3rd Month

Janelle has reached her 3rd month mark. Now each morning when she wakes up, she will smile at me when I pick her up from her cot. Then she will start chattering as if she is telling me what she had dreamt last night. Sometimes after she poo and I question her about it, she will smile at me sheepishly as if though she know that she has done something wrong.

She also got cheekier and naughtier with each increasing day. Now she wants to be picked up whenever she cries. She simply will cry louder and louder when she realised that we are beside her but not picking her up. She also seems to know when I am angry and tries to wriggle her way out by smiling at me. Isn't she cheeky.

I also have hit a milestone in breastfeeding as I have been breast feeding her fully for 3 months. This is certainly not an easy task since I have to eat right and wake up in the middle of the night to express out the milk since she has been sleeping through the nights. Recently she seems to be on a growth spur and start waking up in the middle of the night for her feeds again. I hope that I will be able to sustain the current amount of breast milk for her till at least I am back at work.

We also have brought her to my in laws' place to allow her to transition to stay at their place. The first time I brought her there as I had go back to office for a few hours. She cried so loudly that day as if she knew that I am going to leave her there. Maybe it was time for her nap and she found herself to be in an unfamiliar house. The following visit, I ensured that she was sleeping first before I bring her there. This time round she is not as cranky as before and was more willing to be carried by my in laws. Oh how I missed her when I placed her there and left. My mind was constantly thinking what she was doing over there. I felt so gulity when I leave the place and just could not help thinking what is she doing and whether she is crying for me.

She got all the attention she wanted over at my in laws. They carried her and played with her constantly. When she is home, she demanded the same amount of attention and when its not given to her, she just simply screamed. Hiaz...

However she is also settled into a routine that I am comfortable with. Unlike the initial two months where her sleep and wake time were all so uncertain. There are times she will only sleep for an hour in the entire day and there are times when she will sleep almost the entire day. Now she will take two major naps in the day and shorter naps in between. This gives me more breathing space and rest time.

No matter how tough it might be taking care of her, I am enjoying the process tremedously and is dreading the day when I have to go back to work. Can I stay home and take care of her???

Janelle Goes Swimming

Janelle always loves to kick whenever we bath her. Sometimes she kicks so hard that she hits her head against the bath tub. So when I got a voucher from a friend to bring Janelle go swimming, we brought her there today.

She was a darling when the lady over at the shop did warm up exercises with her to help her loosen her muscles. As she always hates people touching her head, when the lady placed the float on her, she screamed. The crying stopped immediately when she was placed in tub. She enjoyed herself tremedously in the pool. She started kicking and looking around when she is in there. She also rewarded everyone who played or looked at her with smiles.

She enjoyed herself so much that she cried when she was removed from the tub. We have signed up for her to go for another 10 sessions. After the swim she was so tired that she slept for 5 hours straight.

Janelle Fist Eating Movie

Janelle seems to be putting everything in her mouth nowdays. She starts with part of her fist and trying to lick the entire fist.

Janelle Talking?

Janelle has reached a stage where she will response to us when we talk to her. Finally we managed to capture a video of her cooing while I talk to her in the morning. Usually after she wakes up in the morning and starts to cry, I will pick her up and chat with her. It was a little difficult to capture this video as she will always keep quiet when the camera is rolling and start to coo again when we stop the camera.

Janelle has hit her 2 months mark and I also had successfully breast feed her for an entire two months. Hopefully I will have the willpower and strength to carry on as long as I can. Its not an easy task breast feeding a baby. If you are low on supply you worry that you do not have enough for your baby. If you have sufficient, you have to be careful and diligent to prevent the onset of mastitis due to engorgement. I also have to wake up in the middle of the night to express out the milk. That reduces the amount of continuous sleep that I can get. I am a big panda now.

I was sick

Janelle has started to sleep longer at night. There are times she will only wake up once for her feed instead of twice a night. On Tuesday, I brought her out for a gathering. She fell asleep while on our way there but woke up to the noise and sounds at Swensens. As there were other babies around, Janelle kept staring and looking at the others around her. She only took a nap when we were on our way home and totally knocked out after I fed and bath her for the day.

She was so tired that she did not wake up for her feed that night. I kept waking up at the timings which she usually feeds but she did not wake up. I delayed pumping the milk as I was afraid that she will wake up and has nothing to feed on. I only started to pump at 5.30 am after 7 hours since the last feed. I did not pump all the milk and wanted to feed her when she is awake. However she did not manage to clear all the milk. As the day drags on, the accumulation of the milk in my breast increased and I could not clear it by pumping. The milk ducts was blocked. It was then I started to develop a temperature. I suspected that I was having a fever and asked hubby to come home as soon as he could. While waiting for him to be home, it was a torturous wait as I still had to take care of Janelle.

When hubby reached home, I took my temperature and found that I had a fever of 38.8 degrees. I went to the doctor and was advise to consider stop breastfeeding. As I am breastfeeding, the Doc could not give me stronger medication to curb the high fever. By giving me weaker medication, it could mean that it will take a longer time for me to recover. If I could not clear the block ducts I may have to undergo surgery to release the milk. Hence I was asked to return for a follow up consultation on Saturday.

Luckily I could clear the blocked ducts after using cold compress and taking a warm bath. The fever has subsided and I felt much better already. This was really a terrible experience for me. I will not be lazy again and will wake up min 4 hourly to pump out the milk.

Photoblog

A happy Janelle

A very unhappy Janelle who is able to cry.

ahha

The pacificer is taped to her to prevent her from waking up and to sleep longer by my Dearest Husband.