What better way to kick-start the weekend with this lovely face… So great to have a sure fire method (or song) to push his smile buttons. Now doesn’t that just energize you to do something wonderful or fantastic this weekend? I shall now leave this little guy with his taggie toy and get on with some more much anticipated sewing. Enjoy your weekend!

As I was packing the diaper bag for heading out to the bbq/picnic outing over the long weekend, I decided just for fun to take a snapshot of all the things that go into my bag. I was actually quite amazed at the amount of stuff I managed to fit in. I carry an OiOi bag which I got for a steal on Gumtree. I love it because of the classic style and roomy interior which can hold in surprisingly a lot of stuff as I will illustrate shortly. So here is pretty much everything laid out… Now let’s count the number of items I have in there: 1. Cloth nappies – one or two, depending on how long we’ll be out 2. Baby sling – either the pouch or the ring sling, depending on my mood or the occasion or what the laundry rotation is at the time 3. Nursing cover 4. A spare change of clothing for baby – usually a little T-shirt or onesie 5. A little toy or something to keep him amused if the situation arises 6. Changing pad 7. Baby wipes 8. Tissues 9. Spare disposable nappy – I’ve never encou...

OK, enough about sewing for a bit. After all, sewing was not the ONLY thing I busied myself with this weekend. I also did this… With the changing seasons and growing baby, I needed to do some reorganising of his clothes… archiving the ones he had grown out of (haiz… so fast!) and bring out the batch in next size up as well as the warmer ones in preparation for those chilly nights. And here’s a little catwalk of the clothes my Nate has grown into recently… First, his ‘mini chef’ shirt from his jia-po and jia-gung Next, his ‘ickle overalls from one of hubs’ colleagues (anyone want to venture a guess at what song I was singing?) And this little Baby Levis number is a hand-me-down from Diana… it’s a 3-6 months sizing and I recall not long ago finding it hard to imagine how my tiny newborn would ever fit into this outfit… aaaahhh, where did my 0-3 months size baby go? Don’t even get me started on how I felt when I glanced ahead at the 6-12 month sized batch o...

How’s the long weekend been going for you so far? Mine has been looking pretty much like this… And it’s finished! One of the pouch slings at least… and a bit more. I like the pattern so much, part of me wish I could keep it. But the larger part of me really looked forward to seeing my friend’s happy face when she receives it. But before I parted with it, I decided to give it a test run… purely for quality and safety checking of course! With the extra fabric, I decided to make a little set of other handy items… Neatly packaged up in a cute little drawstring pouch! I really had a lot of fun making all these. I’d actually like to do more. I wonder if this is something other mums would be interested in having? Well, on to my second sewing project using the leftover black and white fabric from my first pouch sling . Yeah! More sewing practice!

What is it about babies and naps? Sometimes babies seem to react to naptime like it’s poison. After milk time, play time and cuddle time… naptime seems to be something they just HAVE to resist. Out come the tears, wails and yells seemingly saying “I won’t go to bed, I won’t, I WON’T!!!” Some of you may remember my magic sling . Well, it’s still magic… sort of… although in actual fact I had learnt that the magic weapon was actually ME. The sling is just useful in that I don’t have to be tied down holding him all the time and can move around the house freely. I remember I was worried at one point that the sling was becoming a sleep prop, but my dear friend Irene wisely told me that the sleep prop is actually the person wearing the sling. Slings and swings and rockers may come and go, but the thing babies want most in the world is their mummy (or daddy). Anyway, I was careful to guard against the sling becoming a real sleep prop by always trying my best to put Nathan down drowsy b...

In my last post , I mentioned hubs’ talent with funny faces. I’m afraid it’s what we’ve had to resort to during those bottle feeding battles. I mentioned in my previous Mummy the Cow post that Nathan very much struggled with taking milk from the bottle… ANY bottle it seems, as we’ve tried several kinds. I had mentioned to some friends that I got him to drink from the bottle a couple of times along the way around the 2-month period which went pretty smoothly. But suddenly at around 3 months, he seemed to just decide that he didn’t like it. I started to blame myself saying I should have used the bottle more regularly with him. But the child health nurse said it probably would have made little difference – sometimes babies just decide at some point they don’t like something even if they were okay with it all along before. Part of me felt pleased to know that little Nate was so loyal to me as his source of food and comfort. But the urgency to get him used to the bottle became more pre...

Nathan is 15 weeks and 2 days today. I haven’t posted an update on his progress in a while, so it’s about time. He also just had his 2-3 month child health nurse appointment today, so I suppose there’s no better timing than now to do one. So Nathan, hand over your ‘report card’ to mummy and we’ll get started. Some notes from his purple book on his growth charting: He now weighs about 6.5kg which is right on the average mark – I was so relieved to hear this as I was worried that I was overfeeding him and making him fat) He measures 63cm long which is slightly above average – his father will be pleased about this because he is keen for Nathan to grow up to be really tall. Other important developmental checkboxes ticked off: He can prop himself up very well on his forearms while on his tummy He can support his weight on his legs while being held up He can brace himself sitting up, with some support under his armpits or from behind his back He is making a lot more vocal...

Guess what? We have a new toy tool in the house! After some contemplation, hubs and I agreed that a sewing machine would be a very useful thing in the house with a very likely to be active boy growing up with us… I foresee many mending and fixing of tears and rips with this. Not to mention lots of fun sewing projects! After many weeks of it sitting on the table collecting dust, I finally managed to find a spare couple of hours to work on my very first sewing project. Behold, my very own homemade pouch sling! I knooow… isn’t enough that I have already two perfectly functioning slings ? Well somehow all the research about babywearing and baby slings led me to information about other types of baby carriers and slings. I became interested about pouch slings because of its simple design and trimmer style. It's a little less versatile compared to ring slings or wrap slings, but still offers a few basic options for wearing baby. But why sew my own? I guess it must be all pa...

Get ready for another ramble on my current obsession: cloth diapers! I know, some of you are probably sick of the topic and will probably skip this post. I can’t help it, I never realised how much fun diapering a baby could be. I sometimes actually LOOK FORWARD to nappy changing times because I get to choose what type of nappy to use, have fun changing baby, and interact more with him as I talk to him about what nappy I’ve chosen, talk him through the steps, tell him how cute he looks and step back and admire my handiwork. Sooo… check out the latest additions to my cloth diaper stash … Wool covers! I picked them up through Freecycle from a lady who was clearing her house in preparation for an interstate move. Basically these go over a prefold/muslin/fitted cloth nappy as a waterproof cover. Yes, that’s right… wool can be waterproof. And did you also know that… 1. Wool fibre is naturally absorbent but is also able to ‘wick’ or pull away moisture and release it into the air 2. ...