Zachary at 4.5 months!

Dearest baby,

You are exactly 4 months 18 olds today. Mummy is typing away while you are sleeping. Mummy should be catching up on my sleep too. But the past few months with you have been full of surprises and mummy just got to finish this post and record these sweet memories.

Just this morning, you amazed all of us when you could sit on your own. You wobbled a little but still managed to hold yourself up with your strong little arms for a short while. Great job baby!

And just last night, mummy thought you would already be asleep by the time I was home from work since you missed your evening nap. To my pleasant surprise, you were still awake and happily flipping and playing on the bed. And when you were finally tired, I carried you and you fell asleep almost immediately.

It's a bliss to see you fall asleep in my arms. Some days you refuse to sleep and we have to carry you around for a longer while. Our arms would be aching (you are 7.1 kg now) but that's really ok baby. Mummy and daddy love having you in our arms too much. On a few rare occasions (I think probably just three times) you managed to fall asleep on your own without needing us to coax you to sleep and we were so proud of you. But at the same time, mummy's feeling a little sad because my baby boy is growing up so fast and soon you won't be needing us to tuck you to bed anymore.

Last Thursday, I played peekaboo with you and you laughed out loud. When I did peekaboo again and it didn't amused you. Yes, we know baby, tricks don't work the second time. hehe, it's ok because mummy and daddy just love coming up with new tricks for you! Today, mummy lifted you up high like you were jumping and that got you laughing out loud again.

Last month, you surprised me when you could flip from your back to your tummy and tummy to back again. And now every night, you would turn or rotate in all directions while u are sleeping. We are always so amused to see you in all funny positions every night.

At 10 weeks old, you gave us a huge surprise when two of your bottom teeth became visible from beneath your gum. From then on, you have been salivating a lot. And now that you are pretty good with controlling your little hands, nothing escapes your mouth! Anything that is within your reach, you will try to take it to your mouth. Your favourites are still your fingers and your little thumbs. At just 2 months old, you found out how to suck your thumb. Today, you discovered how to suck both thumbs at the same time and that was so funny.

Thank you baby for bring so much joy into our life. Mummy and daddy love you!

Baby, it's bathing time!

From day one, we knew Zachy boy loves being in water. He may be fussing or crying while I'm undressing him, but once he is in his tub, he calms down instantly. This is my small baby enjoying his bath when he is just ten days old.

As he gets older, he seems to know that it's bathing time and will stop fussing when I am getting him ready for his bath. There he is, patiently waiting for his bath.

He is all ready to soak in the water!

Haha but there is one thing we noticed, he doesn't fancy having his hair washed. So on extremely fussy days, I have to accelerate on washing his hair and put him into his tub as quickly as possible.

He has outgrown his first tub and we got him a bigger one. One day, he seemed so tiny and the next moment, he can't straighten his legs in the tub anymore. It's these little things that made me realise that my baby is growing up everyday and growing up really quickly! I guess very soon, he will be able to sit up in the tub by himself and before I knew it, he will be all ready to take his own shower. Oh yes, he can't stay as mummy's boy forever and the more I will treasure these precious moments with my small baby.

Return of Baby Batman + DIY Batman costume

Everyone loves a theme party and part of the fun is to dress up for the theme! The Wong family was invited to a birthday party with a cool 'Princes & Princesses, Superheros & Villains' theme last Sunday. And of course, I jumped at the chance to dress up my family!

But here's the not so fun part, getting the costumes. I don't like buying costumes because I am so sure it's going to be worn just once. It's not fun going to parties as the same character, right??. I prefer renting costumes but on second thoughts, the rental cost can probably buy my baby a few packs of diapers plus no shops rent out costumes for a three months old baby, so this option is out. OK, let me try to make one!

I asked hubby for ideas on which superhero or villain should Zachy be and (I have no idea why) he immediately suggested Bowser. Yes, this big bad guy in the Super Mario game.

Photo from here

I really did give it a serious thought (though just for ten minutes) and bleah, I gave up. The dragon head, the horns, the claws and the spiky turtleshell? Wah, too challenging. 

As I was browsing through the web for ideas, I saw the perfect superhero character for Zachy boy. He shall be a Baby Batman! Seemingly easy costume to make and I have all the materials needed. I made a batman logo first using black and yellow felt and sewed it onto his grey onesie. Then I sewed a black cape.

There, we have a batman costume!

The ambitious me wanted to make him a Batman baby hat too. The attempt isn't not too successful which you can see from the photo but I still made him wear it. hah! The earlier two prototypes I made with scrap clothes were hilarious! Even my MIL can't help laughing when I told her I'm making a batman hat because she was so sure Zachy looked like a bull and a mushroom. Well, after this episode, I sure know how to make a bull's hat or a mushroom's hat for other costume parties. lol.

I made two simple masks for ourselves and we went to party as a Batman family!

After the party, I simply detached the logo and the cape and we have his onesie back to original! But of course, not after we took many photos of our superhero baby!

Linking up with:

Zachary's first haircut!

Zachy has a funny hairstyle from birth. He looks like he is balding, yes you heard me right, balding. lol. He has lots of hair everywhere except at the centre, like he has a bald patch. See, his bald patch.

As days went by, his hair all around got longer by more than an inch and started to stand but the hair at the centre just didn't grow. The result of this? A mad professor look!

Haha, from certain angle, he looked like a koala bear, with his hair standing on both sides. I'm such a meanie, making fun of my own son. hah!

Though I must say that I find his koala bear and mad professor look very cute, his hair gets rather messy especially when he is sweating. So yesterday, we decided to give our boy a hair cut. It took three person to accomplish this, my MIL to hold him, me to distract him and hubby to snip his hair carefully. Hehe, we are rather pleased with the end result. He looked very different with his new short hair. Don't he look smart?

Zachy's 2nd month

Today, Zachy boy is two months old. In just a short one month, he continues to surprise us each day with the new things he can do!

He is so curious about the world now. He can't stop looking around, especially when we are out. All the lights and new things just fascinates him so much!

He makes us laugh with the variety of cute sounds he makes. It is so fun to have a 'conversation' with him now as he 'talks' to us with his own unique baby language.

He smiles to us when he is in good mood. He giggles out loud when he is in even better mood. His cries and screams are also getting louder though. Hmm, this is the not so fun part.

He is in better control of his head and limbs. He can support his head for a longer time and this makes playing with him all the more fun and carrying him easier. He love swinging his arms around and kicking his legs. He knows how to put his fist into his mouth and just yesterday, he found out his thumb tastes better! hah!

We can't wait to see what else he can do next month!

First month

Baby boy is taking his nap while I'm typing this away. Tomorrow he is 7 weeks old and I have been a mum for more than a month! Look at how much my boy has grown in one month! hehe, it's such a dilemma. Sometimes I wish he will grow up quickly, but on some days he seemed to be growing too fast.

I have been told by many that having a kid is life-changing and it really is. But not all remembered to tell me that having a kid will change my life for the better. This little fellow has brought so much joy to me and the family. Though I can no longer have a good night sleep nor can I be out having a meal in peace and shopping for hours, seeing him grow up happily everyday more than makes up for all these seemingly small sacrifices. He even made me give up one of my favourite activities - snoozing! lol. I just enjoy sleeping in longer. Hee, I will even set my alarm clock earlier so that I can snooze and not get up immediately. But now, no matter how sleepy I am, I will jump up right away to feed him or check on him when I sense some sound or movement beside me.

Even though it's just a short one month as baby and I embarked on our breastfeeding journey, I feel that both of us have come a long way. Baby is now getting better at latching on and suckling. I'm so proud of him! It wasn't like this in the beginning. In the first week, baby boy wasn't feeding well and he didn't poo and pee enough. He was always sleeping and it was a huge challenge for us to wake him up at night for his feeding. On day 3, he was diagnosed with rather high level of jaundice and had to be hospitalised for phototherapy treatment. When he returned home, we had to force him to feed regularly because he needed to poo and pee sufficiently to get rid of the bilirubin in his body. The little fellow would cry and struggle so much as I forced my nipple into his mouth. At the same time, my nipples were all sore and red and they hurt a lot during nursing. When this whole episode was over and I thought we could finally have peaceful nursing sessions, baby started to have pretty bad reflux and will choke a lot during and after feeding and pull off prematurely. This was totally not what I thought breastfeeding will be like. At that moment, when I saw my boy having so much difficulty drinking peacefully, I wondered if nursing sessions were really comforting for him and I had the slightest thought of giving up breastfeeding.

But I'm so glad that I didn't give up. I really love this closeness and enjoy these exclusive bonding sessions with my boy. When he is upset or hungry, I am able to provide him with the comfort he needs. It's so sweet to see him suckle away happily, well until his reflux comes in. Hope that will get better as his digestive system matures. Baby is always kept close to me because he needs me. Sigh, I'm so dreading the coming month because I have to introduce bottle feeding so that this little being still gets his food when I'm back at work in June. It saddens me to think that I can no longer nurse him every time then and I will be replaced by a bottle and my mother-in-law. And this makes me more determined than ever to continue nursing him whenever I'm with my boy!

So that's my first month as a parent! Honestly, I never knew I had so much more love to give and patience in me until this little fellow came along. The parenthood journey is just amazing.

Welcome to the world Zachary Wong!

After hubby's terrible chicken pox episode during week 36 and 37 of my pregnancy, things at home pretty much went back to normal. Having rested at home for almost a month, I was beginning to feel very impatient about meeting Zachy boy. I want to hold my boy in my arms so much!

Every now and then, there were some Braxton Hicks contractions which would get me feeling excited and thinking if I'm popping. I would realise soon I'm not when there wasn't a next contraction. Until on the morning of 4th of March at around 3.15am, I got woken up from my sleep by a sudden tightness in my abdomen. This felt like none of the false contractions I had before but still, I wasn't sure if it's the real thing and decided to hold alarming the hubby. I tried going back to sleep but was woken up at around 3.30am by another contraction. Now this gave me an adrenaline rush and I was very awake all of a sudden. For the next hour or so, the contractions kept coming back at pretty regular intervals. When my contractions were 5 to 10 minutes apart at around 5am, I thought it was time to share my excitement with hubby and woke him up. I think our boy is coming out today!

I had my shower and ate some breakfast. At 6.30am, we decided to go to the hospital to avoid the morning peak hour traffic jam. We reached KKH at 7am and I was immediately ushered to the delivery ward. Soon I was on the bed with the drip in me and sensors strapped over my bump. My contractions were getting more intense and more regular now, at 3 - 5 minutes apart. I'm really in labour!

All the while, I was pretty curious about how much my cervix has dilated. Please let it be 10cm dilated already! At 7.30am, the nurse came in to do a cervix check. "It's 5cm dilated! Well, your boy should be out before noon." she said. Though it wasn't fully dilated like what I wished for, I was still glad that I was 'halfway there'. At 8.00am, my gynaecologist came to check on me. She gave instructions to induce contractions and also broke my water bag. Warm water started gushing out from below. So this was how my boy felt like in the womb, surrounded by such warm water!

The nurses told me to call for them when I felt a strong urge to push and left the room. From then on, things moved even more quickly. My contractions soon became 2 minutes apart and were getting stronger. I was squirming around on the bed trying to find a comfortable position to ease the intense ache that was building up around my lower back but nothing helped. Throughout labour, dear hubby was encouraging me and helping me to focus on getting through each contraction.

Putting the pain aside, it was amazing that I could somehow feel (or maybe I was imagining) the baby moving downwards with every contraction and this (with lots of prayers) kind of helped me get through each contraction. I knew with every contraction, my boy is one step closer to being in my arms! At around 9.00am, I thought I could really feel his head pushing down at the cervix and I felt this (extremely) strong urge to push! I didn't know if I should though and I called for the nurse immediately. Cervix is 8cm dilated (only!?!?). The contraction pain at this point where I wanted so much to push but I couldn't do so yet was the most unbearable. I was just praying and praying to God because really, only divine intervention could let me survive this crazily painful transition phase.

Thank God, the transition phase didn't last too long. But of course when one was in labour, even one minute felt like forever. At 9.20am, the nurse came in to do another check and my cervix was 9cm dilated. "You can start pushing! I'll help you get your cervix to open to 10cm." OH YES! I can finally push now! What followed was probably the most tiring one hour of my life. At every contraction, I was pushing with all of my strength, yes, every single bit. It came a point where my legs were all trembling and I couldn't hold them open and up myself. Hubby and the nurse were on each side of me holding each of my leg for me. I just kept mumbling to hubby "I'm really tired" or I was silently praying to God for more strength. At around 10.00am, my cervix is finally fully dilated and the nurse quickly called for my gynaecologist. And then there was more pushing. I was so drained I wasn't even sure when my gynaecologist performed episiotomy for me. Just do whatever you want to get the boy out NOW.

All of a sudden, the urge to push and all the contractions miraculously disappeared. I briefly remembered hubby telling me "He's out!"but I didn't really get what he was talking about. Until I saw my slimy little baby at the bottom of the bed. My baby boy is out! Finally, after a 38 weeks and 6 days stay in me and a blessed smooth delivery, my precious baby boy Zachary Wong was born on the 4th of March 2013 at 10.23am, weighing 3.446kg.

Week 36

Week 36 must be the worst week of my whole pregnancy and I'm so glad it's over. SH was down with chicken pox on day 2 of Chinese New Year and over the next few days, he got very sick, like really sick. I have never seen him so sick before. It was such a stressful period. I don't know when SH will recover. The rashes kept popping out, his high fever just didn't go away for three days and we were all so worried. I don't know if SH will recover in time to be with me in the delivery room. And it doesn't help to hear comments about all the bad things that can happen to my baby because SH has chicken pox. We are so emotionally attached to Zachy boy now and it's depressing hearing these things.

SH and I decided together that neither of us will move out after we consulted our GP and my gynae and assessed the risks. We are not being stubborn nor taking things lightly. SH and Zachy boy are equally dear to me. I had chicken pox before and I'm most probably immune to the virus. And that's why we made the decision for me to be at home and take care of SH. Seriously, I'm glad we stick it through together. I cannot imagine leaving SH to go through this whole terrible ordeal by himself. 

I know my friends have good intention when they offer advices to me. But I just wish that people be a little more sensitive when talking to mothers-to-be because the 40 weeks pregnancy is such an emotional period. It really helps if the advices are based on facts and not what one believe or think. And please don't keep going "this and that will happen to your baby" when one hasn't got the facts right. 

Thank God, SH is recovering. I'm at week 37 of my pregnancy now and this means that Zachy boy is ready to come out anytime. We are praying that Zachy boy can wait till daddy is all well and good before he decides to come out to say hi to the world.

Week 35

I used to think that the days are going by too slowly and 40 weeks is a long time. And wow, I'm already at week 35 of pregnancy and in probably less than a month's time, we are going to see Xue! He's growing really fast these few weeks and according to the scan last week, he weighs around 2.8kg. My tummy is feeling very heavy and I'm easily out of breath now. Honestly, everyday feels like I'm doing weight exercise and carrying a bowling ball around. lol.

SH and I each bought one set of new clothes for Zachy boy. Honestly these tiny baby clothes are so cute, we are impressed that we could walk out of the stores without a basketful of clothes. lol. Oh yes, we remembered that our boy already has more clothes than his dad now.

These days I'm often at home working on my craft projects. Progress is slow since I can't sit down for long at my work table but still good. The baby quilt is close to completion, just a little more hand binding to do. I made a few other things for Zachy boy too and I will post about them soon!

This afternoon, I gave all the stuffs in my makeup box a good wipe down too. It will be months before I'll be back in action and this is a good break to do some spring cleaning for my box. It's Chinese New Year's eve tomorrow and I'm so looking forward to my steamboat reunion dinner! Have a great Chinese New Year friends!

Our little one

At week 33, my tummy is already too big for my comfort, especially during work but I'm really enjoying the whole pregnancy experience! It fascinates me every time the little one does his daily stretches and I am reminded that there's a little life growing in me. SH and I are amazed how we already feel so attached to our little one and we can't wait to hold him in our arms!

Work is slowing down and I'm finally getting down to set up baby's little corner and prepare his stuff. I'm getting so many baby DIY ideas from books and websites and I'm excited to get started on them! Haha this is the next fun thing about having a baby, isn't it?

Hand-me-downs

I'm really sure the nesting instinct has hit me. lol. I'm cleaning and packing stuffs more enthusiastically than usual. Today, I spent my afternoon happily sorting out all the hand-me-downs for our little one. Most of the stuffs are from my brother and sister in law who have three boys in their family! This lucky fellow probably has two times more clothes than his dad now.

And after sorting out all the hand-me-downs, we can check the items off our list and go shopping for the rest of the stuffs soon!