an update on the kids and me.

since the birth of Jerome, life has pretty much been a blur for me. feeding, burping, sleeping, expressing milk, bottle washing, and the likes. I havent have had much energy for anything else really. I remember being very sleep deprived when I had Jerry, with me expressing milk every 2-3 hours. this time round, I have been super lax in this area, expressing only every 4-6hrs.and am in the midst of trying to stretch it longer, but I am equally tired, if not more.

 

in the last 3 weeks, Jerry also turned 21 months old. the bringing of Jerome home didn’t quite affect Jerry. i guessed it helps that we prepped loads of presents for him, he had one when he came to the hospital to visit Jerome and when Jerome got home. we also prepped other small presents and gave it to him as and when over the days so that he doesnt feel like our attention on him has been divided, plus the fact that jerome had to stay in the hospital for phototherapy also helped. he didn’t really show any signs of jealousy when Jerome came home and even showed his brotherly love by saiyanging his brother when we ask him to or dishing out hugs and kisses and sharing his toys. I guess he understood that he is the older brother. on one of the days where we brought Jerome to the pd and left Jerry home cos he was napping, he woke and kept asking my mum “didi where? didi where?”. other days, when the baby is out of his sight, he comes to me and ask “baby where?” and spends a couple of seconds looking at jerome when i show him his whereabouts. when jerome cries for his milk, jerry has also been seen to take jerome’s bottle and trying to feed his younger brother. there are also situations where the milk bottle is not in sight, he pats his little brother and pull him closer and hug him. i hope I don’t jinx things by blogging it down but I have been really proud of Jerry.

 

I did realise a weird quirk of him lately. while he hasn’t been fond of the baby cot since he turned mobile and started climbing around, and have been co-sleeping with us on our bed since. but he suddenly has a new found interest in the baby cot and loves to climb into it! he has also discovered the joy of ripping off all the animal decals I have on the wall beside the cot.

he gave me quite a few heart attacks when he climbed into the cot with baby inside and was clambouring around while I was napping. freaked me out totally cos the baby is inside and  I was soooo afraid that he would accidentally injure Jerome. he did accidentally drop the iPad on Jerome’s head on one of the days when he was dragging the iPad around. it was purely an accident though and Jerome had ended up wailing badly from the shock and the pain of it. Jerry have also accidentally knocked his head against the baby’s when he tried to get a closer look of his brother. that also resulted in a bucket of tears.

 

he has also grown much heavier, taller and is spotting a rounder face these days. while his comprehension level has improved and can mouth a lot more words, he is also starting to throw really bad tantrums and show his displeasure more blatantly. these days, he also does the lie-on-the-ground-and-not-going-anywhere stance when he is angry at home to try to get his way around things. we don’t give in at all and I’m hoping he doesn’t repeat it when we go out. where do they learn that trick from? why do all kids do the same thing to get their way around?

he also does the pretend-cry act quite well but is also generally ignored by us. sometimes, he crosses his arms and look away when he is upset and its quite hilarious seeing the little one in the act.

his attention span is also getting shorter and it’s getting very hard to engage him for long periods of time. even the YouTube videos are begining to lose their draw. unfortunately, with Jerome around, I havent had the energy to engage with him more actively and I feel terribly guilty about it.

I have also noticed that recently, he has been very actively pulling out books to read or flip, and very often, bringing them to me. he finally can tell the difference between an ant and a spider (yes! *pump fist in air*), but we still gotta work on the crab. and also, orange. he always call an orange an apple even when the apple and orange is side by side! I think he thinks that all round fruits are apple.

i had a proud mama moment the other day at Jerome’s newborn shoot where he very accurately identified quite a lot of items correctly on the building blocks to the photographer while we were prepping Jerome. I hadn’t expected him to know so much!

we brought him for his first movie too! the daddy chose a really bad choice of movie – Stephen chow’s journey to the west which included a lot of fighting scene and way too much gore for a young kid. I was rather miffed and wanted to leave halfway through the movie. I wouldn’t have agreed with the choice of the movie had i known the contents! other than that, the kid dealt with the stare-at-big-screen-and-pop-popcorn-into-mouth gig rather well. he also stretched his body towards the coke cup and stole quite a few sips! unfortunately, he got rather restless towards the end of the movie and was struggling to get out of my lap! we had to let him watch YouTube vids (in silence) and bribing him with more coke for him to stay put. hopefully, it’s the start of our movie date nights again but we might have to lug Jerome along the next time. my mum aint too pleased with babysitting him while we are gone.

 

bedtimes are getting later for the big kid too. these days he struggles to stay awake because he wants to play with daddy and mummy. some times, when daddy isn’t home.. he struggles to stay awake and wait for daddy to appear. other times, he just screams for YouTube videos and when I don’t give in.. he proceeds to the computer table and open up the MacBook himself. argh! 

 

foodwise, I gave up. everyone around me gives him all the forbidden food and I cannot tell you how angsty I am to keep finding him munching on some sweet, chocolates, or drinking yakult. mad frustrating. I nagged non stop about it (especially towards my mum) but the situation is not getting any better and it sooooo hard to maintain control because chocolates & sweets are all over the house. OK. it happens when we are out also. somehow, everybody’s notion is to give the kid a sweet (even when the parents are telling people that we don’t gave him sweets). I’m sure it happens to every kid too. le sigh.

 

teeth. my son is so into putting everything he sees into his mouth to chew (from screwdrivers to toys to cable ties!!) and I noticed lately that his bottom teeth are getting a little crooked. I have been wanting to bring him to the dentist for the longest time for a check up and also to familiarize him with the procedure so he doesnt develop a fear when he grows older. hopefully I can schedule an appointment with a child friendly dentist soon. my fellow nummies, any recommendations or tips on this aspect?

meanwhile, Jerome turned 3 weeks old. from 70-75ml of milk intake, he is now on 90-110ml of milk. he sure drink a lot compared to Jerry when they are the same age. however, it is very hard to burp Jerome and somehow, he ends up puking some of the milk that he takes in. we checked with the pd and she doesn’t have much concerns over the puking though. its mostly due to wind in the tummy. we dont use ruyu oil on him due to his g6pd condition so it’s a little tougher for him to expel the winds. he is also spotting a much rounder face these days!

 

last week, we did a newborn shoot for him. unfortunately, he is already 17 days old when we did the shoot and he is way too awake to do much manipulation. he is also constantly wailing / demanding milk so the shoot took a long time to complete. thankfully, Ashley (the photographer) was very accommodating and patient, especially since she has a reunion lunch to rush to! I also found out on the day of the shoot that she’s my course junior in polytechnic. it was a little embarrassing because she recognized me as the orientation group leader in school while I have no clue about her (by the way, this orientation group leader thing haunts me for life because I always get people approaching me on the streets asking if I remember who they are… or people sayjng hi! and I usually don’t rem them at all).

at the shoot – snapped this a while the photographer was busy changing the sets.

he looked so tiny in comparison.

the props. I decorated the chalkboard!

more props.  I hope the pictures turn out OK since Jerome isn’t the most cooperative baby to shoot.

he is constantly like this. on hindsight, I should have asked Ashley to take his wailing shots instead. I thought they could tell the story of him and his fiery character.

 

talking about that, this baby feeds on the dot. every 3 hourly, like an alarm clock. one minute late and he wails the entire house down, non stop until the milk is served. can get very unnerving when the milk doesn’t warm up as fast as we’ll like it to. its heartwrenching to hear when he cries for milk. it’s like he’s crying bloody murder or like in extreme pain. it’s so loud that he wakes Jerry all the time. these days, at his slightest whimper, we quickly carry him out of the door to the living room and close the door so he doesn’t wake Jerry. else, we’ll try to wake up and warm up the milk beforehand to anticipate his feed to minimize the crying. in this aspect, he is very very different from Jerry. Jerry used to cry so softly that Derrick can sleep through and not hear a beep.

making faces and stretching his back.

Smiley baby.

he’s getting a lot more alert these days and spends time watching his surroundings and turning his head around. I must say his neck muscles are pretty strong and struggles quite a bit when I try to hold him upright to burp him. 

everyone says he looks more like me and Jerry looks like daddy, but when I took this picture, I thought they both look quite similar! jerome is in the foreground while Jerry is on my computer screen. so does it mean that Derrick & me look alike? lol.

taken on the days when I’m single parenting the 2 kids. it’s a very tiring affair and I’m constantly amazed at how people manage on watching more kids!

one of those rare times that I manage to capture him smiling in his sleep.

 

I guess so far so good in terms of development for Jerome! hoping things stay the same and hopefully he will stretch his feeds longer so I can get more rest. I have also given up latching the baby since he cannot be on a exclusive breastmilk diet. I am also trying to stretch the expressing schedule to every 8hrly. this is so because I am already packing the freezer with my milk bags and the last I counted, there are 70+ packets in there. he can’t finish the milk anyway so I decided to be more chill on the expressing. it helps me save up on the milkbags as well as the trouble of lugging my pump should I ever need to head out.

 

I barely can find enough time to craft a decent blog entry these days. this post took me across 2 days to complete with the random pockets of time I have. other times, I didn’t have the mood to think so I mostly do brainless stuff like playing game to just relax so the blog is getting really quiet. I will, however try time blog down the milestones and significant events for memory sake.

 

meanwhile, if you wanna follow up more closely on my everyday random tidbits, do follow me on Instagram – @cherieladie. that has been the default social media platform that I turn to these days.

 

hope everyone has a good weekend! I’m gonna try and catch some snooze before the baby cries again. I just fed him milk. yawns.

 

who says maternity leave is shiok? if someone tells me that ever again, I’ll tell them to try having a baby and let me know if it’s shiok.  haha.