Teething terror

Keston turned 5 months on Sunday. Has it been 5 months already? I still vividly remember my hospital stay and confinement period...ok 5 months in adult life seems short, but 5 months in a baby's life is like an eternity!!!

Keston's started teething like I mentioned earlier but the last couple of days have been abit of a nightmare. He's got diarrohea and he's been exceptionally cranky and fussy. The teething gel helps a teensy little bit and yet I'm reluctant to have him 'eating' the gel. He's quite restless in his sleep at night and so he's sleeping with me for now. How now brown cow? When will this saga end?

Keston's 1st Christmas

Merry Christmas my little darling! You're the best gift I could ever ask for.

My little cutie pie

We received one of the nicest compliment today when someone commented that Keston's so cute that she feels like getting married and having a child :) It made my day!

The flipping monster

Ever since Keston's learnt to flip, he's become such a handful.
First we must learn 2 important things about Keston:

1. He only knows how to flip from his back to his front and not the other way around.
2. He hates being on his front and refuses to lie down. He'd rather stay in push up position than to let his face touch the ground.

Keston the flipper flips every single moment of the day. His regular ongoing activity is
-Flip over to his tummy
-looks around and stays in push up position
-starts drooling abit
-struggles to stay in push up position
-arms become weak
-whine
-cry
-mummy or daddy quickly roll him back on his back
-IMMEDIATELY Flips over to his tummy again

and the whole cycle starts again. So you get the idea what we do all day!

For the past 3 mornings, we've been awakened by his yelp cos' the moment he woke up, he flipped and after staying up for abit, calls for help to be rolled over. Gone are the days of blissful sleep-ins while he self-entertains! Keston's great at self-entertaining. Most mornings he's up before we are but he'd quietly play by himself in his cot till it's time for milk. But now when I hear the yelp, I will nudge HW to go over to Keston's room. HW will then bring Kes over to our room and proceed to fall asleep. I will then be tasked to put Kes back to sleep.

See lah, I wanted him to flip..and now that he's flipping, it's giving me a headache :P

PHOTO updates!

That's all folks!

Keston and his gym(s)

The first gym we got for Keston was the Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquarium Gym. He liked it quite abit but I felt it wasn't helping him with any developments so I itchy fingers sold it away to buy new gyms to try.

So we bought 2 new gyms last week.

Fisher-Price Baby Play Zone Kick&Whirl Carnival and

Fisher-Price® Baby Gymtastics™ 3-in-1 Rockin' Gym™

To start of with, I fixed up the Carnival gym for Keston. The moment we put him in, he looked terrified. We thought turning on the music woul help but it made him cry instead! The best thing was, he was so scared he actually shit in his diapers!!! Hahaha...just a splatter but still....We persisted and tried for a few more times at different timings of the day. The best he could do was ignore the gym and look everywhere else! But it was pretty evident that he's never gonna like it. Frankly, the gym doesn't work very well. Firstly, the baby is meant to kick some board to activate the music but the board's at a 90 degrees angle to the floor and pretty awkward for the baby to kick. Secondly, you need to hit pretty damn hard before anything happens to the music...and it was such a biatch to fix up! I'm critical cos my boy doesn't like it. Heh! So anyway, we brought it back.


Next I fixed up the Rockin' Gym. This cute little gym can be converted into a rocking horse for future use. This gym is so much easier to assemble. And the music is soft and bubbly so Keston was at ease. When baby tugs or bats at one of the hanging toys, it activates a 'triiiing' sound into the music being played. Keston loved that (while I worry about how many batteries I need to standby)...and he'd bat at the toy, hear the sound...wait awhile and bat again. It really does help develop his fine motor skills me thinks.

Cough baby cough

Keston's been coughing on and off the past few days and so we brought him to see the doc yesterday. He's got abit of phelgm so have to take medicine again. We kept contemplating letting him self-heal or to medicate him. Still not sure cos I don't like the idea of him taking too much medications.

So Keston's 7.1kg now at 4mths 2 weeks.

A couple of nights ago, I finally braved touching his gums and indeed the white spots are his pearly whites emerging and not some random ulcer. The weird thing is, his emerging tooth is neither his upper middle nor his lower middle. It's at the incisors. Oh dear, we have a little vampire in the making!

Yesterday night, I finally witnessed Keston flipping. It was one of those blink and you'll miss it moments cos he was so smooth and quick. I had the option of running to get the cam or sitting still and watching. I chose the latter and so, no videos again!

Photo updates later!

Keston flips...

10 December 2008- Keston does his first full flip

It started in the morning when the little tike was as usual practising his half flips, which ends with him lying on his side. When I was getting dressed, he suddeny did a 3/4 flip, which meant his shoulder and body were basically parallel with the bed, with only 1 hand stuck under his stomache. He stayed in this awkward position for minutes until I told HW to show him how to complete the flip. HW 'taught' him to pull his hand out from under him and to create a momentum with his bum so he'll end up facing down. HW then proceeded to roll him back to position.

5 minutes later, we carried him out to the living room. I went into the kitchen while HW was checking his phone. It took all of 10 seconds when I heard HW shout excitedly. I came out to find Keston on his front, in push up position! So smart right? Teach him once and he learns immediately! Haha..let's just ignore the fact that it took him all of 4 months and 1 week to even start his attempt while other babies were flipping at 3mths!

Then later at night when I was playing with him before he goes to sleep, I again demonstrated to him how to do a full flip. I snucked out to my room to check my mails. Heard a yelp. Dashed out to the living room to find him in push up position again! Arrghhh! I want to see how it happened! So I then armed myself with the camera and began filming him, determined to document the process. But of course it's Sod's Law that when I try to film it, he doesn't perform.

So anyway 2 full flips in a day. Yipee!

On a separate issue, Keston got attacked by the mosquitoes again last night! This time on the other side of his face, 2 on his right eye and 1 at his nose. Poor baby looks horrid and it looks horribly itchy! He's sleeping with us tonight until we get his bed sorted. We dunno yet if it's bed bugs or mosquitoes but he's getting his mattress sunned tomorrow and I'm getting him a mosquito patch.

First trial class

Keston went for his first Kindermusik trial class yesterday. It was not until the night before that I realised the timing's gonna be a killer. See, the class is from 11.30am to 12.15pm and we aimed to reach there at 11.15am.

The problem is, Keston wakes and has his first feeding at 8-8.30am...second feeding at 12-12.30pm. If so, he would need to be fed during the class. The alternative would be to wake him up at 7 to feed and to feed again at 11 just before the class. Alas, we both overslept....actually we 3 overslept! Keston only woke up for milk around 9am! So I was, in a way, glad cos the next feeding would be at 1pm after the class ends.
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BUT Keston ALWAYS takes a morning nap. He needs to sleep around 10 till 11.30, but of course we were in such a rush. Feed. Babygym. Bathe. Change. Prepare milk. Rush out of the house...Keston didn't get to nap at all. He slept in the car on the way to Tanglin mall, but that was like 15 mins only.

So 15mins into the class, he started getting cranky, refusing to lie down on the floor. And I had to bearhug him almost throughout the whole class. Bah. Didn't get to swirl the scarf above his head or to twang the colour robe...he didn't even want to listen to me reading him a story. He just wanted to cuddle. And then just before the class ended, I realised I should have just given him his pacifier! *whacks head* stupid stupid stupid. So I whipped out the pacifier and he sucked on it sleepily. The little bugger closed his eyes finally just when the class ended. Sigh~ Waste money siah!

Next time I must remember to go for class at 1pm!

Attack of the mozzies!

We got a fright in the morning yesterday when we saw multiple (8 to be exact) red spots on Keston's little face. I kept thinking it was HFMD or Chicken Pox. As I've seen neither, I could only guess. Doc says its just insect bites, don't need to put anything and it will clear away by itself. So sian, not handsome already...Also Doc says the white spot on Keston's gum looks like a tooth emerging. But its like at the incisor there so dunno to believe him or not. For now Keston is still a happy baby although he's quite distracted and struggles abit during feedings these days.

At 4mths 1wk, Keston weighs 6.955 kg.

As of 4mths 1wk (4th Nov), he has officially started trying to flip. I was getting worried that he'd never ever be able to flip since he doesn't even try. And when I read about all the other babies flipping when they are 3mths old, I thought to myself 'Xiao liao! Keston's never gonna flip, he's gonna go straight to crawling!' It's not even as if he has a huge butt!

Anyways, he's doing half flips all the time now. He lifts his legs into the air and pushes it on his left so he lies on his left side. Then he tries to turn his face around so he always ends up lying flat on his face, which freaks me out for a second until he turns back again.

4 months old already

I've been meaning to blog for a long time but really no time (ok, and abit of laziness)...

So my boy turns 4 months today, about 7 hours ago to be exact. And I am very thankful that God has blessed us with this little being. To be honest, Keston is quite an easy baby to take care of. He sleeps through the night, drinks whatever we put to his mouth, doesn't fuss in his stroller or carseat, loves swimming and best of all, HE LOVES ME the mostest! hahaha

We did this experiment 2 nights ago. I was in the kitchen washing up while HW was trying to entertain Keston to no avail. I came out and said hello to Keston and he started laughing uncontrollably. I walked aside while HW came back in front of Keston and imitated the way I said Hello. Keston just looked puzzled. So I came back again and said "Hello Keston!" And he immediately laughed and gurgled. I stepped aside and let HW try again...Keston looked at him as if saying "Wth do you want?" We tried this over and over again with the same results...and on the last time HW decided to perservere in trying to get Keston to laugh, so much so that the little one screwed up his face gearing up for a major wailing session. So I appeared and he magically went back into laughing mode! We had such a good laugh, at least I did! HW's immensely jealous and then he started calling Keston disgusting....for terhing me :)

I love my little boy. I really couldn't have asked for more.

Keston's falling asleep by himself! Hooray!

So after the last post, I wanted to try again to see if it was just a lucky-one-off thingy.
The following night, I again put Keston down and told him "Mummy go and blow hair, come back in a few minutes to carry you to sleep ok?". When I came back from drying my hair, he was fast asleep! cue: silent cries of hip hip hooray!

I'd like to think he understood what I was saying and fell asleep waiting for me to come back :)

Keston does have abit of an attitude, which HW says is like me. Last night I asked HW to feed him some water, which of course he hated and struggled non-stop! HW got fed up and left Keston on the sofa and just shoved the bottle into his mouth. After that Keston got angry with him and wouldn't stop crying...until HW brought him to me (I was pumping in the room lah). I carried Keston and he stopped crying almost immediately. When I brought him over to HW, he 'diao' him...you know, the looking from the side of the eye and blinking really hard look. Hilarious! HW laughed, I laughed..but Keston continued giving the diao look until he fell asleep!

The babbler strikes

Lots of people, including the in-laws, have commented that Keston's a talkative baby. So I guess it shouldn't come as a shock when a stranger in the nursing room in Isetan passed the same comment....

Last night, after we brought the little fella back...he babbled on and on for about an hour (I know cos I was watching the 10pm Channel U show). And then he became abit agitated which meant he wanted to sleep. I gave him his pacifier and told him "Mummy go and wash your bottles first. Give me 5 mins and I come and carry you to sleep ok?"

5 mins later I came out to a sleeping baby with his pacifier at his neck! Its like the first time Keston's gone to sleep without being carried!!! HW says he must be tired from all that talking :)

Finally..the perfect teat!

When Keston first started bottle feeding, we were very duh parents. We knew that newborns should start with latex teats but for some strange reason, we didn't know that bottles did not come with the correct teat, nor did we know that latex teats were yellow in colour so we kindda stared at our bottle teats and wondered if they were latex or silicone. Anyway Keston took to the Lindam teats we had and later, the Pigeon ones that came with the PES (BPA-free) bottles. We then got down to buying pacifiers for him and this time we remembered that infants like latex so we got latex pacifiers for him....and there we were wondering why he hated his pacifiers so much when we gave it to him about 2 weeks into his life. (In case you're still wondering, it's cos he's already gotten used to the hardness of silicon teats so the latex pacifier's not shiok for him).

Anyway, I digress. This post is about finding the perfect? Right after Keston turned 3 mths old, we started noticing that he was taking up to an hour for each feed! That's ridiculously long even if he doesn't fuss at all and would willingly suck for an hour. Then (again duh!) we suddenly remembered that teats came in different sizes and it was possibly time to change to the medium size. So we got out our Lindam and Pigeon Medium size teats and happily changed all the existing teats. But the M teats were too fast for Keston. He'd take a regular suck and his mouth would be flooded with milk and the milk kept leaking onto his neck which got him v frustrated. We tried for 2 weeks and it was still a half-half situation. Sometimes it leaked bad, sometimes it just leaked a little. I was getting v fed-up especially when I read that babies usually take a couple of days to make the transition!!!

Yesterday when we were browsing in Taka's baby section, something caught my eye in the Pigeon section. I saw the words 'LEAK PROOF' and my face lit up. See, Pigeon has this 'Y' size teats which I never figured out what it meant. I mean 'S' means Small, 'M' means Medium, 'L' means Large...wth does 'Y' stand for? I remember asking HW and he said Youth. Erm...right.
Anyway I still dunno what Y stands for but I do know these are crosscut teats in which milk only flows when the baby sucks. It's so fantastic! I've been using them all day today and the feeds have been fantastic!!! No more crying and wiping all through the feed.

Now I have to worry what happens when he outgrows the Y teats since it only says 3mths+...nevermind, one thing at a time.

My son, the TV addict

Keston loves the tv. I think I mentioned that before...and this is what I actually see almost everyday after his morning feed. What are you looking at, Keston?

TV!!!

There was once when HW turned off the tv while Keston was watching and he immediately stared at the remote control.

Keston's first swim

Wai Po bought me this suit.

This morning, at the ripe old age of 3mths and 1 week, Keston went for his first swim. I know alot of mummies bring their babies to the baby swimming tub place at Harbourfront. But I couldn't justify paying for swimming, not when there are perfectly nice pools downstairs and I'd already bought him a neck float.

Bo gei grin

A couple of times before when we planned on bringing him swimming, the sky turned stormy. Today we fed him breakfast, let him play for half an hour and then practically grabbed him and dashed downstairs before a)it rained b)he turns sleepy.

The most difficult part for Keston was getting used to the water temperature as it's really cold. HW had to dip his leg in a little bit then bring him up for a cuddle...then dip abit more and cuddle him and so on until finally can get his whole body in. Once Keston got into the water, he was smiling and laughing away. People who were walking past smiled and commented "So cute"...I think it's more the act of seeing a baby bobbing on the water surface, rather than outright compliments on his looks. Keston first started in the bubble pool then we brought him over to the kid's pool. It's not like he can play with the slides yet but a change of scenery seemed fun! :)

Conked out right after getting bundled up!

We had such a great time and I can't wait to bring him swimming again. I'm wondering if I should apply some sunblock lotion for him....

My big baby

Konnichiwa

Bo liao Mummy made me 'model' my new clothes before washing

You know how I was complaining bout Keston not really enjoying his babygym? Well, all of a sudden now, he enjoys it. We can put him down for like half an hour and he'd be happily batting away at the ball or pulling the fish. That frees up some time for me to do other stuff.

Yesterday HW and I saw a baby boy with his grandma. The baby was smaller size than Keston but the grandma was holding him up without supporting his head. Also his head was clean shaven. So HW deduced that he must be 1 month old. But I noticed the head thing and said he can't possibly be younger than Keston since Keston's head still must be supported..I thought he should be 3 mths old as well or at most 4mths old. We asked the grandma and that baby is 2 full months older than our boy!!! OMG, no wonder people keep saying Keston looks bigger than his age. I don't get it, his weight and length is all within a reasonable range!!! He doesn't even eat alot, he's only just started drinking around 720ml a day. My mum said she saw an angmor baby who is 'shorter' than Keston but chubbier. And how old was the baby? 8mths old!!!

Keston has started eating his hand. It started off with little licks as he quietly brings his fist up to his mouth. And within a few days it developed into stuffing his fingers into his mouth. He prefers 2 or 3 fingers deep within his mouth. We tried scolding him or hitting his hand lightly when he does that but he just chuckles back. Sometimes he takes out his hand just to wait till we turn around before he sticks it back in....sigh.

I hope he doesn't start putting his whole fist in. Just a few mornings ago, we woke up to see a huge puddle of saliva next to his face. So gross! He only eats his right hand, so I'm guessing he's a right-hander. And so we've started putting on his mitten again (just on the right hand though). I hope he gets out of this phase soon.

3mths old.

Keston turned 3 months old on 28th Oct. We 'celebrated' by bringing him for his 2nd dose of vacination! The little fella screamed abit but promptly stopped when he was fed. He is now 6.2kg and around 64cm. Big boy already! His face is getting rounder and his thighs fatter. He's also going through a growth spurt which meant my SS is falling behind his DD again so gotta supplement a bit of FM. He's also taking ages to finish his milk, so it's time to change teat size. BUT he can't handle the faster flow and the milk keeps dripping all over his neck. sigh!

We've started putting him on his bumper mat, play gym and rocker when he was 2.5mths old. He barely tolerates the bumper mat and starts whining after a short while. Guess the bright colour's over-stimulating him. He starts out fine on the gym and hits the toy ball but gets more and more agitated till he either starts hiccuping or crying. The rocker keeps him entertained for a while longer although unlike reviews from other parents, he does not fall asleep on the rocker. The only thing that puts Keston to sleep is still carrying him. One of his most annoying habbits is when he's tired, he doesn't just fall asleep. He gets agitated and irritated. You can pat him forever and he won't shut his eyes but pick him up and cuddle him and he's deep in sleep within 2 minutes.

We are terrible parents. While experts suggest giving baby a bath and reading before putting him to sleep....we carry him and put on a dvd. Nothing suitable for babies hor. One of Keston's first movie was "Sex and the City". Now Keston loves to watch tv and it calms him down. Even when he's drinking milk, his head automatically turns towards the tv. I blame HW for that cos he doesn't turn Keston's head away from the tv!

Many people comment that Keston's v tanned. Honestly we have nothing to do with it, we don't bring him swimming (not yet) or suntanning. I don't mind though cos he looks more athletic and boyish.

chao dar boy

The curse broke

Apparently Keston knows what I write in this blog. Either that or he reads my mind. Right after I did the I must learn to keep my big mouth shut lines, he went back to his sleep routine. I'm not even sure if I should blog this. So Keston, if you see this, do continue with your beauty sleep.

I know... so unglam but that's my little koala bear :)

My pet human

Somewhere along the line, I've come to realise that I haven't really come to terms with being a mummy. Sure, I can easily sprout about having a baby and all that ladeedah. But deep within me, I still don't see myself as a parent.

I find myself treating Keston like a novelty, a toy....no wait, a pet puppy! Sounds so evil right? Hopefully it's a role I will grow into. Eventually :) Even my own mum says I treat Keston like a doll. Haha