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

Clothes shopping, anyone?

You know that sense of panic you get when a special occasion comes up and you have nothing appropriate to wear?

Amplify that feeling by a gazillion times, and you might start to understand what Baby Clothes Shopping is like.

Babies are pretty difficult to buy clothes for as it is.  I decided to make my life even more difficult by opting not to find out Creature's gender until the big day.  AND! S/he is due at the beginning of February.  Meaning... I need to have gender-neutral winter clothes for the age of 0-3 months.  Do you have any idea how difficult that is?

Now, the issue is this - there is no knowing how big the baby might be at birth.  Nor when s/he actually will be born.  Thankfully, in my case, even if s/he is born before the 40 week mark, it'll still be Winter.  Imagine the difficulty people face if their baby is due in September [like I was] and s/he decides to arrive early! It would demand a completely different wardrobe, according to the weather in Malta.

My word of advice is this: get as few Newborn sized clothes as possible as there is a big chance that Baby will be too big at birth for them anyway.  And always get a variety in sizes - enough to get you started in 0-3 months, and some clothes in 3-6 months as well. 

The reason? Babies grow up fast. Real fast.

Oh, and do your bank account a favour and stay away from designer labels and from shoes.  Shoes for children under the age of 1 exist only to frustrate the parent whenever Baby decides to kick it off whilst  Parent is pushing the pushchair in a crowded place whilst trying to multitask with other stuff.

Whenever possible, go for 2nd hand clothing in good condition.  And never turn down free hand-me-downs from family/friends.  Your finances will thank you in the long run. 

Speaking of which...

Got a light?

Ah, how I miss smoking. The joys of digging into my baccy pouch and rolling a cigarette, and then light up and take that first drag...


When I found out I was pregnant, i was 3-4 weeks down the line.  I realised then that I had to stop smoking.  It wasn't my first time attempting to quit. In the past, I had managed to quit for3 months, a few weeks, and a few days respectively. This time though, I knew I had to stick with it.

I was a heavy smoker. Since I rolled my own, I never knew exactly how much I would be smoking.... Suffice to say though, that a packet of baccy would last me just under a week... And I rolled my ciggies as thinly as I could. Thin enough for a filter tip not to fit in the paper tube.

Within a week of my finding out I was pregnant, I managed to cut down to just 1 cigarette a day. In the meanwhile, at work, I was getting denied cigarettes by my team mates [who realised something was up before I told them I'm pregnant simply because of my sudden drastic decrease in smoking.] and.or denied the loan of lighters.

Gradually, my one-a-day changed to one-every-3-days, then 5days, then a week, and so on and so forth. I had some travels planned for the month of June/July.  I would be seeing some of my chosen family at Skindependence [a body modification annual meet-up that up until this year was held in Billings, Montana].  That means, I would be surrounded by people I love, but not being able to do the things I love which I had planned from the year before.  If you weren't aware, getting any sort of body modification when pregnant is a bad idea.  It causes your body to go through unnecessary stress, and although the chances of infection are remote if the mod [be it a piercing, tattoo, implant, scarification, brand suspension, flesh pull etc] is executed correctly, with no cross-contamination occurrences, and if you follow a strict aftercare regime, there is still a very slim chance.


Being at Skindependence also meant I would be constantly surrounded by a smoking majority - so I made a decision. I would still smoke the odd cigarette. But once SkinD was over, so would my habit.

My last cigarette was on the 8th of July 2011, in the company of some very close friends of mine.  I haven't looked back since.

Now, I can tell you all sorts of scientific facts about the harmful effects of smoking on the unborn child.  But I won't. I'll just link you to this, this, and this instead.

My personal reason to quit was this:

Smoking is a personal choice.  I firmly believe that 2nd hand smoking is also a personal choice.  Allow me to explain why. Picture this. You're standing in a room with 3 people who are smoking.  You are being subjected to their 2nd hand smoke.  You have a choice. You can either stay there and inhale the smoke, or leave the room, therefore removing the exposure to 2nd hand smoke.  A foetus does not have your same choice. S/he cannot just pack up and leave your uterus, can s/he?  I just don't find it fair to subject the unborn to something they have no say in.

I have no idea if I'll continue not smoking once Creature is born - right now I'm trying to tell myself that for the same amount of money I'd spend on tobacco and rolling papers every week, I would be able to afford an extra pack of nappies.  Hopefully, that will keep me motivated enough not to start smoking again.

At the end of the day, it is all about prioritising. And right now, my sole priority is Creature.