Baby Mobile

About a month before Brendan was born, I had an inkling to make him a baby mobile. Call it my nesting instincts if you will.

So out I went to buy some pieces of felt. 

I googled for some patterns that I liked, traced them directly off the computer monitor and started cutting.

This fawn was the most labor intensive of the lot, but it's also my favorite :)

I wasn't sure at first how to mount the animals with whatever existing material that I had. I was too lazy to go hunting for sticks or wire. 

Today, I finally decided to simply stick them with tape onto the ceiling. 

I hung them over Brendan's diaper changing station.

Looks alright huh?

They are stuffed with my leftover cosmetic cotton balls.

I made sure to include almost all the colors of the rainbow. A purple heart was on the way, but then Brendan came first and I never got the time to finish up.

Babywise, Parker & Daily Life

From day one, Brendan has been a Babywise baby. 

For those who have never heard about the book by Gary Ezzo, it is basically a book on how to schedule your baby's day. In a nutshell, each feeding session is followed by a "waketime", before putting your baby down for a nap. According to the book, trying to follow their schedule will have most babies sleeping through the night by eight weeks of age. 

Of course results will vary baby to baby since each one is an individual.

I remember telling C while I was pregnant that I was planning to have my baby sleep through the night by eight weeks of age. She told me to be realistic because hers was not able to sleep through the night till much later.

However, I'm very happy to say that Brendan has been a relatively easy baby. From the very first day till now, I've been concentrating on getting him to have a full feed each time as well as quality sleep. I am glad that my efforts have paid off because he is now (at seven weeks), capable of sleeping from 11pm till 5:30am each night. 

Of course, some nights are exceptions, but I don't mind if he gets up an extra time in the middle of the night for a feeding because it is usually short (about 5-10 minutes) and probably due to a growth spurt. 

And how do I know if he is going through a growth spurt? It's pretty obvious to me by now. There will be one or two days/nights of increased feeding sessions and fussiness. Thereafter, I will observe very sudden changes in either his physicality (gaining weight) or mental abilities (social smiling, increased awareness of his surroundings).

If you're wondering, yes, I am fully and totally breastfeeding him. And I do get letdowns in the middle of the night. Still, my milk supply has not diminished and Brendan is still getting fatter by the day!

Last night, we went to Parker Korean Restaurant along Upper Thomson Road so I could satisfy my irrational Korean food craving. I had never eaten there before, but it was one of the closer restaurants to us.

My breastfeeding apron is a lifesaver when we go out.

I should have taken a hint when we saw that the entire place was empty at dinnertime. The appetisers were soggy and my bibimbap was barely tolerable (didn't even bother to take a photo). 

One thing positive about the place though- the staff are honest people. I had left my phone on the table as we were leaving, but they kept it for me until we returned to retrieve it.

One of my favorite sights these days is my dear baby's milk-drunk face. It's just the cutest thing in the world to me!

Brendan's diaper literally exploded today. I had never seen such an insane poo from him before.

In the afternoon, I like to take him downstairs for a stroll. He'll usually fall asleep by the end of it though.

7 Weeks

My dear baby is growing so quickly... At 7 weeks, he is now making plenty of cooing sounds during waketimes and starting to lift his head higher when lying on his tummy. 

He smiled at me quite a few times today. Oh it warms my heart so to see it! 

Sometimes I wonder if I really do love him with the intense kind of love that moms supposedly have. You know, the kind that will make moms voluntarily jump into a fire to save their babies. Honestly, sometimes when he gets his saliva on my hand, I quickly try to wipe it off because I am kind of saliva phobic. 

Still, I know I definitely love him enough to change his diaper in the morning with a smile even though I am dead tired. A few years ago, you could not persuade me to get out of bed without at least three swipes at the snooze button. Now, all I need is a faint whimper from the baby cot and I'm up! 

Each time I look down on his sweet little face, I'm reminded of how innocent and helpless he is. If he needs anything, the most he could do is to cry until his throat dries out. He is totally and utterly dependent on me. What a scary thing it is to be a baby.

I visited Lizzie and baby Alexander earlier today. I had not seen them since a week before I delivered, which was when Alex was born. Six days later, out came Brendan. 

It's really nice to have a friend who is going through the same lifestage as you, especially a Christian one. It's easy to listen to the world give you all sorts of advice, but nothing beats Christian fellowship- it's like chicken soup for the soul. 

In the evening, I hung out at Ah Yee's, where we discovered that Brendan could probably play the piano with his toes in the future if he wanted to. Haha! 

Anddddd that's it for the day. I put him down to sleep at about 10pm and spent the last two hours blogging, replying to emails and surfing Facebook. 

Goodnight. 

25 Weeks

On Friday, I went for my third appointment with the gynaecologist. I'm currently seeing Dr. Wen Lim at Mount Alvernia Hospital.

The last time my family came with me, my dad commented that Dr. Lim seemed rather cold and emotionless. I thought that perhaps she was just a little thrown off by the large party of people in her office. The first time I had gone to see her, she actually seemed pretty nice. I had switched to her from Dr. Chia Yee Tien at Mount Elizabeth Hospital because Dr. Chia's office was always crowded and the whole hospital environment at Mt. E just wasn't very pleasant. Jerry hates the parking situation there as well.

But I love love love Dr. Lim's clinic at Mount Alvernia. It's clean, never crowded and the receptionists are very friendly.

I was so happy to see that baby had put on some weight especially in his cheeks.

I wish I had an ultrasound machine at home so that I could look into my tummy anytime I wanted!

He's so cute.... :)

During my last visit at Dr. Lim's, I signed up for a package. It's 1,000 SGD for approximately 9-10 more visits, not including ultrasound photos (10 SGD each) and 3D scans (20 SGD each). Natural delivery and a 2 night stay at Mount Alvernia will cost an additional 2,000 SGD as well. Without the package, it would have cost 2,300 SGD.

Growing Excitement

My mom texted me this morning with a photo of her "loot" from across the Atlantic.

Can I just say, I'm SOOOOO excited to start buying stuff for our little one?! Especially after walking around the giant Mothercare store in Harbourfront with Lizzie yesterday evening. She's already gotten her stroller and some clothes, but all I've done is read a bunch of books.

Haha!

I've started to compare prices across Target, Walmart, Mothercare here and some other online stores like Amazon, Qoo10 and even Gumtree. I don't mind secondhand stuff at all, but it seems that most of it has already been given away now that half the people my age group are popping babies every other week.

Can't wait to fly back and walk down the lovely aisles at Target again! 

Blessed Days

I feel so blessed right now because yesterday and today were really good days.

For one, Mo came to visit us with her baby girl yesterday at track practice. It's so weird to see her as a mom now. When she graduated, getting married and having a kid were among the last things I'd expected her to do. But here she is, still seeming like the same person but different...

How time flies!

After practice, Nat and I pranked Telly by pasting Post-its all over her door.

We'd actually planned this for a long time now- since last year! We figured that Tuesdays evenings were the best time because Telly would be at work. Who knew that YESTERDAY of all Tuesdays, she would be getting a room inspection?

So yes, unfortunately we were caught red-handed by Miss Telly herself. Not that she minded at all.

Because they were messages of love.

After pranking Telly, we went (once again) to Kean University for a dodgeball game.

This time, there were so many people jammed into one court that I got bored halfway through and dropped out to play something else on my own.

It was nice though, just to hang out and stuff.

Fast forward to this afternoon- we had to do community service after track practice.

Street cleaning...

Holding up signs to get cars to honk at us. We wanted them to know that this was a grassroots movement in keeping the city clean; and that we weren't inmates.

Everyone had a lot more fun than we expected.

After that, I had a bunch of girls over to dye Easter eggs and hang out.

It was interesting to see what designs all of us came up with.

Hidden artistic talents in all of us!

I am really enjoying my last few weeks as a college senior- so much so that I don't really want to leave. Why why why do I always begin to really enjoy myself when I'm about to leave a place?

Well I'm just going to keep giving thanks to God who is awesome and from whom all good things come. I can't control my life and where I'll be in the years to come, but I can and will always give thanks for the grace He's giving me day by day.

Still, spending time with people is draining and distracting. I need some quiet time with my dearest God, pronto.

Goodnight world.