Six months of thoughts

Time flies when you are busy, really. It seems like yesterday I cradled her tiny wailing body in the delivery suite after 8 hours of labour pains. In a blink of an eye she morphs into this attention-seeking chubby doll, although still not growing much hair.

Blame it on my procastination, only now I decided to jot her growth, milestones and what I have learnt while taking care of her, for the past 6 months.

I gave birth in Thomson Medical Centre, to a petite 2.4kg girl at 9.41am, 24th May.

Features resembling her dad

Bent on breastfeeding since pregnancy, I was pretty upset when her paed recommended formula milk to fatten her up before breastfeeding for a few days as my flow had not kick in yet. Normal babies can survive on their own reserves for 2-3 days before mother's milk flow starts to kick in. That is why newborn infants tend to lose a bit of weight after birth. This is how mother nature works and I find it amazing. It is like mothers and babies making a pact to accomodate to each other's requirements. However, Baby R was on the lighter side and it was not advisable for her to lose further weight. However I got to listen to the doctor and at the meantime, I let her suckle every few hours to stimulate my flow.

Mummy's darling

Daddy B's favourite picture

We stayed there for three days and many relatives and friends came to visit. She of course, received many gifts and hampers too. Thank you all your blessings and gifts! Both baby and mummy were discharged from hospital on the third day as her jaundice level was normal. Yay!

I was really fortunate to have my mum, a babysitter of 10 years experience to take care of Baby R as well as my confinement. The first few weeks were torturous. Baby R couldn't differentiate between day and night. We got to wake her up if she slept too long in the daytime, if not we would be pandas by the next morning! As my milk flow became stable, I began latching her as much as possible. I know most mummies prefer to express the milk so they are able to tell how much the baby drinks. But expressing is hard work! Sterilising of bottles and pumps, assembling of pump, expressing process itself, then washing, storing and re-sterilising the pumps and bottles. Not to mention the heating of milk which takes a few minutes, meaning a few minutes of pacifying an impatient hungry baby. There was once just before I feed Baby R, after going through all the above, I realised the milk had turned bad. Argh! Perhaps expressing is a better system for some, but latching is definately more suitable for lazy mummies like me.

My mum took pride and huge responsibility in taking charge of my confinement. She called up all available aunties and friends to ask for advices and even bought a day-by-day cookbook! However cooking for a picky daughter like me is no easy task. I don't take innards, for one. At all. A good half of the cookbook was therefore useless. I also only prefer a small selection of veggies. Another quarter of the cookbook struck off. Therefore steamed threadfin/pomfret/salmon with sesame oil and shredded ginger is a dish i see everyday. No wait- make that every meal. Yes, both lunch and dinner, not that I am complaining. I love fish and to have fresh huge steaks and fillets of fish steamed on demand, what more can one ask for? I insisted on bathing and washing my hair everyday, much to her displeasure. One day, I sneakily bought Ben and Jerry's home, scooped two huge balls of my favourite vanilla, THEN asked if I could take ice cream. I still remembered her reply: 'You might as well finish already then ask?' Haha!

From sterisiling of bottles to bathing her to preparing my meals, I could not imagine doing it all alone. Yes I did not even dare to bath her the first month. She was sooooo tiny, sooooo fragile. Of course if no one were to help me I had to force myself to lah. I stayed at my mum's place for that confinement month for her convenience. As and when Daddy B was in town he would stay over. I still remember how frequent we changed her diapers. One diaper changing session can easily use up to 3 diapers, just because she pooed immediately after changing. Not to mention the number of times I kena-ed from her explosive sessions. Shirts, shorts, walls and floor were not spared.

We moved back to our place after the confinement month. Grandad bought her a pretty decent playpen to sleep in.

Playful Baby R

Finally!

I still didn't know how to bath her. So bathing was Daddy B's job while I slowly get the hang of doing everything else myself. Still, whenever Daddy B was out of town I would go to my mum's place. She doesn't mind. In fact she wanted me to bring baby R over as much as possible! She really enjoyed baby R's presence. I could forsee baby R being spoilt by her grandparents already haha.

The name 'Rebecca' was chosen when I was pregnant. We love old names like 'Katerine', 'Victoria' etc. Chosing a name which starts from an 'R' was totally coincedence, although of course I love the idea of sharing initials with her. :)

When it comes to chinese names, my parents are pretty particular. They insisted on seeking a geomancy master's advice. Geomancy reading requires the 'eight characters' which include the time and date of birth. Therefore her chinese name got to be decided after birth. We went to the famous shifu called '游龙子' at Guilimard Road (apparently famous in context of my folks). Upon recieving a range of characters to match, we decided on '凯励' (Kai Li). I think it meant truimph and position. Gentle on the pronounciation but a strong defination on the meaning. We loved it.

Bringing her out was a breeze as firstly, she slept immediately upon entering the car, and throughout the whole outing. Even in noisy Ghim Moh hawker centre on a Saturday morning and three hour high-tea sessions with my girlfriends.

And two, as I latched on exclusively, there wasn't a need to bring hot water, milk powder, etc. Only a decent nursing room was required and practically every shopping mall has one. We loved bringing her out. And she loved going out.

As she grew older, she slept less. Bringing her out was still fun, but no longer as easy. She doesn't want to sit on the pram without being pushed, refused to be carried sitting down and would cry if no one played with her. In short, she became more fussy and pretty attention seeking. Although I was envious when I saw other babies sleeping in the pram while their parents enjoying lunch, I guessed it was normal now that she grew older. Well, all babies behaved and grew differently. No point comparing and making yourself upset, right?

Coffee at Swensen's during her fourth's month

Ever since Baby R's birth, whenever my mum called, she would be asking about her. 'How is baby?' 'Is she sleeping well?' 'Has she been fed? Feed her more okay?' Nothing was asked about her own daughter. Oh, how I miss the days of my pregnancy when she nagged me to eat more fish, to cut down on fast food, not to tire myself out, etc. I can't believe I am jealous of my own daughter haha. Nonetheless, I am glad Baby R brought joy to my parents. They love kids. I know that. I saw how they played with the boys my mum used to babysit. What more their own granddaughter?

She was a bit on the slow side when it came to her neck. At 3 months old, her head still bobbled when we prepped her upright. The nurses said that half of the babies at 3 months old had firm necks already. That kept me worried. Was I too rough with her? Did I damage her neck? Was I not eating right that the milk I provide wasn't helping in bone development? There wasn't anything else I could do but to monitor each day. Slowly, I could see her supporting her neck better and better and by 4th month, her neck was stable as an adult's, and could turn on demand. Come to think of it, it was pretty silly to worry. Yeah, half of the babies passed the hurdle. That meant she belonged to another half lah! So what? She was still on the normal range, at 50th percentile, right? I guess I only had the competitive streak in me to blame.

Her sensory developments picked up rapidly after the 4th month, which was expected. I still remembered how Daddy B was commenting on how slow she was at 3 months when she couldn't hold a toy well. I chided him for being demoralising and not giving our dear girl enough faith. True enough, she grabs everything she sees now, from my phone to the umbrella handle to my hair (Argh!).

Her first roll. Yippie!

Speaking of hair, I started to notice a significant increase of hair loss since the 4th month. It was common to find strands of hair all over the bed and bathroom floor. Even my mum asked me about it, refering to my higher hairline. Oh no, what was happening to the thick mane of hair many hairdressers complained about when I asked to be layered?! :( Yes blame it on the hormonal changes from giving birth. I am currently still losing a lot of hair at 6th month but I heard it will get better by the 8th or 9th month. I do hope so, for the sake of my vanity.

As I didn't gain much weight from pregnancy, it didn't take me long to lose them. By two and a half months I managed to lose all the excess weight I gained. However the amazing part was after the 4th month. I started losing even further despite the massive amount of food I eat. Breastfeeding makes one constantly hungry and thirsty, and I can confirm this fact on experience. I can finish a whole roll of swiss roll from neighbourhood confectionery stalls (the coffee flavoured ones are my favourite) and still feel hungry. I can finish a plate of roast duck rice add char siew, a plate of wanton mee and end off with a cup of Koi bubble tea at one sitting and still lose a further three more kilograms. I guess i have Baby R's increased milk intake to thank as she grows. Well, the peaks of breastfeeding, and look who's complaining? :)

Slowly, I learnt to take care of her myself. Visits to 'Wai Po Jia' (maternal grandma's place) became lesser and lesser as ferrying from Clementi to Bedok and vice versa is inconvenient and even more tiring than taking care of her alone. Also, we did not buy her a cot at my mum's place due to space contraints. It became unsafe for her to sleep on a single bed when she learnt to roll. My mum missed her lots.

A few days before she turned 6 months old, we introduced different tastes to her. Funny as it sounds, her first food other than milk is, minestrone soup! And of all places, it was from Rocky's Pizza near our place. It was not even homecooked, so imagine all the MSG and salt and dunno-what-additives in it. At first I was quite skeptical about it when Daddy B suggested imprompto to let her try. If I were a baby I would expect my first food to be bland, comforting, maybe creamy like milk, not some diluted tangy liquid from a metal spoon! But hey, she liked it! She cried when we withdrew the spoon from her! Haha. Of course we didn't give her much. She might get a tummyache!

Sleepy Baby R after some minestrone? Hehe

Subsequently I fed her a bit of what i ate, eg fish porridge without seasoning, orange sacs, tofu.

Grandma feeding her

This walker is really useful, as you can see!

There are still many milestones to hit before she is independent and I would love to witness every single one. Life as a parent is no doubt busy, but I will try to squeeze time to jot every interesting bits whenever I can!