Hannah's first roll over! and more...

Today as I rested Hannah on the sofa beside me while I had breakfast (our new routine) she surprised me with her stunt! She kicked her legs in the air and with a whooping twist, she turned over to her stomach down position. She struggled like she was in water and she tried to lift up her head which seemed to weigh a ton. Her legs kicked furiously and one arm was trying to support her entire body to be upright. The other hand unfortunately was still stuck under her chest/stomach. Then she started protesting with her 'grunts'... I turned her over. She tried again but failed time after time to flip over. Finally she was tired and decided to be contented facing up.
Well, I am happy to have captured that FIRST successful attempt! :)

I have been reading a book about SAHMs. It really voiced out my inner thoughts and wow, someone could understand the struggles I go through! :) It is inspiring and it certainly is an uplifting one to read when a SAHM gets tired...and start to question her decision. :)

Sometimes though, I feel that I am too easily persuaded by the books I read. Maybe I should learn to be very objective and reflect to find out what is it that I truly want... Or rather what my friend said, : When we seek to do what God wants, we please Him and ourselves. When we seek to do what we want we ended up pleasing neither. So I take back my last sentence and correct it to: What God truly wants of me. :)

Parenting

There are so many books and theories on parenting these days. Sometimes I wonder if I should follow them. The thing is, like all theories and school of thoughts there are always opposing camps so at the end of the day it is me who has to decide what is best for my child.

I was rather determined to practice the PDF(Parents- Directed Feed) theory initially. The greatest attraction for this is the promise that babies will sleep through the night sooner than most others. Some boasted 9 weeks. WOW! I really was tempted. Can you imagine the freedom and sleep it brings if baby could sleep from 10pm to 7am? I tried. I failed. I don't know. Maybe because I wasn't whole-hearted in the approach. I have my doubts as to whether I need to put myself and baby through such regimes. So along the way I just could not press on. Maybe deep down I am contented enough that Hannah is just waking up once a night near dawn. To me, that was good enough already although I am greedy at times. I want a couple more hours till daybreak. So... the verdict is this. Hannah is now 10 weeks old and she has yet to sleep through. Well occasionally she does.

I was rather bothered at first. I kept counting how many weeks she was. Wondered how long more she'll need before that long anticipated 'sleeping through' comes about. I asked around to check how long others took. I started comparing. I began to wonder if I should seriously embark on the journey of PDF now. IT went on for a while.

Finally, I asked a mother of 4. And her comments made sense to me. Her kids slept through only at 4 years old! But she was not resentful about that lost of sleep. Her theory and advise for me?

" Always remember that the Lord will give you wisdom and understanding for YOUR children and yours alone. We are not called to parent someone else's kids. Neither are other people given authority to parent ours. So take advice in your stride and listen only to God, our only authority."

How true. This pdf theory is so BIG in our church that it seems to be THE WAY. Maybe it isn't. We need to look further and open our eyes and ears to not just how parents in our church bring up their children. There are successes everywhere else too. And we know our child the best. They may be successful but their way may not work best with our child. And it depends on our heart. I choose to follow my heart and find peace in that. And if Hannah is going to take 4 years too to sleep through, I will pray to God for strength and joy to accompany her through those years of night feeds.

I am liberated.



ps: Latest update... Hannah's 6.5kg to date.

Safe in Jesus' arms

Have you ever doubted how safe you could be in Jesus' arm? I learnt a lesson a couple of days back. A lesson of faith. From my baby.

It was a stormy day. Lightning and thunder and heavy rain. Hannah was rudely awakened by a deafening thunder. I too, was afraid (shh... yes... I am afraid of lightning). I cuddled Hannah as she slept. She was totally calm and slept peacefully in my arms.

I looked at her and I realised she trusted me. She trusted that mummy will protect her from that frightening sound and light. She trusted that she could rest totally without a second thought. She slept soundly. And even as the lightning continued to flash and thunder continued roaring, Hannah slept like a baby!( Yes, she's a baby).

Then as I looked at her, I remember that I too am safe in Jesus' arms. Yet, unlike Hannah, I often forget. I forget that I am safe. I fret, I struggle and I lack peace. I must learn to rest in Jesus' arms and be at peace even when I am in the midst of the tempests of life.

Baby is down with a fever :(

Look at how happy Hannah looked before the jab.

Then we went for the compulsory 6-1n-1 jab. six in one! Goodness... those were the days when they first invented 2 in 1 shampoo. Then with time, 3-in-1... and now even jabs come in such package. 6-in-1. Can you imagine how lethal that was!

After breakfast and a good nap, we brought Hannah down to the clinic for her jab. She seemed to know something 'bad' was going to happen because she was rather unsettled. Although I was carrying her she was a little fidgety- which is not like her usual self. Then we sat down beside Dr Wang as he prepared the deadly dosage. I cuddled Hannah close to me and her daddy held her thigh down. I could not bare to look at the sight so I just kept my eyes on Hannah as the injection took place. Poor Thing! She wailed! But only for a short moment. Our brave baby! :)

We went home and Hannah was totally knocked out. She slept a lot and woke up drowsily for her meals. She seemed to have lost her appetite. Anyway the fever only came late in the evening. We decided to turn in early. We fed her parecetamol but she hated it. She vomitted it out almost instantly together with her last feed. Not knowing how much of the medicine came out and how much remained inside, we decided best not to feed again. We resorted to the primitive but most effective way - cold towel on the forehead.

I slept first while hubby stayed up to change the towel and take Hannah's temperature. Until 1230am. I woke up to feed Hannah and to clock my night shift. Somehow I just could not sleep soundly. Perhaps knowing that Hannah is right beside me and she could fall into a bout of fits should her fever hits 38deg made me drift in and out of sleep. I took her temperature every hour or so until 5.30am. I couldn't take it any longer. Went to wake hubby up to clock his shift...
The rest is history.

As i type this now, Hannah's asleep. Her fever has subsided for now. We hope that it is for good. The next injection will be on the 1st July. I hope the innoculation won't be as lethal the next round.

Check out my poor baby:
She was a darling though she was sick. She slept most of the time. When she was alert she was still smiley and chatty. Check out the primitive wet towel vs the modern cold gel pad. I think the primitive one is more effective although it was constantly swiped off by Hannah's hands!

Laughter is the best medicine

Hannah 1 and 2 months old


Hannah laughed. Or should I say she guffawed? Well hubby and I were sitting before the TV watching our Saturday night DVD while I had ?Hannah in my arms patting her to sleep. She was quite asleep already but I wanted to cuddle her a while more. Then suddenly she laughed out loud. Laughed hysterically! With her stomach moving up and down and mouth wide but eyes closed. We stopped the DVD, stared and her and started laughing too. It went on for a while and started again and again and again. She is SO CUTE! Wished I was in time to record down that sound.


I will get a recorder when she starts to speak a few more months down the road. I realized that people usually only keep photos of their kids. I don't want to miss out their voices! I remember when I was a kid my grandma looked after both my cousin and I. My cousin could only fall asleep when she hears her mummy's voice. So we came up with a project! Grandma, aunt and I recorded a cassette. I was the one who said the title and page of each hymn and both grandma and aunt will sing the hymn. The cassette was then played 24/7 whenever my cousin was in the 'cradle'. My grandma kept that CD for a long time. And she gave it to me when I was in P3. I heard my voice (when I was in kindergarten) and I squealed in delight. I sounded so cute. I thought.:) Unfortunately, I misplaced the cassette and that became a part of my childhood memories.

I want to have a recording of Hannah's voice. When she calls daddy and mummy and everyone else. When she starts to sing. When she starts to speak. Now it is a bit hard to predict when she will utter those 'agurs...' but perhaps I should record down her cries. :)


PS: can see how much she has grown in a month?

The first utterance

This week, Hannah spoke!
Her first 'ahgur'... and her many 'ay!-s'. These seems to be her favourite articulations.
She is stirring her tongue whenever she is spoken to these days. She must be trying to move that tongue of hers so that she can respond.
What girlish voice she has! My sweet lil honey pie!

That day I read her some nursery rhymes from a very colourful board book. She was happy to see the pictures and even smiled at Humpty Dumpty! Can't wait for her to be a few more months old when she can enjoy books better.

Loving books is the first step to language acquistion. Well at least the first step to strengthening the language ability. It has been said by experts that introducing children to TV prior to books is a big NO-NO. The changing images on TV cause too much stimulation for the mind. This slowly conditions the brain to accept things at that speed. Eventually, the child will lose interest in books which are comparatively slower and requires more work (imagination, decoding...) So our aim is to make Hannah love books just like us. I have bought soooooo many books and is anticipating the day when Hannah will sit on my lap to enjoy some bedtime stories.

Talking about love for books... I realised my love for books was cultivated by my aunt Angie. I don't think she did it intentionally but what she did left a great impact and what she did made me love not only reading but also the English Language. She brought me to the annual book fairs when I was young. In those days it was at world Trade Centre ( yeah, the vivocity today). I could stay there the entire day to read and walk from booth to booth looking at the wonderful display of colourful books. My favourite then was the bookworm series. I remember wanting soooo much to be in the bookworm club. (One of the two things that I really wanted as a kid but didn't get to have it. The other is to have a Macdonald's bdae party! haha). Anyway I remember each bookwork book costs $5 - quite expensive then. Aunt Angie was the one who bought them for me once in a while and she also introduced to me Roald Dahl whose books I fell in love with. I have read all his children's books and still have them in my collection today. Thanks yee! :)

Perhaps Hannah can read my Roald Dahl books someday. And if the bookworm club still exist, I will still want to be in the club albeit being overage. As for the McDonald's bdae party, well I'll give that a skip. Too much calories and well... the hype is already history.

Let's go Gai Gai!

Preparing to go for breakfast at East Coast!

Daddy with Hannah

Daddy and Hannah at Paragon. Check out Hannah's new trenchcoat! hahah

Mummy with Hannah at paragon.

Daddy Hoon loves going gai gai. Mummy Hoon can't do without gai gai. Of cos Baby Hoon gotta tag along... but of 'cos Hannah Hoon loves it!

So far, we have conquered many places:

Vivocity, East Coast, Paragon, Takashimaya, Parkway Parade, Tampines 1, Tampines mall, Century Square, Suntec City, Marina Square...

Singapore is too small already... time to venture out!