One Month!

One month ago, our little bundle of joy arrived. Her arrival brought so much of excitement in the family, and we had 3 separate fullmoon luncheons altogether. We received numerous visits ever since our stay in the hospital and more during my confinement period. My home is literally ‘unsafe’ as we have close relatives to drop by and our parents in law, the boss’ paternal aunts and the part time helper has full access to our house at anytime throughout my confinement :P. On a personal view, I didn't notice significant changes on my bub throughout the one month period except for her growing eyelashes (from almost none visible) and hair as well as increasing weight when I carry her to nurse :). 

The first two weeks was of the discovery for the family, especially both the boss and I. For the first few days at home, she showed feisty personality. She sleeps rather well and is such an easy going baby during the day but fusses frequently during night time. We were both clueless on what to do to soothe her as nothing actually works except to nurse her but that doesn’t last her for long though. On the second night at home, we have two aunts who camped over and help to look after her so that we could catch up with some rest. On the third night, we decided not to let her to sleep alone in her cot until she is older; instead we have been co-sleeping to provide her with better sense of security every night until today. On Day 7, things are getting a lot better and were much calmer during night time. We can roughly figure out her ‘timetable’, and her sleep during the night has becoming more predictable and I can expect her to wake up for her feed around 2am and 5am.

There’s no way to swaddle her except while she’s deep asleep. Once she is awake, she would throw a kicking fit to release her arms and we will expect to see her blanket, mittens or many booties to detach from her body. Initially, we have been wrapping her with towels and after that I thought a proper swaddle will her arms in place through the night, so I quickly ordered it online the next day. Oh boy, we were so wrong and eventually gave up after second night’s attempt and left her arms unwrapped most of the time. So, we put her on a jumpsuit every night. Once in a blue moon, she would oblige when we put her on her tummy and she definitely sleeps better. She is able to lift up her head during tummy time but still couldn’t turn her hand to the other side and knows how to suckle her fist during or after shower time (at Day 22). On the 19^th September 2014, we went for her first appointment. She is now weighting 3.65kg (then 2.57kg), gaining slightly more than a kilo. 53cm long/tall and on 95% Mommy's milk (more on this in future posts). She has also gotten her second dosage of Hepatitis B vaccine. 

Just for the record, she had her first taste on formula milk supplement at Day 4 (I'm feeling tad bad about this), her very first outing which was to the paed during Day 5 with her grandaunts when her left eye was deposited with booger for the third day and doctor prescribed her with eye drops fearing that it might be eye infection and not likely to be caused by heatiness as only one eye was infected, her umbilical cord came off at Day 6, first meeting her maternal grandma (my mom) and uncle (my bro) when she was at Day 10 (29th Sept - 1st Oct 2014) during their visit, first pre-fullmoon luncheon at Day 19 (7th Sept 2014) with my mom, brother, relatives and some of MIL’s yam cha buddies at our home, second pre-fullmoon luncheon in Day 26 with sisters’ fellowship and brethrens from the church at our home and eventually the official fullmoon luncheon on Day 30 (19th Sept 2014) with the earlier mentioned guests (second round) alongwith some other family friends, relatives, church members etc at MIL’s shop, first outing with her papa to PIL’s place during dinner time (without mommy) at Day 29. Ninty-nine percent of our visitors commented that she has her papa’s resemblance. 

On her many firsts, she had her first trip out to church on 270914 (1m7d) and subsequently to RDC on 280914(1m8d), first bottle of warmed up ebm prepared by her grandaunts on 300914 (1m10d), first comment that she has mommy’s resemblance (1m16d), first mommy-and-me time morning at home (we used to spend the morning at MIL’s shop after my confinement) at 1m17d, shoved her very first social smile and shrieking happily when when played with on 081014 (1m18d), mommy finally got over her painful joint at the end of her thumb on both hands since 35^th week of pregnancy on 171014 (1m27d), presented her first birthday cake to her grandmamma on 5^th Oct 2014 (1m15d).

Counting Down: One more week to go! :)

As of today, we have survived 3 weeks with little hiccups over here and there but under His providence and care, everything has been gradually moving towards the positive side and improving as days goes by. Our little one is 22 days old today. Thank you Lord!  I have been secretly counting down all these while and I can finally announce that I have one more week to go (based on 28-days confinement calculation) before we can step out of the house (like finally) and to have my first ever hair wash after one whole month and also getting over confinement meals soon! Yay :)

Picture taken on 9 days old

Mulberry Strawberry Toast

I define blissfulness with simple yet yummy-licious food. This is one of my simple pleasure: oven dried loaves + homemade organic mulberry jam (home grown and made by the in laws) + slices of fresh strawberry :) Breakfast like this can be so simple and satisfying with a cup of warm milk or pulpy icy orange juice. Aah, I am drooling again. Is there such a thing as post-partum cravings? :P You can obviously tell that I can't wait till my confinement period is over :)

DIY Laminated Flooring

We have stacks of laminated flooring sitting in our ‘cellar’ (underground level) for quite some time. Out of the blue, during last Raya holidays, the boss took them out and arranged as well as made some measurement one night and they were placed on the coffee table the following morning. In fact it was an impromptu decision despite we have once been talking about it prior moving into our house.  But, due to time constraint, we just have our renovation workers to add timber coatings to the existing flooring which was completed just in time for our wedding. Unfortunately, the shade turned out a little too rich. We weren't very happy with the ‘overdosed’ timber finishes on our existing parquet flooring in the living room as it has made the room a little too dark and dust prone, not to mention it was very slippery (read: dangerous) to walk on during the first few months.

Recently, the boss intended to get it prepared before our little one arrives, with the initial intention to convert the living as my confinement 'nest' just in case I couldn't walk up the stairs after Cesarean. Besides, I could spend some quality time watching Korean drama while nursing (he said). He even loaned a few series of Korean drama from his colleagues weeks ahead my due date.  

Hence, the boss decided to take two days off from work after Raya holidays. Early in the morning, he started to lay the waterproof membrane and gradually assemble the laminated flooring tiles on top of the existing parquet flooring all by his own. Few hours later, the boss’ paternal uncle sent over one of his worker to give us a hand to hack off the timber skirting and to help jig-sawing the tiles according to the measurement marked earlier on. Tiles laying itself were completed within two mornings. 

The missing part of the jigsaw was the timber skirting. The new skirting were delivered and fixed the following weekend. And after fixing the timber skirting, here’s how our laminated flooring currently look like.