Didi's first swim! :)

This time round hubby was the one who kept asking me if L was reading for the "swim" at BabySpa. He had signed M up for 20 sessions and we used up about 10 sessions so far.

Luckily, we could pay to extend membership and add L in to use up the sessions. Last week, L had his first "spa" experience at 14 weeks old. His first session was a full "non-stop" 10 minutes worth of kicking session, pausing occassionally for a rest. 

Actually, it's quite difficult to get him full and well rested for the "swim", his naps are so short and sometimes I do wonder if he drinks enough! Looking a little unsure about what is happening...

Apparently he is also very much in love with this chinese staff who would speak to him and he smiles readily in return. 

And yes the big friendly smile... 

This week we return for a second not so successful session... About 5 minutes into the swim, the boy is tired and wants to sleep... The same lady attends to him and guess what! He fell asleep! That's a first! 

Quite impressive and back breaking to bend over to keep rocking this boy in the water so he won't cry... Sheeezzz... 

Hopefully the next session would be a better one! ;) 

I am learning to talk...

For some strange reason, I do not recall N's learning journey for speaking. I can only remember her first word being "bird" and that was after she figured out how to address papa, mama, nai nai and yeh yeh... 

At 19 months old, M is finally able to address all of us - "mama" being an early word she used as compared to N. Uh... The wonders of our bonding through latching. Sometimes in her excitement she would call hubby "mama" too. 

Recently, she decided to join her sister in calling hubby "daddy" - her way of pronoucing? "Da-yeeee"... Lolz

Mother in law has also thought her a few chinese words "饱饱” (meaning she is full after a meal), "我要" or "我也要” (meaning yes I want or I also want and nodding her head), "不要” (don't want), "喝水” (drink water). The other word which she can consistently recognise and name is "ball". She can also say  "要 tu-tu", for someone who can't live without her pacifier... 

Just this evening, we also taught her to say "please"... Well, its kinda wrong because of the mixture of chinese with english - but courtesy right? So M went "喝水”, then I went say "please?". So she said "pi-sssssseeee". Oh well better than nothing right? 

She is at such a fun age now. Must start teaching her more words... ;) 

Ending the post with a picture of my two lovely girls... ;) 

Mama its sooo painful...

I know teething pains are part and parcel of growing up. These little beings (even myself) don't remember much of this traumatic experience after that. 

During the wee hours of today and yesterday, hubby and I watched helplessly as my usually gung ho toddler woke up to cry. The little girl pushed all her fingers into her mouth against the gums and cry. The misery apparent with saliva (loads and loads of it) and tears smeared all over her face. There were several occassions this week where she sticks her fingers into her mouth and then cry as though she had her fingers in between cupboard doors. 

Today's misery is made worse by a rather empty tummy since she refused her milk feed before her sleep.

Having had N go through this before, a lot of people would say it would be a walk in the park for me. Rightfully, I would have lots of tricks up my sleeve! Well... Right but wrong at the same time. 

Dentinox and ice cold towels DID NOT work. Rubbing dentinox and using ice cold towels to rub against the gums worked for N but not for this little gal. 

Today, I told hubby to go to sleep since he needed to go to work later. Took over the crying girl. Went to the kitchen and offered her an ice cube. Ok ok I am sensing frowns - which freaking parent would give an ice cube to a young child at 2am in the morning. That's me in desperation to soothe her. If she was miserable, I was not going to be any easier on me. She sucked it, pushed the ice out and swirled the ice cold water in her mouth. As the ice got smaller, could see her pushing it at the molar areas in her mouth. 

Being more calm, she also nodded when I offered her cold milk. She rejected the hot milk early remember? She happily/hungrily drank and finished what was left in the fridge. Then requested for another ice cube (pointed to the top part of the fridge). Gave it to her and she happily took it. For some unknown reason she ran out to the living room but started crying and refused to eat the ice cube. Uh well, nevermind - the earlier ice cube had already done a good job. 

Brought her to room, changed her out (romper was wet with saliva, tears and what not), applied her fav Baby Vicks on her chest and moved her back to her bed. Hopefully she sleeps till the next morning... 

DG, I hope you will allow the molars to emerge soon and return the fiesty but cheery little girl to me. It breaks my heart to see her cry like this. Hubby commented that she has lost her cute little tummy for eating so little this past week. Hopefully her appetite would also come back when those big molars are out. 

The "milk milk" journey so far...

3 August 2014... 22 days to the day I go back to work. Took all 16 weeks of maternity leave and truth is with my mil at home to watch the other two kids, life is so great! I don't feel like returning to work... *ooops* 

Baby L is coming to three months old next week. I have latched him since day 1, an hour after his arrival. As with each baby, the breastfeeding journey is different yet equally fulfiling. 

My fear is still in relation to latching. Baby M had a better latch/suction, while baby L's latch was percieved (by me) as shallow and gentler (didn't need nipple cream this round!). For the record, he made lots of grunts, clicking sounds and pulling back of his head during the early days of latching. The above (based on internet research) were considered bad latch! Knowing my "flow", L was just unhappy about the forceful let downs - he would pull back and a proper latch will become shallow (just so he could control the milk volume). And of course, instead of gulping down the milk, he would let them flow out of his mouth (messy!!!). 

Baby L also presented a new set of challenge - milk spitting which suddenly started at 2 weeks old... The amount of milk that comes out can be quite unnerving (since my first two babies didn't have this problem. M's milk spits were due to over feeding during cluster latches and at 3 months old). After some  internet research (such as kellymom), baby L was held upright for 15 mins after feeds, burped whenever he unlatched during the feed and he slept in an elevated (at the bed head) baby cot... Oh yes, the best tip I learnt from the internet - burping him by rubbing in a circular motion on his left area below the shoulder (instead of patting). This brings up a burp quicker and more effectively. The other thing I learnt, never go anywhere without a burping cloth. 

As I was saying, the days where I can latch him in the day is dwindling... Am already thinking how I will miss latching him while lying down (yes, I will doze off too) and of course how I really hate to pump (after pumping 11 months straight on a daily basis for N)... Mother in law and hubby have (over the past 2-3 days) asked me when I would start pumping so baby L can practise bottle feeding. 

Well, I am going back to work so I better start... Keeping fingers crossed that he would take to the bottles just like baby M. ;) 

3 Aug 2014, the day I turn 33 years old is also the day I finally took out and sterilised his glass bottle (looks so nice right?) and my pump parts. 

Here's wishing myself a successful moo-moo career ahead! And a photo of the super relaxed boy sleeping on my bf-ing pillow (for some reason M also enjoyed her time as a baby on this pillow).