Happy 8th Month Birthday

Happy 8th month birthday, Balqis. Alhamdulillah for the past healthy 8 months. May Allah bless you with many more months of blessings, good health and happiness, Amin.

Balqis had her KFC treat today. She simply lapped up the whipped potato minus the sauce. Strange though, because she didn't seem very eager with her mom's mashed potato :p Her mom struggled a bit with Balqis as she sat on the bench. And then one staff came over and offered to bring a high chair over. So as she sat strapped in the high chair, things got more manageable as her mom could feed her and eat at the same time too :) Balqis then got bored and started to look around and soon made friends with a bunch of teenage girls at the table behind her. She was soon chuckling through mouthfuls of whippe potato. Not sure if some made its way into her nostrils. oops..

She had some quiet time at the library, simply crawling about and observing and taking in the new environment. Her mom actually had enough peace to read a few pages from a book. She then read a book or two at the children's section, borrowed 2 DVDs and then registered as a member to get a free goodie bag :D She can now borrow up to 6 books for her to chomp.

Balqis still has only 2 teeth. Not that her mom is complaining as her bites are painful enough. She is crazy about standing, be it supported by others, or supporting herself on furniture. She roams around the house, from room to room. She is also able to stretch her waking hours up to 3 hours without being cranky. But the moment she hits 4 continuous waking hours, she gets reaaalll cranky.

Balqis is still using her parents as an obstacle course nightly. sigh...

and more updates!

Balqis loves to growl. sometimes it's because she's cranky, sometimes it because she's tired, n sometimes she just wants to amuse herself. However, doing that in a crowded train at peak hour, with arms and legs flailing wildly, may just cause a big enough commotion to get everyone backing off from her and making way for her mommy to get off the train quick enough. yes, balqis growling loudly and flailing her arms and kicking around is a sight startling enough for strangers to see. And right at that moment, I wish i could dig a hold in the ground and hide from all the eyes staring at her (and her mom).

she has a particular habit when sleeping in the spring swing. she likes to turn her face to the sarong. and her lashes can end up sticking out of the sarong like wierd pricks on a hedgehog. and when she trashes around in the sarong, sometimes she ends up being on all fours in it. she must hv felt disoriented being in that position with the swing springing up and down.

she is obsessed with handphones and remote controls. the definite allure to get her to speed crawl. she usually bashes her mom up at bedtime every night, right before sleeping. And she usually struggles against her mom and tries hard not to nurse for whatever unknown reasons, something which can make her pant and breathe heavily by the end of it, and exhaust her mom too.

she is now able to scratch a particular spot on her body, like a mosquito bite. being older now, she is also able to go to sleep without being nursed right to deep sleep. she will just turn away and go to sleep.

7 and a half

BB is achieving every milestone a bit on the fast track it seems these days, especially in the mobility section.

BB first got to a sitting position from tummy when she just turned 7 months old. One moment, she was on her tummy, next moment saw her sitting up straight on her play mat. And from then onwards, she just started crawling all over the place. And after that, she is now climbing stairs, hoisting herself up by hanging on to furniture for dear life, or hanging on to her mom's telekung when mommy is praying.

She is more capable of sleeping on her own without nursing right to sleep. Maybe, just maybe, soon the day will come when she goes to sleep completely on her own.

Physically, she weighs approximately 8.5kg, a very small increase as she is moving much more these days. She is still using 6 months old clothes. A relief on the wallet.

Not much stranger anxiety yet. She still smiles at strangers when they talk to her.

Although she has started on solids, she can do perfectly fine without solids for two days in a row, ie, relying totally in breastmilk. She doesn't like plums but likes chilled pureed pears, and seems to enjoy fish too.

Balqis is turning 7 months on Saturday.

She loves to say 'heyyyy' now. She usually saves the 'mamamam' rambling when she's cranky or crying.

Once she flips over, she usually balances herself on her hands and knees and starts rocking forward and backwards. She is still trying to figure out how to crawl forward. But she is going all over the place with her backwards crawling. One can't just leave her at a spot and expect her to still be at the same spot 1 minute later. She can no longer sit still on her own, always lurching forward to grab or munch or lick something. Pictures taken usually end up in a blur.

One second later... (fell face first)

Her first pearly white showed itself when she was 6 mths old, plus a week or so. Her daddy felt it when she bit him and saw a shimmery whitish tooth sprouting through. BB now has two lower teeth.

She started solids when she turned 6 mths one day old. She had breastmilk mixed with nestle cereal. It probably tasted the same to her with no difference in texture. She lapped every single spoonful and ended drinking it up with a cup as she just had no patience for the spoon. Then she started on mashed bananas, which she grimaced at, potatoes mixed with breastmilk which was good for her as the texture was similar to porridge, and chopped pears which she liked. Her mom is trying to be more diligent to prepare sweet potatoes and yam sometime next week.

Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah, Balqis has not come down with any fever or flu since she was born. Her mom had the occasional flu and cold now and then but Balqis didn't get it. Maybe she did but the antibodies in the breastmilk helped probably. She came down with a runny nose a few days ago which was gone in a few hours, so her mom put it down to a case of allergy to dust or some other allergen. Alhamdulillah. Allah is the best Caregiver and Protector.

She just broke her own record when it comes to sleeping too. For the first time in her life, she slept for four hours through without waking up even once. Shocking, yes.

She has started to display emotions in other ways other than crying. Once, she scolded her toy because it sprang back on her.

It is also getting harder to give her a diaper change now. And to change her clothes too. She lies down like a spring board, always flipping over.

And because she is very easily distracted and wants to play all the time, she no longer wants to nurse for the sake of a feed. She only drinks when she wants to nurse to sleep. There is no such thing as a feeding time for her anymore. She feeds when she wants to go to sleep. Sometimes her mom tries to nurse her while she is awake and not sleepy. She can nurse and drink, for like a minute at most, before she tries to wriggle away.

She readily smiles for the camera these days. Explains why most of the pictures always have her grinning and smiling.

Balqis at 6 months

Balqis is shy of 2 days turning 6 months. She has also celebrated her first raya and had an easy time with the jalan raya part, so far. Considering we went to two houses only on the first day, another two on the second day. Alhamdulillah, she's been cranky only in the car. As long as she got people talking n gooing and aah-ing at her, she's fine. However, her 1st raya was spent without her maternal grandparents, her maternal aunty and uncle.

She seems to develop a knack for getting duit raya. Managed to get $2 from this kind makcik at Ikea just now. BB smiled at her, she got smitten and dug out one money envelope from her handbag and gave it to BB. BB of coz grabbed it and started chomping on it.

Her mom has ditched the changing table and has resorted to a changing mat bcoz BB can flip over in just a second. The coffee table at the livnig room has been shoved aside to make way for BB's rolling attempts on the carpetted floor.

BB now cries with sounds like 'MAmamamam..'. And yes, she still screams sometimes. Usually when she;s over tired.

BB may start on cereal next week, or this weekend. we will take a look at Mummy's schedule and see if there's enough time or energy to look into that. Her mom's very very thankful that BB hasn't lost weight at all despite her Mom fasting.

balqis's day in school

so it was supposed to be the last day of class for her mom. and balqis followed her to school.

the mrt at 6pm wasnt that crowded but there werent any vacant seats still. however, one lady literally jumped off her seat to offer balqis a seat. or rather her mom :)

she started looking around and was really curious when the mrt went into the underground tunnel. and then she got tired and started eyeing this nice cream-coloured handbag of the lady sitting beside us. AND reaching out for it. the lady thought she wanted to touch HER so she was kinda touched and let balqis grab her finger instead. or maybe it was a tactical move :p later she commented 'she started early liking these things, huh?' referring to the handbag! aiyohh... i thought it was more of the reflective glittery clasp on the bag..

then she started getting bored when the lady got down. so her mom had to fish out one toy after another. and then desperately, bcoz balqis was beginning to fidget around and grab another lady's hair (she's pulled out some of mom's hair, so her mom was VERY scared at this point), so in a desperate attempt, her mom showed her some hp videos of herself babbling and blowing bubbles. so that worked until we got off. phew~

it was an uneventful walk to the school. and of cours eshe was the centre of attraction among mom's classmates. and the lecturers were like talking to her, etc.

again, alhmd, it was an uneventful hour spent in the classroom. she simply made her own noises, nothing screaming or screeching, sneezed a few times bcoz the room was rather cold, babbled a bit to herself, and basically put on her best behaviour. though she did poke one guy from the back and startled him a bit. oops.. her hand was too fast for me, i didnt get to stop her in time.

daddy took over from 8pm onwards, and got her sleeping in d carrier in no time. good job!

5 months old already!

Okay i still can't upload pictures here. so be thankful for words :p

Balqis now knows that she has a name. But she doesn't respond to Insyirah. Just Balqis. As how how her mom intended :)

Flipping over is old news for her these days. Sometimes she ends up flipping in her sleep and will end up looking confused and groggy.

She can be engrossed with whatever hand gestures people make. And when they make those hand gestures right in front of her, she will try to imitate, by looking at her hand, then at theirs, then back at hers. She usually ends up just opening and closing her fist.

She laps up feedings through the spoon. It is probably a sign that she's getting ready for semi-solids now but her mom is delaying it until theres a huge affirmative from the pd. If possible, her mom wants to push it to 8 mths old :)

First ride on the MRT

So BB had her first train ride yesterday. Shes abt 4.25 mths old now. Big enough to be highly curious with everyone and everything. Kept turning this way and that.

We went to East Point at Simei to get her mom some books because her mom has just about memorized every interesting book in the house while pumping. Popular got some great deals at 1-for-1 deal. Grabbed the great lunch deal at Eatzi and set off home.

BB slept for only a short while before waking up crying. She was kinda cranky, so her mom took her for a walk and met up with Daddy at the mrt station, hoping she would be lulled to drowsiness with the walk.

Mistake. She got restless, and couldn't really settle down all the way till 10pm! *groan* that was a looong lonnng night indeed. Her mom resolved to make sure she doesn't miss any more warm showers at night, be it a warm or cold night.

When BB was born, she was a hefty 3.925kg at 49cm, at almost 40 wks gestation. She was relatively short compared to other babies born around the same time, who measured more than 50cm.

At 4 months old now, at 62cm, she has caught up in the height department, and not missing out much on the weight too. STILL heavier than the other babies, although her mom is positive that she is losing weight because her neck is no longer hidden by the folds and creases of baby fat.

Making growling sounds is her new thing nowadays. Sometimes when she complains (it sounds different from the usual rambling she makes), she will at times GROWL. not demure.

tweety is still her fave toy of all toys. And she doesn't have that many toys in fact. Her parents need to buy a few more for her as she quickly gets bored of the current ones.

developments to date - 4 months old

No pictures for this post because blogspot doesn't seem to have the functions to do that today.

We made a visit to the pedatrician's office last saturday, when she turned 4 months 1 day old. she was supposed to get her 6 in 1 vaccination. There was a couple with an 11 month old baby boy waiting outside for their bill. The father was carrying the baby and said to BB 'hello little boy!'. I was like URRGGHHHH! 'She's a girl.' 'Oh my god, I'm sorry!' 'It's ok. It's the jersey..' because she was wearing the Liverpool jersey in spirit of the upcoming match with Singapore the next day. Dalam hati menyumpah2 jap. hehe..

BB wasn't interested in the little boy though. Instead, she grinned at the father who was talking to her. For two introverted parents, it is quite a surprise that BB is pretty friendly to everyone.

BB weighed 6.8kg, measured 62cm. A consistent 200g increase weekly, and 1 cm taller from one month ago.

Upon seeing her, the pd commented, "So big already! looks so cute!" He has seen her from birth so that probably meant she wasn't cute then? grrr...

After a check on her physical development, he started to give her the oral vaccine for rotavirus. And while giving her the vaccine, he said 'She is very curious." so i asked "is that normal?" "it's very good. she looks around and that is how she learns." I hope that won't translate into mak kaypoh 10 yrs down the road.

She cried for like a minute after the injection, longer than the previous injection when she cried for like 5 secs only.

Next vaccination is due when she turns 6 months old, after raya.

The pd said that she is not supposed to start on solids until 6 months old. No cereal, nothing. Just breastmilk or formula. And it is best if she can be fed only milk all the way until 8 months old. She will not lack nutrition at all.

Other than that, BB has proven to be easily distracted during feeding time. Unless she's sleepy when she will want to be nursed to sleep, she will be easily distracted by anythign and everything. Her mom's clothing, the ceiling (what does she see other than the white ceiling?), the designs on the pillow. Her mom finds it hard to surf the net on the mobile phone while feeding her because she always turns to see the mobile phone and what her mom is doing.

BB loves the mirror. She can spend LONG minutes watching herself and grinning at herself and touching the mirror. She loves to watch shadows on the walls and the ceiling. Especially when the drapes are drawn.

her favourite toy is the big tweety bird that her Mak Ngah gave. she likes to touch and talk to tweety. and fancies the tag on the tweety because it has colourful pictures of tweety, daffy duck, sylvester.

BB is engrossed with her mittens when she wears them. She wears mittens when she is about to go to sleep, Otherwise, she will wake up crying from scratching herself. And yes, she bears many scratch marks already as it is. She can spend many minutes studying her mittens with eyebrows scrunched up together in focus, as if trying to figure out whatever happens to her hands, and then finally puts her gloved hand in her mouth.

BB is able to flip on her own now. She will turn her head in towards the mattress, so that her body will follow in suit. But she has problems with her arm pinned down. So someone will need to help her with the pinned arm. She likes to be propped up into a sitting position, and is quick to grin when someone pulls her up from lying to a sitting position. She usually uses her own muscles to be pulled up, using the help as support.

She has developed stranger anxiety now. she is still okay with strangers carrying her, as long as someone she's familiar with is near. she is still trying to adapt to sleeping inside the spring swing. that is the only way to make her sleep for 2 hours without waking up intermittently. yes, she still feeds every 2 hours, and has 2 hour sleep cycles.

1st studio picture

This is BB's 1st studio shoot. We did it because there was a voucher to get a 5R photo at the studio. Anyway, expectedly, we upgraded to 8R because the pictures turned out ok and we also got another 8R picture of BB.

BB was generally in a good mood. so the first picture taken turned out ok. she was grinning and all at the poor guy who was really trying his best to make her grin and look a tthe camera. I'd give the guy some credits for really trying his best to get a good shot of her. I mean, we could go on grinning for hours for the camera, but BB spent 1 sec looking at the camera, and the next 10 secs looking down. It was tiring after a while. And during this second photoshoot, BB was getting increasingly tired, and sensing the desperation of the guy trying to catch her attention and make her grin. we got her in a basket, and then, on her tummy. but this picture turned out the best. so i'd really give the guy at peter pan studio some credits for attempting various positions of her to get the best shot.

and im glad we finally got a picture of the 2 of us in a studio setting, albeit with an additional one :) somehow we never got around to a studio photoshoot after the wedding..

2 weddings

BB had a busy day today.

She had two weddings to attend. One at teck Whye, another at Woodlands. And her parents had long planned her dress sense for the day :)

Her mom let her sleep till 11am until BB woke up on her own and didn't seem keen to go back to sleep again. Her mom bathed her (showered actually) and dressed her up, and BB didn't seem to like the gown and the matching socks...

Waiting for Daddy to come home before we could set off to fetch Atuk and go off to Teck Whye.. but not before BB decided to give out a BIG one which she had been saving for like 2 days.. so her mom had to change her diaper first before setting out for Teck Whye.

She was pretty good until like we were about to go back when she decided to CRY like there was no tomorrow, because it was getting noisy (the deejay was starting to get to work) and everyone was going gaga over her.

We didn't spend very long at Woodlands, and BB was getting agitated with all the unfamiliar faces hovering over her, and being carried by so many people. But we did snap a few shots with her mom and dad, with BB not looking v happy.

Upon reaching home, her mom gave her a cooling shower and she slept like a log. Too much excitement today! :)

Note to self: Need to put away that white top, getting too small for BB.

I am 3 months old! Whatever happened before this..

Nur Insyirah Balqis is now 3 months 1 week old. Life in this world is beginning to make some sense to her. and she is also giving her mom (ME) some respite. She is settling into some kind of routine and is beginning to sleep better (ie not waking up every 10 min).

BB (Baby Balqis) was conceived in July 2008. Her presence in mommy's womb was much celebrated by her immediate family members. An additional family member. A blessing from Allah. A precious gift.

Morning sickness was horrible. Her mom was barely living for like 3 months. She lost 4kgs thruout the 3 months, but BB was growing well despite her mom throwing everything up. Alhamdulillah. Her mom was always anxious and looked forward to every fortnightly scan and felt relieved everytime the gynae said 'Ok very good!'.

The rest of the pregnancy was normal, alhamdulillah. BB started gaining weight at an exponential rate when her mom reached 3rd trimester. From 1.5kg, she reached a whopping 2.2kg in 3wks time, and maintained that rate for the rest of the pregnancy, despite her mom not eating that much.

One day, when she was 39 wks old in gestation, her mom came down with diarrhoea, and that prompted irregular contractions. BB was detected to be in some distress, so her mom was induced. Her mom went through 23 hours of labour pains before the gynae decided that BB wasn't going to go down the birth canal. BB was delivered by Caeserian section with general anaesthesia on 24th Mar at 5pm. She weighed a whooping 3.925kg, quite a bulky figure as her height was only 49cm.

Because of the general anaesthesia, her mom did not get to see BB lifted out of the womb. Her mom did not get to hear her first cry too. BB was ushered into the NICU because of her low oxygen level. When her mom gained consciousness soon after the surgery, she didn't get to see BB until 20 hrs later. Her mother saw BB the first time through a picture taken with a camera phone.

Fastforward three months later.

BB got her passport done. BB now weighs 6.1kg, an acceptable weight. What can BB do now?

When BB is placed on a mattress with half her body inclined on a pillow, she can pull her body up using her stomach muscles up to a few cm off the pillow.

When grasping on someone's finger, she can lift herself up to a sitting position, and then to a standing position. But not very long.

BB loves talking. Loves it when people look at her straight in the eye and talk to her.

BB is happiest when she wakes up in the morning. She smiles a lot even when people don't talk to her.

BB can grasp a few toys now. BB is beginning to explore the sense of touch by touching things around her.

BB has not much memory of places. When she goes into a room, she will have a good look around the place like she has never been there. Even though she may have left the room like an hour ago.

BB doesn't have stranger anxiety yet. She clearly prefers those she is familiar with, but doesn't mind anyone holding her, which is a good break for her parents.