It Starts Today!

Just for the record, today is the 2nd of January year 2009. I am going to start my gym sessions over lunchtime from today - diligently at least twice weekly. It is quite convenient for me to pop over to the gym in Pavillion since my work place is next to it. Thus I shall no longer have any excuse to postpone this any further. Let's see how long I can keep it up :)

One of my motivation for gymming today is that I wallopped a Big Mac at Izac's 3rd birthday party yesterday *guilty*. Izac's mummy celebrated his birthday at McDonalds Mutiara Damansara. We were one of the first ones there as Bryan was getting restless at home and Brandon also woke up earlier than usual from his morning nap. Bryan had a great time playing the slide and eating all the french fries and drinking cold Ribena, which he almost never gets to drink at home. So he was really "out of the prison" yesterday. As a result, he did his "big biz" again at Mackers. Some more I thought it was quite safe yesterday as he had already done it in the morning. Luckily VT was around to do the cleaning up. As brothers have it, Brandon also followed suit after Bryan. Sounds like that day! I think VT very frus ha ha. But thanks again, Sue for having us!

When we got home, Bryan & myself napped for an hour while Brandon napped for 2 1/2hours. We had a quiet dinner in consisting of teochew porridge and all the unhealthy (but yummy!) condiments, such as salted duck egg, preserved beancurd, preserved lettuce and the must-have peanuts and anchovies.

Oh, as a side note, Brandon finally flipped himself yesterday (once) and this morning (once). But he will cry "Wah wah wah" because his left arm would still get stuck between the mattress and his fat body keke.

Thanks to this keng chau mummy for the photos!

A Long Weekend That Was

We just had a long weekend over Saturday to Monday (being the Islamic new year). So what were we up to?

Saturday, the 20th

Do you recognise these beautiful girls?

Yes - that's me with Baby C and Sherilyn - the cutiepies belonging to HealthFreakMommy. Alycia is like the mummy, very photo-shy! I'd finally met up with the pretty, young-looking mother of 3. Shireen is also my SIL's pal from schooling days as the both of them are from Ipoh. Very small world! We met up at the Jungle Gym located on the top-most floor of Bangsar Shopping Centre. The concept is liks KidzSport I've been told. Per entry cost is RM28 per child, which was quite hefty to my mind. The good thing was that Bryan had his nap on the way to BSC so his energy level was tanked up to play. Lunch was at the cafe just outside the gym - food is great although we had to be seated outside which was kinda warm.

I like the gym because security is rather tight. The guardian's thumbprint is taken when we "check" the child in, and only the same person can "check" the child out by scanning the thumb again. And then there is a TV screen just outside which has CCTV covering the gym so that parents can watch over them. For good measure, I took turns with my maid to watch over Bryan while my Mum watched over Brandon. Poor VT was working on Saturday so he couldn't join us. We arrived home past 5pm and I hurriedly whipped up a quick meal of steamed fish and taufu with minced chicken for our dinner. Thank goodness VT was home by 6pm to take over Brandon.

Sunday, the 21st
Sundays are our usual mall-visiting days. Right after his bath, Bryan will proclaim "Sup(er)market" very loudly. We arrived at 1U and to our dismay, could not find a parking spot. So after searching for 20mins and paying RM1 to exit, we headed towards Hartamas Shopping Centre inside. In the process of car park hunting, Bryan fell asleep and I had to feed Brandon. There was a new TGIF which opened there so we decided to check it out. Again to our disappointment, this outlet doesn't have a "Kids Eat for Free" promo. When I asked the manager, he said that it was different for every outlet but I was never theless shocked because I thought it was one of their selling point. Then the Chicken Fingers that VT had was so small that we enquired whether they wrongly delivered the kiddies portion instead (which they say the did not)! VT and I have decided to boycott this TGIF outlet from there on.

After lunch, we headed to "Toys-R-Us Express" - it is just a smaller version of the normal & larger Toys-R-Us stores. Just as we went in, Bryan squatted down at the main aisle, in full view of other shoppers to perform his "big biz"! VT whisked him away to clean him up. Then 2 minutes later, I saw Brandon straining and making grunting sounds. So I wheeled him and passed him to VT to change, just as Bryan was wearing his shorts. Must had been the "umm umm" sounds that I was making when Bryan was doing his!

Monday, the 22nd
A few of us gathered at this mummy's house for a small makan-makan gathering. I met Michele for the first time. This wonderful mummy learnt balloon-sculpting from YouTube and made a dog for Bryan! Isn't she amazing? Then this mummy brought her giant swimming pool and all the kids had a whale of a time. I had to leave early as both the Bs were getting grumpy. I would have loved to stay and chit-chat with all the mummies. We cannot seemed to stop talking!!

For dinner, I made Seafood Tom Yum meehoon and had my PILs over. It was so easy, thanks to the ready-made paste. I think I shall make this more often. After putting Bryan to sleep, I had wanted to potter around the house a bit and spend some alone time with VT. But mana tau, I must had fallen asleep as when I woke up, it was 3:40am!

That was my weekend. How was yours?

The Bumbo Seat

Bryan has been copying everything that Brandon does. For instance, drinking milk 8 times a day at the same intervals, making coo-ing sounds, sometimes wanting to be carried when drinking milk, holding his chin to burp him (!) and sitting on the Fisher-Price rocker.
So it was not surprising that when I brought home the Bumbo seat, on loan from Bridget, Bryan wanted to have a go at it after didi.

Brandon trying out the new furniture. And Bryan too.........

Funny thing is that Bryan hated to sit in the Bumbo seat when he was a baby! Here's one of Bryan below as a baby.

Looking at it, the two brothers look alike!

Brandon @ 5 Months

And..........whoosh! Another month has gone by. Brandon turns 5 months officially tomorrow.

This little smiley, cutie-pie...

... weighed 8.6kg when we last went to the paed 2 weeks ago
... drinks 6-7 ozs of milk every 4 hours
... sleeps from 9pm through to 8am about 75% of the time, without waking up to feed
... is going through a growth spurt at the moment hence waking up 2-hourly at night to satisfy his hunger
... is happy whenever his kor kor kisses him or talks to him

... calls out to people who walks by him else he's quite happy to entertain himself with toys if he doesn't see anyone around. Mummy sometimes ducks while walking by so that he cannot spot me!

... is a rather predictable baby - he cries only when hungry or tired
... still does not know how to flip as yet but attempting

... mouths everything but favourite objects remain his thumb, pointer finger & a cloth nappy

And finally, this cutie-pie...

... melts Mummy and Papa's hearts each time he smiles!

Snapshots

Brandon enjoying a good suck of his fingers

The brothers together - one still sucking his fingers, the other busy watching TV

Strange Sunday Evening

As I sit here in my room in darkness save from the light from the laptop screen, pretty much touch-typing, I'd looked at the clock and it is only 6pm. And what is so strange about it? Well, I am posting up this blog when usually I won't get the chance to until at least 10pm after the boys are asleep. And why? Both boys ARE asleep now!

For Brandon, this is his usual sleeping time. As he grows older, he dislikes being left on his own more and more. We still try to let him play by himself most of the time although sometimes he is too darn cute to resist. There are the smiles and the coos that keep us mesmerised to no end, and of course, his screams when he realised that he is alone in the room.

As with Bryan, his usual bedtime is 9pm but this cheeky monkey refused to take any naps the whole of today. He was running around and quite happily entertaining himself while I cooked dinner. But when it was time for him to have dinner (which I'd brought forward to 5:30pm seeing that he skipped his nap), the poor little boy's head was slumping with every bite he took. Seeing that, I had wanted to give him his usual bath and milk before bedtime, but alas, he fell asleep on my shoulder while I was removing his diapers! I ended up woping him down before putting on pyjamas on him and moving to the bed - all this while he was already asleep!!

Now it is time for VT and I to spend some quiet time together - quiet dinner, quiet dessert, quiet TV (we turn it down really low so that we can hear the boys upstairs).

P/S: Sorry for absence of photos. My laptop USB port is locked hence can't download the photos from the camera. Soon, yah?

Brandon @ 4 Months; Bryan @ 27 Months

It's amazing, isn't it? With Brandon I find as if time really went by quickly. Two more months and he can start on solids. He weighs 7.4kg now, drinking 5-6 ozs every 3 hours. He is able sleep through from 10pm to 6am, much to VT's delight since VT takes care of the night shifts.

Brandon's head is still a little floppy. Poor little fella - I reckon it's due to us not playing as much as we'd liked to with him. His kor kor is such a demanding toddler and a jealous monkey too. The good thing that came out is that Brandon is generally mild-mannered who doesn't mind being/playing by himself in his cot. He can be kept entertained by the cloth nappy for more than an hour. He loves to have people talking to him. Of course lah right, since he barely gets spoken to. His favourite game now is peek-a-boo, which doesn't fail to make him laugh (yes, he can laugh out loud!). I hope that I'll be able to spend more time with Brandon, especially now when he is becoming more aware and curious of his surroundings.

Bryan, on the other hand, weighs close to 17kg. He has been drinking milk more often now as he insists on getting the same treatment as di di. I suppose more milk is better than less. Just like mummy, he loves to eat crab sticks (those synthetic ones) and a cake never fails to chirp him up. His current favourite shows are Robots and Finding Nemo. He will usually watch the first 5 minutes and then lose interest. But it doesn't mean you can turn it off either. He steals glances ocassionally.

Over the past month, Bryan's vocabulary has exploded. He can string up to 5 words in one sentence and can easily say 2-syllable words. He enjoys asking people to buy toys for him or finding his missing items, be it a book, CD or toy. It is such a joy having a proper conversation with him now. Like they say, "Once they start, they can't stop!".

Love & Hate

Bryan has a love-and-hate relationship with Brandon. Bryan loves his di-di to bits, often wanting to cuddle and kiss him, and playing "chiak" (peek-a-boo) with him. But other times whenever I start talking and playing with Brandon, the green-eyed monster would makes its appearance. Bryan will get all whiny and starts crying for my attention, despite my playing with him practically the entire day! Bryan will start pulling my hand to go up to my bedroom to play or will insist that I sit next to him on the couch. So poor di-di is left to play by himself.

On weekends, I will often put Brandon in the play gym while I feed Bryan breakfast. The moment Bryan sees the gym, he will clamour and lie down beside Brandon and starts playing with the toys. I guess Bryan just wants to make sure that he gets his fair share of attention and play as well, right?

Almost Had It!

Thank goodness for a satisfying dinner comprising of teochew-style clear porridge with some of my favourite condiments - picked lettuce, salted duck egg, fried peanuts and anchovies. It gave me the much required break and a chance to pull myself together.

The boys drove me up the wall today!!

Bryan wouldn't nap beyond the 20mins catnap in the car on the way home from Sri Hartamas after lunch, while Brandon was fretful the entire day - screaming on top of his lungs relentlessly. Due to the lack of sleep, Bryan was tearful and edgy the rest of the afternoon/evening, bursting into tears whenever he was frustrated or if his wishes weren't met.

By early evening, this mummy had enough. Packed Brandon into bed at 6pm and Bryan at 7:30pm. Good thing tomorrow I will have some peace and quiet at work tomorrow, once again testifying that I can never be a stay-at-home mother.

Brandon is 3 Months Old

Another month has gone by. My little baby turns 3 months old today.

Weight: 6.6kg
Milk Intake: 5 ozs every 3 to 4 hours

Sleep: Sleeps by 7pm, waking up at midnight and 4-5am for feeds.

Brandon loves to smile and coo when spoken to, especially by his kor kor. He is quite happy to be left alone. At the moment, Brandon is at the stage of examining his own hands. He turns grumpy in the evening so we have been relying a lot on the Fisher Price rocker to keep him happy.

I think he is progressing well physically though I am a tad worried that when put on his tummy, he doesn't quite know how to lift his head up as yet. He is contented lying down and sucking on his fists! Lazy baby, perhaps?

Mama, Go Out

That is what Bryan says to me these days whenever he wants to do something naughty without me being around to scold or reprimand him. Examples: climb out the couch to play with the light switches/air-con remote control, dig his nose. If I ignore him, he will hold my hand and lead me into the kitchen, and then he keeps making sure that I stay put! I find that as Bryan gets older, he is full of mischief. It is very endearing although sometimes his tantrums can really drive you up the wall.

Bryan is generally a good kid and other than being (over)active, he takes reasoning most of the time. He loves his little di-di to bits – never failing to talk to Brandon, kissing him, holding his hand, stroking his body to sayang and even playing Peek-a-Boo with him. There was once when he even tried to soothe the screaming baby by saying, “Don’t cry, baby”. It brought tears to my eyes. In response, Brandon looks adoringly at his kor kor whenever Bryan talks to him. I can only pray that they will continue to love each other as they grow up. Isn’t that every parents wish?


P/S: Thanks for the well wishes following this incident – it turned out to be a minor gash on his head. All recovered now though scar is still visible. I reckon I need to bubble-wrap that boy of mine!

Brandon @ 2 Months

The past 2 months were probably the quickest 2 months that went by. Brandon turns 2 months tomorrow, and I'll be back in the rat race. I'd brought Brandon for his compulsory vaccination yesterday since it was a public holiday for PJ and VT was around.

Brandon....

... weighs 5.65kg, up from 4.35kg last month

... is able to follow objects from left to right

... responds quickly to sound, turning his head towards it

... loves to smile and coo in the morning when spoken to

... fusses terribly from 3pm onwards till bedtime

... loves to fall asleep when being carried upright

...doesn't cry - he screams!

I suppose time will go by even quicker when I return to work and another routine sets in.

Brandon, be a good boy when mama is at work ok? Mama loves you!

Sleep Training: Revisited

Remember how I was saying that I was getting such success from sleep-training Brandon? Well, he has been sleeping fairly well at night - knocking off around 10:30pm and sleeping to 7am the following morning, waking up briefly only to take his milk at around 2am and 6-7am. Now that I'm going back to work soon, I expect this plan to fall apart sadly.

Yesterday I was at my PILs place and it was time for Brandon to sleep. Unfortunately, they could not take Brandon crying (actually, he was whimpering) even for 5 seconds so they promptly carried him and rocked him to sleep. Worse, they did not put him in his cot until some 10-15mins later, even after he fell asleep! I can see all my hard work (and Brandon's tears) going down the drain. I feel very irritated and "mung chang" but I supposed there's nothing I can say considering my MIL will be taking care of Brandon during the day. Just have to swallow it lor.

What a pity!

The Final Week

This is my final week of being a SAHM - I will return to work on Friday, which is exactly the 60th day of my maternity leave. How time flies. How do I feel about going back to work? I will surely miss spending my days playing with both Bryan and Brandon, but deep down inside, I know that I'm eager to resume my life in the corporate world - nice lunches, stressful meetings, difficult emails. I've already told VT when I was halfway through my leave that I am just not cut out to be a SAHM because I am so impatient with kids. I expect them to behave like adults haha.
Anyway, what better time to reminisce quietly about the past 2 months than now. These photos were taken at Bryan's 2nd birthday celebrations at Eastin Hotel, PJ.

Sleep-Training

I think it's safe to declare myself an infant sleep expert.

Bryan was such a poor and light sleeper that I went out to buy and/read every sleep-training material there was on the bookstore shelf and internet. Still, no use with Bryan. You can imagine just how desparate I was - from his birth, he slept an average of 10-12 hours in total a day, and each time, for no more than 45 minutes. Yes, even at nights!! Bryan would be over-tired that he was screaming by the time he was really ready to kaput. Even then, he had to be rocked and carried and lullabied. Luckily, things have improved significantly since turning 18 months although MIL still needs to rock and carry and lullaby him today! Imagine, having to struggle with a cranky toddler when you yourself lack of sleep for 18 months.

But to give Bryan credit, I think he was born a poor sleeper. Literature points that poor sleepers are fast learners and can be greatly rewarding. This is very true. For example, I only taught him the numbers 1 to 10 once and he could recite it almost immediately. Now Bryan is able to recite A to Z, sans missing a couple of alphabets.

However, I was still determined to not let this (the poor sleeping habits) repeat itself with Brandon. So what sleep-training method do I use with Brandon?

Brandon, on the other hand, slept an average of 20 hours in his first month. Now in his 2nd month, a little less but still considerably much much more than Bryan in his hey-days :) Brandon's biggest challenge is going down for the night when he usually does not want to sleep and wishes for entertainment, ie us talking and cooing to him. So, I've decided to harden my heart and let him cry it out.

Now, you can't simply employ the CIO techniq (the "Ferber method") on every baby as some may be too agitated by it and make things worse. I tried it once with Brandon and he seemed to adapt well to it. It's still in the early stages but I can see the results as when he wakes up, he is able to self-soothe himself back to sleep without any intervention on my part. That is key to a good night sleep for everyone in the house.

There are many other techniques out there so if your baby is a poor sleeper, don't despair. Get help!

My Rojak Boy

First of all, thanks to everyone who gave such great advice about coping. Don't worry, I am not suicidal..........yet! LOL :)

My little boy here has been mixing everything up like a really good packet of rojak. He sleeps during the day, stays awake at night, poops only at night, eats when he's supposed to be sleeping and sleeps when he's supposed to be feeding.

Yesterday, he was sleeping the whole day through - up for a total of perhaps only 2 hours. Then of course, at night tai wok lor. Brandon was up the whole night till 6:30 this morning!! He probably had a couple of cat naps in between because after a while, I was too tired to pick him up. In a way, he was being sleep-trained at the same time as I heard him crying & wh'ining for about 20mins and then silence ha ha.

Besides keeping him up a little more during the day, do you reckon I should wake him up for his feeds if he sleeps through them? So far, I have been letting him sleep to his heart's content at daytime but I suspect that is why he cannot sleep at night.

Horrible Mother

I am on a guilt trip here.

As you know, I have not been doing many night shifts of late. The reason is that I get really grumpy and irritatable whenever I don't have sufficient sleep. I will become this ugly person and complain to VT to no end. As a result, I am not patient with poor Brandon.

Reading other mummy's experiences with their babies, I feel even more guilty as there are so many types of challenges apart from sleeplessness. I am grateful that Brandon is Ok health-wise, but there are just those moments when I feel so tired that I could cry.

I think I am not a good mum especially in the initial first few trying months. Any tips from the many accomplished mothers out there on how I can be more patient with my boy?

Less Time, More Stress

Just when I thought things were getting better, the boys caught the cough at the same time and Brandon still only sleeps at 2+am every night. So much for being lucky! VT still does most of the night shifts because he knows that I turn into a horrible green monster if I don't get enough sleep and have to face an edgy infant the whole day the next day.

Last night was a good example. We had returned from a wedding dinner at around 11pm and picked Brandon up from my PILs. Byran slept over. I know VT was really tired so I picked up the shift. Boy oh boy! Brandon was fussing till 1:30am and I cannot tahan already since my eyelids were on auto-close, so I put him down next to me on the bed, and pat him till I don't know when because I must had fallen asleep before he did. Throughout the night, I could hear him tossing and making noise, but I'd ignored him and before I knew it, the clock showed 5:30am. I felt guilty and quickly woke up to give him his feed. I went back to sleep after burping him...not sure whether Brandon went to sleep though!


At 7:30am I could hear Brandon going "nyek nyek nyek". I turned to look at him and he was wide awake already! I tried to desparately put him back to sleep but with no luck. I felt like a wreck the whole morning until at noon, I gave him his milk and bath and he promptly fell asleep after that. Now it is almost 3pm and he has been up since 2pm. I walked around a bit and now he's left in his cot, making noises.

Looks like I won't be able to blog or blog-hop as much as I would like to anymore. In a way, I am looking forward to heading back to work next Friday to "get a break".

My Two Boys Are Sick

Bryan caught the cough first abour 10 days ago. We thought we were pretty lucky to arrest it quickly by giving him some Benadryl, and after 2 days, it went away. Unfortunately, the cough came back with vengence a couple of days later and this time, Brandon caught it too. Which is not surprising considering the kor kor has been kissing the di di! I didn't have the heart so stop such affection!

Brandon had a fever on Saturday night and I didn't even know how much paracetomal to give him. I had no choice but to call my mum (who used to work for a paed) at 3:30 in the morning for advice. Ok - 1.25mls - now I know. After taking the para and some sponging, thank goodness his fever subsided. I still brought him to the paed the following morning for good measure. He diagnosed a mild cough and oral thrush. Unlike Bryan, Brandon absolutely despises taking meds. He will screw his face up when presented with both the syringe and spoon. Bryan on the other hand, pleads to be given meds because he likes to play with the syringe after that!

I pray for the boys' speedy recovery. Also so that mummy does not feel so zombified!

1st Time Lucky

VT has been doing the night shifts with Brandon for the past 4 nights, and I tell you, he looked absolutely shattered yesterday morning. I'd offered to take care of Brandon last night, which I did, so that VT could have some rest. I had braced myself for the usual "cry like a mad man" episode that usually happens between 11pm to 2am.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Not only did Brandon not cry, he actually slept from 9pm all the way through to 8am this morning, waking up 3-4 hourly for his feeds.

1st time lucky, or have the crying spells ended? I'm more convinced of the former. Afterall, this little boy did not sleep a wink the whole afternoon yesterday. Let's see how it goes tonight. Unfortunately for VT, I won't be doing the shifts over the next 2 nights as I have work conference to attend on Thursday & Friday - can't afford to fall asleep in front of my boss!