Nuha at 6 months

Having a kid takes away all of your free time. Not that I'm complaining. As soon as I walk thru the door, Nuha will greet me with her toothless smile and outstretched arms. Need to pee? Forget about it! Back aching from lugging around that laptop. Who cares! Once I'm home I cant do anything other then attend to her. And she smells so gooooddd!!

She loves to cling to me now and refuses anybody else when Im around. I even have to sneak out of the house to go to work. Once she sees me fixing my tudung she'll squirm until I take her. Hubs suggested I put on my tudung at the lift. heh.

She's six months now and growing up too fast. Here is a list of her milestones so far.

First smile- at birth (I'm a proud momma!)
First laugh- 2.5 mo
First turn- 3 mo
First solids- 4.5 mo
First crawl- 5.5 mo
First sit- 6 mo

The bad news is that she is still waking up 5-7 times a night. Which equates to panda eyes for me. I can handle the feeding. Its the need to sembang that's a little hard to take. I mean really baby?? Its 3am. Do u really need to practice you vocal chords NOW?? I got a bit smarter this past couple of weeks and wedge her in between hubs and I when she gets on these talk fests at night. Coz itll wake the hubs up n ill fall asleep. But it doesnt always work tho. Coz she kindda gets upset if nobody replies her coos n hubs can sleep thru a storm so I still end up layaning her anyway.

Last week she discovered a new high pitch note in her voice and kept on belting it out. It sounds like a cross between a banshee in pain and a dog howling. She would do this voice every minute of her waking hours. It was like she was fascinated by it. Im happy to note that this has stopped :)

I love love loveeee making her food! She even has favourites now. She simply loves pumpkin and sweet potato. I think it has something to do with the texture. Its thick and smooth as opposed to the grainy texture of rice porridge. She loves honeydew with strawberries, pears with oats and apples with blueberries. Her fave rice porridge are ones cooked with lotsa carrots. She hates spinach tho. Too bad I made a huge batch of these and had to throw em out.

On a different note- I started a new role at work. I am no longer based in Cyberjaya- sob sob, and the job is way more demanding then what I am used to. Forget the long lunch hours I used to take, now its more like- what lunch hour?? I guess I'm paying my dues heh.

I'm unusually free this morning hence this post. I wish today was saturday. Here's to hoping for a fast path to an awesome weekend.

Transition

How do you be grumpy at a face like this?

 Mommyhood has changed me so much. I used to need 8 hours of deep sleep, now i can live on 4 hours of interrupted sleep and still be happy and cheery for my baby. Janna pre mommyhood on 4 hours of interrupted sleep would have been a monster who eats children for breakfast.

Yesterday, i found myself buying pegaga leaves. I used to HATE pegaga leaves. But last night i made a pegaga salad with ginger flower (bunga kantan) and onions and lime and i loved loved loved it. I had just that and salted egg with rice for dinner and i was a happy girl. I had that dish once when my mom in law made it for me while in confinement. I turned up my nose when she mentioned pegaga. And yesterday I craved for it.

Chubby wubby Nuha Alanna

Previously I couldnt sleep if im pushed up too close to someone. I need my personal space. Like i cannot stand it if someone breathes in my face. Suffocating ok. I love to cuddle just not when I want to sleep. But Nuha LOVES to smush her chubby body up against mine. Like she will be next to me at 10pm, come 12am- hello Nuha under mama's ketiak. I dont even know how she got there. But i love it all the same.

I used to be grossed out at the sight of poo and boogers. Now i cheer when Nuha does a poopee and dont bat an eyelid at that glob of poo that landed on my arm. And boogers, well.. Janna + baby cotton bud makes one helluva booger buster.

Cruising down the Mekong

Oh and we took Nuha on her 1st airplane ride 2 weeks back. We went to Phnom Penh and as much as I love Nuha and travelling- I dont think they bode well togather. At least not yet. I was a little apprehensive about travelling with her so early and I was right. The plane ride was fine except for her being a little cranky for having to wake up so early. She was okay in the begining, checking out the new surroundings till the novelty wore off and she wanted to move around during landing. I didnt want to mess up her nap pattern so we worked out a jalan jalan time around her nap time which left us with little time to do much. Despite us going back to the hotel twice a day for her naps, she slept thru most of our trip anyway. Which was great. But she didnt sleep well at night. Not sure if this was due to her being in a new enviroment or things that go bump in the night- I want to believe the former because I'm a scardy cat. She would wake up with a start and will just scream her lungs out. She'd cry harder if hubs held her so there I was in a hotel of a foreign country trying to soothe my hysterical baby- while hubs slept soundly. It took all the strenght I had in me not to smack him. Then when we came home he was telling everyone what a joy it was travelling with Nuha- again I wanted to smack him.

Despite all that I miss him terribly. He's in Singapore for a workshop. He'll be home soon tho and we cant wait!!

Nightmare- Mama's 1st day back at work

So its my first day back at work after being on leave for more then three months. And i was working from home forever before i gave birth. Its a wonder i didnt get lost on my way to work this morning. A lot of changes happened when I was away. I discovered two collegues are getting married this year- to each other. We got a new water dispenser machine which means no more squatting like a frog to fill my water bottle. There is a lot of new faces i dont recognise. And the best part- there's a whole bunch of new restaurants all over Cyberjaya for me to sample!! Seriously! 3 years ago we were eating the same thing week in and week out. Nowadays u can have Indian, Chinese, Italian, Malay, Mamak, Japanese, Fusion Malay, Fusion Chinese, Thai, Western, Kelantanese, Utara, Taiwanese, bubble tea, and there's even a speciality chocolate and cookies store opening soon. I swear im gonna blow my lunch budget every month now.

How do i leave this face every morning!?!?

Leaving Nuha was a whole different matter. I must have wore out her left cheek as i kissed her countless times before i left. By the time i had had breakfast, I had called the house five times. At the office my eyes were glued to the cctv that hubs installed. It was heartbreaking listening to her cries. Hubs worked from home today to soften the transition of 'having mama around all the time' to 'no mama for 8 hours'. I must have annoyed the crap out of hubs with my constant calling/ pinging him with questions.

Why is she crying???
Get the shirt i wore to sleep and wrap her in it!
Have u fed her??
Have u wrapped her in my shirt??
What is the cctv thingy's password??
Hello??
How come i dont see anything??
Is she crying??
What's wrong with the camera??
Ok now i can see.
Where is everybody??
Where's my baby??
Is she sleeping??
Has the maid put her down??
Is she crying??
How much did she drink??
Is she crying??
Has the maid bathed her??
Have u fed her??
Is she crying??
Did she reject the bottle again??
How much did she drink??

I was one annoying mother..

Good thing I'm leaving in an hour. I cannot wait to be home!!! Dear god please make this one hour pass real quick!!

I spent more time staring at this messy house then anything else today