10 Weeks Old!

Its amazing how time flies...Marc is already 10 weeks old! He's become very talkative of late, talking to us, to strangers, to the air, to anything in general. I went out to lunch with my colleagues today and the Husband babysat him for a while. When I came home, he was extremely chatty, almost as if he had so much to tell me about his 2 hours with daddy. He is now 5.5kg. According to the Paed, he was below average weight when born. He's now slightly above average, which means his weight gain is rapid. The poor guy has a serious reflux problem though. He has to take Zantac, which cuts down the acid production in the stomach and reduces the pain in his throat when he regurgitates. He hates the medicine, so the only way to fool him is to syringe it really quickly into his mouth and stick the bottle in before he has time to scream. I've also started to freeze some breast milk in preparation of my return to work. In the bid to increase milk supply, I took fenugreek 2 days in a row. This resulted in a serious case of mastitis - infection of the milk duct. It was horrible - pain, lethargy and fever. And it had to happen on a Sunday that the Husband had MBA class. But the Lord certainly knows our need - just the night before, a sister from Church rang to offer to babysit Marc in Church so that I could listen to the message. After his 5am feed on Sunday morning, fever struck. I was pretty zonked out at Church but managed to listen to most of the message thanks to this sister!

So at the end of the day, a lack of milk is no good. Too much milk is no good either. Conclusion - be content with what you have! The Husband has been asking me to consider stopping breastfeeding to make life easier for myself and to avoid having to pump at regular intervals at work. I'm still going to persist...

We will be going on a family holiday to Malaysia, partly to visit the Husband's grandparents and partly to attend a friend's wedding. We're praying Marc will enjoy the car ride there and not scream his head off the entire way!

Marc's getting very strong too. Bathing is difficult - he loves his baths so he kicks up a storm. A slippery, strong, wet 5.5kg baby is not easy to handle. I keep telling the Husband something bad is going to happen. And it happened today. Marc got particularly excited and whilst trying to wash his groin area with one hand and supporting him with the other, he went under completely for one second. I scooped him up really quickly and he sat there stunned for 30 seconds. Then it finally registered and he screamed his lungs out! The good side is that his face was really clean after that! No need to use cotton wool to cleanse! We've been trying to find bath solutions and wanted to purchase a bath cum changing table. But a friend with a bigger and older baby told us it won't take the weight after a while - they are considering bathing the baby with a tub on the floor - which is currently what we're doing now!

Marc the Lady Killer

We brought Marc to see a renown lactation consultant, Mrs Wong Boh Boi last Tuesday. We attended her prenatal class and enjoyed it lots. She works at Thomson Medical Centre ("TMC") and is well known in Singapore for her baby-handling skills and knowledge. The Parentcraft centre at TMC is amazing - they have well-trained staff to help you with breastfeeding, all manner of breast pumps, classes on baby massage and care, etc. We arrived at 9am in the morning and after a short wait, I was ushered into a room and fed warm milo. The staff helped me to breastfeed Marc and noted that his latch was good, but his problem was that after the initial few minutes, he starts to nibble and ocassionally fall asleep at the breast. This was why he was taking an hour to feed and still ended up hungry. They also have a super duper machine that weighs the baby before a feed and after, so that they can determine how much the baby has drunk. After an hour of intense feeding, latching and un-latching him and breast compressions, he had only drunk 70ml! No wonder he was still hungry, he is full normally with 150ml!

We were told to leave Marc behind, go out and relax and have a nice lunch and return at 1.30pm to breastfeed him again. This is to determine that milk supply wasn't the problem. We were THRILLED! An afternoon without Marc was heaven-sent. We love the kid and all, but it can get very tiring facing a crying baby all day at home. Needless to say - we had Japanese food for lunch and I was so happy, my milk supply was SUPER abundant that day!

After returning to Parentcraft we found Marc quietly swaddled and lying in a cot with Mrs Wong by his side chatting to him. The consultants said he had a lot of wind in his tummy and passed it all out after they applied tummy massage on him. Mrs Wong also commented that he didn't cry much and was good all morning - we were surprised! She mentioned that Marc likes older women and was checking out all the women coming in and out of the centre - he was not interested in the infant girls at all!

That marked the start of his new career as the lady killer. We brought him to a birthday party last week and he woke up from his nap, hungry for milk (or so I thought). Normal scenario at home: Scream and yell at top of his lungs for milk. Scenario at the party: All smiles and giggles at the aunties! We were shocked needless to say. This boy is an Aunty killer! All the girls gathered round him and commented how handsome he was....the Husband and I are thinking...oh no, he likes women more than food! And we thought he was obsessed enough about food, now this....this is going to be lots of trouble when he grows up!

Two landmark things from the past week.
Sunday Nov 4th - Marc's first service to the Lord - appearing on stage in Church with a bunch of young adults from ACTS to promote Family Day!

Monday Nov 5th - My first time out with Marc ALONE - pushed him out in the stroller for a walk to Holland Village. He was thrilled, but thankfully I had the sense to turn back after 25 minutes because he spent the last 5 minutes screaming at the top of his voice, inviting lots of stares from passers-by. I can attest that every first time parent's greatest fear is - CRYING. The crying is unnerving at first, then you get used to it when he cries at home. Crying in public is a totally different matter. The fear is crippling! You get people staring at you like you're some crazy parent letting your baby cry in the stroller. They have no idea that its perfectly normal for babies to cry and that they don't have to be picked up the minute they cry - a few minutes is good exercise for the lungs! But no...many well meaning strangers actually come up to you, open the hood over the stroller, touch the baby and start telling you what's wrong with him and why he's crying (and they ALWAYS say he's hungry). This has happenned to us COUNTLESS times (and Marc's not even that old) and its always someone from the older generation who does that. I don't understand why - first of all, we don't know you! Secondly - please mind your own business. Thirdly - talking and smiling at a stranger's baby is perfectly fine, but TOUCHING without asking is way out of line...This strange phenomena happens everywhere we go and sometimes we cover the stroller hood as a hint for the person to "please go away" but they still don't get it! Friends from overseas - please tell me if this has happenned to you or if this is a Singapore phenomena!

A good friend commented that its been a week since Mum and Dad have left and I was still sounding cheerful. I hadn't realised its been a week already! Yes, the fatigue is a constant companion but we're getting the hang of things and becoming more familiar with taking care of him. Each day has been full of little mercies from God and we can see His hand at work with each step we take. Time flies - Marc is exactly 8 weeks old today!