His Grace . . .

Two hours to the end of 2011 and to what has been an extraordinary year for me.  

On my left, I have my precious daughter sleeping soundly in her crib.  On my right, my dearest husband, happily surfing the internet.  Outside of our room, my little niece is being tucked into bed by my sister while my parents are in their room, one sipping his limited edition Glenfiddich, the other watching some taiwanese drama.  The younger sis, on her way to Watchnight service with a special friend in whom she found both love and God. 

We've all been blessed, in our own little ways.  2011 has been good and because I've only one hour to catch a quick nap before my darling daughter awakes, reflections of my extraordinary year will come in a later post. 

Thanking God for my 2011 that was filled with nothing but His amazing Grace and looking forward to my 2012 with Him walking ahead of me. 

Blessed 2012 everyone!

Thankful . . .

This Christmas, I'm thankful for

Family for their tremendous love and support,

My husband, for loving me all these years for what I am,

My sweet sweet child, God's precious gift to me 

and

Jesus - God's greatest gift to men.

Blessed Christmas one and all!

Cousin Love

Since I was visibly pregnant with Julianne (at least enough for Sophie to see my baby bump over Skype), my sister has been telling her about Baby Julianne and how Sophie was going to get to see her when she came back to S'pore. 

She told her teachers about it, pretended to want to go back into her Mama's tummy "like Baby Julianne" and even wanted to give away her favourite squeaky giraffe!  

I was really excited for the cousins to meet even though Julianne probably doesn't understand anything.  When Sophie first saw Baby Julianne, she didn't quite want to come too close, only when her Mama carried Julianne did she come forward, as if reminding her mother that - hey don't forget about me.  

But over the past week or so, Sophie has warmed up so much to Julianne, it's just so sweet.  She plants little kisses on her cousin, helped wash Baby Julianne's hair and loves giving her little pats pats, its so sweet to watch.

She actually looks for Baby Julianne when she comes back to my parents' place and loves to ask "why is Baby Julianne crying?" whenever she hears her cousin's cries.  Her other favourite - "Baby Julianne is so cute".  Yesterday, at the Underwater World, while I was feeding Julianne under my nursing cover, my sweet little niece came over and stroked Julianne's little feet as if giving her some tender loving care.  What a sweetie, learning to love at such a young age.  

I'm looking forward to the two of them playing together soon!!

"I wanna be home Mama"

With Christmas just 10 days away, I badly needed to get my shopping done.  Till date, I've only brought Julianne out to very public areas twice; for dim sum lunch to celebrate her 1st month and to church.  I really wasn't sure how it was gonna turn out but I thought now that we have the stroller, perhaps things won't be too bad.  

So I had her diaper bag all packed the day before, picked out her clothes and made sure both dearie and I got ourselves orientated with her new Bugaboo Bee stroller.  We gave her an early wash up and by 9am, she was all ready for her excursion.  I had my shopping strategy all worked out hoping to complete it in 2 hours before lunch with my grandparents.

My plan to reach town by 10am didn't materialise - lesson to self: forget about scheduling with baby.    Thankfully Julianne fell asleep in the car on the ride to town (which I had hoped) so I managed to shop in peace for about 30 minutes.  But with 15 items on my shopping list, I only completed three by noon and then our dear pumpkin woke up. 

I managed to check off two more items on my list while Grandma carried her.  You should have seen me, I was literally running inside Takashimaya to get from one boutique to another!  Managed a 2-hour dim-sum lunch with the grandparents carrying her in my arms half the time before making another dash to try get more shopping done.  

By 3pm, I was done with 10 items, a sleepy and hungry daughter and a very stressed out me.  I was very proud of Julianne though, no meltdowns, just wanting to be carried as usual.  I know she was tired cos she didn't sleep since 6am but she held up real well.  Even when it was time to eat and I couldn't feed her cos we were waiting for Papa to drive the car over, she just happily sucked on her tiny fist and exercised patience!      

But the outing left her totally stimulated she didn't go down for her nap till 5pm and happily slept past her next feed.  When we tried to give her a bathe, she was clearly way to sleepy and I couldn't bear to wake her up with all that splish-splash so we made do with only a clean up. 

I don't know how some of these mothers do it lagging their week old baby around town.  I honestly find it too stressful for myself and for the child.  I think Julianne is happier at home, napping on Por Por's bed, eating when she's hungry and breathing in fresher air than that of the malls.  

No more shopping with her in toll for a while now.  Home is better. 

Sophie's Home!!

Sophie the cutie!, a photo by pz.sher on Flickr.

The little one cutie one is home and had a ball(oon) of a fun yesterday chasing after balloons and serving everyone ice-cream! ... It so nice to have her, my sis and Jude back!  She's the cutest and her vocabulary amazes everyone - down to her grammer! Its almost scary.    

The two cousins finally met yesterday and it was the sweetest thing when Sophie planted Baby Julianne a little kiss on the forehead! Awww ... sweet child.  Later that evening, she even washed Julianne's hair! Can't wait for Julianne to grow up so that she can play with her adorable cousin! 

Its so nice to have family home.  With Sophie and Julianne, our family is growing merrily.  What blessings! I know the grandparents are happy - although Grandma just have to learn to live with the mess as the house turns into a play-school for the next 3 weeks! 

Time Out

This morning at 7am, out of exhaustion from looking after Julianne last night, I drove the car out for the first time in 2 months - just me, myself and I, let the windows down and breathed the 7am fresh air, went to the market to get breakfast for the family and finally saw human activities not related to milk, pooping or babies.  

It felt really good.  Really really good. 

Before I left, I told the hubs to take care of Jules.  Guess what greeted me when I came home from my short 15 minutes getaway?  The entire family - Gong Gong, Por Por and Papa - waiting for me in the living room downstairs with Julianne on her gym mat.  It was a funny sight.  As if they couldn't wait to return my darling fussy daughter to me.    

Oh well, 15 minutes better than nothing and then we start the whole nursing, pooping, rocking and singing all over again.  

This everyone is my beautiful life.

Fifi Yew . . .

Only my niece can be a scientist, fairy princess and ballerina in a tutu all at the same time and still look so darn adorable!!


5 more days to Sophie cuteness!! Yiyi can't wait for you to come back!  See you soon!! Baby Julianne is waiting for you to tickle her!

Precious ....

How to be angry with such a face even when she sometimes refuses to sleep, cries and wants Papa and Mama to wake up with her at 5am? 

At 5 weeks, Julianne is growing into such an adorable child with a personality of her own. She likes people to be gentle with her that means rocking, singing and talking to her gently.  During her occasional meltdowns, only Mama's gentle talking will calm her down.  I'm convinced she has come to recognise my voice and even my face (maybe its more the smell of milk).  

She is generally a good-natured baby and honestly hasn't been too difficult, lest for the few off-days.  Few things make her cry - (1) Coming out from her bathe.  She gets upset with us for taking her out of the water so changing her into her PJs can sometimes be such a challenge. (2) The feed before bed has been challenging.  For some reason, she will struggle at the breast, wanting to eat yet refusing it.  And strangely, its only this feed.  We're still trying to figure out what the reason could be.  I'm guessing either she's really tired or she's not hungry cos sometimes, I nurse her just to get her to bed even though it isn't quite a feed time.  

I'm enjoying spending my day with her even if it means having nursing, changing of poopy diapers and rocking her to sleep on repeat mode for a good 10 hours before the rest of the family comes home.  The wonderful hubs now tries to come back for lunch whenever he can and gets to spend that additional time with Julianne even though its just a short hour or so.    Even if she's sleeping, he's happy just looking at her snooze.     

Julianne now weighs in at a healthy 4.35kg.  Thank God all that hard work nursing her didn't go to waste!  She has also grown 2cm measuring 53cm now.  At last week's visit to Dr Yip, she had her 1st boo-boo since we were discharged.  It was her 2nd Hep B shot.  What was I thinking when I wondered if she would be brave enough not to cry ... well clearly she did but a 20sec cry for a 5 week old ain't too bad I suppose. 

Oh and we finally cut those nails of hers yesterday after she scratched herself real bad near her right eye.  Yiyi Sam did a great job while Jules was sleeping.  The first few fingers were a little stressful but we got the hang of it!

I'm typing this entry with her sleeping in my arms cos she refuses to be put down - as usual.  Yes, I've mastered the art of multi-tasking - the things motherhood does to you.  

Letters to Julianne #2

Dearest Julianne, 

You are one month old today!  Just how awesome is that!  I hope you have enjoyed every bite of the past 30 days in this world!  With all the milk, kisses and cuddles you've been getting, what's there not to like right? 

Well, you definitely came and did what we knew you were gonna do - change our lives forever!  In the past month, Mama hasn't slept more than a 2 hours stretch, hasn't watched TV, smell of milk all day, had my breast thumped countless times when you have a meltdown, have been going to bed with my glasses on, hair bun up and sang "Jesus Loves Me" a million times.  But Mama has also been greeted with the sweetest morning smiles, looked into the face of the most contented baby after a feed - as if saying "Thanks Mama, that was yummy"!   

You had your fussy days, like last night when you kept me up from 12mn to 5.30am and this morning when you simply refuse to be put to bed.  It's like you knew you were 1 month old and wanted to have a party and decided it was no fun having a party alone so Mama had to join you too rocking and singing with you all night! You sure thought it was fun didn't you?  Mama didn't find it very fun though and was running out of patience at that party.  It's something I'm still learning so be patient with me ok? 

Your favourite time of the day is clearly between the hours of 6pm and 7pm when everyone comes home and gives you all their attention.  You enjoy the attention and are always on your best behaviour.  Sometimes I think you like to bully Mama cos when everyone leaves for work and its just you and me, the naughty side of Julianne Foo is revealed.  

We've introduced you to pretty much everyone you need to know.  You've received many presents (mostly pretty clothes thankfully) and love gifts in the past month.  You're one blessed child.  We even brought you to see Dr Liang and the nurses when we brought them your man-yue cakes.  Our journey to having you wasn't easy and she knew that so Dr Liang was especially happy for Papa & Mama.  We also threw you a little full month party where Papa and Mama's close colleagues and friends got to see you.  You're get to see more relatives over the Christmas party coming up real soon!     

You're no longer that tiny 3.1kg baby we brought home from hospital.  By your first pediatrician check up with Dr Yip, you had gone back to your birth weight.  We tried weighing you at home and think you're probably in the region of 3.8kg - 4kg now.  We'll know tomorrow when we see Dr Yip again.  On your features, thus far, the verdict has been that you look like Papa.  Oh well, Mama takes after Gong Gong too so looking like Papa can't be a bad thing.  I chose to think you have the best of both of us - top half like Papa (good thing you inherited his long eye lashes), bottom half like Mama - the Koh chin for sure! Whatever it is, you're beautifully and wonderfully created!    

December is going to be even more excited Julianne.  Your cousin Sophie is coming home and that's gonna be the highlight of the month.  Mama can't wait for the both of you to meet and for Yiyi Rene and Uncle Jude to finally see you! We'll be going partying with Christmas here and lots of other baby cousins whom you'll meet.  This Sunday, we're taking you to church to see all the uncles and aunties who have been asking after you.  Aint' you excited?  But they don't sing "Jesus Loves Me" at church so I hope you'll like the other songs they sing.  We'll also be moving into a new room and giving you a new bed soon - you gotta thank Yiyi Sam and Yiyi Rene for giving up their room for us.  Big shot huh you? 

It sometimes seems so surreal that you're finally here and here to stay.  You are so very precious Julianne and in spite of all the meltdowns and difficult moments, Mama wants you to know that I love you with all my heart.

Happy 1st month my sweet sweet Julianne.

Love, 

Mama