cute pig ?

We have this 6 week old at home who sucks with such ferocity that vacuum cleaner manufacturers would like to examine his prowess. He is like a sponge soaking up everything around him - Colours, light, shapes, movement, sound and "directed" words are just some of the things that seize his attention.

He has 3 different call signs now.

Uhu .. aha ha ahuh .. yeah baby, aha huh - ahuh: that would mean "daddy warm up the milk" and in the mean time "mummy change my nappy" [AKA I have a surprise for you in my nappy].

Prr prr.. UuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuMMMMMMMMMMmmmm: that would mean, "I am organising your Christmas gift, please open nappy in 5 mins" [AKA I might pee on you anyway when you open. Thank me if you have been thirsty]

Any other noise such as AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhh Ah yuuuuuu: that would mean, "no my testicles have not fallen off, but I cry as if they have regardless" – nothing you can do daddy-o.

So, it is 11:30pm. Call sign [1] from Agastya. Daddy does his bit, warms up the milk. Mommy – what mommy? Still snoring instead of changing nappies? Ok, I do that anyway as I realise Monica is mighty tired from handing the Indo-Chinese Elvis impersonator through the day. I feed him after his nappy change and half way through his feed he decides he has had enough. You leave that bottle in his mouth for an additional minute and a half just to make sure he does not want to resume. Time to wind him? Yes, you bet. It took me 57 minutes to make him burp yesterday. He did not bother burping, I could see him squirm and he is largely uncomfortable. He finally decides to throw up a bit and I am very relieved. I curse all the Gods for making the little one uncomfortable and giving me a hard time.

As mentioned above, he feeds like an ogre. He could feed 3 ounces a few times and then when you least look forward to, might decide to avariciously devour 10 ounces. You do not know if he has had enough. Feeding on demand has a new connotation. I try to be scientific, adding number of ounces he has had already divided by the number of hours since morning – multiply that by a fudging factor, check for sudden change in humidity or room temperate. Nothing works. I notice Monica and her mother affectionately call him "sayang" and I think "hello, you have a piggy in your hands". When I lift him, very occasionally in an irate mood, he would give you this one-look at which time you, without delay, feel guilty for even thinking or saying something unkind. He indeed is precious. He has started to smile and you could see a few of his photos from the private gallery.

My poor little fingers

Typing with one hand at the moment therefore it's slower than usual at the moment. My index and middle fingers are sore because of what happened this afternoon. It's entirely my fault. I was cooking on the hob, switched the hob off and removed the pan from the hob. My mom wants her croissant warmed in the grill, so I took the grill pan from the grill, put it on the hob (which was still very hot at that time) and put the croissant on the grill pan. Then when i wanted to put the grill pan back inside the grill, I didn't realise my two poor fingers were touching the under-side of the grill-pan!!! *can still feel the shock at that time*
Never swore in front of my mom before, but that time I just had to keep saying "sit" with h inserted at appropriate place, as I quickly put down the grill pan and put my fingers under running water.

It has been more than 6 hours since the accident and the poor fingers are still sore. Luckily it was my left hand so I'm not too handicapped. I just realise, I need my two precious hands to operate my life. Even to breastpump which can be done with just one hand, was a bit of a challenge for me.

This might be my last blog before leaving to Indonesia. I won't be able to receive phone calls from my UK mobile phone. I will check my email once in a while, so do email me instead.

Special note:

* for indozone people: please update me on things happening in the forum once in a while through email, since I won't be visiting the forum while I'm in Indonesia.

** for fantasy football participants: I won't be updating my players either, so take this chance to overtake me! Or... is there anyone who wants to be the manager of Sephia football club? Send your resume via email asap. Sephia FC is currently 2nd (as has always been) in the KEKL League :D

6 week review

We went to Milton surgery yesterday to have mine and Agastya's 6 week examination. He's compoletely fine. All hips, testes, heart, eyes, etc are fine. He weighed 5.45 kg (75th centile). This time the doctor measured his length which was 58 cm (75th centile). His head circumference was 39 cm (50th centile). Glad to have some sort of reassurance that he's growing very well.

He's been producing all sorts of different sounds lately (I mean more than before), and he can return my smile now :D I find him more enjoyable to hold although he's getting heavy every day I need to get some exercise to get myself fit. His weight has taken its toll on my hands (especially my left arm) and my back. I really look forward to going home to Indonesia and get myself some soothing massage all over my body!

The doctor suggested not to limit his feed 3 hourly, and give him milk whenever he wants. Around 3 months his behaviour towards feeding will change anyway. I'll try and see how this "on-demand" feed work.

I'm a bit worried about the flight. The doctor said not to put anything in his ear (cotton wool/ear plug, etc). She said breastfeeding will eliminate the chance of getting ear pain. What scares me is that he'll cry frantically throughout the flight, I'll get some angry annoyed stares from the whole passengers and air-hostesses. Wish me luck!!!!

Oh baby!

Agastya seems to be very smart and cunning, but clueless as well sometimes. He sleeps when we want him to eat and he doesn't want to sleep when we desperately want him to sleep. He has this Elvis Presley "uh-huh-huh" noise most of the time when he's annoyed. [His hairstyle nowadays matches Elvis' too!]. He feeds like a cookie monster. We're trying to regulate his feeding time so that it's 3 hours between feeding in the afternoon (yes, we are cruel). Otherwise he just keeps his "feeding for little now and have a little bit again later" habit which we don't like. We'd rather him feeding continuously for 6 oz and satisfied. If it's not 3 hours yet, I go and put on this baby carrier and take him around the block for half an hour at least. Somehow he doesn't mind the cold and sleeps all the way! I have a photo to proof:

It works like a charm everytime. As I'm writing now, Nagi's walking him around the block. You see why I get the chance to blog now! :D

He also finds bath time relaxing. Especially if we massage baby oil all over his body afterwards.

I seem to be obsessed with breast pump since my breast keeps producing milk all the time. I definitely need more than one. First we bought this Avent Isis Breast Pump, which is great and works very well but it's manual and I thought 30 minutes of breast pumping 4 times a day is quite tiring. I need a spare pump anyway because the sterilising business also making it impossible to have just one. I would end up pumping and sterilising the whole day! Hence I bought another one, Babies'R'Us breast feeding system, which is okay but it takes the same amount of time as the Avent Isis, and it makes my nipples sore. Another trip to Babies'R'Us. I saw this Tommy Tippee Freedom Breast Pump and bought it, and what a blunder that was! It doesn't work at all. Maybe the cup doesn't fit my breast properly or something, but it just doesn't work for me. I tried it for 10 minutes and milk just splashed everywhere, and only less than half an ounce went inside the bottle. I was so annoyed. It could work for others though, maybe my breast is just weird. So if anyone wants to try it, I'm willing to give it away for free, since I'm not going to be using it.

There's one thing good coming out from buying that Tommy Tippee breast pump though. The pack came with Tommy Tippee breast pads, which I found excellent. I tried
Avent Disposable Ultra Comfort Breast Pads and Johnson's, this Tommy Tippee is the best. I've even tried Avent Isis Comfort Breast Shells, Avent washable breast pads. I have itchy breast (not the nipples though) problem. I think it started out because I used Avent's and Johnson's breast pads. I needed to use something to keep milk from leaking all over the place. The breast shells make it less itchy but when the breasts are full, the shells become full very quickly too, hence leaking all over the place. Doesn't really solve the problem, does it? The washable breast pads don't make it itchy either, but i keep changing them at least twice a day, they become impractical. This Tommy Tippee breast pads don't make my breast itchy for some reason, and they're big, enough to cover the whole area so they prevent leakage better.

Agastya is doing very well. On his 3.5 week when he was weighed last time by the Health Visitor, he weighed 4.5 kgs, 1 kg more than when he was born. I bet he's at least 5 kgs now, because I can feel he's becoming heavier and heavier everyday, it hurts my tiny hands everytime I lift him (which I do very often since he needs to be winded a lot of times during the feed). My mom said when I was a baby, so were my two sisters, after feeding and burping, we were all satisfied and went to sleep. My Agastya is no ordinary baby. After feeding (a lot), he will need some good burping, and there he'll burp, then he'll want some more milk, and some more burping, and this will go on and on until he thinks he's satisfied.

Oh, before I forget, for those who celebrate, I know it's a little bit early, but as you all find out I don't get a lot of chance to blog nowadays, so Happy Chinese New Year!