First teeth @ 5m3w1d

(This entry should have been posted yesterday but motherly duties had prevented me from doing so. Haha.)

 And bubba's first teeth are out!

After incessant drooling and gnawing at everything she could get hold of for the past two months, I finally felt those two little bottom teeth pushing out through the gums. They're pretty sharp! It's still a little challenging trying to catch a glimpse of them cos every time I thumb at her lower lip she thinks it's food and the tongue comes out.

There's a hint of guilt though; I know I should be exhilarated and all but I was so nauseated by the look of the teeth. Looks like two ulcers together and it's the whole Lotus Pod effect (Google at your own risk) and now typing this is upsetting too.

Last year, this time.

Oh dear can't believe I forgot about this. I had fully intended to post an entry to "commemorate the day" but slipped my mind!

Nothing big.. just that on 4 April 2011, I found out I was pregnant. I had bought two sticks from the chemist and did a test in Royal Randwick's toilet. Then we all know what happened next and I called Effy from the shopping centre's toilet and howled all the way to the carpark. I think she was very, very amused. Then I drove to my aunt's place to meet her for lunch and when I reached, did the second test. Howled some more. My cousin was stupefied. Rest of the day was a blur.

Just a lot, a lot of howling.

And bubba flips!

At 4m 2w 1d, bubba finally manages to flip over onto her belly today without any help!

"Aaallll byyy myyseelfffff... flipped ooo-veerrrr.. aaalll byyy myyyseellffff.."

And she's kept doing it ever since. She's totally smug and happy while on her belly haha. On the one hand, I'm elated to see her progressing so well; on the other, I'm sad how she's growing so quickly. I miss the little sleeping bundle that I can cradle in one hand circa her first month.

Bah-nah-nah

I have to share this!

Breastfed babies do not need water.

People have been coming down on me on why I've never fed bubba any water.

Initially I was still able to explain why, and have patiently done so because I know everyone meant well. Lately, it's been increasingly taxing because I've gone through this so many times, and ironically often with the same people.

I just need to get this off my chest.

New mothers (in the 21st Century) are all well-advised from Day One, when possible, to fully breastfeed the baby for at least six months. Whether or not the mothers decide to do so is another story altogether. This means total breastfeeding without giving baby formula, however you can supplement it once in a while if there's insufficient breast milk at that time. You can also go beyond the six months if you wish but that's the recommended minimum.

I am not feeding bubba any water simply because it is unnecessary to give water to a fully breastfed baby. You can go to any reputable baby website or just Google it - the first page of results confirm this. In the past three months, I have asked every gynae/GP/PD we met with and they all affirmed it. To quote Babycenter UK - "If you replace nourishing milk with water, he'll miss out on nutrients he needs and it may upset his feeding habits."

I am definitely not against parents feeding water to their babies; I'm just not doing so for mine. Problem? Please don't give me disapproving looks/comments (ranging from mild to sheer judgmental) when I say no water. Total breastfeeding is on demand and I feed her whenever she wants it (which is pretty much the whole damn time) so she is definitely not dehydrated.

1) Say bubba feeds 20 times a day. If I substitute half of these with water, it means that she loses 10 opportunities to get highly nutritious breast milk. Too much water can interfere with nursing because her little tummy will be filled with no-nutrition water.

2) You may then say, oh you can just feed her a few times a day, a little water each time. So what, if I dare ask, is the purpose of feeding the water then, if that little bit of water is not going to help her in any way?

3) Breast milk is not like formula. If you're feeding formula to the baby you may need to give a little water throughout the day because it is thicker and harder to process. Since breast milk is mostly water (various sources give a range from 65% to 90%), how am I "not feeding baby with water"?

I don't really know why I'm doing this, but I'm tired of defending myself without being patronising now. Please just know that yes, I know that I'm a new mother, but I'm not a stupid mother. I am educated and I do discerning research and I bombard various doctors with the same questions so I really do my homework.

So with all due respect, from now on, unless the advice is very constructive, otherwise the only sources I will stick to are the gynae, pediatrician, my mama and the confinement nanny (who has proven to be very reliable). No one died and made the next person God of Parenting, so we should be allowed to raise our baby ourselves. Hubs and I already have differing opinions/methods as it is; the last thing we need is external voices trying to tell us what to do just because "they did so back then".

It's Take-A-Leap Day

I'm hungry. Not supposed to be, but I am.

Anyhoo.

I think I want to do a recap on these past three-ish months. It's pretty surreal - "three months" used to feel like they whizzed by insignificantly; this past quarter sure felt darn long, especially when I see the bubba grow up day after day.

So today bubba got her first 5-in-1 vaccination which included various immunisations against stuff I cannot remember/pronounce (ok I know there's polio and chicken pox but that's it). She was a brave one! Gave an almighty yell when she got jabbed and that was it. I'm now praying she doesn't get the fever in the next 48hrs. Oh and I had a mini heart attack when I thought I misplaced her health booklet #goodparenting.

Bubba is now going 3mths + 3wks old, weighs in at 6.78kg and measures 61.5cm. Just today she learned how to flip onto her front. Only her waipo saw it though cos I was in the loo. Heard that she couldn't flip back so it was kinda funny trying to imagine her wriggling like a little turtle.

She developed quite a bit during her second month. Started gurgling to everyone at home and complaining (to her waipo in particular) and drank like a milk monster. Smiled a lot and charmed the pants off everyone who's lucky enough to be on the receiving end. In the past couple of weeks she suddenly decided that she hates the bottle, so I literally had to bring her everywhere I went cos there was no way else to feed her. But she's been really cooperative when breastfeeding outside so that's fine.

We all agree that her face has changed quite a bit in the last two weeks and she's since lost the "little baby" look. A wee bit wistful but whatcha gonna do? I just hope she takes her time in growing up heh heh. I love our morning cuddles and god forbid the day she tells me to bugger off cos of morning breath.

I don't know how other mothers do this parenting+working+blogging thing cos I am very, very exhausted now. Gimme some time. I'll get there! Maybe the next entry will be about bubba's birth day if I can get round to it.

Square One

And just like that, I deleted the previous blog with a single click. I use the word 'deleted' loosely because we all know that nothing can ever be cleaned off the internet yo. All seven years' worth of stuff. There wasn't any reason; simply that I didn't need any of those any more. Like what Sheldon Cooper says, what's life without whimsy?

Some of you may know that I had started several blogs after I stopped blogging at this address. New addresses, new layouts, new identities. Who actually remembers the crawling snail? Well all of them were left hanging (I'd like to blame it on my horoscope - an Air sign) and I believe the paramount reason is because I couldn't accept the "new" identities. I am Potatomusmaximus and Potatomusmaximus is me. Always. Cue lame Snape/9gag jokes. Facebook's also a huuuugggeee push factor - I'm sick of the increasingly out-of-our-control privacy settings and the impending (forced) usage of Timeline, so I'm trying to wean myself off FB by going back to blogging. At the end of the day, I just need somewhere to dump my thoughts and pictures.

Anyhoo.

(Random insert: Oh Bradley Cooper I love you so much if this was Stone Age I'd be clubbing you over the head and dragging you to the nearest cave. Alas.)

If you've been reading me since 2003, you can expect quite a change in the blogging "style" (read: less F words haha). My hubs (Tehpoo) and I now have a beautiful baby girl, and I believe most of the future entries would be of me gushing like a bumbling idiot about how my baby girl (aka The Bub) is drooling so much and can flip around like a dolphin. I want to keep a journal about her developments but am too lazy to do up a scrapbook. Incidentally I'm the least creative person I know - said scrapbook would prolly end up a jotter book with amateur photos pasted around and captions written in magic pens. Better keep this PG because with the alarmingly-tech-savvy kids, The Bub might soon find this blog. Or in the less dramatic turn of events I'd be showing it to her.

I am really glad to be back without the shackles of the previous blog so here's a virtual toast to this. Clink!