Starting to flip...

Kendrick has been in this mode whereby he likes to turn to his side whenever he is put on our bed or his cot. I guess it's the early signs of wanting to flip over. However, he is still not that strong to give himself that push yet. Instead, he ends up with his face 'eating' the mattress when he tries to do so. This has even affected his sleep. These couple of nights, he tend to fidget more when he sleep and there were a few times he moved about so much and kept wanting to turn in the direction of flipping! Sigh...have to wake up whenever I hear lots of noises and movements to check on him.

Just earlier this evening, I put Kendrick to lie on our bed while I went to take something. I could see that he was already turning his body to the side, but the next thing I knew when I came back to see him, he seemed to have flipped over already! I was quite happy to see that! Although he was not able to fully set himself upright from flipping over, but it was about there already. Glad that I'm the first to catch this scene! Tried to make Kendrick do that again afterwards, but it seemed like he still could not really flip. Well, it's ok, it's just a matter of time! He He...then I will have new headache! Haha....

Some photos I did not upload the last entry....

Bought this outfit quite long ago when I was still pregnant. Finally I see Kendrick in it :P

Smiley baby

Always like to sit on Daddy to play

4 months plus....

It's been some time since I last updated about Kendrick. We brought him for his injection just recently on 16 May and at this time, Kendrick weighs 7.5kg. As usual after the jab, he had slight fever the very same night. Fortunately, it cleared faster this time round. By the next morning, he was ok already :)

Anyway, during the last few weeks, Kendrick has gotten more fun to play with. He loves to make noises when he is at home, but tends to be more quiet when outside. Nevertheless, this 'talkative' boy has been making lots of high pitched sounds when he is lying on the bouncer, or on the bed. Kendrick is also drooling a lot more now and yes, he still cannot stop playing with his hands and eating them! Not much choice since Dear and I decided not to give him pacifier to suck. Grabbing onto stuff that you place in front of him is also something that he has been doing.

There were also occasions in the past few weeks that Kendrick has learnt to laugh and it's really cute! Previously it was more of smiling which he still does. But once in a while he gets really tickled through a simple play time and that's when he will start laughing for a short while :) I realised that he is also learning new emotions. Besides happy laughter, fear seems to be something that is more apparent now. He is beginning to recognise people around him more and if someone he is not so familiar with carries him, he will start to cry...He also suddenly began to fear the sound of the vacuum cleaner. This came as a surprise to me as previously, he was perfectly fine when we vacuumed in front of him. However, as of last week, he would suddenly cry out loud whenever the vacuum cleaner was turned on. Dear suspects that his hearing has developed another level and as such, loud noises affect / frighten him! Oh dear...Mummy hopes Kendrick will slowly grow out of this. A check with my colleagues and it seems that one of them also faces the same problem. Both her daughters are afraid of the sound.

On another happier note, it seems like Kendrick learnt to make this sound to indicate that he has poo-pooed. It came out of the blue one day. Because sometimes we make this sound 'umm-umm' to make him poo, there was once when he actually made a similar sound and I checked his diapers and indeed he pooed! We then went on to observe a few more times and each time he did poo, he made the 'umm-umm' sound. Perhaps he really did learn from hearing us and thus associated with pooing. Well, if that is really the case, we are quite proud of him! He has learnt something! Haha...anyway, we are still observing to see if it continues to be so or it is only a passing phase. Better than nothing anyway :)

Here's some new photos of Kendrick....

Smiling in the car seat

Mummy and Kendrick going out

Lying together on the bed

After milk at J8 food court

Kendrick's first swim! (2 May 2008)

We brought Kendrick for his first baby swim today after I read from a forum about how some mothers have brought their babies to this shop called Hwa Xia International. For more information, refer to http://babyswimming.com.sg/ Here's the gist of these swimming sessions:

"Babies are born swimmer and they love to swim. At birth the baby’s brain has little information about how to move on the floor because he has never had that experience. However, the baby already has seven months of information about how it feels to move in an aqueous environment. In this environment the neonate’s body is buoyant. All the baby’s sensory pathways are developing-vision, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell sensation. If newborns don’t use their natural ability, it may be lost. For this reason it is very important that they have the opportunity to swim from the very first day of life or as soon as possible. Medical research has confirmed that swimming helps to grow and develop the baby’s brain because the brain grows by use. Providing an opportunity for baby to move in the water is an ideal way to develop not only a stronger body, but a better brain."

Anyway, Hwa Xia International has a shop at Punggol Plaza and Harbourfront. We made an appointment for the one at Punggol Plaza and off we went in the morning. I was worried that Kendrick would cry the moment he was put into the tub of warm water. But fortunately, he did not! Here's what happened.... When we reached, we waited for the lady at the shop to fill up the tub with warm water. There are only 3 tubs at the shop and each baby will be placed in their individual tubs. While we waited, another baby boy who was there earlier started to be put in the tub to swim. However, he got a bit scared after a while and cried. They had no choice but to carry him out. Then Kendrick's tub was ready, so the lady told me to undress him. While I did so, Kendrick was lying beside the other baby who was still crying as his mummy dressed him up. The baby was bigger than Kendrick. Anyway, it was quite funny to see both babies staring at each other on the same changing table. I thought Kendrick was going to cry as I saw him look at the baby with a worried look on his face. Luckily, he did not. Soon enough, the lady put the inflatable float around Kendrick's neck and she carried him into the tub.

She put him in slowly and got him to feel the water and its buoyancy. Basically the float around his neck kept him buoyant in the tub of water so he could easily kick and move about. The lady started to show Kendrick how to move about in the water by moving his arms and legs a bit and after about 5 min, she let go of him to allow him to move freely. Kendrick looked a little stressed at first, but soon enough he was moving about by himself in the water. Each time his leg touched the side of the tub, he would push against it. I would say that he was pretty brave and we are proud of his first attempt!

Looks like some swimming pose

Distracting him with toys

I guess this is quite a vigourous activity for the baby as Kendrick was perspiring after about 10mins and we could see his perspiration on his forehead. Well, the lady advised that since it's Kendrick's first time, we should not tire him out too much. He also did not cry until some time later when he became a little tired. The lady then showed us that we can let him have a short rest by supporting his bum so that he is not kicking/threading water. Kendrick seemed happy at that rest point as he smiled at the lady and made some noises. After a while, she let go and he was back to floating and kicking in the tub.

Happy when given a rest

About 20 mins and we were done. Here's a shot with Kendrick before he started to fret again

So that's about it for Kendrick's first swimming session! At this point, we are still considering whether or not to sign up a package of 4 sessions + 1 free. That costs $108. Maybe just for the fun of it, we might let Kendrick continue...Hope that it's beneficial to him in some way!

Kendrick playing (1 May 2008)

I bought some new toys at the Toys R Us sales at United Square recently. Haha, after becoming a mother, you really keep a look out for sales like these and most of my purchases recently have all been for Kendrick. Anyway, I went with my fellow 'Mummy' colleagues during lunch time to shop and gosh, so many people were buying toys for their children. Boxes of toys were snapped up fast if they were really good value for money. I bought something simple for Kendrick to play with at the moment. A mini 'play-gym' thing, and also a simple keyboard that can play some simple tunes. He seems fascinated with the mini 'play-gym' toy..so hopefully that can last for a few more months.

Looking curiously at his new toy

Some tummy time again before going out

Kendrick is getting more fun to play with

Kendrick is growing fast and getting more fun to play with. He had some early laughter beginnings recently and hopefully in time to come, we will be able to hear more of that! Yup, when babies make those giggly laughter, it really tickles you. :) I was just playing with him in the car seat last weekend when he started laughing...also last Saturday night, while lying in bed next to him to make him sleep, Kendrick was again tickled to laughter for some reason. He He...so funny!

We continued our tummy time with him on weekend mornings too. So far, he was able to lift his head upright at times, but otherwise, he will tire out and lay down his head. Looks like he still has to work out more!

Kendrick lifting his head

Getting tired and lying to the side

Laughing some how when he felt really amused by me