The Congestion Battle Continues

We had a little trip to the doctor’s a few days ago, Bella’s cold seemed to be getting worse and her breathing was really getting laboured. We had been reading about an outbreak of Bronchiolitos in Sydney about the time we left, so our fears were working overtime, thankfully the doctor informed us that her lungs and chest were clear; she basically just has a blocked nose. We were given a decongestant that you shoot up her nose and she’s not overly keen on that idea so it usually involves her testing out her lung capacity, yes she is starting to lose her newborn cry. I miss the newborn cry; it’s almost soothing compared to her cry, and a few decibels lower.

While at the doctor’s we had the usual growth measurements, Isabella is now 58.5cm long and weighing in at 5.4kg, she is getting quite the round belly, just like her daddy. She is completely out of all her 000 clothing and most of her 0-3 months sized clothing is too small, mostly in the length. Some of her 00 & 0-6 months clothing seem a little short, maybe it’s the round belly making the clothing seem shorter.

On a good note she has been sleeping longer, a few nights ago she went to sleep at 8pm and I tried to wake her at around 11:30pm for her usual last feed, she woke up, eye balled me and showed little interest in feeding. I gave up after about half an hour of struggling figuring that there was enough milk spilt on her bib and clothing and my arm. So I changed her and straight back to bed and she sleep through to 7am. Sadly we didn’t get the benefit of her long night’s sleep as we were up to check on her regularly due to her laboured / troubled breathing. She is still struggling with her congestion but we are hopeful the drugs and lovely Singapore humidity will clear her up quickly.

Back in Warm Humid Singapore Lah

We’re back in Singapore lah, hello warm weather, good bye cold weather. It was great to catch up with family and friends, but damn leaving the warm temperatures of Singapore to the middle of a Sydney winter was a bit hard on the senses. Our bodies were accustomed to the 30 plus temperatures and humidity that we now enjoy, Sydney’s low temps in the sub 10 degrees range was just too too nasty. We all ended up with colds; little Bella is still struggling, she can’t breathe normally and starts screaming when it gets too bad. She’s not sleeping much in her cot during the day and is getting spoilt by us letting her sleep on our chests or in our arms, which is OK by us as we can keep a close eye on her breathing. When she is not near we are always getting up to check on her, hand on the chest to check her breathing, touching her head, hand and feet to make sure she’s not running a fever. I wonder if all new parents are like this, most likely, even when their babies aren’t sick too! We are hoping the hot humid Singapore weather will clear up her cold and quickly.

I was just getting accustomed to the cold weather when we left, so the past couple of days back in the heat and humidity have been a struggle. I now understand why visitors sometimes complain about the weather, you need to be here a week or so to get use to it, and then you start to enjoy it. I longed for this weather while battling the Sydney weather. Marika and I also missed our own space, I’m not saying staying in our childhood homes with family is bad, it’s more we are use to having our own personal space and things, it’s great to be able to walk around the house in your underwear if you want. I’m not talking naked room approach (watch ‘Failure to Launch’ for reference) just space to be free. We do miss having the extra hands to hold Bella when she’s unsettled; yiayia had a good knack of settling her with the yiayia turbo rock.

Cold Homecoming Pictures

These pictures have been moved to our website

The Lake & Back

We’re back in Sydney after spending a few days up the coast with my folks, sisters and their families. Isabella was freely giving away cuddles to her grandparents, the aunts & uncle also got in on the baby cuddles action. While up there Isabella managed a few six to seven hour night time sleeps, bring on the all night sleeps! We parents were very happy with this new sleeping habit and are encouraging her to experiment more with this longer sleep concept. So now Isabella has meet most of her closest family, it’s time she meets the friends. Our weekend is already heavily booked catching up with friends, hopefully little Miss is up for the challenge. She is getting more smiley everyday so I think she’ll win over the friends like she did family, mind you family have no choice, they have to love her. Isabella has been making fashion statements of late, showing off all her new winter clothes, we have been topping off her fashion prowess by discarding the mitten we purchased in Singapore in favour of her new woolly socks, yes that’s right she is trend setting by wearing socks on her hands, at least her hands stay warm. She’s still not keen on wearing a hat but she’s coming around to the idea. We have plenty of pictures of her rugged up, just like her parents. I’ll upload some pictures later in the week.