Week 142 motherhood – 5.5 month baby slept through the night!, bird rescue and demo, 4 generations

Flipping over every chance she gets!

Week 141 of motherhood with 2 years eight months and 5.5 month old:

June 2: The baby at 5.5 months old slept through the night!!! She went for 9 hours without a feed and slept in her crib. Wow, what a huge difference compared to her older sister lol (can’t help but compare) — she didn’t start sleeping through the night until she was 2 YEARS and 3 months old when her sibling was born. HUGE difference!! (Again, I know every baby is different.) Yay!!! The baby was sleeping for 5-hour stretches the past two nights already.
It makes me think how if she didn’t contract RSV and the cold, she probably would have slept through the night sooner too. It took her a while to recover and resume her feeding and sleeping schedules due to the viruses.
Opened the new toy of magnetic letters and numbers for the toddler to play with last night and she wanted to open the other package of pictures too (she saw me putting it aside on the dining table and actually risked falling to get it).
The toddler preferred being topless and bottomless yesterday since it was so hot (daytime high of 32 degrees).
We went out for a neighbourhood stroll for the first time with both for an hour (maybe that’s why the baby slept so well too because she was awake and stimulated during the entire time?).
I got to enjoy a soak-in bath for the first time. So nice to stretch my legs and cool off in the tub. 😌
June 7: The baby has been rolling over to her front and she does it so expertly and quickly! She is much faster and stronger than the older sister was. And then once the baby is on her belly, she will explore her surroundings for a bit and put her hands together. It’s so cute. But then after a while, she starts crying because she gets tired. Her head starts to droop. She doesn’t know how to flip back on to her back yet and keeps crying until someone gets her. And then once we do bring her to her back again, she quickly kicks and is back on her belly. This repeats a few times.
The baby has really strong and rather painful pinches if she gets hold of your arm.
She’s been sucking and gnawing on my hand when I hold her. Is she teething? I can’t believe that she will be starting solids in 13 days! She sees the pediatrician on the 20th once she’s six months old and then we’ll be starting the new foods for her!
Ever since the 9-hour stretch, she’s been fluctuating and sometimes sleeping stretches of 4 hours and sometimes 5 hours. She did 7 hours again the other day, which is still great.
I can’t help it but stay up late these days. I know I should sleep early by 10 or 11 p.m. at the latest, but I just like to chill into the night on my phone… I agreed to do a short transcription assignment that’s under an hour long due for next week and I have of course procrastinated on starting it. I know I have enough time to finish it. This is the first piece of work that I’ve agreed to take on since giving birth to the secondborn. She’s 5.5 months old. I went back to work at around 7 months with the first baby. I can’t believe I even agreed to it; I should have more time with them first. But an hour-long audio assignment is short and it’s nice to make income again.
This also leads me to the topic of people constantly asking me if I’m still on mat leave or when I’ll be going back to work or things along the lines of “enjoy mat leave”! I guess it is the norm for all women to go back to work after having a child. However, I’m a freelancer. I never received designated mat leave with pay. When I’m not working, I’m not receiving any pay of any sort at all. And why is it always assumed that the woman will go back to work? What if I want to stay as a stay-at-home mom for the next little while? I don’t get it. I must be missing something.
I have not resumed diary writing for a long while. I must be getting out my emotions via these weekly mommy blogs and I’ve been better at expressing my thoughts and feelings to the ones around me more. Maybe I don’t “need” the diary writing as much as before? I don’t prioritize it either.
The baby is used to napping with me on the bed these days. I also am able to get an afternoon nap too! It’s hard not to fall asleep with her; it’s so comfy and the nursing takes a while sometimes. I also must be quite tired as well and lacking sleep in general. It’s a vicious cycle because I don’t sleep early (as mentioned above).
When strolling outside, we found a baby bird that appeared injured. We had coincidentally just checked our mail so we had some junk mail in our stroller which I used to scoop up the bird. It definitely wasn’t flying and wasn’t able to hop on one leg either. We transported it home and kept it in a small cardboard box with a towel for the night and Googled what to do. The next morning, DH called the wildlife number at 9 and someone came at 10 a.m. to take it. The bird was a baby chickadee who probably fell from its nest when learning to fly and broke its claw. The man assured us that the bird needed time to rest and recover and then it would be released back into the wild. It was a nice learning moment for the toddler to see a little baby bird up close. The toddler talks about things that happened constantly and for sure this was a little deposit in the memory bank for her. When we were out walking the next couple of days, she requested to walk in the area when we found the bird.
The toddler has been waking up around 9 a.m. these days and by the time I end up waking up and nursing the baby, it’s around 10 or 11 a.m. The two EarlyONs that are close to our house start their programming from 9 to 11 a.m. or 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and are too early for us to attend. We ended up going to the library on the Friday instead to read and play.
The first time we visited this library, there were no toys and no play section. I was rather disappointed with it. DH attended this library again sometime and they had toys and a play section! Thus, this was where we spent our time on a Friday afternoon. The toddler enjoyed playing with the plastic dinosaur toys for a bit and feeding them some of the plastic food. Eventually, her attention swayed and she wanted to play with the legos and sticking them on to the lego wall.
I noticed two kids running around the library and trying to find answers for a scavenger hunt. I asked them where they got the paper for the game and me and the toddler were able to play it too! The toddler obviously had no clue what a scavenger hunt was, so I had more fun playing it, but she got the gist of knowing that we had to find symbols that matched what was on the paper. In the end, we finished the scavenger (we finished before the two other little kids — they had trouble finding the last two clues lol) and the toddler picked a prize out of a treasure chest. She picked a pencil. The other choices were lots and lots of stickers.
Over the weekend, we attended an event put on by the “Don’t Mess with the Don” community called “Raptors in the Valley”. It was the kick-off to their bi-weekly container arts and crafts activities where they hosted free bird house and feather painting for kids as well as a bird demonstration and free barbecue as well!
We were one of the first to arrive and were able to paint a wooden bird house. The toddler unfortunately didn’t feel comfortable taking a paintbrush to paint the bird house at all (she said she didn’t want to get her hands dirty…) so we ended up doing it for her. It was nice to paint.
When it was 11 a.m., the Hawkeye representative brought out three birds for demonstration. We saw a Great Horned Owl, Red-Tailed Hawk, and a Peregrine Falcon. The toddler wasn’t too interested in the birds but it was cool for her to see what an owl looked like in real life. She’s only used to seeing them in her picture books and even those are the cartoon ones.
We all enjoyed the barbecue too and the baby was great to sleep for 3 hours! She didn’t wake up until the end when we were eating. The toddler was able to sit in the stroller to enjoy her burger. We then went to the nearby Loblaws to use the restroom. At this time, I also needed to nurse the baby so I sought out the changing rooms at Loblaws in the Joe Fresh section and asked the staff to use the changing room to nurse the baby. Of course, she let me. It was great and so smart on my end to use the facilities to nurse the baby in public! 😀 😀
We finally had our belated mother’s day dinner with my grandmother (the girls’ great-grandmother) now that everyone is not sick anymore. My grandmother is 101 years young and uncharacteristically chatty and animated that evening before dinner began. DH made sure to record a video of this rare instance. Now that the MIL’s health is declining, I really cherish the time that we have with family more and more. It’s such a blessing to have my elderly grandmother here still with us and that she gets to see great-grandchildren in the picture. She might not be aware or alert and senile, but it is still a blessing to have her alive and well.
For the first time, the baby started whimpering and crying in front of others. It must be my uncle’s tendency to speak loudly that triggered her to cry like that. Luckily, I fed her (at the table) and she was fine afterwards. The boob to the rescue! Comfort for her. I’m glad we got a four-generation photo as well. (The toddler was timid and apprehensive as usual, but DH did a great job feeding her throughout the night and she ate a lot too.)
We went to Fairview Mall (the first time in a long time) because I wanted to see all the new changes that were happening in that mall. There are so many more Asian stores and eateries there than before (and the new T&T). The baby slept for the good chunk of the visit and I did nurse her in the furniture section of The Bay lol. I am so comfortable nursing her anywhere now! I also nursed her in the busy food court when we were grabbing a late lunch too. I had my nursing cover and stroller next to me and I was fine to nurse her there.
On Tuesday, we went to a new EarlyON location in Markham. For the first time, I felt like the EarlyON location was not as clean as the other ones. We arrived half an hour later to when the “Family Stay and Play” session began and the classroom was already packed with children and their caregivers. The room felt stuffy (they didn’t open windows and elementary schools don’t have AC units). The facilitator was super nice and kind, but the kids there were kind of rowdy and not as polite or well-behaved as some of the other kids at the other EarlyONs are.
When it was time for a parachute play at the end, one of the boys sat right in the middle and refused to move. Everyone was supposed to hold on to one edge of the parachute to sing and hold and walk around together, but the boy did not move and did not heed the facilitator’s instructions. Worse too was that the boy’s mom did not care. She was in the corner of the room holding the younger daughter and didn’t even look or know that her boy was misbehaving. It wasn’t until one of the other boys happened to hold the parachute cloth over the first boy’s head that the mother heard the facilitator’s alarmed voice and ran over to stop the boy’s hand and released the cloth. Geez. Maybe if you had watched your son in the first place, he wouldn’t have been strangled like that.
After that incident, the second boy also found it amusing to sit right in the middle of the parachute cloth while we all were singing around them. It wasn’t fair and I really despise parents who don’t discipline their kids in public (they didn’t even try).
To say the least, we won’t be back at this location of EarlyON in the near future. The space was small, it felt stuffy, the toys seemed old and worn-out and a bit unclean, and the kids who attended seem to be poor at listening to instructions. I’m still glad we went because without going, we wouldn’t have experienced it.
After this, we ran a bunch of errands: going to Dollarama, bought some turtle food, picked up a baked goods TGTG bag, a Flashfood produce bag, another TGTG salad bag, and dinner takeout. I’m proud of my mom and I for wrangling two kids and being able to complete these errands. I nursed the baby in the car in the parking lot with absolutely no issue.
The baby has been using her voice and “talking” and “singing” this week. She’s so chatty and it’s so adorable. She has a louder voice than her older sister.
The toddler has been less bossy this week/we don’t let her try to boss over her sister. We just let her cry when she doesn’t get her way. She can’t be spoiled and get her way all the time.
At the same time, the toddler does pick on her sister sometimes when she’s not in a good mood. This week, she tried to pull on the baby’s leg. We obviously tell her to stop, but she doesn’t listen. Sometimes she’s so sweet on her sister by saying they’ll do this and that together in the future. But other times, she can be aggressive and forceful with her. Sometimes she wants to hold her hand. Other times, she says, “I don’t want the baby touching me”. Hot and cold moods.
The toddler gets upset at things at the drop of a hat and cries. If you try to help her with something and she wants to do it herself, she will cry. The trick is to always ask her, “Do you want me to do this for you or do you want to do it yourself”? If you don’t ask and do something for her, that’s when she melts down.
Because the baby has been flipping on her back often this week (and essentially doing exercise), she has lost a bit of her baby rolls! Her arms aren’t as fat and her wrist doesn’t have as big of a squishy roll as before. This is so normal though, but I miss seeing her baby chunky rolls!