Envious

I was just telling my husband how this woman that was paying in front of me at the cashier at Mothercare gave me such low self-esteem. She was a mother of a 9 month old baby girl (since she was buying a ton of stuff for baby girls at size 9 mths), was slim, had perfect make-up, had on a nice outfit, nice color tudung (hijab), wore a baby belly band that matched her tudung color over her sort-of tight jeans to cover her ass (wish I had thought of this myself since muslim women aren't supposed to wear tight-fitting clothes that show off their butt). She had a huge Fendi handbag (the type of huge handbags that I love), and spent $957 in one receipt and around $800 in another! This lady even had the time to curl her eyelashes and put on mascara. I never ever have time to do this. Ever. Especially now with my baby girl always complaining when I take too long to get ready. Obviously this lady has a maid or a nanny to help her watch the baby while she spends time getting ready to go out or putting on make-up, or when she spends a gazillion dollars shopping. Her top was only EDC but still... I loved that belly band idea... I have lots of short tops, but not like I can fit in them anymore post-pregnancy.

Just before I got married I was 58kg. Now I am... yikes! I rather not say, but still a long way from 58kg. During the last year of Uni, and when I first started working for the company I am working in now, I was 48 kg. Just a few months before that I was 45kg because I worked in a high-stress job (equity analyst). Then my weight ballooned up and down, til the last months before my wedding when I prayed for God to make me lose weight. And He made me lactose intolerant (which I never was before), and I puked up everything each time I ate cheese, chocolate or drank milk.

Now it's almost 6 months after delivery, and sad to say I only lost 10kg from what I originally weighed on my delivery day. Haish. How do ppl do it? I breastfeed daily. I sit on my ass all day in front of a PC just like other new moms, and yet they are still slimmer than me. WTF am I doing wrong man? Eesh.

Now the sad part is my breasts are 2 sizes bigger than pre-pregnancy but have lost their perkiness, and are so gravity-bound that I feel like a grandma. Haish. I really need to work out! But I have no maid, no nanny, and my little girl doesn't let me have any free time whatsoever. Not even to fold the laundry! Which are washed, but sit for 2 weeks in the laundry basket collecting wrinkles.

This is the life of a poor, nanny-less mom who's seen better days...

Complaining?

My little girl is now nearly 6 months old, and just over the weekend she has started to make a new sound, which my husband and I have dubbed "the complaining sound." It's a cross between a growl and a cry. It sounds something like "grrrrr" but not quite. She does it in between cries, but she is not crying, she is complaining. We wonder where she learned this! We imagine it is from school, but I believe it's something innate. My husband says that I make a similar noise when I complain, but it is much different from the one Salma makes.

 

However, she makes the growling sound so often now that it's getting irritating. We always tell her to stop. But like she knows what "stop" is...

 

She will growl at us when we don't pick her up quick enough, or growl at me when I am not quick enough in giving her milk... haish... I can't wait for her to just start talking.

Fun baby outfits

Having a baby girl is lots of fun! Especially when it comes to dressing up. The other day, I was shopping and came across these cute bug outfits for baby girls! One was a butterfly romper suit with wings and a hood that had antennae, and one was a dress that looked like a ladybug. Also with antennae. They were too cute to miss out, so I bought both at MYR 22.90 each. My lil baby poppet wore the butterfly outfit straight away and we had a lot of fun with her in it!

 

Baby girls are fun that way. You can dress them up in silly things and they still look cute! If I dress her up to look like a caterpillar, she'd still look cute! Now I am for the look out for little skirts. The short ones where her tushie sticks out. Haven't found them yet. If you know of any, drop me a comment and let me know. (And no, I haven't went round to Mothercare yet...)

First meal

My baby girl had her first meal last weekend. Which wasn't actually her first meal, because I know she's had small bites secretly while not with me, but she had her first actual full meal with me last weekend. It was one tablespoon of rice cereal mixed with formula, and me and my husband were so amused at how "pro" she was at eating! It's as if she's been eating from a spoon all her life. She's 5 month's plus. She finished the entire serving and actually loves it.

So now I'm all chuffed and getting all pumped about letting her taste her first banana. Now I'm also excited about looking for a hand-held food processor or food puree-er (i know that's not a word). I want to puree for her green peas, which is my own favorite comfort food. I love eating green peas cooked with butter and onions. But for her just the peas I think. I am really excited about her eating. She always so wants to eat when we eat... and now she can.

So now, the list of things to buy for baby just gets bigger... high chair, food processor, those plastic bibs with the "bowl" at the end...

She fell off the bed!

Salma fell off the bed last night for the first time! Wakakaka. It was around 3 am. I've been expecting this to happen ever since she started rolling over on her own (and from all the input that experienced moms have been giving me), and was less surprised about it than my husband, who seemed pretty shocked and pissed off that it happened. If you haven't guessed, she still sleeps with us, and I haven't gotten round to training her to sleep on her own in the cot for the entire night yet. Usually she sleeps in the center, but sometimes I switch breasts for night feeds, and when she falls asleep on the other side, I usually don't move her back to the middle.

She is quite a lasak baby. And I haven't figured out what the English translation of the word "lasak" is yet, but it means "cannot sit still". But I don't think she was asleep when she fell off, I think she must have been awake for quite some time and was rolling around until she fell off with a resounding "thud!" The "thud" sound woke me up and then the screaming cry. I picked her up off of the floor and my husband quickly grabbed her from me (as if I was the one that pushed her off the bed), and started to soothe her by carressing her head gently. She stopped crying and looked more shocked than hurt. She was uninjured, but continued to look shocked while I fed her. The funny thing was, she didn't fall parallel to the bed as I'd expected, but perpendicular to it. I just couldn't help laughing to myself because I knew this was going to happen, just as it happened to me, and my little brother and sister while we were growing up. I remember my brother fell off the bed several times. And each time he pretended that it didn't happen. Can you imagine a baby that was embarrassed about falling off the bed, or embarrassed about pooping in his diaper in public (he had to hide behind a curtain or a pillar)... that was my little brother when he was a baby.

Salma was giggling after half an hour. She didn't go back to sleep straight away. I cradled her for awhile before dozing off myself. And she went right back to sleep. I sincerely hope she remembers that she fell off, and how she fell off, so that she won't try to do it again. I don't know how a baby's memory works at 5 months, but I sure hope she remembers something of the experience so as not to repeat it, cos I let her lie on the bed by herself with pillows as barriers while I am doing other stuff in the room. I sometimes spread the duvet on the floor for her to roll around too. But I will probably start training her to sleep in the cot in earnest now. hehe.

Can see the trend now

Now I can see that every time baby Salma gets a new vaccination, she will get sick with fever (and whatever else) one day later. On the day of the vaccination itself, she will be fine. But come the next morning, she'll be all achey. So here I am again, at home taking care of my little one. The last injection was for infections. So she's caught herself an infection... chesty cough with phlegm. Poor thing doesn't know how to spit it out.

Yesterday, the neo-natal nurse at her school advised me to give her one teaspoon of orange juice every so often for her regular dose of vitamin C, to fight off colds. And I was like... oh yeah, why didn't I think of that?? Salma now and again gets a runny nose (which she inherited from one of her parents, but I won't mention who.. haha..). So yesterday, me and my husband, we were all excited to give her her first taste of orange juice. He tried to find the juice without any pulp, and was unsuccessful. We usually drink Tropicana, but it's got pulp, so he bought Peel Fresh instead, which has considerably less pulp. Then we gave her a little with a spoon and a syringe. She didn't really like it. In fact, she spat it out! Haha. But then this morning, I bought an orange Capri Sun for myself, and since it did not have any pulp, I let her taste some, and she likes it! She had a big smile on her face and asked for more. So I gave her a little bit more. And that was it. I didn't want her to get a stomach ache.

My husband and I drink Ribena at home, and each time I pour myself a glass, she will be reaching her hand out to "help" me hold my glass. She'll leave her hand on the glass while I'm drinking, and she'll let go once I'm done. Maybe this time I'll let her taste it just a little bit. She's curious about foods now, but we were advised by doc to wait til the 6 months mark. I am excited to start feeding her solid food, because each time we have lunch or dinner, she's always making a sad face about being left out. She'll ask us to eat closer to her (like if we're at the dining table and she's lying on her duvet on the floor 10 feet away, she'll call us to sit next to her). And I always oblige. I'll bring my plate to the coffee table and eat there and she'll watch my food. One day we were having those humongous burgers they serve at Carl's Jr, and she was sitting on my lap watching me eat the whole time, and holding the wax paper wrapper of the burger. Poor thing. She wants some.

I just don't want my baby to grow obese you know, after she starts eating. I see a lot of fat infants walking around in the shopping malls. One of my colleagues has a niece that's 3 years old, but she's as big (and fat) as a 5 year old, and that's scary. Her peers will make fun of her when she starts school, you know how mean kids are, and that's not what I want for my child. I want her to be able to fit in, and be sporty, and just be well-liked instead of ostracized. When I was in school, the fat kids were always left out. And that's sad. It makes them depressed and want to eat more instead of finding ways to improve their self-esteem. Well, I'm fat now I think. But trying my very best not to become overweight. Hope we're able to teach our child good eating habits.