) every 30 mins majorly pissed him off too. he woke up every hour that night.

saturday: he woke up at 7, all smiles and giggles. the fever has broken! alhamdulillah! we had some fish porridge for lunch, and i noticed red spots in his elbow. like me, he is allergic to some fish, so we didn’t think much of it. went to nenek’s house in the afternoon to make sheppard’s’ pie. abang ilhan and ilyas were there too! hamza and ilyas did their usual maori-like greeting, touching nose to nose, forehead to forehead, many many times. at 5pm, just as i was starting to add cheese to the potatoes, aby who had bathed him said, his fever’s back. ya Allah…panas nya! supposed to visit andak after maghrib, but shelved that plan and went home immediately. at home, another shower and paracet, and he slept at 7pm. i took the opportunity to peel 45 cloves of garlic in preparation for the aglio olio i was planning to make for the sohahabahs reunion the next day. right after i peeled the last one, hamza woke up. it was 11pm. fever is now at 39 so in goes the ibuprofen and more sponging him down. we tried to put him to sleep, but again he woke up every hour at 3am, we decided desperate times call for desperate actions. we packed him in the car, blasted the air-con full blast and drove at 50km/h on the kje to tuas. would have really ended in jb if we had our passports. drove around the jurong extension, tuas extension and only god knows where as aby played tour guide trying to keep me awake. hamza only fell asleep on the way back. we reached home nearly 5am and totally crashed after subh.

sunday: we woke up at around 9am, thanks to the sms from my sohabahs asking about the reunion that was due at 11am. i’m thinking “oh god i have 4 packets of spaghetti, 2 cans of mushrooms, a packet of chilli padi and a bottle of evoo, not to mention the 45 cloves of garlic." as aby showered hamza, we saw more spots on his wrists and ankles. but his fever’s gone! hmn…ok we’ll just go to the doctor, get some more meds and find out what’s wrong. if everything is ok, we’ll head to fauzan’s and i’ll just order pizza or something. so we headed down to dr helana’s.of course the queue was sooooo long, we waited at a fitness corner to give hamza some fresh air. and of course being civic minded people that we are, to keep his germs from everyone else.

we saw a locum doc whom i feel like strangling him with his stethoscope. he took one look at hamza’s spots and declared that it was typical chickenpox. even after i told him hamza might have been exposed to hfmd, even after he examined hamza’s mouth and showed me the two ulcers there, he still maintained that it was chickenpox. more paracet and ibuprofen and calamine lotion plus 7 days child sick leave for me. made the necessary announcements and headed home to start our quarantine.

monday: i felt a nagging feeling, like really tak puas hati with the doc. so we went back to dr helena to actually see dr helena and she confirmed that it was not chickenpox but hfmd. more ulcers had developed in hamza’s mouth and the spots that were pink before had turned slightly reddish. a call to cik tina confirmed that her daughter was also similarly diagnosed. we drove to my office to take my laptop (what, did i really think i was going to go scot free?)

tuesday & wednesday: we developed a routine of the next two days. after breakfast, i’d walk hamza out and let him roam around in the empty basketball court for his exercise and hopefully to sweat out the virus from his body. after that, he’d help me with the chores by unfolding the clothes i’d folded, unsweeping the floor i’d swept and putting back the trash after i’d put it out. he also helped me with my office work – in fact he sent 3 emails to my boss without my knowledge.

yup, i can send emails now! to ummi's boss!

after lunch, he’d take a 2 hour nap while i tried to do whatever i can with the house and catch up on work emails. once he’s awake, he would demand play time again all the way until 5ish, where his abi comes home, when of course, once he’s home, i’m totally forgotten. that night i called cik tina to get an update on her daughter coz if she’s past the infectious stage, i’d want to sent hamza back there tomorrow and go back to work. instead, horror of horrors, she informs me her son has now caught it from her daughter. looks like i’m totally maxing out my childcare leave this year. second horror of horrors, poor ilyas has caught it too! so i warmly welcomed my thither to the happily frustrate mommy daily club.

thursday & friday: aby develops small reddish bumps all over his body. he is also running a fever and was given 2 days mc. great…now i have two babies to look after.

saturday & sunday: took the opportunity to clear the house as a pre-pre hari raya spring cleaning. really took apart hamza’s room and cleared out his closet to separate the clothes he no longer fits into from the clothes of his size. heh…at 15 months, he is still comfortably wearing size 9-12 mths size.

spot the baby!

and now…both babies are sound asleep. hamza developed a running nose just after asr today. have given him zyrtec and paracet, hopefully it’s just because of all the dust from the cleaning.

and i am going back to work in a few hours time.

so you tell me…you penat tak?

with cousin ilyas, born the day after.

on the monday after that weekend i got a call from cik tina saying, "eh your son macam nak pengsan, panas!" we rushed to NUH A&E that night.

we only left the hospital at 3am after waiting 2 hours for hamza to pee to collect a urine sample for testing.

two days after that, his fever broke. and then the rashes came. all over his stomach and hands.

another trip to the A&E where this time only one parent was allowed in and we were quarantined because of the rashes. another 3 hour wait.

in the end, diagnosis was roseola.

on sunday after sending mother and father off on their honeymoon, we went to the Jacob Ballas Childrens' Garden.