Our Precious Bebe: Diary of a 6 week-old mummy

Time really flies... Isaac is already 5 weeks old. Chee Meng and I had been reflecting on our parenthood journey these few days, especially after Isaac's full-month celebrations. How it was a miracle that Isaac is with us, how cute Isaac looked, how interesting his various expressions. Chee Meng told me that he could not forget the fateful morning of 18 Jan when i had spotting and how his heart 'fell' to his feet when i came out of the bathroom telling him 'we have to go to Dr Chew's... I'm bleeding'. He still shudders when he think of it. Well, after a roller-coaster of an experience, Isaac is finally with us.

The past 6 weeks has been a good learning journey for me and Chee Meng - from deciphering what Isaac's cries meant, to worrying about why the little fella is not sleeping at night. Luckily, my confinement nanny has been very kind in teaching us what Isaac's 'patterns' and pecularities are. Like how he always poo-poo in the night, how he will fidget and cry about half an hour after feeds before he is willing to go to sleep and most importantly, the entire process of bathing and dressing up little Isaac.

Lesson 1 - Sleeping
My idea of a newborn baby is that he will sleep and sleep and sleep... but not!!! Isaac is quite an active baby and sleeps quite little in my opinion! He sleeps only about 3-4 hours from 12mn to 6am, and for about 10+ hours from 6am - 12mn.. And, the best part is - he wants to be carried all the time. This is a thing about breastfed babies... they want to be cuddled more than formula-fed babies. When Isaac first came home, we made sure we didn't carry him more than required during feedings and to let him learn to sleep 'independently'. But well, the little fella is not quite cooperative and has this very 'sorrowful' cry if we just leave him alone. So no choice, we carry him hoping that we can put him back to bed after he is sound asleep. But no! He will cooperate for a good 5 minutes and then wail for people to carry him. So we pick him up again. All in the hope that he will sleep well and not have panda eyes (which he did for a few mornings when he did not sleep well at night). I even went to check with his paediatrician on the 'KPI/best practice' for the no. of hours a baby should sleep. His paediatrician told me there's no fixed pattern - as long as the baby is putting on weight, seems happy and pees/poos normally. Which Isaac does. Which brings us to the next lesson....

Lesson 2 - Feedings
As per my earlier postings, we supplemented breastmilk with formula milk on the 2nd day after Isaac is born coz he was restless even after breastfeeding. Don't know if he has a good appetite or what, but he was already drinking 4 ounces (120ml) when he was a month-old. And, when we tried weighing him yesterday (ie, weight when we carried him minus our own weight).. the scales show that he is creeping into the 6kg range!! I think that he's overweight!! I shall see what his doctor says when we see him tomorrow.. Hopefully it is not too much of a problem!! Look at these photos and you know what i mean... very cute, very chubby but err.. not too good leh. I don't want Isaac to be an 'Ah Pui'!