Three is the magic number

The day before yesterday was one of them days where Morgan's bellyache meant she needed to be held all day long. There were a couple of times when I had to put her in her seat or rocker. That resulted in her crying her eyes out.

I managed to de-weed a small part of the back yard, sweep the back yard and the kitchen floor, and prepare her bottles.

Later on in the afternoon my mum came over for a short while - just as Morgan had drifted off to sleep. She obviously woke up the moment she heard the front door close.

Once my mum left, Morgan and I just spent the rest of the evening cuddled up.

Yesterday was a better day for Morgan. This meant I could put her in her seat next to me whilst I did some crafting. I'm working on a couple of teddy bears at the moment. The plan is to make as many toys as possible, and then sell them. It is merely a plan though - not sure if it'll be put into action. I can try.

My mum came over, and this time Morgan was wide awake, so they played and danced a bit. Morgan and I then spent the rest of the evening watching movies and playing.

Smiley morning! [19th April 2012]

Today, Morgan woke up in a better-than-usual mood as she kept smiling without my needing to say a word to her. I fed her at about 5:45am, then again at about 10am, and once more at 2:15pm. In the meanwhile, we napped, played and watched movies. My brother also paid us a brief visit, seeing as he was in the neighbourhood. It was good to catch up with him as nowadays, what's with us having different life schedules, we don't get to see each other that often.

After her 2:15pm bottle, we made our way over to my grandma's house. We stayed for about 3 hours and then headed back home. We made a pitstop at a cafeteria nearby for coffeetimes with my mum, who decided to walk us home.

Once back home, I bathed and fed Morgan, and we watched another snippet from the movie we're currently watching (The Good Witch's Family.. We watched the previous three already). She then crashed soon after, so I've been doing stuff ever since. Now about to change her nappy, feed her, and tuck her in bed.
 
Oh, almost forgot. We've been "arguing" for the past three days as she keeps spitting out her dummy and sucking on her hand, prompting me to tell her "no", remove her hand, and give her the dummy again. I'm finding it hard to keep a straight face especially since she seems to think it is a game and therefore smiles and chuckles at my reactions. That, of course, makes me giggle in return.
Anyway, off to complete the bedtime routine! It is quite a slow evening, so I might as well join her.

I got 5 on it

7th April - Saturday night:

I failed.

I tried to go out. I didn't even last 2 and a half hours before I came back home to be with Morgan. The gig I went to happened to feature one of my favourite locals bands, too! And yet, the urge to come back home and be with her was too overwhelming.

Thankfully, a friend offered me a ride home as he wasn't in the mood to stay out. The moment I got back home, I rushed to Morgan's side and held her hand. She stirred, slightly, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

I snuggled up in bed next to her and fell asleep shortly after.

Easter Sunday (8th April):

Woke up, fed Morgan, and stayed in bed for as long as I could together with Morgan. My grandma gave Morgan a teddy bear soft toy with an easter egg attached to it. The egg, I'll be munching on this year. The bear will be enjoyed by Morgan when she's a bit older since it has choking hazards (beady eyes and a glued-on nose that could be easily pulled off).

My sisters visited briefly, and in the afternoon, my elder sister, Morgan and I walked back home. I noticed how used I have gotten to pushing a pram whilst walking with my sis. I let her push the pram and Gods know how many times she bumped into things (like the edge of the pavement, potholes or doorsteps). When pushing a pram or pushchair, one has to examine the ground that is way ahead of them all the time and memorise what obstacles are present. It is similar to programming your very own Mental GPS System.

Woe is me!

Once home, she hung out with Morgan and myself for a short while and then left us to a nice relaxed evening of watching Once Upon A Time together.


I bathed Morgan upon her request. "How?" you might be wondering. Well, Morgan very rarely is fussy. On Sunday early evening, she was fussy for no apparent reason and kept fidgeting. I took her to the nappy changer so that I could have a peek and see if she needed a nappy change. The moment I lay her down, she stopped whining. That is when I realised that she actually _wanted_ a bath! She is starting to enjoy being buttnaked and feeling all fresh and clean. Right after bathing her, drying her up and clothing her, she fell asleep in my arms. I woke her up to feed her and she then went back to sleep. Later, I woke her up again for another feed and yet again, she drifted back to sleep straight away!

Monday (9th April):

Willow & Dimi [her dad], Morgan & myself :)

We met Becca, Dimi and Willow in Valletta! This was Morgan's first encounter with another baby. It was good to finally meet Willow as Becca and I have pretty much followed one another's pregnancies and parenthood up til now.



Willow seemed interested in Morgan, but Morgan's attention span is still limited and so there wasn't much interaction yet. It was still pretty cool.

Morgan and I in Valletta

I do have a complaint though. We went to this cafeteria just opposite the St John's Co-cathedral, and were left waiting for food for about an HOUR AND A HALF. With TWO babies. All we wanted was a pizza, a burger and a salad. No biggie! We ended up paying for our drinks and going elsewhere. This time round, food only took about 15 minutes and the waiter was nice enough to get me a jug of boiling water for me to warm up Morgan's bottle when it was time for her to eat.


It was really awesome watching Willow make a mess of her fruit puree food thingy! I can't wait til Morgan starts the weaning process! I'm sure I'll be exasperated at times, but food is meant to be enjoyed and boy do babies enjoy it!!

Right after saying our farewells, I took Morgan to Paola to meet up with my mum. We had coffee, and afterwards Morgan and I came home.

Morgan then requested she be bathed. I'm not kidding! She was restless and cranky, so I put her on the nappy changer to check if she needed a nappy change. The moment she was flat on her back, her mood improved and I realised she wanted a bath. Thus, I obliged. She was really cheerful afterwards!
We were both pretty tired, and so we just hung out and eventually went to sleep.

Yes, I hang out with my baby. She's cool! I actually enjoy spending so much time with her, watching movies, playing, listening to music, going places etc. She's fun and good company.
We watched some more Once Upon a Time episodes, and then it was soon bedtime.

Tuesday 10th April 2012:

We took it easy. Didn't go anywhere as it would have been too tiring. We watched the last few episodes of Once Upon A Time, and then watched Van Helsing. Both Morgan and I nodded off whilst watching it though. All the running around we have been doing lately tends to drain me. Plus, all that fresh air tires her out too.

Yet again, Morgan requested a bath at about 6-7pm. She seems to now want to be bathed before her early evening bottle is fed to her. I'm fine with that timing as it means she gets the day's grime off her early, but not too early so that she's still clean by bedtime.

Oh, and we had an "argument".  Morgan kept spitting out her dummy and trying to suck on her hand. I'd stop her and stick the dummy back in her mouth only for her to spit it out again and suck on her hand.  We spent some 5 minutes at it.   She then accepted the dummy, but shortly after I noticed she was trying to sneakily replace the dummy with her hand again.

Sneaky baby!

We played quite a bit and once it was time for her to have her night bottle - around 10:15pm, I decided I'd join her as I was pretty exhausted.

Wednesday 11th April:
Got woken up at about 5:15am by Morgan who seemed to have gotten hungry earlier than usual. Unfortunately it meant I also had to prepare the day's bottles at silly o'clock.

The steam steriliser took forever. Once it turned itself off, I prepared the bottles, put them in the fridge, and rejoined Morgan in bed. She had stayed up waiting for me to return to bed.

We snoozed some more, until Morgan decided she had had enough at about 9:15am and wanted to watch the light change through the window and to play. I laid her on the bed in front of me and we played for a while until it was time for her next feed.

Once cleaned up and fed, we set out to go pick up a parcel sent by her Paternal Granny from the post office. Such awesome stuff was contained in said parcel! A couple of outfits, a hat, a "Superhero" cushion - I call it so because the cushion cover has the letter M on it. Reminds me of the Superman S and stuff. Also, a giggle toy (one whose belly you press for it to make a sound), a pair of sandals, and a face cloth which is hilarious and awesome! It is one of them thingies you put in water and they expand. Its got a dinosaur on it, called Morganosaurus. The moment I read out its name, Morgan grinned. She seems to like punny stuff. *grin*

We stopped by at my grandma's, then went for coffee with my mum. Yes, I really like coffee. After coffeetimes were had, we returned back to my grandma's for a while. Since it was rather cloudy and drizzly, the moment the sun came out, we set on our way back home lest it rains.

Once back home, we just chilled and played. Morgan seemed to be amused by my singing along to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as she grinned when I started singing along to it. I had the same reaction from her a few days ago, but it was with Walk Like An Egyptian. She has good taste in music!

I bathed Morgan, fed her, played some more and she then nodded off. Took care of some laundry which I only just remembered I need to attend to... Argh! I don't feel like dragging my tired arse out of bed! Ah well. I suppose I have to anyway in order to edit this post once I submit it to my laptop..
I only just fed and cleaned up Morgan for the last time today. She is now fast asleep in bed.

Oh, epic news! Her Paternal Granny just rebooked her flight! In just about 6 weeks, she'll be over! It will mean that my time at home with Morgan would be nearly up, but I suppose at least it is something to look forward to. A way to sugar coat it all, if you will.

I'm still waiting to find out what is going to happen at work. I called yesterday and was told they'll call me back.

I'm still wishing I had the luxury of being a stay-at-home mum.
 
Ah well.

If you've managed to read all of the above - well done! Here's a cookie!

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from GO Mobile

Tease me, Tease me Tease me, Tease me baby Till I lose control

I should count myself lucky Morgan doesn't talk yet, otherwise she'd be swearing at me for pestering her and picking on her.

This is what happened yesterday evening:

I can't help but laugh every time it happens!  I do help her out, mind you, but at times I like to watch her and see if she manages by herself.  There are times when she is actually successful!

Today, the same thing happened, and this time, she actually grabbed it with her hand!  At first she grabbed it between  her middle finger and her ring finger, then when i gave it to her, she grabbed it with her whole hand and threw it on the floor.

I'm uber-pleased, to say the least!

Morgan has been rather quiet all day, slept quite a bit too, meaning I could get things done. I'm officially putting away her small bottles, as we have now upgraded to 160ml every feed - even though I'm mixing 4 scoops of milk to 150ml of water to reduce her spewing.  I'll go for the actual dosage of 5 scoops once her stomach accepts the fact she's drinking more.

On a side note, I'd like to wish a happy birthday to Paul - the mastermind behind "Malta's Amateur Youtubers, Bloggers, Vloggers and Artists". Here's a happy Morgan just for the occasion:

Mama I'm coming home!

I am shocked. For the first time since I started the blog, a day went by without me writing anything!
The reason for that is the fact that yesterday was a Day From Hell, which started at 4:15am with a meganappy that required an outfit change for Morgan, followed by feeding Morgan as well as an argument between myself, my mum and my grandma. The argument was prompted by their wanting to help, to be honest. My mum was meant to babysit whilst I ran a couple of errands, but that was no longer possible.

The morning continued with cooking lunch at 6am, then showing my younger sis how to change a nappy - which led to yet another outfit change - and how to give Morgan her bottle.

 Omnomnomnom

Whilst Morgan was being fed, I got everything ready for our trip over to my place. Obviously even the walk there had a number of irritating occurrences - starting from the fact that the closest ATM was unavailable due to some work being done in the lobby. My frustration then flew in the faces of the idiots who give permits for people to build a doorstep that takes up half of the already narrow pavement, and the assholes who park their car on a double yellow line on the corner, thus blocking access to the ramp I needed to use to push the pram off the sidewalk. Not to forget the inconsiderate twats who dump their garbage bags on the corner, thus also blocking said ramps. And to finish, the local councils for either letting the pavements deteriorate enough to be ridden with potholes worse than those drivers have to face on a daily basis, or else for building pavements so narrow you'd have to walk in a single file with your back against the wall in order not to fall off them.

In other words, Indiana Jones should envy us for making it there and back unscathed.

 Home sweet home!

We finally arrived at my place, and soon after my landlady arrived. We had a brief chat, she oohed and aahed over Morgan, and left. I packed my laptop and we started the journey back home. We made a quick stop at the post office where we picked up a parcel sent to Morgan from my good, bearded friend Cris.

Morgan is now the proud owner of a really cute blanket, and her very own Elder God!

 See? :D

Not even 10 minutes after arriving back home, a workmate of mine came over for lunch and to meet Morgan. She gave Morgan this awesome handknitted outfit her mum made, and also brought one of the most amazing apple pies ever.

After my workmate left, I attended to Morgan and had to change her outfit yet again. Once she was clothed and fed, another friend of mine who is currently pregnant came over with her son and we chatted a bit as her 5(?) year old son hovered around Morgan, examining her attentively. I think he was trying to decide whether he likes the idea of a sibling or not.

My friend and I then tried to explain to him that girls don't have a penis and don't need one in order to pee. He was not convinced and seemed to think we were grossly mistaken and pretty delusional. I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually.

The day carried on being hectic until late at night. It did end on a positive note though! Morgan's Other Granny - the paternal one - confirmed her dates. She'll be visiting for a week soon! I'm excited about it since we never met but she has been immensely supportive throughout the pregnancy and this first month of Morgan's life. I'm also excited for her as well as for Morgan - I know how excited my mum was upon holding Morgan for the first time. I can't imagine what it will be like for his mum.. Having to wait for so long and yet still see and read about the daily changes Morgan goes through via pictures I post and the blogs I write - it must be difficult. I can somewhat empathise due to having lived a long distance relationship. It is not the same though.

So yes - Morgan is now a month old! She is growing up so quickly! There are clothes that are already fitting her a bit too snugly and that will have to be cast aside. Her foot is now longer than my middle finger. I ought to get an inch tape and measure her properly! She is also pulling out the dummy by tugging on the strappy-thingy that is joined with the Bear's Head Clip that secures it to her clothes. She is also holding her head up by herself for a few long seconds, and following moving objects for longer periods of time.

 Notice her hand tugging on the strappy-thingy!

I hope I will have more time to write tomorrow as I tend to forget details which I would otherwise share. Besides from keeping you lot updated, this blog also serves as a journal for me, and later on for her, to remind me of those brief moments which can make or break one's day but unless a record is kept of them, they end up being forgotten.