Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Oh Christmas tree...(and a free tree)

Wah am I on a roll or what? suddenly got so many posts haha. Found my mojo back for now.

Advice: You don't have to read the below if you are not a Christmas tree enthusiast.

I've been setting up Christmas trees almost my whole life when i was still living with my parents cos nobody else bothered to do it at home wtf and now I'm still doing it. I love this whole Christmas feeling..makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I love Christmas songs too :)

Anyway..I've been searching high and low for a perfect fake Christmas tree. I have a 5ft tree at home, but I'm not so satisfied with it because it's quite bare and not bushy enough. And I want its fir to be a certain way (yes i'm very particular with how my Christmas tree looks) And I need a bigger tree too. So i've been searching high and low for the perfect Christmas tree in major shopping malls and I finally found it at Living Quarters. YES!! It's 6ft and has the type of fir that I want.




 This is what I meant on the type of fir that I like. It's fat and "bushy". Actually are you supposed to call it fir or leaves?? *shrugs* It's actually mixed with the fir you normally find on most fake Christmas trees. The skinny version. At first I don't know why they mix it, but after i fixed my tree up..then i realised..i can't hang anything on the fat fir cos it's too slippery. Hence i can only hang stuff on the thin fir.



Anybody wants a 5ft Christmas tree??? (without the decor hor) If you're not particular with how bushy your tree is, you can have it for free, but deal is you gotta pick it up yourself.  Drop a comment if you want! First come first serve.

The 5ft tree looks like this..the only picture i can find (last year's pic). Sorry got a Peanut blocking it. Thank you.

The many faces

Babies' face sure do change very fast. They seems to look different week by week.

Taken at 2 weeks

Taken at 3 weeks

At full moon. Haihs..my poor little botak fella. Kena pressured to shave his hair off. I miss his hair so much...and its not true when they say shaving baby's hair off will make it thicker. It's almost 3 months now and Baby D's hair is still so little and it's not even!!!!


Not so happy face. He's a pretty serious baby. I've yet to capture any picture of him smiling.


Told ya he's serious looking. And he's got a funny belly button. It's an outie, not an innie.


Hair!! Please grow faster!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Getting your kid to like the baby



Gotta confess, I have fears that Peanut would not like no.2 and that she'll be very jealous and throw tantrums and I'm gonna have a hard time and I will never get enough rest! Peanut is the first grandchild on DH's side, so she's literally the apple of everyone's eyes. Whatever she wants, she gets. She is always showered with tons of attention. When she say jump, everyone else ask how high wtf! Except me of course. I was scared she's not able to adjust herself to a new arrival because attention to her will be halved. Thankfully SO FAR all these fears are unfounded, because she's liking no.2. I said "so far" because i do not like to confirm anything ever because things can change in a hearbeat!

Months before No.2's arrival, I started "psycho-ing" her that there's a baby growing inside my tummy. She didn't receive this news with much happiness though. I remember she was extra clingy at that time, and was crying for no reason. I'm not sure whether it's because she's aware that a new baby is arriving or is it so ngam she was going through one of her terrible twos phase. Whatever it is, she was different lah. Most books suggested that I get ready a present for Peanut when baby arrives so that's what I did. I got her a baby doll (from the BabyAlive series), one of those dolls that comes with disposable diapers, cute toy toothbrush, toothpaste etc. I thought she could change the doll's diaper WHEN i changed No.2's diaper so she won't feel left out haha. Knowing that I bought a BabyAlive doll, Peichyi has very kindly bought an extra set of BabyAlive pyjamas and diapers as a gift for Peanut too .

I gave the presents to Peanut the day I arrived home from the hospital. She was very happy! But she was afraid of him wtf. She refused to go near BabyD, and i had to push her to BabyD so that she can touch him. She kept hiding behind me.

See, she refused to sit near him. That's the nearest she'll go. That's her "gifts" from BabyD behind her.

It took nearly two weeks for her to go and touch him willingly. She takes a while to warm up to strangers, and have i mentioned that she hardly spoke to the confinement lady the whole month she was there?..... Donno whether to laugh or cry T T Maybe because the confinement lady spoke to her in mandarin the whole time, and Peanut catches no ball because she's yellow as a banana.

Personally, i feel the gifts work because up till today, she still refers the doll as the "present from Didi", and she always tells me that Didi loves her because he bought her a present. Yahoo. Plan works!! There are other factors though which i feel plays a part in her not being jealous of BabyD. For now..

1. She's a girl, and he's a boy. Simple as that. I think there will be more sibling rivalry if they're both girls, because then she'll feel the need to be better or be different. To reinforce that I've not forgotten about her, I always tell her that she's my no.1 girl and BabyD is my no.1 boy. Both can be no.1s lah. If both your kids are of the same gender, then i donno wat you can say.

2. She's old enough to understand. This helps when i need to feed BabyD, and Peanut is pestering me for something. When i explained to her I need to feed her little bro first because he's super hungry and that she needs to wait, usually she'll do just that. She'll wait without much fuss. I do try to be fair to her sometimes. There are times when BabyD is crying, but I still attend to her needs first. No harm in letting BabyD crying a bit longer.

There are things that I don't say to her. For example, i don't threaten her when she's naughty and say "if you don't do this and that, mummy won't love you, mummy will only love Didi". Saying this will only make her aware that we're comparing the two of them, and this might spark some jealousies.

I gotta tell a little bit of white lie to her sometimes though. Some days, i will tell her "oh, Didi told me that he loves you very very much. Aren't you happy??" And she'll get all excited and respond happily "YES!!" Also, on and off throughout the day, when i have succeeded in putting BabyD to nap, I'll give her big kisses and hugs, and tell her it's her turn for me to sayang. And I get her involved in everything. And i mean everything including bathing time, and baby pooping sessions. Her job is to scoop water into the bathtub when i bath BabyD, and to open the diaper and hand me wet tissues when i wiped Baby's poop.

Now if only i can split myself into two or three.. I don't have time for anything at all!

Baby no.2's confinement

My confinement lady is very fond of cooking. She's so passionate in her cooking that she can spend hours in the kitchen..thinking of ways to tickle my taste buds.

Evidence..






Agree?
As I joked to the parents, i felt like I'm dining at a restaurant everyday haha.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

BabyD update: The birth

Fuh..it's been 2 months since I last came here.. To be honest, I'm just too lazy to keep up with this blog, and there's too much stuff for me to do than sit down in front of the laptop to jot down anything.

BabyD is now 2 months plus and how time flies. It seems like a long time though because i've been home almost everyday taking care of him and Peanut. I guess i need to start from the very beginning..the day he was born.

As it's an elective c-sect, we've picked a date a while ago. We didn't go to any sifu to choose the dates though, rather we picked a date that was most convenient for us. Our Doc gave us a few dates to choose in my 38 weeks, so we picked a date that fell on a Saturday. Saturday is good, cos DH can be with me, and he didn't need to take any leave. And as he's given 3 days paternity leave, he could accompany us the following Mon-Wed.

The days leading up to the operation was very nerve wrecking for me. I was extremely nervous, worried, basically i had a lot of thoughts running through my mind. Things that can go wrong etc etc. You would think i'll be more seasoned and relaxed seeing that this is my second c-sect, but nah, it's the total opposite. I guess knowing what's going to happen at each stage culminating with the operation had me very nervous. I know the pain that i had to go through (multiple injections, drips), the embarrassment that I'm going to feel when the nurses give me the enema, the fear i will have when they wheeled me into the operation room. I also had fears that baby will not be okay (will he have jaundice, problems etc).. I'm a worrier, so yeah, i didn't have it easy the months leading up to it haha.

The night before the operation, I had a big dinner at Carl's Junior with DH. That was probably gonna be my last, fatty meal before confinement begins and dieting starts. I had eaten whatever i want during my pregnancy, not caring how i'm gonna lose weight after, because..obviously i never learn my lesson. Now two months post pregnancy, i'm now trying to lose weight again fml.

The morning of the operation, DH and me trooped to SDMC with all the essentials. We were finger-crossing that we'll be able to get a single room, but NO, according to the nurse, there were 11 patients ahead of us waiting for a single room. 11!!! Oh man...they put us in a double room while waiting for the operation and this was where it all began. One nurse came one after another; to sign forms, to give me the hospital outfit, to ask me which PD i prefer for our baby, to shave my *ahem* down there, to give me the enema wtf wtf and lastly the Anesthetist came as well to tell me the risks and for me to sign more forms. So many procedures! I don't remember going through that many procedures during my first c-sect, maybe because that time it was 2am in the morning..

When they wheeled me into the operating room, my heart was going beep bop beep bop loudly. Damn scared!! They wheeled me into open area to wait for my turn. There were a few other patients with all waiting for their operations. It was a common waiting area for operations, so there were patients with other ailments there as well, including a child who had appendicitis. So poor thing. All of us were lying on our respective beds that can be wheeled into individual operation theaters. It was here while i was waiting for my turn that I decided not to have a third kid ever. hahaha

I waited for about half hour before I was wheeled inside the theatre. I wanted to run away at this point but the baby gotta come out no matter what. i was asked to lean forward while sitting down, so they can administer the jabs on my spine. THey gave me 3 jabs all in all, and slowly i can feel the numbness going down my legs. Not long later my Dr came in his scrubs and he started...

I couldn't see a thing of course, as there was a huge cloth screen covering my tummy. The Dr was pretty vigorous during the operation, i can feel him struggling, and pulling baby out. I didn't know it was that tough to get a baby out of your tummy but apparently it's pretty tough, and he needed to use forceps! Whatever it is, it took a while, and i kept asking the Anesthetist who was with me the whole time whether the baby is out cos I can't wait to see him! Finally i could hear the baby cry, and i was pretty relieved. But actually, i only felt truly relieved when they brought BabyD to see me, and the nurse told me he's OK. he's Fine. Then only i breathed a sigh of relief. Phews!!

In the meantime, DH managed to get us a single room, which is really great because this means that he could spend the nights with us. BabyD was only wheeled back to us after a few hours so that they can monitor him. I started breastfeeding once they wheeled him in. A bit different this time round..I remember with Peanut i was really struggling with her latching on, but it was much easier with BabyD. The rest of the hospital stay was smooth and i checked out on Monday itself. I stayed for a total of 2 nights.


The pretty nurse getting BabyD ready so that we can leave the hospital



All bundled up like a worm

Ready to go! Sekian.