atopic dermatitis

Jove has this red rashes on his cheeks, neck, and tummy that started about two months ago. It started on his neck and cheeks, we thought breast milk and tropical heat were the cause of the rashes. But after a check with the pediatrician, it was an allergic reaction. He prescribed medicine for allergy, and within three days, all the rashes disappeared!

He advised me to keep notes on the food I ate and to observe if certain foods triggered the rashes. So, no egg whites, seafood, and peanuts for me. Problem came when the medicine was up after five days and the rashes started to reappear. I still could not pinpoint on which food was the cause. Three days has passed since then, and the rashes countinued to get slightly worse each day. We are going to try Protopic cream now, one of the cream prescribed by the peadiatrician. Hope that can help in reducing the rashes.

rewel

Jovan hari ini agak rewel. He is not sleeping peacefully also. I wonder why. Could it be because of teething?

learn to reach

Jove is learning to reach things. He is quite a big baby for his age (9kg, 5mos) and it is quite difficult for him to shift his body forward. He took quite sometime to learn rolling to his tummy and back, slower than other babies his age.

I just hope that he will never forget this intense determination in reaching things outside his hand-reach when he tries to reach his dreams someday.

november rain

With a new baby, finding time for myself has been difficult, especially after we moved to our own home (after staying with my parents for the first four months of Jove's life). Now is one of those rare moments.

It is raining outside, the baby is sleeping peacefully after a warm bath, and here I am with a glass of hot chocolate, relaxing music and the beloved notebook.

Aaah, a piece of heaven indeed.

turning five months

Jove just turned five months old today.

Physical development wise, he has better control of his movements. Rolling to his tummy and back is quite an easy feat now. He can grab things (and starting to grab anything he can reach) with both hands and able to do high-fives if we say 'chos'. His kicks are painful now, and he loves to kick anything that touches his feet. Oh, and he is able to sit straight with support.

Now he can show his will and can wail if we don't give in to what he wants. He smiles a lot around familiar people, but pretty moody around unfamiliar faces. He starts to laugh more, especially when playing with his daddy, grandma, and aunties. Sometimes he can babble for minutes if he is in the mood or if he sees something interesting.

He drools a lot lately. I mean really a lot. He wets the bed, the toys, my shirts, his own shirts, the bolsters, the pillows, his hands, his pants, and the floor! I suspect that he starts teething because he also chews everything now. He received the plastic teether that I gave him with glee.

Socially, he connects better with adults than with babies his own size. I don't know why...

We observed that he is a very patient little guy. He has attention span to last him reading more than one picture book before getting bored. I'm getting pretty amazed at the speed of his development lately. God is really awesome to create babies.

a duk and a high-five

Jove is really getting better in controling his movements this week. He manages to roll back from his tummy, he also loves to lift his legs up high to smash the toys underneath and he grabs toys easily now. Surprisingly, he can also lift his head when he lies on his side.

The fun part, he can do a high-five. Ie Yen taught him to do it and he happily does it anytime someone requested with a "Chos yuk!". Mom taught him to nod his head gently till it touched the other person's head (who was placed near his head), "duk", to indicate that he loved the person. Jove always does this one with a wide smile, sending whoever he 'duk' to a happy heaven.

toilet training

Jove is toilet trained by mom. Being a mother in the time before the disposables, she has a staunch belief in the goodness of cloth diapers/pants. To reduce the amount of wet pants and clothes that we have to wash daily, she trained my son to pee and pass motion in the toilet.

After a month plus doing it, I'm getting better in predicting. There were some misses still, but if I'm dilligent enough, I can have days with no wet pants. If I'm lucky, I can get him to poo in the toilet too!

Now, it is usually pee after breastfeeding, then about 15 to 20 minutes after that pee again. The next one is 30 to 45 minutes after the last, depending on the weather. If he still doesn't want to pee, I usually give him plain water to drink. The trickle will come out as he drinks.

first time swimming!

We just bought the baby float the week before and I was totally excited to experience my baby's first plunge. We went with the grandparents, the grandpa wanted to swim with his grandson.

It was the first time my father ever swam in the kiddy pool of our housing estate's sport club. He went in proudly and his grandson followed. I put him in feet first, then with some talk and persuasion I lowered him down slowly till my father could grab him. He almost cried, but he didn't. After sometime, when he seemed okay, grandpa put him into the yellow baby float.

moving out

I have been staying for more than four months in my parents' house (since I was about eight and a half months pregnant). It has been fun caring a new baby with very excited (and very helpful) grandparents and three aunts. Kind of sad moving out and staying back in our own home, just the three of us with the maid. Now it's only me and the baby in the afternoons when the daddy is working and the maid is doing the house chores. Sepi deh.

My mom, the dearest grandma, actually cried last night, when we were about to go home. She would be alone in the afternoons now, no more cheerful squeals and smiley chubby baby.

I wondered how my grandma, Emak, felt when we moved to Jakarta in 1990. The four of us grandchildren had been staying with Emak and Kung-kung for as long as we remembered. We left the two of them alone in their house in Semarang when we moved. I did not remembered if she cried, just like my mom did yesterday, on the day we started our journey to the capital city. But she must have felt the hardest change by then. Two children and four noisy grandchildren left the house at the same time, 10 hours car drive from them. Sepi banget deh.

Mama said that in our early years in Jakarta, whenever she (or Papa) scolded or punished us for our mistakes, we would call for our grandparents (teriak-teriak Kung-kung! Emak! keras-keras gitu). When it was the time to go back to Jakarta after a month holiday in Semarang, or after a brief visit somewhere in the year, all of us would cry in the car. One time, I remembered, Mama started to cry with us too when our car left their driveway.

God, for Mama who's alone at home now, for Emak in the hospital and Kung-kung at home in Semarang, please bless them and take a good care of them.

One day, I know, there will be a time when little Jove will grow up and left the house too... by then, I hope I can have enough courage and strength to handle the situation. C'est la vie.

Development - four months and a week

The lil guy has started to act like a big boy now. I think he almost graduates from his baby stage. Starting about three days ago, he loves to scream and squeal in a high pitched voice if he is happy, he uses his lower pitch to answer our question