The English football season has started again. The only reason I know this is because suddenly CY has started hogging the TV at night, and I no longer can have the smirky repartee of NCIS in the background while I Bejewel Blitz my brain to death.
So CY must be trying to start his son early as he caught these amazingly cute photos of Sean playing with a ball.
This one below rivals Keira’s famous Eskimo baby shot.
Look at that smile!
After having a daughter and then a son, I’ve noticed that I do treat them differently. I coddled Keira more and was (still am) very protective of her. But with Sean, I think of him as being tougher and stronger, and will probably encourage him to do more sporty stuff.
Quite sexist aren’t I? And I thought I was quite a forward thinker. What if Keira wants to play football?
In other news, my phone got stolen today while I was shopping at the Ramadhan pasar near our house. Not a nice experience to find a hole in your bag and something taken.
Luckily I can still use back my old phone and same number. Just have to get a new sim card in. The stolen phone was very problematic anyway. Didn’t have a very stable system and it was quite faulty.
Will wait awhile to get over this loss before looking for a new (i)Phone.
Time really goes by sooooo fast. Just a few posts ago I was complaining about this baby kicking and kicking me inside the tummy. Now he is a big, strong boy and unfortunately still kicking and kicking.
He is adorable though. Sean has the cutest smile ever. He is so cute I’m tempted to enter him into some baby contests… Haha, yes I am a besotted mother.
The little dimple that appears when he breaks into a grin is irresistable. All of us, including Keira jie jie can’t help but smile back.
At five months old, Sean just learnt how to rollover. So now, everytime we put him down, he will flip and pop his head up, big eyes looking around alertly.
He is learning how to grab things too. Reaching his chubby hands out to grab whatever comes within reach. And of course, stuff it into his mouth. He can actually play with toys. i say this like I sound surprised because Keira was never into baby toys. This little tiger is tho.
Today, he also did something quite cute. Well, if you aren’t a parent of a baby you wouldn’t find it very exciting, but I thought it was very amusing. Sean reached out to me and patted me on the arm over and over again. As if trying to get my attention.
Quite advanced behaviour (says the besotted mother ).
From what I can tell, he is developing faster on all points compared to Keira at the same age.
The one thing he is slower at is sleeping longer at night. He is STILL on a 2-3 hour cycle, whereas Keira at this age I believe was only waking up once at night.
I’m still breastfeeding, but starting to teach him to drink formula from a bottle. Maybe he will sleep longer with formula.
I think he is also actually ready to start eating solids. Cos he stares and stares at us when we eat. And when Keira cheekily tries to offer him something he wants to eat it.
So time for me to start puree-ing food again soon!
His daytime naps aren’t very long. At the moment he is having four 30 min to 1 hour naps in the day, then sleeping from 9.30pm to approx 8.30am (he will wake up for milk then go back to sleep again).
And he’s trying to talk. Mostly “Aaah, aaah ooo”. Sometimes “Aa ge” and other sweet cooing sounds.
That’s Sean boy’s 5 month old update. Can’t believe he is almost 6 months old and can start eating real food soon. Slow down boy, slow down!
Check out our little chubby bubby There’s nothing like sleeping naked in just your nappy on a hot, sunny afternoon eh? I love the way his legs are still scrunched up plumply against his body… aah, I can’t believe there was a time when I totally disliked babies. How could I? They’re so cute!
Sean had his second set of immunisation shots today and also general check up with doctor. At almost 4 months, He is now 63cm long and weighs 6.7kg. Both coming in at the 50th percentile on the growth chart, right in the middle.
He seems to be settling into some kind of sleep routine, but it’s not really set in stone yet. He takes about four naps in the day. A one hour morning nap around 10.30am. A 40 minute lunch time nap around 1pm. A one/two hour afternoon nap around 2.30pm, and a 40 minute evening nap around 6pm.
He then sleeps from about 9.30pm to 8.30am, waking up every three hours or so for milk… Seems like alot of sleeping?
Sean is quite an angel in the mornings. He is in such a good mood, and is happy just lying in his bouncer, kicking his feet and looking at things. That’s when we get dimpled smiles, chuckles and laugh out louds. Baby smiles are so addictive, I can’t get enough of them!
He transforms into a monster in the afternoons. Screams his head off if he is not being carried. My arms and back are damn sore man. And my throat is quite hoarse, as have been singing songs to him so I don’t have to carry him.
In the evenings and night, he is OK. Sometimes good and sometimes cranky. Depends on how tired he is I think. He loves having his bath just before bedtime. Must be such a wonderful feeling to float around in the warm water because the moment he comes out, he bursts into tears!
What else can I say about Sean? He is a cutie pie lah! I know I’m biased, but if this is my last baby, I gotta enjoy every cuddly moment:)
Hmm, I foresee that in the near future I might have some free time away from these two cute little monkeys. Actual chunks of time when I can go out and do things… like get a haircut… am in urgent need of a haircut.
Keira is going to start kindergarten on Monday! we finally found a little Montessori kindy near our place that suits us, informal and flexible, with very nice teachers. Took Keira in for an hour yesterday and we could see she was fascinated with what the kids were doing. She said she wanted to go back there again!
So now the next hurdle towards freedom is to be able leave her there on her own. We’ve discussed with the teacher and have agreed to settle her in slowly. So I’ll be there with her for a few days first to get her used to the place, and then after that, for four hours a day, everyday, I’ll be FREE!
Wait a minute, I forgot about Sean, the every two hour breast feeding milk monster. Sigh! But this brings me to the next topic. We will also have a maid arriving in a few weeks.
She is a Cambodian with a little work experience, so can speak abit of English.
This will be the first time I have a stranger living in the house with me who is there to help me do things. I hope she will be worth the trouble.
I have heard so many bad stories of maids stealing, being moody, lazy, disobedient, running away, unhygienic, demanding… I just hope this one we’re getting will be a good one.
Now I have to figure out what I want the maid to help me with, how to accomodate an extra person in the house for two years and how to behave towards her?
I also don’t know if I can trust her with the kids, so I think she will only be doing housework first, until I teach her the ins and outs of the kids’ routines.
After all that, then, just maybe, I will have time to do some non-kid or house related work. And with the extra pair of hands I can take Keira and Sean out anytime without having to wait for the weekends for CY to be free.
The kids are doing well tho. We’re coping. So then why do we need a maid? I suppose because with a maid we can do better than just cope. I’m sure I will scold and scream alot less and the kids will cry less, if I’m not frazzled trying to cook, carry Sean and comfort Keira all at the same time.
Fingers crossed, hope it works out.
BTW, Sean just gave me a huge baby laugh out loud moment when I was bouncing him on my lap. So Cute!
He can also raise his head up 90 degrees when on his tummy and turn left and right non-stop trying to see what’s going on around him. The boy is growing and growing:)
Sean is almost three months old now. It’s the golden age of babyhood, when they are at their most irresistably cute and cuddly
Here’s some of the things I have been enjoying most with this little baby boy:
- His smile! The fastest way to make that cheeky grin appear is to make funny faces and funny noises at him. He thinks it is hilarious. Sometimes he tries to copy us too!
- His “ah goos” and other attempts at conversation. I love to hear his cute baby gurgle.
- His chubby little legs kicking and kicking oh so energetically:)
- Stroking his soft, soft hair.
- Watching him sleep.
His sleep is getting slightly longer at night, averaging a wake up every three hours. And he is trying to establish a day time sleep routine. Unfortunately, he has a very noisy sister, who will shout and wake him up all the time, so he doesn’t have very long naps in the day. I think I’ll have to re-arrange his sleeping location once his routine firms up.
I’m still 100% breastfeeding him, but I don’t think I can last one year like I did with Keira. The weather is so hot and we go out alot more here, I’m finding it very uncomfortable to breast feed. So targetting six months to stop.
Afternoon is the worst time for me. Sean gets very cranky and will scream and scream until he is carried, Keira is her usual self (need I say more?), add in the heat factor, and yeah, in the afternoons, I keep on looking at the clock to see when it’ll be over.
Other than that, Sean is a lovely little bundle who is already so curious at what his jie jie is doing, I’m afraid he will grow up way too fast, and the next time I turn around, he’ll be crawling around after her!
At this rate, I’m going to have to have another baby just for me to cuddle again! No, no, I don’t mean it It’s way too tiring to have another one!
Well, we’ve survived another week. Now, at 1am, in the peace and quiet of the night, it doesn’t seem so bad. I think we can do it.
But of course, just a few hours ago, I was getting frustrated trying to get the baby and the toddler to go to sleep. After two hours of story telling/breastfeeding/tucking in, they fell asleep at the same time!
Actually, Keira has been a fairly happy and good girl this week. I have been OK too, thanks to visits with friends, ah gong & ah ma, and CY working from home more often.
Sean is abit moody tho. He wants to be carried alot, otherwise he whines and cries. Thank god I bought that Baby Bjorn Synergy carrier. It has been put to good use, and it is very comfy to wear. Sean loves it in there, falls asleep immediately.
So quite often me or CY are carrying him around the house/in the car/at the supermarket etc etc!
We took him to see the paediatrician yesterday. He now measures 59cm in length and weighs 5.6kg. He is still on a 2-3 hour cycle, but there was once when he slept for four hours at night.. haha. So that means I haven’t had more than four hours of sleep at one stretch in two plus months.
He is giving us big smiles now, and sometimes I can see one little dimple on his left cheek:) He is a cute little bubby.
We’ve also been slowly catching up with friends here in KL.
Here’s Sofea and Keira playing with Sofea’s dollhouse. Sadly, Sofea and family are moving overseas to work soon, so we won’t be able to see them anymore…
Here’s Keira and JW, playing some funny running game. They wouldn’t stay still so we couldn’t get a good pic at all!
Here’s a girl friend for Sean - little Rui Lin, only a few weeks younger than him.
Oh, and today is me & cy’s 11 year marriage registration anniversary. So we went out for a buffet dinner - which was also our very first proper dinner out as a family of four:)
Well, that’s this week done. What will next week bring?
He’s gained an enormous amount of weight - not surprising since he is a little milk monster - we haven’t weighed him recently, but I’m pretty sure he is approaching 6 kg, almost double his birth weight!
Sean is all round and chubby already. VERY CUDDLY
This time round, I am spending less time calculating how long he is sleeping, what milestones he is achieving and all those other details that first time mums worry and stress over.
This time round I am just enjoying the baby. He is round all over. Hehe. Big, round eyes, round head, round nose, round body and he also likes to purse his lips into a little round circle. He is my little round possum Unfortunately I also seem to be taking less photos this time round.
As I had hoped he is slightly more independent than Keira. ie. he can lie by himself for awhile looking at things without fussing AND he can sit in a carseat without fussing!
What he CAN’T do is get his nappy changed without causing a big mess. 50% of the time, when I’m changing him, he has to do his “business” and wet himself all over. hai yo. And not a day goes by when he doesn’t make a big poo that escapes the nappy and dirties his clothes. ai yo! I’m always trying to find more clothes for him as all his clothes are always being washed!
What he CAN do is hold his head up quite steadily for short periods and look around. He’s a strong boy this one.
He is still drinking milk very frequently, and unfortunately over the past few days has been crying abit more and sometimes wanting to drink milk every hour. But luckily not at night… yet!
He is beginning to sleep more at night actually, up to 3 hours sometimes, so I hope that will increase until the magical 6-8 hour stretch that is considered baby sleeping thru the night.
But surprisingly I am coping with the night feeds and still find the energy to do things with Keira in the daytime. Maybe because Yong Hao comes to play almost everyday so I don’t have to entertain her all the time. What a godsend!
We’ll be heading back to KL in two weeks tho. Sigh, I don’t know who will miss Yong Hao more, me or Keira. I really must find ways entertain Keira back home, otherwise i’ll surely end up yelling at her. because as i mentioned before, (lots of times), the girl wants someone to play with her All.The.Time.
But back to Sean… I finally got a Baby Bjorn Synergy on ebay and have found it very useful in carrying Sean around. It is an excellent baby carrier. I have already used it to carry him around shopping centers, going for walks (pushing 14 kilos of keira in the stroller and carrying 6 kilo Sean in front is good exercise!), and carting him around while doing things at home when he is being fussy.
Well, that’s enough ramblings from me. One final note about Sean, he loves to look around and stare at everything with his big curious eyes, sometimes he greets us with a lovely spontaneous grin, and when he cries, he sounds like his world is about to end, very, very tragic
We had a BBQ at the park behind our house to celebrate Sean’s full moon last weekend. It was a few days before his actual 1 month old birthday, but CY was flying back to KL so we decided to do it before he left.
It was a simple BBQ with my aunts’ families and some friends. And it turned out to be a lovely and relaxing occasion. The weather was cool, but not cold, Keira enjoyed playing in the playground and eating lots of meat!, and Sean slept quietly in the stroller most of the time.
It felt so nice to see all my relatives together, and to feel a part of the family again!
Here’s photos from the day:
My Mum and her sisters at the BBQ pit:
My brother and cousins - the younger generation:
Chowing down at the picnic table:
Keira & Sean - the youngest generation:)
Yong Hao having a nap!
My dad and the sleepy baby:
Our little family:
It was lovely. One of those days that I want to bottle up and preserve forever.
I still haven’t come to grips with the fact that we have two children now. Keira and Sean. Sean and Keira. Our kids. Wow.
Keira is a really good big sister so far.
She helps to bath Sean and helps during nappy change times by putting his cream on for him. When he cries, she’ll say, “Sean crying, Mummy give Sean milk”, and when he sneezes, she says, “Sean cold”, and she covers him with her blanket
So far so good. But I have to be a bit pessimistic here, because so far we’re still in the “honeymoon” stage. Reality hasn’t hit her or me yet. When CY goes back to KL this Sunday, and when everyone, including my Mum are at work next week, when it’s just me home alone with two kids both needing attention… that’s when tears will flow and tempers will flare.
Reality will hit home in a few days time. I suppose it’ll be good practice for when we’re back in KL - (btw we have booked to go back in early May). But I am not looking forward to this.
Nappy changing, bathing and feeding two kids… actually that’s the easy bit. The problematic part is Keira and her need to have someone play with her ALL. THE. TIME. How will I explain to her I can’t play with her because the other problematic baby wants to drink milk every two hours, day AND night! There will be tears. Hers, mine and his.
Help.
The confinement period is over. The hard work begins.
But in the end, it’s all worth it. How can these two not be worth it
Wow, it’s 10pm and BOTH the kids have been asleep for an hour. I feel FREE!
Sean is on a 2 hour cycle at the moment tho, so won’t be free for much longer.
So, the birth story… Sean arrived on Monday. My contractions started around 10am, and felt very painful immediately, like i was having a very bad acid attack or period pain.
I started timing it, and it seemed to be coming every 5 minutes, so called the doctor. Doctor said sounds like I’m in labour and asked me to go to the hospital immediately.
The pain at this stage was pretty bad, I had to sit down every 5 minutes when there was a contraction, and rushed around packing Keira’s things in between the contractions.
By the way, CY was here already, arrived on Saturday, so just in time:) We packed Keira into the car and off we went.
Got to the hospital around 12pm and checked me in, then CY took Keira to my sister’s house to be babysat.
By the time the doctor came to see me, it was 1pm and I was asking for my epidural, cos I knew I didn’t want to go through what I went thru with Keira again.
But GUESS WHAT? I was already 8cm dilated, and doctor said I shouldn’t get it cos baby is coming soon already (whoops, sean just woke up, now am typing with one hand and baby in the other).
I was really disappointed and scared as I had been relying on the promise of the epidural to give me a pain free labor. No such luck. Doctor compromised by giving me a painkiller injection, which helped abit, but it also slowed the labor down(#!*!), so 2 hours later, when painkiller was starting to wear off, and i still wasn’t fully dilated yet, the doctor decided to break my water to quicken the process. And that’s when the real pain began…
Don’t want to talk about it… So skip to 5.14pm, and baby Sean is born! CY came back after dropping Keira off and was there to see his son arrive I was so relieved and happy when Sean came out and the ordeal was over. DON’T want to do that again.
Sean was born at 38 weeks and weighed 3.13kg at birth. He looked just like Keira when she was born! Same eyes, same head of hair:)
Now a few days later, we can see he has a more boyish look.
Anyway, here’s some pics:
Keira is dealing well with her new brother so far. She is quite curious about him and the things he does. We’re all also giving her more attention, so that she doesn’t feel neglected. Not to mention the freak accident I already twittered and facebooked about.. will blog about that later.
So that’s the story. We’re now a family of four! I’m still trying to work out how to cope with two when the dust settles and the daily grind begins… luckily can put it off for another month or two… Sigh.
Sean is down for another two hours again - hopefully - so now I’m going to catch up on Lost and Desperate Housewives. Hehe.
Yesterday the sky was dark and gloomy all day. The wind was blowing threateningly, and you could see the gathering storm overhead. When it came, it came in the form of huge ice balls falling from the sky!
It was the heaviest hail storm Melbourne has had in a while, and the hailstones that fell down were as big as golf balls!
Here’s some my dad collected, they were bigger but melted by the time he took them in:
And here’s Keira quite impressed with the ice balls:
So that was the excitement for yesterday. I haven’t been doing much else lately. Just getting more and more nervous about when the baby will come.
Nowadays I always get indigestion at night. But I worry that it is the beginning of contractions, so here I am trying to time my tummy ache, to see if there is a regular pain coming and going, until the acid settles down, and I sigh with relief that it was just a stomach ache. Sigh!
Have been preparing my maternity bag to take to the hosipital and buying all the things I will need. Nursing bras, nursing clothes, and now looking for a baby carrier on ebay.
I’m eyeing the Baby Bjorn Active Carrier, as my sister has one and says it is very good. But am a newbie at bidding for things on Ebay, and have discovered that it is very competitive, especially in the last 5 minutes - the price can double!
Quite exciting though.
I also need a new wardrobe. Most of my clothes are from my younger days.. you know all those skin tight tops and short dresses. All the stuff I can’t wear anymore because I must have been skinnier back then and also not suitable for a mother of (almost) two kids, right?
Anyway nothing at all practical for breastfeeding. I don’t know what I wore when I was breastfeeding Keira, but they seem to have been lost in transit somewhere in between London to KL. I think they’re also all winter clothes, too hot to wear now or in Malaysia.
So as I said I need new clothes! But no opportunity or money to go shopping here, so I’ll end up in old t-shirts I think. Ah well…
We’re in the last few weeks before a new little soul comes into our lives, and I personally CAN’T WAIT to get this baby out of here!
Compared to Keira, this boy is making me so uncomfortable.
He kicks and dances and does multiple karate moves inside my belly, almost all day. And then around midnight, just when i’m trying to settle to sleep or have some quiet time, he starts kicking UPWARDS, into my lungs and ribs! Ai Yo.
With Keira, I was as regular as clockwork. Now, I’m constipated.
My legs cramp up when I sit down for too long, my bladder is in love with the toilet and must go visit it all the time, sometimes I am very hungry, and sometimes, when the baby squashes my stomach, I feel sick and have no appetite at all.
There’s 10 kilos of extra weight pressing down on me all the time. I feel old, look haggard and there’s all kinds of strange spots growing on my face.
And I’m sorry to pour all my complaints here. But that’s the pregnancy this time round. Besides the gaining of weight I didn’t get any of the above with Keira, she was a good little foetus, so second time is very much different and harder and more exhausting… Hopefully the boy will come out to be a good baby in contrast!
Anyway onto some nice pictures now
While CY was here for CNY week, we managed to do a few things around town.
First we went to Crown Casino to check out the CNY festivities. Their laser light show featured this huge dragon.
Outside, along the river bank there were lots of stalls selling the usual food and CNY stuff, and rather incongruosly, this little pet farm, where they were letting kids go in to pet the animals.
Here’s CY, Keira and a llama.
Another day, we went to visit a real farm, where the kids got to feed the animals.
The guinea pigs were the cutest!
And the cousins continue to enjoy each other’s company and warm our hearts every day. They are best friends now.
What with everybody in the christmas holiday mood and my parents being here, it was a fun and busy week.
Keira is in love with gong gong and po po again. Every morning she wakes up, jumps out of bed and rushes down stairs to play with them. And then if I don’t stop her to give my parents a break, she will just keep on playing and playing!
Since my Mum speaks mandarin to Keira, her chinese vocab has suddenly doubled, and now she is asking me how to say things in chinese. Like, “Mummy, what elephant in chinese?” “What turtle in chinese?”
Kids pick things up so quickly.
CY and I also celebrated our 10 year wedding dinner anniversary this week (which is a different date from our marriage anniversary) and also my birthday!
Went to Mizu to celebrate, and I finally got to try their foie gras fried rice. wah, decadent piece of fatty liver that just melts in your mouth! Unfortunately they don’t seem to have their special weekday set anymore
Foie Gras Fried Rice
Talking about food, we went back for Ninja Joe’s pork burger again, and this time had to wait almost half an hour in line for the burger! Their little outlet was so popular, and people were taking away bags and bags of the stuff. I predict this one definitely won’t go out of business
Then on christmas day, CY and I went to watch Avatar in 3D while gong gong and po po took Keira walking around in 1 Utama. It was our first movie outing in one year I think. But what an excellent movie to break the drought! It was AMAZING. For two and a half hours, James Cameron took us into a beautiful 3-dimensional world filled with wonderful creatures, breathtaking landscapes and a pretty good adventure.
Everything on the big screen definitely looks bigger, and more lifelike in 3D. Very cool. If you watch Avatar, MUST watch in 3D!
Then over the weekend took Keira to play in the Lake Gardens playground, and managed to capture her excitement sitting on the swing. Check out the screaming in this one:
She was so excited. But then CY pushed her a little too high, and she immediately wanted to stop and come out already.
Today we went with some friends to Mizu again to try their Sunday buffet lunch (RM45++pp). It’s not bad. Not as big a spread as hotel Jap buffets, but there’s four different types of sashimi, sushi rolls, six hot dishes, and can order unlimited teppanyaki, hand rolls, unagi, tempura, salmon belly etc. My only gripe, not very good dessert selection.. no green tea ice cream!
Quite a tiring week. But nowadays, even when I don’t do anything I’m tired cos the baby inside seems to take up all my energy.. he gives me backache, indigestion, stomachache and alot of kicking. This time round is definitely alot more uncomfortable than when I was pregnant with Keira. I can’t wait for the boy to come out already!
).
There’s nothing like sleeping naked in just your nappy on a hot, sunny afternoon eh? I love the way his legs are still scrunched up plumply against his body… aah, I can’t believe there was a time when I totally disliked babies. How could I? They’re so cute!
Unfortunately I also seem to be taking less photos this time round.
(whoops, sean just woke up, now am typing with one hand and baby in the other).
