Julien’s hospitalization

If you had read my earlier posts, you could tell we had a good family holiday at Club Med.

Quite the opposite happened once we landed back in Singapore..

To keep a long story short, Julien vomitted 8 times that day from 3-10pm. We brought him to our GP who advised that he should refrain from milk and just take plenty of fluids like 100+, diluted fruit juices.

The following day, he puked twice and took in mostly fluids.

The morning after, we finally prepared to go back to work since Julien seemed better. We did not give Julien any milk for breakfast as he was not completely well. As usual, we drove to our in-laws’ to drop Julien and the maid off before going to work.

Just a short distance after we left, the hubby’s mobile rang. It was from my in-laws’ house. He picked up the phone and uttered the words “Huh?! Ok, we are going back now!”

The hubby told me that it was my mum-in-law and she said that Julien had fainted at her doorstep!

My heart stopped a beat. Tears welled up in my eyes uncontrollably.

When we reached home, I was real shocked to see my MIL with Julien lying in her arms. My MIL looked desperate and almost helpless. My heart sank and hot tears streamed down my face.

We drove down immediately to the nearest private hospital. Julien was unconscious during the whole trip except for a short instance when he awoke to cry. I never felt happier in my life to hear Julien fuss!

We then were relieved because it seemed that Julien was fast asleep instead of ‘fainted’.

At the hospital’s A&E, the doctor administered medication as well as insert a drip in the poor little fella’s small hand…

As expected, it took ALOT out of him. He screamed and struggled as the drip was being inserted.

As things began to settle down and while we waited for a room to be available, I ate a piece of kaya toast.

Guess what?

Julien SNATCHED the piece from my hands!

Make that 3 pieces of toast at one go…

Well, it turned out that Julien fainted due to a very low glucose level. Too much output, too little input.

All these happened on Friday morning.

It didn’t help that we did not manage to get a single room for Julien. So either the little child beside us was disturbed by Julien’s fussing or it was the other way round. It was worse when the fussing happens at night during sleeping hours…

Finally, the doc said Julien could most probably discharge on Sunday morning. And then…

Saturday night.

Julien kept screaming as he had stomachache. I brought him out of the room so as not to disturb the child next to us. But a mummy from next door shooed me away from the corridor as well…. Where else could we go?…:(

With a wailing sick boy in my arms, I walked to the nurses’ counter and there Julien puked. He merlioned. Non-stop for a few seconds. That long… That much…

SIGH.. The possibility of discharging the next day vanished.

My boy was so wanting to go home… Poor boy :(

We stayed a total of 3.5 days in the hospital… Me and the daddy caught Julien’s virus as well during the hospitalization. It was so draining for all of us.

(We brought his security blanket from home to comfort him. FYI, this blanket is older than his dad! It was used by daddy’s elder sister, daddy himself, daddy’s younger sister, Julien’s older cousins and now Julien!)

You could imagine how glad we were to finally get the doc’s approval to go home on Monday!

What an experience that we never want our little beloved to ever go through again! Praying for his good health and protection!

Dinner @ Werner’s Oven

My bro had just returned safely from 2 weeks of training in Thailand and he was craving for good ‘ol Western food. So we decided on Werner’s Oven.

This restaurant brings me back to memories of my secondary school days as it used to be situated near my secondary school. When my classmates and I were feeling a little richer than usual, we would go over to Werner’s Oven for a good lunch.

This place serves authentic German food. Mains costs an average of $20.

Fierce owner…

We ordered Fritiert Calamari for starters… Breaded calamari with home made tar tare sauce. Calamari is fresh and springy in texture. Delicious!

I shared this oxtail stew with Val. The meat was not fatty but tender and stewed nicely. The stew was thick and tasty. And it came with toasted buttered bread.

We had pumpkin and clam chowder soups. I preferred the clam chowder as the ingredients were generous and not too creamy like the Campbell versions. The pumpkin soup was thick enough and full of pumpkin goodness but had a slightly sourish after-taste which I did not quite like.

We bought a basket of bread that came with salted butter for Julien. The breads taste as good as it looks. Healthy too I guess with all the multi-grain.

Julien making a mess of his food. He enjoys self-feeding these days which I allow. But the only bad thing about this freedom I give to him is cleaning up after everything.

I absolutely love steak but I wanted to try German food in a German restaurant. My sis and bro ordered their Sirloin steaks. The portion was really generous. The steak was juicy and chewy BUT it was un-swallowable for me! The 1 bite-size portion that I took was eventually spat out after 5 minutes of chewing. I just could not break it down and I was afraid I would choke on it. Serious!

My siblings were swallowing the pieces of beef at the start but they realized only a quarter of the steak was tough.

Breaded fish & chips for the hubby. He felt it was very average.

Val & I also shared a platter of German sausages. Bärlauchwurst… which is coarse pork sauages with garlic herb. The sausages in my opinion tasted average. I could not taste any garlic herb. And they were too oily for my liking. Mashed potatoes were awesome creamy. As for the sauerkraut, we all did not like it.

Nothing like good beer with all the meats.

After we downed everything, we got into the desserts…

Delicious green apple crumble with vanilla ice-cream.

Cherry cheesecake. I think Coffee Bean’s better.

All in all, we enjoyed our dinner here. Will be back for more German & Western food!

Happy baby & mummy!

Werner’s Oven:

6 Upper East Coast Road #01-01/02/03 Singapore 455220

Tel: 6442 3897

(Closed on Mondays)

Fine Dining at Club Med

I am not a fine dining kind of person. I can’t differentiate the different types of cutlery placed beside my plate for nuts! I always prefer just 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 knife.

But since we heard that fine dining is included in our package at Club Med… WHY NOT?!

We heard that we’ve got to make reservations for fine dining at their restaurant Chuda. We went to book at the reception counter on the morning of the 2nd day for dinner however the reservations were full already! We could only go the following day.

Here’s the restaurant situated beside the Zen pool…

Actually, it was not so fine a dining… Most of the guests wore casual!

Surprisingly, the place was not at full capacity at all.

We get to choose from 2 sets – Thai or Fusion. Wine, bread rolls, fruits and drinks were available free flow.

Here is the starter. Same for both sets.

Jared & I took Thai…

Appetizer. Prawns were really fresh and succulent.

Delicious soup with coconut cream in a coconut! Such a nice presentation. Taste wise it’s also my best.

Mains. I am not used to a sweet green curry gravy with my fish…

Desserts. This must be the thai version of ondeh ondeh?

Our friends chose the fusion set.

Appetizers… Raw beef… Yikes!

Pumpkin soup.

Mains… Lamb. It tasted good and juicy!

Their appetizer looks … arty.

All in all, we still preferred the buffet food. Service was also not too good as we felt that the waiters were not friendly and not too accommodating with some of our requests.

Anyway, this post is the last instalment of my Club Med Phuket series. Hope you enjoyed reading!

Review of Club Med Phuket–Part 3

We had considered a few places for a holiday. One of the most baby-friendly places we had been to was Japan but we had been there quite recently and we did not want to visit Japan so soon after the radiation disasters.

So when we came across the Club Med promotion and knowing that the Club Meds offered Mini Club services, BINGO! It would be an almost perfect holiday for Julien and us!

Club Med Phuket is the only Club Med in Asia which offers the Baby Club.

Here in this post, I will talk about the Baby Club facilities and services that we or rather Julien had experienced.

We did see alot of children at this Club Med and they attended the Mini Club activities which seemed very fun for them as well!

We saw a group of tweens playing a game of treasure hunt on the compound. We also saw another group of primary school level kids learning some circus acts!

(A girl on the trapeze! Well done and so brave!)

(GO Phil from UK showing off his juggling skills in front of the bewildered kids)

On another day, we also saw a group of kids having a seemingly enjoyable time with dough. A baking class in progress?

We also sighted the class of toddlers aged 2-4 years old going for a walk. We heard the GOs engaging the kids in conversation about the floral, fauna and insects they saw along the way. Impressed at the genuine enthusiasm of the GOs!

Now back to the Baby Club. It is situated at a corner of the Mini Club compound.

Upon reaching the Mini Club area, you will see a 0.5m deep pool just for the older kids.

The tweens will go to the rooms on the right, where the playground is also situated.

And the younger kids and babies will go to the left.

Here is the room for the kids aged 2-4 years old.

The Baby Club accepts babies and toddlers aged 4 months – under 2 years old. We read that they accept only a maximum of 8 kids here at any one time. And there were about 4-5 staff present which means a very impressive ratio of 1 staff to 1-2 babies/toddlers.

Baby Club services are available from 9am-5pm only. 8 hours of ‘freedom’ for parents everyday we were there.

There are 2 registrations available a day. One at 9am, and another at 2pm.

During the registration, you have to inform the staff the details about your child. Eg: Any allergies, whether they take lunch or snacks and the type of food they can take, nap-time, any special requirements as well as pick-up time.

The other parent can, at the same time bring your child to the nurse at the infirmary (at the reception area) to show them your child’s health booklet as they need to know that your child has been given the necessary immunizations. A nurse will also take a temperature reading of your child. This is only needed on the first day.

Parents, do remember to pack a bag for your child to pass to the GOs. We brought:

1. Milk powder and bottle

Julien had to have a feed at 2pm.

2. 3 pieces of diapers + diaper cream

3. Wet wipes

4. 1 piece of swimming diaper

We did not bring swimming diapers over and realized that there will be swimming activities everyday. Baby Club does not provide the diapers so the GO advised us to get it at a Boutique store near the reception area. As expected, the swimming diapers were not available in loose pieces but in a small pack which costs S$34! Thank God Julien could share a pack with Ansel.

5. Extra clothes

6. Sun block lotion

7. Water bottle

8. Swim wear

Hats, sunglasses and any of baby’s favorite items such as a pacifier, soft toy, security blanket are optional items you can pass to the GOs.

These are the activities your baby will go through each day.

We were excited for Julien but at the same time feeling a little apprehensive. Will Julien be in the good hands of the GOs? Will he enjoy himself? How will he react being separated for the first time with us his parents or any guardians?

When we were registering, Julien started playing with the cars and toy house next to the registration area.

9

(His infamous cheeky look)

Once inside the air-conditioned room, Julien’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. Julien is very into building blocks right now. So when he saw all kinds of colorful blocks, he was really elated!

We loved the space here! One side of the wall was glass so the children could enjoy the sight of the pool outside as well as the sunshine streaming in, all in the comfort of aircon.

We loved the toys here. Nothing violent, a good variety (blocks, cooking set, doll-houses, puppets, books) all very clean and colorful.

Here’s the pool area outside the room.

It is 0.3m deep. We were initially thinking of asking the GOs to excuse Julien from swimming but they informed us that they will put on those inflatable floats on the child’s arms. 1 GO will look after 1 child and if the child gets frightened, they will put him on a large float in the pool instead. Sounds pretty safe and Julien ‘survived’ all 3 days of swimming!

Here’s the Nap Room.

After viewing the facilities and knowing that all the GOs from Baby Club were nurses, we felt settled to leave Julien. Every morning we had to ‘escape’ from him when he gets distracted. Heehee…

The GOs ensured us that they would give us a call if Julien gets a fever or if anything would happen to him. If you want, you could also get the Baby Club’s telephone number from the reception and call them to check on your child or give any instructions to the GOs.

Every evening at 5pm that we fetch Julien, he would be super happy to see us and our little man would run towards us and then do a little dance. It was a heart warming sight…

♥

(Doesn’t he look happy to leave??)

(Julien’s Australian classmate watching him leave… Aww…)

At the end of each day, the GO will tell us exactly what Julien did, what he ate, what time and how long he slept, what time he poohed and changed diapers. We were very happy that he did coloring, specific play, swimming, feeding the birds (We had to confirm with the GO that Julien didn’t eat up the little pieces of cake meant for the birds to eat!) and handpainting on one of the days!

They compiled his art works and presented it to us on the last day.

And we were so  proud to know that Julien participated in all the activities, many of which are things that he had not done before) and always seemed happy.

On the last day, the Baby Club even conducted a special baby massage class.

And true to what I thought would happen, my 20-month old boy would not lie still to allow mummy dear to massage him hahaha!

(As you can see for yourself, instead of massaging him, I was struggling to pin Julien down!)

Anyway, after this final session and last hour at Baby Club, we spent some time chatting with the very friendly GOs.

Here’s Julien playing bubbles with GO Richard.

Thank You to GO Martin who took good care of Julien during these 3 days.

And of course many thanks to all of the GOs from Baby Club!

Without them, Julien would have never achieved his very first DIPLOMA at the age of 20 months. HAHAHAHA!

And guess what? When we woke up in the morning getting ready for our departure from Club Med to the airport, we found a little surprise at our door.

The sweet folks at Baby Club handmade a card just for Julien and slipped it under our door in the wee hours of the morning!

We were definitely impressed with the Baby Club! We really appreciated the Baby Club services available such that we could enjoy some time together without our child and yet able to also enjoy the other half of the time with him.  I call it a perfect family holiday!