Cuddly Cat

Poor lil' Jaeden having a windy spell in his tummy, but Mommy and Papa have to go out and grab lunch.

<11 Mar 2012>

"I just want to cuddle up at home and sleep Mommy, where are you bringing me?"

The Third Party

My recently-turned 8-month boy likes to bunk in with me and the hubby these days on our King bed.

Please don't be mistaken, I have been putting the boy in his cot ever since Day 1. I have been most adamant about not sharing our bed with him. I have a thing about not letting baby come between the hubby and I (on the bed literally), yet nowadays I found myself eating my words. Somehow he feels comforted sleeping alongside the both of us, and falls asleep quicker.

I am well able to handle the pat-put back in cot-pat-put back in cot routine when Jaeden fusses at night but come 5-ish in the morning, where my threshold of endurance dips the lowest, that's where I always cave in - and simply plonk the boy between the two of us and force my way back to dreamland. 5am is not a decent time to be awake. 5am is when I'll make a desperate attempt to convince my body that I can still catch some quality shuteye before the sky breaks at 6. 

I wonder, is this a 'phase thing'?

Does this mean that Jaeden is going to be the new permanent resident on our couple bed till sleep training begins?
I was mighty pleased with myself that I managed to settle Jae back to his cot yesterday night, let's hope 'this' won't last long.

Jaeden @8 months <18 Mar 2012>

If-You're-Happy-And-You-Know-It-Clap-Your-Hands

Lil' Jaeden has picked up clapping, all thanks to Mommy's frequent clapping and yaying when playing with him. I will have him hold both my hands as I guide him with the clapping motion. Today, he surprised Mommy by doing it himself. Good little surprises come in small packages, just like our favourite desserts.

<20 Mar 2012>

Old as Good as New?

I'm not sure if it runs in the family, but both my sister and I are frugal when it comes to getting toys for the little ones. We don't believe in having a roomful of toys for our tods - simply because of practicality.

We ladies are guilty of buying clothes that we won't wear, at least not that many times. So we do a quick mental estimation of the longevity of the plaything, to ascertain its worthiness in buying. Since my mother-in-law is looking after Jaeden on weekdays, we needed a duplicate of most day-to-day basics for two houses, and yours truly the financial controller is ever quick to rule out the lower-priority ones.

Recently I decided to search for second-hand playyards and those inflatable swimming tubs. Believe me that they are many moms out there who buy items/toys to find to their dismay that their kids don't like it, and the items quickly became newly minted white elephants, so it's very easy to find almost brand new items at discounted prices. The drawback? You have to self-collect the item.

The owner of the secondhand play yard I bought was nice to throw in this activity table FOC as her girl has outgrown it and hardly plays with it.

Jaeden with his "new" play yard <20 Mar 2012>

When it comes to toys, rather than buying into that "suitable for motor development" and "recommended for age so-and-so" tagline, look around your house; there are many household essentials that will stimulate the said motor skill just as well, so long there is an adult supervising the play process. These are my two cents' worth of alternatives from a scrooge mommy.

Thankfully, I have friends who gave Jaeden toys for different developmental stage during his baby shower. Thus far I have only bought him a Lamaze giraffe and some teethers. I have managed to survive on hand-me-downs and rented toys but that, is another entry to be shared in time if it is deemed a good idea.

Time to Build Immunity

In all his 7 months, Jaeden has never encountered diarrhoea - not until recently.In parenting, I've come to learn that some things can't be rushed, especially the healing of our babies when they are sick. Paediatricians cannot prescribe too strong a medicine because our babies are too young. When Jaeden was slightly colickly (in his early 1st month), we administered the good old Ruyi oil and Ridwind and slowly Jae grew out of having windy spells in his tummy (at about 2 months);When Jaeden caught the cough from Mommy (I felt so guilty then), we gave him cough mixture for a whole week before seeing slight improvement;Now when Jaeden has diarrhoea, we switched his milk from normal formula to soy formula, and supplement with Bio-Gaia. It's been 2 weeks and he is only showing lesser loose stools this week. It is plain heartache to see baby unwell but we can't rush his recovery with antibiotics or jabs like adults.Yet experienced parents will assure me that infants/toddlers/children build immunity through sickness.  And lil' Jae is a little soldier who continues to smile even when he is unwell. We should learn from our babies; smile despite of your condition! <9 Mar 2012>Taken from iPhone4 (Note to Karen: "Great shot! But need sturdier hands" :P)

Mommy Brain

Last Saturday when church service was over and I was about to exit the nursery, a most peculiar thing happened. Peculiar because it has never happened to me. I couldn't find my Fit Flops in the shoe cabinets. I caused a little commotion abeit the turnover crowd and got all the nursery workers searching for it.

There was another pair of the exact colour and design of what I had, except in two sizes bigger. I even wondered aloud at the impossibility of someone mistaking my shoes for theirs, since I was a petite size four. After ten minutes or so, the hubby asked audibly, "Dear, I thought you are not wearing your Fit Flops today, are you?"

Stunned silence for about ten seconds, then I realised my mommy brain had a relapse! The nursery workers were all laughing their heads off after the burst of revelation, and I quickly apologised for the inconvenience, mumbled about my forgetfulness these days, and swiftly left the nursery.

Can the usual brain come back?

I came up with a perfect justification for forgetful mothers.

Human beings can mostly focus on one thing at one time. While women are generally known to be better multi-taskers, they still achieve their objectives best when they narrow down to one goal each time. There is a mental checklist to run through each time we bring the baby out: diapers check, wet wipes check, pacifier check, bottle check, extra change of clothes check, toys for distracting the baby check etc. We don't have all the time in the world to pack our diaper bags, because we 'catch' our babies' timings, "Oh baby is awake, and it's not near to feeding time, let's just go for a quickie meal" or "Baby has finished his milk and is so restless, let's bring him out". With the time constraint, we sometimes forget to pack a) one of baby's stuff b) our own stuff c) some miscellaneous items for an errand. You see, we concentrate best on one person each time.

Hubbies, please understand. Without us you probably might have forgotten more things. So pardon the Mommy Brain.

'Cool in Shades'

<21 Feb 2012>

I Love...

I love to see you smile at me every morning when you wake, with a twinkle in your eye and sometimes a hint of cheekyness which says, "I've slept enough and now I'm ready to play the house down!";
I love when you reach out your tiny hands to me, and jerk your hands and feet in excitement when I attempt to carry you;
I love that you will peer up at me from my lap occasionally when you hear me talking to Papa;
I love the way you place your miniature palm over the "O" of my mouth while I am singing you to sleep with nursery rhymes;
I love that you enjoy rolling around on the bed in mommy and Papa's presence when you wind down for the night;
I love to peep at you sleeping soundly in your cot, to see your demonstrations of "starfish" and "koala" sleep positions;
I love to know that you are safe, sound, healthy, happy and growing, my baby.

<11 Feb 2012>

Happily roaming around church nursery

 

The World of Weaning

There are many new territories a new mom has to conquer the day motherhood begins.

From the moment the baby is brought home, it is a frenzy of juggling feeding times, latching, pumping, learning to discern sleepy signals from hunger cries, diaper-changing, and catching as much sleep in between. That is why the confinement lady is there if you can have the luxury of hiring one. All these are still so fresh in my memory!

Crossing over 6 months, I was baffled by the term called "weaning". What should the baby eat? What can the baby eat? What causes allergy? When should the baby eat? How do I prepare baby's food?

I was frantically reading up, then decided to take baby steps and not jump on the fast-train. I subscribed to the belief that a child has a whole lifetime to eat, and I don't have to be in a hurry.
As if my storeroom was not bursting with stockpiles of diapers and wet wipes, I had to add to it a collection of kitchen appliances called the "steamer" and the "blender". Please don't get me started on the range of appliances available to bewilder a freshie mom like me (especially a know-nuts in the kitchen).

And oh, there are different styles of weaning! Typically there are 5-6 feeds a 6-month old baby take, and ideally l'd liked to do a "milk-puree-milk-porridge-milk" sequence. Some mummies practice BLW (Baby Led Weaning) which means they allow the baby to experiment with a food with their hands, squishing and squashing it till they try to put it into their tiny mouths to savour. I do it the old school way so as to blend with my mother-in-law's methods. After all, she is the main caregiver.

Experts will tell you to let your baby try a new food and keep to it for at least 4 days before moving to another one in order to determine the culprit easily if there's an allergy or uncomfortable tummy. I am not a very experientmental mommy and thus far I have only given white rice cereal, porridge, carrot, potato, butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato and threadfin. Never have I been so particular about the type of vegetables I buy ie. broccoli and cauliflower has to be from Australia, choose butternut squash over pumkpin. I don't even know what a buttersqash is before this!

You read earlier on that day 1 of weaning wasn't successful for me. Some say it requires a few tries. Jaeden succeeded on the 2nd try and now at a month later, he can finish a full Thermos flask of porridge puree.

Learn, laugh it over and live it up mummies. This journey is so much fun.