8 months - check-up

brought baby for her 2nd pneumococcal jab today and did her 9-month assessment as well even though she will only turn 9 months tomorrow. was expecting baby to weigh in at at least 10kg but she just missed at 9.7kg. she's in the 90th percentile for height (72cm) and weight and her head circumference is still topping the percentile charts. there was a hearing test which baby passed and the nurse doing the assessment commented that baby would probably walk really soon given her muscle tone and how she was so good at crawling and standing (while holding onto stuff) already. also found out later that she wrote "an active baby" in the health booklet. she's right! baby is always on the move when she's awake.
baby also didn't cry as much this time after she got jabbed. and no fever as usual. she also behaved really well while we grabbed breakfast at a nearby coffee shop after her jab. yay for baby!

8 months - the copycat

we discovered what a copycat baby can be tonight. the hubby came back from work slightly earlier today and so was able to catch baby before she fell asleep. as she was still all hyper as is usual before her bedtime (working off all the leftover energy from the day), hubby decided to entertain her by crawling on her mattress and then pretending to fall off. she was super amused and started laughing really heartily at his antics. AND THEN, she immediately climbed onto the mattress and mimicked the falling off humpty dumpty style, laughing at herself as she did so. when the hubby repeated the same action, she followed suit again. it was hilarious and it really got me and hubby laughing. we didn't know she was capable of this.
she's amazing and we love her to bits.
but now we have to get her to unlearn what she saw (bad hubby setting bad example!!). that's going to be tough.

8 months - red

saw beetroot being sold at the supermarket yesterday for the first time, and i decided to try making a beetroot and potato mash for baby. have been feeding baby lots of yellow, white and green foods so far, so thought this would be a great addition to her diet.
it was quite easy to make the purée ... cut up the beetroot and potatoes into chunks and microwaved them for about 8 minutes and then threw everything in the blender.
love the deep red colour of the resultant mush!

8 months - a wonder week baby

baby has been keeping to the wonder weeks schedule of mental leaps almost to a T. really quite surprised that once the leap phase ended a few days' ago, baby started sleeping better again ... less or no nightmare screaming at night, and she's one big bundle of happy in the day (much more so than her already good-natured self in general). baby is also waking up at 7.30 or later in the morning, a shift from her earlier wake-up time of around 7-7.15 during the mental leap phase.
going to enjoy this happy phase to the max before the next mental leap phase rolls around in about a month's time.

working momma stories - just a rant

despite having "eased" into the full-time work schedule by starting part-time work since january this year, the first 2 months (since mid march) of being a working momma has required some getting used to. the somewhat less flexible start time each weekday and having to take public transport to work has necessitated me waking up sometimes by 6.30am to do a round of pumping before heading out with pump equipment and cooler bag in tow, and cramming with the train crowd. not the best way to start each day, but what needs to be done, has to be done.

after the work day ends, it's quite a mad rush to get home as soon as possible so that i can relieve the MIL and catch baby before her bedtime. doing her whole night-time routine is my "quality time" with baby everyday given that i only catch a few moments with her every morning, so i try to get home fast. this also means having to give most social stuff a miss on weekday evenings. sometimes i'd like to have a bit more flexibility and time on my own after a whole day of being lectures and/or site visits, but in the end, getting to see baby before she sleeps usually trumps the other competing "wants". 

after baby goes down for the night, i really feel rather worn out and brain drained such that i just want to do NOTHING, and not contemplate doing any extra work around the house (like dish washing and laundry and cleaning). i wish i could muster enough energy to do other stuff, even read a book, but spacing out in between the two pumping sessions that i do before midnight just seems so much more enticing. 

and yes, did i mention that there are the two pumping sessions at night? which means i don't get to sleep before midnight (or sometimes 1am if i'm doing other stuff). urgh.

in the end, it's about making choices.

choosing to still continue with exclusive pumping instead of switching baby over to formula.

choosing to work instead of staying at home.

choosing to make baby a priority instead of work.

choosing to juggle baby and work instead of just concentrating on one or the other. 

some of these choices require more time and effort on my part, and sometimes i feel really conflicted ... because there are times where i'd really like to do other things and have more me-time. 

so yes, i'm trying to squeeze out some time for myself where i can - taking up golf lessons again with some of the coursemates, and sometimes taking advantage of earlier end-times at course to just do my own stuff for an hour or so before heading home to baby. it's a good feeling, but i also find myself even more tired at the end of the day. 

URGHHHHH. this is such a depressing post. but i know that later on i'll be in bed scrolling through photos of baby and just going awww, so cute, and realising again that it's all worth it in the end. 

8 months - zoo visit #4

dragged the in laws to the zoo with us over the weekend and it was probably the longest time we have spent at the zoo so far. we actually managed to walk through the whole zoo circuit, although we still haven't caught all the shows nor visited all the enclosures.

still, baby had lots of fun watching the animals again. this time, she got to see the orang utans up close at the 4.30pm photo session, and she couldn't take her eyes off them. we thus have a family picture of hubby and i looking at the camera together with 5 orang utans also looking at the camera, and one baby with her back turned on the camera. funny shot.
baby also had a fun time exploring the tropical crops section of the zoo which had orchids and various vegetable plots. she spent quite a bit of time touching the blooms and the larger fruits/vegetables, and was complaining when she had to leave because she was having so much fun.

one thing about spending more than half a day at the zoo is having to factor in baby's nap time into the plan. thankfully baby didn't fuss before her nap and actually fell asleep quite easily once she was away from the noisy elephant show.

it was a fun day overall, and i am sure we will be back at the zoo before the month is up!

8 months - almost well

baby's fever came down by tuesday morning and she was almost back to her normal self by evening time. she also started getting her appetite back by yesterday and is eating as before today.
post-fever, baby did develop a rash on her back and face and head, but the doc said it was normal for babies to get a rash after a viral fever. so, hurray for a recovering baby! :)
no more sick bugs for a long long time please.

8 months - how smart

spent the last two nights sleeping on the mattress next to baby's cot as it was much easier to monitor her fever and tend to her when she woke up at night (sigh, i am totally not used to being woken up at 2am and 6am!). baby will usually stand in her cot and face the door when she wakes up in the middle of the night (in the dark) as i will usually come in from the master bedroom. however, when she saw me appearing for the first time from the foot of her cot (where the mattress is), she was slightly surprised. but when she woke up subsequently, she would make her way to the foot of the cot to find me. so smart and so funny.
but no more waking up at night baby!! the fever is almost gone and i need my sleep so that i can function normally in the day.

8 months - and sick

baby's been running a fever since saturday evening and all i can say is that i am thankful for the past 8 months when baby was free of fevers, flus, coughs, the works. baby has been an angel for a tiny someone with a temperature that went past 39 degrees celsius. she complains more, is sticky, but can still manage a smile or two, and still is happy to play with her toys for most of the day. She hates medicine time though, and puts ups struggle. she has also lost interest in her food, so it's back to breastmilk for all feeds now. even then, she's taking less milk each feed and hardly takes the barley water i boiled. :( the only food she is still taking are the cereal puffs. she probably took more than 20 cereal puffs today when she usually has at most 10 per day. anything to get some calories and energy into her.

8 months - baby with a personality

baby is expressing herself much more these days. when she's in a good mood, she has a smile for anyone who bothers to say hi to her and will play on her own while keeping herself occupied with her own rambly monologue.
but when she is tired or doesn't like something (like being put in the carseat at first or being in the carseat for too long), she makes her opinion known. clearly known. heh.
i think she has quite a strong personality ... and she's definitely no pushover.

8 months - peas please

love the bright colours of the puréed peas and carrots in these glass jars! hopefully baby enjoys the taste of peas.

8 months - happening weekends

we have been trying to make the most of the weekends with baby and bringing her out whenever possible. we hit town last sunday and managed to have a decent lunch at breeks with baby behaving herself quite well. to keep her occupied, i gave her all the red pepper strips that were on my chicken patty and she had a fun time eating them bit by bit as the rest of the strip hung outside her mouth (see photo).
we were also at gerard's birthday party this afternoon where baby got to play with many balloons and spent some time in a bouncy castle. we had to get her out once the older kids started jumping around though as she would probably have been trampled on. we also got to meet tiny baby davin who was all zen for the whole afternoon.
i heart weekends.

back to week 39

was reading through the archives of this blog and realised that i did not post any pictures of my bump in the last few weeks before i popped. so here's a picture of the baby bump exactly one week before baby decided to evacuate. didn't remember the hubby taking this picture, so when i saw it on the computer a few nights' ago, i realised i did get rather whale-y towards the end of my pregnancy.
oh man .... how did i ever get around with such a belly?!