Aston's Progress @ 7 Months

 I'm shy to admit that this post is way outdated.  In another 16 days Aston will be 8 months! Time really does pass by with just a blink of an eye.  I've been busy lately with Aston demanding more of my time and also cooking.  Yes, it's been a while since I step foot into the kitchen.   Ever since my FIL went for his long holiday I've decided to brush up my cooking skills and at the same time give myself a test whether I can be a typical housewife (ie ensure all 3 meals are taken care at home rather than eating out).  Well on this matter, I must say I'm quite proud of myself that I manage to do it all 3 meals most of the days with the help from our house maid of course!  I even did meal planning on a weekly basis so that I don't need to go in and out of supermarket.  

Anyway, back to Aston.  Looking at him really confirms that he's grown so much over the last 6 months.  He's also much more demanding and very vocal! Well, he's able to turn very quickly and infact it was so quick that he fell off the bed once.  It was lucky that he fell onto the side where I've placed his playing mat and at the same time hubby was sleeping there so hubby's bolster cushion his fall.  Nevertheless, my heart skipped a beat the moment I heard the 'thump'.  Hubby quickly picked him up and hold him tight as he was crying his lungs out but he stopped just less than 3 minutes after consoling him.  You must be wondering where was I and why I left him on the bed without supervision...well I was on the bed with him but I was too distracted with the iPad and I lost concentration from supervising him.  Yes..lousy mother I am.  The whole time every now and then I will look at him making sure he's never at the edge of the bed but just that one minute my worst nightmare happen....A very big lesson I learnt here.  So ever since that incident, unless I am going to lie on the bed watching him the whole time without any distractions I will not place him on the bed.  I will put him on the floor mat to play instead.

Back to more happy occasions, Aston's been taking his solid food really well and loves it to bits.  He's been introduce to quite a variety of food and vegetables but there's still so much more to go! Up to date, this is what I've introduced him:-

 1. Sweet potato

 2. Broccoli

 3. Pumpkin

 4. Cauliflower

 5. Avocado (he hates it)

 6. Banana

 7. Apple

 8. Baby Spinach

 9. Potato

10.Pear

Typically, his daily routine is as below:-

7.00am              Wakes up

7.15am              Breakfast  (7oz milk)

7.30-8.00am      Walk around the garden

8.00-8.15am      He watch Brainy Baby while I quickly freshen up

9.00-10.00am    Morning nap and I quickly have my breakfast

10.30-11.00am  Morning snack (usually I will feed him fruits/vegetable puree that I have not introduced him before)

11.00-12.00pm Play time

12.00-12.30pm Lunch (7oz milk)

1.00-3.30pm     Afternoon nap

3.30-5.00pm    Play time

5.00-5.30pm    Dinner (Vegetable puree + Rice cereal mix with 2oz milk)

6.00pm            Bath time

7.00pm            Last feed for the day (7oz milk)

7.30pm            I have my dinner

8.30pm            Put Aston to bed

This is how he moves around on the bed by pushing his butt up and kicking the bed

His disapproval of Cauliflower

Enjoying his personal hair wash 

I am 7 months old today and I can reached out for things

Enjoying his time in the tub

Being hormonal again??

I've been feeling very emotional again lately.  Not too sure whether it's due to my hormones or it's just me full stop.  When people say our lives will definitely change when a new bundle of joy arrives well it is very true.  It is so true to the extend that it had affected me so much that nothing else in the world matters except for Aston.  Not even my husband matters to me anymore.

At times, I even felt that his presence is not important anymore as long as I have Aston with me.  I know this sounds very bad but it's true.  Some days especially weekends if we're all at home, I rather he is not at home and out with his mates because I felt that he's disrupting our daily routine.  Perhaps I'm just being too rigid and doesn't like it when the day doesn't go according to schedule.

Sadly, I really feel that I'm drifting away from my husband.  Here I am crying by myself composing this blog while my son is taking his nap.  How sad can my life be? I never expected an addition to the family will affect me this way.  The three of us should be a happy family but somehow I do not feel that happiness.  I see friends who have children and are still such loving couple but here I am thinking that my husband is not important.  Sometimes, I don't even feel like talking to him so I choose to hide in the room and sleep or just mingle with the ipad till I'm tired.  At times, I even wish that we don't sleep in the same room! Should I see a shrink? or perhaps maybe I should return to work and life will be better for me?

Why must I feel this way? Why can't I just be happy and contented that I'm so lucky I do not have to work and can spend time with my son while others doesn't have the opportunity to do so?

Another Achievement by Aston........

Two weeks ago, I started Aston on semi-solid food as advised by his paed.  I started off with rice cereal.  I am a lazy mother so I bought instant rice cereal instead of boiling porridge for him.  Well, the doctor did mentioned that the first time attempts they may just take just a few teaspoon or may not even take in any ! Anyway, went to Cold Storage and bought Earth's Best Organic Rice Cereal.

According to the packaging, it is USDA organic which means no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides.  It is made with whole grains and iron fortified.  Most importantly, there's no added salt, sugar, flavours, colours or preservatives.

As advice, by the doctor we must introduce one food at a time and test it out for a few days just incase there's any allergy reaction.  I tested the rice cereal with milk/breastmilk for 4 days.  I was very excited more than Aston himself during the first feeding as I do not know what to expect.  It was a pity that I didn't manage to take any photos because I was feeding him alone and I couldn't handle holding my camera and feeding him at the same time.  Anyway, the first feed I made it rather watery to see how he reacts to being spoon fed.  The first spoonful I put it near him and he didn't know what to do so I touched his lips and left some cereal for him to taste.  Second spoon I tried to open his mouth with the spoon with a little bit of cereal.  Third spoon he's beginning to get the hang and start sucking out of the spoon.  It was so funny because when he sucks the cereals started flying everywhere and then he will give this big smile telling me that he's enjoying himself.  He managed to finish everything on the first trial itself which is just one tablespoon of rice cereal.  Second day he was still sucking out from the spoon but I tried to get him to open his mouth everytime the spoon is near him and tip the cereal into his mouth.  He didn't had any problems swallowing so I thicken the cereal slightly and he enjoy every bit of it! 

After the fourth day, I moved on to sweet potato puree.  I made the puree myself.  I bought some organic japanese sweet potato from Jusco and used the Thermomix to steam and puree it.  

Thermomix

All I had to do was to put the sweet potato into the steaming basket (the little basket in the picture) put in some water into the stainless steel pot/jug and steamed for 25minutes (until soft).  Then I poured the water away and put in the sweet potato into the stainless steel pot/jug and puree away! I then freeze them using ice-cube tray and once frozen I transfer it into ziplock bag for storage in the freezer.  So everytime, I just take out one or two cubes and warm it up using the bottle/food warmer.  

All geared up waiting for his food 

Yum Yum Yum!!

More more more!!

Yummy sweet potato I like!

Home made Sweet Potato Puree

Can't wait for the spoon to go in

Finished and satisfied!

As you can see, he no longer sucks from the spoon.  He will eagerly open his mouth waiting for the delicious sweet potato to be fed to him.  At this very moment, I've moved on to broccoli and it is very obvious that he doesn't enjoy it as much as the sweet potato.  Nevertheless, today is the 3rd day on broccoli and he manage to finish one cube which I'm very happy.  Will try to upload photos him eating broccoli if papa can help us take photos again.

Aston's First Sickness...... :(

Never did I expected Aston's first sickness to be so severe.  I was expecting more common sickness like cold or cough but sadly Aston's first sickness was Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).  I was in shocked firstly to discover his urine was no longer yellow but brownish on the diaper and it has a strong smell.  I told papa about it and he said maybe he's heaty.  I knew deep down that something is not right about Aston because I also noticed that he showed discomfort for a few seconds and after that sudden outburst he will be fine.  So I told papa I suspect he's in pain when peeing.  Anyway, I didn't want to push it to papa to bring him to the hospital because I know papa will think that I'm over-reacting.  So I told him, we'll see what happens after lunch if still no improvement we will go see doctor.

After lunch, I told papa to check his diaper and he found a few droplets of blood on the diaper.  I told papa to just maintain the diaper as we need to show it to the doctor.  So off we went to Aston's paed in Pantai and told him what happen.  We had to take a sample of Aston's urine and the doctor suggested that we do an ultrasound to make sure everything is OK in terms of his kidney down to his bladder.

The urine test came back there's bacteria in the urine and thankfully the ultrasound shows that everything is normal.  So doctor said that it's probably a bacteria infection.  I asked how does he get the infection and doctor said Uti is hard to tell.  It's either through the blood it enters the kidney or through the penis up to the bladder.  He mentioned that there's always bacteria around that area and usually even if they go up to the bladder, the bacteria will be out when we pee.  The infections comes about when the bacteria manage to stay in the bladder and start to breed.  Anyway, doctor prescribe Aston antibiotics (Augmentin) for one week while waiting for the lab to culture the urine to see what type of bacteria it is.  It turns out that it is E.Coli.

Aston is a very strong boy.  Eventhough he was sick he didn't show any signs of sickness at all except for the discomfort.  Usually symptoms of UTI is unexplained fever (no cough or cold).  I guess it was a blessing in disguise that it was quite severe to the extend that there's blood in his urine for us to find out he was not well because he did not have fever.  Otherwise, we would not have known that he was not well and I cannot imagine if it was not detected early.  After the trip to the hospital his urine was back to clear yellow but the smell was still not normal.  Noticed that the smell lasted for about 5 days.  He was also very cooperative in taking in his medication.

One week later, we went back to check his urine and thank god that the bacteria has been cleared.  Yayyy!
 

Aston's Progress @ 6months

Aston turned 6 months last week and to me all of a sudden he sound so grown up.  He's no longer the small little baby that just eats, poop and sleep.  I must say he is one matured little boy.  He loves being around people but it does not mean that you have the permission to hold him.  Yes he has developed separation anxiety.  He just like to listen to adult conversations as if he's part of the conversation.  He will be even more delighted if we include him in the conversation.

I Tried watching babyTv on Astro with him but he don't seem to be interested at all.  I even bought Brainy baby DVD's and that also couldn't really capture him.  At most he will sit for 20 minutes but out of 20 minutes only 8-10 minutes he was watching.  The other times he will look around and try to squirm out of his chair.

Anyway, I decided to make his 6 months old a memorable one by bringing him to his first appointment.  The appointment is to the barber.  Yes, my FIL need to make appointment with his barber to cut Aston's hair.  Both papa and I was very excited for his first hair cut.  I even brought some toys for distraction just in case he started screaming at the top of his lungs.  When we arrived at the barber I carried Aston and sat on the chair.  (It was my first time sitting on a barber's chair too!!) The barber cover Aston up and we told him the style that we want.  Aston was trying to look at the barber when he started touching his head.  Daddy quickly took the toy out to distract him.  Half way through Aston had the urge to bite so papa gave him his fingers.  I think papa was very nervous I told papa to give him his teether he end up giving him his pacifier! Anyway, at the end of it all 3 of us yeh yeh, papa and me were so proud because Aston did not shed a tear.  We quickly went home and papa gave Aston a quick bath to rinse all the hair away and I also had to take shower because I was covered with Aston's hair and we went to Gardens to have lunch.

Before leaving the house to go for his haircut

After his first Haircut 

Another achievement at 6 months is mummy drove Aston to visit greatgrandpapa, grandmama & grandpapa at Bukit Rimau just the two of us! Aston behaved very well.  I was very nervous at first but when I arrived at Bukit Rimau I felt so proud of myself.  Anyway, I fed Aston his lunch and make sure that his diapers are changed before leaving the house.  I couldn't see him because the car seat is rear facing and he is sitting at the backseat.  I gave him his beanbag and a toy hoping that it will keep him occupied.  Anyway, he did not make a noise and somewhere in between he fell asleep.  It was a pleasant drive I must admit.  As for the returned journey, he fell asleep again.  I even went to Gardens once just the two of us to have lunch and we had a short walk because he started getting a little bit cranky sitting in the stroller so I left.  

Found him in this position after arriving home from one of our outing

Aston's Progress @ 5months

I haven't been blogging for a few weeks now mainly because Aston been super cranky.  It was so bad that I didn't even bother switching on the laptop like how I used to do because I know for sure I won't have time to do anything on it.  I suspect that it was due to his teething that he's been in a foul mood the moment he is awake.

At 5 months, Aston can now turn over from back to tummy with his hand stuck occasionally.  When he's in the mood he will babble all sorts of sound that will crack you up when you listen.  On top of that, he can now throw tantrums by shouting really loud with his hands hitting the bed and legs kicking.  He's feeding was unpredictable because he does not finish his feed anymore.  At times, he will ask for feed 2 or 3 hours from his last feed at times he can drink 6oz!  He knows how to use his hands to push away the bottle when he doesn't want his milk so I do not force him to finish it because all he does is just spit it all out.

Doctor said that he can start having semi-solid food once he complete his 6 months.  Couldn't imagine how fast time flies.  My hubby reminded me that I've stopped work for 6 months now and I still can't believe that I'm now a stay at home mama!

This is how Aston looks like at 5 months...

Grandmama, Great grandpapa & Aston

I left him lying on his back...went to throw his diaper and this is what I came back to.....

Turned by himself without getting his hands stuck

Confession of a Full Time Mama

I've been a full time mama coming to 5 months now and I must say it has definitely changed my life.  Friends told me that it's not easy being a full time mama both mentally and physically.  They rather return to their full time job than being a stay at home mother.  Well, I fully agree with them.  It is exhausting at times especially when Aston is cranky.  This is the time where you wish someone is there to relief you just for an hour or so to sober up unfortunately being a full time mama I do not have that privilege.  Like it or not I just have to turn a deaf ear to Aston's cries and continue my "work" which never ends.  When you're working you can still look forward to the time where you're off for the day or weekends or looking forward to long weekends or public holidays.  Well, sad to say all this does not mean anything anymore because whether it's a weekday or weekend it does not make any difference.

Well, I've always wonder why people always say that once you are a stay at home mum you will automatically be categorize under the "Aunty" or worst "Si-lai" group.  Now I fully comprehend! First of all dressing up or putting on make up is only reserved for special occasion.  Why? Before we step out of the house we need to get Aston ready (ie feed/change/prepare his next feed to bring along etc etc) which usually take about 30-45minutes to completely get him ready to leave the house.  Only after that I will go shower, pump milk, change and groom myself which usually take another 30-45minutes and all this are done in a hurry so therefore, what mood is there to dress up nicely and put on make-up when by the time you are about to leave the house you're already sweating from rushing around in the house like a mad women?  Perhaps I need to revamp my wardrobe to be more of a modern mum dressing because whatever that I had previously definitely do not suit taking care a baby.  For example, I can kiss wearing denim mini skirts goodbye because I always think that I may have a major boo boo when I bend down to pick Aston up from the stroller.  Tentatively, I still do not wear spaghetti straps or Baby-Ts because of my nursing bra.  Yes! I still cannot get over the full cup and thick bands and straps on the bra.  Hence, loose fitting tops are my best bet and when I'm at home I've conquered and took over most of papa's T-Shirts.  Definitely an "Aunty" trait there!

Second and most important is social life which at the current moment my best friend now is not even my husband but Aston.  Yes, I can forget about having yum cha sessions till wee hours in the morning with my friends or just have a nice and quiet dinner with my hubby.  We can forget about romance! Some days I think I talk more to Aston than to my hubby because by the time hubby gets home from work I'll be too tired.  Sometimes I sleep so early that I don't even see him till the next morning and when morning comes we have brunch together and he will be off to work again.  Nevertheless, because I refused to be in the "Aunty" category I still try to have short yum cha sessions with my friends.  My next step is to go out during the weekday with Aston just for the sake of not staying in the house for so many days in a week!

Well, despite what I have written above I still do enjoy being a stay at home mum.  I get to witness all of Aston's first actions.  For example, Aston's first smile, laugh, hand sucking, drool, all the coos and ahhhs.  Just like today, if I was at work I would have missed two things that Aston did.  First I actually witness he slept on his side for the very first time.  Second, I also witness he nearly manage to turn over.  I saw him struggling to turn his upper body.  He made many attempts but in the end he got stuck and called for help.  His lower half of his body was already turned over.  He's head also turned over but he couldn't turn his shoulder over.  I just helped him by pushing him a little and then he looked at me with a laugh.  It is moments like this that makes it all worthwhile.

By reading this blog you will probably think that the cons are more than the pros by being a full time mama.  For me, it is not.  To express my joy and happiness as a full time mama is hard to put in words.  You will have to experience it to know what I mean.  No matter how many happy things I write in this blog you will never truly understand until you go through it yourself.