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Week 6 started off with poo. Lots of it! As I’d wanted to take photos of Elena, I dressed her in a white Gap one-piece footed suit. In the evening, when my mum was carrying her after she woke up from her nap…we heard a poo-ooo-ttt sound…and then I saw a brown stain spreading out at the back of her outfit! Ewwww…. Took her to the diaper mat, gingerly undressed her and oh-my-freaking-god…there was poo EVERYWHERE. It took us ages to clean up…we had to carry her to a small pail and use water to wash her buttocks!! There was a repeat performance the next day, but luckily, it was contained within the diaper.

Her frequency of poo-ing and pee-ing has also changed…she used to poo frequently, but in smaller amounts. In the past week, I noticed that she now poo-s less frequently, but in larger quantities…most of the time, her diaper is soaking wet with just pee (which makes cleaning up a whole lot easier!). I also noticed that she seems to pee almost everytime right after her diaper is removed. It’s a big improvement from her unexpected projectile pee-ing, and if we get the timing right, we don’t end up wasting a fresh diaper… !

On Saturday night, I noticed that her body was feeling quite warm, and when hubby took her temperature, he was shocked to see that it was 37.7C. We took her to the A&E at DSH where we waited close to an hour before we could see the doctor. She prescribed some paracetamol for the fever…we suspect the fever was probably due to her HepB injection on Thursday (though it’s quite a delayed reaction, if it is!). Poor girl…she looked so flushed when we were at the hospital. And if that wasn’t enough, she vomited during the last feed of the night! I ended up breastfeeding her till 2am, and waking up almost every hour during that night…I swear I looked like an extra from one of George A. Romero’s film the next morning…

She was still feverish throughout Sunday…and acting very very manja, making small whimpering and sighing sounds as if she was milking her fever for all it’s worth! Her fever subsided on Sunday night, but on Monday morning, it shot up again and we had to force feed her the medicine. Luckily, it subsided by Monday night and she was back to normal by Tuesday…phew!

At the rate she’s growing, it looks like she’ll soon outgrow her clothes. I bought some premature-sized clothes from Pumpkin Patch before she was born, and it used to be too big for her. Now, it’s quite a tight fit. Ditto with all her Pureen Newborn Petit clothes that my mum bought. And give or take another 2 weeks, she’ll also outgrow the two one-piece footed suits from Gap that she has only worn once!! Oh…and since I’m on the topic of clothes, I found that the romper suits from Pumpkin Patch aren’t very easy to wear as it’s not very stretchy (which means it’s really hard to get the suit over her head). The ones from Gap are great…stretchy, not too thick (which is perfect for our weather)…unfortunately, it’s quite expensive!

Development wise…her neck muscles are getting stronger by the day. When she’s on her tummy, she’s able to lift her head and turn from one direction to another (ie. facing left to facing right). Sometimes, she uses her arms to propel her head upwards, but most of the time, she relies solely on her neck muscles. She’s also able to hold her head upright for a short while when she’s in the burping position. Her eyes are definitely tracking objects now…when I hold her directly below her cot mobile, her eyes will follow the frog/flamingo/hippo as they twirl around, and if the toy goes past her line of sight, she’ll twist her head to follow it. Her arm muscles are getting stronger too…just the other day, I was an unwilling recipient of a slap in the face…I bent over her to give her a kiss, and *smack*…her right hand comes up and hits me squarely in the face!! And on another occasion, she manages to grab my spectacles when she was wailing and screaming and pulled it right off my face. Yes, my angel has quite a temper when she’s upset!

Her complexion is getting fairer and fairer as the days go by. We also noticed that she has two sets of dimples…one near the side of her lips, and another at her cheeks! I sometimes tease her… “Baby…how did you manage to steal TWO sets of dimples? Tsk tsk…”. She’s also more alert and spends quite a lot of time awake (read: crying) nowadays (which also means less free time for me!).

As I mentioned earlier, she absolutely loves to be carried. It’s really hard to put her down in her cot once she falls asleep in our arms after a feeding session. She makes small warning noises the minute her butt touches the cot (nyek nyek nyek kind of sounds), and if we do not heed her warning signals, it soon turns to full out wails. She’s a squirmy little thing…she stretches and contorts her body when she wakes up (imagine, her head and legs go backward so far she looks like the letter ‘C’!), she’s already half turning her body by herself (one of her butt cheeks have achieved lift-off from the bed quite a few times now), and when I carry her in the burping position (head on my shoulder), she actually squirms and moves…bopping her head along till it’s resting on my breast (once, she managed to land her mouth squarely on my nipple…talk about natural instinct!). One thing’s for sure, she definitely loves snuggling against my chest with her tummy on my tummy, her head on my breast and both hands outstretched as if she were hugging me. I loath to put her back to bed when she falls asleep like that…she looks so comfortable and peaceful, and I too love the feeling of cuddling her!

What happened to my quiet and peaceful baby of the first two weeks? She grunts, growls, squeals, yells, moans and cries nowadays (although big gummy smiles are still abundant when she’s fed and happy)! We usually change her diapers after feeding her, but that’s when she’s about to fall asleep. The minute we take off the diaper, she’ll kick and scream in protest…it sounds like we’re committing bloody murder or something…*blek*. And again when we transfer her from the diaper changing area to her sleeping area. And again if she doesn’t like the music from her cot mobile being switched on when she’s falling asleep…

I made the mistake of waking her up from her nap for her daily bath, and boy, payback sucks. She cried her lungs out from the minute I undressed her, she pee-ed on me, then poo-ed on me (yes, ON ME – luckily, there was a towel between her bum and my lap), and she continued pouting her way through her post-bath feed. Like hubby said recently…the title of ‘complain queen’ has now shifted from mother to daughter!

And on the very same day, I also made yet another mistake of mixing her formula together with my expressed breast milk. We usually feed her 2oz EBM followed by 1oz formula, but it’s pretty hard to coax her to take the second bottle once the teat of the first bottle is out of her mouth. I got this brilliant idea from my baby bible (What To Expect - Baby’s First Year) that it’s ok to mix the two together so we decided to try it that night. The reaction we got was priceless! She tasted the milk, turned away and screwed up her face! And then, she stuck out her tongue as if she was trying to get rid of the taste in her mouth. We tried four times, and got the same reaction each time! In the end, I had to throw the milk away and make a fresh batch of pure formula for her. Darn…too smart to be tricked. What’s more, she drank 1oz of the new batch of milk…enough to satiate her hunger, and then she stopped. She refused to take anymore no matter how much I coaxed her until I began to apologize for mixing her milk…”sorry lor, mommy’s fault…mommy didn’t know it’ll taste that bad…mommy won’t do it again, etc. etc. etc.”…short of crawling on my hands and knees, I tell you. Then, she gave me a wide smile as if she has decided to forgive me, sucked the teat back into her mouth and guzzled down the remainder. *faints*

On the 14th of Feb, we had a simple ceremony on Saturday to celebrate Elena’s full moon. According to Chinese custom, a baby girl’s full moon should be celebrated earlier, preferably the day earlier…the belief is that it’ll prevent them from marrying late or becoming a spinster… Anyways, that one day earlier happened to fall on Saturday, which was convenient for all of us. The ceremony was really simple…I bathed her earlier in the morning and dressed her in new clothes and socks. We brought her to the living room where my mom had prepared ang ku and red eggs. One of the red eggs was peeled and some sugar was sprinkled on top and we symbolically ‘fed’ it to her by touching it lightly to her lips. Apparently, this is to ensure that people will always say nice (sweet) things about her! Then, we cut a little bit of her hair and placed it into a red packet, which was then placed underneath her mattress for one night. I believe that the usual custom is to shave all the hair off, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that to my baby girl! After that, hubby brought her for a short walk outside the apartment…once through the front door, and once through the back…and that was it! We took quite a lot of photos after that, as she looked so adorable in her new red dress!

In terms of development…well, nothing really much to report…I mean, what can babies do at this stage except poo, pee and sleep? Well, we did notice that she seems to have quite strong neck muscles as several times while carrying her against our chest, she seems to be able to lift up her head for a short while. She’s also able to focus on objects and recently, I’ve noticed that her eyes are able to track objects as I move them from side to side. She has a newfound fascination with the mirror that came with her Tiny Love gymini…last night, I placed it in front of her and she kept on looking and looking, and then, waving her hand slowly in front as if to test if her reflection did the same thing. She also gets very excited when I place her near one of the hanging toys on the gymini…she tried to bat it with her hands (usually unsuccessfully!)…it’s absolutely amusing to watch!

The other thing we’ve noticed in this week is that she loves being carried…not a really good thing in the sense that after lying awhile in the cot, she’ll start howling in protest until someone picks her up. Definitely not a habit I want to cultivate…sigh! Anyways, I’ve invested in two slings…a pouch and a ring sling, so if she does want to be carried when we’re out and about, at least my arms won’t suffer that much! Will do a write-up on the slings when I’ve put it to good use…am still practicing at the mo.

Factory production: I hit a one-time high of 6oz one morning (honestly, 6oz doesn’t sound like much in writing, but when you see the whole bottle filled with milk, it’s quite amazing!). Alas…that phenomenon was never repeated again. However, I did succumb to an unfortunate bout of mastitis, though…luckily, am on the road to recovery and am still able to express and feed her as the antibiotics that the doctor gave does not affect lactation.

We brought her to the paed on Thursday for her second HepB jab, and when the paed weighed her…wow, 3.6kgs, baby! That’s a gain of 800gms in 3 weeks, which means we’re right on track as she should be gaining 250gms per week. No wonder my arm has been aching when I carry her during feeds!! The additional weight is definitely apparent…her arms and legs are much chubbier than when we first brought her back, her cheeks have filled out, and at certain angles, she definitely has a double chin…*grin* These days, she drinks around 20oz to 25oz in total…her record high was Wednesday night…28oz! As I told hubby…daddy’s girl with daddy’s appetite!

In the past four weeks, we’ve slowly managed to settle into a daily routine whereby my mom would take the early feeds at 5am, 7am and 9am, after which I’ll wake up and take over the 11am feed followed by her bath. Bath time is followed by an oil massage and application of the yu-yi oil on her belly. The rest of the day is an ongoing routine of feed – change diapers – sleep – feed – etc…till the second last feed of the night, after which I give her a quick wipe down, change her into her pyjamas and apply another round of yu-yi oil. She’s usually quite alert once she’s changed, and for the past two days, she remained wide awake until she finished her last feed. She usually wakes up around 2+am, fussing a little bit but not really crying out for milk…that’s when I’ll carry her to the bed to breastfeed her, but she doesn’t really suckle a lot and will fall asleep soon after. She wakes up again at around 4am, again, just to suckle abit…and then, the whole routine starts again at 5am. It’s not always regular though, as sometimes she would wake up earlier than expected, crying for milk but overall, looks like we’re slowly settling in nicely (fingers crossed!)…finally!

As for me…I finally managed to go for a pedicure and a haircut over the weekend! Hubby stayed home to look after her on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, bless him! I felt *almost* human again, especially after my much needed haircut!

There’s a bitch from hell and her name is Mastitis. And she brought along her friend, Sore Nipples.

It struck suddenly on Monday night, and I woke up early Tuesday morning with a throbbing left breast. I prayed fervently it wasn’t mastitis, but had a sneaky suspicion in my heart that it was as I’d earlier had a blocked milk duct that I was unable to remove PLUS Elena spent a happy 1.5 hours suckling earlier in the evening which caused that part of my nipple to crack.

As I breastfeed her during the night feeds, I decided to give her my right breast to suckle to avoid the pain. Didn’t help, as when she suckled, I could feel the let down sensation on the left breast and it hurt!

During the next feed, I thought…what the hell, let her have the left breast since I need to drain it anyways to prevent further engorgement. Holy cow…worst decision of my life I swear. The sore nipple due to the blocked milk duct, coupled with the swelling caused the pain to increase tenfold the minute she latched on. I would describe it as having someone poke a hot pin into your nipple every few seconds. I had to grit my teeth in order not to cry out loud, all the while thinking…just a few more minutes, just a few more minutes. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I tried to insert my little finger into the side of Elena’s mouth to break the suction…but you know what my barracuda baby did? She latched on even harder and sucked more vigorously!!! OMG, I thought I was going to scream from the pain, no kidding!

Later in the morning, I decided to try expressing the milk out instead of letting her suckle, thinking that since the breast pump wouldn’t be in contact with my nipple, it would hurt less. Or so I thought. Even though I’d set the pump on the lowest setting, the pain was so bad I actually cried and had to dig my nails into my thighs. I know, sounds so dramatic, right? But it was really really bad.

My dad brought me to the clinic after that, and the doctor confirmed that it was, indeed, mastitis as I was running a fever and my breast was hot to the touch. Luckily, an abscess hadn’t formed yet, so she just sent me home with a course of antibiotics (both oral and a cream to apply) and some painkillers.

My mum took over all the feeds during the day and hubby did the night feeds so I could rest and recover. It’s been two days now, and the pain is almost gone. There’s still abit of engorgement, but at least there’s no more throbbing pain like Monday night. I’ve been diligently applying hot compresses and expressing every 3 hours (did not put Elena back on the breast as my nipple is still sore)…hopefully, everything will resolve itself in a day or so!

I bought this during the Taka Baby Fair last year, together with the baby food warmer and a bottle feeding starter kit (which I didn’t use coz the bottles are not BPA-free). I can’t remember how much I paid for the whole set, but it was substantially cheaper compared to the retail price in Malaysia.

I’d originally wanted to buy the Multi-function Sterilizer but was advised against it by the sales lady. She reasoned that if I have a live-in maid, the sterilizer may be too complicated for her (the maid) to learn how to use, and advised me to buy the Rapid Steam Sterilizer instead, which has only one button to press vs. the temperature/timer settings on the other sterilizer. Good point, I thought (although so far, I haven’t let the maid come in contact with Elena’s eating/feeding utensils yet)!

I’ve been using the sterilizer for a month now, and it’s been a breeze to use. The sterilizer has two trays, one for bottles and the other (the top one) for bottle caps, teats, etc. What I like about this sterilizer is that it can take any bottles of any size, as the height of the top tray is adjustable. Furthermore, the sterilisation cycle only takes a quick 6 minutes, which is great coz when you run out of teats and baby’s crying, the last thing you want to do is to wait and wait!

Cleaning the sterilizer is pretty easy too…once a week, just squeeze half a lemon and pour the lemon juice into the sterilizer, let it stand for 30 minutes and use a clean cloth to wipe off any limescale that may have built up over the week on the heating plate (another good thing about this sterilizer is that it’s heating plate is exposed so you can clean it directly). Then pour in clean water and click the ‘on’ button and let the sterilizer sterilize itself!

Since I’m practically fully recovered from the delivery, I’ve decided not to split the updates between Elena & myself any longer…

Week 4…what a week! Elena is definitely getting cheekier by the day…don’t be fooled by the angelic photo below:

1. I was cajoling her into finishing her milk, and I told her…”Mommy has a lot of patience…I can wait all day for you to finish this last ounce, girl…” …and immediately after I said that, she flashes her cheeky one-sided grin at me as if she doesn’t believe what I just said!

2. My mom related this to me: She was making a chewing motion with her mouth during one of the morning feeds and my dad said maybe her gums are itchy. My mom replied that it’s definitely too soon for her to be growing teeth, but when she does and if I’m still breastfeeding, she’s quite sure this little girl will give me a nip or two. Right after she said that, Elena turned her head towards my mom, opened her mouth and does a little chomping action with her mouth! *shudders*

3. Hubby tickled her armpit after he finished feeding her, and she used her hand to swat him away! He did it again to see if she would repeat what she did…and yes, she swatted him away again!

4. And….she pee-ed on me…AGAIN! The projectile style! *faints*

She’s now moving her arms and legs even more, and boy, is she strong. A few times, I mistimed her kicks and got a foot right at my throat when I leaned over her…*choke*. During feeding time, her hands will come up to touch the bottle as if we’re going to take it away from her, and after feeding, she uses her hands (or rather, mittens) to wipe her mouth…it’s quite funny to watch! We’re still putting mittens on her as her nails are super sharp and NONE of us have the guts to trim them yet.

She has also started grunting and passing a lot of gas, and screwing up her face till it’s all red like she’s really really constipated (but she’s not coz her stools are soft)…can any mommies out there tell me if this is normal? She also gets hungry very fast, ie. once she wakes up from her nap, she’ll immediately cry out for milk and her head will be swiveling frantically from side to side with her mouth open. If she doesn’t get her milk soon, she’ll stuff her hands into her mouth, and if hubby is carrying her, she actually starts rooting for his nipple…

We also realized that she doesn’t like to be disturbed…if she falls asleep after a feeding and we change her diapers, she’ll growl and make all sorts of angry noises! She even uses her hands to bat us away…scary!

On Thursday, I placed her on the Tiny Love gymini that I bought, and boy, did she get ever so excited! She was all wide-eyed with excitement, especially when she looked at the mirror, and when I rattle the toys.

As we’ll be celebrating her full moon on Saturday, hubby and I bought a little pressie for her: a simple and lovely anklet with a bell from Diamond & Platinum. I think I’ll let her start wearing it when she starts crawling so we’ll know when she’s on the move!

In terms of feeding, she’s also drinking more…she can take up to 3oz during some feeds. It’s a lucky thing my milk factory production has gone up too…I’m hitting 2oz on a regular basis, 3oz quite often…and on one wonderful morning, I managed to express 5oz (although it’s a one-off thing I’m sure!). Wonder if it’s due to the papaya fish soup my mom has been cooking for me? I’m also breastfeeding her in the middle of the day and during the night…have finally mastered the art of breastfeeding while lying down and it’s a lifesaver as she gets her milk and I get my rest! The best part about feeding her? She smiles ever so sweetly once she’s full and burped…she just smiles and smiles and smiles and my heart just melts and melts and melts…