Bambi's First Trip to Sydney - Part I

Going to Sydney with a three month old had me worried about nearly everything. I spent weeks preparing for this trip. I created checklists and even a timetable of how I would have to manage Bambi's feed and nap times. Packing was quite a challenge too.. we had a big suitcase filled with baby things from a microwave steriliser, to nappies, blankets, toys, clothes and muslin cloths!

On that Thursday morning, I woke up extra early. 5am. Just to get a bit of a head start. Ate my brekkie, then I took a long hot shower... breathe Jules.. breathe.. washed my hair, blow-dry etc. Then I woke Bambi up at 7am. Fed her, then dressed her up. Grumpy was a bit of a headless chook that day. He had to pack all the things in the car, including Bambi and his parents. We drove to the airport at 8.30am and parked the car at the long term car park. It was $69 for the 4 days we were away. Easier that way, at least Bambi is in her own baby capsule.

I read in Tizzie Hall's book to feed baby two hours before take off, and once again after take off. Sucking while on the plane helps soothe their ears. And so, when we arrived at the airport, I looked for a Parents Room, and I fed her there at 9.30am. Take off was at 11.30am. 

Little Bambi's first boarding pass! :)

Okay, we are ON the plane. So far, Bambi is good!

I was a bit slow with booking our seats. I could not get the seats at the front with a baby bassinet. However, it was such a short flight, that we would not have used the bassinet even if we did have one on the plane. We settled with a normal window seat.

Bambi with her baby seatbelt, which is attached to mine.

Okay time for some family portraits! Whoops, missed Bambi's face!

Now thats better!

She was feeding on my boobs through out most of the flight to Sydney. She was so well behaved, Grumpy and I were so impressed. She did not make a sound and seemed happy looking around.

When we finally landed in Sydney, I was so relieved. WE MADE IT! Haha

In the train from Sydney airport to the city

Clown for Lunch

Recently Belgium Chocolates and myself became owners to a new pair of watch. He got himself a Breguet for his 50th, and Grumpy gave me a Rolex for the birth of Little Bambi. We were both very happy with our new presents on our left arm! And for my birthday, Belgium Chocolates bought me a pair of Rayban aviators. At the same time, he bought himself a pair of sunnies too. 

He emailed me yesterday..

Belgium Chocolates: Hello, I am wearing mine today. Are you?

Me: Rolex or sunnies?

Belgium Chocolates: I don't know where you live, how the weather is, but in the city, you need more of an umbrella than a pair of sunnies today.

Me: So you are wearing an umbrella?

Belgium Chocolates: Oh I see, you had a clown for lunch :)

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!