With baby Keira being hospitalized on Dec 30, 2013 (two days after she turned 7 months old and two days before the new year), there was no running away from the fact that our baby would be spending her first New Year at Pantai Hospital, Penang.
It was definitely NOT the New Year celebration we had in mind with our little honeybun. But I also knew that I will never get back this day. So I could keep being annoyed about it (even though it is no one's fault that she got sick at the "right" time), or I could do something about it.
I opted for the latter, of course. I just felt like it was up to me - I could let the day just pass like another ordinary day, or I could try to fix it and so something about it and at that point, what was more important, was to bring some new year cheer to my baby girl.After all, it is her first new year and I wanted to make sure my baby experienced a cheerful new year in positive spirit, especially after the pain and suffering she had the past week from endless fever, cough and flu. And as if all that illness was not enough, throwing up after every medication and rashes all over her body were added to the list earlier in the afternoon. Poor baby!
So at 6.30pm on New Year's Eve (yesterday), after I fed her milk, I got my hubby to mind her for an hour at the hospital while I snuck out to go back home for a quick refresher and to pick up my mom, as well as hunt down some new year "props" I could get hold of in the last minute. Traffic was bad everywhere, so I figured the safest was to stick to what's close. Young Ones seemed like the best last resort as I had seen some party stuff in one of the corners before, and I needed to be quick. Good thing mom was in the car, no need to worry about carpark.
Oh yes, of course I was in luck!!! As limited as the choices were for party stuff, I grabbed whatever I needed that would liven the room and ambiance - a couple of party hats, balloons, decos worth RM42.90 - and I was out of there within 30 minutes and back in the hospital, ready to execute my mission "Project: New Year Partay @ the Crib".
My hubby was in the midst of putting her to sleep when I got back to the hospital room. The stuff I bought, and my prepping (balloon blowing etc.) did not go unnoticed by the little one - it distracted her from sleeping... It was like she knew mommy was up to something and she wanted in on it, and as sleepy as she was, she did not want to miss a thing so her eyes were wide awake.
She was looking a little better so we kept her entertained until she was really sleepy.
It was a good thing that she was admitted into a private room at the Executive Suite and not one of the shared children wards as our crazy antics of entertaining our little one with songs, mirror reflections etc. would have definitely annoyed other patients.
By 9.45pm, she started rubbing her eyes intensively, a sign of sleepiness, to which we sung her to sleep - as we always do. As she dozed in her crib, mommy got back to balloon blowing and decorations, so that by the time she got up (hopefully at midnight), we were ready for her New Year partay in her crib!
At 11.00pm, when most of the decorations were up, she was awakened by a loud burst from one of the balloons I was pumping. Oh darn! But what can you do right?!? Since it was time for her medication anyways and the nurse was ready to feed with her five shots of meds, we decided that we should just go ahead with the partay at her crib as she will probably be dozing off again before 12.00am midnight. She is unwell after all, and she needs her rest.
In the end, all that mattered was that we did get to spend a memorable first New Year with our little darling and as a family. It was not exactly the family celebration we we had in mind, especially not location-wise, but it all worked out for the best. We definitely are blessed!
Happy new year from our little family to yours
& cheers to a greater and brighter 2014! :)
