At 10 months

Sophie can pull herself to stand and push herself around with her walker. She can even manage to stand unsupported for a maximum of 10 seconds!

She can drink from the straw with her pigeon mag mag. In fact she can drink from a normal straw too. Just takes a longer for the water to reach her mouth.

She can sleep almost independently. We transited to the next stage of sleep training last Sunday.

Day 1: Slept after 30 mins of leaving her in the room on her own

Day 2: Slept after 20 mins.

Day 3: Slept after 10 mins but with me besides her. She got so scared I'll leave that she kept opening her eyes after she closed her eye lids in 1 sec.

Day 4: Drank milk to sleep

Day 5: Slept after milk and two hugs from mummy

Day 6: Drank milk to sleep

It will get better and better *Fingers crossed*

I can feel her first tooth growing out! FINALLY at 10 and a half months.

She can scream really loud. The teacher at the infant care said she has daily vocal practice with her BFF Ashley. I think she'll grow up to be a squealing young girl! Headache.

She begins to appreciate books with texture, flaps, mirrors. But has also in the process riped off two flaps from her books. And one is borrowed from the National Library! Whoops.

She no longer lies down for diaper change. Another headache! Have to do it fast or keep her distracted. I've gotten over over the fact that there are somethings that shouldn't be in her mouth.

New look

I meant a new look for Sophie's blog :)

Since I updated my blog's template, I decided to do likewise for Sophie. I think this template reflects her personality more accurately :) After all what more shouts "I'm a baby girl" than this pink template with rattles and teddy bears.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Sophie's First Holiday!

Sophie went for her first holiday to KL last week (26-29 May 2010). We drove up to Malaysia and stayed at my colleague's place for 4 days. The journey there was good as Sophie was suprising quiet for the start of the trip and only started to get restless after we took a short break after 3 hours of being in the car

Being constantly in the car means that she was easily put to sleep by the vibration and constant white background sound from the car and she took a long 1 and a half hours nap.

I doubt she understands that we're out of the country and only knows that she didnt see her friends at the infant care and that we drove for a long long time. She was in a good mood most of the time on the first 2 days and got more restless by day 3.

The good thing about staying in my colleague's place, was that we had an extra pair of hands and eyes to keep an eye on the little monkey who's gotten very active and talkative recently.

From the trip, I noticed that she has been less interested in her cereals and porridge, refusing her food after a few spoonsfuls. Wasted my efforts to cook her my ai xin meals for her.

No doubt traveling with her is more tiring than I expected but I know that this will get better when she grows older, can walk or even run around on her own, eat the same food as me. After all I managed to go shopping while she's asleep in her pram, enjoyed a nice massage, went swimming and even had some local food and have some 二人世界 with the hubby.

Looking forward to our next holiday again!

Toothy tales

It started with fluctuating fever last Thursday that was on then off then on again. Then the munchster lost her appetite for milk, cereal and porridge. The little one was so hardly sleeping, so on friday night we thought that we'll let her sleep in the evening when we're out to allow her to catch up on some rest. BIG mistake! She ended up waking at 10pm and sleeping again at 1am after a huge struggle.

And in the night, she easily woke up for 5 times. Also didnt help that I took the easy way and nursed her to sleep on the few times when it seemed so hard for her to go back to sleep. So the pattern continued on sat night and gave Daddy a headache throughtout the night. Then there was also the diahorrea and constant crankiness all sure signs of teething.

Everything lands up in her mouth

Remedies we tried

- hyland's teething tablets (have to feed more than 3 to see effect)
- dentinox teething gel (temporary numbs the pain for a while)
- teether toy - refuse to bite it

Sophie drooling

Although the photo above shows her drooling,, but we havent seen that much drooling though. And she has now reverted to her toe sucking days. Probably the best thing to chew on since it's so accessible and fleshy!

Sophie attacking her book

You know there is a hokkien saying, 7 month sit, 8 months crawl, 9 months grow teeth (direct translation). Now that you're already 9 months and 2 weeks, Mummy is anxious to see those pearly whites of yours to add to your smile and look forward to a happy chirpy baby again.

Sophie at 9 months

Sophie went for her 9 months developmental assessment at the polyclinic today. At 9 months, Sophie's able to crawl, pull her weight to stand up and even stand unsupported for a short while. To be precise, mummy counted and it was 2 seconds before she plonked her butt down in the bathtub.

She's also able to lift her feet off the ground and climb up the sofa. There was even once she managed to stand in her pram while daddy was busy talking to the teacher in the infant care and gave everyone a scare. In fact, now whenever we sit her down in the car seat, she'll almost immediately get up on her feet if she's not strapped in. So now we're extra careful with her as you never know how fast she'll move.

She was such a darling after the assessment. When the nurse said that all's good, she actually did a "yeah" sound and clapped her hands much to the amazement of everyone. I was telling Alexis that Sophie may actually know a lot more than we know and she just wants to show off her "skills" to other people. Haha.

Cant believe it's been 9 months...

9 months from conception to birth

9 months in my womb

And now 9 months out in this world

and 9 months old

My baby's almost growing up too quickly...

Happy Mother's Day

Today I celebrate my first Mother's Day with my baby.

After I became a Mom myself did I know what Motherhood means.

Motherhood is all about making sacrifices. Even before she was born, I have learnt what it means to make sacrifices.

I exchanged coffee for soya bean, margaritas for milk, sashimi for supplements. Spending my time reading up on all things relating to baby care so that I know what to do when she's born. And even now I limit my intake of caffeine and still cant even have a sip of alcohol as I'm still breastfeeding. Continuing to breastfeed despite the amount of time it takes to pump, wash in the morning, afternoon and night just simply she can continue to be a stronger immunity to fight the flu bugs away.

Spending hours in the kitchen preparing for her meals on weekends even though she may simply have a "bad day" and refuse all my meals which I so painstaking put together. And even after that having spend at least half an hour to coax her into finishing her meal

Gone are the days when I can sleep as late as I want and wake up as late as I want. Now I am trained to sleep like a ninja-sleeping with one eye "open". Weekday evenings and weekends activities are planed around her. Trying my best to keep my temper in check (still working hard on that especially on days she's all cranky!)

But in exchange, Motherhood has also taught me about a strength of a person. To persist in breastfeeding even when it's so hard and painful! That I can survive on a mere few hours of sleep when she's getting up few times in the night. And literally discovering new strength when I have to carry a 8kg baby around everyday (where are those biceps?)

I love you mummy

But more importantly, I discovered a love so deep, so intense, so pure that you desire to protect, to give your best, to give your all just for someone so small, so fragile, so that they can have the best.

And for this, I salute my mom, all moms.

I'm going to live my life as one that leaves a legacy for my next generation. Not with riches or wealth, fame of fortune. But for one that honors God, respects her elders, loves her family, treasures her friends, knows that her value is not what's outside but what's within. To love much, laugh much and have a good time when she's growing up or grown up. To not sweat over things that have no eternal value and live for everyday so passionately. I guess this is the desire for my life as well.

So Sophie, lets promise each other that when you become a Mother yourself, you'll ask yourself what have you learnt from your mom and pass them on to your daughter.

Sophie goes up and down and...

Sophie has recently mastered how to stand up and lower herself!

She knew how to pull herself up from the side of the cot since about 7 or 8 months but lowering herself is the more tricky part. But sometime last week she started to just plonk her butt down when she wants to get down after standing up. But she has since learnt the less painful way which is to bend her knees and sit down.

She has been practicing it so much that she does it in her cot, on the sofa and even in the bath tub! Just yesterday she was up and down and up and down. And being the supportive mummy, I had to express my excitement of her learning a new skill that I clapped for her as an encouragement. And she went up and down for a few more times before she went on to create tidal waves in her bathtub by splashing wildly.

Even though I came out of the toilet not very dry, it made me proud of her progress. Seeing her grow day by day is one of the best joys in my life now.