What I look like now…hmm

Totally wondering how I look after all e buzz in e day..while Eli tries to fall asleep on my lap…as usual…unkempt to e max! Hmmz.
In desperate need of a facial, hairdo, pedi, mani and massage fix!

Raising a Smart Kid?

News Flash

As per the news in Today paper, a simple test can identify if your toddler will fall behind their peers later in life.

How? Just check & ensure that your toddler can use these 20 words by the age of 2. They are: Mummy, daddy, milk, juice, hi, hello, no, ball, cat, dog, nose, eye, show, banana, car, hot, thank you, shoe.

By right, they should already know up to 50 words by age of 2. Apparently, the study mentioned that toddlers lacking in speech tend to lag behind peers in vocab, grammar & reading ability at age 17.

Does this mean that I have to start training Eli now to be good in English? And to think that I even want him to be multi-lingual…sighz…max Kiasuism syndrome striking…

Independent Motherhood

Tags

1 month old, breastfeed, confinement, expressed milk, fatigue, infant, routine, taking care, tiredness

When I read on multiple forums on mums managing themselves taking care of multiple kids, I though it would be easy taking care of Eli alone.
So moving back to Punggol did not seem like a daunting task. Afterall, I am only handling 1 kid.

Things totally went unexpected. Considering that I am breastfeeding (which is btw, a freaking tiring thing already), I had to also take care of the house + my meals.
As Eli proved to be quite decently all right in the day at my parents’ place, I thought, “Well, things will jolly well be the same. I can definitely manage + even bake a cake in the midst of everything!” Apparently, I was too optimistic + too naive.

Eli decided to play Devil and totally thwart all plans. Felt super drained out the past 2 days. Gosh! Only 2 days have passed despite all the flurry of breastfeeding.

So if I want to compare the routines at the 2 homes, here they are:

Routine during confinement at my parents’ place:
6am – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
7am – Wash up bottles + myself + apply cream + take supplements
8am – Breakfast
9am - Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
10-11.30am – Eli’s awake moment aka long time pacifying him; otherwise, it’s my free time to surf net or read e papers/books + expressing milk for few night feeds
12noon – Lunch
1pm – Massage + break away from Eli (thanks to my aunt for helping)
2.30pm – Wash bottles + myself (again)
3pm – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
4pm to 6pm – Love this moment Eli just sleeps through. GORGEOUS! Best time for me to catch my drama shows! I even have time for snacks! + expressing out milk enough for few night feeds
6pm – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
7.30pm – Time to hand over to my mum/uncle mark + Dinner (in peace) + catch abit of TV shows
9pm – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers (it’s easier as uncle mark/my mum will help)
11pm, 2am – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers (done by uncle mark while I get some beauty sleep)
4am – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers (& the routine continues again)

Routine at Punggol House:
6am – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
8am – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
9am – Wash bottles, Breakfast, Write Blog, Surf Net (Aka what I am updating now), prepare lunch + apply cream + take supplements + expressing milk for seriously only 1 night feed…etc…
10am – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
11am – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
12noon – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
1pm – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers + squeeze in bites of lunch
2pm – Finally some form of rest… zzzz + wash plates + throw rubbish + go toilet (always forgetting) + bathing + clean house
4pm – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers
5pm – Feed & pacify Eli to sleep + change diapers + squeeze in time to defrost items for din din + cooking whatever I can with 1 freaking hand for din din with the other carrying the fussy fellow
6pm onwards – Throw him to uncle mark while I finish up things done halfway in the day or just pure washing after din din

Super tiring! How did those mums manage to even bring their older kids out to play while managing the infant?! It’s totally clueless to me right now. At Eli’s 1mth old period, these few words just keep on playing in my mind – backache, tiredness, fatigue, lethargic…hopefully things will perk up before I go insane on just purely breastfeeding every other min. Which also means that now I breastfeed so often, I actually lack of enough milk to express out for the night feeds – aka – having to also breastfeed at night….sobz…no more beauty sleep (I foresee).

And the routines bloody eliminates the washing up of his clothes + every other cloths used & bathing him. Can’t handle everything…so leaving the washing of Eli & his items to uncle mark.

Advantage? I am now a master of doing things 1-handed. The other? Lifting the weight of Elijah Sng – who is getting damn heavy that my back aches at the thought of carrying him continuously for a few hours. And I even boasted to uncle mark previously that I will definitely bring him down every day for a walk in the park. Now?! What walk? I need sleep URGENTLY so just get that fuss-pot into bed RIGHT NOW! Sighz…

As per what my cousin told me – Enjoy Motherhood!

(-_-)”

Approaching 1mth

Tags

1month old, diminishing baby acne, infant, smile

Bb acne getting better. Just left a few persistent scabs plus fresh bout of pimples forming all over my face…at least it’s healing!
Check out my new throne and see me roar! Woohoo! Randomness

Mesmerized…

Tags

2days 1night, Brain, Dramas, In Time With You, It Started With a Kiss, Variety

Watching various dramas have always been my past time. It was after watching the Korean drama – Brain – that made me realised what a sucker I am for highly intelligent guys.

All my fave drama do star the male leads as someone smart, intelligent and highly intellectual. Of course, that makes the female leads dumb, silly and do look slightly spastic in their actions at times.

The male leads have such great charisma. The focused, intent and serious look in their eyes play the most impt factor. Of course, since they are actors, their good looks also helped gave bonus points. Then again, the male lead in Brain isn’t that good looking. Yet, his stride, his demeanor, his carefully minced out words and stares all helped to make this character damn mesmerizing. Just like Zhi Shu in “It started with a kiss”. Totally love the arrogance! At least in the show the characters have what it takes to be arrogant.

Then come some lovely male leads with the soft character – just like the one in “In time with you”. Nothing so intelligent but with the kind of ever-so-giving nature, makes the audience just want to give him a big hug to say everything is fine.

Even the hongkong series of “The Truth” where a battle of wits in the court – makes even the least attractive actor, attractive. All the intelligent conversations that spewed out so easily of the characters’ mouth. AH!!! Gorgeous music to my ears.

Not to say that being an ardent fan of 2days 1night, Lee Seunggi does impressed me with his knowledge (despite the lack of street smartness; though am sure he built it well over the show) and exudes his own form of charisma.

Ah…loving these intelligent leads.

Reality check.

Well, uncle mark is intelligent in his own ways. At least he knows alot of things that I do not know and always wow me with new facts every other day. Just hope that the other little guy in the house will be like his father.

Otherwise, it’s fine, I will sink deeper into my various dramas over & over again to fulfill my fantasies…

 

Growing up

Tags

3 week old, attitude, chub cheeks, infant care

Happy to b here, in this world!

I self declare to b a 3-week old rascal w pimply chub cheeks! Attitude is my middle name and I love to expand my lungs capacity whenever I poo or trickle. Nothing beats letting my neighbors hear my ability and gorgeous voice. Especially at 11pm to midnight. Oh, my fave timing! But I wonder why my dad is so adverse to my ‘singing’.

I love my parents as well! Just today, i showed what a great angel I was when my mum did her massage. I stayed cool and slept 3/4 way b4 I decided to partake some of her attention. That’s when I saw her flustering in glee. How great is my mum! Glad to play on her anxiety! She had to scurry to find me food and change my diaper…woohoo! I am king! Did I mention that I have a whiny mum? Haha she is always whining bout my looks, my behavior blah blah. It’s all right. I always respond w my ‘death stare’. (please see attached image). Nonetheless, I believe I love her w all my puny heart! (despite liking my dad more, teehee!)

My newest hobby? Doing some projectile sprays on my cot. I actually prefer to co sleep w my parents. Just that daddy always retreat me to e same old position on my bed. Think he is afraid I will dirty the bed. But e cot is always so warm; at least where I slept! I overheard them talking once about training me to be independent in sleeping. Then they forgot. I can only sleep when someone carries me in his/her arms. Independence? Nah! Tell me that word again few years later. Now I prefer to smell and lean against body heat. More comfy and they have to sway or sing me to sleep too! More work for them, twice my comfy! Wahaha!

Despite all that, I do think my mum and dad loves me. Right daddy and mummy?

P.s: daddy and mummy, please note that there are more to come! I haven display my full power!

Us: of course we love u. (e best we can at least… and btw, we are still entitled to whine about all your rascal ways and habits!) Grrr!!!

New-found Addiction

Tags

Baby acne, heart throb, new mom

To keep my sanity (after facing the loads of crying moments, diaper changing sessions and feeding epics), I have embarked on reading multiple blogs to kill time and upkeep myself with some part of the world out there.

Loving how “The Goat That Wrote” writes his entries on KR. Reminded me of the many wonderful moments that I had in KR too. Sad that I did not manage to do a good immersion getaway to really explore the place better. “Hey from Japan” was great! It seems years away since I experienced an Onsen. Gosh! The therapeutic effect after e submergence in scalding hot water (aka stress relieve) totally making me crave to be in Japan right this very minute!

Obviously, being a new mom, exploring mother blogs is a must. Though I was never a big fan of those sell out bloggers, then again, they do prove to be quite an entertainment. Apart from the usual – “angelatay”, “the savvymummy”, “Sanses” and “MotherInc, I think that ‘ang mo’ blogs are so much more fun to read. Look at “metropolitan mum”, “a modern mother”, “brixtonjunkies”, “allnewadventures”… Their kids get so much exposure, resources and MASSIVE land to really play and have fun. Of course, best part? Their kids are so damn gorgeous. Thanks to the ‘ang mo’ genes.

Made me wonder – what happened to mine. Sadly, he’s downright Asian. Hopes of turning him into any form of heart-throb has flown out of the window when baby acne sprouted out all over his face just within the first week of entering into the world.

(erm…Eli if u are ever reading this post in the future – dun worry. U still have a special place somewhere in my heart – *me gives a one eye wink* hehe After which, please blame your father for any features that you deemed not satisfactory…teehee)

 

‘Disfigured’ Me!

Tags

2 weeks old, Baby acne, millia, Newborn care

Poor Eli! Suffering from acne!!! Gross but still pitiful looking. Hope it’s not itchy for him.

How are We progressing?

As we progress steadily into the 3rd week, Eli is fast growing. At least he managed to finally weigh past his birth weight at 3Kg (the last we measured yesterday at the doc).

Yesterday was a super fruitful trip to Thomson Medical. First, I had my stitches removed. Spent close to $900 on my medicine alone. Totally got a shock when about to pay. Uncle Mark brought Eli down to the Pediatrician to see what exactly caused his disfigurement. Yes. Eli now has tiny bumps of red marks across the whole of his face and due to it spreading like wild fire, I decided that the doc must take a look. Despite us knowing already that that could be baby acne. I was still adamant to at least have him diagnosed properly. Just in case it’s other forms of rashes that we do not know. Sighz. Talk about hormone changes. So Eli clocked up a $100+ bill as well. Making our visit at least $1k blown off in mere seconds. (of course that does not include the fact that I went t buy a laptop shortly after that. Oopz, ake that splurging off close to $3k in just 4hrs). SIGHZ

Uncle Mark is filling the strain though. He has fulfilled his job as a confinement nanny in the past 2 weeks. Tml he will resume his blue collared worker job and I think secretly he will be happy with the ‘freedom’ that comes along with it. Afterall it’s tough to be confined with me in the house (my parents’ place) eating home cooked food for so many days. He is an unhealthy kid and such a healthy lifestyle totally dis-fits him. Sad case. Well, I still appreciate him feeding and cleaning Eli at night especially Eli has recently mastered the art of ‘shit projectile’. He is now able to shoot his liquidy poo across a long distance of ’100m’ -which ended up us cleaning 2 uncle mark’s shorts, my dress and changing the crib’s bedsheets as well as cleaning up the floor. As he has done that twice, we sort of innately think he LOVES doing it. Just to spite us and show us that he can. KNS. Anywayz, uncle mark has been quite a patient father (just swearing in his heart several times).

Also, his enormous appetite scares me off. Just this morning considering that we feed him about 60ml at 5.30am, he is able to clamour for more milk at 6.30am where he drank off another 60ml. Waking me up at 8am, he actually wants more milk where he obviously suckled (coz I had no time to run downstairs to heat up the expressed milk for him) for close to 15min before willing to fall asleep. At this rate, my supply can never hit demand. Soon I might have to return to supplementing with formula milk. To think that I was so impressed with myself the other ay that I can express at least up to 4Oz now at each pumping session of 10min. Seriously, looks like I am rejoicing too soon.

Next up, planning Eli’s 1-mth celebration. Now that I got the venue booked and the date/time fixed. It’s time to send out the invitations – via sms/facebook! Yippee! And next week onwards, I will finally get the massage lady. My poor aching shoulders.

 

Series of Laptop Crashes

I know that confinement period means a period of time to really take good care of your newborn. Giving him/her your total, undivided attention. However, as the days progress and when day/night seriously gets into a routine of feeding, pumping, changing diapers and all over – genuinely, days get boring and time is a blur.

So obviously, I turned to technology to help me pass the days. Especially when I am left alone with the kid for the full day. Then that’s when lightning strikes. My trusty (or used to be trusty) netbook – Aspire One decided to fail me on times when I most needed him. Followed by uncle mark’s laptop which seriously refused to boot up when my sacred finger touches the ‘on’ button. Miraculously, when uncle mark’s hard long index finger touches the ‘on’ button, the computer totally lights up in glee and delight. Total piece of @#$(@#!

Then came the craving of getting myself a new book. Using my about-to-spoil iphone (the button has decidedly malfunction on me as well), I decided that I am going to get myself an ultrabook. GOSH. This Asus ZenX31 not only proves to be gorgeous, as I am typing on it now (yes! I actually went all the way to century square, carrying Elijah after the doc appt to get it. Talk about tech addiction); it’s totally sleek and proved worthy of my investment of SG$1.7K

Now, I am able to blog freely, watch my videos freely, play music for Elijah (yes, albeit another excuse but hey…it’s an legitimate one nonetheless) and work on my media project which is thankfully ending today.

What will I do without the internet world and the various tech discoveries that link me to that world full of entertainment and knowledge.

Love my Zenbook. Totally rocks!