6 Weeks On...

Our cheeky monkey sunbathing

Six weeks on and how far we have come.

It is truly amazing how much change can happen in such a short period of time. Bubs is now 6 weeks old (as the title suggests), less poofy from being squished and ejected from the womb, but decidedly more plump from the combined milky goodness of mommy milk and formula.

She has also (thankfully!) morphed into a rather cute baby! And lo and behold, is starting to look like a girl! -- You cannot imagine the amount of ribbing she got from her parents for looking more like a boy her first few weeks of life. On noticing the first signs of her turning "pretty" I got so excited and told PIC about my observations. Naturally, the odious man told this woman to calm down and not get carried away. In his words, our baby is cute, not pretty.

Yes, yes, that's an evil thing to say. But one thing we swore we wouldn't become once we became parents was unrealistic. And as much as we credit laughter as a main ingredient to our relationship's endurance, we have every intention of carrying the practice over into parenthood.

As her generic baby looks pass to give way to her real face, the war of "who's genes won the battle?" has started. Specially since we've determined that she's a cute baby, PIC and I are more than eager to lay claim on every little bit of her adorable self. Sadly, I lost the war. Since birth every one's been raving about how she looks like daddy and I've been silently holding out that she might still have a bit more mommy in her waiting to show. No such luck.

So what else do we find funny? Our little girl burps like a sailor, and passes gas like she has a tommy gun for a little bum. Amazing, isn't she?

At this stage, I would say we have roughly adjusted to daily life with Aoife and I think, so has she. Its always the little things that you notice. Like how she gets excited, smiley, smacks her lips and sticks her tongue out as soon as I lay a little towel under her chin signifying feeding time. Or how she stretches her legs so her ankles can be held when her diaper is being changed or how she lifts them up as soon as a new nappy is under her so you can put cream on her bum. And the fact that as early as now she already knows who the boss of the house is -- fussing when Daddy has her when she's sleepy and calms down and immediately zonks out as soon she's passed onto Mommy.

What I like most of all though, is that these days she's getting more and more talkative or at least trying to be with her baby babble. She "talks" when she's happy, when she's irritated and complaining, and even manages idle chit chat while her nappy is being changed.Truly, its like having a cuter, higher maintenance tamagochi!

Her nasal congestion still lingers but getting better with the advent of spring. I really hope it goes away soon. I am seriously getting tired of the evil looks PIC throws my way each time I aspirate bub's nose and she gives a mighty wail. He makes me feel like I intentionally set out to do our daughter harm!

She's also getting heavier and I wonder how long before I find it a challenge to pick her up. Speaking of wonder, she's still tiny but I find myself still in awe each time I look at her and imagine that this little ball of cuteness once lived in my tummy. Truly surreal!

PIC the doting daddy

Sleep wise, she still hasn't gotten over the two hour feeding cycle. Our baby loves her milk and is never late for a feeding. As such, we haven't really experienced the joys of her sleeping longer apart from a few occasions where she has slept a little over three hours in one go. I guess the more noteworthy of her sleep patterns is how she's perfectly happy to stay in her cot all day but as soon as night time hits, finds it imperative that she sleeps in bed between her parents. One night, I tried to place her back in her cot while she slept and while bubs didn't object, her Daddy had issues with the change in sleeping arrangement. So back to our bed she went. Oy, as if dealing with baby isn't enough, I have to contend with PIC too!

Speaking of bubs, her sleeping, and PIC -- this dad & daughter's latest thing is for PIC to hold onto a part of Aoife, be it her hand or tummy, start to fake snore, and this sends bubs off to la-la land almost immediately! Talk about custom lullabies! Funny how our little bubs has already associated her daddy's snoring with sleep time.

What else can I tell you about our little eklok? She hates tummy time, but manages to lift her head just fine when she's laying on either of our chests. She has quite strong legs too and with some assistance, can hold her weight on them for a few seconds!

She also has two hair whorls or puyo as we like to say in Filipino, and one is front and center, just above her forehead. I dread to discover if that old wives' tale about kids with two quiffs or more is true. So far she's been a pretty chilled out baby - only crying when something's wrong and wails the loudest when she's hungry. 

Apart from having our shiny new "toy" how else has our life changed? Our washing machine feels like its perpetually running these days, filled with towels, sheets, and baby clothes all covered in milk and spit. We have also developed a keen radar for supermarket promotions on Huggies diapers and stocking up on them. Lastly (though I'm sure there are many more that I can't readily think of), our parents are now a bit more demanding on the communication front - there's my mom who's asking to Skype so she can see her granddaughter and following my Facebook page religiously for baby updates. PIC also finds himself taking a backseat to his mom's weekly calls as she insists on talking to her granddaughter and listen to her babble instead. Even my father-in-law has joined the fray in checking if any new photos of bub have been posted online!

Such a big change and so much love for such a little thing. Yet still so many things to watch out for and discover with our little princess. Part of me wishes she can grow up soon so I can play with her more while the other part wishes she remains our cuddly little wonder. Whatever comes though, I know we'll be thankful for each moment. As my everyday mantra goes, "mommy loves you ekloki..."