5 months - baby's first chair

while baby still can't sit up without support for more than a second or two before toppling over, she has been pretty comfortable being in a sitting position with stuff propping her up - pillows, cushions, the corner of the sofa ...
as she seems to enjoy being upright, we got baby a booster seat/chair today so that she can sit up on her own for longer periods of time, and join us when we are eating at the dining table. i think she quite enjoyed the elevated view when we put her into the seat for the first time today. plus she can sit up and play with her toys now instead of just lying on her playmat or having us carry her in a sitting position.
am already foreseeing the benefits of the booster seat we got her. it's compact and portable and can probably fit on any normal sized chair, which means we can bring it along when we eat out if we want her to be somewhere else rather than in the pram or on those wobbly highchairs that restaurants sometimes have. we can also bring it along if we are having meals at friends or relatives' homes that do not have highchairs.
the tray is detachable and can easily be washed when it gets dirty. great for when we start feeding her solids.
the seat can be adjusted to fit babies of different sizes and heights. this was a consideration that led us to buy this over the very popular bumbo seat. was very afraid that baby's thunder thighs would get stuck in the bumbo ... heh.
really looking forward to playing with baby in her new chair!

4 months - potty business

to get a head start on toilet training, we have been trying to get baby to pee in the potty whenever possible. my MIL's been the most diligent about it, and her efforts seem to be paying off.
previously, baby would think the whole exercise was a big joke and would get really amused by us making all kinds of sounds that conventional wisdom has shown is conducive for peeing.
now, baby somewhat gets it. she sits still on the potty and then she pees and looks very pleased with herself! she even seems to know when she is done with peeing as she tries to get up after she has peed.
we have been praising her everytime she gets pee into the potty so as to reinforce the positive behaviour.
yesterday she peed in the potty three of the four times we tried. and today she did it five times. she would probably have done it more times if i got her out of her diapers more often.
all these make me feel like she's growing up so fast!

4 months - wedding friday

spent most of friday attending my cousin's church wedding followed by the wedding dinner. baby was really well behaved in the day and charmed all the aunties as usual.
the wedding dinner was a little more challenging ... the yum sengs were too loud for her and scared her, and all the noise got her really grumpy when it was past her bedtime and she couldn't sleep. as the hotel ballroom and lobby was really warm and baby was fussing quite a bit by 11, we left early, before dessert. :( this is life with a baby in tow. on one hand, we want her to be part of the happy occasion but on the other hand, it's a bit difficult to stay through when it is past her bedtime.
thankfully we don't have that many weddings to attend nowadays as a large number of our friends are already married. :D

4 months - turning on her cheeky

baby has been giving us cheeky playful grins when we whip out the camera / iphone to snap pictures of her. every night we look through the photos we took of her in the day and laugh.

4 months - check up

forgot to post about this earlier. baby weighed 7.7kg and measured 65cm at her check-up / jab appointment last week. as was the case at her last check-up, she's in the 97th percentile and 75th percentile for her age group in terms of weight and height respectively. we have a big baby here!

4 months - foot in mouth

baby loves her feet so much that she puts them in her mouth quite often. she is one flexible baby ... no fear of failing sit and reach in future.
in other news, baby has discovered the fun of rolling from her back onto her tummy and then rolling back again. when she gets bored of storytime nowadays, she starts rolling around. she was going all over the mattress today ... the mattress suddenly seems much smaller.

4 months - happy, healthy, 乖

when i was preggers, we (or at least i) kept telling baby to be happy, healthy and 乖.
baby seems to have listened to us, and i am reminded every day that we couldn't ask for a better baby. she smiles at strangers who stop to say hello to her, she hasn't fallen sick and didn't even run fevers after her jabs (twice so far), she sleeps like a pro at night and can play on her own and sit in the car seat/pram/baby carrier for a decent time without clamouring for attention.
a friend says this is how the universe tricks one into having another baby. will happily have another if there's some sort of guarantee #2 will turn out the same way. unfortunately there's no such thing, so let us enjoy our happy healthy and 乖 baby for awhile longer.

friday night out

had almost forgotten what it feels like to spend evenings/nights outside with friends. yesterday's daddy and mummy time out was great. left baby at home with the parents at 7pm and headed out for yummy ramen, light-hearted conversations and good singing with people we have grown comfortable hanging out with.
recovering from the late night out today, as baby is still keeping with her 8am wake-up schedule. we should try to put in place a weekend wake-up schedule where she goes to bed later and wakes up at say, 11am. that would be perfect. haha.

reading "battle hymn of the tiger mum"

read this for the second time, and still enjoyed the read. reading this as a mum now, i still really admire how the author put in so much to raise her kids in a way that they may not realise is best for them while they are younger but will likely come to appreciate later on. resonates with babywise which also says that babies don't know what is best for them when it comes to feeding and sleeping, and it is up to the caregivers to structure their day for them so that their metabolism and sleep patterns develop well, to their own ultimate benefit. in other words, parent-led parenting, not baby/kid-led parenting.

routine rocks!

i am thankful many times everyday that baby is on a rather predictable routine. perhaps it has to do with us following a feeding schedule which then causes other stuff to fall in place. in any case, it makes looking after her a whole lot easier. and i don't have to wonder most of the time why she is fussing (if she fusses at all). i also get to plan my day and run errands worry-free because i know when exactly i will need to feed her / make her sleep. i also know when her fussy periods are likely to be and so can avoid being out and about during those times.
here's her schedule:
0815-0900 (depending on when she wakes up): the hubby peeps in on her in her bedroom and gets her ready for the day
0845: feeding time - she latches on
0855: baby plays with the hubby and we say goodbye to him around 0915
0945: baby gets a 3oz top up of pumped milk and then plays again
1015: i carry her to sleep
1100: she wakes up and we mooch around either reading stories or dancing to songs
1130: bath time splish splash!
1140: baby gets a 6.5oz bottle of pumped milk
1200: we head out to the neighbourhood mall and i get my lunch
1245: we get home and mooch around
1315: baby naps
1400: baby wakes up (sometimes she wakes up even earlier) and we mooch around some more
1430: baby gets a 6.5oz bottle of pumped milk
1450: we mooch around, baby plays with her toys
1615: baby naps
1700: baby wakes up and we mooch around
1730: baby gets a 6oz bottle of pumped milk
1800: we take a walk either in the nearby garden/park or go to the library to borrow books
1915: we get back from the outing and baby watches her mobile in her cot
1930: bath time splish splash!
1945: baby gets some kick around time while drying off after her bath
1950: baby gets a 6oz bottle of pumped milk
2010-2030 (depending on how quickly she drinks and whether she is still awake after she finishes her milk): baby sleeps on her own in her cot

REPEAT

4 months - reindeer family

$6 buys us lots of fun.

4 months - she laughs

finally managed to capture on video how she can brighten up our day so easily. i love how the simplest things amuse her.



ties in with her development phase right now (from babycenter):
"Even though crying is still your baby's strongest form of communication, he's also beginning to develop a sense of humor. He may start to laugh at pleasant surprises, such as your face appearing from underneath a blanket or a toy popping out of a box, provided it isn't too loud or startling."

4 months - prepping for solids

we are planning to introduce solids (and by that i mean mush) into baby's diet at the 6 month mark, and so borrowed a book from the library that has mush recipes recommended for various ages starting from 6 months. i like how the book gives the various mush such interesting names - mighty mouthful rice cereal, bun in the oven baked potato, bananas in the snow (referring to cottage cheese), positively perfect pumpkin and pears ... it makes the mush sound so appetizing!
it's still some time away, but we will probably have to get all the necessary feeding equipment ready soon. actually the only things we are lacking are ice cube trays with covers so that i can make a whole load of mush over the weekend and store them for use during the week. fun times ahead!

4 months - same different

two with the same name ;) the older one was saying how we chose such a great name for baby. but of course!

got (breast)milk? stories - milk MIA

my milk producing boobs have just returned after being MIA for 3 days. it may be due to me consuming mega loads of oatmeal this morning, but in any case, thank goodness! i would have had to break into my freezer stash or get a tin of formula otherwise.

4 months - in a christmassy mood

somehow there is an extra urge to be all festive this christmas season. i am not a christmas tree let's-deck-the-halls-with-boughs-of-holly kind of person, but i have been tempted to buy one of those plastic christmas trees on sale at the neighbourhood mall and dress it up with shiny things. it's probably due to baby being around and me not working :D
even if we don't get a christmas tree this year, we are most definitely going to get a santa hat for baby and take many pictures of her. having a baby makes you do the most uncharacteristic things.

4 months - staycation

more like stuckation because we weren't planning on bringing baby overseas for the time being. so we splurged a little and got ourselves a night's stay at the ritz carlton ... :D i had leftover staff benefits to utilise so it worked out to be a reasonable splurge.
baby seems to be enjoying herself ... she was really happy rolling around on the hotel bed, and we got in an evening stroll to the nearby gardens by the bay before adjourning for a burger dinner at MBS.
the hotel service has been excellent so far, but i guess it is to be expected for the ritz. the baby crib came with a baby bath set and the housekeeping staff were really nice about us using the fridge for baby's milk. many likes!
and the view of marina bay is wow. really glad we chose to stay here instead of the other hotels in the area.