Livia’s first two months went on very quickly. We extended the services of our confinement lady, Mei Je, for two additional weeks. I must say it was a wise choice as we were not weighed down by Livia. However, after she left, my wife and I had to take care of Livia.
Livia few days only
I must say that Mei Je’s services were excellent. The stuff she cooked was tasty and she does housework for us. I had no problem with her. She even came back to take care of Livia when she was on a break after her next assignment.
Livia slightly older than one month
Our new Filipino helper, Elena, arrived before Mei Je left. The latter had some time to train Elena before she leave for another job. My wife and I took care of Livia exclusively after Mei Je left. Elena’s job was to do housework but she slowly took over our role on the third month. My wife’s maternity leave lasted for 4 months.
10 days after her birthday, i registered her birth at the National Registration Department. The queue was pretty short. It took me only half an hour.
Bathing Livia for the first time. My confinement lady guided me throughout the way. Livia poo-ed before I could put her in the tub. Nevertheless, she was quite cooperative and thus it was quite easy to bath her.
I am glad that I started my own law firm. I became a stay home dad. I had plenty of time for Livia. The only drawback is that I can’t focus on my work much. It gets interrupted every hour. I guess that’s what you call Work Life Balance.
Livia’s growth was pretty quick. At two months, she is taller than an average Asian baby. At 6 weeks, Livia started to interact and speak. Her first word was “Oo”. She mimicked me after I kept repeating the word “Oo”. At her 8th week, she could mimic the word “HI”.
Slightly older than a month
When she reached 3 months, she could interact with us. She would smile or laugh whenever we talk to her or tickle her. She would also mumble and make small gestures like scratching her ear to tell us something. The tone of her voice would also indicate what she wanted. A cough-like sound indicates that she wants to sleep.
Speaking about sleep, Livia’s sleeping habit, like all babies, was erratic. She also wants to be carried to sleep. She wakes up every 1 to 2 hours for feed. We barely had enough sleep. Fortunately, it became better towards the end of the third month but wakes up at 3am – 4am once in a while and refused to sleep thereafter.
We engaged our wedding photographer to shoot Livia’s newborn portrait. It was a terrible experience as Livia was crying most of the time. However, the pictures came out fantastic.
Livia’s full moon party was held at Marmalade Cafe, Bangsar Village II. We had about 100 over guests. The party started from 11am to 3pm. We finished most of the food. I was busy catching up with some friends whom I have not seen for ages.
Decorated by ThinkPartyThoughts!
Part of the full moon gifts from friends.
We brought Livia back to Kota Kinabalu to see her grandparents and grandaunt. Kota Kinabalu’s brunch and coffee craze just started hence we visited a few of the new coffee places like October Coffee House and Santola Coffee @ Kelombong. Mum in law took care of Livia while we were out. My father in law managed to get a bassinet for her. All he did was call the airline to book a bassinet.
We brought Livia to Hippopo Baby Spa when she was 3 months old. We were hoping that she will enjoy the swim and massage. She enjoyed the first few minutes of it but burst into tears after that. Had to calm her down and call it off. Fortunately, we could redeem our payment for next time.
Before we brought Livia to Singapore, we had to get her passport done at the Immigration Department at Jalan Duta. There’s a special lane for children at the department. We were pretty late hence we had to take Livia’s picture at the department. We had a hard time trying to get her to pose for her passport photo. Even the immigration officer helped. She was crying non stop until we fed her. After she calmed down, we quickly snapped a few shots. The best we got was a picture of her looking out from the camera. The others were pictures of her crying.
Toward the end of her 3rd month, Livia’s interaction with people became more frequent. In fact, she craved too much attention sometimes. But she loves staring out the window so I put her in front of the window to kill time.
Livia at 4 months old. Sigh, they grow up so fast!