Hair, glorious hair

Hi Everyone,

Long time no update!

It's been fairly hectic since 3 months.  We have waking every 2-3 hours still, and Sophie has since stopped taking all naps during the day, or if she had, then it had to be on a person.  As a result, I got no sleep, hence the lack of updates.

Anyway, in celebration of her 5th month since birth, I thought it would be nice to take a look at the changing styles of Sophie's hair:

 First week of life, and already had shampooed her hair

By 2 months people say that it will all fall out!  But they were wrong!

Introducing the Mohawk/Mullet look!

By month 4, it's starting to obscure her vision.  And no, none of significance seemed to have fallen out

Mummy's clumsy attempt to put her hair up (also her first time eating a banana - she spat it right out)

My little unicorn...and her singing turtle

Two pigtails!!!  And fro in the back from all the head turning during sleep

Best wishes to you all!

Ahoy there!

Ahoy mateys!  I have the best seat on the ship!

Hi Everyone,

Easter was a busy time where Andrew and I deluded ourselves into thinking we could sleep train Sophie.

In the end, she trained us to wear her for the whole long weekend.

A big thank you to the wonderful person(s) who got us this very very cute sailor's outfit.  She looks like a boy in it, but we still love it!

Smiles galore

         Sophie just after a feed

Hi Everyone,

Sophie started smiling about 2 weeks after birth, but we treated them like muscle spasms because Andrrw fed her from a cup, so it might have triggered the corner muscles.

But as the weeks progressed, she got better at controlling them and when she does smile, our hearts melt into tiny little pieces, and we coo back to her like idiots!

Right now, the best time to catch her smiling is: just after a feed, while on the change table with her butt bare for all to see (hence not too many photos of her smiling - too embarassing!!!), basically any time when she isn't pissed off or asleep (yes, she even smiles during feeds and after a poo explosion!).

Here's a few I did manage to catch:

She opens her mouth when she wants to give kisses

She learnt to poke her tongue out from Andrew, but somehow she only shows them to me!

"I'm adorable, and I know it!"

She does this adorable nose crinkled smile which is really elusive for the camera.  Maybe I can get it via the video.

Andrew and I cannot withstand the power of her smiles, especially now that she chortles, laughs and chuckles very effectively with her smiles.  

The one I can never resist is the gummy smile...

Head held high

Hi Everyone,

Sophie achieved a few seconds of independent head holding these last few days, and we were able to capture it via photo and video.

Please enjoy

Toys!!!

Hi Everyone,

Sophie has been very lucky to be gifted with lots of toys by friends and family.

Here is her playing with mobile, gifted by her god parents Serene and Keane:

Here she is doing some brain development gazing.  Thanks Rowena for the lovely brain stimulation mat!

Here are the rattles that she loves!  Thanks Mama, Marti and Atticus!

And here's a video

Bath time

      Hi!  I am a water bunny.

Hi Everyone,

Sophie's favourite time of the day is the evening bath.

Unlike most babies (I am speculating ofcourse!), she likes a hot bath, and I mean boiling hot, none of that  luke warm stuff either.

I think this was because I had a hot bath every night during pregnancy.  You see...when I was sore from the head down, and carrying all this extra weight but unable to go to the pool because of my eczema, that was the only solution.

I found as Sophie grew inside me, the hot water seemed to calm her down too. Perhaps because I was calm, and that had a spill on effect?! I'm not sure, but its paid off now!

Her first three baths were drawn by my mum and Andrew, and they were regulation luke warm.  She whimpered the whole time and looked at us with pleading puppy dog eyes.  So we made it like a military operation and resigned ourselves to this as some kind of baby torture scenario.

Then I took over, and on a whim decided to up the temperature.  She took to it like a duckling to water.  Before long we were getting splashes and a very placid baby.

Andrew was against daily washing at first, but after a couple of weeks, even he was convinced that we have a water baby on our hands.

During her most colicky, she would be crying her head off all the way till we dip her foot in the water.  Then miraculously it's like a switch has been flicked and she stops all her struggling and crying and kind of splay her body and turns very still.

Once she is in the water and we start wetting her hair (gotta keep them clean too, right?!), then her body completely relaxes and she gets this serene and very pleased look on her face.

Very occasionally we get a small smile, but its like we are not there.  She just chills out and blocks everything out to enjoy her carefree moment.

By the second month, Andrew added skin to skin with her before her bath, and that seemed to help father and daughter bond, and also calms her down too.  They also look absolutely adorable nestled together!

Since she has all that hair, it's a two person job to dry it too.  Andrew stands in the bathroom with the hair dryer and I stand just inside the bathroom with her held in my arms.  The look on her face is like a lizard basking in the first rays of the sun after a cold night.  Quite something to witness as she will be placid in the water, but might cry her eyes out putting clothes on.  But once she feels the hot air from the hair dryer, she is back to being placid again.  Weird huh?!

Since we don't want her nakedness all over the Internet, you'll just have to settle with her in her favourite bath towels.

      Sophie zoned out from the bath.

48 hours of sleeplessness

Hi Everyone,

Sophie and I suffered from horrible sleep deprivation on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Actually...to be perfectly honest, it started last Sunday night when she just would not go to sleep.

Andrew and I have developed these sleep techniques where we go through the various arsenals at our disposal:

Shushing, Natures Sway sling (Andrew's preferred method) with steps, ring sling, tummy to tummy, swaddling, bath, hair drier, skin to skin, bouncy/rocking bassinet...etc

Well, by Tuesday day, she did not sleep much between 7pm till 2 am.  It may be a delayed reaction to being fawned over by multiple colleagues at Andrew's work.

Then Wednesday, apart from a solid block between 2am to 11am, she did not have any decent sleep till 10pm that night!

This was what happened:

Feed, nappy change, burp, put to sleep, sleep for 5 minutes (max), wake from something small ie: nappy issue, hunger, her own hands, imaginary god-knows-what!  Then she's awake and we had to start again.

It just got really depressing since its kind of like a torture sequence for me.  I had to do this 5 times (!!!) on Tuesday night.  The weird thing was, she was really easy to put to sleep!  It only takes 5 minutes of swinging on my legs and she's out like a light...so I thought!

As soon as I move her off my legs, boom! she's awake again.

I tried with swaddling her before the leg swing - didn't work, still woke up, tried with her swaddling mattress - still woke up.  In the end she fell asleep on my chest.

Looking back, I should have been a bit more clued in, but by Wednesday when she put me through a repeat of Tuesday night during the day, I was on my last legs.

Andrew came home early to help.  He tried the sling, didn't work, he tried the buggy - worked for 20 minutes.  In the end we called Plunket for help.  The nurse was puzzled and couldn't advise us except to go seek medical advice at the local A&E.

As we were walking dejectedly to the A&E, Andrew and I reviewed her symptoms:  nothing out of the ordinary except her refusal to stay asleep!  She had no temperature (36 degrees), had no weird rash or discolouration, no colicky crying.  In fact she's down right placid when we set her down and leave her.

So we turned around half way and went back home.  She had a feed, we changed her nappy, I resigned myself to forget everything the sleep nurse and the helpline nurse from Plunket taught me and let her sleep cuddled on my chest and voila!  She's out cold and stayed that way.

So today all we did was cuddle sleep koala style.

I don't care what Plunket says...I just want to sleep!