3 Months

Little Bambi is 3 months old today. She is starting to earn the title 'Little Porker' in my family, which is a bit of a worry to my mum. We went for her 3 month check up today, and she currently weighs 7.2kg. That is on the 95th percentile, which is really above average - especially for an Asian baby. The nurse nearly did not believe me when I said Bambi is fully breastfed.

It has been over a week now that my mum has left, and so far we are coping well. There is always something to do, like cleaning, laundry, ironing, etc. In other words, I am busy as a bee! I do not sit at home in front the telly, watching The Real Housewives of Orange County all day, hehe okay maybe I do, but not ALL day, maybe just an hour in the day.

Next week, Grumpy's parents arrive to stay with us for three weeks. Then we will be off to Sydney on Thursday to celebrate the wedding of my gorgeous BFF Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot. I must admit, I am very nervous about this Sydney trip. Nervous about Little Bambi settling on the plane, in the hotel, disrupting her routine.. Oh and also, I am extremely nervous about the Matron of Honour speech. I have been working on it for three days already, in between Bambi's feeds and naps!

Little Bambi is wearing a Seed Bodysuit.

12 Weeks

This afternoon, Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch was telling me about her day at work, how stressful it was and how she was trying to improve efficiency for her subordinates, etc. I thought to myself, okay, while all my friends are busy at work, making the world a better place to live in... here I am, holding a mini rolling pin and clay, making little imprints of my baby's hand and foot!

I am sure you have seen better, but it was such a challenge trying to get Bambi to unclench her fist!

Today Little Bambi is 12 weeks old, and I thought it was time to capture her hand and foot print in a memory tin.

Happy 12-weeks-old, my beautiful sunshine!

Not only is she 12 weeks old, but today I felt quite alone at home for the first time because my mum left to go back to Malaysia last night. My mum has been here for three months, and I must admit, I did not fully appreciate her presence in Melbourne until today. She has been a tremendous help to me and Grumpy with looking after our baby, cooking yummy dinners, grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning the house. I have been so spoilt indeed. Now it is time for me to really get my hands dirty and become a real full time mother!

Here are some photos to show Little Bambi's development at 12 weeks. 

Look mummy, I can lift my legs!

From the age of 3-4 weeks, we started placing Little Bambi on her tummy. She absolutely hates Tummy Time. But with perseverance and encouragement, at 11 weeks, she has been able to lift her head up high now!

My strong baby girl! :)

Still holding her head up! Whoop!

Boo!

Omg so tired!

My 30th Birthday

My big 3-0 birthday this year was indeed a special one. It was very different this time round, compared to all my other birthdays. This time, I have my own little bundle of joy to celebrate with. There were no fancy parties, no popping of champagne bottles, no dancing in a club, yet I think I felt most happy for this milestone birthday. Being a mother to Little Bambi has been such a fulfilling experience, I could not ask for more.

Since living in Australia from the age of 19, I have not celebrated the past 10 birthdays with my parents. This was the first time, in a decade, that my mum was present, with me on my 30th birthday. I thought that was kind of special!

My first birthday celebration started with dinner with my mum, my brother, his girlfriend, Grumpy and of course, Little Bambi, at a Thai restaurant, recommended by friends from our Buddhist group. We pre-ordered a special Thai dish, which was a steamed fish custard, and it was absolutely delicious!

Three generation of girls in the family!

Home made chocolate tart by my brother Dopey and his lovely girlfriend 

The next day, which was the day of my actual birthday, I gave Little Bambi her evening feed, and left her behind (poor bubba!) at home with my mum, to go to the city with Grumpy for a nice romantic dinner at Movida. I enjoyed it very much. In fact I still think about their yummy roasted artichokes!

Looking a bit tipsy after only one glass of Spanish cider!

See how red my face is!

Ice cream! Yahhh

The following day, Little Miss-Whats-For-Lunch got the day off, to have lunch with me and another friend who is currently on maternity leave - she is due any day now.

Oh my I look so fat here.

And to wrap up my 30th birthday celebrations, I had lunch today with Belgian Chocolates (my ex-boss) in the city. He turned 50 in July, and with me turning 30, we decided to have a nice lunch together at a cosy Italian restaurant. I did not take a photo with him, he is camera shy. 

I got some really lovely birthday presents. But the best present of all, is my Little Bambi. I feel so blessed!

Fathers Day

Its Fathers Day today here in Australia. Why we celebrate it on a completely different day than the rest of the world, I have no idea. But my sources tell me it could have been the works of Myer and David Jones.

It is Grumpy's first Fathers Day and instead of staying at home cuddling Little Bambi, he is out playing golf with the boys. But its okay, we will make it up later this afternoon/evening after his golf game. How has Grumpy been with the bub? Pretty well so far. He is very much the doting dad. However, with my mum around, I guess we have been having it easy. My mum goes back to KL on Wednesday, so I guess Grumpy will have to take things one step up and I am sure he will try to help me out as much as possible.

At the moment, Grumpy does the dream feed at 10.30pm on his own. I find this as a good way for Grumpy to bond with her, to spend some alone time together. During the dream feed, he will gently wake her up, give her a bottle of expressed milk, burp her, change her nappies, and tuck her back nicely in her cot. He also adds another layer of blanket on Bambi, so that she stays warm for the rest of the night (the temperature drops further around 4am/5am).

Here are my favourite photos of my two loves!

Happy Fathers Day, my darling husband! I hope you continue to enjoy being a father to my precious Little Bambi! Okay, I have to ring my own father now and wish him!

Mastitis

I have never heard of the word 'mastitis' before... until two weeks ago. And that was when I was diagnosed with this awful condition! It does not sound as serious, but I swear it was horrible. It happened on a Saturday afternoon, when I had a terrible headache and an extremely sore boob. I was feeling a bit nauseous, so I took 2 Panadols, and a powernap. That night, we were celebrating a friends engagement, and considering how long it has been since I actually put on a nice dress and a pair of heels, I soldiered on and decided to head out that night regardless of my condition. 

Going out that night made things worse, and the next morning, on Sunday, as I was giving Bambi her first feed of the day, my temperature shot up and I felt like I was burning! I had lunch plans with friends that day, and I cancelled it. I stayed in bed for hours, shivering in cold sweat. However, a few more Panadols later, I felt a bit better.

On Monday, I thought I was back to normal again. Unfortunately, by the late afternoon, my fever was back again, and I knew something was not right. Hehe I googled 'mastitis' and somehow my symptoms seem to match the description (i.e. fever, flu like symptoms, blocked ducts, painful breasts)! 

On Tuesday, we met with Bambi's Maternal & Child Health Nurse, and she said I needed to see a GP immediately. So I did, and I was given antibiotics. Mastitis really did my head in, because suddenly my milk supply was reduced and I was worried sick about having to wean off Bambi. Before this, I had plenty of milk, it was funny seeing Little Bambi gently 'choke' while the milk came gushing out in to her mouth. But now, it was no longer the case and that made me extremely sad. It took a lot of effort for me to get my milk in, and I was really feeling sorry for myself, and for my baby. I had plans to breastfeed Bambi for at least 6 months, or longer if I could. It was only 2 months now, to stop breastfeeding was very premature!

Surprisingly, even with mastitis and on antibiotics, I was still able to breastfeed Bambi, and I was avoiding formula where possible. To add to my misery, I was flying to Sydney on Saturday to celebrate my BFF Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot's Hens Night. How I got mastitis, I will never know, as I have been expressing as much milk as I can, and freezing it up so that my mum can feed Bambi while I was away in Sydney for 2 days. My doctor requested that I go back to see her after 48 hours, and I said to her "There's not much milk as before!" All she says to me is "Keep expressing!" :(

By Friday, the redness on my boobs disappeared, my fever was gone, but I must admit, I was still very nervous about leaving my 2 month old baby behind for 2 days. I knew she was in good hands, my mum is very capable of looking after her, but it was little things like.. "What if Bambi really needed to latch on to my boobs?" "What if she is unable to settle without me?" 

Regardless, I could not miss my BFF's hens night. I was determined to make it to Sydney. On Saturday morning, I hopped on the train to the city. Then a sky bus to the airport. When I got to the airport, 20 minutes before boarding, I rushed into the toilet and I was expressing just to clear out the milk. Utter madness. I have never been so obsessed with boobs and a breast pump in my life! While in Sydney, I was also expressing at every opportunity I had. This is to clear out the blocked ducts, and I was hoping that my milk supply would get back up again. I got back home to Melbourne on Sunday night. I missed my Little Bambi so much! Over the next two days, I stayed home and I was religiously expressing every two hours between Bambi's feeds. I also had to make sure she had enough milk. 

By Wednesday, finally...there was light at the other end of the tunnel! My boobs felt a bit better, and my milk supply has increased again! Oh my, mastitis! What a terrible ordeal! 

2 Months

My little Bambi turned 2 months old recently, and what can I say, it has been an amazing 2 months for me being a new mummy to my little baby.

At her 2 month check up with the Maternal Child & Health Nurse, she weighs over 6 kgs and is on the 90th percentile on the growth chart. She is growing well and healthy, which is all a mother could ever ask for. She is also growing out of her 000 outfits, which means, its time for me to buy my little bub some new clothes.

Also, at 2 months, Bambi is already doing her nights! My darling! She sleeps from 7pm straight through to 7am, although we do gently wake her at 10.30pm for a dream feed. 

Just a quick post now, but next I will write about how I flew to Sydney for a night without my little bundle of joy... oh my!

Eight weeks

Bambi is eight weeks old today! Jeeeeeeysus time does fly. She is growing so well and I swear, I get a bit teary eyed, just thinking again about how small she was on the day she was born, and how much she has grown since (in eight weeks, that is! haha)

So what has happened since my last post? 

Well, at six weeks, Bambi had her 2nd dose of immunisation. Her 1st dose of immunisation was given on the day she was born. So on a cold and wet Thursday night, Grumpy and I brought her to our GP. I bought a bottle of Panadol for baby the day before, just in case. Immediately when our doctor poked a needle on her first thigh, she screamed at the top of her lungs, my heart dropped. It was too much to bear! And then she got a 2nd needle on the other thigh, another scream! Ahhhhh I had to hold back my tears as well. Hehe we were also worried that she might have a temperature, or experience loss of appetite, become too sleepy, etc etc.. but god bless her, Bambi was fine the next day, which makes me think... ahhh I have myself a little trooper!

From the day we brought Bambi home from the hospital, she has been on a Gina Ford routine. Bambi was adjusting well on this routine, and I was getting my rest too, as she was 'nearly' doing her nights i.e. sleeping through from night time until about 5am/6am. I was quite happy on this routine.. until speaking to some family members and friends, they kept raving about the Tizzie Hall routine instead. I am not sure what came through me, but the next thing I knew, I ordered the 'Save Our Sleep' book online, it arrived the next day.. and BOOM! Bambi was changed to a different routine. My poor baby.. Grumpy was not happy that I changed it, he said to me "Bambi is not a toy!!!", my mum too "But she has been so good on the Gina Ford!" I tell them.. I know I know, both routines are known for the fact that their babies sleep from 7pm to 7am by the age of twelve weeks. So changing Bambi from Gina Ford to Tizzie Hall did cause a bit of confusion to her. But she has been on the new routine now for about nine days and I am so proud that she has learnt the art of 'self-settling'. She has her days though, sometimes she might not settle as easily, which is fine.. its only normal because she is just a little baby, but on a good day, after a feed and a nappy change, I swaddle her up, and leave her in her cot.. she goes to sleep by herself! My darling!

Now at eight weeks, she is also very attentive. She is chatty, this baby loves to talk - not kidding! She can even laugh! My happy baby! 

Happy at 8 weeks!