She’s 6 months old

The smile that brightens our day

Our 7th blessing on earth is 6 months old today! And it has been a ride thus far

She constantly reminds me that I know next to nothing about babies and their kind Keeps me humble I say! Just coz something worked with the other 6 babies doesn’t mean it will work with her. Thankfully I can count on the older children to help me out. They have matured so much since her arrival which is a nice side benefit of having a baby in the house!

Ever since she burst forth into the world at a whopping 4.3kg (drug free, doctor free ) 6 months ago at home, she’s been in a rush. For what I am not exactly sure though She could flip over, either way at 3months, could get herself on all-fours crawling position by 4month and crawled (properly, not commando style) at 5.5 months. She could also pull herself up to a standing position at the same time. And in the last week sits very steadily by herself! Now if only she would remember to bend her knees when she wants to get down instead of holler for us to help her! Lol!

Look at me!

She constantly amazes me with her physical progress.

And then there’s her smile. She always melts our hearts with her beaming, ear-to-ear grins in the mornings no matter what time it is! And her blissed out look when she’s done nursing. She’s really a joy to us. So blessed that God sent her our way.

Yes, despite the lack of sleep, the sacrifice of abstaining from coffee, tea and rootbeer floats and countless interruptions during school

Thank you Lord that you sent her our way. May we raise her to fear you and serve you all the days of her life and bring glory to Your Name!

Time to hide from the baby!

Yep! It’s that phase where the baby who would be happily playing by herself bursts into tears the moment she sees me walk pass her. And everytime this phase occurs I would have to sneak pass the baby if I need to get things done

But I must confess it is very cute and rewarding to see that the baby recognises me and bounces with excitement whenever I come into her line of vision. When else does one ever get such unadulterated love and adoration?

She’s also into the bouncing phase – ouch my aching arms! She likes me to hold her up and she’ll bounce gleefully till my arms are about to drop off. Or she’ll do her cycling motion while sitting on my lap. She’s one active baby I must say. Now I am waiting for the grab everything I see phase. That’ll be another tiring phase. Ahh!

What I am really looking forward to is her being able to sit by herself and to crawl. I know, everyone says it’s easier when a baby is immobile but I’ve always found it easier when the baby can move from place to place on her own. My arms then get a break from always having to carry her.

Eat-Play-Sleep

Since I was introduced to Garry and Anne Marie Ezzo’s Preparation for Parenting (better known as Babywise in the secular world) courtesy of my aunt when our 1st born was 4 months old, I have put all our babies on the Eat-Play-Awake routine, no matter how long or short they nap. It has been a lifesaver in many ways since I no longer have to worry if the baby is crying due to hunger or tiredness.

In essence what it means is that upon waking, the baby is offered the breast. Baby remains awake and then is put down for a nap when she is tired – without nursing. In the early days, I will rock baby to sleep. But as she grows older, I will just place baby down in the cot the moment she starts dozing off so that she falls asleep in the cot and not on me. She may or may not fuss.

This eat-play-sleep routine has worked very well for all the 6 babies. But not #7! No way. She just wants to be different I guess. :)

She just won’t nurse properly unless she’s sleepy! And on top of that, I have to catch her at the right time or she’ll push me away too! Upon waking, if I offer her the breast, she’ll pull and grunt and unlatch herself many times. This is despite having nursed more than 3 hours before!

Then she’ll ask to nurse just before her naptime and of course will promptly fall asleep at the breast! Very interesting baby

My Baby’s Lullaby

My baby likes Chris Tomlin’s How Can I Keep From Singing.

One moment she is fussing and trying to get herself to sleep and then the moment she hears the intro to the song she quietens down almost immediately and within minutes would be asleep. Pretty amazing stuff I say!

We have been listening to the song via YouTube since the CD is in the car.

Rush, rush, rush

Everything is done in a rush ever since baby #7 joined our family 2.5mths ago.

The only thing that can’t be rushed is her nursing session! She sure takes her own sweet time to nurse, very unlike the rest of the children. Of course things could change as she gets older – I can only hope!

So the moment she is done nursing and is burped and happy. I have to rush – be it to help the toddler who only wants mama or prepare a meal (not cook since that would take too long) or use the toilet. For she isn’t happy to be left alone or lying on the mattress for too long. She likes to be part of the action and preferably in an upright position at that!

And, since she naps so erratically, if at all, the moment she is asleep, there is a big rush again – to do things that require two hands. Such as or cook a meal or iron the laundry or wash the toilet.

Everything is a big rush around here as you can see. I think that’s what tires me out – the rushing! Besides having to carry her for a good part of the day.

So I am off now to cook dinner before the little miss decides to wake up from her nap and bawl her head off

Breastfeeding and sacrifices

When I started breastfeeding more than 11 years ago, I didn’t know the sacrifices I had to make. And today I am still making the same sacrifices 11 years down the road

All I knew back then was that I had to breastfeed given both dh’s and my family’s history of allergies. And it never occured to me that it could be a difficult journey, especially in the beginning. Afterall, how difficult can it be to just put the baby to the breast?

Ha! How ignorant and foolish I was even though I had done all my reading on it. Nothng beats real life experience, I say!

After nursing 7 children, I can with some authority that the early days of nursing almost always repeats itself. However, being more experienced, the early days are handled differently and with more equanimity. But it does not mean that I like them any better!

Here are some of the more unpleasant stuff that many proponents of breastfeeding seldom mention:

Engorgement

If you nurse regularly in the 1st few days, one shouldn’t be severly engorged. Note : key word is “severely”. There’ll still be a feeling of fullness as the milk comes in. And even if you do escape that feeling in the early days, once the baby goes slightly longer between feeds you’ll definitely feel it!

It can be rather uncomfortable especially if you like to lie on your side or tummy!

Leaks

With my 1st bb, I leaked for about 6 months! With subsequent babies, once I passed the 1st month I almost never leaked. However, with my 7th, I didn’t leak at all till she stretched out her feedings at about 5 weeks. Then I leaked majorly. Cloth breastpads just couldn’t absorb the leaks. I had to use my trusty Pigeon disposable breastpads.

Even till today, at 9 weeks post partum I am still leaking though less often. So I am back to using my cloth pads.

Being on call 24/7

Since Iam a SAHM, I don’t express any milk for the baby but latch on directly. So that means baby is with me 24hrs, 7 days a week. Where I go, baby comes with me. Well – for now at least till she is able to go longer without her milk or starts taking solids.

But it can get tiring since there’s no break. And worse still if she needs to nurse to go to sleep!

Diet restrictions

Ahhh!!! This would be my biggest bugbear. With my last 3 babies, I can’t eat/drink anything caffeinated or they would be so miserable and/or be awake in the middle of the night! They are very sensitive to caffeine – even in utero!

Interestingly with my 1st 4, I could drink as much coffee/tea as I wanted and not feel nauseous but not so with the last 3. Just 1 cup of diluted tea would make me very nauseous. And when these babies were born, I still couldn’t drink any caffeinated drinks or these sweet babies would keep me up all night! And indulging in chocolate after the babies go to bed at night? No way. They would not be able to settle down and sleep and be very miserable.

And with a few of them, I’ve had to also keep off dairy in the 1st 6 months or they would be extremely gassy and spit up a lot. And I know some moms who’ve had to keep off a long list of foods to keep their babies happy and healthy.

 

I write this post not to elevate myself but to salute all breatfeeding moms. It takes a lot of commitment and sheer grit and will power to do it. I know quite a few moms who pressed on despite bleeding and being sore. And then there are those, who did not give up even though people around them, including doctors,  keep on dissuading them from continuing due to repeated mastitis attacks.

Even though breastfeeding is a lot more common and accepted now, it is still not mainstream. Many just pay lip service to its goodness. In fact, the moms that I roomed with at the hospital after birth, all except 1 gave formula to their newborn babies

Women who breastfeed are a special lot!

Tired? What’s that?

As I recently posted on FB, “I wonder if there is a scale to measure tiredness”, I am truly wondering.

Everybody says they are tired. When I was single I thought I was tired. Then I got married had to do housework – boy! did that tire me out. And then I had my 1st child and the 2nd, 3rd….and now 7th.

And then there’s housework and homeschooling. And of course dealing with temper tantrums and angst-filled pre-teens. Talk about being challenged physically and mentally!

At the moment what tires me out is needing to carry the baby almost the whole day. So on Monday when we re-started school, I had to carry her and teach, carry her and mark the workbooks, carry her and read aloud to the children, carry her and cook….you get the picture?

But even as I grumble, I know it’s nothing compared to moms who have to deal with a special needs child/ren or whose husbands are deployed.

Everyone thinks they are the tiredest person around And they may be right, since each of us have different endurance level.

The only way out is to turn to God and ask for help…..and wait for the baby to stop needing to be carried to sleep!

Stressful Car Rides

Ahh! I actually posted this on my other blog. That’s how sleep deprived I am!

Anyway, this post should belong here….

Today, we went to the Singapore Discovery Centre in our Two Cars. The younger children rode with me since all the car seats and boosters are in the MPV.

Today also marked  the 1st time the baby – all of 6 weeks old – has travelled further than to Church and back. Well, as expected, she yelled and protested about being strapped in the car seat after 10 minutes of sitting quietly. And boy, did she scream.:(

And to up the ante, the 22mth old toddler decided to join in! She claimed that her foot was itchy and the proceeded to scream as loudly as the baby!

Sigh.

Now let me tell you, the Singapore Discovery Centre isn’t just round the block from our place. And so both were screaming for a good 10-15 minutes. Thankfully, the toddler stopped after I told her that no amount of yelling is going to help her itchy foot. And so, the baby continued her solo rendition till we reached our destination.

And then we had an encore performance from the baby on the way back. The toddler fell asleep the moment the car left the carpark and so I was saved from her! Lol!

All of our babies needed to get used to riding in the car in the car seat. That is not negotiable to us. But you see, I wasn’t the driver the last 6 times. I remember the 1st time we had to drive with a screaming baby all the way to my ils house and back. Very stressful. Especially when we got caught in a traffic jam. But after a while, we were able to tune out the crying.

Most of them do stop protesting by their 3rd to 4th month. But we had one who yelled everytime she sat in the carseat till she was past 1year old! And even after that, she would still occasionally yell if the car ride was too long. I am just glad I live in small Singapore. Imagine having to endure 2 hour rides with as screaming baby!

Sleep Deprivation is a Form of Torture

Yes, I am quite sure of it!

And since moms are real experts at surviving it, perhaps we will make good spies and double agents a la James Bond and his like?

As you can tell from this post, I am not only severely sleep deprived but a little deranged by now too!

Everytime we get a newborn baby, I suffer from sleep deprivation. Some babies are a little kinder to me than others. But generally, until everyone adjusts, sleep deprivation is the norm in the 1st few months.

Btw, I have noticed that my even numbered children are better sleepers than the odd numbered ones.

#1 of course is the guinea pig and had to endure various methods of getting him to sleep till I finally figured out what to do when he was 3 or 4 months old. #3 was terrible! Or so I thought till I had #5. Wow! That one made us throw out all our sleep theories and philosophies.

And now…we have #7.

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Articles for Christian SAHMs are found at Building Up Moms.

Another Toddler and Baby Moment

Ahhh!!!!

Those who have no help at home but have to handle a baby and a toddler will surely sympathise with me!

Today, I had one of those days with the baby. You know, the kind that has the baby refusing to nap more than 15 to 20 minutes? And then she only does it while nursing? The moment you unlatch her, her eyes pop open real big?

Well, it was one of those days.

And so here I was, trying for the millionth time to get the baby to sleep and she is finally dozing off when I hear a voice going, “Mama, D is very smelly! She pang sai*!” My heart sank…”But she just dozed off!” I was screaming internally.

So I had to unlatch the baby, which of course woke her up, and go wash the bum of the toddler. Meanwhile, the baby was sceraming her lungs out coz she was so very tired and hated being so rudely woken up.

Oh well, yet another day in our home. I shall survive this – I hope!

* pang sai is Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) for moving one’s bowels

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Articles for Christian SAHMs are found at Building Up Moms.