Yeapie!!!

This will be my shortest post ever! Today, my hubby recieved a call from the Singapore Cord Blood Bank (SCBB)! During my 2nd trimester, I had decided to donate instead of store my little girl's cord blood. Instead of throwing it away, my gynae, Dr Paul Tseng will harvest the cord blood. Of course, I had to also donate a little of my blood for some test.

During the sign up, the lady (I think her name is Doreen or Esther) had already told me that she will give me a call when my girl is six months should the cord blood be banked successfully. A fellow mother on the SMH had actually told me that once we recieve the "thank you" card from SCBB it means that the cord blood is not banked. Well apparently, it isn't true!

Coincidentally, I had picked up a SCBB brochure yesterday when I sent my nephew to see Dr Ang Ai Tin. So, I am over-joyed to hear the news because:

a. It means that the cord blood was successfully donated (was not a waste of my gynae's effort)

b. The cord blood meets the stringent international standards (in terms of stem cell count)

c. The cord blood may be used to save another person's life!

The lady said she will call me back again when my little girl is 1 year old. :) If so, it means that the cord blood is still being banked and has not been used!

Anyway here are some more photos which were sent to me by Juzyounme from SMH Dec 08 thread. Enjoy!

It's mum mum time!!!

Look at the picture below and tell me what you see...

It's really a big mess today feeding my little girl with the puree I made just minutes before her lunch feed. After buying the "First Food" books, I decided to plan what she was to have in the afternoon and in the evening. So I had about 2 and a half tablespoon of pumpkin and 1 tablespoon of spinach. I had originally thought of giving her the spinach followed by pumpkin... But this litte girl didn't quite like the plain spinach (I manage to bluff her once into eating the plain one on Thursday. She was distracted - poo-ing while I fed her. *haha*).

A fellow mother, Adeline gave me a suggestion so I tried the combination of pumpkin and spinach. I tried it first before giving to her and I must stay it taste way better than the plain veg! My little girl agreed and she took everything. When the mixture become concentrated with spinach, she started pushing out the puree. Luckily I had enough pumpkin puree to mix!

There is one thing I noticed though, she likes the puree or whatever food WARM! Once it turns a little cooler, her reaction to the food slows too...

So how did I get her into this horrid mess?

1. My little girl had a tug-of-spoon with me (she insisted on holding the spoon! I let her and the puree went everywhere but into her mouth)

2. My little girl pulled the bib into her mouth... And she tried lapping up whatever puree that actually dripped on the bib...

3. She decided to wipe her mouth on the Ikea chair! (Make mama busy only...)

4. She wanted to create the stylo-milo pumpkin-spinach moustach by pushing some puree out while the spoon was in her mouth!

Seriously it was fun for me to see her interest in the puree as she crys when I am slow or smacks the front of the seat to make me faster! Despite the mess, I did enjoy the process and it was pretty stress free (though I was stressed by the dirtied chair and the stains on her clothes that just won't go off!)

A word of caution: Spinach Puree is a nightmare for me. The drips on her clothes left greenish-yellow stains that didn't go off despite overnight soaking! *sobs*

Food Diary:

Breakfast: 2 teaspoon of Nestle white rice cereal

Lunch: Abt 4 tablespoon of pumpkin + spinach

Dinner: 4 tablespoon of Healthy Times Brown Rice Cereal + 1 and half tablespoon of apple puree

Total Milk Intake for the day: 20oz (aiyah so little!!! Sianz)

Here's leaving u a picture of her with the spinach moustache (inspiration from milk moustache!)

Blessed by the tooth fairy...

My girl is teething! I felt her very first teeth on 7th June 2009. It was a tiny and sharp. :P And that was the start of her crankiness. Other than biting anything that comes within millimetres of her mouth or anything that she can grab, she drools like a waterfall and gets cranky (i.e. she will cry in frustration while biting on the teether).

I purchased my first tube of what I call the miracle cream - Dentinox Teething Gel. It can be used from birth and I confirmed that it is safe to use with my PD. After the appearance of this tiny bit of teeth, her milk intake started to suffer. Initially, my hubby insisted that we stay off the gel. But after one day of horrible milk intake, he caved in and I applied a little on the gums before her feed. The miracle cream did wonders and she finished her milk!

In less than a week, i.e. 13 June 2009, I felt another tiny sharp teeth coming out! My little girl is having 2 teeth at one go... And this was followed with extreme crankiness on the weekend! Yeap, the weekend where she turn 6months! I guess the teething portion for my daughter did not come too early nor late. Got to remind my MIL to "clean" her teeth after every feed of solids. :p

Now when she smiles with her mouth wide, I can see the little two tiny teeth emerging (i.e. it's not out totally)! My hubby said we should try to take a photo of the first 2 tiny teeth. So while I am waiting for him to take the photo, shall make do with the following diagram I got from the web...

Ref: (http://users.forthnet.gr/ath/abyss/dep1171.htm)

To end off this post, here is a pic of my little girl and her innovation to convert her favourite tu-tu into her teether! This never fails to make me and my hubby laugh out loud.

6 months and counting... :)

Little girl is 6 months old! And she spent the day at Junction 8. My hubby and I signed her up for the baby photo calander contest... I only got to know that it is a SPH calander after reaching the venue! There were loads of babies and toddlers as the contest was open to babies from 6 months to 2 years. A total of 12 babies will be selected for the calander. Seriously, I did not really read the application form... I only took it home and passed on the rest of the work to my hubby.

The theme for Sunday was animal theme. A lot of girls from the Dec thread of SMH forum offered to loan me their animal costume. So here's thanking Ivy, Rachel and Jlow for offering! My fellow forum mate and neighbour, Jlow passed me a pooh costume but it was too loose... :P

In the end, I got one from the push cart outside Carrefour (despite knowing that it is $7 more expensive than what I could get online) on Saturday evening. That night, I unpicked the ears and added cotton into the ears for more "3-D" effect. *haha* If you think I am crazy, you should have seen the variety of costumes that the parents had their kids in.

The event at J8 required one parent to go up the stage to parade the baby in front of 3 judges. The scoring will be based on how photogenic (there was a pre-stage photo shoot), smiley, cute and well-behaved the baby is. I guess my baby was too tired so she did not really smile on stage, she did however BEAM at me while in my hubby's arms (when she was not on stage- *oh well*). Anyway the bigger babies (who are almost 2 years) seem to have added advantage as they could walk up the stage, wave their hands, blow flying kisses at the judges and even shake their backsides! Oh well, I can only hope for the best... The results will be out in July... So till then... :P

Anyway, here are some photos of my little gal with papa, me... And her fellow friend, baby Ambrose whose mum is also from the SMH Dec forum! :)

Just reached J8 and we were queing for her number... :P

Single shots with Papa (Top) and with Mama (Bottom)

Top: Baby Ambrose: "I want my afternoon nap..." Bottom: Close up of sheep sheep & cow cow...

Babies with mummies... Ambrose is attracted to the light while my girl is distracted by Ah Ma...

Baby girl with Papa (before going on stage)... :P

On stage now... But where did the smiles go??? :P

Milk Spa...

My little girl had her most expensive spa the weekend that just passed... Why did I say it's expensive? It's because she is bathing in my breast milk - which is like the most precious liquid any mother would ever dream of giving their babies! Seriously, I would not waste my milk like this if not for the fact that I was taking a cocktail of medication for my bad cough. Have to thank Christine from SMH for reminding me that I should not throw and instead keep the milk for my girl to have a milk spa.

The milk is pretty mosturising (after heating up the milk in the pot, it forms a yellow layer of what looks like oil!) but sticky (most probably due to the sugar content - yes, breast milk is sweet). This time I got more inspiration from Chantalle on how to warm up the milk. Previously, I had left the milk until room temperature and added boiling water to make the milk warm. So this time round, it was very much easier! : )

I warmed about 5 litres of milk and it did not even fill up half the tub! I had no choice but to dilute the milk with warm water so that my girl could have a decent dip in the tub... :) Maybe next time I will warm about 20 packs of milk for her instead (thanks Chantelle for the tip!). My hubby took a video of her and I have yet edited it (It's a super big file so have to cut it before posting... do look out for the video!)

Here are some pictures of my girl enjoying the milk spa...

Updated (13 June 09)! Here is the video!

Milestones... 1 more week to 6 months!!!!

One more week to 6 months! I am rubbing my hands together in glee as my mind spins a whirl-wind of things that I can give to my little girl! From fruits to my all time favourite avocardo and even the prospect of meat/fish (can start after 7 months)!!! It's really boring to be puree-ing pumpkin only... And the other root vegetable that my PD suggested is carrots (ARGH! they are all orange in colour! - BORING!!!) Then again, I can open the Healthy Times cereal for my girl to try! I sure hope she likes them! :p 

Anyway, there are some stuff which I will have to postpone for as long as possible:-

1. Sweet Potato (this was a scare... one of a fellow mother had to deal with her infant's bloated tummy after starting on this)

2. Egg White (due to allergy - only can give egg yoke. Whites will have to wait till 1 yr)

3. Peanuts (oso due to allergy. wait till 1 yr lor)

4. Ikan Bilis (this one is my personal choice. Since babies aren't suppose to take salt and sugar. Most ikan bilis is preserved dried with salt. So rather than risking it I rather cook her porridge with some fresh meat/pork ribs/fish from the market)

5. Wheat (oso due to allergy)

Last night I puree-ed the organic pumpkin and used the Baby Cubes which I bought to store them in the fridge. This morning, my hubby brought it over to my mother in law's and my girl had it before her milk. She could not finish the entire portion (so have to dump it - no recycling!!!), but she drank about 2.5oz of milk immediately after.

The past almost six months has been a roller-coaster ride for me... From helplessness (seeing her fall sick) to happiness (seeing her chuckle) to elevated senses of wonder (her physio developement)... It's perhaps these emotions that make people want to have more than 1 child. It's a miracle to see how that tiny little blob of "meat" in your womb can grow to be a breathing being! 

Anyway, my girl has been officially awarded Masters with Distinction in some BaBy Development (BBD) modules: 

BBD Module 1: Flipping from back to tummy

BBD Module 2: Flipping from tummy to back

BBD Module 3: Bull-doze crawl (refers to moving from Pt A to B by dragging her head into the mattress n lifting her entire buttocks and feet to push forward)

BBD Module 4: Navigation (ability to move in more than one direction/change direction)

BBD Module 5: Tummy crawl 

Other modules that she is currently taking includes: 

BBD Module 6: The REAL crawl (heard that this module will take super long)

BBD Module 7: Sitting up

Actually, motherhood has became more joyous now that she is able to respond to our calls and even chuckle endlessly when we make funny faces or noise at her. Other than that, she can grab stuff pretty well. Which means that she can actually put her "tu-tu" back on her own... But the flip side is, she can also grab and throw her "tu-tu" on the floor when she feels like it, or throw her teether and any other things on the floor!

"Lion roars the sweetest music. Thank u Wah Sing Che Che!"

Amazingly, when you clap your hands to say "Bao-Bao" (i.e. carry), she will put her hands in your outstreched palms. As I carry her from her armpits, she will push forward into a kneel position and push a lot more to the standing position (so that I can pick her up more easily). 

Other than what I term as "amazing feats", I sure hope she is going to get some teeth soon. Her occasional bouts of crankiness always never fail to make me go like a broken recorder "What is wrong with her huh???".  But I must say that Dentinox is a life-saver for me. It's safe for babies to use from birth for teething discomforts. It can be bought from pharmacies! :) 

"EEEEeeeeeee... I have NO teeth!"

PS: When your baby starts to turn then crawl, the mat you see my girl on is super! It's expensive but a good investment! At least you have the assurance that she won't hurt herself should she decide to slam her face on the floor! :) It's a Paylon mat from Korea.