Tales from the Crib & Declaration of Independence...

Sequoia has officially graduated from her Moses Crib to her Cot Bed today, March 7, 2008.

Ai... yai... I am not happy about that.

I almost wanted to video the epic journey as we took away her Moses Crib and re-created her cot bed for her! :-) But I didn't. But I now wish I did though for that day is forever gone :-) okay, so I am a sappy Mom. Guilty as charged!

When Mom and I first took her home the evening of Jan. 2, 2008, we put her down in her cot bed ever so gently, hoping for an instant bond with her bed time buddy. But nope, it didn't win her over. Recent memories of pain at the hospital cot bed site still haunted her. I think she also felt her cot bed was too "roomy!" Gosh, how different grown up and babies are. I would kill for an American king size bed any day if only rooms in houses in Singapore could physically accommodate it! But no, Sequoia wants a space as tiny as the one she just came from, something akin to "inside Mommy's tummy!" Silly girl! She'll want a big room and a big bed of her own in no time!

These are some of the last shots of her falling asleep whilst being engrossed, or bored, :-) by the toys around her in the Moses Crib! Sigh...

She has also learned to roll over to her side a few days ago. One morning I woke her and noticed that she had rolled over to her right side. I got up in micro flash! I was already the naughty mommy and had put her beside me on MY bed each time she was impossible to settle. You see, she uses me as her pacifier and can't seem to fall asleep without "it!"

I have done this on quite a number of occasions now in spite of all the UK baby books advising against it, hurling threats of "SID - sudden infant death syndrome." I confess I have been really fearful of this and never wanted to put her in bed with me in spite of having spent a lot of time in my parent's bed as a wee thang! I think as babies and kids we like it because it smells of Mommy and we love her smell. We love Mommy's bed even if there's the smell of sweat accompanying other bed fragrances as well!

So, marks another milestone in Sequoia's life...

As I swung out my right arm to encircle her to make sure she did not fall off the bed (which is on the floor, so the height from bed to floor is not too steep, but it is still almost the height of the diameter of her head, so that is some serious depth, I guess, for a baby!) I noticed that she had cleverly manuvered her arms in such a way that she has trapped herself at a 45 degree angle, thereby preventing herself from rolling off the bed! Imagine her right arm being kinda akimbo to her waist, thus making it difficult for her to completely roll over to the right and fall over! Clever girl! But for the moment, she is content to hang out with me in my bed, preferring my germs over her clean, comparatively germ-free bed! Go figure...

Now, on March 5, 2008, Sequoia laughed out loud. "Ha Ha Ha Ha..." Just like that. Big laughs from a small boca (mouth in Portuguese). I was so amazed. I wasn't sure if I heard her correctly. Although it was a full strength, adult decibel level laugh, it was too surreal. And it ended all too quickly before I could fully digest the experience and ponder over it.

Then on March 8, she laughed out loud again. Three full and separate times. "Er.. ha ha ha ..." "Heh, heh, ha" and the last one sounded like, "Er heh heh." Yes, indeed. Just like that. Better yet. On March 10, she laughed out REALLY LOUD! And I mean, REALLY LOUD! "ERH...HA HA HA!!!"

I was so shocked. First of all, I couldn't believe her lung capacity was capable of producing such LOUD sounds. Next, I never expected her to laugh so confidently and LOUDLY! But it was such joy to my ears. Sad to say, this silly mommy sat there for the next 30 minutes with Sequoia laying on the pillow on my lap, video camera in my right hand and making ridiculous walking and other deranged-Mom gestures with my left hand to try to re-enact the loud laughing experience AND capture it in living color! As luck would have it, she did not repeat such a guffaw nor has she repeated such a loud laugh since then!

Anyway, I thought it came from another person in the room. But of course there was no one else around but me and her! I think :-) Now, she is always smiling and baby talking to some imaginary friend. And this "friend" always seems to be near her changing table. At least I think so. She is constantly turning her heavy head toward that direction. Hmmmm..... To avoid freaking out, I will suppose it to be her Angel Gabriel friend or other good kindred spirits from the friendly realm known as Heaven!

Now, where was I? Back to baby laughs... I consulted the baby books and, lo and behold, written out in the "Your baby at 11 weeks" section, are "things to look out for at this stage." And laughing out loud is one of them! Wow, she is doing this at 9 weeks. Clever lil funny girl! I'm not sure whether she was laughing in response to me trying to make her laugh and smile or laughing AT me for looking so silly :-)

Over the past week, she has been crying quite a bit. Specifically each time I put her down and disappear from her view for a short while. At first I thought it was because she didn't want to be without me. Then I thought it was impossible that she could be feeling this now at 9 weeks. Then... after I once again consulted the baby books, in the section of "Your baby at 12 weeks," I happily realized I was right! The author suggests that babies are now at the point where they love their Mom best and don't want them to leave their sight. How sweet! If only this stage lasts forever... sigh :-)

My little girl has discovered her fingers for a while now and has recently been doing some "finger tasting" of her own. Each time she tries to push her tiny mouth over her fist, I notice that she realizes it will not fit and go into her mouth the way Mommy's boob does :-)

She stares at her fist, as if thinking, "what on earth is going on? I thought that all things are suckable AND fit into my mouth!" Not appearing an ounce disappointed, since she knows that the boob visits her at 2-3 hour intervals, she then calmly pulls her fist away from her face and tries again a few minutes later.

She has either forgotten the earlier "doesn't fit" experience or perhaps she thinks that trial and error may produce a positive answer in the end. Or maybe it's the short term memory thing that babies have going for them :-)

How useful this syndrome is. It puts them in an "always happy" state. Never disappointed. And they are always in the NOW, the PRESENT. The most important part of time, as people say. I remember a saying I read when I was young, "there is no present, just the past and the future... for as the present is being said and done, it immediately becomes the past." Sigh... how true...

But yesterday, something different happened. She pulled her fist to her face, slid the thumb into her wee mouth and then realized that it either had bad taste (from dried up breastmilk) or NO taste! Either way, she gives me a "both scenario stinks!" look and then screws up her face, giving me a long "eeeeeewwwww, Mom" look, stares at her own thumb for a full 2 seconds and then quickly removes the thumb in question :-) It was hysterical!

She is doing this again as I type. I can see her little right thumb in her mouth for one second, and then in the next second, I see her little face making a "yuck, this taste sucks" type of facial expression, accompanied by her trying to suck at the thumb again, hoping and wishing that each time she does it the taste will either improve or go away :-)

Her cafe au lait light brown (OK, so it's not so light brown :-) spot on the left side of her forehead, above her left eyebrow, has grown in size, along with the rest of her face. I am fearful for her. The baby books suggests that 1 in 10 babies have this birth mark. I'm not sure how they got this statistic. I have been walking the Earth for a while now and I definitely have not seen this 1 in 10 statistical appearance as they suggest. Then I thought maybe they meant it occurs on 1 in 10 persons in England. But so far, in London, I have not seen it as a 10% marking on the population. I hope Sequoia will be able to digest it all and take it in stride as she grows. I would hate it if she were to be affected by it. Or worse, blame me for it... Kids blame their parents for the unexplainable, isn't it. Sigh... I am not looking forward to that phase.

Sequoia must think that she is being submitted to the Baby Fashion Parade. Daily.

I religiously change her out of her sleep suits (those with poppers lined cleverly all along the front) each morning even if they are clean. Why? Because she is growing at the pace of lightning! It's funny... but why are beautiful, pretty clothes always not as functional? Or easy to access? All her day clothes seem to be the more-difficult-to-access-to-butt-area-for-nappy-change clothes types :-) So, as I savor each new day, wondering what new beginnings and endings it will bring, I begin the magical process of discovering if she will, or WILL NOT, fit into the ones I select.

It is a funny time for me. Many a time, I find out that the length of the garment is, alas, too short AND too snug at the tail bone area. It presses her nappy too tightly to her butt, thus promoting extra leakage, even if she had just put on extra-protection, NON-leakage nappies! :-)

With a forlorn look on my face, I then put aside this piece of baby clothing, check out the tag, which still says 0-3 months, and say AGAIN to myself, "how could this be? She is still tiny, and far away from 3 months (as I would like to believe :-)!"

Yah, right... tiny looking? She is almost like a 6 kilo bag of rice! My arms and lumbar hurts when I carry her for too long :-( as much as I would like to do it for hours on end. Will the little sleep suit or beautiful day piece be recycled for another little baby of mine? Or will some other person's pretty baby benefit from using it. Who knows...

Little Sequoia seems to like tai chi. She makes these tai chi movements with her arms when she is sleeping. First, the left arm starts to make arcs and semi circles. Then, the right arms starts waving simultaneously and makes these circles as well. She finally settles her arms down into a right hand holding on to left forearm position as if she is saying, "yes, Shi Fu (Master in Chinese) ..." and falls asleep! Hmmmm....

I am not lying! She sleeps often in this position, as if she is pondering in her sleep. Maybe she is. For she smiles nonstop when she is on the way to Slumberland, and when she has arrived at her destination as well.

Of course, there are times when she appears to have nightmares, which is something I completely fail to understand. She will wake and cry instantly. Literally instantly. No "it will take me 2 minutes to fully wake up" session. Just asleep one minute and crying LOUDLY the next minute!

Now, as babies this young, what fears could they really have? Someone trying to steal their toy? The aren't even able to play with their toys yet! Do they know it is a toy? What is the function of a toy? :-)

Or perhaps they think Mommy will go away? But why would they think that? They have had no prior experience of that. They have not even experienced starvation to be able to associate the lack of milk food with the Mommy being MIA (missing in action!) Hmmmm.....

I am not sure why the baby books call it cooing noises. To me, Sequoia says things that sound nothing like coos. Sounds like, "hei bur," or "ei bur..." Or sounds like, " her...air, or her er..." Or sounds like a long, "weeeeiiii..." I have recently changed the word for meal time from "mum mum" to saying to her, "OK, it's "her-er, her-er time ..."

My little anjo (angel in Portuguese) has a congested nose. Perennially, it seems.

The osteopath says most c section babies have this condition as they are usually compressed at a section of the head for far too long a time before they are extracted out of the mother's tummy. Also, they say that natural birth is best as it forces all the amniotic fluid and excess liquids out of their lungs and mouth. Wow, they are able to tell all this with just moving their hands over her whole body and head and trying to feel her energy (I think).

I wish I had such magical hands. They have asked Sequoia to go back for more sessions. To have her internally compressed area somewhere in her forehead decompressed as much as possible, so that she can breathe as naturally and as uncongestedly (no such word, I know ...) as possible...

Wait a minute, she just gave me a BIG SNEEZE! And there was a little present today... a piece of GLUEY and STICKY, LUMPY, GRAYISH-BEIGEY-with little dark spots, booger thing about the size of Manhattan (okay, so it's not that big:-)came out! To that new piece of action, little Sequoia smiles and says, "hei bur ..." Go figure :-) Cooing noises, indeed!

And so, we are down to our last pack of Newborn Pampers... Never did I think I would be so melodramatic over nappies! But I am...

There will be no more buying newborn baby nappies, newborn baby sleep suits, newborn socks...no more newborn anything... never again... this stage is forever gone and recaptured and relived only in video and photos memories... sigh...

The baby books never told me leaving each stage would be this hard :-( Why does nostalgia have to accompany every milestone? :-(

As I sit here typing her milestone stories away, I hear my girly burly excreting, big time! "Cush, cush, CUSH.... and more cush, cush, CUSH..." Time to go, nappy change time. Even if she shows me her milk-thrush infected tongue asking for more "milky." I think this time the amount of poo is SERIOUSLY nappy-rash inducing.

Before I can get up, she squirms like crazy. "Squirmy... Ms. Squirmy," I say. I have recently started call her that :-) As I get off my computer seat, I am greeted by the warm, fragrant smell of baby fart...to which she wails and says, ""arrrr ... errr..." then smiles... :-) My funny little girl!

As she enters into her next phase of baby life, I say to her, "yucky bucky," referring to her smelly butt AND fart. I receive a big, deliciously warm, ear-to-ear smile in return. Tell me, what else can a mother ask for? :-)