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…all sprawled out on my tummy!

A relatively uneventful week…

…not!

Seriously, Elena seems to have one (non serious) medical problem after another every week. This time, it’s loose stools + another bad case of diaper rash courtesy of the former. Won’t go into details…I mean, who would be interested in the colour and consistency of her poo except her dear mummy, right? Anyhoo, her diaper rash has almost cleared up now after a couple of days of applying Drapolene & zinc oxide, and we’re still investigating the cause of her loose stools (doc says it’s probably a stomach virus, but I’m wondering if it’s due to my breast milk). Oh…and during one diaper change, she projectile poo-ed on my hand. Yes. You read correctly. The poo shot out and landed squarely on my right palm. I shudder to think if it’d happened minutes earlier when my face was inches away while peering at her diaper rash!!

On to more amusing stuff that she did this week…
1. My mom was carrying her and talking to my dad. Both of them were talking quite excitedly over something when suddenly, Elena turned to my dad, focused her eyes on him and did a long ‘hmmppphhhh’ sound, followed by some unidentifiable fierce noises that apparently, sounded like she was scolding him soundly for ignoring her! My mom said she has never heard her make this sort of sound before!
2. The same night, while I was feeding her, hubby came over and said something along the lines of: “Naughty girl, scolded wai kong (grandpa) today ah?”. And do you know what happened? Immediately after he said that, Elena screwed up her face and started crying! She spit out the teat and cried and cried and cried and guess who had to pacify her?!? Sigh.
3. About two nights after the above happened, hubby sauntered over while I was feeding her again and commented that her face has pimples (she has a few whiteheads near her mouth)…and…yes…she did the exact same thing as before! This time, I was smarter though…I passed her and her bottle over to hubby right away…
4. My mom told me that during another feed, our maid came by and lightly touched Elena’s foot while she was halfway drinking the milk. Without letting go of the bottle, Elena turned over, looked at our maid and did her ‘hmmppphhhh’ sound again!

I believe someone commented…future drama queen in the making?

She’s currently still taking 3oz of milk every 2 hours (you could almost set your watch by her!), but looks like whatever she’s taking is more than sufficient…she now weighs 4.73 kgs, a gain of nearly 600gms in 1.5 weeks! Sigh…it’s no wonder my arms go numb after carrying her for awhile!

Development wise, she’s now able to hold her head steady for short periods of time: when I bathe her…she is able to ‘sit’ with her head up when I wash her back. She has also started batting the toys on her cot mobile…as she can’t reach it while lying on the cot, I’ll carry her and stand near the toys and she reaches out with her hands when they go pass and tries to hit it (more misses than hits though!).

After 8 weeks, I’m glad to say that we’re now more attuned to her moods and are more or less able to decipher her ‘signals’:
1. If she moves restlessly in her sleep about an hour after her feed: pick her up to burp
2. If she turns red in her face: lift up her legs and go ‘ungh-ungh’…she’s probably trying to poo
3. Wait for awhile after opening her diaper…she usually decides to pee and ‘help’ us clean off her poo…
4. But don’t take too long when changing her diaper coz she’ll get impatient and start protesting (same thing when dressing her after her bath)!
5. The bath water has to be quite warm…she enjoys her bathtime, but not when the water is lukewarm…
6. Don’t disturb her when she’s sleepy…that means no diaper changes, no waking her up for feeds unless you want to be subjected to an earful of screams and wails.
7. But don’t wake her up too late when it’s time to feed either else you’ll have to spend an hour to cajole her to drink.
8. If she’s awake and very alert, don’t leave her at her cot/gymini/rocker for too long…she’ll get bored and start yelling.

My daughter is a handful, isn’t she?

I’ve been the recipient of one too many…

Week 7 started off rather badly…Elena wasn’t feeling well on Friday evening and was up crying and wailing inconsolably till the wee hours of the morning. Rocking her in our arms, holding her close…nothing worked! In the end, my mum carried her over to her room at 2am where she finally finally went to sleep…grandmother magic, I call it! The next morning, we brought her to a nearby clinic on Saturday morning to check if she was ok. The doctor confirmed what I’d kinda suspected…she said that it’s possible Elena’s having an early onset of colic. My heart dropped when I heard that awful word…images of endless nights of crying and screaming flashed through my head immediately…*blek* Doc prescribed a probiotic treatment for us to try…it’s possible that she’s crying because of the build-up of gas in her tummy, so the probiotics should help with the digestion. At the same time, doc also did a thorough check of Elena’s reflexes, weight (4.17kgs already!), length, etc. and pronounced her perfectly fine otherwise.

On Saturday night, we invited close friends and colleagues over to celebrate Elena’s full moon at the poolside. Luckily, Elena’s crying jag didn’t resurface that night…she was perfectly well-behaved throughout the whole party, happily sleeping away in my arms. Later, my mom told me that when she carried Elena back upstairs (hubby and I stayed behind to mingle), she finally opened her eyes when they were in the lift and gave them a cheeky little smile.

Tired out after her big night…

Although we were too busy on Saturday night to take any photos, we did manage to take some pics of her with all her pressies the next morning (see below)…and we spent a good part of the evening unwrapping all the pressies. My goodness…this lucky girl has lots and lots of pretty clothes waiting to be worn! Thank you, everyone!!

With my mom, myself and hubby taking turns to feed Elena, we’ve been keeping a log of her feeding schedule/intake and diaper changes…I find it very useful as we know how much she’s been eating and whether there are enough wet diapers in a day (at this rate, more than I would like… ).

She’s now taking 3oz every 2 hours…god, I long for the day when I can stretch her feeding time to 3-4 hours!! We’re still giving her breastmilk and formula during the day, while I still breastfeed her directly at night (this girl suckles so loudly that I have to shush her…and she gulps down the milk like there’s no tomorrow!). Her rooting instinct is really strong though…put her on my chest and she’ll start searching for my nipple. This is partly the reason why I’m expressing and feeding her by the bottle during the day…my worry is that if she gets used to being directly breastfed during the day, what if she refuses to take the bottle when I have to go out without her? To be honest, I do feel a very strong pang of sadness and guilt that I’m not directly breastfeeding her all the time. In fact, I really look forward to the nights…there’s something really special about holding her close and watching her suckle. However, the notion of exclusively breastfeeding is really hard to practice in real life, at least for me…I would appreciate any advice on how you moms manage to do it 24/7 and still be able to go around and do your normal chores / go out / take a shower without baby crying out for milk…salute salute!

Recently, while bottle feeding her, we found that if she wakes up feeling really hungry, drinks too fast and accidentally chokes, she’ll cry and cry and cry, stop, then continue drinking for a short while, then cry again, then stop, then drink, then cry (and rinse and repeat)! A 15 minute feeding can easily drag on to one hour when she’s in this type of mood as we have to pacify her and cajole her to continue drinking. Quite the cili padi, this one. Worst of all, we have no idea where she gets her hot temper from…hubby is one of the most even-tempered person I know, and my mom has personally vouched that I was never that hot-tempered when I was young!

Development wise, she’s able to do a halfway roll…from her back to her side, but no back-to-tummy or tummy-to-back roll yet. Like I said before, she’s such a squirmy little person that we’ve nicknamed her ‘siao mao mao chung‘ (small caterpillar)! And on one night, she actually planted a row of wet licks across my chest from left to right, and then she squirmed down and did the exact same thing again (exactly like how you would eat a cob of corn, typewriter style).

See her round round cheeks!

When I compare the photos we taken of her from week 1 till now, she looks like a different baby altogether. She has filled out all that loose skin around her arms and legs, and her cheeks are getting ever so chubby! Her eyelashes have gotten thicker compared to when we first brought her home, and her eyebrows are more defined as well. She has also started to lose her hair…we’ve seen a few strands drifting here and there…I do hope her new hair will start growing, and grow fast! She looks like a different baby altogether…and it’s only been 7 weeks!

As for the mommy update…well, I had my first ‘outside’ meal on Monday – sushi and ice cream! Yes, my confinement is FINALLY over! For those of you who are wondering, my grandmother decreed that my confinement should be 44 days, not 28…*blek* …so while I didn’t follow the ‘don’t bathe, don’t wash hair, don’t shower’ rules, my mom did watch my food intake for 44 days, which meant no cold food in the last 6 weeks…which also meant that the first taste of BR’s Jamoca Almond Fudge and Maui Brownie Madness was absolutely orgasmic! On the bright side, no ice-cream in the last 6 weeks meant that I was able to lose my pregnancy weight…from 50kgs pre-birth, to 47kgs @ 1 week post-birth, to 46kgs @ 2 weeks post-birth…to a happy 43kgs @ 6 weeks post birth…yay! At least I can fit into most of my pre-pregnancy pants and skirts now! Hubby is warning me to put on 2kgs though…I think he has taken it upon himself to ensure that my weight does not fall below the recommended 45kgs. The post-pregnancy tummy pouch is still there…blame it on my lack of motivation to exercise…haha! Oh oh…and of course, the advantage of breastfeeding is that I have the tiniest hint of a cleavage now…flaunt it while you’ve got it, I say! Other than that, mommy’s just peachy…just wishing for ONE night of un-interrupted sleep, that’s all!

Taken in week 5, halfway thru a feeding session…all this (and more) in less than 2 minutes!