We said goodbye for now

Long overdue, but we said goodbye to lil sister (a.k.a. Aunty Chloe) last monday.

Here are some of the photos we took at the airport and before we left for the airport...

We miss having her around to be honest.

It was nice to have an extra person to help out with Xander and around the house,

an extra person to talk to.

Certainly helps that she's low maintenance :p

Although she was pretty much stuck at home with us 24/7 for the whole time she was here,

she never complained and I never felt stressed out about having her around.

Stick her with a couple of good books and some cool shows to watch on tv and she was happy.

That was nice :)

And I think Xander liked having a different face to stare at.

Oh and not to mention ice-cold hands to hold him when he's feeling hot and bothered :p

I now have one less person to boss around,

and our sink doesn't get cleaned up after each meal anymore :p

Haha!

Nevertheless, I hope we get to see you again soon lil sister :)

Anyway,

Baby Xander has been doing well.

Still growing and putting on weight and getting chubbier by the day.

We had a couple of rough nights when he was up almost every hour with some gas in his tummy and hungry/thirsty.

That made for a really really cranky and sleep-deprived mama.

Who woulda thought that oversupply would be an issue when it comes to breastfeeding?

Sigh.

And to think I was most worried about undersupply before he was born.

We're dealing with the double-whammy of oversupply and overactive let down.

It takes strategy to overcome,

and relaxing those strategies will only result in drama and sleepless nights for us.

When it's not dealt with properly,

baby Xander gets a tummy full of gas due to the imbalance of foremilk and hindmilk.

He'll be taking in more foremilk which is more watery and higher in lactose/sugar content,

and when digested the by-product is gas.

Which sucks.

Oh and it creates green poop.

Yeah, gross.

And with the overactive letdown,

every time letdown occurs, 

I literally squirt and spray milk down his throat.

He has learned to deal with that some,

but occasionally he'll still gasp and choke,

which pisses him off.

It'll take time for the supply and letdown to regulate to his needs and demands,

but in the meantime, 

we'll just have to keep an eye on it.

Sorry if this is not making much sense...

too tired to explain what it all is in technical terms.

Dr Google is your friend! :)

But besides those sleepless nights and cranky baby times,

he's proving to be a joy to have around :)

Starting to be more aware of his surroundings,

he is coo-ing at us and stuff around him more and more.

This past weekend,

we've started a bedtime routine for him.

Around 6.30-7pm each evening (depending on what time he wakes from his nap),

we give him a bath.

Or if he's really really hungry,

we start feeding him first.

After the bath, he becomes nice and relaxed (plus he smells super nice!),

and we finish up his feed.

By then, it'll be almost 8pm.

We swaddle him up tightly and put him in his crib while he's still wide awake.

Then either me or baby would pull a stool up close to the side of his crib and read him a story from the book we bought for him.

And he's the cutest thing when he listens to us so closely and intently while we're reading to him,

and he would occasionally break out in his baby coos, as though responding to us talking to him. :)

Once the story reaches "The End",

we put his pacifier in his mouth and sing to him.

I'd sing "Hush Little Baby", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "You Are My Sunshine" and "Top of the World" to him repeatedly,

and he'll just stare at me with the pacifier bobbing up and down in his mouth,

until he starts drifting off to lala-land.

And by 8.30-9pm, he's fast asleep.

Within 10 minutes, he'd spit his pacifier out and that's it for the rest of the night.

At least we're not having to wake up constantly in the middle of the night to play "pick up the paci" whenever he drops it :p

That gives me and his daddy an hour or so of chill-out and alone time to watch tv or chit-chat about our day before going to bed at 9.30/10pm.

He'd only get up around 11.30/midnight again, followed by 2-hourly feeds for the rest of the night.

Hopefully the time in between feeds get longer and longer soon, 

so that I can get in more hours of sleep at night :)

But yes, so far the routine is working well and he's settling well at night.

Let's see if it can go on like that :)

I love that half hour or so of quiet wind-down time we have during story time and lullaby time.

I love that he's so quietly aware and I love watching him relax into the night while listening to my voice.

I love how he doesn't care one bit when I forget the words to the song I'm singing,

or how my voice gets hoarse and my singing goes out of tune after 15 minutes of non-stop singing.

I love how I feel completely full of love for him when I sing You Are My Sunshine to him.

Because he is truly my sunshine :)

Along with his daddy of course :)

But then he doesn't seem that much of a pretty ray of sunshine when I have to wake up every hour or 2 for a whole hour with him in the middle of the night and all he wants to do is fuss.

Those are times I wanna pull my hair out (not his, thankfully).

But it's part of the deal.

So I'll deal.

This post has taken me longer than it should due to multiple interruptions from the lil man.

Guess this is the way things will be like from now.

I'll try and come on and post more often,

but it's tough to find the time and energy.

Till then, ciao!