An Elephant's Journal

The Baby is getting more alert and engaging with his environment, and loves conversations. Sometimes we talk to him in baby languages, random sounds to get his attention, but mostly we talk to him in full sentences, especially since we found out he likes listening to us talking to each other. The Baby is not a natural lover of baths too, so we have to pull out all stops to make it more enjoyable for him. I started singing to him yesterday, and found that he liked it! Only problem is that I realise I don't know that many baby songs at all! In fact the only ones that came to my mind was the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (and I had to consciously make sure I sang the order of the letters correctly ..heaven forbids if I shall teach him the wrong order of alphabet *facepalm*). And then, remembering that I want to expose him to as many languages as possible, I decided I should sing some non-English songs. But all I could think of was the Jacky Cheung, David Tao karaoke so...

Bubba is getting bigger, more alert and interactive with his environment, which is just so joyous to watch. His nursing persona is getting more colourful too. He's always been an eager, impatient nurser at the breasts with his powerful and forceful latch-on (hence the nickname little barracuda) since birth. The kind, sweet nurse lady who coached me to breastfeed after delivery remarked that he much preferred mommy's nipple to the bottle, because she saw how less-than-enthused he was when he was given the bottle in the nursery - and that just made this mama feel soooo happy. Now he can visually focus more and he takes in more of his environment. Sometimes he'd look up at me with big puppy eyes when he nurse. Lately he even started smiling, nipple in mouth, when I say hi to him and ask how he's doing. It'll cause him to unlatch and I'd have to remind him that he is hungry. It truly is the sweetest thing and I am all kind of mush when he does that 💓💕💖💗💘...

The Man fell ill last week, and now I caught his bug (apparently you are most likely to infect others as you are getting well, so it takes awhile before everyone is in the clear). I am glad that we took turn to fall sick, because that means that The Baby and the furkids have one functioning parent at a time. Of course, the first thought that came to my mind was whether being sick will affect my milk supply. You become a little obsessed as a breastfeeding mom. Everything is measured in terms of its effect on my milk output. Especially so with taking medications. I tried to rough it out without taking any medications initially, even though I knew there are medications which are safe for lactating mothers to consume. But by today evening I was feeling so lousy – the pounding headache, the pain with every step (literally, the body aches was felt all the way to my feet and they felt sore and tender as I walk), and extremely watery, itchy and runny nose and eyes. I felt ...

It is World Breastfeeding Week (August 1 – August 7). I don’t know whether I’d still be breastfeeding this time next year, or if we’d have another kid – so this may be the only time this week really truly concerns me, and hits very close to home. I did not, and still have not set any goals for my breastfeeding self. Before the arrival of The Baby, whenever someone asked me if I’d be breastfeeding, my answer was always that I plan to if I could. I read and heard about some women’s challenges and heartache in their breastfeeding experience – and I did not know what to expect for myself. It’s 8 weeks in now and I’ll keep going for as long as I can. Despite the physical pain and all other challenges and learning curve, I must say I’ve been enjoying being able to breastfeed, and feel lucky that I have been able to do so. Many things are going on worldwide this week – to normalize breastfeeding, spread awareness, correct misconceptions etc. I don’t know that much, and haven’t done ...

That’s what The Man used to say in response to my texts updates about The Baby’s milestones in the early weeks, when I was staying with my parents and he back at The Nest with the furkids. It would be about The Baby’s latching, holding up of his neck, or various little things that only parents get excited about. I don’t know whether The Baby really was overachieving or not, it’s just gushing of a proud parent. And now, I’m dealing with an overachieving BOOB – the left one (since details are important). It has always filled up faster and got hard lumps easier. And now, the overachiever has beaten the other boob to generate 4oz of milk in one pumping session. That’s quite something because 4oz is the amount of one feed for The Baby when we give him a bottle and so far, the most I’ve gotten from one pumping session is 3oz. There are a few possible reasons for this: we were out in the evening and The Baby slept through most of them and nursed less than usual – which means more st...