The Apple's Diary!

We made our first family outing to PD on Monday for Jonathan's first month vaccination. Technically, our second trip out since the first was to my mum's place. As you can tell, I'm still not very good at securing him at his car seat. His car seat looks big and the seat belt looks gigantic on him. Over at PD's, Jonathan was assessed on his overall well-being. He has put on 1.2kg from birth, making his weight now 3.86kg. He has also grown 3cm taller (but Darren thinks it should be more as Jon didn't really allow his leg to be straightened completely.) Jonathan was such a brave little boy. He let out a big wail when he got injected but stopped very quickly when Dr Yip put a plastered over his injection site. Since he was so well behaved, we took him to vivocity for a quick shopping trip. We went to Swenson for lunch and had their weekday set lunch which had nothing much to talk about. I ordered the Cajun chicken which was tough. Darren had his dory fish which was so bl...

Jonathan is now 1month old or to be exact, he is 5 week old now. We notice he is starting to learn how to grab and grasp things. Definitely the first thing he wants to grab is his milk bottle. He can't hold on to the weight of the bottle but he is definitely possessive over his milk bottle. Another item he is trying to hold on to is his pacifier. Not sure if it is something we should be delighted. When he was much younger, he would reject the pacifier but now, he seems to need to suck on a pacifier to soothe himself to sleep. I hope the pacifier role will just stop at that. Jonathan is really growing and growing... and in order not to deprive him of his sensory experience, our first item to do during this weekend is to cut his fingernails so that he can be off his mittens. Now... that's something new and challenging to us. I hope we can do it well.

Confinement Auntie Lin ended her stint with us on 22 Sept. We took her out for a nice lunch before sending her off. Although we didn't say those tear jerking words, we all knew that she can't part with baby Jonathan while me felt so lost without her around. Auntie has been really good with Jonathan and has a lot of initiatives. Although she made mistakes now and then, I couldn't really fault her since Jonathan made her have sleepless nights at times. So when GPLS confinement care agency called me to ask for feedback, I couldn't help but gave her all the praises. Once auntie left, I started to get emo again. Although Darren took leave to help during this transition period, I still feel so overwhelmed that my crying spell began... I think Darren has it worst than me. He needs to tend to a cranky baby and a super emo wife which snapped at him and cried for no reason. Without auntie, we were really quite lost and messy. I wanted to go out for lunch yesterday but being so di...

Ever since Jonathan was born, I had stopped using his nickname Xiao Poh. After all, baby boy has a real name. So now... I have been calling him Jonathan. I guess this is important so that he gets to learn his name fast and not get confused with the multiple names people around us is calling him with (although I see an uphill task to educate people on this issue). So it has been Jonathan... Jonathan and Jonathan... not even his Chinese name. So Jonathan has been growing and stretching himself very hard... literally so hard that his whole face will become red. Oh yeah! I wanna be a superman! He's becoming more alert now and me, being the most practical mummy.. decided that time should not be wasted by allowing him to lie quietly on his cot. So there have been story telling, song singing and handmade flash cards. Papa Darren just got him 2 Lamaze toys. Let's hope that Jonathan will benefit from all these stimulation somehow.

According to my prep list which I had in mind before Jonathan popped, September was supposed to be the month which I brainstormed about his full month party and which vendor to order from for the cakes. However, the unexpected early arrival of Jonathan put an abrupt stop to my plan. My initial plan was to order from Gobi . Their cupcakes are really cute and nice to eat. But Darren wasn't keen to go pick up the order from them at Joo Chiat. So in the end, I ordered from Sweetest Moments . Even then, I was hoping to order their mini cupcakes but my order was apparently too small for them. In the end, I chose their sweet treats package. Sweetest Moments allowed me to choose the box design and I picked bunny baby with customized wordings on the box cover. Our spirits soar as we welcome our child into the world with love. Inside the box, there's a personalized baby card. I picked the photo of Jonathan when he was a week old. With this Man Yue cake, it signifies Jonathan coming to a ...

A few days ago, I posted my highest record of a near 100ml. This morning, I officially hit the 100 mark. Compared to others, I am so lacking behind. But is ok.. I'm doing my best for Jonathan. I just need to persevere on!

On Monday, Claudia brought gift from the good people of Mt. Er Mei. Thank you folks!

A picture says a thousand words. Do I still need to say anymore?

17 September 2011 - this was the original EDD for Jonathan but he came out one month earlier on 24 August. Taking the advantage of confinement auntie still around, we decided to hold Jonathan's full month celebration one week earlier. Full month party was a simple 60-pax affair with lunch buffet. I went for Neo Garden's catering, topping up with the full month baby special to get the red eggs and ang ku kuehs. So grateful to my home church (Agape Methodist Church) to loan us their lounge area for this special event. We had our 2nd family potrait taken again. (But mummy still look so unglam!) Jonathan said "Thank you uncles, aunties, kor kors and jie jies!" Looking at the gifts and ang baos... no wonder Jonathan was a happy baby yesterday! Yeah! Daddy, mummy and Jonathan are so blessed to have all of you around!

Breaking another own record : almost a 100ml in a single pump session. While I'm still a far cry from those really milking mummies, I have come a long way since Day 1 with no milk. Thank God for multiplying my supply which provides (more than enough.. still praying) for Jonathan.

I am counting down to the end of my confinement which is next Thursday. *Gulps* While I finally obtain back my freedom license to venture out legally, I'm also stressed about the pending days with me and Jonathan only. No more help from auntie... can I even survive my Day 1? Auntie has been a great help in taking care of Jonathan or I should say, she has been the main caregiver while me and Darren play a supporting role. Though I learnt the essential skill of changing diaper, burping and bathing, I really can't help but feel so stress about me handling Jon all by myself. I don't know if I can survive the night feeds and what's the best way to go about it? Should I stick to formula milk but that means I need to feed, wash and sterilize and I also need to pump. Or should I do latch-on at night but it means baby will wake up more often? Oh gosh! I think I won't be able to catch any sleep at all from next Thursday onwards. So frightening! Auntie is very reassuring. She ...

Jonathan has a new toy. It's the Combi Rashule which is suitable for 0 -48 months. For the infant, you can recline fully and baby will enjoy the rocking motion. For the toddler, you can adjust to a high chair position which allow the child to eat. Thanks to Darren's auntie and cousin. Jonathan is enjoying his new toy!

When my angel sleeps, I get to rest. When he's in a deep sleep that stretches for 3 hours or slightly more, is my bonus. Ever since we decided not to swaddle him, Jonathan came up with a lot of sleep patterns. Most of the times, he likes to cover part of his face with his hands and tend to sleep on his right. Maybe he likes to be on his right since in his utero home. I remember when I slept on my left, I could feel him kicking and when I turned to my right, he stopped. Oh well! After trying to decipher who does Jonathan look more like... I notice he has inherited my eyes shape. Or is mummy losing too much sleep that my eyes now resemble him? *me and lil Jon... what do you think?* My only consolation is that my tummy has flattened quite a lot after the jamu massage. I hope I can squeeze into my pre-preggy clothes when I return to work.

Although Jonathan can be quite a handful at times, I'm secretly wishing Jonathan remains at this stage for a bit longer. Now, I understand why some said that working mothers miss out the growing stage of the child. Look at the speed a baby grows. Darren and I marvel at how fast Jonathan changes everyday. This photo was taken on 8 Sept. 3 days later..... He put on some weight and spotted chubby cheeks now... Even confinement auntie commented that Jonathan looks different from his early days. Baby... you have grown so fast!

3 weeks into my new role... my whole body finally throw in the towel. Last night, I woke up at 2.30am wanting to express the milk. I went to check on Jonathan first and saw that things were thrown all over the place. Then confinement auntie exclaimed that Jonathan did a projectile poo which ended up on her shirt and pants. On further examination, I realised that his baby cot had spots of poo too. So I spent 30mins cleaning up his room while he peacefully slept on without knowing the mess he had made. This morning, I did my first bath with Jonathan. He looked abit apprehensive with a new face bathing him and even made a small fuss when I held him at the wrong position. In the end, there were 3 pairs of hands bathing him this morning, much to his amusement. Bath aside, I realised the position of the bath tub and my stool are not in a favourable height. There was too much bending for me... my poor back is going to break. Last of all, my hands are aching now. Finger joints are more painful...

I am going to rant... not on confinement issue but on my house cleaner. This China Pei Du Mama which I hired her for a year to come and clean my house fortnightly is getting more and more slack. She is supposed to come and clean my house for 4 hours but the last cleaning trip, she stayed only 3 hours and leaving a trail of unfinished work. Each time, she would come up with new complaint for eg. my windows are very dusty. The new mop is no good blah blah... As I'm doing my confinement now and there's a lot of cooking, I expect her to clean my kitchen. Yet, she said "not very oily" ... She always seemed to miss out some spots and my interior mirrors have not been cleaned for weeks. Getting a replacement is hard but with the kind of dust from the lift upgrading, I really need someone with integrity to really come and clean my house and not do a surface job. In the end, I approach Amahs on Wheels . Oh man! They're really expensive, double what I pay the part time clea...

Jonathan is already 2 weeks old. How have been the mummy and baby coping? The 1st week was terrible as I had blogged. 2nd week has been much better. Could be the crazy hormones have subsided and I'm no longer weepy. Or it could be I have finally decided to take it easy on the breastfeeding issue. Just like mamamira and another friend has said, the role of a mother is more than just breastfeeding. To be honest, sometimes I feel like giving up on breastfeeding. My yield is still so pathetic that I need 3 pumps to make up to one feed. Jon is now feeding 60mL of formula milk. I gave him 60mL of expressed breast milk and he could sleep 3 hours. If I latch him, he would wake up hourly. Don't be mistaken by the milk photo above. This was what I managed to gather after 6-7 hours of non-latching. Looking at the statistics, I deduced that during latching, Jon is taking less than what he needs. Hence, he wakes up hourly. But if I pump out, I don't have enough to give (remember my 3 p...