Meanwhile back in London...

It's been almost a month since we flew back to London.  How has life been for us you might wonder?

Before I continue, I have to say that I've had such a negative experience with my new MacBook Pro (2017 version).  It keeps dying on me (power up problems), and I have now been to Apple repair for 4 times now. The guy who helped me last weekend told me he is very worried because everyone he knows with this model have all brought it back to Apple for repairs.  And he owns this same model too.  Geez... he said they found a lot of issues with this particular model.. thanks Apple.  Anyway so they have now replaced the entire "brains" of my laptop, except the screen and keyboard.  He says it should be fine now.. I hope so too.

So yes back to the story of my life.

Mobility is key

No, I don't mean job mobility.  That phrase was from my past life lol.  Work?  What's that?
Isabelle has developed by leaps and bounds in just this past one month.  She has learnt how to crawl (really quickly may I add), and prop herself up on certain pieces of furniture.  We desperately need a playpen to contain her in because I struggle to do anything else.  Eyes gotta be on her most of the time because this cheeky little monkey crawls so quickly and has no concept of danger.  Just today I noticed that she's learnt how to cross "boundaries" within the house.  So previously she would crawl within the same room, but these past few days she has been crossing from one room to another.  I would actually bump into her when I come out of one room to another.  And she would flash me her cheeky smile.  Sometimes she will turn back to see my reaction, as if assessing the situation: to go or not to go.  Most of the time she thinks my reaction is a "go" so off she goes!  At this rate I think I will lose weight pretty fast.  Everything I do now needs to be quick.  Pronto.

Look what I mean?

We bought a second hand jumperoo for her three weeks ago and I seriously think it's this toy that taught her how to stand cos she soon learnt how to prop herself up standing firmly on her two feet.  What it also means now is that she's slowly losing interest in this toy.  Why stay stationary when you can be mobile.  Right?

I went to the loo for a few minutes and came out to this scene: she had emptied daddy's snacks and were playing with them on the floor.  Lol.  Gotta give it to her.

Jealousy and Separation anxiety

For the first time last Saturday I witnessed Isabelle getting jealous.  I have to admit I felt a surge of joy witnessing that scene.  I mean, all the effort gone into this little being for the past 7 months, that cry from Isabelle was the most rewarding one.  We had friends over with their baby boy Oliver and I was giving Oliver a hug with Isabelle playing nearby.  She suddenly looked up and with her big round eyes, she let out this wail and pushed her toy aside.  I didn't quite believe what I saw and gave Ollie another hug and she cried again.  Wow baby girl you are jealous of mummy hugging someone else!  And funnily daddy Ong was jealous seeing how Isabelle was trying to crawl towards me, and went to hug her immediately saying "ah it is ok, daddy is here, daddy is here".  These days, if she sees me leaving the room she will start crying.  Quite a drama queen this one.  But I have read that this is a pretty normal reaction at this stage of development.

Holding hands with Ollie

Sleep, baby sleep

Sleeping in her usual glamorous pose

This has been a challenge since little Izzy was born.  Sleep has never quite been in our favour.  I remember those days where we had to rock and cradle her to get her to sleep, and then continue holding her in our arms because she did not like being put down.  Many times, we had to be physically up and standing or pacing the room too.  If we sat down this fussy girl would feel it and start crying.  That was the story of my life for the first 3 months.  After that she got better and we could put her down on the bed once she fell asleep.  I never knew the different contortions my body was capable of, in order to put her down stealthily and not wake this light sleeper.  Oh the joy.  Then came the famous four month sleep regression which hit her nighttime sleep real hard.  I was hit real hard - she was waking every 2h at night, depriving me of sleep.  And then came the teething pain.  I often mutter "there is no rest for the weary...".  Many times I felt like little Izzy's slave.  It's true.

"I wanna crawl everywhere.. sleep is for the weak"

Coming back to London, her night time sleep seems to be better, but then comes the challenge of putting her to bed.  See, this daytime nap business is a very sensitive/fragile balance.  In order for a good night's sleep, the baby must not be under or over tired.  Her daytime naps must be 'just right'.  But how do I know what is 'just right', right?  The past few nights have been really horrible, we spent up to 2h trying to get her to sleep, only for her to wake after a sleep cycle of 45min.  And then the cycle starts all over again.  Once again, her slaves.  We are both exhausted and can't wait for this difficult period to be over.  We are seriously considering hiring a sleep consultant because that is how desperate we are.  Before having a baby, I wasn't aware of this term "sleep consultants" but now, I see the viability of such a career choice.  Because sleep deprivation is very real and very brutal.

I hope to be able to announce quite proudly someday about us sleep training little Izzy successfully, and that she's an angel both in the day and at nighttime.

Getting out and about

This one is on me I know.  Because it's just me and Isabelle now, we can't possibly stay at home all day.  I need to venture out.  It wouldn't be healthy to stay indoors all the time.  And so last Monday I took the train in to central London and visited my work colleagues.  We had lunch with my colleague and met up with some close colleagues whilst we were there.  Overall it was quite an adventure and I was glad I did it.

I've also started to drive a bit more.  This one is difficult because I'm just so bad at parking!  I need to build up my confidence.  Jesus please help me! lol

Posing for mummy before leaving the house

With mummy in the train

Another one

With mummy's colleague