Over the hills and far away

Today Morgan and I embarked on an Epic Adventure!

I found 3 toys for her off "What Baby Wants, Baby Gets," and decided she _must_ have them. I contacted the seller and made arrangements to meet up today at 4pm in Sliema.

My good friend Rose texted me in the morning and asked Morgan and myself for a date this afternoon. Needless to say, we accepted! Thus, our adventure began!

 Morgan and Friends - ready, set, GO!

I cleaned up Morgan and put her in a fresh change of clothes, fed her, sterilised and prepared her bottles, got ready and left home. This process tool me a couple of hours, more or less.
Thankfully the first bus arrived just as soon as we got to the bus stop. An employee of the bus company helped me get Morgan's pram on the bus, and I found out to my dismay I'd have to stand up next to her as the foldable seat I'd normally sit on was broken. Ah well.

We got to Valletta safely, and Morgan fell asleep in the process. The same employee helped us off the bus, and so I walked us over to our next bus's bay.

I felt pretty smug, walking with Morgan amongst the crowd. Knowing she's mine made me adapt a Gollum kind of silent attitude.
We got on the 2nd bus, whereby the driver was nice enough to pull up close to the pavement so I could get us on the bus easily. This time, the foldable seat wasn't broken so I got to sit down next to Morgan's pram as she slept. It was rather worrying at times, seeing the pram sway slightly when the bus went round sharp bends. We made it in one piece though, and an elderly dude helped me carry the pram, with Morgan in it, off the bus.

I met with the Toy Seller and had a brief chat with her about Mummy Stuff. Her son seemed to take a liking to Morgan. Who knows if they'll meet again in the future!

After money and toys swapped hands, we bid farewell to one another and went on our separate ways. I then decided Morgan should get to meet a prime specimen of the male Homo Sapiens, so we went to say hi to Kris, who was at work - this was Morgan's first exposure to a book shop!  On the way we bumped into Christina as well!

 We can both be spotted from miles away :D

After a brief chat with the lovely Kris, we made our way to the bus stop to go over at Rose's, which is where I met a Bus Company Employee that was nice, but looked either like a Wood Spirit, or what Pinocchio would look like had he still be wooden once middle aged. We waited for about half an hour, and then got on our third bus of the day. Morgan started stirring as it was time for her nappy change and feed, so thankfully our bus ride was a short one.

 Suddenly, a Wild Kris appeared!

Once at Rose's, I immediately attended to my Fairy's needs. Once her bum was dry, Rose fed Morgan her bottle, and we had awesome banter. Rose being Rose, she couldn't help but embarrass her son by implying Morgan is his future girlfriend and wife. It was also pretty awesome to see Adriel hold Morgan - he is possibly the first male to accept straight away and to appear to be A Natural at it.
I rather enjoyed watching Morgan interact with them two - she behaves in a unique manner with Rose. She kept trying to chew on Rose's face and nose (rather successfully, I must say) which led to our discovery that Morgan is already teething! I wonder how long it will take for her first tooth to emerge! It is rather sad, mind you, as this means my baby girl is growing up VERY quickly. That _is_ good, but I can't help wish she would remain my baby for a while longer!

 

It started getting late, and so we caught the bus back home at 7:30pm. We bid our farewells, and started the journey back home. We switched buses at Mater Dei Hospital, and Morgan quickly fell asleep, lulled by the bus's movements.

A while later, we finally got home, where we found my parents waiting for us on the bus stop. Once home, I changed Morgan into something more comfy, as did I, and we are now chilling in bed.

It has been a fun albeit tiring day. I look forward to more epic adventures with Morgan!

 

Goodnighty!

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey

Today was THE DAY- i.e. the day when I get to take Morgan to hospital and get the results of her Genetic Profiling - meaning I would find out if she's a Down's Baby or not.  Before getting to the big revelation, I'll give you a background of what a day from hell it has been.

At about 3am, I gave Morgan her bottle and changed her nappy, and then went to the kitchen to prepare her next feeds and to enjoy a middle-of-the-night snack and hot beverage.  Yes, I just heard the words 'hot beverage' being spoken in my head by The Big Bang Theory's Dr Sheldon Cooper.  Oops - there we go again.

A thunder-cum-hailstorm broke loose out of nowhere.  And then it happened.  It was 4am. One moment I'm doing a Word Search, the next, a loud POP! was heard and the lights went out.

"FuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!" I thought to myself.  Hugh, my laptop, was on standby, plugged in.  I ran to unplug it, whilst hoping it will still work once I give it a shot, to prevent any other possible damages.  I checked on Morgan, and told my mum there was a blackout.  Upon checking the circuit breaker, it turned out the issue must be related to the Electricity Main Thingy.  Great.

My grandma woke up and herself, my mum and I ended up bickering over what could be the issue.  Because you know, each one of us is a Certified Electrician, right?  Anyway. Everyone went back to sleep and I nodded off for about an hour until it was time to wake up.

I got Morgan fed and changed and cleaned up, then got ready myself.  It was soon after that hell broke loose over how on Earth I was meant to get to hospital.  Due to the sudden weather change, bussing it was out of the question, and the  taxi service I called was unavailable.  After a while, my brother managed to pick us up and drive us there.

A brief struggle to install the car seat and a mostly traffic-free drive later, and we were there.  My mum accompanied us to help me carry the car seat + Morgan as they are bloody heavy!  The Doc we had the appointment with hadn't arrived yet, so we sat in the waiting room, and did just that - we waited.

The wait was rather nerve-wrecking.  In the meanwhile, I received a message via Facebook from Morgan's Paternal Granny to say that Morgan's Paternal Great-granddad had passed away earlier this morning.  Yet another death that has affected someone close to me this year - brings the toll up to 5 in total.  It is rather sad that Morgan will now never have the opportunity to meet him, but I'm told that he was shown her photos and that made him smile.  So at least, there's that.  Now, we wait to see if this will impact her Paternal Granny's visit or not.  If the visit has to be rescheduled, then so be it.  It is a matter of prioritising after all.  If everything stays the same though, it would mean that we get Morgan's Paternal Granny over here on Saturday! Exciting stuff!

I was looking around me, observing other babies and children.  There was one colicky baby, who went bright red and just wouldn't stop crying.  Soon after, another baby joined in and started wailing as well.  I smiled, a bit smugly, I admit, at Morgan - who was asleep - and told her "Good girl, not to give in to peer pressure!"  This provoked a quizzical look and some chuckles from my mum.

I then was observing a boy - who was perhaps 10 years old - who seemed to have some disability. I didn't realise this until I heard him speak. That is when I looked at Morgan, a bit choked up and thought to myself how easy it is for a disability to stay hidden from the world, and how anxious I was to get the results. I kept hoping and hoping that everything would be fine.  Given the day's start though, I wasn't hopeful, to be honest.

Then, the Doc walked in and soon after we were summoned.

Doc said she was still waiting for Morgan's notes, and after a few moments, she broke the news.

Does Morgan seem Down to you?

No?

THAT IS BECAUSE SHE IS NOT A DOWN'S BABY!

The tests came back perfectly fine!  I was overjoyed to hear this, albeit it was a delayed reaction since I think I was somewhat shocked.  I had been preparing myself for the worst, just in case, so it was a bit of a dream-like situation.

Doc then weighed and measured Morgan - She now weighs 4.09kg [9lbs] and is 52.7cm [20.7inches] tall.  She'll be 5 weeks old tomorrow.  Quite impressive, at least to me!

Whatever else goes wrong throughout the day won't matter.  I know Morgan is well, and that is all that matters to me.

Tomorrow Never Comes

Tomorrow is the day where I take Morgan to hospital for a check-up, and probably, her test results.  It is a daunting task, I must admit.  I suppose this is why a lot of people choose to be ignorant.  They would rather not know, rather than risk finding out some piece of bad news.

I had the option, you know.  The one where no blood tests would be conducted.  The one where we'd just sit back and see if anything emerges a few months further down the line.  The one where I wouldn't have had to sit in a room and help two nurses hold Morgan still so that they could poke needles in her hands as she cried her heart out in pain. 

But. I'm a nerd, heh. I had to know.  I'm what you'd call an Infornographer.  Knowing will help me figure out how to best look after Morgan.

On a positive note, I got her the cutest Baby Rocker ever.  No, not a boyfriend. This:

Picture quality sucks, I know.  It is merely a pain to unpack and repack it for no valid reason at the moment.  I will post better pics at a later date!

This, on the other hand, is the first vid I'm posting of Morgan since she was born.  It was taken a few days ago, [1st of March] whilst she was in the middle of her Tummy Time.

Tummeh!

Kill me kill me kill me again with your love

Someone posted this link on Facebook yesterday.   Admittedly, the Daily Mail is what it is [i.e. an unreliable source of information aimed at causing sensation], however a few valid points where made.

Infanticide was indeed an acceptable practice back in the day amongst quite a few different cultures.   A couple of favourite movies of mine portray the practice in different manners.  In Fantaghirò [a.k.a. The Cave Of The Golden Rose].  Fantaghirò's father was going to kill her for being born the wrong gender rand because his wife died as a consequence of childbirth.  In The Mists of Avalon, Morgause was about to leave Morgaine's child exposed to the elements in order to kill him and try and seize the throne for herself.

Fantaghirò - part 1 [Italian original audio] - Enjoy!!

The Mists of Avalon - part 1 [English audio] :D

The article calls Infanticide "After-Birth Abortion" as if to minimise the blow - pretty much the same thing shops do by marking their goods "£199.99" instead of "£200.00."  It does make one ponder what power words truly have.  It also makes me wonder who was the idiot who coined the saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

 Now THAT'S more like it!

Whereas I did mention in a previous blog my views regarding abortion, I do not consider in any shape or manner Infanticide to be merely Abortion happening in a different geographical location.  It is true that in the article, the practice is not  being condoned by either the scholar who wrote about it, nor the journalist reporting it.  However, the moment someone says something which the Italians would call a "cazzata" i.e. a REALLY stupid thing [to put it nicely], there will be a blooming idiots somewhere who will think it is pure genius and will act on it.  Sometimes, a TV show will be made out of it! See Jackass, for example.  Or, the reverse side of the same coin, MythBusters.

 

True colours are beautiful, like a rainbow.

It has almost been 3 hours since I left my grandma's home. I have so far texted my sister 4 times to ask if everything is well, and to remind her that Morgan is due to have her nappy changed and to be fed at 6:30pm.

My phone's alarm clock went off at 6:30 in fact... Which is when my guilt rocketed sky high. I should be at home, feeding her right now - not sitting at the hairdresser's still, with hair dye in my hair.
I am going through something akin withdrawal symptoms. The fact that a Pagan group I'm part of posted an entry on Facebook concerning The Morrigan doesn't help.

WAIT!! Hairdresser summons! 'Tis time to rinse my hair! Finally!

Ok, false alarm. I have to wait a while longer it seems.

So yeah. As I was saying. I keep thinking I should be at home right now. I can't wait til I'm with Morgan!

A woman walked in with her son. She caused me to miss Morgan even more. Almost to the point of wanting to run out of the shop.

I know I have to get used to being apart - I will have to once I get back to work. The mere notion of it makes me shudder.

Ok! Here we go!

*insert hold music here*

On a side note, whenever I'm waiting, I always end up singing "Figaro" in my head.

*end hold moosic*

Aaaaand done!

So this is where I run home as fast as my legs can carry me.

*insert Benny Hill moosic here*

And now, I'm finally home.

My mum just shook her head sadly at me, resigned. I just said that now they surely will not be able to lose me.

*points at pic* See what I mean?

Now, I'm off to cuddle the living crap out of my Fairy.

Roots! Bloody roots!

For the first time in over a month, I have had some "me" time today. Obviously, I ended up being at a loss as to what the hell to do.

This morning, I went to roam around the shops - and ended up buying 4 waterproof books for Morgan, a book called "Where is my fairy?" for Morgan, and 3 room decorations.. For Morgan. Oh, and formula milk. For Morgan, of course! See what I did there?

My "me" time became "me-being-a-mum" time instead.

I was meant to go home today to meet someone who wanted to view the house, but they cancelled. I had already made arrangements for my mum to babysit Morgan for a couple of hours, so she said I should go do whatever.

"Uh-oh. What the hell am I going to do?!" I pondered. The answer came to me after a short while. "I'll get my hair fixed!" So I told my mum.

*insert evil laughter here*

My mum, bless her soul, seems to think I will opt for "normal hair" just because I'm a mother myself.

LOL.

She asked me to go for an "acceptable" colour. As I need to look "acceptable" now that I have Morgan. I said that as long as she's healthy and growing up well, and being raised properly, then that is as acceptable as I could ever possibly be and my hair has got nothing to do with it. She asked what I will do when I have to attend Parents' Day at her school. I shrugged. Anyone having issues with the way I look is more than welcome to kiss my comfy behind. My motherhood skills are not to be judged by the colour of my hair or skin, nor by any other body modification or music tastes. Anyone thinking otherwise is a jackass.

Which is how I find myself sitting at my hairdresser's with my head slowly itching and burning its way to my new colour - well, not new. It has been this colour before. Or a different shade of it, anyway. My head feels lighter already after having fixed my mohawk. I missed having shaved bits.

Excuse the pun.

I'll post an update later revealing the outcome!

That's what they say.

An Allegedly African proverb says "It takes a village to raise a child.". When it comes to the energy levels required, it is true. Sometimes though, in spite of all the well-wishing villagers, so to speak, you feel like moving onto a deserted island.

I have lived on my own for years now. I'm used to it. Having people yapping all around me to do this and not do that becomes suffocating after a very short while.

Having said that, it is worth putting up with that stress up to a certain extent if it means you get provided with a safety net.

I miss being at home. I can't wait to move back at my place with Morgan! It is scary, yes. But, I will get used to it. It almost feels as if I'm "leaving the nest" for the first time.