Roll Over

She did it! My Little Bambi rolled over today! And I missed it! AHHH putain!!! I bloody missed it!

I placed her on her tummy on a mat (on the floor) in her room. Then I left her alone, while I ate some lunch in the kitchen. When I came back to be with her, she was on her back! She was grinning! I think she liked it. She did it all on her own.

Among all the other babies in Mothers Group, she is the last one to roll over. Most of the babies did it at about 3-4 months. Little Bambi is 5 months and 2 weeks now. Only a tad slow in this area of development milestones!

I tried to get her to perform it again in front of me. She blatantly refused. Yup, that's my girl!

Actually, on Sunday, I did the same thing as today. I left her on her tummy, then I went out to grab some lunch. No I did not leave her alone at home.. Grumpy was home, but he was working on his deck. I asked him to keep an eye on her, and then I drove out. When I got home, I rushed into the room to check on her, and she was on her back! I was so happy! She rolled over! I picked her up and I smothered her with kisses. Then I thought, maybe I should check with Grumpy.. I asked him "Did you place her on her back?" And he said "YES!" Oh man, haha so NO, she did not roll over on her own.

But she finally did it today. I hope I get to see it again.

We have been very busy the past week. Every Monday we have Mothers Group. Last Thursday, Little Bambi and I drove to Little-Miss-Curtains house to visit her new baby. I made fried noodles for our lunch. I rarely cook, but that was probably the first time in such a longggg period of time. It felt nice to cook a delicious meal to share it with friends! That Thursday night, I also caught up with Little Miss-Whats-For-Lunch for dinner (how funny is that, 'For-Lunch' for dinner) at Chapel Street. Grumpy stayed home to watch Little Bambi, while mama went out for a lovely dinner! On Saturday morning, Little Bambi and I caught up with my boss for coffee. That evening, it was Grumpy's work Christmas party at a park in Mt Dandenong. And then on Sunday, Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot came over for dinner (all the way from Sydney), along with my brother Dopey (who just returned from the States). I made chicken pie and baked a flourless chocolate cake for dinner for everyone (Yes, I cooked! Again!).

Phew! As you can see, I am trying to make the most of my maternity leave. Time is running out. Not only that, my baby girl is growing up too fast! Soon, she will start crawling, then walking, and the next thing you know, she's off to uni! Bahhhh...

Good night!

A Day In The Life of a New Mum

Grumpy is often starting his sentences with...  "Since you are on holidays..."
He thinks maternity leave = holiday. I often correct him by saying "Do I look like I am sitting by the beach sipping a pina colada?"

So I thought I would note down what my day looks like now, with a baby. And a dog. And a husband.

Here it is, a day in the life of a new mum!

5.40am - Alarm goes off! I hit the snooze button. Twice.

6am - Up from bed. I head to the kitchen and I turn on the bottle steriliser. I feed the dog breakfast, and then I prepare my own breakfast. I am on the iPad, reading my emails etc.

6.40am - My boobs are very full first thing in the morning, and Little Bambi will only feed 5 minutes on each side (most) during this feed. Therefore I express the fore milk out first, so that Little Bambi gets the hind milk (which is better for her).

7am - My favourite part of the day. I wake Little Bambi up and she gives me the biggest smiles. I remove her swaddle and she will be out stretching her arms and kicking her feet! Then I give her the first feed of the day.

7.45am - Done with feeding Little Bambi. She does not normally empty my boobs during this feed. I have to express for the 2nd time. I put her in her baby gym next to me.

8am - Once I am finished with expressing, I will play with her, sing nursery rhymes, etc. I try my best to keep Little Bambi awake (she will usually be very sleepy by 8.30am). Sometimes I leave her on the rocker or the Bumbo, while I do some housework.

9am - I put her down in her cot and she falls straight to sleep. I wash all the baby bottles and clean the steriliser.

9.15am - I catch up on house chores, wash baby clothes, make the bed, cleaning, etc. Then I hop into the shower.

10am - I turn on my laptop and catch up emails etc. I am often browsing the internet, looking for things to buy!

11am - I wake Little Bambi up from her sleep and give her the 2nd feed of the day.

12noon - I grab a quick bite at home (leftovers or a quick salad) and then we head out to the shops. We go for a walk, do something outside the house.

1pm - Little Bambi takes her nap. If we are out, I make sure she sleeps in her pram.

3pm - I head home by this time to give Little Bambi her 3rd feed of the day.

3.45pm - Its play time for Little Bambi. I make myself a cup of tea.

4.30pm - I put Little Bambi back to sleep for a short nap. If I am tired, I take a nap too.

5.15pm - I wake Little Bambi up. Then its tummy time!

5.45pm - Bath time! Her favourite time of the day.

6pm - Little Bambi is all dressed and she's feeling very refreshed!

6.20pm - I give her the 4th feed. But it is sort of the last feed whereby I breast feed her. She usually takes a longer time to feed at this time of the day. And I love this time with her, because its our last chance to snuggle before she goes to bed.

7pm - I put her down to sleep. Then Grumpy and I have dinner! Ahhh time to relax!

8pm - After I am done with the dishes, I hop into the shower and put on my PJs after. I read a book or watch some TV with Grumpy.

9.45pm - Time to express.

10.30pm - I prepare a bottle of expressed milk for Grumpy. He does the dream feed with Little Bambi.

11pm - Bed time.

Vanilla Cupcakes

About two years ago, I was really into making cupcakes. Unfortunately, I did not quite have the talent for cupcakes. I could never get the cake right, or the frosting, despite endless trial-and-errors. I wanted my cupcakes to be absolutely perfect, and to taste exactly like how they sell them at the shops. And so, after many failed attempts, I decided I would park my cupcake ambitions aside, and just go back to basic baking, such as banana bread, blueberry cheesecake and chocolate cakes.

Until our Mothers Group session this week, one of the mums made some yummy vanilla cupcakes. She said her friend from the UK bought her this recipe book from a famous cupcake shop called Hummingbird Bakery. I did not really pay attention to what she was saying about this cupcake until I noticed she had a fancy KitchenAid Mixer! I thought, my.. she must be serious with her baking. I have always wanted one of this fancy mixers myself, but not only is it very expensive, I am not sure if I could bake enough cakes to make my money's worth!

I googled the recipe and I found it here. I decided to give this recipe a go!

I am quite pleased at my first attempt of cupcakes after such a long time. They taste pretty good....!

5 Months

Today Little Bambi is 5 months old. She is  growing well, and putting on lots of healthy weight. I still breastfeed her exclusively.

At 5 months, she is now able to recognise faces a lot more. Yesterday, I drove to Chaddy with Little Bambi in the car (she was in her baby capsule). She was happy, talking to herself, enjoying the car ride. Until I pulled over at the train station to pick Grumpy up. He hopped on to the back seat to sit next to Little Bambi, greeted her with a big smile, and suddenly, she screamed and burst into tears! Haha poor Grumpy, he could not calm her down. Tears were rolling down her face, she was probably afraid of her own papa! Finally when we arrived at the shopping center, and I parked the car, I picked her up to soothe her, and she was happy again! Even my mum notices that Little Bambi brightens up when she sees me. She gives me big smiles and sometimes, she just won't take her eyes off me. This is truly a wonderful feeling! The feeling of being a mother!

At 5 months, Little Bambi is still unable to roll over. My poor baby, she is probably the only bub in our Mothers Group that has not rolled over yet.

Also, at this age, she is probably ready to start solids now. I have not done it yet, only because I still want her to enjoy the benefits of breastfeeding. My plan is to only start her on solids at 6 months. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be busy reading up on books about introducing solids and recipes for her.

Christmas is also round the corner. Yesterday, I ordered our first family Christmas card. It was fun and I can't wait to send it to our family and friends. This Christmas will be Little Bambi's first Christmas. I want it to be extra special!

Bambi's First Trip to Sydney - Part III

Everyone loves a wedding. It is that one day in the year, where you gather with all your friends and witness two people exchange vows and profess their love to one another. It becomes even more special when the bride or groom are your closest friends in the world. Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot and I have shared so many ups and downs together in life, we have always been there for each other. And now that it is her turn to get married, I couldn't be more happy for her!

I woke up that Saturday morning, gave Little Bambi her first feed of the day at 7am, then at around 9am, I headed out to Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot's hotel which was just a few steps away from ours. We got out hair and make up done, with a videographer and a photographer by our side. The atmosphere reminded me very much of my wedding day... ahh time flies.

Then at 11am, it was Mummy's Milk Bar Duties for me. Grumpy came over to the hotel with Little Bambi and I gave her the 2nd feed of the day. While feeding Little Bambi, I had rollers in my hair, make up and fake lashes.. I told Grumpy, "I feel like Miranda Kerr!!"

Picture from Miranda Kerr's Twitter

Ta-dahhhh! The gorgeous bride with her matron of honour

By 1pm we were all ready, and I took the opportunity to quickly express my boobs in the bathroom. Little Bambi usually feeds at 3pm, but because we would all be in the church at that time, I expressed at 1pm instead.

The wedding day went exactly as planned. The church ceremony was beautiful. I think I saw the groom getting teary eyed! After the ceremony, the bridal party headed out to Vaucluse for sunset photos. Grumpy went back to the hotel to check on Little Bambi. We decided not to bring her to the church only because taxis with baby capsules were so rare!

Grumpy and I with the bride and groom

After we were done with photos, we headed to the reception at around 6.30pm. Immediately, I rushed to the toilets, again, to express my boobs. So you see, I spent the entire wedding day with a breast pump in my bag, thinking only about emptying my boobs and how to avoid getting mastitis again! Plus,  wearing a bridesmaid dress instead of a nursing top made access to the boobs quite challenging. Haha but I soldiered on!

If there was one thing I was nervous about on the wedding day (apart from my boobies), it would have to be my Matron of Honour speech! Eeks! At the end, I kept it simple, short and I wrote/spoke exactly of how I felt about our friendship after all these years.

After the reception, Grumpy and I decided to head out with the rest of the wedding entourage to the after party. I was a little bit tired but we thought, hey, we're in Sydney, Little Bambi is sleeping at the hotel, my mother-in-law is looking after her.. lets just have some fun! So we went to Bar100 until about 2.30am. I was in bed by 3.15am.. and the next morning, Little Bambi woke up at 6am (instead of her usual 7am). But I missed her so much! I barely spent time with her the day before, so the next morning I couldn't stop giving her cuddles!

That Sunday morning, we packed and checked out from the hotel at about 12noon. We headed straight to the airport for our flight back to Melbourne. We finally got back home at nearly 7pm that day. Grumpy, Little Bambi and I were exhausted. 

At the Sydney airport

It was indeed such an eventful trip to Sydney! Grumpy and I decided it will be a while more before we travel again (with a baby in tow)! Haha

Hurricane

My brother Dopey will be heading to NYC in about 2 weeks, for work. I have never been there myself but I am so excited for him.

He sent me a text message this morning.

Dopey: The hurricane is hitting New York

Me: Perfect time to go!

Dopey: I will die

Dopey: And Bambi will lose her only uncle

Bath Time

Bath Time is Little Bambi's favourite part of the day! She just loves taking a bath! When Grumpy took this photo yesterday, I told him we have to save this photo for her 18th birthday! 

We were using Johnson's Baby Top to Toe wash for her baths initially. But it made her skin extremely dry.. and when a paediatrician pointed out that Little Bambi had eczema, I changed her body wash immediately. Now I am using ecostore Sleepytime Bath and it smells so lovely on her.