12 weeks! JY has barely crossed the 3-mths milestone and it seems ages ago since i popped her out. There was so much to learn and i grossly underestimated & often reprimanded myself for not reading & preparing for parenthood, my focus was very much on the pregnant state & did not give much attention to what next...... After a few books, much internet & friends exchange, did i realise another world on parenthood.
My status of being a mother has narrowed my social life, increased my family bonding time, re-prioritised my needs. Now, i can barely stepped out of the house without thinking of how my little one is doing and my mind is constantly thinking of hurrying to do my errands and rush back to her.
Likewise, PWJ has his hands tied at work, having to scrap enough time for JY & me, after settling his work & studies. Now, we do not have the the luxury of time & leisure and plan our get-aways so easily,always having to work within a 2-hrs window period of between feeds. We have only brought JY out once, to United Square when she's just 1.5mths and i was like a walking zombie. Ever since her bouts of crying frenzy, we swore never brought her out until she is at least 3mths old.
My little gal is truly being well-serviced, whenever i'm nursing her, my mum will take the chance to cut her nails/ check her hair/ apply medicated cream for ezcema. Well, it's an early start to having a manicure done!
When JY is younger, we will always place her to sleep prone in the hope she will sleep more peacefully & longer and indeed so. She often surprised us by raising her head up high for quite a long time when she's less than a month's old. As she grew older, i was quite fretful and worried cos she was flipping her head from side to side and starting to struggle in her stomach position, thus i reduce the frequency of placing her prone-side.
Now when i do remember, i'll always place her on her tummy when she's awake rather than asleep. Realise she seem to forget & lost the strength to hold her head up, often just lying to the side...
It's been quite eventful handling Jingyi and i have begun shuttling between WJ & my mum's place since JY is a month's old. It's always been quite logistic in nature as i have to pack hers & mine stuff, including her babyBjorn carrier and whatnots, depending on the coming week's activities. For eg if i'm attending a wedding, i need to lug my dress/shoes/makeup/etc along to whoever's place i'm staying..the Kate Spade bag is a wonderful gift by my JMs but i think i need a trolley bag now...
Jingyi sitting joyful in her grandpa's car
When i was purchasing her baby stuff, i always need to have for 2 homes and i need to rack my brains and remember what i have bought for which home....i just hope Jingyi will get use to this arrangement and not be so fretful and always be a happy HAPPY baby.........
Jingyi is a lucky lucky girl....she has doting aunties/uncles & most of all her grandparents.
Let's start with the men in the family, the least person i expected to dote on babies is my father. He was the first pax that JY smiled which i am still jealous of....JY response and look for him whenever she hears his voice. He willingly rattled toys to entertain her, kept wanting to carry & play with her...when he don't even do that when we were young..maybe it's the age. WJ's fathe likewise dotes on her with his small actions, like for eg, he'll direct the fan to face solely JY sleeping in the living room, not caring for 6 adults sweating buckets eating dinner at the dining hall....refusing anyone of us to disturb her when she's sleeping, switching on the air-con for her, buying diapers/a dozen of baby wipes..basically a handy-man sort of grandpa... The brothers, both tried their hands in carrying JY and sweat profusely...both dread to hear her cry. The sisters, both are stamped with "I Will Spolit JY for SURE' mark on their foreheads. My sister will constantly ask me to send photos update of JY almost everyday, rushed to see & fuss/cuddle her whenever she's back and constantly shower her with all her auntie-love. WJ's sister has been a fantastic help ican't do without when i'm back at WJ's home, she was the one who cared & play with her in the day while i rested. JY thrived & responsed well to her patience and I was so proud of Lei tt she can handle JY so well. Finally, the grandmas...what to say, they have all the privilege to spolit their grand-daughter, both have no qualms to carry & pacify JY at all costs, sacrificing rest-times to play with her.
Now i understand why a baby can forge stronger family ties, i'm so glad that Jingyi has been a blessing and brought so much joy & laughter to our families. In turn, i have a deeper bond with my mum & truly understand the hardship she went through in bringing us up..
My little girl has no fix routine till date...much as i love to have a fix and rigid routine for her to follow... She still cries and fuss when she's hungry every 3hrly most of the time, sometimes when she's awake, she'll wanna suckle 2 or 2.5hrs, when she's terribly sleepy, she'll stretch to 3.5-4hrs.
In the nite, there's nowhere in sight that she'll reduce her feed or let alone sleep through the night. Her bedtime is sometimes, 7pm or 10pm, yesterday it was 11pm!! i almost tear my hair out trying to jingle her to sleep and every attempt to put her in her cot will result in her waking up...My little girl acts out her dreams as she thrashes wildly with her limbs and sometimes woken up by her own thrashing, she needs us to rock or pat back to sleep. Sigh, i am still very much sleep deprived and wonder how to cope when i go back to work in May.
Books after books mentioned about that most babies will nap in the day. Mine would nap sometimes 5-6 hrs in the day, sometimes not at all and sometimes 3-4 hrs but always insist on being carried & rocked to sleep. I really hope she'll settle into a routine soon and be less of a fuss before i go back to work, otherwise my poor mummy will have a hard time to look after her. Well, ever the doting grandma she willingly carried & refused to allow me to let her cry/fuss...
Well, try carrying & rocking a 5kg rice pack and put down & pick up 20 times in a day, tt's enough arm exercise.....
My dear little cutie pie started to make coo-ing sounds several weeks ago and the coos got longer and more frequently to the amusement to our families.
She response to our voices with coos & smiles. Her usual cries are slowly replaced with more cute lil cooes & smiles. Now, when she wakes up in the morning, she'll wave her arms & legs for a good while before calling out to be picked up. Several early mornings where I wearily woke up to her calls and stared sleepily at her and she just gave me this "BIG until cannot see eyes kinda" smile and coo-ed to me, all my tiredness just melt away....
I have repeated this to countless concern friends that first-time mummy is really tough.. My little girl was colicky, crying inconsolable almost daily from 12mn to 4am, making me irritable, tired and exhausted physically and emotionally. I weep almost everyday and was really depressed as the days of caring for her seems endless. I only felt less lonely in my first-time motherhood as i have wonderful support from mine & WJ's families, friends who have visited/smsed (it makes a difference to know pple cared).
As she behaved so difficult in the first 6weeks be it day or night,she just refused to sleep in the day or night, seldom her nap last longer than an hour, most as short as 15mins. i gritted my teeth and soldiered on, kept telling myself that it will pass and things will get better and this phase will never reverse back in time. I only started to enjoy the company of Jingyi better when she past 3 weeks.
I was desperate to know what was ailing JY that we(I, my mum & WJ's mum) tried everything possible (feeding her gripewater & 'Shock powder' (?)/ bathing in water with 7 flowers/ praying at temple/ancestors/ putting amulet under pillow/talking to a sleep consultant for $75 per hr) to 'cure' her of her endless fussiness and crying. None worked...I was so close to asking my mum to get an amulet and burn it into water and let JY drink it.........
Anything to let her sleep well and be well...........
When i was still heavily pregnant, i kept thinking of how i can dress up my little girl..not with frills but cute dresses and clothes i have bought. Tho i have held back a bit on buying excessively, these a few clothes i really like........ i love white & sleeveless...
And of cos, thanks to Jenny! who gave SO many of jody's cute lil dresses and rompers amidst so many help & advices she has given...and all the aunties and uncles who bought clothes for my lil jingyi....
I love this Petit Bateau long sleeves rompers which i bought, but it's so expensive.
Uncle KT bought this neat pyjamas with folded-in mittens, perfect for air-con nights...
JY is a lucky lucky girl.....while mummy & daddy has no qualms sharing mattress w you, both sets of grandparents refused to let us put you on a floor mattress, did they forget we are brought up this way?! Thus WJ's parents bought a cot at home and Aunty Wenlei & mummy bought some fantastic toys for you to play.
Aunty Rou & Uncle KT bought a cot with a mobile for grandma's home that kept you entertained to no ends and you kick so excitedly everytime we turn it on for you
Smile! my little Jingyi is smiling! at ME! YAY....... just when i thought my baby girl is a grouch, since she's been crying so much since birth....then her smiles and grins gets longer and frequent, my mood also starts to lift up...
Now able to sustain her attention longer, she's starting to play with us, giving us happy grins after happy grins when we talk to her.
You have a penchance for the funniest sleeping positions that help you to go to sleep. Those nice magazine pictures showing peaceful sleeping babies never happen in real life.
Coaxing you to sleep, you like to rest upright,face on shoulder and your cheeks will be squashed
However, nothing beats your favourite body-tilt position. you will cry, wriggle, complain and struggle until you reach this particular position to sleep.
Sometimes you will be so tired of crying, you will go to sleep with your arms dropped to the sides.
Your newest position is this...grandma was holding you this once and you struggled lower and lower and finally rested, similar to cradle hold but...................
with your head peeping out from the crack of our arms then you can sleep well...........
And you also wriggled and slept on my thigh one evening and i don't know how to get up. You often cannot sleep very long at night, we tried swaddling, prone, sides and back positions, you still wake up every 20-30mins instead of sleeping longer. One sleepless night, grandma tried a position which you enjoyed so much that you slept 2hrs straight without moving, which is an achievement! To my amusement, I woke up to find you, little baby in grandparent's king-size bed.
You slept peacefully with your arms up....
There's this once in the afternn, grandma and I put you to sleep and you cover your ears as though you don't want to listen to anything when sleeping and kept that position for some time.
Grandma and I manage to capture this photo of you smiling while sleeping on my bed..blowing bubbles at the same time.
She has ballooned! i was always at a close proximity that i can never see the changes other folks pointed out to me, but the weighing scale does not lie. Weighing at 2.6kg at birth, she was so tiny, most clothes cannot fit her...
At 1month she weigh 3.88kg, i heave a relief to know that she's not starving.... Then recently a visit to Dr Loke reveals that JY now weigh 5kg! equivalent to a small pack of rice In the first 6 weeks, JYl has a new trick every week to keep us occupied - stuffy nose with adult-size booger, heat rashes, infantile ezcema on face,ear & nose, hoarse voice, excessive crying daily frm 12mn to 3/4 am, cannot get to sleep, fusses a lot to get to sleep, bloodcurdling screams whenever we come back from a doc's visit, the list goes on.............
Jingyi has good lungs - TWO docs witness ur cries and they exclaim that JY is indeed very FIERCE, we need to shout to converse - I was astonished to hear other babies cry and actually find it pleasing and gentle
