HAPPY FATHER's DAY!!!

To all fathers in the world. THANK YOU.
To my hubby, thank you. You are the greatest father in the world. You are every father's role model. I thank god for you.
To my dad, I love you.

Amazing smile

Something amazing happened this morning. I woke up just 10 seconds before JT opened his eyes. The moment he saw me, he cracked a smile that made my heart melt. That is worth all the effort and sweat waking up a few times every night for him. To me, it's not about how hard is it for us, how much we do. It's to be thankful to have someone that makes our lives more meaningful. We should not think about how great ourselves are; sacrificing for him because he did not ask to be born. We do it out of love, not responsibilities nor investment for future returns. Babies bring happiness to us, and we do the same for them.

TTH

Month 3

It's been 1 whole month since I got back to work. I mean, started my new role, having to deal with brand new team of people. It was a total craziness in the first 2 weeks but as I'm starting to get a hang of things, it's not that tough afterall.

JT is growing day by day, very well. His unique characters are starting to show. He's a happy baby when he gets enough sleep, milk and poo well but extremely vocal whenever he's not feeling comfortable or having a stomachache. He can cry your roof off just because he needs to be burped. He likes constant noise while sleeping instead of a quiet environment. When it's too quiet, a pin drop would wake him up, he's very alert and sensitive. But with the TV on, he can sleep like a baby, literally....hehe...He is very manja and wants hugs and attention all the time. Leave him alone for 2 minutes and he'll start scolding you - not crying just yet, but scolding, for good 5 minutes before he starts crying. As soon as you pick him up, he stops shouting immediately. He sweats a lot especially when drinking milk. If you lay him down on your thigh while feeding, sometimes you can really see sweat flowing down or a patch of wet sweat on your pants. He loves it a lot when you face a fan directly at him with strong wind blowing. As much as his smiles bringing him the ultimate power over us, his frowns will get him anything he wants. He is just too cute to say no to. Someone said his eyes are the least attractive of all of him but I think I spend more time looking at them then anything else because they are different everytime he blinks and I'll never have enough of them. At 3 months of age, he is bigger than most of his peers or even weighs the same as other babies at 6 months old. That's because he is going to grow taller and healthier than many others.

TTH

I wish.........

I’ve been blessed to be able to enjoy so much fun time at home for the past few weeks. Everyday was a new experience and new learnings. There is no such thing as “routine”. Each day was a different day, feeding time, changing time, crying time…….just when you think you’ve read so many articles about how to take good care of a baby, they will just pull something out that you are totally not prepared. It’s frustrating not knowing how to calm him down when he’s crying after trying everything from feeding to changing to dummy to carrying positions……I wish I know it all.

TTH

Fatherhood Pt 2

Have been trying to write this for days and seriously, no time! Taking care of a baby is a fulltime job. No kidding! 24 hours is just not enough.

From the moment we admitted to the hospital, emotions have been overflowing from deep inside. Many people asked how is it like, how does it feel like……well….there is nothing that feels like this. NOTHING. It’s a brand new experience, no pre-natal class, articles, blogs, sharing of stories can prepare you for this. The 2 seconds…….between the time of the last push, Jayden came out, doctor put him on his mommy’s stomach, my eyes became watery, the midwife cleared his throat and nose, wrapped him up, carried him to the little bed under the warmer, cleaned his body and finally his very first cry. That’s how many things happened within the 2 seconds and they just flashed through right in front of you. Maybe it was more than 2 seconds, but when I kept replaying the scenes in my mind, it felt like that.

Yes, this is special, witnessing own child’s birth is something irreplaceable. If anyone missed that, I suggest you try having another kid. If there is a way to describe it better, then it would be like, nothing else in the world matters except the three of us in the labor room. The mommy has gone through 9 months of hard work and I get to enjoy the very best of the whole experience, how can I ever repay that. Well, I can start by feeding him and changing his diapers more often. And even that, I kill for.

How to deal with the family members and not offend them? TOUGH. There are so many people who gave you advices. Choose some that make sense and ignore the rest. I thank them for their good intentions but I’m also sorry that I can’t follow everything you said.

Eyes to eyes contact. He likes to look at you and keep the mouth open. Makes you think what is really happening in the little head. Whether he is laughing at me that I’m so silly talking to a 5 day old baby and think that he can understand or just trying to register every single part of my face in his super computer brain so that every time he sees this face, he knows that this is the man called daddy. The innocent eyes, cute nose, right dimple, pointy chin, puffy chick, dark black hair…….. why is god so unfair to me…. makes me jealous only. Hehehe….. He’s got all the good things I never had and I’m so grateful that god has been good to me, He gave me JT. And of course, JT’s mommy.

TTH

Reminder

Ok, I only have a few minutes to write this blog while waiting for the soup to boil. Hopefully over the next 1 to 2 days I'll get a chance to sit down and document the experience. But for now, I just want to remind myself how special and wonderful it was for the past 2 days and also, to remind myself what an amazing and incredible job the mommy did for the past 48 hours. More to come, hopefully soon............

TTH

No dogs!! What??!!

Had lunch with a bunch of colleagues who happens to have kids of their own today. When they found out that Jayden is coming, they are all happy for me. However, right after I told them that I have Buffy and Momo, they started to give advises like “you should not have furry animals at home”, “it not good for the baby”, “no carpets, no cats, no dogs”........alright alright, I appreciate their concerns but they will never understand that Buffy and Momo are family. They are not just pets. Many people with cats or dogs at home raise their child perfectly fine. In fact, I just recalled that when I was very young, like 2 months old young, we had a cat at home, called Charlie, who actually jumped over me and even accidentally scratched my face (of course I can’t remember, I was told so). So, stop asking us to get rid of Buffy & Momo!

TTH

Baby Bonding

We just attended the first class of a pre-natal course. The course is supposed to prepare you better to be a first time parent and know exactly what to do when the baby comes. J Sister C has 35 years of nursing experience behind her with 4 children, I supposed she knows what she’s talking about. One of the topics she spent more than 1 hour talking about is bonding with the baby.

Interestingly, bonding starts during the pre-natal period, around 5 month pregnancy onwards. During pregnancy, if you talk to the baby often enough, he will stop moving and start to pay attention whenever you speak. Sometimes he may respond to you too. Although he can’t understand you, he will remember because his brain is now developing and able to store memories. He will be able to recognize your voice and feel calm and secured even at the young age of 2-3 months old. This is what we have been trying to do, speak to the baby at least twice a day, morning to greet him good morning and good night before we go to sleep. And for me, trying to teach him the word “daddy” and hopefully that’s the first word coming out from him. ;0

TTH

Fatherhood

So what does fatherhood mean to you?!

First and foremost – Huh?!?! Really?!?! Don’t tell me it’s positive (preggie test) and then tell me it’s just false alarm, I can’t take it!! So it’s true!?!? That little black dot there is my baby?!?! (ultrasound scan)……….sms family to inform them…….

Then what? Watching other fathers walking with their kids and proudly told myself – I’m gonna have one of mine too. This takes months to sink in and finally accepted the fact that there is a little me that will be calling me daddy.

Getting fat!! Slowly realizing that pants are getting tighter and tighter. Every person who hasn’t seen me for a few months would say that I have put on weight. It’s time to exercise and shed of some of those fats.

Pregnancy for dummies – Start reading pregnancy guides. Being fascinated by how a little dot grows to become a human being and all the other scary part of labor.

Shopping – Never realized how cute they are until I open up the drawers and see those mini size t-shirts, pants, overalls lying there. They are like clothing for teddy bears. So, lots of shopping for clothes, milk bottles, bottle warmers, more clothes, diapers, toys and all other essential stuff…..




Lastly, the most amazing experience is feeling the baby’s kicks and punches. My favorite thing to do nowadays is to put my face on mommy’s tummy and feel the baby’s punch on the face. Never been punched and yet feel so good!



TTH