Baby Leow | 5 Months Journey

Time flies, and Baby Leow is 5 months now, edging to 6 months in a a few weeks time. From a little baby who just cries for milk or giggles at unknown pitch, she has grown so much within 2 months since we last penned about her in 3 months. She is able to sit straight without much support now, albeit still falling down occasionally, and has gained the ability to frown upon bored of her favourite toys, even to extent glaring at our food and mimic our mouth movement. As much as we enjoyed her growth spurt, we are also losing parts of her infanthood such as how she enjoys our cradle hold or her unique cute way when cry. Time is indeed a double-edge sword, something is gained while another thing is being lost in the process; Baby Leow is growing day by day, while we as a parent are aging day by day.

Unlike at 4 months time when she could let strangers held or cuddle her while we are occupied, thing has changed drastically. She started to develop fear toward strangers, sometimes to the extent strangled and cry out loud when being held by strangers, even to grandfather. There were a few instances my father trying to get a cuddle on her but get a cruel rejection with a loud cry out the spot. 

Similar incident also happened when our blogger friend, Barry was trying to hold her a while during a review of delicious buffet at Iconic Hotel Penang. Previously, Baby is all fine with Barry but she screamed and cried loudly after a while. Then for the whole night she had been unsettled at Iconic Hotel. Not sure whether it was due to fear of strangers, or she was simply uncomfortable with the surrounding crowd as the hotel restaurant was rather full that night.

We reckon she will need some more time to adapt to strangers. The pandemic Covid-19 has strucked us  and we hardly has any opportunity to bring her around and get her acquainted with other people. 

She loves cling to her mother, every hour every minute

Perhaps this might attributed to separation anxiety. Once we disappeared from her eyesight for a prolonged period, she will start to make noise and cry eventually, even with the presence of other people on the spot such as grandparents. She is particularly clingy and heavily rely toward the mother, maybe that is the natural bonding between a mother and a baby?

Nevertheless, it is an ambivalent or sweet moment. We enjoyed how much our baby misses us when we are away even for a minute, but at the same time most of our attention are poured on her and little left for our own self. There goes our times for photography, work, hobbies, gardening, house chores and many more. 

As a parent, you can resonance with us right?

The most amazing thing about having a baby at home is we can see such enormous change of her within 2 months since our last post detailing about her when she was 3 months old. Of course, she grew bigger physically, but the changes in cognitive really amazed us.

First, the baby has become more expressive. She can tell you with her face that she is enjoying or vice versa with a distinctive emotion. For instance, there are particular toys she enjoyed and she expressed it using a "wow" face upon seeing it, while for toys that she least preferred she would appear uninterested and the attention will be swayed to elsewhere. She enjoys our San Franciscco coffee cup in particularly and will gaze and idolize at the glass.

After all, this is the most natural instinct of human right? Only when we grew and become an adult, we learn how to conceal our emotion sometimes to deceive others, or to protect ourselves. Well, we enjoyed her naturalness and cuteness thoroughly.

Physically, she is able to sit on her own now, albeit she needs some support occasionally. Otherwise, she will dive to the sideway and hit the floor. Her ability to sit on her own has eased our life drastically. At least she could join us for dinner at the same table, or sit at her chair and watch us taking bath. (Yes, we know it is gross but we had no choice. If we leave her alone when taking bath while another of us is out for chores, she will scream and cry in pain).

Another great milestone achieved is she is able to rollover on her own now. Tummy time was her number 1 hated activity previously when she was 3 months old but it is her favourite now. She will turn on her stomach at random time - while we are sleeping, when she wakes up from her nap, at her playpen and even on our lap, then give you a cheeky smile. Therefore we have to build a mini fortress in our bed with pillows and bolsters whenever she is asleep in order to prevent her from falling to the floor.

The paranoid parents such as me even go to check her from time to time when she is sleeping to make sure she is ok.

Just when Baby Leow started to get personable and cute, the financial burden also started to build. Over the last few months, we have spent amounted to few thousand to purchase car seat, high chairs, baby base seat, baby care items, and other household things has strained our financial ability. Basically, there are nothing saving left every month.

A considerable time has been spent on researching on baby's items too. As a newbie parent, we had no clue on what will be the better option for baby chairs, or even baby care items. Thankfully there are a few friends who shared us their opinion. So newbie parents, please do not be shy to reach out for help!

We'd wish this is her face during vaccination, but the opposite happened

Her first vaccination at private hospital was a funny memory. As expected, she started to cry when the  pediatrician began the physical examination, continued till the jab and even during the conversation between doctor and the mother.

The moment she was leaving the pediatrician's room, she let out one final cry sound and the pediatrician jokingly say "wah this baby girl still not yet done crying".

Perhaps the jab and forced drinking of the vaccine terrorized her. 

Gone were the days. She used to enjoy sleeping like this occasionally

Of late, her sleeping time has become haywire. Usually she will take a quick nap around 8pm and go to bed around 10:30pm but recently she went to bed at 12am or even 1am. Sometimes she wakes up at 3.30am and only goes back to sleep at 5.30am. These haywire sleeping time has complicated our daily chores as well, as sometimes I have meetings to attend at 8.30am yet she only sleep at 5.30am

We were getting frustrated as her vicious sleeping cycle goes for 2 weeks and more. Even when she was exhausted at 11pm, keep rubbing eyes and yawning non-stop, she just took a nap of 30 minutes and suddenly reenergized, then only sleep back at 2.30am. We tried to make her totally exhausted then only put her to bed, but the same thing happen again.

Then, suddenly we realized we had made a major mistake. Instead of making her to the last drop of her energy while getting our works done in the meantime, we missed doing the bedtime routine for her! Previously, we would spend some quality time with her in bed, reading her story book, singing her favourite songs and play with her. Soon we adopted this bedtime happy family time with her, the sleeping schedule is back as usual!

Well, this post sums up some scribbles we would love to record for her 5 months grow. Stay tune for more!