Progression (or regression?) as a mother

I know that I have changed over the years - from being a mother of 1, to a mother of 2, and now a mother of 3. Other than this obvious change, I realised that my perspective and way of doing things seem to have changed too.

During Pregnancy
When pregnant with #1: The book "What to Expect While You are Expecting" was read almost every day, as frequently as my Bible!

When pregnant with #2: Referred to and read the book "What to Expect While You are Expecting" occasionally.

When pregnant with #3: Where's the book??

Breastfeeding

For baby #1: Express lots of breastmilk to store just-in-case. Dutifully sterilise, label, and pump!

For baby #2: Express some milk to store. The remainder of the expressed milk goes to #1 to drink!

For baby #3: Breastpump is there to "bai3 swee4" (ie. purely for display purposes) only. Starts to collect dust as it is barely utilised. After a few weeks, I decide to keep the breastpump away (and along with it the steriliser, bottle brush cleaner, bottle detergent, etc etc).

Baby's Routine

Baby #1: Established a routine for baby from newborn stage. Kept a record book to note down the time/frequency of pee, poo, feeds and sleep. Dutifully recorded everything down for a couple of weeks.

Baby #2: Tried to establish routine for baby. Kept a record book for 10 days, then gave up.

Baby #3: What record book?? 

Baby's Age

For baby #1: When people ask "How old is baby?", the answer is at the tip of my fingertips, ie. I can answer "6 weeks 3 days old" without so much of a pause.

For baby #3: When people ask "How old is baby?", I have to stop and think and work backwards from baby's birth date in order to give an estimated age (example: "baby is about 2 months-plus old"). 

Opinion on Captain Von Trapp of "Sound of Music"

When I had only 1 child, I thought that Captain Von Trapp's way of calling for his 7 children - by whistling and expecting them to march in line till they stand before him - was simply horrifying, inhumane and unacceptable. Now that I have 3 children, I'm starting to think that perhaps the whistling bit does make some sense. It is truly a fast and easy way of getting all your children to come to you! 

Josiah - 2.5 months old

Josiah at 2.5 months old can:

- lift his head and chest off the bed

- kick his legs such that he wriggles forward (when put on his tummy)

- turn his head and body all the way back to look and observe people, voices, sounds, etc.

- smile at the sight of my face and voice (yay!!)

- sleep through 8 to 9 hour stretch at night without a feed (praise God!)

He's a very good-natured and cheerful little boy. And when he cries (which is not that often), he does so in such a pitiful manner that you cannot help but want to pick him up and "sayang" him!

Snippets of the lives of our 3 Js

These are some of the things that we do on weekdays....

1) Put Josiah in all kinds of positions and take pictures of him

2) Take turns (and also fight over who goes first) to carry, kiss, and hug Josiah

3) Talk to Josiah

He can now gurgle the words "good" and "hi". 

4) Play with Josiah

We put him in the toy pram (Graco brand that cost $20 from KMart!) and the girls were absolutely thrilled to push him around. Poor Josiah! He gets to be the object of all the laughter and play. Thankfully he seemed comfortable in the pram and even looked like he was going to fall asleep in it!

The girls also enjoy doing funny things to Josiah like attaching this cardboard roll on his hand (Janelle's ingenious idea) and laugh at him while he waves it around. 

And to make it even more elaborate, we attach the balloon to it but Josiah couldn't move his hand with the extra weight attached!

After some insistence from me, Janelle removed the cardboard roll and put it on Josiah's foot instead! Josiah remained unperturbed. In fact, he seemed more relieved at being able to move his hand again now that the weight had been lifted off, and he could resume his favourite activity - staring at his fist!

5) Go for swimming lessons every Tuesday morning

Actually I wanted to take the girls out of swimming lessons after my parents left, but seeing how much they enjoyed it, I decided to bite the bullet and take them swimming. And we have progressed! I know that I have progressed because:

Week 1 (on my own):  the girls enjoyed themselves but I hated it....in fact, I was regretting being so crazy as to take 2 girls and a baby swimming on my own!

Week 2 (on my own): the girls enjoyed it and I was OK about it. Was getting used to the routine and it wasn't that bad after all.

Week 3 (on my own): the girls enjoyed it and so did I! I even had time to take pictures of them, as well as to enjoy an apple while they were swimming :) 

I suppose it's a matter of getting used to the routine and learning the smarter way of doing things 

And all Josiah did while his jie-jies swam was.....SLEEP (thankfully!)! 

These are just snippets of our lives when we're all at home. It can be fun, but madness at the same time! I have chosen to blog only about the fun bits of it because that's what I want to remember years down the road 

Josiah's new past-time

Recently, Josiah has found a new past-time! He can spend a considerable period of time just staring at his fist and that can keep him pretty occupied! I'm still amazed at how he can just lie down and 'entertain' himself for a good amount of time while I cook, feed the girls, do laundry, etc etc. Many-a-time, I even forget that he's still awake and left all by himself because he's so contented just being entertained by either his bug or bear-friends, or by his own fist and fingers. Hmm....here's some pictures of him enjoying his fist!

Our Daily Conversations

Took a video of my daily conversation with 9-week-old Josiah. He's now a very cheerful boy who loves to "talk" in response to our chatter! Can also hear Janine singing "Hey Diddle Diddle" in the background :)

Trip to Orange

We made a road trip to Orange, a suburb located in the Central West of NSW. It's about 3.5 hours drive from where we are, and we had a lovely time with our dear traveling companions! It was a simple, relaxing, free and easy trip :) The kids had loads of fun at the Adventure Playground, miniature train ride, and other playgrounds. The adults enjoyed the beautiful scenic drive, picturesque views and late night supper-cum-chit-chat sessions :)

 

Josiah was such a good boy during the car journey and hardly cried, which is quite unlike him. We attribute it to Janelle's simple prayer before the trip that went "Dear Jesus, we pray that Josiah will not cry in the car. Amen!". This is Josiah's first road trip at 2 months & 1 week old! We are really thankful for such a good-natured boy and he's now sleeping so well at night that he totally knocks out for 7-hour periods without a feed.

 

 

 

Who's who?

We have always thought that Josiah looks like his er-jie Janine. I dug through some old photos of Janine when she was a baby and voila - they both have gravity-defying hair!

I just love the way babies' hair can stand without any effort (and can't come down flat no matter how hard you try)!

Josiah - 2 months old

Josiah is now 2 months old and we're starting to see a bit of his personality. We thank God for a generally good-natured boy (answered prayer!) and who's extremely cute (in our biased opinion). He can:

- lie on his playmat and stare at his bug-friends (ladybird, caterpillar, fly, etc) for a good 30 minutes.

- sleep through 6 hours at night without a feed.

- put his right fist into his mouth to suck (he's an obvious right-hander!)

- smile when Janine plays "round and round the garden goes the teddy bear...." with him

- grin when we call his Chinese name Yi4 De2 (apparently he finds his Chinese name extremely amusing)

We are thankful that he sleeps so well at night, and that he's so good-natured that he'll allow his jie-jies to carry him in all strange positions and not complain at all!