Makayla turns One!

Our dearest Xiao Mei,

Today marks exactly one year since you made your very quick entrance into the world!

Praise God for giving us such a precious, perfect, bundle of joy. You truly have been a wonderful blessing to our family and we are all besotted by your 'full of colour' personality. Your moon-eyed smile is so infectious and adorable and your mah mah just wants to bottle your baby scent forever.

Your bah bah loves to stir you all the time as we all know how much you favour your mama instead. But your dad just can't help it. You are too cute! He is always quick to give you loads of cuddles and kisses. Your big sister is the same. She loves to shower you with kisses every time she sees you until it you have to gasp for air. Your big brother is always very protective of you making sure all of our visitors are never to take you home with them. You love playing with your siblings and your bah bah and mah mah can only hope the three of you will grow up to be very close; Confidant for one another.

So our little one, as you are about to take flight with your very first step, we pray that God will guide you through all life's journey. That you will learn to be humbled by all of your achievements giving only praise to your creator; That you will pause and be thankful for each day; That you will grow into a beautiful girl and then to a fine woman of God who will not be influenced by the world but be an influencer....

We seal all this in Jesus Name, Amen.

We love you to the moon and back, always and forever,

Bah Bah, Mah Mah, Gor Gor & Jie Jie

xo

Farewell Mat Leave!

At my 5th month of mat leave, P&G decides to ring me and ask if I could go back to work early. Geez why didn't I see this coming? not. Every mat leave, they have always rang to ask me to come back to work early.
So with my final mat leave, I agreed to come back 1 month early predominantly b/c I was good friends with my colleague who would be my predecessor in the new role and she was at that time dual hatting. I felt so sorry for her!

Priority to my final mat leave commencing, I had written down a list of goals that I had to do before returning back to work and I was happy that I/we achieved most of it in the space of 6 months (despite suffering from major sleep deprivation):

1) Finding Zach's primary school - I went on 2 school tours and it was definitely an eye opener as they were both opposites of each other. Lots of decisions to be made very soon!
2) Selling our old car and buying a new car - We managed to do this before the financial year ended! woo hoo!
3) Toilet train Zach for the night wees - mission accomplished when he was 3.5y.o especially after we transfered him over to his new car bed. He was more than happy to not wear a nappy to bed. He probably only had 2 accidents before he got the hang of it.
4) Toilet train D for the day nappies - I tried for a week and gave up b/c D would be more than happy to be in wet pants! Grrr.. will give it ago again this Summer!
5) Find a bargain to fly back to Malaysia for our first ever CNY with the kids - Praise God for the Mega Air Asia sale during April/May where i managed to secure a return flight for around $400pp inclusive of tax & luggage! now that's cheap especially during peak season!
6) Update linkedIn - semi done :) Actually when I did update it, immediately I had a call from all these headhunters. I managed to sit for an interview with another multinational company which was paying high $$ but it would mean moving to SG again. After about 15mins into the interview, I realised I really did not want to work for the industry.. and that was the end of it ;) Phew!
7) Get my hubby to do his annual medical check ups - Now I'm sure all your wives would concur.. it's sooo hard to get your hubby go see a doctor! So what i did was tell Mr M that I had booked his appointment already so he had no choice but to see the doctor! lol. Thank God everything was fine.
8) Finding the right builder - ok we probably went to see over 6 builders and still no luck w finding the right one with the right price tag.. so we are still searching!!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my 3rd and final mat leave.. definitely the best out of the 3 mainly b/c all of my g/fs were also on mat leave! that really helped. Also the fact that I had other little human beings to hang out with.. lol. We did a lot of really fun things together like going to the library, shopping, parks, playground, markets, McD's etc etc. Just really sad that I will no longer be hanging out with them as often.

And for the first time ever, I actually was sad to be returning back to work cos I knew it was the end of my mat leave like.. forever.  Instead I was secretly hoping that I could be made a tai tai.. yes... I'll keep dreaming alright!

The power of the tongue...

So Mr M and I have been married for five years now! yes 5.whole.years! Where did the time go?

Our relationship from when we first got together until now has definitely evolved over time. Yes we still love each other. But we have somewhat transformed into the old fashion couple where surprises are no longer needed. And when there is a surprise, it usually backfires on you.

Let me begin the story..

Picture me with 3 kids, sleep deprived, kids screaming, no time for myself, 1001 things to do in only 8hours during the day. We had just received in the mail a registered post notice for us to go to the PO to pick it up. Of course it was addressed to Mr M so I decided, bleh! no time today.. I'll do it tomorrow.

So the next day came and yet again it was a havoc day with only 4hours of sleep. I had to get feed the kids, brush their teeth, dress them and send them to childcare all before 8:30am. Then I frantically rushed to my accountant to do our tax return (yes my hubby had kindly forgotten about it and couldn't make it in the end leaving me in charge.. again). So the accountant and I spent 3 hours punching data in. The room was getting hot. I was getting tired and extremely agitated. After that, it was a dare devil dash to get a hair cut and yes.. usually visiting a salon should be a very pleasant and relaxed experience. Not when you have 3 kids! I even had to hurry the hairdresser and even said.. don't worry about blow waiving it even though I had paid for it already.

Then I rushed home to attend my little one to relieve my mum of her babysitting duties. Mr M rings home and the conversation goes like this:

Mr M: How did the accountant go? what happened?
Me: I was too tired and frustrated to go through it in details so just replied with 'fine'
Mr M: What time are you picking up the kids?
Me: Whenever I want to pick up the kids.
Mr M: Are you going to pick up my registered mail?
Me: At this time, my blood had reached its boiling point.. I exploded with
Have you done x y z for me yet?
Mr M: Oh no I haven't
Me: Well then of course I'm not going to pick it up. You can go yourself to pick up your registered mail because you know what I always deliver for you and you never deliver for me. Remember when I had asked you to ring Optus to get your iphone upgraded to iphone 5 so that I can finally have a new iphone? (since I still had his crappy old iphone 3-the first ever that came out which is sooooo slow now!). Well have you done it? of course not right? because the upgrade is not for you so why the rush right? Well guess what? you can go pick it up cos I have no time!' and then I probably added another 3K words after that cos seriously he got me in such a bad mood and all of his orders was not at all helping!

In the back of my mind, I knew I was going to pick up his registered mail.. but I just had to say it to get it off my chest since he was bossing me around at the wrong time of the day!

So when we hung up, I drove to the PO, gave the man my registered mail notification slip. He went away and gave me a box in return. While I was signing he said 'oh you got a new phone?'  .. at that point in time, my heart sunk.  So I said to the man 'how do you know it's a phone?', 'oh because I have worked here long enough to know that when a phone order is always delivered in these boxes with the same seal'.
O.M.G! What have I done?!

So that night I left Mr M's registered mail on our dining table for him to open the box 'pretending' that I did not know anything about the phone (more like I was hoping to God it wasn't the phone'. As soon as he came home from work, he saw the box, gave me a kiss and said 'Babe, this is for you....'

I just wanted to shoot myself right there and then.

Of course my pride just would not let me apologise and instead I replied 'Awwww.. thank you babe! You're the best!' And magically, Mr M didn't even bring up my mood swing bullets that was fired at him earlier on that day! 

Another lesson learnt in the wonderful journey of marriage! ooOOPPSS!

Makayla at 4 & 5 months!

Oh my dear xiao mei! so sorry mama hasn't wrote any where near as your jie jie and gor gor.. not because I love you any less, but because I am so busy with looking after the 3 of you and not to mention the sleep I am NOT getting! haiz...

Nonetheless, mama is trying extra hard to taking more photos of you and to write all of your milestones down.

Here are your developments:

4th Month:

1) Makayla has a real fascination with her hands. She would stare at it for ages and clasps her hand with each of her tiny fingers going in and out in utter amazement.
2) She loves eating her hands and sucks it to sleep. She also loves to rub her face/head and sometimes when she gets really angry, she would scratch all over her head! Poor thing!
3) Her cradle cap is slowly disappearing
4) She is still in size 00-0 clothing
5) She now knows how to move her eyes and head to follow an object she is watching
6) Her neck is getting stronger. Can do tummy time for at least 5 mins (as opposed to 1 min previously).
7) She sleeps from 6pm-6am, but occasionally wakes up at 1am for a feed when she has a growth spurt which lasts for at least 4 days
8) She loves her bath. Out of my 3 kids, M would be the only one that doesn't cry when she has a bath! She now has discovered the art of kicking and loves to kick in the water.
9) She is extremely good at holding things and grabs for things every now and then. When she sits on her bouncer, she loves to pull all of her toys down and she is very good at it!
10) She also loves to squeal and screams at the top of her lungs sounding like a bird in a very high pitched voice. It is very cute when you hear it as it sounds like she is talking to herself (usually in the cot).
11) She had her first ear infection (left ear).
12) She now weighs 6.47kg, standing at 60.5cm tall with a head circumference of 41.5cm. She is 50th percentile for her weight & 47percentile for her length. Jia you xiao mei, you have to be as tall as your jie jie!

5th Month:
1) At the end of the 5th month, formula milk was finally introduced to my little darling in preparation for mama to go back to work. She drinks S-26 and it has made her a bit constipated but my breastmilk has helped her to poo later in the day. So she still poos once a day! thank God! She now drinks about 180ml per feed x 5 feeds a day.
2) She now knows how to laugh in hysterics. She loves to stare at her siblings and loves to smile whenever they are around.
3) She wakes up every morning now at around 1am or 4am for a feed probably for around 2wks now.. I really hope this is not a permanent thing as I am just exhausted. Doesn't help me at all to go back to work in a few weeks time!
4) I have heard her say mama in her cries. Not sure if it was by accident or deliberate but I've definitely heard it at least 3 times now.
5) Like both of her siblings, she LOVES it when I sing to her 'twinkle twinkle little star' and with the actions. She just smiles every time with her eyes wide open in much excitement.
6) She was very sick for a whole month thanks to the stupid cold weather that doesn't seem to go away now that it's Spring. Her nose was severely runny, then became blocked usually at night, she had a slight temperature and even caught a cough too! It was very disheartening to watch but thank God she is now on the mend.
7) She is now very responsive as if she understands what I'm saying to her. She knows how to play peek-a-boo with me. When I slowly come give her kisses to her cheeks, it's as if she knows it and she would start to smile (without looking at me) knowing that I will kiss her soon. Sooo cute!
8) Whenever she wakes up, the first thing I would do is bring her to the mirror and ask her 'who's the pretty girl?' and she would smile in return. lol.

Makayla from 0-3 months!

I can not believe our baby of the house is now 3 month's old! That is a quarter of the year gone! Oh how fast they grow.. sniff sniff..

Here are all of her developments:

1st month:

1) From the moment she was in my tummy, I just knew she would be a placid and very easy to look after baby. After all, my pregnancy with her was exactly the same as Zach's and Zach's temperament is one of good nature, happy to sit there and watch the world go by (after a feed and clean nappy). So I knew she wold be the same. And voila, as soon as she came out, she cried just like him, she looked just like him and even the way she latched on and drank the breast milk was exactly like Z. I just couldn't believe it. She is a female version of Zach!
2) Throughout the entire three months, she has always been very good at sleeping in the day time. She would sleep at least 3hours straight, play for 15-30mins and then go back to sleep and repeat. It's not until the 5-9pm mark, that's when she would cry and cry and cry and everything that we did just did not settle her. It reminded me of when Zach was exactly the same. They call it the sun down period (ie when the sun goes down), apparently all the elderlies and all the babies become very unsettled (talk about similarities btw the old and new - old folks going back to the start of the pie in the cycle of life).

3) At 9 days old, she weighed 3.34kg which was back to her birth weight!
4) At 3weeks old, she weighed 3.94kg & fits in 000 perfectly
5) At 5weeks old, she weighed 4.69kg at 54cm length, with a head circumference of 38cm.
2nd month:

1) She was officially diagnosed with breastmilk jaundice at about 6 weeks of her life. Unlike normal jaundice, where the baby is severely tired, breastmilk jaundice just makes them look yellow but she was still as alert as ever. Breastmilk jaundice usually last for 3 months (vs normal jaundice which is around 2wk-4wks).
2) We also shaved her hair at 6wks since she did not have much hair. I thought I'd do her a favour by shaving it off so that she can have coarser/thicker strand hair in her later years..

3) I think at week 8, this was truly a milestone for her. All of her sudden, she was a super responsive baby. She would smile back to you - her first true smile (unlike the milk drunkard ones). The major difference between Makayla and my two other babies is that she is definitely the most responsive out of the three. Any one that holds her and look straight at her cooing to her, she will automatically respond back. This happened from week 8 onwards and she is still going at it ever since.
4) I never gave her the dummy so the poor girl would be crying her lungs out when she wanted my attention. Since I have two older ones to care for, many times, her cries would be unattended. Not because I don't want to, but because I had no more hands! The good side of this is that she's learnt to sleep awake all by herself without any aid (ie dummy, rocking, etc) from about week 8 onwards.
5) At 9weeks old, she weighed 5.67kg at 57cm length, with a head circumference of 40.5cm and fits in a size 00 perfectly.

3rd month:

1) At exactly 3 months, we decided it was time to move her from her bassinet into the big cot in her own room. Ever since then, M has decided that she would sleep from 7pm-7am! I think it's because I have never picked her up while she was crying, always swaddled her to sleep at the same time of the day and always when her eyes are open and the fact that she is in another room meant that she would not be tempted to wake up as soon as her tummy starts to grumble since she can smell her mummy's milk previously when we were in the same room. So there you have it, finally my third child..  there's no rocking, no dummy, no control crying! I think I need to write a book!
2) I showed her the mirror the other day and she loves looking at herself whilst cooing and smiling back at her twin. I on the other hand would be kissing her cheeks, pretending to eat it (still looking in the mirror) and she would smile in hysterics! Super cute!
3) Her neck is getting much more stronger but she still hates tummy time.
4) She is now wearing 3-6months/00-0 clothing and in crawler nappies
5) She has finally discovered her hands and loves to suck on it and use it to rub her eyes, mouth and nose.
6) It wasn't until the 2.5month mark that she was totally cleared from jaundice and regained her normal complexion in order for mummy to finally give her the photoshoot that she deserved.
7) She loves to grab things and loves to kick on the keyboard toy.
8) Out of all of my 3 children, M is the one that loves the bath. She hardly cries and when give her a headwash, she just stares at me with contentment and in total relaxation unlike the other two who absolutely hated the bath when they were a baby.
9) If the car is moving, she loves to sleep in her car seat which is very similar to Z (and contrast to D who hates her car seat even to this day).
Overall, M is such a good baby to look after. Probably the best out of the 3 (I think it's also cos I finally know what I'm doing! lol).



Farewell...

After nearly 4 years of owning silver-M, we finally said goodbye to him today.

I was a bit teary when the buyer drove him away as it was the car that took home 3 of our babies from the hospital.  It was also the car where regular fishing trips and family vacations were made. And now.. he will have a new title of being our first family car etched forever in our memories..

But, having said that, a new chapter begins in our new black-P! The kids have already long gone forgotten silver-M and has made their mark (mainly shoe prints & food scraps) all over the new car :)

Mother's Group with friends

Remember back in high school days, when you would sit around with your close girlfriends pondering about life? about your dreams? about your future? Well I'm pretty sure we also had one of those moments where we'd joke about having babies some day and having them all close together so we could share maternity leave together!

Fast forward to more than ten years later, here we are! 4 girls all sharing mat leave and all unplanned too! I remember when all of us girls caught up in September last year, we were all asking how Chai was feeling since she was the first to announce she was pregnant. Then one hour into the conversation, they all looked at me and asked when my 3rd one was coming and I said 'April next year' and they still didn't get it until someone asked again. Then they all gave me a hug. Finally just before we left, we turned to Wongie and asked when she would become a mum and she replied 'May 4th' and the girls still didn't get it and I just jumped with joy (cos I knew no one would ever give an actual date as a response unless you were already preggers!) and everyone was yet again overwhelmed by all the pregnancies & especially that our babies would be born all around the same time!

So Chai had her bub on April 3rd, mine April 24th and Wongie's May 5th and all 3 of our baby girls' names start with M (unintentionally yet again!). Linda's baby boy is the luckiest of all to have 3 girlfriends already at such a young age!

Anyway, it has been a very uplifting mat leave so far as all 4 of us would be on our phones either msging each other or writing emails to each during wee hours of the night just sharing the same sleepless night issues with our bubs. It's like mother's group 24-7! lol.

I can't believe that the next time we have our Annual Christmas party, there will be 7 kids present already! Man talk about multiplying! lol.

Oh just look at how precious they are....eeeek!