everything~joan.: Mini Milestones : Jasmine's 5th month

This month our dear baby girl started sleeping in her own room i.e. the skyroom! We have been talking about putting her in her own room to start her off independent instead of worrying about her reluctance when she's older. I've been delaying because... I really enjoy sharing the room with her, that I can peep at her anytime I want from my bed in between my sleep etc. Anyway one weekend, we just made a trip to One Baby World in Shah Alam, bought the cheapest baby monitor they have, approx RM140.. and I did a quick simple clean up and set up, her room was ready. It was so easy!

She probably doesn't even know there was any difference. As for my end, I feel strangely relieved! Because once we put her to sleep in that room, we could talk loud at our computer corner, use the toilet flush without hesitation, fold clothes with the lights full on without worrying that she may be disturbed. :D

And the icing on the cake was - she woke up only once or twice during the night! Sadly this only lasted for a week... strangely after I went on a business trip in Bangkok (more on that later), her night feed frequency bounced back to 2-3 times. :(

Her sleep patterns can change drastically, there was a phase where she would be wide awake at 4am or 5am or 6am after drinking milk, and just wants to play. I would place her in between us and continue sleeping while she entertains herself & eventually start making noise or kicking away to get our attention. :D

And usually, I'll summon Joshua to take over... he'll play with her a while and then rock her back to sleep. :)

On 4th Jan 2014, we celebrated Joshua's 32nd birthday. :D He felt old.... but we are just really really thankful that we have Jasmine. She's such a bundle of joy to us. :D

By the way she's wearing a t-shirt that says "my dad is a super hero" it's a hand-me-down from Elder PH & Rose.

This month in one occassion over lunch Julia told me she has stop using breast pump few months ago, she is pumping milk using bare hands! Using hands to squeeze, according to her = faster & save trouble to wash & sterilise breast pump. I thought it was a great idea and decided I want to master the skill too. One day, I felt a bit engorgement, I watched some youtube videos and started hand express. First attempt, barely half ounce. But because I admire the advantage of not washing & sterilising, I tried another 2 times. I decided that if I am home and felt like expressing some milk out, hand express shall be the way to go. ;)
Here are my hand expressed output. :D By the way : expect some extreme fingers & arm sore plus neck & back strain.

I want to go back to talk about the Bangkok trip mentioned earlier, it was a very last minute trip. I told my boss that I don't want to go and my subordinate Hui Chen agreed to go on my behalf. But last minute she told me she was not confident, and my boss managed to arrange for the trip to be a day trip, so I kind of had to go. One major problem - my passport was expiring. I had to renew my passport the day before travel date! Cut story short, I spent whole morning renewing passport, while waiting, I pumped milk in the public toilet!!!

When I saw this plug, I saw a big possibility despite the unpleasant & inappropriate location.

Thank God I picked up someone's unwanted newspaper.

And thank God I wore a cardigan that could help cover up my mountain tips.

Smelly smelly.

I don't know whether anyone has done this... but I was really proud of myself that I did it! Anyone who opens the toilet door would expose me and my activity to anyone outside the toilet but I couldn't be bothered. It was a success. :D By the way opposite the toilet is a mamak... ;)

Come the day I was flying to Bangkok. I had to leave for airport at 6am plus, so I fed Jasmine at 4am, 5am and 6am. I took my breast pump equipped with batteries, packed the manual pump for just in case, ice packs and empty bottles & storage bags. All these were squeezed into a small luggage together with my work laptop. I tried to plan my pumping schedule throughout the trip because I don't know what to expect but nothing turned out according to my plans. It was quite a roller coaster experience!

First pump was on the plane to Bangkok. I sleep first, then when reaching Bangkok, I went to toilet to pump. Remember how Air Asia's narrow toilet that's wet and dirty? That's my pump station, I tried my pump with batteries while I pass urine & some brown cakes :P , soon I realised that it is too slow because I felt the pressure that someone else might be waiting to use the toilet? So I stopped it and started using my hands to squeeze milk out direct into the milk bottle. It worked faster and better although really really tiring. I tried my best to squeeze whatever I have... until about 1-2 ounces. I don't know how long I occupied the toilet but more than once people knocked and asked whether anyone's in there. :P And when I decided to stop hand express, I saw stars when I finally stood up. It was really straining.

Second pump was in Bangkok hotel, where our colleagues who were staying overnight checked in. After some work discussion, I excused myself to the hotel toilet. I have about 15 minutes before we proceed to lunch, so I sat on toilet bowl to do my "business" and just kept on squeezing milk into milk bottle again. I was secretly glad that I tried hand express earlier on! Again I got 3 ounces, felt so tired again like when I lift up my head I could see stars.

Third pump was in Bangkok airport toilet when we were going to catch the flight back home. I remember I felt the engorgement when we were scanning our bags. Again, sat on toilet bowl and just kept squeezing. Another maybe 2 ounces.

Fourth pump was in the plane. This time I went for it once the seat belt sign was off and toilet was unoccupied. Squeeze my way through and got about another 2-3 ounces. I remember I took back with me about 8-9 ounces of milk. Phew! Not too shabby! :D What a record!!

Jasmine started to prefer being held vertically to sleep. She would protest when we hold her horizontally to rock her to sleep. :( It requires more strength and stamina so it was quite a challenge for all of us.

We also started sending her to the baby sitter at SS12 Wangsa Baiduri Lian. She adapted well (praise God!) although for first few days she cried a lot, wanting to be carried. We're thankful for Lian, she's very experienced and really love kids. And, she helped me feed Jasmine frozen milk... YES!

For the first time ever, Jasmine kicked so hard that she fell off from the counter in our masterbedroom. Thank God I was just next to her looking for her clothes to change, I could catch her and minus the falling impact. She knelt down on the floor, was shocked and cried for a bit. After some rocking and comfort she was back to herself. Thank God for protection! Thank God she didn't fall backwards i.e. head down!! This is a great reminder that we need to change her on the floor and not on the counter anymore. If we change her on the counter, we must be there to make sure she don't fall off again. I am putting on my thinking cap on how to set up the changing station on the floor. :) For the time being, we put her on the longer side of the table.

You can see I'm holding her leg although snapping a photo. ;)

This one is safer as the baby cot was just next to her, if she roll to her right, she would fall into the cot. The cot was temporary moved back into our bedroom because my brother & sister in law were staying over with us over the weekend. We let them stay in the skyroom. :D

We took Jasmine back to Muar again. :D

Once we arrived, Jasmine's fans were already waiting. Everyone gathered to take a good look at her. :D

And helped to change diaper. :D

And then after we all bathed, we can't help but to take another family photo! :D I'm determined to make this a tradition - whenever back in muar = family photo. Hehe.

Sunday morning, Anne took my mum for a CT scan at the Muar Hospital. Cut long story short, Anne took my mum for a full body check up in Malacca in December 2013. There were 3 things highlighted - she has bacteria in stomach called helicobacter pylori to which she was subscribed 2 weeks' antibiotics; spotted a small cyst on her left breast -- too small to do biopsy, to return in 3 months time for another ultrasound to check whether it gets bigger to assess the need to remove it; CA 19.9 reading is very high which indicate that there might be tumor in pancreas. The CT scan was to check her pancreas thoroughly. The result came out the next day - apparently it was a cyst in her uterus which grew when she was pregnant with my brother.. something like that.. so conclusion she's safe, she's clear. All she need to do now is to drink more water, eat healthy and do more exercises. Thank God!!

When we were at the back garden with Jasmine in that morning... my heart was filled with worries, I kept praying... praying that God will heal her, that God's blessings will cover her...

Anne said that my mum told her she has decided to drink more water (it used to be like forcing her to drink poison I'm not exaggerating) in order to maintain good health because "我要看小黄长大" Ahhh... God please bless my mum! Such a good hearted lady...

My mum bought so many clothes for Jasmine, including this cute sleeping gown. Someone gave us a cute gown, mum loves the look on Jasmine. She says looks like the kids in Willie Wonka. She bought 2 more online.. and a dress. She was so excited about it and called Anne several times to share the joy. Haha.

This is the dress. It's very expensive. -_- I can't stop her from over-spending, no one could. Because she would say 我爽。

Jasmine was sleeping.. but my mum couldn't resist but to put the dress on her to see how she would look in it.

She touched her so much until Jasmine woke up. Haha..

Ah Ma so proud of you Jasmine!

Morning, just before going out to office, my mum asked Joshua to snap a photo of her with Jasmine. :) If you know my mum, she will be the last person who wants to appear in a photo. I guess, Jasmine is really changing her! :D

Even at breakfast she will carry Jasmine. :) Precious precious.

This girl had very little sleep, and that morning she just fell asleep on me in the car. The journey to office was so short, I had to wake her up from her cute beauty sleep. Mummy helped snap this photo. I taught her how to focus hehe..

We were all in office, Joshua watched football with Jasmine..

And then Ah Ma couldn't help but to show her some kids videos on youtube. Look at those sleepy eyes! It was very hard to get this girl to sleep this weekend.

That night, we all watched movie while Ah Ma finally rocked her to sleep & let her sleep comfortably on Ah Ma's stomach until the movie ended. :)

Oops. Look at the 3 red spots on her face - mosquitoe bites! It's not itchy but definitely made her look pitiful.

We have an impromptu photo session at the back garden hehe.. featuring Jasmine's big belly! Woo hoo!

My mum came out and pulled her blue flower plant right at the stone chair so that it can be photographed. Haha.... Jasmine those blue flowers are planted by Ah Ma you know. :)

We have skylight in the kitchen and Joshua thinks it's one of the best spots for photos.

Here's another shot from the wet kitchen. :D

And then we changed diaper and Joshua took this candid of me. So ugly -_- I didn't know I make such faces!!!!

Here's selfless sacrificial mum in kitchen, making drinks for everyone. She's always making drinks for people... :) She likes to serve than to be served.

This trip home, I laughed a lot. Because I spotted new things in mum's kitchen. This slap chop.

This new drying rack and a steamer net. When I asked mum where she bought these, she just replied "Lelong dot com!" Hahahaha.. she said she's quite hooked to online shopping and because we stopped her from over spending on Jasmine, she had to divert to other things, thus she looked into kitchen items. :D Isn't my mum IN?

My brother is very fond of Jasmine too. :) He helps to rock her to sleep or play with her... or rush to finish up his meal so that he can carry the cranky Jasmine while we're all still eating.

Only in Muar, you see adults lining up to carry Jasmine. :P

Friday night (17 Jan 2014), during homes we realised Jasmine has slight fever. We fed her fever medicine.. and I tried the wet towel thing to help bring her temperature down. We kept checking her temperature throughout the night, 38, 37, 36, 37.... Thank God her temperature came down to about 36 by morning.

Mummy and kor kor came, because we are all attending my sister in law's sister's wedding.

Me doing last feed before entering the car. It was so hard to find formal clothes to wear that can breastfeed. I'm glad I figured soemthing out without buying new clothes. :D

Here we all are. Jasmine is wearing that expensive dress specially purchased from US!

She always tend to grab her dress and put into her mouth.

Attempted a family portrait while waiting for ceremony to start.

It's a garden wedding.

I tried to rock her to sleep..

And Anne & mummy was cracking some jokes about my brother's mother in law's name - Ah Hiah. :P

Xio Di? Ah Hiah? Nao Hiah?

Family photo. The balloons made this place looks so dreamy. :)

This is my brother's father in law. :)

During dinner, Jasmine was cranky.. kor kor offered to carry her also. Hehe.

Joshua tried entertaining her with piano playing.

Maybe Jasmine was still not feeling well, she cried a lot that night during dinner, we had to take turns to carry her and rock her.... so moments after they serve desserts, we head home.

This is how my mum ensure the sick baby is kept warm. :)

I was unwell for few days, and Jasmine got the viral infection from me. Despite the fever touching 38 degrees few times, she also had flu and sorethroat. She would cough so loud even in her sleep and we could hear her from downstairs. It's very cute but heart breaking at the same time. She also vomitted few times, and her eyes were always full of the yellow sticky discharge. On the first day, I took EL to take care of her at home. She was miserable because of blocked nose so we suck out the mucus from her nostrils. Joshua took off on second day to take care of her. Third day she was back to baby sitter. Lian was an expert in caring for sick babies so we really thank God.

Look at the watery eyes filled with the sticky discharge. :(

We suspect her vomits are her phlegms. Because she doesn't know how to clear her phlegm yet so she swallows all... whenever we could see the phlegm in her mouth when she coughs, we will grab it and pull the sticky thing out as much as we could.

We took her to the ss15 paedetrician, she weighed 6.1kg. Doctor gave this medicine to help with her flu. After giving her 2 doses I feel she is weaker.. and I asked my pharmacist friend Boon Wei, only to find out this medicine is only suitable for babies more than 2 years old! It has risk of slowing down her breathing! We immediately stop giving her and let her body fight the flu germs herself.

Funny thing she had green poop for the first time. But it doesn't mean anything serious, I'm guessing the medicine?

At night when Jasmine was disturbed by blocked nose and phlegms or couldn't open eyes due to the discharge, she would cryyyyyy and we had to help her. I tried to comfort her and let her sleep vertically on me, while I try to do sit sleeping. It's like kung fu, I did that for few nights. I got up in morning having body aches but is all worthwhile because Jasmine could sleep longer. :)

This girl has started to learn to grab things this month! My t-shirt, napkins, the elephant soft toy...

We realised at her age she should've learnt to flip but she haven't, probably because we put her in the rocker all the time. I realised it was a wrong move so we now have officially changed our system to always putting her on the playmat, so she can kick, move and discover more move patterns freely. We try to put more toys around her so she can learn up the toys too. It's just a beginning, we're really new at this, so lets hope she will start to flip and start to play toys in this area... :) Fingers cross!