Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

Merry Christmas!!!

Travis celebrated his first Christmas this year. The above photo was taken at my family's Christmas dinner party. So finally, the LMM will be turning 3 month old on 29 dec and I will be returning back to work very shortly.

I will definitely miss the wonderful times I had in the first 3 months and look forward to being a working mother.

Today, I spent some time teaching the LMM numbers ONE and TWO using flash cards and a magnetic board. Not sure what he absorbed from the session but I believe that babies are smarter than we think they are. I asked him to look at one of the numbers, checking that his eyes are laid on the correct flash card before rewarding him with a kiss. Otherwise, I ask him to try again. Maybe its my imagination but he seemed to understand the game.

The LMM and I went to the Isetan sale this morning. We left the house at 7.30am, took bus 36 to Orchard and saw the snaking queue outside Isetan scotts at 8am. I prepped myself to execute the extraction method of Shopping. aka. go in, whack all the items I need, run to cashier, pay and get out. So I was done by 9am. =) taking the bus again back home, in time for his 10.30am feed. I bought a baby carrier, a musical mobile, an extra headsupport for the car seat,

more photos taken recently:

Life as a Baby.. It's Tough..

I pity Travis. It's really no fun being a baby.

Think about it.

You have to use whatever limited sounds you can muster in order to get your basic needs settled, when the stupid adults cannot get it right, you have to cry your lungs out while they fumble to try to guess what you need..and sigh, you wait til they get it right. Sometimes they never do.

You always get photographed naked even though the adults will gwak how R.A. it is.

The adults keep parroting whatever you say.

You always get pinched in the cheeks by relatives (and even your parents!?!) coo-ing,"so fat!So cute! Make me want to pinnnnch his cheeks!" You sometimes get poked, tickled and slapped as well.

While the adults have their delicious aromatic meals, you can only dream of eating those food.. you are only given milk and water 24-7 for now. sianz...

You have no say in what you wear.. if you are a boy, your mami will very likely dress you up as a girl like this ballerina photo..or if you are lucky as a rapper...or if you are unfortunate, you end up looking like a da chang jing knock-off..

Poor thing. Hang in there Travis!

Mami(s) takes a day off!

Finally did something I wanted to do for a long long time. Take MY Mami out for a girls day out. So we started with a body scrub, jacuzzi, sauna at the Grand Hyatt, then went for lunch at this famouse chicken rice stall in Orchard (lucky plaza). Its really delicious so if you wana try it, its on the second floor tucked in a corner behind the lift. I really think it beats Purvis St chicky rice!

Next, we went shopping at Paragon and we ended the day with a warm chocolate cake with ice cream, latte and hot chocolate at Bakerzinn..... yummy!

Naturally, MY Mami didnt get enough dosage of shopping so she suggested bringing LMM out the next time so no need to rush back to feed him or take over from my mother in law =).

And so here's a couple photo of us at an art installation at scotts, looking happy and contented.

Travis Sleeps Thru at 8 weeks!

All my efforts in scheduling LMM's feeds, sleep and playtime finally paid off! Although I was targeting for a 6 week old Travis to start sleeping through the night (Gina Ford managed to do that for most of her babies), he only started doing so at 8 weeks. But I'm happy. He takes his last feed at 10.30pm and wakes at 6.30pm for his breakfast. It was so important to me that he sleeps through as early as possible because I will be returning to work in the first week of Jan. I want to be able to get a good night's rest when I start running for my sales targets again.

Another development so far is that LMM can raise his head quite steadily by pushing his arms against the sofa/floor/bed. Maybe this is the starting point of a crawl. Here's a picture of him doing his thing...

Travis pictured here wearing the grey jersey knit pants mami made for him.

More pictures of Travis with his new clothes from the LMM handstitched collection...

This Khaki coloured one is made from an old dri-fit teeshirt which I cannot wear anymore.

Don't ask why.

The Emperor's New Clothes!

The Making of...
Travis finally grew out of his first set of baby clothes. I saw a website which sells very simple children's clothing and was inspired to make some for him. Went to buy cheap cloth ($1 buck per piece), a pair of scissors and started sewing last afternoon! Made a casual top and a pair of black flare pants for him.

The casual top still needs some modification as it is definitely too "off shoulder" for a boy's shirt (I left a huge allowance coz its not a stretch fabric). Going to add buttons to close it off.

So here are some photos of Travis wearing the finished pants and semi-finished floral shirt:

Travis has a New Look!

Before & After

Here's why:

Poor Travis seemed to have contracted male pattern hair loss in the last 2 weeks. Each time I comb his hair after his bath, the cradle cap comes off together with a whole clump of his fine hair. Hence, I finally decided yesterday that he needed to get rid of all his hair so that his hair will grow out all at the same time instead of in sections.

Here's a picture of Travis before his bath:-

Another picture of him sitting in his armchair:-

Hopefully, his hair will grow back quickly. In the meantime.. its caps, hats and more caps!

Home Alone

This is probably the real test. Home alone with Travis from 7am-12midnight. My first time.
Liwei has a company offsite today so he's off at 7am. My mum was suppose to come over to cook but she's down with a bad throat so she's not coming.

Its funny how when you know you have huge responsibilities coming your way that day, you take that day more seriously.. even if its a Saturday. Got up at 6.30am to go marketing for my lunch and dinner. Bot 3 chicken thighs, 1 carrot, 1 broccoli, 1 ginger and 1 watermelon. Bot newspaper. Went back, prepared breakfast for Liwei, started marinating the chicken, washing and choppin'up the vege, slicing the watermelon, etc..

It's 8.22pm now. I would rate the day fantastic. Fixed the faulty cable tv box, Uncle KH who's helping us with some minor renovations came to take the bad folding door back to his workshop, took care of baby, cooked lunch & dinner, washed the toilet, cleaned the kitchen and the floors and now since Travis is sleeping, I can update the LMM blog.

Here's a my lunch cum dinner (microwaved the other half for dinner):
Stir-fry carrots, broccoli and ginger slices
Spicy black sauce chicken
Steamed rice

and here's my clean, fed, contented sleeping baby:Happiness!

The New Milestone - 2 Months!

Finally! We'll be hitting the 2 month milestone this Sat. A good fren - Jen, sent me this photo recently. Its the one and only glam mummy photo I have to remember of my pregnancy which seemed to last 90 months. Looking at the photo, it seems surreal that Travis was in my tummy (yea..right there!) swimming about in limbo.. and here he is.. 8 weeks old.

The Greatest Parenting Fear

"Ah Chew...! Ah Chew!" exclaimed the Little Milk Monster ("LMM") who has just had his feed of milk (again). "Orh lah.." says a concerned mami. The LMM was breathing rather heavily, a bit like the engine of a broken motorcycle. "Poor thing..."comforted the mami.

And so the family a.k.a. Liwei, Bel and Grandma, decided to put him on a diet of breastmilk (again) and water to hopefully drown the flu bug in the LMM. This was yesterday.

Today, the LMM seems to be breathing better as his obstructed nostril has since cleared up slightly.

The episode reminded me how fragile the LMM is and how his being unwell can affect the moods at home. Everyone offers a piece of advice. Everyone has an idea of what will work. As new parents, we get a little overwhelmed but I guess now all new parents learn from a multitude of sources including our parents, books, docs, nurses, friends, internet, trial and error, etc. Its always hard to say what will work and its easy for anyone to say that we should have done this or that earlier on. But I find most important is for everyone to have an optimistic and positive attitude for all suggestions. And as parents, we make a decision, we stick by it and will be responsible for the decision.

I am thinking of starting with my annual Christmas preps. Thinking of making a family Christmas postcard for my friends next week.. we'll see how it goes.

Mami & Dadi's 5th Anniversary And.. Gong Gong's Birthday

Its our 5th Anniversary. Not the wedding one.. rather, the day that we got together. Amazing how a short 5 years can change the lives of 2 individuals who just met sharing a cab home. Got married, bot our own place and now we have our little son, Travis. I wonder what picture I'll be posting in my blog in another 5 years time though. Probably you'll see Liwei and myself looking slightly matured, with a 5 year old Travis smirking in the background trying to avoid being in the family photo.. and a 3 year old Megan sitting on papa's lap. Haha.. and maybe I'm pregnant with our third milk monster.. who knows!

Marriage life has been really wonderful and now with little milk monster, it has become fulfilling. It has become more complete.

Today's my dad's birthday as well. I brought mum, sis and of coz dad, the 58 year old Birthday Boy to Phins in Tampines Mall for lunch. We had fish & chips, beef steak, soup etc. It was satisfying. Bought dad 2 polo tee-shirts suitable for him to wear on his photography trips. After lunch, dad went off to shoot butterflies in sentosa while mum and sis went shopping. And me, I went back to my dear baby who was in the good care of my mother in law.

Here's a picture of Travis taken this week while he's 7 weeks old. His double chin starts to show and his arms and legs are starting to look like lotus roots or ginseng root.

He still has that signature smile of his...

Moving back home..

Well, the good news is Travis is back on track with his schedule with the exception of a couple of nights (like last night!??) when he is wide awake again from 2.30am (feeding time) until 5am. And that's really my fault coz it's Sunday and I let him sleep through the afternoon from 2pm-5pm..guess it was really payback time. Not today though! Will play with him once he wakes at 2pm all the way til 4.15pm.

We moved back home last night. It's really nice to be back in your own home. Even making a Milo Dinosaur in my own kitchen for hubby was a simple pleasure I enjoyed last night.

Then in the morning, Liwei sends me to my in law's place where Travis gets to spend the day with his granny. And I get fantastic lunches and dinners cooked by my mother in law. We plan to still sleep over at his parents' place on some week nights just to get Travis comfortable with sleeping at both places.

ok.. since the milk monster is sound asleep now, I should really try to take a nap as well.
chao!

The Test...

It's Show Hand
Okies.. I have done what I can today. Fed Travis all the milk he can drink, kept him awake from his 2pm feed til 6 plus... we'll see if he plays ball tonight and goes back to waking only once at 2-3am.fingers crossed.

Here's how I kept him awake
Flash home-made cards at him...











repeat my "Moo Moo the Cow" story to him..











Then I put him in a "chair" while I sing to him, poke him, massage him...and when all else fails...









I got Moo Moo the cow to wake him up.

Beware of the Night..(the story of the current problem)

And so all went extremely well in the first month until lately (at 6 weeks). Travis suddenly becomes super active at night and sleepy in the day. I have spent 3 nights in a row waking up at 2.30am and trying to pacify him to sleep until 5.30am. He can drink 2 feeds of 120ml within 2 hours to settle himself. It's bad. And then at 7am, he refuses to wake for his feed.. and at 10am, he's also too sleepy to take his feed.

My hypothesis:
Reverse clock syndrome and its a vicious cycle.
Day time - too sleepy to take enough feed.
Night time - slept too much in the day, very alert and hungry coz didnt drink enuf during the day.

My (hopefully) solution:
Make sure he takes a full feed in the day by pumping for every day feed.
Makes sure he is awake for the recommended hours in the day.
Hopefully he takes in enuf feed in the day, stays awake longer so that my night duty will be a breeze again... let's see what happens.

Granny's visit over the weekend

My mum and sister came over on Saturday to spend couple of hours with Travis.
She was amazed at how much he has grown since she last saw him at the first month party. Spotted mum's new spacious $10 tote and asked her to get me the same one too. Think I'll carry that as an alternative diaper bag.

Another photo here taken with my mother in law.

My modified Gina Ford schedule

For those of you working, you have your Monday blues.. for me, its just rushing rushing rushing.. my typical weekday:
6.30am Pump and feed the little milk monster (LMM), settle him into his morning nap
8am Eat a hearty breakfast - usually 2 brands essence, 2 eggs, oats, milo, a banana, red date tea + 2 glasses of water. Wash bottles, pump equipment.
9am Prepare hot water for LMM's bath, get bathing props in place
9.15am On the lights, let LMM stretch himself and have a good kick
9.30am Start the bath
10.15am Feed LMM
11.00am Settle him into his midday nap
12.05pm Have lunch (small bowl of rice, meat, fish, vege, soup and fruit) and watch my favourite TVB serial
1pm Drink another glass of water and have a quick nap
2pm LMM wakes.. so feed him again, pump and store more milk
3.30pm-4.15pm Keep LMM awake by playing games with him
4.15pm put LMM in the stroller, take a walk in the estate, maybe go to the supermarket or have a hot chocolate at the new cafe in Siglap centre. LMM will usually doze off in stroller.
5pm Feed LMM and then have my dinner (small bowl of rice, meat, fish, vege, soup and fruit)
6.15pm Give LMM a good wipe, feed LMM
7pm Settle LMM in cot
10.30pm LMM wakes for another feeding. This one, we have to make him really really full.
2.30am LMM wakes for midnight feed (by bottle).
6.30am LMM wakes for morning feed (by bottle).

Travis the Hyena!

Pardon the title but I caught Travis laughing like one yesterday when he was left alone in his cot. At first I thought he was going to cry but he ended up laughing quite loudly. I couldn't help laughing as well when I caught him in action. Wish I could video it for keeps.

With the confinement month finally over for me, I've been out and about quite a bit. I get Travis in the pram and wheel him to Siglap Centre for some shopping, shopped for slimming cream at Taka last wed, went out with my secondary school friends for dinner last Friday and yesterday, Liwei brought me to the Cheesecake Factory last evening.

Life's quite different now with Travis around. I don't laze in bed anymore, I have to plan the day well should we be bringing him out, I'm not afraid of baby poo and pee anymore and there's always a bottle to wash. The good thing is since Travis is put on a schedule, I know all with some level of accuracy what are my "free time" slots. This enables me to still do enjoyable stuff like online shopping (which I do alot more nowadays), get the waxing or massage lady over, read my book, catch my TVB dramas on channel 55, take a nap.

With a baby of my own now, I also tend to do a second take when I see a cute baby at the pedi or at the shopping centre. I never used to do that.

Phew! All is Well.

Today's visit to the pedi was great. Travis at 34 days old weighs a whooping 4.43 kilos thanks to a mix of breast milk and Enfalac A+ forumla. Doc confirms that he is putting on weight appropriately and has caught up considering he weighed slightly on the light side at birth. He is now 55.5 cm tall, has relatively strong legs and a sturdy neck. Getting all these feedback from the pedi akins to our "parenting" exam results. And so we passed!

Doc also confirmed that he can take a max of 120ml for the moment. This is to be increased gradually by 1oz (30ml) when the period between feeds starts to get shorter and/or he cannot settle well after being given 120ml.

Travis had his second hep B jab today. The next time he needs a jab will be in Jan 08.
Cool.

Eating Way Too Much?

Travis was born only 2.88kg in end Sept 2007. He is currently only 1 month old but seems to be drinking as much milk as my friend's 4 month old. I'm worried that he has an enlarged stomach due to overfeeding but am getting conflicting views on how much a baby can take in 1 month.. ranging from 60ml - 150ml. Since Travis is taking an average of 90ml-120ml, I guess I shouldn't be worrying so much! Will confirm with the pedi tomorrow when Travis goes for his 2nd Hep B jab.