My darling Sam is going to be 7 months real soon and she is a real sweetheart. She is babbling quite a bit and sometimes I can just make out the word mama :) pleases me to no end. She is always licking her lips and pursing her lips, looking exactly like tweety bird, so cute and lovable, I can't help but reach into the cot to pick her up. She loves peering at her sister and brother and tries to join in the fun. She is eager to crawl and tries to raise her butt in a crawling motion. Her hair that used to be all unkempt, is finally starting to grow out and this pretty little gal is looking more feminine. Life as a mum of three is tiring, yet I have no regrets at all.

That said, I think it is important to spend time as a couple. Last night, we left all 3 kids at mum's place and had a relaxing date night. We went shopping, curled up in bed watching TV and I finally had a good night's uninterrupted sleep. Definitely rejuvanating and you feel closer as a couple, a feeling that is so easy to forget when you get caught up in the daily need to balance kids and work.

Learning to let go is never easy, especially for a hands-on mum like me, but it is something I am learning to do with my firstborn. Normally, when we arrive at our abacus class, I will park the car and nat and I will walk up a short flight of stairs to her classroom on the second level. Recently though, she has been asking me to let her walk up on her own. I still park my car and stand at the side watching her. When she gets to the second level, she waves to me. Then she proceeds into her classroom. As she is rather short, I can't quite see her entering, I only see the door opening. The paranoid nature in me is always tempted to go up and check whether she has truly entered the centre, but I resist the temptation.

This afternoon, I arrived to pick her up 5 minutes late and lo and behold, she had trotted out of the classroom and was waiting for me downstairs. Freaked me out for a minute, I explained to her that it was much safer for her to wait for me in class. I guess moments like this will continue to surface as she grows older. After all, one can't be by your kids' side 24/7. The trick is to teach them what to do when they are on their own, for example, in this case, to always wait at the staircase and highlight how to be safe on the road.

An evening at the Hort Park, something I have been meaning to do for a long time now. Lying on the green grass, kicking a ball, playing with bubbles and watching the world go by. The kids are thrilled and so are we. Next stop, we are going to attempt the Southern Ridges, with all 3 kids. Wish us luck!

Blogs are nice because you can always read back on older posts and reminisce. I just did that and I'm amazed how much my baby girl nat has grown. As always, daddy and his girls share a special bond. Check out the 2 pictures, the top one is daddy and nat and the second one is daddy and sam.While Gary is a lot busier at work, I am glad for the moments he carves out just to spend time with the kids and me.

Happy 6 months, baby sam. Time seems to have just flown past. Baby sam who came into our world so fast and furiously has completed our family and is truly a joy. Nat as a baby is cute but a bit of ms grumps, Lucas is mr foodie and Sam is a sweetie, always ready to give you her signature smile. Her eyes are very expressive and twinkle when she is in a good mood. She adores her big sister who likes to try different ways to amuse her. Big bro is mostly bo chup but in the right mood he will bestow a peck on her forehead. My fave moment of the day is at night just before sam falls asleep cradled on my chest. Even after 3 kids I still enjoy watching them sleep, and hearing that little sigh of contentment as they snuggle to get comfy. Priceless!

Meet my little milkmaid, the only one of my kids who knows how to massage the breast so as to increase her own milkflow. It's really cute and amazing to watch her do it. She also suckles so strongly recently, that when I let her suckle on my arm, I end up with "love bites" from my little baby.

I love being a mum of 3 kids. You enjoy such different experiences with each and every one.

For Nat, I must admit that she is really precocious for her age. Often, I find myself having adult conversations with her and yet at other times, she is still that little baby who yearns for your love and praises. It's hard maintaining a fine balance sometimes, over-praise her and she gets too proud and complacent. I find that recently, she has been rather angsty, displaying angry and rude behaviour at times, resulting in me being very stern to her. Yet, at the back of my mind, I know that for this little girl of mine, the reasoning approach may work better, especially as she grows and matures.

My baby boy, Lucas is going to be 3 in a week's time. How fast time has flown. His latest craze is the Diego cartoon and he loves everything relating to this character. He is at such a cute age, as his character starts to emerge and his vocabulary starts to grow. Like his sister, he loves role playing and he was so thrilled when my mum rolled up a towel into a cape and placed it on his back. He ran around the house declaring he is Superboy. He is super cute when he is angry, just like yesterday, when little Sam attempted to nibble his hair. He demanded "Mei Mei, why are you biting my hair?" and little Sam was oblivious to his anger and continued showering him with saliva. When he is upset, he will sit in a little corner and pout.

Baby Sam is 5 months old and brings great joy to all of us. Her wild maned hair is finally beginning to settle down and give her another one to two months, she could even start to look more feminine. She loves rolling all over our big bed and is also attempting to get on all fours and imitate a crawling motion. She still loves it when we chat with her and your heart melts when you look into her big adoring eyes. She likes to listen to music and on nights when she has difficulty sleeping, I will dance her to sleep playing music from my iphone. Breastfeeding her has been quite a breeze and I have made it past the 5 month mark, and going strong. Come 6 months, we will start her on semi-solids, that should be fun!

Nat, the artist, loves to doodle around on pieces of A4 paper that we leave on the document tray. It is positioned at a height that is just right for the kids to help themselves to it and I have trained them not to take more than they need for a drawing session.

Here's her latest piece of artwork. I asked her to explain to me what she had drawn, so here goes:

"The orange and green house belongs to mummy, and it's green because I want it to be green. The purple lady in the picture is mummy and the green man is daddy. They are getting married, mummy has long hair and a ring on her finger (wah, check out that huge rock on my finger.) Didi and me are sleeping in the red tent with a black flag (uh, I think the tent is red in commemoration of national day, since she has been pointing out the national day flags hung up along the roadside.) The blue castle has a hole, so the rain dribbled inside. The blue house has pictures hung on the wall. And the picture right at the end shows Didi and nat packing to go Australia for a holiday. (why Australia? because I told her that we may go there for a holiday at the end of the year)". There you have it, my baby sure has a vivid imagination!

Sometimes, with a brood of 3 kids, one needs to do a lot of juggling and balancing. Making sure the kids are well fed, clothed and entertained is truly a full time job. The day passes by in a flash as you try to spend quality time with each of them. But being human, the brain sometimes fails. I forgot about Sam's pediatrician appointment yesterday. Imagine my surprise when I got a call from the clinic asking if we were coming down soon for the appointment and that was in the middle of sending Nat to abacus class. Of course, we couldn't make it. While it is something small, and appointments can be easily rescheduled, I felt a deep sense of guilt. Sigh, better start getting a notebook to pen down my kids' various appointments, since the memory seems to be going.

It's been a long time since my last blog entry. Lots of interesting things do pile up along the way, which I tell myself to blog about, but with 3 kids in tow, it's really not easy to do that. Some updates:

My house is finally beginning to look less messy. We recently rejuvenated the living room, with a spanking new bookshelf and a ceiling fan. What a great improvement. The area below the bookshelf has become a reading corner of sorts and every night, the kids gather at the carpet to read books, play with jigsaws and blocks. With this arrangement, the kids choose the books they want to read, as the children's books are all strategically placed on the lower shelves. Gary is pretty pleased too, as he gets to arrange his proud collection of wine on the upper shelves.

Natalie has started on abacus lessons recently. I thought it would be good to get her some understanding in Maths and Numbers, which have never been my strongest suit. So far, seems good, she kind of enjoys the lessons and we spend about 10-15 minutes on abacus homework every other day. This little girl of mine loves to role-play. One of her favourite activities is to play the role of a princess, and she will dance and waltz around the house. Along the way, for lack of anyone else, her baby brother gamely plays the role of a handsome prince. It's quite fun to watch the duo together.

Lucas is still my little baby boy, but he has learnt from his sister's naughty ways. When you are stern with him over bad behaviour, he will cross his arms and say "I'm angry, I don't care about you." Very cute at this stage, haha, and sometimes I can't help laughing but of course, we always tell him that this is very rude behaviour and he always apologises after. He loves building blocks and I have recently added more blocks to his small collection. He loves building high with tunnels in the middle and can be quite focused.

Baby Sam is flipping, flipping, flipping. And she loves clutching on to her pacifier, putting it in her mouth, then taking it out repeatedly. She is a real sweetheart and never forgets to give daddy a smile when he comes home from work.

It's real chaotic with 3 kids, especially when we brought all 3 to the wet market this morning. However, as I always say, the rewards surely outweigh all the tiredness and frustration, and all we need is a kiss from nat, a hug from luke or a chuckle from sam for all the tiredness to melt away.

One of the things that change when you become a parent is how you think about the future. For Wei that means squirreling away for all manner of reasons from education to travel, and doing copious amounts of research on good classes from tennis to abacus to swimming, interesting activity lessons, and assorted thigamajigs/widgets/gizmos that may prove useful when the kids get older.

I'd like to think I plan a bit more pleasurably, and for the longer term :)

An interesting quest that I've been on is birthyear wines. Starting with Nat I have accumulated a number of top-notch 2007 wines that will bear significant ageing and will taste superb at her 21st birthday celebration. It was not a particularly exciting vintage in Bordeaux, so I went for German Rieslings and some Burgundy. This practice became full-blown with Lucas when I invested in a range of 2008 Bordeaux First Growths which have reaped significant gains. So I hope Lucas likes red wine! The 2011 vintage has yet to be harvested but I am already thinking of what to buy for Sam. She looks like she will like sweet wines, so I might go with Sauternes if it turns out to be a great vintage, or alternatively Tokaj or Trockenbeerenauslese. We shall see.

Just don't forget to include Daddy when it comes to finally drinking up!

How do you know your baby girl has grown up?

1. She finds herself a best friend, the little girl from next door. They look for one another the moment they wake up and every day nat asks if she can have her friend over to play. They both love princesses and dress-up and she yearns to have a sleepover next door.

2. I used to have a great fear that nat would comment loudly on how fat someone is, especially since she has done so before. This can be really embarrassing when the person is within hearing distance. The last time she did it, I told her to just whisper it to me, because if the person heard what she said he/she would be very sad and angry. Just yesterday, we were in a lift together with a fat auntie. Interestingly, after we go out of the lift, she whispered to me " I think that auntie could be having a baby or is she fat?" Haha, thank god she remembered what I said and voice her thoughts out loud in the lift.

3. She voluntarily takes a cloth to clean the floor when her brother accidentally pees on the floor, without any prompting from me. She really is mummy's little helper.

What have we been up to these holidays? Seems like not much, but every day, I am totally wiped out and fall asleep 5 minutes into lying on the bed, it never ceases to amaze gary how fast i sleep.

So far, we have been to Sentosa (for our staycation), Zoo (had fun participating in the face painting), numerous trips to the library (do you know they have really good DVDs for loan?). I also signed up Luke for Sky Gym at Turf City. He had a blast, although the kids have been going to play gyms, these real gyms with trampolines and equipments are a new experience for him. Not something I am likely to sign up for in the long run but not too bad as holiday enrichment. As for nat, we tried out something new these holidays, signed up for a cartoon drawing class at the community centre. Cheap and good! Next week, she is going for some plasticine modelling and cookery thingey. Something to keep her amused.

Lucas has entered full fledge into his terrible twos. He screams whenever he does not get his way. Recently, I have introduced the time-out corner to him. When he screams, I immediate whisk him to the corner to face the sofa until he stops crying. I can't say for sure whether it is working just yet, let's hope so. I don't want my baby boy to grow up to be a brat!

For nat, I have observed that she has a very competitive streak in her. She wants to win in everything and if she doesn't, she loses her temper. When I teach her Mandarin, she will get angry if I repeat to her words she already knows but sometimes even when you correct her wrong pronounciation, she will lose her temper. Again, this is something I am trying to influence.

With the 2 older siblings at home all the time, I haven't spent that much time with Sam. Hopefully, when the kids go back to school, I'll get back into my routine of walks and talks with my baby girl.
As I was lamenting to my good friend, it is scary how your children are so heavily influenced by you. If you choose to respond in a certain way, they could grow up with undesirable traits, so you must always be conscious of how they are growing and changing.

Haha, no wonder that I am wiped out at the end of the day. It sure is hard being mum to a brood of 3. Hard but no regrets :)

Do my girls really look alike? I searched through my archives to look for pictures taken at a similar age. This is the closest I could find. I can't vouch for their similarity in features, but they both sure can pout. Unfortunately, haha, I think that comes from me.

We recently had a short stay at Rasa Sentosa, a quick getaway and a needed family bonding and break time for all. With mei mei being so young, logistics is a big issue - she hasn't got a passport yet and I'm still breastfeeding her. So, Sentosa seemed to be a good option. It turned out quite nice and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. Lugging 2 maids in tow, Gary and I even managed to stow away for some spa and couple time, nice! Here's a rare shot of the darling trio that I managed to get during the holiday.

Some updates on the kids:

Nat
Her reading abilities have certainly improved tremendously, something I am very proud of. Often, when the rest of us are wiped out and having an afternoon nap, this baby girl will curl up in bed, legs under the duvet covers and start reading for hours. Recently, she has also been asking me words that she doesn't know. Sigh, believe me, it's quite hard to explain what "peasant" and "shack" mean to a 4-year old (I think the words came from this story she was listening to on the ipad about a peasant fisherman asking a magic golden fish for wealth). She loves doing art and craft and was thrilled when we brought her to make a sock puppet during our stay at Sentosa. Every holiday, there is a storytelling event there, with interactive segments where the children can do art and craft. Last time round, we caught the story on the Gingerbread Man, this time round, we caught Jack and the Beanstalk. Here's a picture of Nat and "Jack" and the "Giantess".

Lucas

He's my little darling, as his speech abilities have become better, it is easier to communicate with him and understand his wants.

Yet, he is also getting increasingly naughty, throwing tantrums, fighting with his big sister and plopping down and refusing to walk whenever he is tired. Well, this is the terrible twos stage after all. It's so interesting watching him to talk to himself and rationalising things out. When we were swimming at the hotel pool, he showed fear in walking to the deeper end of the children's pool, although he could still stand. So he would venture off from the shallow end, walk towards the deeper end, walk mid-way through, mumble to himself "It's not all right, too far, too deep" and walk right back to the shallow end. I had a fine chuckle watching him repeat this numerous times.

 Although he is often bullied by his big sister, he really adores her. He still loves doing jigsaws and currently it's the only activity that can keep him occupied for at least half an hour.

Samantha

My youngest sweet little baby. I am so enjoying the experience of managing a newborn. As I was telling Gary, after having 3 kids, we have finally got the hang of it. When Sam cries, we generally knows what she wants. And unlike in the past when we would be so worried when she refuses to suckle, we are more relaxed now, knowing that she will do so when she is hungry. Sam loves "dancing" with daddy, who enjoys rocking her to sleep whenever he is free. We just bought a CD with lovely songs such as this and Sam falls asleep in daddy's arms with the songs playing in the background. Good exercise for Gary too, haha!

Her biggest fan is her sister who can't help hovering around, wanting to pick up meimei or planting kisses on her face. Even her rough big brother becomes a gentle giant when he is around her.

And so recently, Sam has decided to go on a "bottle" strike, outright rejection of the bottle. She would rather be hungry and wait till I am available to latch her. This is a new experience for me. In the past, when people talked about "nipple confusion", I used to scoff. After all, both nat and luke never had this problem, bottle or breast, they were fine with either. Sam was fine with it for a while too, until this week. My pd advised not to force the bottle on her, just go with the flow, as she gets older, she will probably be more receptive to the bottle again, so that's what I will do.

Today, Sam had her injection, at just over 2 months, she is weighing in at 5.45kg. After her injection, she has been rather clingy, feeling a bit insecure, so I have been cuddling her a bit more than usual. Anyway, I'm looking forward to next week. It's the start of the school holidays, and I have some exciting plans for the kids.

I have become rather "domesticated" of late. By this I mean I like to go to the wet market for fresh food, love to browse the supermarket and a recent obsession, sewing. Yes, me, who has almost always nearly failed home economics in secondary school. Yet, there you have it, I have been bent over these few nights, labouring over the sewing machine, churning out pouches and pillow cases for my kids. It all started when I saw these lovely bags to keep diapers and stuff being sold on the web. I thought to myself, so expensive, I could do it myself and it would be way cheaper. So, I ventured to surf the net for some instructions, made my merry little way to Spotlight and Plaza Singapura, lugged my mum's sewing machine home and I was on my way. I have got the hang of it already, after one week. The finished product is not the most professional looking one, with seams showing and stuff but hey, that needs more practice. Meanwhile, here's one of the pouches I churned out yesterday. Applause, anyone?

We have settled nicely into a routine. Some days the kids will be at my mum's place, some days we will be at ours. In the mornings, I will either be exercising or bringing sam to botanics for a walk. Once a week, I will have one-on-one time with one of the older kids. I find it's really nice to do this, although quite tiring. While spending time with just one kid, you can actually focus your attention fully on them.

Last week, Luke and I went shopping at Takashimaya. He was quite the happy little man, chatting and singing incessantly in the car. Usually, when nat is in the car, all you can hear is her voice and just a few occasional chirps from Luke. As we window shopped in the different shops, he had fun amusing himself in front of the mirrors, and we even stopped to have a cup of bubble tea. Luke is definitely growing up, his attention span is better these days and he can easily spend half an hour in the room piecing his jigsaws together.

I met his teachers last week and was happy when they told me that he is one of the most polite kids in his class. They also showed me some of his "creative" drawings and I was amused to see that they have progressed from just scrawling to faces with eyes and nose. Even for nat, the teachers praised her for being helpful and ever ready to participate in class activities. Interestingly, when I was young, I used to view such parent-teacher meetings as sessions for teachers to complain about me. Yet, now as I stand on this side of the fence, I appreciate the meetings as an opportunity to catch up with the teachers and see how the kids are doing in school.

Happy 2 months old, Sam. At this grand age of 2 months, Sam is becoming more interactive. She loves to coo and smile, especially at night, in the comfort of the air-conditioned room. Gary fancies she keeps her brightest smile for him, haha, but I think it's more like her enjoying the air-con in the room. Her full head of hair is constantly drawing attention when we go out. She is the apple of her big sis and bro's eyes and they love to fuss around her.

While 3 kids is really a logistical nightmare at times, I feel blessed to have them in my life.

With every one of my children, I make it a point to spend some alone time with them when they are young, bringing them for strolls at the park. Did it for nat and later lucas and now doing the same with sam. It's very therapeutic, talking softly to the baby as I sling him/her close to me. We chat about everything (actually, it's just me talking, haha), about the plants, the old people doing taiji, about their siblings. Usually, halfway through, sam falls asleep. I thought that by the third kid, I would be bored of this but interestingly, it's like a new experience for me all over again. I love it!

Since today is Polling day, I thought it would be appropriate to have a blog entry on it. Just the other day, nat and I had a conversation about the elections, it went something like this:

Nat: There is no school on Monday because Saturday got voting.
Me: Voting? What do you know about voting?
Nat: It's when they give you a little card, and there are 2 boxes and you decide if you like "pop" or others.

Haha, not a bad summary of the elections from a 4-year old. It did take me a while to decipher that her pronunciation of pop referred to PAP.

When Samantha is screaming blue murder and nothing can settle her, I’m proud to say that one of those things which only a Daddy is qualified to do is the Superman Hold^TM. This provides instant relief – whether because Sam becomes perplexed at the sensation of zero gravity as she zips through the air, or because it’s a complete reversal in posture from how she’s normally carried, nobody really knows – but it does the job of shushing an irate infant like no other.


As for her siblings, one of the new activities which the kids have taken to recently is Let’s Crush Daddy Together^TM, which is something they invented while watching reruns of Tom & Jerry – quite simply pile up on Daddy and use him as a bed. Now this is all very well when they are small and cute and weigh next to nothing, but it is no joke shouldering a combined 30 kilos even on a very ample torso/pectorals.

More trademarked adventures to be added from time to time…

Baby sam's first trip to Botanic Gardens was a success. She basically slept through most of the way, waking up to soak in the surroundings occasionally and then back to slumberland again. She is definitely getting more interactive and her eyes can follow you as you move from left to right and back again. At the park, we met a group of tourists that were quite impressed with my brood of 3, who are all aged 4 and below. I must say, it is definitely chaotic and physically and mentally tiring, especially during moments when you have to keep an eye on all 3 at once. Towards the end of the walk, the 2 older kids were tired and wanted to sit on the stroller but baby sam was already sleeping in it. In the end, I had to carry sam on one hand and push nat on the stroller using the other while Gary carried Luke, certainly not an easy feat. Never mind, hopefully it will help me in my weight loss endeavour anyway.

Having been cooped at home with me during confinement, the kids were let loose yesterday at their favourite place, the Botanic Gardens. Nat and Luke have both progressed well, from not being able to cycle on their trikes to being able to cycle quite long distances. Only hassle is that it is quite a chore storing 2 trikes (nat's one is especially heavy) and one big stroller in our car. But well, as long as the kids enjoy it, why not? After all, without the clumsiness of being pregnant, I can help Gary with the lifting in and out of the car.

After Botanics, it was really hot, so we went to the mall to enjoy some air-con breeze. The kids were super hyper yesterday, while I was in a sports shop looking for a cap, they decided to entertain themselves dancing in front of the mirror. Haha, they built up quite a bunch of amused audience. Gary was wondering where the kids picked up their cool dance moves from? Yesterday evening, when they were watching TV, I realised that they had picked it up from this show called Boogie Beebies. What a cute pair they are, except when they are fighting over toys!

I have just succeeded in getting baby sam to sleep after 2 hrs. Phew! After a week of caring for her without the confinement lady, I am still trying to get the hang of her habits, her likes and dislikes and her little quirks. Meanwhile, I thought I had better pen down some tips for getting a fussy baby to sleep, lest I forget.

1. There are a few positions she likes to be carried in. Preference is for the "Hang me over your shoulder" hold. Not sure why she likes this, but most times, this hold gets her to calm down quite fast. Next, is the "Superman" hold, somewhat like Superman flying in the sky. Interestingly, I just saw a baby documentary that mentioned that a lot of babies like this hold, and here I was thinking my daughter is weird for liking this seemingly uncomfortable position. The last is the conventional "cradling" position. This only works when she is generally calm and almost falling asleep.

2. Music is an important factor in getting baby sam to sleep. Lullabies are good, namely rock-a-bye-baby. I think I must have sung it like 100 times in the 2 hrs it took me to get her to sleep. When songs fail, saying "Shh, shh, shh" in a rhythmic fashion also helps. Just like nat, sam also falls asleep to the french boy choir "Le Choriste".The music should be accompanied by gentle tapping on the back.

3. Breast is best. This option may not always work.When she is in the mood, suckling at the breast calms her down and she falls asleep just seconds after suckling. When she is not in the mood, suckling at the breast just pisses her off and she ends up bawling after delatching from the breast for the umpteenth time. I guess it doesn't help that sometimes, when the breast is full of milk, it ends up spraying all over her face, making her even more upset.

4. Try not to let her fall asleep in the late evening, after 6pm. I find that if she has little naps after 6pm, it's really hard to get her to sleep at 8pm. If she is kept awake, she generally falls asleep quite easily by 8pm. But, of course, it's not easy to prevent a sleepy baby from falling asleep, especially one who has learnt to nod off amidst the screaming from her siblings at play.

5. Dance lessons are essential. Sometimes, as I dance around with baby sam in my arms, I feel like I have just taken up ballroom dancing, the waltz in particular. Again, this motion calms her down and her loud cries turn to soft whimpers, as I waltz from the living room to the bedroom and back again.

As we settle into the routine of life at home with 3 kids, I realise that life is really not the same anymore. In the past, Gary and I used to take off for a couple dinner on Fridays. We can no longer do that as we cannot leave 3 kids alone with our maid. Same applies during the weekend. If we do want to go our on our own, we have to pack up the whole brood and leave them at my mum's place.

This week, I accompanied Lucas on his school excursion to Jacob Ballas. It was nice spending some one-on-one with with my little boy. We had a good time strolling around the park and I was pleased to be able to see Lucas interacting with his classmates. He has certainly changed, since the first few days of school when he just clung on to me. Now, he is totally comfy with his teachers in class and loves to draw and sing.

The next day, I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with Nat as well, so baby girl and I made a trip to Vivocity. We walked around, looked at toys and books, and had a leisurely lunch. After she nibbled a few bites of lunch, she scurried off to the boardwalk near the cafe to explore. In the past, I would not have allowed Nat to be away from me even for a few feet, but I knew that as she got older, I would have to learn to trust her more and let go. So, we made some ground rules, she could explore as long as she did not go near the railing beside the boardwalk (to prevent people from falling into the sea). A few times, she looked like she was attempting to go there and nearly gave me a heart attack haha but each time she looked back at me, gave a little wave and remembered what she promised me. Basking in my full attention, Nat certainly behaved better and was happily skipping all over the place.

Once a week, I will try to spend a morning or afternoon with one of the older kids. This allows for more quality interaction with each one of them.

 

Happy one month, baby sam! One month ago, you came into our lives in a fast and furious fashion, and life has never been the same again.

1. You complete our family. At the back of our mind, daddy and I had always wanted 3 kids, although we were planning to have you just a wee bit later. But nevertheless, your appearance is welcomed by all in the family.

2. I had all but forgotten what it is like to care for a newborn but you have no qualms about reminding me that you are an attention-seeking individual, just like mummy. Your loud bawling at 3am in the morning is enough to make me bolt out of bed in a jiffy.

3. Like your big sister, you have a way of smiling just as you fall asleep, that is enough to melt everyone's heart, especially daddy. I sense that you will wrap your o'le softie daddy around your little fingers, just like your big sis.

4. You sleep best facing down, on your tummy. But this paranoid mummy checks on you like a million times throughout the day, to make sure all is well and good.

5. Your siblings love you. Big sister nat wants to carry you every day, while Kor Kor lucas loves to caress your head ever so gently.

6. Your first outing was to Robinson's with daddy and me, last Friday to pick out some clothes for you. You behaved relatively well and I am so proud of you.

7. You surprise me with your strength. At the grand o'le age of one month old, your favourite position is upright and you constantly try to lift your head to check out what's happening around you.

8. Mummy enjoys spending one-on-one time with you when your siblings are in school. It's just you and me, baby girl.

Yesterday, was a night of many firsts. The first time we were sleeping with Sam in our room, since the confinement lady left. The first time we left the kids to fall asleep on their own, instead of lying with them till they fell asleep. The first time Sam slept in the secure sleeper, placed between Gary and me. I think I slept a total of about 2-3 hrs, but I feel good this morning. I could easily have outsourced Sam's night time feeds to my maid but I have always believed in taking on this aspect on my own. It's all about sensing the baby, finding out what she wants, what makes her comfy, what irritates her, and all these can only be discovered when you keep her close to you. Sam woke up at about 1am, I latched her, then 3am, I gave her the bottle and nursed her a little, and finally she awoke again at 6am. Sitting there, nursing her in the darkness of the bedroom and listening to her rhythmic breathing and occasional grunts, I felt sleepy but blessed. Some time in the night, she did a poop as well, and I half considered changing her diapers in the dark but decided against it as it could prove to be a messy affair. Moving on to the secure sleeper, we first got introduced to it with nat, when one of Gary's colleague loaned it to us. I liked it, as did nat. With lucas, this stingy mum decided to rent the sleeper from one of the toy rental companies. Bad move, lucas had a habit of big time pooping at night and before we knew it, there were big poop stains on the sleeper mattress. Of course, we had to pay the penalty, which amounted to the cost of the sleeper. Sigh ... This time round, I bought the sleeper on a discount. After researching, I had found, to my delight, that there is a resale value for this item and I can easily sell it once Sam outgrows it. Overall, she seems to have slept well in it last night and I enjoy having her close and easily petting her to sleep, something that I can't do when she is placed inside the cot. I am sure Gary thinks I am secretly masochistic to have chosen the exact same night to ease our two older kids to sleep on their own. As expected, there was a lot of screaming and playing when we closed the door and Gary and I had to make several trips into the bedroom with stern voices calling for them to sleep. After a while, Lucas fell asleep and without anyone to chit chat with her, my baby girl also fell asleep. Success! Finally! What an eventful first night.

Wednesday, 13 April 2011 The joy of being a milkmaid. I am blessed to have "the perfect boobs for breastfeeding", as declared by one lactation consultant who sailed in early one morning after I had just delivered Sam. At that moment, I thought she was just making polite conversation. But now I totally agree, I have become a milkmaid. I pump and breastfeed at all times of the day. I empty my breasts and 2 hours later, it's hard as a rock again. In one night, I can pump about 1litre of breastmilk. I even have a chest freezer just to store my bags and bags of breastmilk. Being near Sam makes me have a letdown reflex and I have stocked up on boxes and boxes of disposable breastpads. Poor baby even gets milk sprayed on her when she is latching, so I have taken to pumping some milk out first before letting her latch directly. I must say, breastfeeding is definitely easier for me this third time round (although it didn't start off too well in the beginning, when Sam gnawed on my breasts just a bit too violently and Gary was totally scandalised by the bloody breastmilk that resulted). Let's hope I can persist and go all the way to breastfeed Sam for at least 6 months to 1 year. Wish me luck!

Monday, 11 April 2011 Time flies so fast, baby Sam is almost one month old already. While her loud cries are enough to make you bolt out of bed, she really is a sweet baby. She has a curly mop of black/brown hair and loves looking at the musical mobile above her cot. Her siblings adore her. Nat draws pictures for her baby Sam every few days and delivers it to her cot and the confinement lady will dutifully hang up her drawings for Sam to look at. Sometimes, it is a picture of a rainbow, sometimes a family picture (with mummy holding baby Sam in her arms) and sometimes it is just so abstract, I have absolutely no idea what it is. Lucas loves to peer at Sam through the gaps at the cot and when he has an opportunity, he will gently stroke her hair and tell Sam, I'm Kor Kor. It's lovely to see them interact with one another. Just the other day, I was about to go to bed and I found a drawing under my pillow. It said Mummy, I looked under Gary's pillow and there was one for Daddy too. Nat is really into drawing these days and she loves hiding her drawings around the house for me to find and appreciate. Even Lucas enjoys drawing these days and he is finally able to draw smiling faces instead of just scrawling all over the paper. Another week of confinement and I'm looking forward to going out with my 3 babies! Not gonna be easy to manage, but we will adapt, we always do.

Wednesday, 6 April 2011 I love cuddling my newborn, letting her suckle till she falls asleep and continuing to hold her in my arms and just staring at her sleeping. Even after 3 kids, I still love this feeling. I send pics of the babies to Gary every so often, to remind him what and whom we are working hard for.

Sunday, 3 April 2011 Caring for baby sam reminds me so much of my experiences with baby nat. The cute little rompers that hang on their scrawny little frames, the loud bawling, the innocent looking eyes that stare up at you when you are carrying them in your arms. I didn't realise how much I miss it. Check out the pics, the top one is of baby nat and the bottom one is of baby sam, dressed in the favourite duckling rompers that I absolutely adore.

This time round, although my breastfeeding experience was off to a slightly rock start (with engorgement initially), my milk supply has stabilised and increased such that I am even able to store a few packets a day. It's interesting how your mood and emotions are so affected by your milk supply. When you can't produce enough milk for your baby, you begin to feel guilty. Yet, when the milk supply sets in, your mood improves as well. I just can't figure out if this is just hormones at work or if there is a scientific rationale behind it.

Wednesday, 30 March 2011 Lots of interesting urban myths relating to pregnancy and confinement. There is the drinking young coconut juice thingey that I mentioned in my previous entry. Recently, was introduced to another one. Bathing newborn babies in stout helps to remove toxins and gives them nice and smooth skin. The confinement lady has been bathing baby sam in a can of stout mixed with warm water every morning. Positive effects yet to be proven, haha. But why not? Here's a pic of sam, looking contented after her stout bath.

Sunday, 27 March 2011

I never started out wanting to have 3 kids. In fact, when we first got married, Gary was the one who wanted more kids. However, when nat came into our lives, then lucas, I fell in love with them. And now, I feel myself falling in love, all over again with my baby girl, Sam.

Saturday, 26 March 2011

Baby Sam is the first of my 3 kids not to have to undergo phototherapy for jaudice (fingers crossed). Although she has some mild jaundice, it is definitely not as serious as with Nat and Luke, when I had to rent the phototherapy machine home. Hmm ... well someone did tell me that drinking young coconuts a week or so before delivery could help reduce jaundice, and I did manage to drink 3-4 coconuts before Sam was born. But ... I'm still doubtful that that's the reason. We have to continue monitoring her jaundice level and give her some morning sun.

As you can see, she is not a fan of suntanning and bawls at the top of her lungs.

While baby sam is asleep, I try to spend some time entertaining my 2 older kids.

We have been doing a lot of art and craft projects out at the balcony. They include rock painting (it's very fun), glue collages, moulding and painting clay ladybugs, etc. Nat draws inspiration from this new kids' show Mister Maker that we catch on TV. Then she excitedly comes to me to describe the new art and craft project she would like to make. Lucas just joins in whatever his sister does.

These two love each other to bits, but are also constantly fighting over toys and other possessions, sigh!

Thursday, 24 March 2011

Nat is my firstborn, the baby that I shared all my first experiences with. Lucas is my secondborn, a boy, and that made him different and special in his own way. Sam is my third child, probably our last and I want to relive all the joys of caring for a newborn with her. Here is Sam, giving a half-smile, something which never fails to melt my heart!

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Today was the day we had planned to induce. Yet, baby Sam is already 4 days old. It's been chaotic since we came home from the hospital on Saturday. The older 2 have been throwing tantrums and having fights and screaming, showing signs of insecurity. Baby Sam has been asking for milk feeds on the hour and surprisingly, my milk supply has not set in as fast as it had for Nat and Luke. It is only today, that the milk supply has shown signs of increasing.

We brought baby to the doc today, slight jaundice, no need for any phototherapy just yet, so we will be monitoring her jaundice level. Her skin is kind of dry, so peeling quite a bit, trying to relieve that with some baby oil.

Today, I also left the 2 older kids at mum's place after school. Really needed some rest, instead of stopping fights all day. Managed to get some decent sleep finally.

Well, with 3 kids in the house, everyone takes time to adjust. The first week after delivery is always hard, especially when your hormones are going a bit haywire as well. But, things will settle down as they always do. And one just needs to remember, these 3 kids are and will always be a blessing in my life.

Sunday, 20 March 2011 The best laid plans of mice and men, oft go awry. How true this quote holds. At 38 weeks, I was all ready for mei mei to make her appearance. She didn't. At 39 weeks, I was convinced, this is it, time to induce her after the gynae check-up. She didn't agree. I stopped expecting and went about my daily activities, quite convinced that she would stay in the tummy in comfort till 40 weeks, which my gynae and I agreed would be the date we would induce. Gary, the kids and I managed to attend the kids' school carnival, a birthday party at a farm, meet up with some baby friends and even explore a new playground. Mei mei decided then that it was time to make her grand appearance and not wait till next week. It is interesting that even after having 2 kids beforehand, I really do not know what contractions feel like. Both kids had been induced and delivered in a controlled environment, with full epidural. To me, contractions seemed merely to be just a tightening in the tummy area, causing mild discomfort. The day before mei mei was born, I had totally no inkling that she was ready. In fact, I had quite an active day, doing grocery shopping, checking out sofas with mum and rounding off the day with a trip to the playground with the kids. At night, I felt kind of wiped out and had an early night after tucking the kids into bed. When Gary came home a bit later, I was awakened. It was around this time that I felt regular contractions about 15 min apart. It was mildly painful but bearable, and I figured it would be like that for the rest of the night. I could possibly visit my gynae in the morning to see if things were moving along. Two hours later, I was still awake. Hmm ... this time the pain seemed to be increasing slightly. I do think my threshold for pain is quite high, though. So even with the increased pain, I thought to myself, maybe I'll just watch some TV throughout the night, no point waking up Gary or my gynae due to some false alarm. Ten minutes later, I decided ... uh ... this pain seems a bit too much to bear, maybe we should induce her tonight, don't think I want to bear with this pain all night. So off I went to wake up Gary, who had only just fallen asleep. In the wee hours of the morning, we sped off to the hospital. On the way, we called my gynae who sounded surprisingly fresh and chirpy at that time. I guess she is used to such late night calls. By the time we reached the hospital, I knew I had made the right decision. The contractions were like 5 min apart and when the pain came, it took my breath away. My first thought was quick quick, get me the epidural. In the midst of contractions, the nurse kept asking me about my last known weight. Gary said I sure took a long time to answer her simple question. Ha! Let's see him try answering any simple questions in between intense pain. Anyway, the nurse said she had to check for dilation before calling for epidural and so she did. Thereafter, she told me sympathetically, uh, you are fully dilated, so no time for epidural. I was crestfallen! She then offered me the option of gas, I grabbed it, whatever works man. Unlike epidural, I realise that the gas does not really alleivate any pain. What it does though is to dull your mind (so you cannot lucidly scold yourself for not checking in earlier with ample time for epidural) and also gives you something to focus on when the pain sets in. By this point, the contractions pain was really at its peak. Even when the nurses had to poke in the IV needle in my hand for the drip a few times as they could not locate the vein (I always have this problem), I could barely feel this as I was just focused on breathing in the gas for the pain. My only thought was that my doc is on her way and this is going to end and true enough, she arrived a few minutes later. Since I was fully dilated, I could start pushing baby. It's very important to have an encouraging doc and for both of you to have a good rapport. Her voice gave me great relief as she told me when to push harder and when to stop and also to stop breathing into the gas so quickly like some mad woman. Interestingly, in the midst of all this, Gary had merrily gone off to fill up some admission forms and they had to track him down and rush him back to the delivery suite. My doc was saying, shall we wait a bit for Gary to come back, haha, and in my mind I was like ... No ... let's get on with it! But he did make it back, to see the whole delivery process as he has always done for Nat and Lucas. And finally, my fiesty little sweetheart, Samantha, makes her grand appearance into our world, delivered at a record time of one hour. I was kept in the delivery suite for a few hours more as there was some heavy bleeding thereafter but when that cleared up, I could go back to the normal room, just in time for breakfast. Interestingly, without the side effects of epidural, I actually started to feel quite normal by this time and sent Gary off to get me some breakfast.

Friday, 11 March 2011

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post and the bun is still baking in the oven. It's making me kind of cranky! Doesn't help that Nat and Luke have been taking turns to throw tantrums and cry at the drop of a pin. Oh well, grant me patience!

On a happy note, today is the last day of school for the kids before the March hols begin. Here are pics of them dressed up in their favourite clothes for "Wear Your Favourite Clothes To School" day!