PHOTOS and more photos!

Sorry I have not posted many pictures lately, so here's to make up for it:

From Halloween (Kaitlyn was a cowboy, that was the only costume that was the right size for her):


Kaitlyn making her "i don't like it" face:


A rare occurrance that I was able to take a picture of her sleeping:


I took her in to my office for our office Christmas Party. Kaitlyn sitting on my desk and playing with my phone:


Kaitlyn showing us that she knows which buttons to press for the washing machine (not in use, a spare washing machine now that we moved back to my parents')


She was upset that she was told to leave the washing machine alone:


Kaitlyn at 10 months old:


Kaitlyn with her favourite toy:


Here are the home-made Christmas shots:




and lastly, Kaitlyn's signature smile with the wrinkly nose:

10 months old!

Kaitlyn's 10 months old today. I know I have not been writing much on my blog. Life's been sort of hectic with work and baby.

Anyways, Kaitlyn gained a WHOLE KILOGRAM last month! Yay. I guess I can no longer say I am too worried about her weight. Although I am sure I will find something else to worry about in no time LOL. We weighed her last night, and thought the scale was broken, as it showed Kaitlyn 500gm heavier than last week. So we tried again, it then showed she was 300gms heavier. We took the 300gms, so Kaitlyn is now 8.1kgs. I tried to measure her height but it's no longer possible with her wiggling like a worm all the time. I guess the height measurements will have wait till she can stand still by a wall or something.

So what's new this month... mmm...

She weaned herself off wrapping altogether last week. After we stopped wrapping her arms, she was still held down to the bed with the SafeTWrap. But last week, she just kept screaming and crying when she slept and kept rolling to her tummy regardless how tight we wrapped her. So after 4 days without sleep for anyone, we thought we'd try to remove the SafeTWrap. She cried the first time she napped, then she was fine!! It turned out, she's a tummy sleeper, and didn't like being held to her back. Now, as soon as we put her in her cot, she turns to her tummy and lies there happily smiling at us LOL.

She's walking quite fast now holding onto something slightly. She's been trying to let go for seconds at a time, but I think she's still a bit afraid. I think she might actually walk on her own next month. She still can't crawl the proper way. She now crawls with her arms AND her toes LOL, it's hilarious to watch.

We've introduced pretty much everything we usually eat to her diet. Her usual daily is as follows:

• Between 4:30 and 6:30am, she wakes up for her early morning boob feed, for about an hour
• Between 8:30 to 11:00am, she wakes up for the day and has a bottle of 150mls of formula, then 30 minutes later, about 50mls of cereal and a tablespoon of fruit, a rice rusk and 30mls of water.
• She goes to nap for 1.5 to 3 hours after some play time
• Between 1:30 to 3:30pm, she wakes from nap and has a bottle of 150mls of formula, then 30 minutes later, 2 tablespoons of vegetables, about 50mls of rice cereal mixed with an egg yolk, then half a slice of cheese, with 30mls of water
• She doesn't nap in the afternoon anymore, so she just plays till dinner time
• 6:30pm on the dot, she has her dinner. She can put away 2 full bowls (the normal size asian rice bowl) of congee! We make congee with chicken, beef or pork, mixed with pureed vegetables. Even after her load of congee, she will still ask us for food when she watch us eat our dinner. So we occassionally just give her tiny pieces of whatever we are eating
• 8:00pm on the dot, she has her bath, gets dressed
• 8:15pm: She gets her before bed boob feed, I think this is more for comfort than meal as she doesn't really eat much and plays most of the time. Then she gets 90mls of formula to make sure she gets enough food for the night.
• 8:45pm, I read her the bedtime story "It's time for bed", gives her a few big hugs, and kisses, and puts her to bed.

I love being a mum. Kaitlyn is amazing and has such a personality. I love how simple babies are, that you can tell so easily if they are happy, angry or sad. I love that she shows affection without any reservation. I love her hugs, kisses and those big wrinkly-nose smiles. I love how she shows off her only 2 teeth all the time :D

I have been taking photos occassionally (wish I could take more, more often), but have yet have time to put them on the computer.

I wish I could freeze time

Yesterday as I came through the door after a long day of commute and work, Kaitlyn greeted me with a BIG BIG smile and opened her arms reaching for me. As I held her, she gave me a long bear hug and purred, followed by some hearty "happy pats". I played with her for an hour, fed her, played for another while, bathed her, dressed her, and we sat down and had our nightly quiet time routine of boob/bottle, book and bed. As I put her down to bed, she once again gave me a big smile. I felt tears in my eyes...

She is "walking" much more steady now holding onto a finger, or the side of a furniture, or pushing her "Kandee Car" instead of sitting in it.

She sings all the time now. She sings along everytime she hears music or song. She even started wiggling. It's rather cute.

She learned a couple of new words, "kick kick" and "nainai" (dad's mum in Mandarin).

She's growing up too fast. Everything is so nice and perfect right now, I wish I could just freeze time and enjoy my baby for much longer.

A vent about discrminiation against...

Ok, first of all, I KNOW there are many good managers and companies who do NOT discriminate against women, especially working mothers. I KNOW because I am working for such companies and thankful that I am working for them. However, I still need to vent because such discrimination still exists and it peeves me off.

/begin vent

The last week or 2, somehow the topic of discriminations in hiring women, especially women with a family, came up numerous times in conversations with friends and people at work. It sounded to me that such discriminations are very common. It also surprised me that women are not only discriminated against in the big bad world of private, corporate businesses, they are also being purposely overlooked for jobs/promotions in academia. In the hiring process, or assignments for important projects, or for promotions, women of childbearing age is often dismissed or not even considered because of a perceptions that they will be distracted with family and children and will somehow underperform compared to their peers.

Well, that just peeve me off big time.

True, working mothers have many more added responsibilities outside of work. Also true that working mothers generally prioritise their child/ren and family ahead of work.

BUT: what better to prove that one is capable to perform one's duties at work, than someone who is already currently juggling many things when they are at home, and succeeding?

From personal experience, motherhood has been the most challenging and difficult thing I have ever done. By comparison, completing 2 degrees; getting my MCSE in a month; or even hiking up the Himalaya were all child's play. Motherhood taught me much more than any university courses could've done, especially in time management, multi-tasking, neogiation skills and most of all, patience and willingness to do tasks that I really didn't want to do. Come on, would anyone willingly change a soiled nappy with a big smile on their face? But every mother does it. Therefore, I believe employers should consider a woman's ability to raise a healthy, balanced child as a credit to her CV and definitely NOT a liability.

Furthermore, although it'd be wonderful to be a stay at home mum and devote my time and energy to raising my children, most of us do not have that luxury due to financial pressures. Personally, I believe a working mother actually VALUE their time away from the the chores and their angelic but probably still screaming, kids. They value the adult interactions, the challenges at work that utilises their intellectual minds, and they value being more than just a mother.

For example: before I fell pregnant, I started my Master's degree in IT Management. The first subject I did, I barely studied and scrapped through with a Credit. I took 2 semesters off to have Kaitlyn. When I returned to uni, Kaitlyn was over 6 months old and I had been a full time mother up to that point. I LOVE spending time with my daughter, I LOVE watching her play, grow and learn new things all the time. But, I also value my time away. I no longer took for granted that I am out and about on my own. I no longer took for granted all the intellectual discussions in classes. I no longer took for granted the time I could have to study for the classes when Kaitlyn was sleeping. Technically, I had less time to do my studies because I could only do that when Kaitlyn's sleeping. But for some reason, I actually got more done, and did them all much better than before. I finished this semester with High Distinctions.

Some of the most capable people I know at work, are working mothers. I have met women who completed their Ph.D while raising a young child. I believe the employers and companies who discriminate against working mothers, some even go as far as discriminating women of child bearing age regardless if they currently have children, are doing themselves great injustice. They are missing out on many very capable, intelligent, talented individuals who could contribute much to the company.

/steps off the soapbox
/end vent

Hugs and kisses

Kaitlyn started giving us hugs and kisses today. When I said to her "Kaitlyn, give mummy a hug?" She puts her arms around me, and her head on my shoulder right next to my neck and goes "uggg". She can't pronounce hug properly yet but so cute!

She also started kissing us for no reason at all. She kissed me on both cheek this afternoon, BIG WET ones LOL... I think her skills needs a bit of refining ;)

She also understands quite a few words now. She claps and waves when you ask her to, and she now demands "baf time" and she asks for the book after her bedtime bottle using a word that I do not understand (but she uses the same word every night).

I love being a mum :)

The Story of no wraps, cold turkey

Bit of the background: Kaitlyn likes being wrapped to sleep. When she was very little, like from birth to about 3 months, she was swaddled, i.e. her arms and legs were wrapped snuggly. Otherwise, she would startle herself and wake up screaming. Gradually, she got too long for the wraps, so we only wrapped her arms down at night.

Then one night around 5 months, she decided she no longer liked to be wrapped with arms down by her side. So we had to leave her to sleep without being wrapped at all. But that's when she got worse with her sleeping patterns and waking every single hour throughout the day and night. She also started moving all over the bed, and getting her head, arms and legs trapped between the cot railings or had them bruised by smacking the wood too hard. Eventually, after 2 months of struggling with that, we took her to Tresillian. In Tresillian, they tried to get her to settle and sleep without being wrapped at first... and she cried for TWO entire hours that afternoon and didn't get a wink of sleep. So, the nurse wrapped her loosely with her arms near her face. BINGO! that was the trick. She slept!!!

After 7 days at Tresillian, she started sleeping, and a week after we got home, she was consistently sleeping through the night, from 8pm to 4am-6am. And she also napped for 1.5 to 3 hours during the day. Ah, it was heaven~!~~!~ We also bought her the SafeTWrap, which is a long piece of material that is secured to the mattress and to secure her onto the mattress. She can still turn to her sides if she wished, but she couldn't move all over the bed, and couldn't get trapped under the covers, or between the railings. I slept a lot better after we got the SafeTWrap, knowing she is safe in the cot.

So, fast forwad to last month, My father decided he'd start nagging me about the wrapping and wanting me to stop wrapping her and securing her down with the safeTwrap. I thought, ok, it wasn't broken, she's sleeping great, and she liked the security of the wraps, everyone in the house is much happier because she was sleeping well, why change it? It's not like we wrap her very tight, it was so loose that she could get out of the wraps easily. And a lot of mornings, we did find her out of her wraps and waving her arms at us or clapping anyways. BUT NO, dad still nags and nags and nags.... it got so bad last week, every word he said to me was about removing the wraps and how I am harming the baby intentionally and stunting her development, hurting her bones etc. Way to go dad!

So, I got very fed up with the nagging and being told that I was the worst mother in the world. I decided to show him what it would've been like to totally unwrap her. Oh boy did she cry... Out fo the 24 hours that we totally unwrapped her, she slept for maybe max 8 hours in totally (that's less than half of her usual sleep!) She wouldn't nap at all during the day, and woke up every hour during the night again. It also wasn't the whining cry, it was screaming and startled sort of cry. She kept crying mama, mama... it was heart breaking! We also found her upside down in the bed, or on her tummy and couldn't get herself back over to her back...etc. Wasn't safe, and lucky I put the baby breathing and motion monitor back on so _I_ could get a little bit of sleep, otherwise I would've been worrying all night long. I was so tempted to wrap her again, but I didn't. I wanted to make sure dad cave first.

Well, he did. He's never very good with handling Kaitlyn's crying anyways. He asked us to re-wrap her after 24 hours of torture. Ok, I am fine with weaning her off the wrap that goes over her arms as I do agree that it is probably not great for her development to bend her arm all night. But the SafeTWrap was to keep her safe! It's not like she's held down in one single position all night, it's just to keep her from getting to her tummy or get hurt by the railings!

I put the SafeTWrap back on, and Yay, she slept! The 24 hours cold turkey no wrapping at all had weaned her off the arm wraps. As long as we tuck her in nice and snug, she would sleep. She loved playing with the covers with her arms. But she still needed the security of being held around the tummy. I know when she's ready, she will outgrow the SafeTWrap, but I also know that this is NOT the time yet.

I got very annoyed during the 24 hours of no sleep and baby crying. But I am also happy that she no longer needs her arms held down at all. I just wish though that my dad will realise that I was trying to do what's best for my child and know my child better than he does. But I know, that's too much to hope for...

9 Months measurements and teething, round 2

Here are Kaitlyn's 9 months measurements:

Weight: 7.5kg (her weight has been yoyo-ing a lot the last 3 months, it's sad that she only gain 100gms net, in 3 months!, but for the last 3 weeks, she's been consistent in gaining 100gm every week, so here's hoping she will start gaining more weight from now on)
Height: 74cm (she's tall, at the 90 percentile at the moment, here's hoping she won't be short like mummy when she grows up)
Head circumference: 43cm (she wiggles so much I don't know if this is accurate)

Her top centre teeth are coming through soon, she's a drooling machine again and today her temperature spiked a little. She will look so different with bug bunny teeth.

NINE months old

Kaitlyn turns 9 months old today! It's weird how time seemed to have sped up after she's 6 months old... It's now like, I blinked and a month is gone. She has her next paediatrician appointment next week. I am such a slack mummy and have not taken her to her 6 to 8 months routine checkup yet. Now that we need to take a bus to go ANYWHERE, it's just such a hassel to leave the house without a car. She's generally healthy, when she's not teething. She's a little on the skinny side, but I am trying to not worry too much. I will definitely ask the doctor about the lack fo weight gain though when we see him next week.

Now, onto the new things Kaitlyn is doing:

• She crawls all over the house now, and rather fast, although she's still doing commando crawls (with her arms only)
• She stands up for a long time, holding onto the railings in her cot
• She now can say, mum and dad (in 2 languages), bath, full, num-num (for food) and bed
• She sings and dances
• She waves hello and goodbye without being asked
• She claps her hands when she is happy or when she is singing
• She pats you on the back and arms when she's happy
• She kicks her legs when you tell her to
• She's close to doing "kisses"
• She loves to play and talk with herself in front of the mirror
• She pulls herself up in the bathtub
• She has a "shoe fetish" and chase people's slippers, shoes and socks all over the house if you let her
• She plays peek-a-boo
• She loves to giggle and laugh. She is such a happy baby, we feel very blessed
• She has "hair envy" (maybe because she doesn't have much at all, she still looks like a baldie in photos with her mousey blond fuzz). She loves to grab and pull other people (especially mummy)'s hair, very ouchie...
• She does NOT like pumpkin
• She loves chicken and carrots in her rice porridge but not so keen on pork
• She bites if woken to be fed in the morning... not a morning person I assume...
• She loves to walk, while holding onto furnitures or on our pinky fingers.
  

I will be going back to work first week next month. I wish I could continue to stay home. I much prefer to raise my child than have my mother do it. But then, having my mother taking care of Kaitlyn is still better than putting her in childcare, I suppose... I really wish I could stay home... I hate thinking about my baby growing up, without me around... :(

The Few Days Away sans Baby

As a part of the celebration for my 30th birthday, Brett took me away for a few days without the baby. We went back to the hotel we stayed at for our wedding, in the city, just so that IN CASE baby needed us, we were not far away.

I went to the gym and pool everyday, so I could justify to myself the numerous restaurants we visited. I just LOVE food... We had a Japanese buffet last night... OMG we ate so much... I could see a look of relief on the waitress when we eventually finished. I hope this place don't go bust like that All You Can Eat Yum Cha we went to just the once...

As much as it was nice to be in a 5 star hotel, have the room made up nicely each day by someone else and room service (love the breakfast in bed thing)... What I loved the most was being able to have a hot shower, with more than decent water pressure, for as long as I wanted, whenever I wanted. I have not had a LONG hot shower since the night before Kaitlyn was born.

I missed Kaitlyn heaps and called home everyday to make sure she was ok. She was an angel apparently, never fussed and slept through the night every night.

Kaitlyn looked slightly different when I first saw her when we got home. She definitely has more fuzz on her head now... her mousey blonde mohawk is so cute LOL. It took her a while before she gave us that big bright signature smile. In just this few days, she has learned to:

• go from sitting to crawling
• Stand very well when holding onto something, by herself
• crawls a lot faster
• oh, and she was singing today... I could almost swear we heard she sang the tune of "ABC"

Ah, kids just grow up so fast...

I am so glad to be home, and be with my baby girl.

Ouchies -- Too much information warning

I made a booboo again with the baby. /sighs. Last night I was feeding Kaitlyn her usual congee for dinner. I thought I had cooled it down properly because she's already gone through half a bowl with no problems. So, I put this one spoonful in, and she started screaming... my poor baby, it was too hot. She then started vomitting, and vomitting and vomitting... she fountained so much I didn't know a little tiny baby could hold that much food! The high chair was soaked, the floor directly under the the chair was covered, her whole body was covered... She cried and cried till her face was bright red, and she kept on crying out "mum, mummy, mama..." It was heartbreaking.

Needless to say, I got quite a lecturing from MY parents, as if i wasn't feeling guilty enough about burning my baby. /sighs

Kaitlyn was ok after I wiped her down, changed her and cuddled her for 15 minutes. She even finished the rest of her dinner and drank extra for the bedtime bottle.

Forward and Onward...

Kaitlyn has been crawling in circles and backwards for a month or 2 now. Today, she started crawling forwards!! So yep, she's mobile now :D Time to baby proof the house.

Teeth count = 2

Kaitlyn now has both bottom centre teeth! And it's about time mummy and daddy start saving up for her braces. The poor girl has unfortunately received mummy's bad teeth genes by the looks of the first 2 teeth. Ah well, nothing a few years of braces won't fix. :D

On the note of braces, I am on my LAST set of aligners!! I LOVE InvisAlign! Most people could not tell I have been wearing braces at all. They've made a world of difference to my teeth! I will post some before/after photos when I get the "buttons" taken out in a few weeks time. :)

Houston! We have a.... TOOTH!

So all that miseries that Kaitlyn went through for the last few days could be related to teething after all. She finally FINALLY had one tooth popped through her bottom gum yesterday. It's the bottom centre left one. The bottom centre right one is also showing a little but not quite poked through yet. Poor kid. Well, she is now a little closer to eating schnitzel. :D I wish I could take a picture of the new tooth but everytime we got her to open her mouth, she puts her tongue over the bottom gums. arrgh... probably won't get any photos till her top ones come through...

She is making more progress with getting mobile. She's able to pull herself up from sitting to standing, in the bath. Funny she would only try to do this in the bath tub... not exactly the safest place to stand up.

Oh and she's talking! She says mum and dad in 2 languages, "full" in Cantonese, and "bath" in English. She's working on "ball" and "popo" (grandma in Cantonese). She understands quite a number of words and sings all the time.

We bought her a Holloween costume. :) We will post photos tomorrow, or whenever I have time. I have one more assignment to finish that is due the coming Monday and I have no yet started... /sighs when Kaitlyn gets sick, everything else gets put on the side.

Fever, vomitting, diarreah, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, not sleeping at all

Kaitlyn's gotten worse last night, she threw up most of her food after each feed. We had to change the bedding twice. Her nose is raw from being blocked and runny all the time. She couldn't breath properly so she was refusing to feed. And after a VERY restless night, this morning, she had a temperature of 38.9. It went from 36.3 to 38.9 in a matter of MINUTES! It totally freaked us all out, my parents and I were running around the house trying to calm the baby and get the fever down. After a dose of panadole and 40 minutes of being cuddled non stop, her fever finally broke. The poor baby looks seriously miserable.

We took Kaitlyn to the Rowe Street Medical Centre (at Eastwood). We had an appointment for 11:15am. We went because one of my parents' friends said they were good. Anyways, we got there, there were a queue of 20 people waiting, on a row of seats, cramped into the narrow hallway. :( We waited 45 minutes past our appointment, only to find out the doctor hasn't even got up to the 9:30am appointment yet!!! Kaitlyn was getting increasingly tired and upset. We left without seeing the doctor. What's worse, that "medical centre" made all their patients sign the medicare slip before they even get to the doctor!!!! So we paid without being able to see a doctor! Is that even LEGAL!!???

We went back to our usual GP at Harris Park, and Kaitlyn finally got to see a doctor. She was dehydrated and irritable. She has not had a wet nappy since dinner last night! Anyways, we are to give her electrolyte drinks to keep her hydrated. IF she continues to vomit after each meal, and have excessive diarreah and have high temperature, we are to take her straight to hospital.

I hope she gets better soon. It's quite upsetting to see my baby sick and can't do much about it.

Kaitlyn caught a cold... or something

Well, Kaitlyn's sick. I think she caught a cold from the crazy weird weather the last week, or maybe it's teething (AGAIN! still no teeth to show for it though). The last few days, she's been coughing A LOT (ok, sometimes she fakes it but this time I think she's been coughing for real as everytime she does it, her eyes goes red and she genuinely looks miserable), and she has a runny nose. There's no temperature yet. She also has a bit of diarrhea and she's constantly yawning/tired and pulling on her ears. Good thing she's still eating a good amount of formula and solids, and when she's up, she's acting sort of normal, just sleeping more during the day.

We are taking her to the doctors tomorrow to find out if there's anything serious. Whatever it is, I just hope it goes away soon. Poor baby.

8 Months old and Teddy Bear's Picnic

Kaitlyn's 8 months old today.

Here are some new photos, and hopefully they will bring a smile or two to your day:

Kaitlyn and a bunny at the petting farm


With her favourite monkey


Reading a book


Her fancy red sports convertable, yes it actually works


"My future is so bright, I needed shades"


With a teething husk



Sucking, thumb then toes



Playing with another baby


Bye bye for now :)



Here are a list of her recent "accomplishments":

• Stands for a long periods of time holding onto people or furniture
• Constantly babbling, dadda, mamma, babba, poppo, numnum etc.
• Actually saying mamma, dadda/baba to the right person
• Walks all over the house in her walker
• Able to push her entire body up with her arms, although still crawling backwards instead of forwards
• Eaten rice, pumpkin, zuccinni, apple, pear, beans, sweet potato, avocado, banana, broccoli, and chicken congee (rice poridge)
• claps her hands to music
• sings "la la la" all the time
• cuddles
• have stranger anxiety, but only if she was being held by unfamiliar people without family present. She's great in crowds and with other kids

On Sunday, we went to the Teddy Bear's Picnic at Rosehill. Kaitlyn did great. She even petting a rabbit. It sort of made me miss StewIt and wished he was still with us so Kaitlyn could get to know him.

Lessons learnt, Part III -- Caring for a newborn (0 to3 months)

This is my first child and there's just so much to learn every day. Being a mother is the hardest thing I've ever done. Here are the most important things I've learned:

• IF your child has a tongue tie, do everyone a favour, and GET IT RELEASED/CUT. Kaitlyn's tongue tied caused us a lot of crying, pain and sleepless nights. I constantly had sore, bleeding nipples, Kaitlyn never ate enough in one sitting even with bottles and had to eat every 1.5 hours. It's very frustrating that most doctors won't give referrals to have the tongue tie fixed due "political correctness". F*** political correctness I'd say, in this case. I wish I had gotten Kaitlyn's done as soon as she was born. I probably would've have a chubbier baby and would've saved everyone a lot pain.

• The baby sets the schedule for your day

• The nights are long, but the weeks are short

• Parenting is a learnt skill, although you should trust your instincts, there are techniques that can be learned that may make life easier for everyone

• Always respond to your baby's cries. ALWAYS, at least till the baby turns 6 months. Baby needs to know that you will be there for him/her. Responding to the baby's cries, builds the trust relationship between parent and child.

• Buy nappies in bulk. The new born size (green Huggies) will only last a couple of weeks. But from Infant size (4 to 8kg), buy in bulk whenever it's on sale. Kaitlyn used Infant size till she was 6 months.

• Buy baby wipes in bulk. You can never have too many baby wipes, unless you are wanting to use cloths and water.

• Wrap the baby, not too tightly of course. And wrap the baby with the arms near the face as most babies sooth themselves with the arms/hands. During the first month or so, you may want to swaddle, i.e. wrap the legs in as well, so they don't startle themselves when kicking. Gradually, they will not need to be wrapped. Your baby will let you know when.

• The belly button: Bath and clean your baby as you normally would even when the belly button stump is still in. It's ok if it bled slightly, or smelled SLIGHTLY off. It should fall off on its own between 7 to 10 days. Do NOT pull or try to break it off, EVER. If in doubt call the doctor.

• Finger nails: for the first 2 months, their nails are very soft. There's no need to use a nail clipper or pair of scissors to cut them. They can be easily peeled off with your finger nails or your teeth. Remember not to peel too far. This is best done right after a feed when they are drowsy.

• Nursing station: set up a nursing station for breastfeeding. You will need:

• a comfortable chair, preferrably with foot rest. I LOVE my rocking chair, wouldn't have survived the early months without it.
  
• A table next to it where you can put the following: Water, protein bars, moisturiser for the baby, nipple cream, some reading material, burp towels, a clock.
  
• A pillow or 10 for your back, and a blanket to keep you legs warm. You are not sure how long your baby will eat for, so be comfortable.
• If you are someone that gets many phone calls, put your phone close by too
• You will be glad you have everyone close by as walking around with a baby attached to your boobs is NOT a good look and is definitely not easy once they are more than 3 weeks old
• Go to the toilet before you start a breastfeeding session

• Vaccinations: Your baby will have a vaccination at birth, 1 at 1 month old, and 1 at 3 months old. Note the following:
• he/she may get sick, have a temperature, have runny poops, a lot more whiney and clingy. Or he/she might just sleep A LOT right through it.
• If he/she has a temperature above 38 degrees celcius, give baby panadol every 6 hours. If temperature is higher than 38.5 degrees celcius, take baby to doctor right away
• Keep baby hydrated by nursing often. Even if baby is sleeping, wake him/her up every 3 hours max to feed.

• Playtime: You have precious little awake time during the first couple of months. Talk to the baby, let him/her watch your face and expressions. When he/she is a little more interactive around 2 or 3 months, introduce colourful simple toys. Kaitlyn loves a fluffy flower.
  

• Bath time, we bathed Kaitlyn every night. Not because baby gets dirty, but we wanted to set a routine for her. Remember to support baby's neck when bathing.

• Bedtime routines (4 Bs): It took us months before we figure out her routine and introduced bedtime routine. I wish we had done it earlier. Every night around 8pm, she gets bathed, bottled fed, a book was read to her, then we put her to bed.

• Tummy time: do it, and do it often. I wish we did more of it. Put baby on a mat on the floor and on her tummy for a few minutes at a time.

• Reflux and collic:
• Kaitlyn had both. The collic went away around 5 months and Reflux around 6 months. So yeah, eventually it was all better.
• While you are going through it though, it can be tough
• Make sure you have MANY burp towels. just little face cloths that you use to clean up her mess.
• Get changed soon as you get home (if you are working) into cloths that you do not mind being vomitted on.
• Burp the baby after each feed and make sure you get a few burps before laying him/her down
• Keep a food diary if you are breastfeeding, so you know if anything you eat may be stting off worse collic or reflux
• Tilt the bed so baby's head is higher than the feet. Kaitlyn slept a lot better with the inclined bed during the first 6 months. You can lower the head of the bed again when baby's ready.
  

• Making the bed:
  
• do NOT put any soft toys, mobiles, pillows, thick blankets on the bed to avoid SIDS
• Put baby to the foot of the bed to sleep so avoid baby falling under the blankets
• Put the following on the bed: 1x water proof fitted sheet, 1 cotton fitted sheet, then again on top of that, 1 water proof fitted sheet, and 1 cotton fitten sheet. Reason being, if baby did a boo boo in the middle of the night (vomit or wet the bed), you only need to remove the top fitten sheet and water proof sheet and you now have a fresh bed. Nothing worse than having to wander around the house, look for a new set of bedding and then making the bed. Not to mention the noise may wake the baby.
• if in winter and have to use doona, use breathable ones, and make sure the sides are securely tucked under the bed

• SLEEP when baby does. If you only have one child and you child actually sleeps, make sure you sleep as well. Ignore the dishes, ignore the mountain of laundry, etc. SLEEP. You will be glad you did.
  

That's all I can think of right now. I am sure there's plenty more that I have forgotten. A new baby is quite a challenge. Everyday you get more tired, but everyday there's so much joy as you see baby do new things almost daily. Enjoy the newborn period, because too soon, you will realise, they have grown up so big and way too quickly.

Now she doesn't want solids?

WTF? the past month, she was not interested in milk/bottles, and this week, she doesn't want solids??!! Correction, she doesn't like rice cereal and vegies/fruits anymore. She will still have the rice congee that mum cooks for dinner, but will no longer have rice cereal mixed with milk and vegies/fruits! It's so frustrating feeding her, as she keeps pushing the spoon away and grabbing the food, making food go everywhere. /sighs Don't know what to do with this girl. She used to love her food!

Little China Doll

Just because I am procrastinating and not wanting to finish my study, I fiddled with a couple of Kaitlyn's photos... She's so cute in this little Chinese outfit. I also realised I have over 400 photos to sort and organise to upload to somewhere one of these days, or get them printed. So much to do, and no time at all. (for some reason it's a bit pixelated, just click on the picture to get a smoother look.)

I want to do it myself!

Changing Kaitlyn is becoming increasingly difficult as she now rolls around, reaches over her head to hand us the baby wipes (after playing with the packet for ages first LOL), and reaches over the sides of the change table to get the butt paste (for nappy rash).

Due to the warm weather, we sometimes only put a nappy and a top on Kaitlyn during the day. She has learned to undo the tabs of her nappies and been trying to pull her nappies off whenever she has a chance. It's almost like she doesn't like wearing nappies anymore. But hey, I wouldn't blame her, I can't imagine being in nappies all day is all that comfortable. She does have pretty predictable times for pees/poops, so maybe we should start potty training soon.

She's also started to hit and grab for the spoon whenever she's being fed solids. She will give us a big giggle if we let her hold the spoon and put the food into her mouth. She also grabs for the bowl. She's such an independent child. Although, I am not sure I am ready to deal with the mess of her feeding herself yet. So we are going to start soft baked vegies as finger food and let her play with those first. She can use the spoon in a couple of months.

On the teething front, she started drooling buckets again the last 2 days and I could feel a hard spot in her bottom gums. Part of me hopes teeth are coming soon, so we can give her more finger food. Part of me wants the teeth to stay away as I would really hate being bitten and don't look forward to any sleep disruption due to teething. I guess it's ok, either way.

She mimics us when we talk or chew, so she's constantly moving her mouth. It's adorable, she looks like one of those really old toothless ladies that babbles all day long.

It's easy to tell her moods now, and she's letting us know what she does or does NOT want. She will do a "happy clap or thump" when she's excited and happy, where she gives you a big smile, taps her hands or feet on whatever surface she's on, and huffs and puffs. When she's unhappy, she wrinkles her nose (sort of like Samantha in Bewitched) and huffs and puffs, sometimes screams a little. She reaches out to us for hugs, and will hug us around the neck very tight when she wants to be affectionate. When she had enough cuddles, she will lean backwards and point at wherever she wants to be, floor or chair, or her Kandee Car.

I just love watching her personality unfold.

Self-weaning or Nursing Strike?

I have a baby question.

Kaitlyn has been less and less interested in her bottles lately. If I am home, she will nurse off the boobs for about 10 minutes, then drinks 30 to 120mls (mostly closer to the 30mls) of bottle. But most of thetime, it seems that she just wants to push the bottle away It makes me feel like I was force feeding her, and she's getting upset at the sight of the bottle. When I am not home, she still wouldn't take more than 50mls each feed, that means she only gets150mls from 6am to 7pm!!! According to all the baby books and stuff, she should be eating 210mls for EACH MEAL. I try to squeeze in an early morning boob feed and try to get her to eat for as long as possible (she's normally half asleep and can be "made" to keep sucking) and I feed her before she goes to bed. I doubt I have much milk by the end of the day though.

Anyways, She loves her solids and will eat 80mls to 100mls of solids 3 times a day (morning and lunch, 2 cubesof avocado, 1 cube of fruit, some fomula to thin it a bit and 2 scoops of rice cereal. at dinner, mum makes rice and chicken congee for her and she will eat 100 to 150mls of it).

She put on 300gms inthe week after we came back from Tresillian (but that's after she'slost 300gms while we were there), and she has not put on ANYTHING now for 3 whole weeks! She's falling off the growth chart... down to 10% now... my poor baby.

She doesn't seem hungry or upset or sick at all and is producing plenty of wet and dirty nappies. I am just worried that she's not eating enough milk...

Is she self-weaning already? or she is on a nursing strike? I am not sure how to get her to put on some more weight... /sighs.

Any ideas?

First Blood

Kaitlyn got into a small accidently yesterday and hurt one of her fingers. We put her in her pram, and I didn't realise her hand was on the side when I moved the handle over to the front, it ran over her hand, and peeled quite a bit of skin off one of her fingers and drew some blood. My dad totally freaked out. She was quite a brave girl, only cried for a minute or so. She didn't even cry when she had a bath last night. /sighs I guess kids get hurt all the time... I need to be more careful though.

Kaitlyn drives better than mummy ;)

Kaitlyn's doing great with her walker, she "walks" all over the house in her little "Kandee Kar" ;) She even does a very beautiful 3-point-turn. By the looks of it, she will be a much better driver than me :D

She's still learning to crawl properly. She now sticks her bottom in the air, but everything she tries to move forward, she ends up going backwards and she gets frustrated. She's sooo very cute though.

To eat or Not to eat, that is the question...

Ok, this is a vent.

Articles and websites like the following are starting to get on my nerves:

• The numerous news stories on the "poison milk scandal"
• http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/nuts-allergy-advice-feeding-the-crisis/2008/09/25/1222217431065.html
• http://cleanerplateclub.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/sweet-surprise-the-corn-industry-apparently-doesnt-know-whats-wrong-with-high-fructose-corn-syrup-but-i-do/
• http://www.sweetsurprise.com/
• etc. etc. etc.
• such as the eat fish/don't eat too much fish debate...

Start solids early? Start them late? Start on very few choices or just start them on the lot? Toilet training too early will harm their self-esteem?? As my dad was saying, in the "good old days" who ever heard of the concept of food allergies? He certainly didn't know of anyone that had them? Why the heck is it that these days there are so many cases of fatal allegies in people when we are being more "awared" and "careful"?

In our generation and generations before us, we all grew up, more or less healthy to a point of being a functional member of society.

I grew up with:

• powdered formula milk,
  
• cots with led-laced paint,
  
• sleeping with pillows and on our tummies while being covered in a mountain of covers in winter
• 2nd hand smoke
• drinking alcohol at a tender age of under 10 (granted it was like 1% alcohol)
• Drinking water when I was 2 months old
• having rice cereal in my bottle at 2 weeks old
• eating eggs and all sort of meat and vegies by 6 months old
• learned to walk in non-AUS-standard complying wooden walkers
• was potty trained by a year old
  
• I ate pretty much everything that was put in front of me
• I definitely drank heaps of fruit juice...

Everyday, there are new research/findings on what we should or should not eat, how everything around us will eventually kill us (although just being born, will eventually kill us anyhow), or how much evironmental footprint each of us is leaving on this planet just by existing. So, what to eat, and what to feed our children? Is it because that people have lost the ability to use their common sense and started to feed their babies on a diet of nothing but potato chips (read that story in MX a couple of months ago)? Or was it because companies have lost all sense of morality and started adding not only cheap substitutes but poison (See the poison milk powders in China) to the foods and other products they make?

I want to believe that most of us is capable of using our brains, afterall, it took millions of years to get our brains the size that they are today. I want to believe that companies don't JUST want to make money, that some maybe still have a thread of humanity left (afterall, they are run by humans, aren't they?), and try to do the right thing. But the world is so so F***ED UP right now, that everyday, news stories are making me doubt it all...

Well, I will continue to feed my baby fruit juice, I will continue to supplement her with formula (just not the "made in China" variety), I will continue to make sure she has a balance diet (even including sugar, potato chips, fish, nuts etc. etc.) I will however make sure I make most of her food, and as she gets older, to keep her away from processed food and fast foods as much as possible. Personally, I don't believe any particular food is evil, be it sugar, corn syrup, salt etc. I do however believe eating everything in moderation.

I solemly swear from now on to filter out media hypes about what to eat and what not to eat. I shall live my life with moderation in diet, exercise and hard work. I shall teach my children to do the same.

I do sincerely wish though that companies and the people who run them can find it in themselves to do the right thing and not poison our children...

Playing with another baby

Yesterday, my mum's friend's son brough his wife and 5 month old baby girl over for a visit. The baby was quite cute, and very chubby. She is 2 months younger than Kaitlyn but more than a kg heavier. Putting the 2 kids side by side, Kaitlyn looked so skinny. /sighs Not sure what I could do about it, as Kaitlyn just doesn't want to eat very much each meal. According to the formula can label, by her age, she should be eating 210mls each meal for 4 times a day. Kaitlyn eats about 100mls (max) a meal, for 5 times a day. Granted, she loves her solids, and will eat 60 to 100mls of rice cereal mixed with formula for 3 times a day. She's on the growth chart at 30 percentile, while being 80 percentile for height and 50 percentile for head circumference. I don't know, maybe she's just not a chubby type of baby.

Anyways, the 2 babies took a while to get used to each other, and they were so curious about each other. Kaitlyn kept wanting to grab the other baby and I had to make sure she was only grabbing the feet. Then, she tried to take off the other kid's socks LOL. I think just because Kaitlyn doesn't like to wear anything on her feet, she assumed other kids don't like it either? I gave the little baby some of Kaitlyn's toys to play with, but everytime I put a toy down, Kaitlyn will subtly move it towards herself... and soon, Kaitlyn had a pile of toys around her... Mmmm... looks like she has not learned to share yet.

I really need to learn to drive. So I can take Kaitlyn to play groups or baby gymbaroo. She loves playing with other kids. I will post some pics of this "play date" later, whenever I get them uploaded to the computer.

Our Little Houdini turned 7 Months Old!

Kaitlyn's 7 months old!!! Time surely flies, and when you have a child, you can actually SEE time moving forward so fast because you can see your child grow up and change each day.

Now that Kaitlyn's getting more and more mobile every day, we really have to start watching her all the time. On Saturday, because it was very very hot, we put her downstairs on the sofa bed for her afternoon nap. I wrapped her, secured her with a thin blanket weighed down with heavy books on each side, then put heavy wood high-back chairs on the side of the sofa bed. I left her there to sleep thinking she'd be safe. She did sleep for about an hour, then I heard her crying. I thought it was just her normal, "I am awake now, come and get me cry", so I did as Tresillian taught us, and waited 5 minutes before going to her. When I came downstairs, I couldn't find her on the sofa!!! I totally freaked out... where the heck was my baby!!!?? I looked around, and found... She had somehow wiggled herself out of her wraps, out of the bedding, and moved about 3 meters up the head of the sofa bed, fell about 50cm, then landed on the floor, under the high chair~~!! I have no idea how she did it but it was surely scary for me, I couldn't help but keep thinking of all the things that could've gone wrong, e.g. she had landed on her head (she probably did but she didn't act like she was in any pain), or things could've landed on her etc. I checked her everywhere and couldn't see any major cuts/bruises. We did find during bathing that night, that she had a nasty bruise on her back and a red mark on the top of her head. /sighs... I think I need to make sure I put her in her cot for naps from now on. It's a good things the air conditioners were installed yesterday.

We took her to Manly yesterday, and she loved the walk along the ocean. Although I think she loved watching the other kids, and all the dogs, more than she was paying attention to the sea. She's quite a social butterfly.

Her teething sort of just stopped. She doesn't drool nearly as much as she did a month ago, and the 2 little white buds I saw before sort of just "went back down". Ah well, it doesn't bother me that she doesn't have teeth yet, as I doubt I would enjoy being bitten. :)

We are still breastfeeding with only 1 formula feed at night. We may start increasing the formula feeds, starting with the afternoon meal, then maybe the morning meal as well, and only keep breastfeeding for early morning. I am so happy that we lasted this long. I am enjoying every minute of breastfeeding because I am not sure when it will end. But I know whenever she weans, I've done the best I could and I have absolutely no regrets.

Feeling Hot HOt, HOT...

We had a very rough night of sleep last night, and we expect today/tonight to be a lot worse. It's just so darn WARM!!! Kaitlyn does not tolerate the heat much (I think she got that from me...). Last night, she's constantly cranky and unable to get back to sleep. I stripped her down to a tiny singlet/nappies, and she still ends up in a pool of sweat. The little arms and legs just kept on punching/kicking/pushing, and she kept screaming on top of her little lungs. She didn't settle down till the room cooled down a tiny bit, after 2:30am... /sighs.

We bought air conditioners last weekend just for her, but they are not getting installed till tomorrow... apparently the air con techs are already very fully booked! It's so frustrating to look at the air conditioners in their boxes, while the baby's is in such distress.

I don't know how we'd get her to sleep today... will probably have to take her to a shopping center and let her sleep in the pram. But tonight... /sighs I am bracing myself for another nil sleep night.

Staying hydrated?

I am not sure if Kaitlyn's getting enough liquids in her diet. Yesterday for example, she had a breastfeed at 7:30am. Then between 7:30am and 5pm, she only had 150mls of expressed breastmilk!!! She had 70mls of rice cereals as well, but 150mls of milk just seems so little. I also tried to give her water, but she just plays with her sippy cup and doesn't have more than 10mls the WHOLE day. At night, she had another 120mls of milk and 100mls of cereal... I am not sure how to get her to drink more? Her nappies are not as wet/heavy as before...

Crawling!!! and sleep update

While we were in Tresillian, Kaitlyn got a lot of floor time, playing on a mat. During our stay, she started crawling, first in circles (always anti-clockwise, we think she's left-handed), then started sticking her bottom into the air and inching forward a little. Awww, our little girl is crawling... She's also standing holding onto people and furniture quite often now.

We stayed in Tresillian for almost a week. The first couple of days were very tough, for both Kaitlyn and mummy. Kaitlyn cried for almost 2 hours before she finally fell asleep that night and mummy was a total wreck. But our little missey was a quick study, from the second night onward, she barely cried for more than 10 minutes. And she actually slept through the night one time! We were going to stay for 2 extra days, but mummy cannot stand all the crying from all the babies at that place anymore, so we packed up and came home.

The first night home, Kaitlyn amazed everyone by going to sleep at 8pm, on her own, without any crying, then only waking up at 5am for a feed! The second day was also a good day. But today, for some reason, she's a lot more unsettled. I have a feeling it's too warm upstairs. We will definitely be needing air conditioning. She definitely prefer cold to heat...

So, here we go, hopefully onto more rested day and nights for the whole family.

Oh and a couple of unexpected good outcomes from our Tresillian stay, Kaitlyn is a lot less high-strung now. She used to be very easily startled... but having lived with 10 other babies/toddlers who makes lots of sudden noises, she's a lot more used to loud sudden sounds and now don't even look when we accidently drop things at home. And we found out that Kaitlyn loves other kids' company. She was always so curious about them, and imitating them. I think I should think about taking her to playgroups soon.

Off to Tresillian we go

Luckily they had a cancellation, and seeing my application was marked urgent (I guess having a hospital discharge letter sort of helped LOL), we got in. We are going in this afternoon and will be staying there for a week. I am excited about learning new ways to hopefully finally get Kaitlyn into better sleep patterns but I am also scared of being along with the baby again after weeks of not doing so. I know I can do it, did it for months already, it's just readjusting probably unnerves me a little. I keep thinking about, how do I eat, go to the toilet, have a shower etc. with a active, curious, and now almost mobile baby...etc. Just the littlest things you know. But I am sure it will all be fine, somehow.

So yeah, off to Tresillian we go... See you all in a week

Desperation...

I am at my wit's end pretty much with Kaitlyn's sleeping problems. I am so exhausted due to the complete lack of sleep. She wakes up every HOUR until at least 1am every night, then is up again between 4 to 6. She doesn't nap more than 30 minutes each time during the day either... so I just get no break at all...

I am teary and frustrated/irritated most nights trying to get her to sleep. It's not helping as Kaitlyn probably picks up my bad moods and cries even worse and wouldn't calm down for bed...

I went to the GP yesterday to try to get a referral to Tresillian (http://www.tresillian.net/), and do a 5 day stay there to try to get her into better sleeping habits and for me to learn better settling skills. The GP kept saying to me, but you don't look stressed/depressed, and definitely wasn't taking me seriously. I had to keep pointing out the fields that he didn't fill in for the referral form. After 10 mintues of him being totally dismissive and trying to rush me out of the office, I totally just had it and started crying. Sure, I don't look stressed or depressed. I DON'T show my emotions unless I feel close to that person. That does not mean I am NOT desperate, or depressed/stressed! At the sight of tears, he finally came around and started taking me more seriously and properly filled in the form and faxed it. /sighs, why does a girl have to cry to be taken seriously? I mean, why would anyone say they are depressed/stressed, if they are not? Especially to a doctor?? Where's the professionalism!!??

So, here's hoping I'd hear back from Tresillian soon. Their usual waiting period for residential stays is over a month...

Don't get me wrong, I still love Kaitlyn to bits and she's such a wonderful baby. It's just so difficult at the moment, having no sleep, then studying for 2 subjects for my Masters, and trying to get the marriage working. The house is a disaster area and the mess stresses me even more... where is the light at the end of the tunnel? Would my baby ever sleep better?

Chin Rash, and a small bath tub incident

We had to stop giving her solids the last week because she had a persistent rash around her mouth and chin. It got very nasty looking, all red and raised... Not sure how she got it... We think it's because the solids that drip down her chin and us using the spoon to try to scoop it back up. It probably irritated her skin a lot. Anyways, it turned out my Lanolin nipple cream works wonders on such a rash. After 3 days of no solids and applying the cream, the rash has clear up a lot. She still has a red patch or two under her chin but it no longer irritates her. We will restart solids at lunch today I think.

2 days ago, I acciddently knocked her head no the side of the bath tub while bathing her. Since then, she is very scared of the bath tub. She cries and screams everytime we put her into the bath. I am so clumsy... arrggh. I hope she start liking baths soon...

She did the whole waking every HOUR thing again last night... /sighs.

Getting to know Kaitlyn

Favorite activities

• Eating. Little Miss Piggy loves to eat, boob juice, bottles, solids of all sorts, she just loves them all
• Playing with Dada, she loves "flying" and all the silly things dadda tries to teach her

Guilty Pleasures

• She sucks her thumb, but will have all her fingers opened while sucking the thumb, so it looks like she's covering her face, or poking her eyes.

Ambitions (at the moment)

• Trying to get those toes into her mouth

Favorite Books

• her glittering numbers book. She recently mastered turning the pages.
• she also likes her nursery rhymes flash cards
  

Favorite song

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Likes

• Drooling,
  
• eating, playing with her feet,
  
• screeching/screaming, a LOT
  

Dislikes

• Going to sleep,
  
• tummy time,
  
• sudden loud noises

Favorite Outfit

• anything she can chew the sleeves off.
• (although, she hates wearing anything on her head and her feet. Unfortunately as she doesn't have hair, she has to wear a beanie most of the time, but it's getting increasingly difficult to keep it on her)
  

Favorite Toy

• Her feet,
  
• her rattles,
  
• other people's faces

Newest Tricks:

• Standing with support,
  
• parroting words (she says mamma, dadda, and a couple of Chinese words),
  
• last night, she learned to make "guns" with her fingers.
  
• She reaches her arms out for hugs. She laughs a lot now.

Emerging Personality:

• She is quite curious all the time, and when you teach her new things, she watches you intently and then tries to do it herself when you are not watching.
• She craves attention and hates it when no one is looking at her and paying her attention. She squeals with displeasure when she's left alone for too long.
• She loves to be outdoors. She always has the biggest smile on her face when we put her on her pram.
• She loves posing for photos
  

Hmm, pumpkin

Mummy says we are starting a new food today... something called Pumpkin... I can't wait...

Not sure I like it... yet


Well, maybe it's not so bad after all... nom nom nom

Photos as promised

Kaitlyn, the Mini Princess:










































Kaitlyn in her new Pooh outfit (thanks Christina)













Kaitlyn STANDING!!! (yes, she started to stand on her own!!)






























And lastly, a photo of her from her first hour to see how she has changed...

6 months measurements

Oops, forgot to post about her measurements earlier:

Head circumference: 42cm (up 8cm from birth)
Weight: 7.4kg (up 4kg from birth, our scale is bit dodgy, so she may be slightly less than 7.4kg)
Height: 68cm (up 17cm from birth)

So yeah, she's grown heaps...wearing size 0 and size 1 outfits now...

Happy half-birthday, Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn's 6 months old yesterday! She's grown so much since her newborn days.

I am flat out at the moment, trying to study, travelling to and from classes 2 nights a week, unpacking/keeping the room reasonable livablely neat, entertaining an overactive baby that screams all the time and does not sleep at all during the day, and no more than 3 hours each time at night, and this week, trying to get a couple of assignments finished in time... the list just never ends and I am just so TIRED all the time. All I wish is to sleep for more than 3 hours... but the bad thing is even if baby does not wake me up, my body automatically wakes up on the dot, ever 3 hours!! WTF...

Anyways, here's some new things Kaitlyn is doing:

• standing while holding onto the back of her high chair (not for very long though)
• I can see 2 little tooth buds in her bottom gums
• occassionally she will sleep without being rocked... very occassionally
• she has more hair on her head now, still mousy blonde
• she still has no eyebrows, actually she does, but the eyebrows are very blonde so you can't see them against her skin
• she is eating rice cereal, avocado and applesauce
• she spins and wiggle around in circles (slowly) when put on her back
• she flips from tummy to back more often now, still does not like to roll... I have a feeling she may start walking before she'd likely to crawl

I will post some new photos after next week... hopefully I will get the assignments done.

oh, and we are STILL BREASTFEEDING!!! Woot. :)

6 Months growth spurt, swollen gums and lethal poos

I knew I'd jinx myself when I wrote about Kaitlyn's sleeping through the night. The last 3 nights she's been very fussy, and waking every frigging HOUR at night. And she does not nap during the day at all, we'd be lucky to get 2 x 30 minute naps the whole day. I don't get it, with that little sleep, how is she still so happy all the time??!! I certainly don't feel as energetic. I figured, it's probably her 6 months growth spurt hitting us... hope it goes away soon!

Her bottom gums are a bit swollen... Maybe, just maybe her teeth are coming?? Maybe?

I don't quite understand how such a small person that she is can produce such large quantity of lethal poos with toxic fumes that easily clears a room in 0.000000001 second flat. She keeps topping herself on just how stinky she can get LOL. It's funny to see her expression everytime we change one of those nasty nappies. She giggles and smiles, as if she's totally enjoying watching us shrivel up in disgust...

Sleeping through the night? Maybe?

I know I am probably jinxing myself now that I am writing about it. The last few nights have seen steady improvement in Kaitlyn's sleeping patterns. She will have 2 to 3 short short naps during the day, then after 8pm, sleep. She fusses between 8 to 10:30pm, but once 11ish o'clock rolls around, she's likely to sleep till the next morning. Last night, she slept from 10:30pm to 7am!! I was so impressed.

She's been playing with her feet a lot, they are her new toys. And she sits up without support,so very well


She loves to tear up junk mail and store catalogues. :D Go girl...


And she does the "horn"!


She now tolerates tummy time, although still bit impatient




We dressed her up yesterday :)

Teething Bites

This whole teething business is so painful for all concern. Kaitlyn's been teething for MONTHS now... and still no sign of any tooth! She's been so cranky lately. She will play and be all happy, then will scream and cry for no apparent reason. She doesn't nap anymore during the day. We'd be lucky if she naps for 30 minutes once or twice a day. It makes trying to get things done around the house, and studying, virtually impossible.

On the upside, she's sleeping longer stretches at night. When she eventually goes down for the night, she generally sleeps to early morning, between 4 to 7. So can't complain here.

I just wish these darn teeth will make an appearance soon so she's less cranky.

Mine, all mine

Kaitlyn started to recognise things as Hers. She would not eat the rice cereal unless it's given to her with HER spoon. She also gets jealous and starts screaming when other people are hugging Her mummy. My silly little pie.. :) She opens her mouth for the cereal and gets impatient if we don't feed her fast enough.

She's playing with toys with both hands and passes them from hand to hand.

She definitely knows what the word "Mum" means as she didn't say that at all while I was away all weekend, but started calling out Mum when I walked in the door. My baby knows her first word yay.

We've moved back to my parents' as I started uni classes this week. So far, she's settled in very nicely. She sleeps so much better when my mother puts her to bed. When I try to put her to bed, she just clings and want to play.

This is a great age, she's a lot of fun and very interactive, but not yet crawling/walking so no need to run after her all the time.

FIVE month!!

Kaitlyn's 5 months old. Here are the things she's now doing:

• She will look at us when we said her name/s. She's starting to expect "Kaitlyn" from us, and "Yuanyuan" from my parents.
• is sittning up unsupported for short periods of time
• is rolling over more often
• is babbling A LOT
• laughs out loud often
• is trying to pull herself up, and when she's sitting, she moves her head and upper body forward
• hugs, grabs and pinches people (ouches)
• kicks to try to stand when held up
• starting to whine and make noises to get attention
• starting to shy away from strangers and cries if held by strangers for too long

She's hitting every developmental milestone up to 6th Month so far and doing a couple of the 7th month stuff :)

She started rice cereal and is doing great with eating. oh and her current favourite pass time is staring at the back of her hand LOL and "flying".

The curse of the blocked nose

Looks like Kaitlyn has inherited my easily irritated nose. She constantly has a blocked nose for 2 weeks now. If she cries, she gets a block nose, if she has a block nose, she cries... very bad cycle it is... We do have the baby nose spray and the suction thingie... but it's only fixes the blockage and doesn't stop it from happenning in the first place... /ARRGGHH!!!!

On a brighter note though, last night, all of a sudden, she decided she no longer wants to be wrapped when sleeping. She slept all night with her arms all spread out. Ok it was rough before I figured out that she just didn't want to be wrapped anymore. She would fall asleep, then start screeching as if she was in pain after about 10 minutes... so till about 1am, I was running in and out of her room trying to get her to settle. After I gave up, and unwrap her, she slept totally spread out, for 3 hours (yes I know it's not all that long compared to all the babies that sleep through the night, but for Kaitlyn, 3 hours is good). My little baby is so grown up now... no wrapping anymore... /misty eyes...

Being a mum (found on the internet somewhere)

We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of "starting a family."

"We're taking a survey," she says half-joking. "Do you think I should have a baby?" "It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral. "I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes.

I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, "What if that had been MY child?" That every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of "Mom!" will cause her to drop a soufflé or her best crystal without a moments hesitation.

I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine. That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother. Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself.

That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs. I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honor. My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks.

I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes. "You'll never regret it," I finally say. Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter's hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.

Week 19 and 4 months shots

I am so glad that I have 40 weeks off from work. If I had taken full pay, I would've needed to go back to work next week. I am just so not ready! I have yet to leave my baby more than 5 hours at a time... I am dreading the day when I have to go back to work. Actually I am dreading the nights I have lectures! Semester starts in a few weeks... Kaitlyn has not been able to go to sleep at night without me so far. It will really break my heart to have to leave her at night knowing that she will likely cry for ages before she will sleep.

I took Kaitlyn to the doctors for her 4 months vaccines. She's such a brave girl now. She only screamed for a very short time. She's asleep now, I think the vaccine and the panadole make her sleepy. Just wish she didn't have to get the shots... but then, it's the lesser of two evils to be sick for a short while... or getting very sick for a long time if we don't get the shots.

It seems like everyday I see her, she looks different although I can't really put my finger on what it is really. Maybe she's growing bigger all the time, or maybe her face is getting more expressive, or she's looking less and less like me each day. Her eyes seem to differ in colour all the time, dark green/gray, brown, steel blue/black. I have no idea what colour they will end up (although probably brown...)

4 Months!!

Kaitlyn's 4 months now.

She discovered she could scream/yell last week so now she does it ALL the time, regardless of her mood. She seems to just like to hear her own voice. Oh my poor ear drums...

She had one night of sleeping right through the night, followed by a few nights of very bad sleep. Perhaps I just don't have a kid that's meant to sleep through the night. Ah well. I really don't mind the waking up once at 3am to feed her, every couple of hours though, that's bit much. Looking back, I really don't know how I managed to survived the month 2 and 3 as I barely had 2 hours sleep each day for weeks and weeks... So now whenever I have a rough night, I just remind myself, at least it's a lot better than before.


We bought her a highchair and she loves it. It's great for me too, as I can now just sit her in the chair and push her around the house in it while I do housework.


She's sitting great now on her own, "like a normal person" so daddy says.



We got given a shirt that says "Lock up your sons" and a beanie that says "Spit Happens".






There are some more new photos, on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesetoiles/sets/72157604000653997/

The weather last week or 2 has been really annoying and we were stuck at home most days. It's driving me batty (er). I do like spending time with my baby but sometimes some grown-up company would be so much appreciated. I don't know how full time stay-at-home-mothers do it for years and years... Maybe it gets better once the kids can talk? I don't know. The sun's out today and hopefully for the next week. So we can go out for a few days :)

I finally got the all clear from the Obstetrician to exercise (long story and way too much information if I tell). So I do an hour of exercise a day from a couple of dvds (The Perfect Postnatal workout and Postnatal Yoga). The Perfect Postnatal Workout is great, as it incorporate the baby into the exercise and use her for weight training. Kaitlyn loves the workout too, she normally giggles the whole time. I am already seeing results as I can fit into my "normal" jeans perfectly now and finally have a waist again after all these months! Can't wait to get my flat tummy back.