Self-soothing

Something in my mouth, something on my head... YES that's it

I was wondering at this strange pose when it surfaced and then often repeated. The hand on the head would be moving while the one in the mouth would be sucked. Finally it struck me. She must be simulating her milk-milk time! While feeding her, I always 'sayang' her head with my free hand. Having a nipple in the mouth and one hand stroking her hair must be her idea of bliss! Hehe. I'm quite happy that she simulates this particular activity to comfort herself - Mummy succeeded in making her feel good. :)

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Since she learnt to self-soothe, she is crying a lot less. It used to be 'waa waaa Waaah WAAHH WAAAAAHH' that increases in volume until she is picked up or she gets tired and falls asleep. Now it's 'waahh waahh.........*silence*... *suck suck suck*.

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Do the other side also can

Versatile Blogger

Received this award from Adrine. Who happens to be my sister and is therefore expected to practise favouritism. :p Thanks anyway, sis!


Rules : To accept this award you must:
1. List 7 random things about yourself
2. Share the award with up to 15 other bloggers
3. Link to each of the recipients and let them know they've won via comments on their blogs
4. Thank and bring the love back to the person you won the award from by linking back to them.

Wah receive award must do work one! Here goes:

1. I was pregnant two years plus ago, conceived just before my sister did. The foetus didn't grow properly and had to be terminated. It was bittersweet watching my niece Elyssa grow because I was always reminded of my own lost little one. But it's all good now that I have Jo Ern. :)

2. I am a foodie who enjoys eating, buying, thinking about and looking at food. I'd love to be a great cook but very much doubt that will happen. At least after avidly scouring cooking websites I do have several decent dishes in my repertoire!

3. I don't like wasting food. I do end up using imperfect ingredients for cooking instead of throwing them away - cracked eggs, wrinkled vegs, expired stuff etc. Hubby regularly accuses me of trying to poison him.

4. Scared silly of snakes. I think it was my older cousin who started this phobia, coz I remember being a small kid and going into a snake house at a zoo. Cousin came along and was freaking out while I looked at this and that snake. Same cousin told me to avert my eyes every time I passed a cemetary. I did, for years, luckily it one didn't develop into a phobia. The snake one did though.

5. If I'm not good at something, I lose interest in it very fast. Like playing chess, dancing, playing the piano. And heaps of other things too. I thus have relatively few interests, heh.

6. I am a banana. Can't read Chinese much, can't speak much.

7. Oo last one already... err I love shopping from a catalogue. When I was a member of Cosway previously, I'd be so happy to receive the new catalogue. Then will happily go through the thing a few times. When I was a student in UK, I was forever leafing through the Argos catalogue looking for new things to buy.

Oo that wasn't too difficult! I shall not tag anyone since I am new at blogging and haven't really sent out feelers to bloggers I like yet. Hence very few people know I exist. :)

Baby on Diet

Aspiring supermodels must be cool. And SLIM.

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Babies really know how to make parents worry! Just when I'd come to think of Jo Ern as one baby who likes her food, she is taking less and less. Her daily consumption at my parents' place has dropped from 17oz a month ago, to about 12oz two weeks ago and now it's only 5-6 oz. My little baby, are you ok??

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Took her to a paediatrician this morning, convinced she must have an ear infection at least. But doc didn't find anything wrong with Jo Ern. Doc suggested changing her Avent bottles to NUK, upgrading teats and letting her kick around and being more active. Hmm. Hopefully this is just a passing phase. Her fat little tummy has gone down to normal size already. :(

Who's fat?

Who's fat? Not ME. And it's time for my milk-milk.

Jo Ern is wearing, for the first time, the GAP one-piece that Ah Ku (my brother) bought from US for her. This one makes her look a bit fat! These one-pieces are so difficult to put on a baby, who invented these things??

First holiday: Night-time

Rise and shine! Wonder if everyone slept well

Day-time went well, but NOT night time. Jo Ern just wailed and wailed! When hubby came back from the casino and heard the wailing upon stepping out of the lift, he thought it couldn't be his baby girl. Cannot be her, cannot be that loud, cannot be... until he opened the room door and it obviously WAS. Haha.

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Jo Ern is normally very good at night. She began sleeping longer and longer periods at night right in her first month, and by 2 months was only waking up at 6am (with a bedtime of 11pm). She then regressed a bit but it's still only ONCE a night, around 4am. I'm perfectly happy with that.

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So that night I fed her quite a few times, carried her and walked around the room, cradled her close etc. She would drift off to sleep then wake up and cry and fuss. What a tiring night for everyone! Finally morning arrived and I just had to take a photo of her:

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1. Head squooshed against the pillow from all the kicking during the fussing sessions

2. Booties flung far off left and right from the thrashing around

3. Face? COMPLETELY innocent-looking. The only tell-tale sign of the restless night was a small bleeding scratch above her eye. Somehow inflicted even with mittens on.

Good morning! How are you doing?

First holiday: Day time

Air smells different here. Not sure if I like it.

Jo Ern had her very first 'holiday'! We stayed one night in Genting Highlands last weekend. I figured it was perfect - not too far, nothing much to do and with nice cool weather. We had invitations for the durian buffet set up in the car park. This is my 4th time for this buffet. The previous time when we came with my sis and BIL, I was unknowingly already pregnant with Jo Ern. So this is actually Jo Ern's 2nd durian buffet at Genting! Haha. Walked out stuffed to the gills as usual. Oh, added a couple of decorations on the stroller... a bottle of mineral water and a bunch of 'dokong'.

Hope mummy doesn't make a habit of putting strange things in my stroller

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Later took some pictures at the swimming pool. There were lots of flowers around, dunno if these were for some event or a permanent fixture.

Papa carry... I like

Mummy carry... I also like

Then I took a quick dip into the pool while hubby pushed Jo Ern around and took photos of her. Under my watchful eye, as evidenced by some photos with me in the background.

Back in my stroller. OK I don't mind

And it was only after returning home that I discovered more photos. Hubby had gotten bored, taken his 'model' out of the stroller and placed her at various spots. Oi hubby! Jo Ern cannot sit up yet one!

This photo-taking business is tiring. You get picked up and put down a lot

And the award goes to...

Mummy... cannot breathe

Me! For what? OK dunno for what, but definitely not for best at carrying a baby! I had to laugh when I went through some of the photos of me with Jo Ern.

Help me!

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I just don't have the knack for carrying babies and kids! It was like that carrying my niece Elyssa. Thought I would get the hang of it after having my own kid, but it looks like that's not really happening. Heh heh.

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Mummy... falling down

Help me!

Head's too heavy

Ergggh... arrggh... cannot lift, head too heavy

Jo Ern is still struggling to lift her head. She'll make 'eh ehh erghhh' sounds like she's putting in a huge effort and sometimes she'll just cry. Sometimes she almost manages it, but then she'll just lay it down again.

Funny thing is, she could hold her head up quite steadily about a month ago. I was pleasantly surprised when she did it the very first time I put her on her tummy. I kept encouraging her till one day she held her head up... and then burst out crying very loudly. Did she sprain something? Since then she cannot/will not do it as well. Below is a pic of her at two months old - see how short her body was then, heh.

Can hold my head up high-high... no problem

When you're happy and you know it...

Smile and the world smiles with you!

Jo Ern can smile already! The first 'smiles' were probably just involuntary muscle-twitching. I first noticed real smiles about a month ago but they happened once in a blue moon. Now she does them properly and can often be persuaded to smile if you talk to her. Hubby does it by tickling her.

Hehehe... I can't help stopping what I'm doing, really focus on her and smile back when she starts smiling. This little one really brightens up my day!