Two Months

At two months old checkup, my baby girl weighs 3.65kg, having gained about 1kg since birth and 53cm long. At her second month, she stretches a lot to the extent where her grandaunts were so worried and decided to bring her to the paed (her second trip this time after the booger issue when she was barely a week old) to get some reassurance from the paed that she was not in a great pain :).

She nurses more efficiently these days and is getting a lot chubbier, from a double to triple chin, her grandaunts jested. That certainly gives me the ‘ticket’ to breastfeed her exclusively (finally) and I really thank God that her weight gain has definitely opened up everyone’s eye in the family. Breastfeeding my own daughter can be aptly taken as a privilege especially when you are surrounded by a big family who were not brought up in a breastfeeding friendly environment. Thanks for the constant support from my hub and eldest SIL. I may have given up after their several attempts ‘enticing’ her with formula. I certainly know that they did this out of good will but I was just determined to provide the best that I could for her.  

Her hair is rather thin especially on the top side which is almost bald, that makes her to be mistaken as a boy most of the times. According to her grandaunt no.4 (she has 5 immediate grandaunts altogether, excluding those from the extended family), her rather long little fingers, feet and thin hair has the highest resemblance with her aunt (grandaunt no.4’s daughter) besides her daddy. 

She has outgrown most of the shirts, pants and mittens which were especially made/altered by her grandaunt no.4 and is finally able to put on most of the newborn/0-3m hand-me-downs from her cousin brothers. Her grandaunt then made her a brand new set of ‘uniform’ (checkered cotton) pants sufficient for one week span to be worn at home. On top of that, her grandparents thought that her baby cot at home and MIL’s shop is too ‘big’ for her thus her grandaunts ‘designed’ her a makeshift ‘bed’ modified from new bread trays, underlain by a custom sewn plywood with a mini set of comforter (checkered one again) for better ventilation. How I wish that I can be this creative and this Missy is such a lucky girl. I have all this documented so that she’ll know how much her grandparents/aunts dote her.

She started cooing and responded to our voice when she is in her jovial good mood. She exceptionally loves Old Mc Donald song and never missed cooing along when we make different animal sounds.  She socialize better as she open up her eyes most of the time these days but still, she wouldn’t allow herself to be carried for long even by the in-laws whom she meets on a daily basis at the shop. She particularly loves to be carried up straight and ‘draped’ against the shoulder especially on daddy’s broad shoulder.

On her sleeping habit, she cries and fuss when she is tired or sleepy and this happen almost every night. Most of the time, I will let her to suckle for comfort until she drops asleep. Occasionally, she can easily fall asleep on daddy’s broad shoulder while he is on the desktop or while walking.  At times, when I have errands to work on, she has the privilege to join daddy when her uncles came over for movie night or PSP gaming session in our living room and fell asleep comfortably on her daddy’s long lap. These days, her sleep lasts on a longer stretch and usually wakes up twice for her feed after midnight.

She loves her Moses basket or perhaps car ride or gai-gai (outing). Nothing soothes her better from putting her into her Moses basket. She would stop crying almost instantly and easily dozed off during a car ride. We ‘upgraded’ her to a Chicco carseat when we think that she had better support on her neck few days prior our trip back to KK on Nov 2^nd for her to meet up with the other half of her relatives from my side. It was her maiden air trip at the age of 2.5 months. It was such a huge relief when she likes her carseat as we foresee that we’ll be going out daily, with or without my family throughout our trip.

On her few firsts, she had her first bathe by papa on, had her first two nights without daddy and her grandaunts offered to stay with us alternatively for both nights. That had also marked her first lights-off night. The boss and I have been leaving the lights in our bedroom on every other night before this :P.  Despite smiling occasionally, she shoved her first social smile and chuckled in a high-pitched shrieking sound on 20^th Oct 2014 (exactly 2mo), had her first trip to KK by air (50 minutes flight) on 2^nd Nov 2014 at (2m13d) and finally had her first longest period without mommy when I was on a 2 weeks course for work on 17^th November 2014 (2m27d). 

Mommy-Abby Outing {One}

For the first month after my confinement, I have always been very apprehensive of bringing my bub out without the boss except to my MIL’s shop every afternoon during the weekday. We spent the morning on our own at our home. On 191014 (one day shy to 2mo), the church’s RE class and sisters’ fellowship were holding an event to visit 2 newborn babies. It was posted earlier on in the Facebook event and both the boss and I were invited as we know both families very well. Unfortunately, the boss had a meeting in the church on the same day thus as much as I wanted to go, I held back my intention.

On last hour, AIL called up informing that SIL is on her way back from church deliberately to pick me up to the church, to where all of us will be gathering prior the visit. Since, SIL drove over just to pick me up, I had to bite the bullet and wearing Abby in a carrier and off we went, not even having  any ebm ready like what i usually do whenever we go out. It was my first time wearing her outside. I have worn her with the carrier several times at home to rock her to sleep when she got too clingy and cranky when I had my hands full with task. Unexpectedly, she easily dozed off in less than 5 minutes and she has no problem continue sleeping regardless of bumpy road nor noisy suroundings. I guess she has accustomed to such surrounding in MIL’s shop.

After about 30 minutes of wait at the church, we convoyed off to visit Justina’s 2ws 3d old baby girl. Justina’s 6th child, second daughter was indeed a big baby weighting 4.4kg at birth. Abby woke up once for her feed when we were almost done. Thereafter, we headed off to visit Baby Chloe, who was only 2wo old then. Baby Chloe who was the forth precious princess to her parents weighing 2.6kg at birth, slighty heavier by 0.03kg than my bub at birth. Below is the photo of Baby Chloe and Abby. Looking at her reminded me of my little one, who was as mini in size back then and look how much she has grown in almost 2 months time. 

Once again, my bub woke up to nurse twice before we leave. While chatting around with some aunties and experienced mommies who managed to breastfeed for more than a year, i took the chance to ask about their milk boosting recipe. Since I dont usually cook at home, I was keen to try on meatless recipe; hence, i was given the below. We managed to drop by chinese medical hall after that and the practitioner there reassured me that this combination is excellent for general well being i.e nourishing hair, blood circulation to milk boosting.

I counted this experience a success and it sure boosts up my confidence to nurse her in public shall I need to go out solo with her again someday, to which I foresee more coming. That explains {one} in the heading of this post :). 

Happy Birthday Mommy Dearest

October 5^th marks another of blessing God for putting such a wonderful lady; yet full of compassion, patience, kindness and ultimate LOVE in my life. Happy birthday mummies! (my mom and MIL shared the same birthdate). Your examples are what I try to live up to. We love you! This is Mommy Pang's first birthday as a 'popo' (Abby's paternal grandmama). The boss and I wanted to get Mommy Pang (MIL) an ice cream cake as everybody in the family loves ice cream, just like what we had for the boss and Papa pang’s birthday. The initial plan was to collect it two days after the boss place the order on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately the baker couldn’t fulfill our order as 5^th October coincides with a public holiday. So, we settled for a cheese cake from Sabah Hotel instead.

Cheese cake from Sabah Hotel for Mommy Pang

This is the second year I couldn't celebrate my mom’s birthday but we will surely put up with more family gatherings when we return to my hometown in November. Yes, we will be going back to my hometown soon *counting fingers* :). Once again, thanks Mee Mee for everything! I really mean every single little teeny weeny things you have done throughout my entire life up until today. I can't imagine my life without your constant supports, advices and of course your big heart.  I am eternally grateful having you around. Thanks to the marvel of technology that keeps us in touch daily. Somehow, i still wished that we are staying nearby so that we could go hand-in-hand daily. Hugs and kisses from the three of us :)

Mango cheese crepe cake from Cafe De Vie for Mee Mee