5 months - she eats!

started baby on mush this weekend, just a few days shy of her turning 6 months. after the first mouthful where you could see her trying to figure out what we had shoved in her mouth, she got the hang of it and kept on eating. she is quite a neat eater, perhaps because she's really ready to eat. so it was quite fun for us as well.
she is getting heinz's smooth baby rice mixed with milk this week, and we are feeding it to her during her 11.30am and 5.30pm milk feeds. the routine is 4oz milk followed by mush and then rounded off with the remaining 2oz of milk. this means she's now getting more calories compared to previously as we are not cutting back on her milk.
my baby is growing up, and i can't wait to introduce her to more types of food in the weeks ahead!

5 months - booze

i am guilty. guilty of having a quarter pint of beer, one mojito and one margarita ... not at one go, but with different friends on different days. it's only a problem because of the breastfeeding. but hopefully all the alcohol had burnt off by the time i pumped after getting home.

5 months - was that a "ma"?

baby has been occasionally saying "ma" but this was the first time i managed to catch it on video. we need evidence for such things you know .... never mind that this was a rather constipated sounding "ma"

5 months - bad mummy!

left baby to play with a squishy green figurine that we got from the library earlier even though i knew that the toy probably wasn't all that child-safe since it was squishy and foam-like.
next minute, i turn around and spot something bright green in baby's mouth. she managed to gnaw off one of the figurine's feet and would probably have swallowed it if i hadn't spotted it in time.
bad mummy! needless to say, i felt guilty for the whole afternoon.

5 months - check-up

baby's busting those percentile charts. again.
at her check-up/jab appointment last friday, she weighed in at 8.5kg and was 67.5cm lengthwise. that's in the >97th and >75th percentile range respectively. her head circumference was in the >97th percentile range as usual. thankfully, the doc decided that there would be no need to get her checked out for her large head anymore given that she's meeting all the developmental milestones. great news! we can zip in and out for the jabs next time without having to wait our turn to see the doc.

hats off to SAHMs!

having spent more than 5 months at home looking after baby, and oftentimes with the help of my mum, all i can say is that being a stay at home mum (SAHM) is not easy. in fact, it makes being in the office and slogging over submissions all day seem like a pretty cushy job. at least you can look/smell nice, walk away from your desk without it calling after you, and take toilet breaks as and when you want. you can also call it a day and turn off your laptop and head home to relax. not so for SAHMs.
anyway, this article says it all.
i can totally understand why some mothers are in a hurry to head back to work even before their maternity leave ends. SAHMing is not for everyone.

5 months - tiny no more

baby has always been bigger than most babies her age. no, make that bigger than many babies who are older than her - 5 month old her could easily pass off now as a 7-8 month old. but what has struck me recently was how much she has grown and how big she is compared to when she was born.
now, she is barely fitting into her play mat lengthwise and one roll gets her from one side of the mat to being scrunched up against the other side of the mat.
where did my tiny baby go?

weighty issues

while it probably didn't appear so to most people, i actually put on 15kg during my pregnancy. FIFTEEN!! i guess it didn't show much because 15kg on my rather large frame is nothing when compared to a petite girl with the same weight gain.
in fact, most people probably didn't realise i was pregnant till i was 5 months along because i was quite compact (how baby turned out to be a big 3.5kg still mystifies me) and i still wore my old clothes till quite late into my pregnancy.
post delivery, while more than half of the weight came off in the first week or so, the weight stopped dropping off after awhile. that was quite depressing and i stopped weighing myself.
but somehow without me trying that hard, i am now able to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes again. yes, even those pencil skirts i wear to work which i only tried on the day before starting work .... so i am rather pleased. after all those horror stories about taking a year or more to lose all the weight gained during pregnancy, it feels great to feel like my body is almost back to normal again. i say ALMOST because there are still some jiggly bits here and there.
[post script: i just weighed myself for the first time since a long time ago, and those jiggly bits are weighing 2kg! time to lose those two stubborn kilos so that i can get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.]

5 months - poop in the potty

baby pooped in the potty for the first time today! more or less figured that her usual poo time was after her late morning feed, so i sat her on the potty about 20 minutes after her feed and made all kinds of poop-inducing sounds and faces at baby. less than a minute later, baby had her "i am concentrating" face and started to poop in the potty. needless to say, it was a proud mummy moment and i even took a picture of the poop filled potty for posterity.
now to make this a habit. :D

[on a sidenote, this is so amy chua-esque! asian mum toilet training her kid so early on because she knows the baby is capable of it and getting a good outcome ... while others wait until their kids are "ready" for toilet training when they are 2 or older. oh well, i am not complaining about the diapers i won't have to buy.]

5 months - little miss sunshine

baby has been all smiles and giggles this week. she's a cheerful baby most of the time, but she has been exceptionally bubbly and expressive of late. recently, she had been sticking out her tongue while smiling and blowing saliva bubbles quite often. i think she finds it fun and she seems to get a kick when she elicits a response from us.
she still HATES being carried to sleep for her naps though. the strategy so far has been to carry her in an upright position until she nods off on her own. not the easiest thing to do now that she's strong enough to push her body away from mine using her arm, but still possible. we also sometimes time her nap immediately after her feed just so that it's easier for her to fall asleep. so much for the eat-play-sleep routine!
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9.5km and counting. maybe it isn't such a good idea to run late at night after a day at the office.

got (breast)milk? stories - 5 month milestone!

who would have thought that after the earlier hiccups we would have lasted so long with the exclusive breastfeeding? ok, it would be more accurate to say feeding of only breastmilk to baby, since baby gets most of the breastmilk from the bottle rather than through latching on.
sometimes i am still amazed that my body is able to produce enough milk for baby's needs - a litre of milk a day!
i think i deserve a pat on my back ... especially since pumping is hard work and takes up so much time.
hip hip hooray for me, and to my body - please keep your side of the bargain and continue to burn off those pregnancy fats (and more!) just like what all those breastfeeding books and articles say.

fighting (to be) fit - new year's resolution

have resolved to get fitter in 2013.
aside from the "exercise" i get from my walks (yes, plural) with baby everyday, i was quite slack with the jogging last year as there just didn't seem to be a good window for jogging after baby started sleeping through the night. i would be too tired to jog after putting baby to sleep, plus i had to fit in two pumping sessions before bedtime. and i could never pull myself out of bed by 6 in the morning such that i could fit in a pumping session and jog before baby woke up at 8. (and there's NO WAY i will jog before pumping first as it just feels like my body is off balance).
have managed to fit in two night jogs so far this year. going to a gym is out of the question and is a luxury i don't have the time for right now. so jogging will have to do for now. hopefully i build up enough stamina to do a half marathon again by the end of this year. that would be a pretty decent goal to work towards ...
6.5km jogged and counting.

5 months - splish splashing

baby has always loved bath time ever since she was born. when she was smaller, a bath would be the only thing that would keep her hungry cries at bay. later on she would insist on being held tummy down so that she could swim in the tub. and now, she loves sitting up and hitting the water with her hands so that everything around her (including whoever is bathing her) gets wet.
we have probably found the best way to bathe her given the circumstances - in her old fashioned red plastic bath tub which is placed on a foldable IKEA table in the bathroom. no more squatting on the floor and no more hauling heavy bath tubs full of water to and from the dining table (where we used to bathe her previously)! it probably doesn't fit the romantic notion of a baby's bath time, but hey, as long as baby is happy and we don't sprain our backs, what's there to complain about?

5 months - back to life, back to reality

am having to face up to the particular reality of being a working momma, and having to juggle the extra commitments that come with it. i have never been very confident of my ability to multi-task in this way. multi-tasking at work is fine, and i can have much work on my plate and deliver. but juggling work and baby is a totally different ball game and i have not been able to imagine myself doing both well.
heading back to work has turned out better than expected so far. it helps that i am on a part time work arrangement and that baby is in the good hands of our parents, and not at some bacteria petri-dish infant care centre. it also helps that i am largely familiar with the work i have been assigned and the colleagues are the same from before. baby also has had enough breast milk for her feeds through the day thanks to the store of milk i pumped earlier and stored in the freezer, as well as some very diligent pumping on my part in the lead up to my first day at work.
really thankful that baby has been doing well at home and hasn't fussed much even without me being around. she's a good baby through and through.

5 months - propping up

baby can now sit by herself while propping herself up tripod style. this only lasts for a few moments before she loses balance and topples to her side. she always has a bemused disoriented look when she lands on her back. it's really funny and i can't help but laugh at her everytime.

5 months - love deep deep

the two people i love most in the world doing what they do best - snoozing and smiling.

to reflect - on children

a reminder of our role as parents. to be a safe hiding place for them, to provide advice and also to let them learn and grow to be themselves, not merely a replica of their parents or their parents' unfulfilled dreams.

On Children - Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

got (breast)milk? stories - pump wear & tear

who would have thought that such a tiny flap would make all the difference in the breast pump efficiency? accidentally tore one of the breast pump membranes while washing it the day before and that caused the pump to be super weak. had thought at first that it was the pump motor that was giving way given the high frequency of use, but it turned out to be the torn flap that was causing the trouble.
oh well, i now have 6 pump membranes thanks to a brief visit to the baby section at taka. hopefully this is the only and last time i will need to get breast pump spare parts!