Fast Crawl Part 2

Fast Crawl

Who needs to learn to walk when you can crawl at this pace? :)

Eating Bread Part 2

Eating Bread Part 1

Janine loves bread! She sneakily grabbed the WHOLE piece of bread from the plate when my eye wasn't on her and started chomping away :)

Baby Antics

Janine at 10 months old

Teething & First Hospital Stay

Teething
Janine has had no appetite, keeps puking out her food, gags when being fed, doesn't sleep well, and is more unsettled. This has been going on for about 5 days. Sounds like she's sick? Well, doctor's conclusion is that she's teething - the dreaded phase that every baby has to go through! I just didn't expect the teething to cause her so much distress as to puke everyday  Janine is teething (finally?!) at almost 10 months old! I only hope that she doesn't respond the same way to the rest of her other teeth popping out...Can't imagine having to go through all that again with the rest of the teeth!

This is probably one of the last few pictures of her being entirely toothless

First Hospital Stay
On the 3rd day of Janine's puking, Janelle suddenly had severe vomitting and puked everything out, even water. On that day (Monday), I had a record day of cleaning! - I cleaned Janine's puke twice, her poo (that leaked out of a lousy diaper) once, Janelle's puke on the bed 3 times, carpet once, etc. Actually I lost count of how much cleaning I did. It was madness! Especially the fact that Janelle puked on her bed 3 times - it meant we changed the bedding and bedsheets 3 times! I can only thank God for our washing machine! Can't imagine if I lived in the olden times where everything has to be hand-washed  Still, I think only mothers would understand the amount of cleaning I had to do with all the mess!

Janelle's vomitting was so severe that she would puke every few minutes, even if there was nothing left to puke. Aunty Phyllis and I brought her to the hospital at 10:45pm and poor Janelle had to spend the night there (me too) on a drip to rehydrate her body, since she could not even digest water. But Janelle was so good-natured about her puking - she did not cry a single time after puking, nor did she cry when the needle went in. But she hated being restrained for the doctor to insert the needle into her hand! Thank God she managed to sleep in hospital and recovered in the early morning. By the next morning, she was well enough to be discharged!  Doctor says she has gastro and diarrhoea is expected to follow the vomitting. True enough, she's having diarrhoea now but at least she isn't distressed by it.

It has been a busy week and now Royston and I seem to have caught the virus from Janelle. Thankfully the symptoms are not as severe as hers!  

Funny Crawl

Janine has been crawling this way - without her knees on the ground. I think it's a very inefficient of crawling but still, she manages to crawl pretty fast considering it takes more effort to crawl like that! The funny thing is, we didn't realise that was how she has been crawling because she was always all wrapped up in several layers of clothing so it hindered our view of her crawl. It was only till a month ago when the weather turned warmer that we realised she's been crawling like that all this while!

Updates

It's been some time since I last updated anything. Life has been pretty settled these days, and in fact, we've been busy the past few weeks as we've got relatives staying with us! We managed to do some touring and sight-seeing with our relatives since it's also Royston's school holidays, and it's been pretty fun! Besides, it does make quite a lot of difference to have an extra pair of hands around the house with our relatives staying with us.

Janelle
Surprisingly, Janelle still does not speak with an Aussie accent (yet!). She's enjoying school (ie. the childcare that she attends twice a week) and is learning to express her emotions a little better. There was a period of time where she was rather rough and 'un-nice' to Janine (ie. sibling rivalry!), but she has since learnt to outgrow that to be a very caring sister who simply loves to play with Janine!

Janelle's favourite video right now is "Mother Goose" video by Richard Scarry. It's a very traditional cartoon video that has lots of nursery rhymes - Janelle's current fav! Every day, she will need her daily dosage of "Mother Goose" on video. It's an absolute delight to see her enjoying her "Mother Goose" video and singing along with the songs and nursery rhymes!

Janine
Janine is now 9 months old and still very cute. She loves to smile and laugh, and can be very cheeky and playful. In some ways, she does remind me very much of how Janelle was like as a baby at that age! (Janelle was a very cheerful and cheeky baby too). Janine still "sings" herself to sleep, but her "singing" sounds more like continuous loud noises that slowly drift off to nothing, and when she's quiet you realise that she has fallen asleep. Haha  (My mum reminded me that Janelle used to "sing" herself to sleep when she was a baby too!)

Janine absolutely adores her older sister! She has a ready smile for Janelle and is always so excited to see her! (which is why it's tough for me to let the 2 girls sleep together - because they both end up NOT sleeping).

As for Janine's reflux problem, it has seemingly disappeared! In fact, we didn't really realise it till one day, I was saying to Royston that it seems like Janine has stopped puking milk / food and we realised that it seemed to have happened without our realisation! Praise God!

Speech & Others
Janine can say "daddy" already! Amazing. She can also almost call "mummy", though she's better at calling "mama". We're still trying to teach her to call "jie-jie" (ie. her older sister). Think that one is a bit tougher to pronounce!

Janine has also learnt how to clap her hands at 8 months old 1 week old (exact same time as Janelle) and to also wave goodbye. Babies just look so adorable when they wave goodbye or hello at you!

Super-King Sized Bed??
Is there such thing as a super king sized bed, I wonder? The past few nights, Janelle has been coming onto our bed in the middle of the night, and most of the time, Janine co-sleeps with us too (or rather, when she wakes up in the middle of the night I'll put her beside me to sleep). So it means that 4 of us squeeze to sleep on our Queen-sized bed! With Janelle and Janine being such "messy" sleepers, it also means that Royston and I have to sleep on our sides so as not to squash our 2 girls. Our Queen-sized bed is definitely not big enough!

Can she walk yet?

This is the most common question I get from relatives and friends regarding Janine's development. And the answer is....NO :) (Sorry to disappoint you all, folks!) Actually, I'm pretty amused by this question. I even had someone tell me that he heard Janine could walk already! Actually, Janine just turned 8 months old today! Hmm I hardly know of any 8-month-old who walks. Janelle walked slightly before her 1 year old birthday, so I suppose the earliest that Janine would start walking would be somewhere around there too.

Anyway, at 7 months old, Janine could:
- say "ma ma" and "ba ba" (for the record, her first 'word' was "mama"!!! She knows her stuff!)
- crawl forward, or rather, wriggle forward

Now, at 8 months old, Janine can:
- crawl more efficiently round the house
- pull herself to stand

Her favourite word nowadays is "ba ba ba ba", which she will say endlessly. Not to mention, all her loud 'shouts' and strange noises that are a little hard to spell. She's also crawling around the house. And sad to say, now that she has started crawling, she pukes even more  Perhaps it's the crawling position that helps her regurgitate more, so she has dirtied our carpet countless times. But other than that, she's a really cheerful and happy baby who simply loves to give a big wide grin at people whom she's familiar with.

Tomorrow is the start of the spring season, which means we have survived the winter! We hope that with the start of spring, it would mean the girls fall sick less often, as they have been taking turns to fall sick ever since we arrived in Sydney 2 months ago. Thank God for seeing us through this winter season!

First Day at School

Janelle attended her first day at school (aka childcare) last Thursday! We decided to send her to childcare 2 days a week (Tue & Thurs) because she misses attending playgroup in Singapore. She has been saying that she wants to go to Little Pals (the name of her playgroup in S'pore) so we decided to send her to one for her to play and mix with other children.

When we picked her up from school, the teacher was full of praises for Janelle, saying that she was a very well-behaved girl and gave no problems at all. The teacher went into detail on what Janelle did at school and how she behaved, etc. At the end of it, I told Janelle that "mummy is very proud of you" because I was! I was impressed with my little daughter on her behaviour on the first day at school :)

Was just thinking that as a parent, I have so much joy when my child makes me so proud of her. I wonder if our Father in Heaven feels proud of us - His children?

Growing Up in Ozzieland

Janine turns 7 months old in about 4 days' time. She currently weights 8.14kg! And I forgot her length! Just took her measurements at the pharmacy where the nurse on duty did it for me. Am impressed that she's now over 8kg! Didn't realise she was growing so fast as she still feels pretty light to me. Perhaps in comparison to Janelle who's way heavier, Janine seems rather light.

After almost 7 months of regurgitating milk, I am sad to say that Janine STILL regurgitates! *faint*
What happened to my prayers about her stopping her regurgitation when we come to Australia? Besides, now we have no maid to help clean up so I have to clean up the mess, plus we have carpetted flooring - which means the regurgitate remains on the flooring and it's harder to clean. Arrggh. And now that she's started on solids, she regurgitates her solids AND milk.

I asked the doctor over here about her reflux problem, and he told me that 80% of babies who have reflux will stop after about 6 months of age. So seems like Janine is in the unique 20% category of babies who continue with that reflux problem till they're much older.  And the doctor assured us there was nothing to worry about her reflux since she's putting on weight and growing well.

As for Janelle, she is speaking really well and talking a lot more since we got here. She is rather naggy (inherited from either parent) and can speak so well it surprises us sometimes. She'll be attending day-care twice a week from this week onwards. I suppose after another month here, she'll pick up the Aussie accent!

Best Friend

This was a picture Janelle took with her best friend Ariene on the last day of school at Little Pals last term. Don't they just look so cute? :) She will really miss Ariene when we go over to Australia. And on my part as a parent, I also feel sad that my little girl will not be able to play with all her good friends here in Singapore. Well, she probably doesn't realise she'll be going away for a long time, so it's like I'm feeling sad for Janelle on her behalf! How strange!

First Foods

Janine is now 5.5 months old and she had her first taste of solids today! We were contemplating whether to start her on solids now, or wait till we arrive in Sydney on 2 July to start. She'll be 6 months and 2 days old when we reach Sydney, and by then we may be too busy settling down to bother about feeding her, so thought she might as well start now while in Singapore. Besides, she has been showing great interest in our food - drooling and opening her mouth whenever she sees us eat!

It was a successful first attempt at eating her rice cereal from a spoon! In fact, she was so excited she grabbed at the spoon and stuffed it into her mouth and chewed on the spoon! She also managed to swallow the rice cereal pretty well.

Our little girl is growing up fast! She's also 7kg already, and looking extremely well-fed (ie. chubby) despite her still regurgitating milk. She's also really strong and can almost crawl, and can stand for a few seconds with some support. Because of the fact that she keeps turning over and attempting to crawl, she is no longer able to sleep by herself when we put her down on the bed , as she ends up in an activity of flipping over and shaking her butt in an attempt to crawl.

To our dismay, Janine has started shedding hair since she turned 4 months old and she's still shedding hair till now (together with her mummy!). Her head is already looking quite shiny and I think it'll be even more bald as the days go by!

Janelle has been a really loving older sister and the 2 girls really enjoy each other's company. This is a really cute stage that the 2 girls are at, for Janine never fails to laugh and be tickled by Janelle's funny antics and peek-a-boo games, while Janelle loves to shower her little sis with cuddles and kisses.

For me, I shall attempt to update this blog more regularly (just realised that my last entry was 2 months ago!), especially since we'll be going away and people will want to know what's happening to us and our 2 girls.

crying

We love this video of Janine crying! It was taken when she was 2 months old. Think she looks so cute and pitiful crying...haha :)

Janine sucking lips

Janine loves to suck her lips as though she's sucking a pacifier!

Janine - 3 months old

Janine - 3.5 months old

Janine at 3.5 months old....

- is smiley and has learnt to laugh
- absolutely loves to "talk" and communicate with people. Very chatty baby!
- cries much less now and allows everyone to carry her to sleep (thank God!)
- sleeps more easily, usually by just putting her on the bed with a pacifier in her mouth, she'll doze off to sleep
- still looks blur all the time!
- chokes when drinking milk, especially if she's falling asleep while drinking (very 'cartoon' to see her do that!)
- chokes over her own puke (also very 'cartoon' and silly)
- still merlions out milk though much less compared to the first 2 months

 

Janelle is sick :(

Poor Janelle is sick with a high fever, runny nose and phlegmy cough. She has totally no appetite and not even her favourite foods or fruits can entice her. Her only diet now is half a piece of doughnut from the bakery downstairs.

We were awoken at 5am this morning as Janelle was running a high temperature. Had to give her medicine, sponge her, etc to bring the temperature down. Janine woke up due to the commotion and couldn't get back to sleep either.

By afternoon, Janelle's temperature soared to 40 degrees. My eyes almost popped out when I saw the temperature on the ear thermometer! First time I see a recorded temperature that starts with the digit "4". So it meant that the panadol and sponging didn't seem to work. Brought her to see the doctor and she was given a suppository to make her poo. I kind of forgot that she hadn't poo-ed in several days...in fact, I think it has been 4 or 5 days. Apparently if she doesn't poo, it will make it more difficult for the fever to come down. And after she poo-ed, I inserted another suppository to make the fever come down and now she's finally resting in bed.

I realised that we are busy with 2 young kids. But we get even busier when the kids fall sick! Janelle is sick and moody and only wants me (or Royston) to carry her or do things for her. Janine has always only wanted me to carry her especially when she's sleepy. So it gets chaotic when both insist on being carried by me. From yesterday till now, life revolves around wiping runny nose, feeding countless medicines, putting one kid to bed, then putting the other kid to bed, pacifying whichever kid who awakens prematurely from sleep, etc. It is a hectic life.

Praying that Janelle will recover, and that Janine won't catch anything from her jie-jie. (Janine already seems to be having signs of a runny nose). God's grace is sufficient for us!

3 Months Old

Time really flies. My maternity leave is up and Janine turns exactly 3 months old today! Somehow, when you have a baby, you realise how fast time flies because the change in time is so evidently seen by baby's size and developments.

Janine is now 6.1 kg and about 60cm long. She seems heavy, almost doubling her birth weight at only 3 months when babies usually double their birth weight by 6 months. In any case, I am thankful that she's growing well :)

Juggling between work and family, I am so thankful for how God has answered prayers just within the first week (ie. last week) of returning to work! Somehow, when I bring Janine for meetings and all, she's been very well-behaved and literally sleeps through them all. This is somehow not very true when she's at home! I see it as an answered prayer :)

Having 2 kids, I now understand what some mothers mean when they say they feel bad because they cannot spend the same amount of time with both kids as they did for their no.1. Especially when Janelle is still at a very cute age, and Janine is also very cute, I can't help but feel that I can't fully enjoy both my kids' cuteness because my attention is divided between them both!! Yet on the other hand, you can say that we are doubly blessed with 2 cute kids. :)

Simple Joys

Last night, Janine broke her record in terms of sleep! After her last feed at 9pm or so, she didn't wake up till 5:45am for a feed! That's more than 8 hours of blissful rest (not just for her but for me!!). Am amazed that at 9 weeks old, she can clock such a long stretch of night-time sleep. I can only hope she continues on that way! Perhaps she's trying to make up to me after being such a difficult baby in terms of sleep since she was born. Heh heh. Nowadays, for daytime naps, she can also sleep on the bed for up to 1 hour 15 mins! It's a record for her considering she always wakes up within 15 mins of being put on the bed to sleep!

Janine's also getting very responsive and simply loves to 'talk' to people. She'll reward us with a big wide grin or a sweet smile too, whenever we talk to her.

Such are the simple joys of motherhood.

Janine - 2 months old

Janine is turning 2 months old in 4 days' time!

Yesterday (at 8 weeks old), she slept thru 6.5 hours without a feed at night! I was elated as I only had to wake up once at 3:30am to feed her! :) That's her record! Am thankful she sleeps well at night, or rather, better than in the day.

Previously, she was only able to clock 5.5hrs without a feed, at most. So am really glad for this! Praying that it will continue that way, or get even better! :)

Some developments:
- smiles readily at familiar faces, and even at unfamiliar faces, whenever people talk to her.
- "talks" back
- still gives very pitiful and cute cries! (i should attempt to take a video or a photo of her doing so)
- at 7 weeks old, she started recognizing people! Amazing! And it was quite terrible, for she only wanted me to carry her :( Would cry and cry if Gina or Royston were to carry. So now Gina doesn't dare to be left alone at home with Janine because chances are, she would cry without being soothed.
- as for her sleeping patterns, she would sleep till about 1:30am or 2:00am and awake for a feed, followed by another feed at 4:30am or so. Sometimes she would wake up at about 6:00am or 6:30am for another feed! But still, she generally falls into deeper sleep at night than in the day.
- her daytime sleep is still very light. She's a very light sleeper, and can only sleep for about 10 minutes at a stretch if put down on the bed :( Must be carried to sleep!
- at 6 weeks old, she was 56cm long and 5kg.
- now at 8 weeks old, I have no idea about her weight but she sure seems like a big baby! She's outgrowing those 3-6mths old clothings!

Recent Developments

Janelle - about a week or so ago, she has learnt how to open and close our room doors! Oh no...it means we can't "lock" her or ourselves in the room any longer. Sigh, she sure learns fast!

And she's responding really well in sentences. Now she can tell me stuff like "I like purple, I like Milo, etc". And it's no longer "Mummy, on TV!" but "Mummy, can you on the TV?". When asked if she had fun at Little Pals, she'll say "Yes I had fun". So grown-up already!

Janine - at about 2 or 3 weeks old, she could lift up her head and turn from side to side while lying on her tummy. She's got a pretty strong neck!

At 4 weeks old, she can make "ah" sounds and other baby gurgles. She responds really well to faces and loves to look at faces! She'll also move her head from one side to the other to follow an object held above her.

She still feeds 3-hourly during the night. Praying that she can sleep longer through the night soon! She's very sensitive to sounds and all, so she's got a big problem with her sleep. Sigh. Dunno how to train her also. She needs to be carried and cuddled to sleep all the time.

Thank God her rash (which developed and spread all over her body) looks slightly better today! I attribute it to prayer :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Janelle!

Today Janelle turns 2 years old!

We woke up early this morning and brought her to MacDonalds at King Albert's Park for a breakfast treat. After a hotcakes breakfast meal, we headed home to prepare for the family lunch party.

Our families arrived at 11am onwards with lots of food! There was fried rice & bee hoon (cooked by Gina), cod fish + duck + charsiew & meat (by my parents), fried chicken wings + chicken dish + vegetables + pig stomach soup (by Royston's parents), and lots of fruit.

Time really flies...our little girl is now 2 years old! When asked "how old are you?", she would reply "I'm two!" and try to make the sign "2" with her fingers. But of course she would not be able to do so, and end up doing "4" with her fingers and proudly saying "I'm two!" when obviously she's doing a "4"!

Our birthday message to our older little girl:

Dear Janelle,

We are so thankful to God for bringing you into our lives, for you brought lots of laughter and joy! Your cheeky yet innocent ways are so endearing, and so often you have made us burst out into laughter by the funny things you say and do.

You love to jump and run around the house, and are always game to try out new flavours and foods. (It is truly a joy to see you enjoying heartily tucking into your food!) Recently, you have become really imaginative, 'cooking' all kinds of food for us to eat/drink - amongst which milk, milo, raisins and carrots are your favourites! 

It is amazing to see just how much you have grown - not just physically but mentally as well. Not only are you able to hold a conversation with us, you have also taken on the role as an older sister to all other children you come into contact with.

We pray that the Lord will continue to nurture you in His ways, and that your life will reflect the grace of God - just like the meaning of your name "God is Gracious".  

Blessed 2nd Birthday to you, my darling!

Love,
Daddy & Mummy

Janine has arrived!

Date: 31 December 2007, Monday
Time: 1306 hours
Venue: Mt Elizabeth Hospital
Birth Weight: 3.155kg
Length: 50cm
Head Circumference: 34cm

Praise the Lord for a smooth delivery via caesarean under epidural / spinal block! It was an experience of a lifetime to be awake during a surgery with Royston by my side. The first thing that crossed both our minds when we first saw Janine fresh from the womb was that she looked exactly like Janelle!! It was simply amazing.

By God's grace, I was up and walking by the second day and discharged early from the hospital by the third day. However, the first few days at home upon discharge from hospital were a nightmare! Janine wouldn't sleep at night till 3 or 4am! And she would cry and wake the whole family up - including our helper. It was a real challenge trying to put both our girls to sleep. Thank God that the past 2 nights were much much better! I think Janine was just not used to our home environment at first, hence the crying at night. Last night, Janine even slept all the way at night (11:30pm to 7:30am), waking up only once at 3:30am for a feed. So proud of her!

Janelle has been a very adoring sister to Janine. She simply loves her mei-mei! She would sayang and kiss mei-mei, leaving Janine's face wet with her saliva! Yikes! And whenever Janine fusses or cries, Janelle would try to pacify her with her toys (which of course don't work) and say "mei-mei don't cry". And every now and then, when she looks at Janine, she would exclaim "mei-mei is sooo cute!". We're very thankful that Janelle is reacting to Janine so well.

Janine is simply adorable (well, of course to us who are her parents, she is adorable!). She's a very sweet baby compared to Janelle, who was 'fiercer' and tougher. And she charms us all with her endearing expressions while falling asleep...like this one....

Janine - newborn