26 Dec: Megan's Dedication!

Mummy all ready but Megan was still sleeping!
but the wonderful thing about Megan is that even when we wake her up from her sleep, she will still be smiling! No grouchiness! :P

We had the Baby Dedication just before Service.
and our little gal pooped just before that and we had to hurridly change her diaper.

was a tad worried she might start fussing but she was on excellent behaviour! The bright lights and audience didnt fazed her and she was in fact smiling.. haha.

Kept looking at Pastor Johnny as he spoke.. haha. So curious...




Clearly she enjoys the limelight.. haha




Pastor Johnny and the church elders praying over Megan and us.






with proud Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Adrian.
Rachel Ah Yi came to!
but left after the dedication so no pic :(


Megan can hold her milk bottle now!
she looks so pretty in this dress Grandma and Grandpa bought her :)

and now we present Megan Ann Chan... a beautiful baby of God, blessed by Him and dedicated back to Him.

Thank you Lord for blessing Zack and I with such a beautiful daughter. Help us bring her up as a child of You, God-fearing and God-loving.. with grace, kindness, love and patience. May You be the centre of our family cos without You, we are just a nest without a soul. Bless our home and our lives as we embark on this wonderful journey.

In Jesus's Name I pray,

Amen

Back from her 1st holiday!

When: 17 - 21 Dec 09
Where: Kota Kinabalu, West Malaysia

and our little darling turned 5 months on 20 Dec!
little sumo is weighing in at 7.8kg!! ;)

Megan is off to her 1st holiday!!!

Kota Kinabalu... here she comes~
though Daddy likes to say Megan's 1st holiday is to the Maldives...
when she was still a little seedling in Mummy's tummy :)

17th Dec: Hey! that's Daddy's bday too! :D

I came back from doing the dishes to find my little darling...

.........rolled over and watching TV!!!!!

Ahahahahah!
i so love her to bits! :)



after her diaper change... went to wash my hands, came back to find her on her tummy!



Megan is rolling all over the place now... haha. She can roll on her left side too.
And on sat, she actually fell asleep on her tummy after rolling over!

Megan's first food....
It's almost time to introduce Megan to semi-solids,
between 4-6months.. but i wanna wait til closer to 6months..
give her digestive tract longer to mature.
early introduction can bring on food allergies.
So i'm now reading up on feeding Megan semi-solids.
I'm not giving her those commercial food found in NTUC..
gonna make them myself..
steam.. puree......
mummy wants to give Megan the best possible!
now what will be a good nutritious first food for Megan?
i'm looking at AVOCADO.
packed with truckloads of nutrients and no worries on constipation.


My baby is eating solids soon..... how fast she's growing! :)

at 4months 1week 6days :)

let's hear Megan's complaints and see how she beams when praised.. hahahah!


and oh yes.. since Megan discovered her newfound hobby.. this is what mummy does all day now - flip her back!

Back to Front.... Front to Back!

OMG!!!!

Megan just flipped from her back to her front.... 3 times!!!

I was in the room when i heard Megan making noises at her gym. I went out to check on her and to my surprise, she was almost on her front! Ran to the room to wake Zack up. Went back to see her and she was on her tummy already! So flipped her to her back and she did it again!!! Then another time when i was on the phone with Rachel (exclaiming to her Megan's recent mighty feat.. haha)

It was so funny.. it was just yesterday i was beginning to get worried about Megan flipping. She doesn't like tummy time nor being on her tummy for long periods. Like that how to flip right? Usually babies will flip from their tummy to their back. Who would have thought my little darling will flip the other way - Back to Front! hahahah!

For the past week or so, Megan had began to turn on her sides.. right to left, left to right. And last week, she was like 3/4 flipped. Her legs were crossed all the way flat on the floor and she looked twisted like a pretzal.. haha.

Gosh... i'm going on and on like Megan had just won a gold olympic medal... hahahah! It certainly feels like it! :P

Welcome to Motherhood!

Should i wake her up?

Megan had been asleep since 7pm last evening.. with a 4am feed... and she is still asleep now! That's 14hours!

The previous night.. she slept from 9pm to 8.30am.. straight! No night feed... and a 11.5 hours of full sleep!!!

Great yeah?

But i'm afraid of hypoglycemia. Zack and i been checking on her every now and then. Wat worrywats we are.. haha!

Ahhhh.. she's waking up. I need to nurse her... my ducts are clogging!!!

1st present from mummy and daddy...

....a pretty pink luggage!



the matt pink.. simply sweeeeeet~


complete with matching Victoria's Secret luggage tag ;P
Rachel Ah Yi's present to Megan!
what a doting Aunt Megan got :)


mummy has a matching one too!
also a present from Rachel Ah yi.. hehe.




Megan sure loves her new present.. hahaha
love this pic!




Megan....the budding globe trekker!

Megan at 4 months :)

Megan recognises Mummy!!!

i can't begin to say what a wonderful feeling it is.... when your baby grins widely, makes all sorts of ahhh and cooos.. and lungs forward towards you after not seeing you the whole day *glows*

Megan spent sunday at Grand's. Zack and i managed to get some good afternoon nap and went to Ikea for dinner. It was 7pm when we went to pick her up. She was up and grandma and her were watching tv. When she saw us, she got really happy and active. Couldnt wait to hold her in my arms.. grandma wasnt ready to relinquish her little darling yet.. hahaha. I was talking to her and she was grinning away at me.. she 'talked' to me almost like chiding us for leaving her.. haha. She got really noisy, making her favourite ahhhs and gaahhhs and pumping her legs and flagging her arms towards me. It was so cute! Grandma said she didnt make this much noise the whole day.

Megan may not look like mummy, but I say i'm Megan's favourite person! She saves me her brightest grins :)

Oh and yesterday.....

I was folding the laundry on the sofa and Megan was in her gym just infront of me. She was awake and just looking around. I glanced at her and found her staring at me.. and she broke into a grin when i looked over at her. I did it a few times.. looking away and continue with my stuff, then look back at her. And she breaks into a grin everytime my attention is on her. My baby... i so love her to bits!!!

To think i was worried when i was expecting her, that she will be a sulky baby. I saw some sulky babies. Megan is turning out to be a very smiley and happy baby :) I must be doing something right, right? :)

i especially love Megan's toes....

and she loves it when i kiss her little toes after massaging them before bed :)

my baby is smiling alot these days...
and chuckles too!
now our favourite past time is gazing into the mirror..
she'll look at herself, grins then look away..
hides her face on my chest.. like she is shy.
then peeps back into the mirror...
and sometimes gives out a laugh..
sooooo cute!

Today... Megan turns 4 months!

We took a video of her on her tummy time and Pappe the calefare.. hehe.
Will post it up soon! :)

My darling Megan slept from 8pm - 5am last night!
and not the slightest peep!
that's a good 9hrs ;)

oh my baby..... 3 months 3 weeks 3 days!

Today is a great day with Megan at home!
was such great fun playing with her... and she wasn't too fussy throughout the day :) Smiled tons and even chuckles! Oh yes she chuckles now! It's soooo cute. She loves it when i prop her on the sofa and start talking and singing to her.. while holding her arms and moving them to the beat.

Her favourite song right now?
Old Macdonald has a farm.. yee ya yee ya oh..
the minute i sing the first line... she never fails to smile..
and she looks on in anticipation as i get to the "quack/oink quack/oink here, and they quack/oink there" part.. and tickles her. She's ticklish.. hehe.

Oh my baby......

My favourite part of the day?
First thing in the morning when i go to her room and find her awake and looking around. Her heart-melting grin when i greet her.."Good morning Sunshine!" She loves it :) Her dimples flashing and that little tiny one at the corner of her mouth.. is just so adorable!

I just fall in love deeper everyday...


Megan loves her exercise/play gym!

*pics taken today
it entertains her for a pretty long period....
she even naps in it :)








she puts everything in her mouth these days..
especially her thumbs!


love this! :)

Thanks Aunty Hui Qing for the lovely gift! :)

mummy's midnight surprise..

Just woke up to check on Megan and guess what i saw??
Megan sucking her thumb!
just her thumb, not the fist sucking she had been engaging..
not a good habit but she looks sooooooo cute!


Megan enjoying logan the lion.. blessed by Godpa Ben and Aunty Val :)


"Hi, my name is Megan... my mummy and daddy calls me pue pue.."


"arrgggghhh....tummy time is so not fun... let me lift my head for a second just to make mummy happy... then i'll start crying so she'll put me back on my back.."

Can An Infant Be Spoiled?

by Dr. Benjamin Spock
reviewed by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P.

This question comes up naturally in the first few weeks at home if a baby is fussing a lot between feedings instead of sleeping peacefully. You pick him up and walk him around and he stops crying, at least for the time being. Lay him down, and he starts all over again.

I don't think you need to worry much about spoiling in the first month or even the first 6 months. The chances are great that such a young baby is feeling miserable. If he stops fussing when picked up, it's probably because the motion and distraction and perhaps the warm pressure on his abdomen from being held make him forget his pain or tension at least temporarily.

The answer to this question really depends on what lessons you think babies are learning in the first months of life. It is unlikely that they are capable of learning to expect their every whim to be attended to 24 hours a day. That's what being spoiled would mean.

But we know that young infants can't anticipate the future; they live entirely in the here and now. They also can't formulate this thought: "Well I'm going to make life miserable for these people until they give me everything I want" -- another key component of the spoiled child.

Basic trust
What infants are learning during this period is a sense of basic trust (or mistrust) in the world. If their needs are met promptly and lovingly, they come to feel that the world is a benign place, a place where good things generally happen and bad experiences are soon rectified.

The famous psychiatrist Erik Erikson felt that this sense of basic trust becomes a core of the baby's character. So the answer to the question "Can a young baby be spoiled?" is no, not until he's old enough to understand why his needs aren't being immediately met --(maybe at 9 months of age).

I would change the question altogether to ask: How can you instill a sense of basic trust in babies?

Secure attachment
Psychologists use the term "secure attachment" to talk about basic trust. A child who has a secure attachment to a parent or caregiver believes deep down that that parent will keep him safe and will provide for his pressing needs. A lot of research shows that this sense of security develops during the first year of an infant's life, and then continues to deepen and change as the child grows.

Babies who do not have a chance to develop an attachment by 1 year of age -- babies, for example, who are raised in orphanages with little or no personal attention -- often have severe problems in forming relationships. Babies with strong, secure attachments are more able to go off to school and to learn.

Some parents feel that babies have to learn at a young age to be independent and comfort themselves.

They worry that picking up babies right away when they cry will make them overly dependent. I like to tell these parents about a very important study on the effects picking up crying babies. Babies whose parents tried to respond promptly to their crying actually cried less, and were more independent as preschoolers, compared to babies who were left to "cry it out."

Their earlier experience had made them more secure, so they were better able to handle difficulties by themselves later on.

it's good to be home... *exhausted*

2 days in the hospital.. cant begin to say how exhausting it is.

Megan on the other hand had been a great gal.. hardly fusses and naps during the day. (There was a 5month old baby who kept crying at night and didnt wanna sleep. His mum had to on the noise machine so he could. While my little gal slept like a log throughout.. :) ) She was tired cos her sleep kept getting interrupted. Every now and then got to be woken up to collect urine sample (it kept getting contaminated!!), blood test (it's heartbreaking:( ), take temps etc... She is perfectly normal, no fever.. and still very active. Though she seems bored. I was too. So it's i look at her, she look at me.. haha.

So on the last day, i brought her down for some shopping! Bought some toys from Mothercare and The First Few years. A flower mirror and a cloth book - she's gonna be a beauty with brains! Zack said i'm too corny.. hahaha! Hey she likes the book! She stares at it in fascination and fingers the pop-outs :)

We were discharged on Wed. FINALLY got a clean urine sample and culture test result showed bacteria so she was diagnosed with UTI :( It is not serious as it's only in the bladder and not kidney. But we still got to monitor til she is 1 year old to make sure her kidneys are okay. Doc said she would need to be on drip for antibiotics and had to stay a minimum 3 days. But bcos she hasnt had any fever since Monday night and she looks well, they gave her oral medication.. and we could go home! Hospital is just not conducive for recovery. She cant sleep well, it's too noisy.. curtains are drawn too early at 7am, lights off only at 10pm. Her sleep routine was getting out of whack. We just couldnt get a room in A class which really sucks.

All in all... i am glad she is fine. It's a mild infection and recovery is underway. I cant help wondering if i had done something wrong or if i havent done enough. If i had done more, would i be able to prevent this from happening. 3 months old and my poor baby fell sick.. *sigh* With all the viruses floating about, i know its inevitable that babies fall sick. But i was hoping she'll be sick-free for at least the first 6 months. Somehow i feel like i failed her...

My poor baby has a fever :(

Megan and Mummy are at the hospital now..

Our little darling had a fever on monday afternoon.. so Zack and i rushed her to the hospital. I noticed she was a little moody that day, her smiles were harder to coax. Thought she felt warm and took her temp - 38degrees! I quickly woke Zack up and off we went to KKH. But she was ok and all cheery in her carseat. Sick still so happy.. haha. Even when the PD was checking her, she was still smiling at me! :) We felt better seeing that she wasnt in much discomfort. Fever dropped abit.

We were dismay to know that cos Megan is only slightly more than 3 months, it's better to admit her. Hospital policy is to admit babies 0-3months in cases of fever. And even more dismay to realise that all beds are taken up except B2 and C :S We are now on the waiting list for Deluxe, A and B1. Its not too uncomfortable but i dun want Megan to be treated by Housemen with little experience.

One incident was yesterday's episode with the catheter. Urine sample had to be collected to test for infection - suspected case of UTI. We did it 3 times and they were all contaminated! So last resort was to insert a catheter into the urethra to get the urine direct. The houseman was trying to insert and Megan was screaming her lungs out. I was horrified to see the housemen took the tube out with a little blood and said she wasn't sure which one is the correct hole! And asked a MO (Medical Officer) in to assist.. WTF!!!! She doesnt know which is the right hole?!! And she might be poking into the wrong hole all the time! And my poor baby was screaming away :( From all the discomfort, Megan peed and we managed to get good sample, no need for insertion! And our little darling was smart... peed all over that houseman!!! Good gal!

Sorry, my baby is no training ground for inexperienced doctors. We only want good docs to treat her. We should have gone to Gleneagles once we realised the higher classes are full.. *sigh* B2 wards are non-aircon and 6 bedded. Imagine the noise. Babies and toddlers crying into the night. By 7am the curtains had to be pull cos docs are doing the rounds. It was good that Megan is a sound sleeper.. she has been sleeping through the night. Mummy is the one who gets woken up every hour.. not to mention the 'bed' provided.. i can feel the metal bars under the cushion!

Thank God Zack had the foresight to buy medical insurance for Megan. It was just approved actually. Megan's medical bills are covered 100%, up to A class in private hospitals. I'm getting less impressed by KKH. Next time we might just go straight to Gleneagles. Wait a minute... no more next time!

We are now waiting for the senior doc to know if we'll be discharged today. Megan's fever had subsided since Monday night and she is all perfectly normal. Her usual self.. feeding well and smiling away :)

Butterfly kisses....

"of all i've done wrong.. i must have done something right..."

It's meant to allow us to get more sleep but 8am found me awake, pumping and missing.... with only 6 hrs of sleep under my belt. Wonder if Megan's awake already? Is grandma and grandpa playing with her?

After dropping Megan off (she slept all the way w/out even a peep!), Zack, I & Pappe head off to taokee for a late dinner. Had my favourite hotplate venison and Zack had his crabs! No good movies to catch and Marky was too tired for shisha so we head off home. We were actually pretty beat but wanted to take the time-off for some activities.

It was so strange having dinner at taokee then heading home.. just like before. And not rushing to bed to get as much sleep possible for the next day's long drill. And just chatting and laughing out loud without worrying about waking Megan. But it was strange... i cant believe our old life is strange now! hahaha. Felt a pang when i went to Megan's room and she wasn't sound asleep in bed.

But i was glad Zack & I had some time for ourselves. Having a baby changes things.. the attention had shifted and it's so easy to let things slide. So it's imperative that we make the extra effort to keep the flame burning.. haha. More i-love-yous, more affection.. and yes, we are totally in love with Megan but we have to stop talking about her and just focus on us sometimes. I must bear that in mind cos i look at her pics even when Zack and i were out alone! hahaha. He gotta remind me that its 'our' time.. hehe. I have a hubby who needs and deserves my attention and affection too!

It makes me love him more when i see how much he loves Megan. Hey, i just realised it's like a circle! Everyone loves everyone and bcos of that, everyone loves everyone more! Okay.. i dunno wat i'm talking about :P

When Zack worked day shift (8am - 9pm), he dont get to see Megan at all. By the time he comes home, she'll be fast asleep. She'll only able to see Daddy at her 1-2am feed.. with sleepy eyes. So Zack had not spent any time with Megan for the past 2 days.. only getting sms updates and being jealous that he didnt catch her laughs (she started to laugh!!).. haha. He missed her so much that he insisted on carrying her all the way to grandma's last night :) I had to lug all the bags and Pappe (and i fell down! :( ) but i didnt mind. I've always love watching Zack carry Megan like she's crystal and looking tenderly at her. She looks so protected :) It brings to mind this song.....

Always get teary-eyed when i listen to this...


I love Megan so much and i want the world for her..
and i'm thankful she has a Daddy who loves her.
I dun have a Daddy who has the ability to sing this song to me..
but i'm happy Megan has one :)
She has a Daddy who'll teach her to ride a bicycle,
who will kiss her tears away when she has her first fall,
who will sneak candy behind mummy's back,
who will stand at the door and glare at any boy who dares come sniffing ard his little gal.
who will walk proudly down the aisle with her but with tears in his heart..

i'm falling.......

.....in love with you!

Megan just turned 3 months!

Megan's now officially an INFANT!
graduated from being a newborn :)

so what has little darling been up to?
She has been sleeping more at night..
like 12-14 hours with 2 feeds.
lesser during the day..
so i'm incorporating more playtime for her.
doesnt take alot to bring out a smile from her :)
she can be so cheery it's so heart-melting!
i even tear sometimes when she smiles at me *blush*
she was smiling so big yesterday and i heard a 'Ha..'!!
i'm just waiting to hear a laugh from her.. cant wait!

Somehow Megan naps better in her rocker during the day.
if i put her in her cot, all she naps is 20mins, 30 tops and she fusses..
but in her rocker, she can nap for a good hour!
and it leaves me time to get some chores done.
and best part is that she doesnt fuss!
she just wakes and stares at her toys dangling in earnest
it entertains her :)

Oh guess what?
Megan loves the TV!
In her rocker, she will turn her head towards the tv
Zack says Megan is gonna be a couch potato... oh no!

Right now, i'm typing with her on my lap
the stereo is playing 'Love Song For A Saviour'
and she's staring at the speaker.. haha

Mummy wanna buy an exercise gym for Megan!

My daughter has taught me that it's possible to love someone more than you ever thought possible :)