Happy Bday To Me

Today is my bday I turned twenty- something; lets just say I'm still a few years from 30.  Some of you should already know my age lol. Anyways my bday was a good day and I got so many calls from loved ones and my crazy little brother who stole my bday 2 years later :) This morning, I told baby girl that today was mummy's bday and she gave me a kiss (what a sweetheart) -I doubt she understood what I said and I'm very sure it was one of her random kisses but it worked at that very moment and it was everything that I needed to start my day.

When I arrived to work I met a surprise party with lots of yummy filipino dishes and cake.  I also got to run home for a quick minute to nurse baby and shower her with loads and loads of kisses.  I heard from the sweet hubby multiple times throughout the day via text. And got to return home early to spend some time with baby girl; she always seem to know exactly what to do to multiply my happiness.  After she went to bed I went and dug out a diary I wrote of the things I wanted to accomplish by the time I was 30 and I have to say I am proud of myself because I have hit almost all of them.  

To name a few (some are very childish considering I wrote them when I was in my teens and some are just a tad personal to share) ... I became a Medical Doctor in my tee weeny twenties, married that same year, completed residency, managed to become a mama and made it to my home country 3 times which is way more than I ever thought considering my career choice.  Though I have accomplished many a great things, and did it all with God's strength through prayer, every year I ask myself the same question and each year it is the same answer.  I wonder if I am doing enough to accomplish heaven.  Thanks for reading and Stay Blessed!

Loyalty Blog Award

I am so tardy for this award- like maybe umm almost a month late but I appreciate this loyalty award from Rhapsody http://rappingonamelody.blogspot.com/ she is such a great writer but I enjoy her poetry. Keep up the good work and thank you so much for this thoughtful award.  Gotta get prepared for church- good night bloggers!

Update and Happy Easter

How are you my blog friends? Since the last time baby girl has started walking, she makes 10 months tomorrow; I am now a working mom and I'm still trying to figure out how to balance it all.  It has been hard trying to balance care packages and letters to the deployed hubby, mummy, and cooking and cleaning.  I hardly sleep and hence less time for my hobbies including blogging and omg! I miss running and strolling with baby girl.
Hubby is getting home sick and since I started work it got worst- it has been difficult finding all the time in the world to boost up his moral but as most MDs I have all these loans and I knew that I would one day go back to work but I think hubby didn't realize how quickly it would be.
About work- everyone kept telling me it gets easier every day and I want to know exactly when that will happen, because everyday I wish I could take her to work with me.  She grows so quickly and somedays she just holds on to my leg as I head for the door and says mama mama that's just wrong and it breaks my heart :( She also doesn't cry anymore when she wakes up she just jabbers like she is trying to tell me what she wants.  She is also learning how to sign and it is so nice to see her use them since she is quite an independent girl and gets frustrated when I can't figure out what she wants.
Pumping at work does make it a little easier to be away from her, because I feel like I am still bonding with her  even though I am away from work.  However I have a very busy practice and I plan to start weaning her when she turns 1.  It is however hilarious to see the reaction on people's faces at church or in public when I nurse her (of course with a cover cloth) since BG appears older than her age.  Some will ask me then how old she was and would be surprise by my response but some just think I must be one of those kool weirdos who still nurse till they are 18 years old lol  I think we will both miss breast feeding :( Baby Girl (BG) still gets about 30-32 ounces of breast milk and eats about 3-6 baby bullet servings of home prepared meals.
I still wear BG with my new found love Ergo Baby Carrier, I can nurse her in her carrier, cover her from the sun and so on  ...she gets heavy at times so I will move her to my back on the carrier.  I heart the carrier and still enjoy wearing BG.  When I'm gone her paternal grandma watches her, though it is convenient we were rocky in the beginning because it was very difficult for her to follow my schedule (I made a schedule this time since I realized with my grandma how particular I am) especially her sleep schedule.  It was very difficult for her to learn but she now does most things especially the nap and she now sees how much of a break that also gives her in a day and how less exhausting it is to care for her.
She realizes also that baby girl is smart and knows that grandma does it all when she hollers, she feeds herself with me but not with grandma, she cruises with me but not with grandma ... however now, grandma has picked up that she can do a lot more than she displays around her and she has started putting her foot down.
When I return from work I usually have an hour to learn and play with BG before her bedtime which is 830pm and on weekends I am very stingy with her- like today we went for errands all day and then to the mall and oh she had so much fun interacting and playing with the children.
We also went to Nashville, TN for a one year old birthday party and remember my kool car sit n stroll yep! I had a cruel malfunction and had to bag it and trying to get the company to help you through fixing their chair is very sad so you might want to think about that before purchasing.  (I may do a separate blog post)  Basically they don't have any way to fix or exchange you basically cannot allow it to malfunction.  It took me 2 weeks but I finally fixed the problem by myself.
Anyways, on another note, I had to give up gym and because of that I bought myself an early birthday present  (April 17) - the sole fitness elliptical with some of my first attending paycheck.
Baby Girl also started giving kisses but it is kinda weird when she just kisses random people so we've got to teach her that umm that's just not ok.
We also had a first Easter Photo shoot and here are some pictures.

Grandma

My sisters 

I love you mama

She was teething but it is exactly how she eats

Ok so shopping for her clothes was not that easy but that's because shopping stresses me out.  First, I'm not sure why certain clothes goes with each holiday and I'm not good with all of these color coding seasons and holidays.  The first dress I bought for her, someone told me it was more 'Christmassy' (don't laugh) so I went out and bought another cute dress but it was too big but I didn't want to return it so I kept it.  Then I went to another store and couldn't decide on a dress so I got 2 (12 months-size) dresses- But there was another problem I couldn't zip it up (they were too small lol) so I went out to get 18 months size and they looked good on her so we used both dresses for the photo shoot.  Oh yeah and my daughter now has 4 teeth on the top and bottom and it is cute to watch her chew.
About the in-law the only thing I have to say about that is that it is so much easier if their child is around when they are living with you- enough said bo (sign).
I hope you all are doing very well.  I will catch up with all of you eventually.

Almost There!

How are you all doing? I have been using all of my time either interviewing or deliberating on job offers or spending time with baby or writing love letters to hubby.  I had to catch up on all the blogs I follow to see what's been up and it is like everything happened while I was gone.  Hope you are all doing well.
About my job search, I had waited on interviewing for jobs because I wanted to see if my mother-in-law would be allowed to come back to the States.  She had exceeded her allowable time outside the US and so we took a chance.  But God had bigger plans and they accepted her explanations.  I have interviewed in a few places and I almost have a job and will sign a contract very soon.
About grandma; It is nice to have her around and she has been very helpful but there is still yet a lot of adjusting to do and we are almost there. One of our small struggles is baby girl feels that she ought to be carried all the time since grandma is always doing that, so I've had the talk with grandma that we need to work together and I would hate for baby girl to turn up lazy.  I never thought that baby girl could get anymore spoiled but grandparents always has something up their sleeves and baby girl learned quickly how to work her grandma.  Grandma also doesn't understand the whole development thing and will not let her pick up the sippy cup on her own, in fact she wants to help her do everything.  So Grandma is learning a lot from me about some of the things we do differently here.  She will also be accompanying me to her next doctor's appointment so that she can here and see what we check for and how we do things here.
Despite all of that, baby girl is trying very hard to take her first steps (tear drop) and she is almost there; she started standing for seconds at 7 months old and now she is so confident that she is starting to move her feet but so far she only succeeds at one step...I ask her everyday that if she's going to do it, she can only do it when mummy is home.  Being a working mom is rough.

Rocking one of her Nigerian fashions :)

Baby is also teething like crazy and it is coming from everywhere at once (poor child) so she and I have had a couple of rough nights.  She has also lost interest in puree foods and wants to eat everything that we eat (imitating the chewing process).  She finds her food boring but maintains excitement for breastfeeding; she still loves her breast milk and I plan to go for as long as she will let me.  Unlike my friends who stopped nursing and their children may take more to grandma when they go back to work, mine meets me at the door with smiles and then she cries because she is overwhelmed that she had to wait so long for her mama.  That feeling is great and I am not ready to give that up because I must confess that I am secretly jealous of MIL while I'm at work.
Papa is doing very well on the ship though he misses his girls very much but we are looking on the bright side - almost 3 months down and 3 months to go.  Baby and I sent him a recent care package with some home made jerk meats, chin-chin, chocolate chip cookies, candy bar and pictures of us.  He was so happy- that should keep him going for another 1 month. This deployment has been the most challenging for him since he feels like he is missing a lot with baby girl.  It has however been the least challenging for me because Baby keeps me busy.  He feels like each day is a new milestone with her; for him she is really developing fast so I can't complain to him about that.
Baby is almost 9 months old and that means her one year birthday is stirring me right in the face- what to do? what to do? It really went by fast and I plan to stretch the next few months as long as I possibly can. Oh wait ... I don't have the power to do that.

Planning Baby's Trip To Nigeria

Planning my trip to Nigeria was not the easiest thing ever especially since I was going to be traveling alone with an infant.  I bought my ticket first without thinking it through and then got so stressed out I thought my head was going to fall out of my neck.

I had to get her a US passport OMG!!! (In this process I learned the importance of having 2 birth certificates). Then we had to  drive 5 hours to Atlanta (Nigeria Consulate) to obtain her Nigerian passport (that alone is another blog title).  Both of these had to be done with papa present so we waited for papa to return from his short detachment with barely 3 weeks left and mummy in panic mode we got both passports just in time for the trip :) It also meant to me that God had blessed us to go on the trip.  Except no one else could see that so I had our priest bless us and we were ready for the trip.

First, medically she was as squared away as she could be, she was caught up with all of her immunizations but neither I nor her could have malaria prophylaxis.  She was too young and I am still lactating.  In order to reduce all water contamination I decided to only nurse her (Baby had started eating solids).  I also packed lots of hand sanitizers and everything I needed for Baby- clothes, diapers, wipes, wash cloths, first aid kit, holy water, blessed oil, you name it I packed it, my stethoscope, tylenol, teething gel ... I didn't even have enough room to pack my own things.  I packed all long sleeves for her to prevent mosquito bites.  I ended up not doing the long sleeve it was so hot my kid started developing heat rash; I got lucky she wasn't biting by any mosqitoes since we were on the topmost floor especially since we were indoors by night time.

Anyways after I was done packing, I ended up with 2 bags weighing 50 pounds each and one 20-pound-bag, a bag pack as a carry on and a hand bag.  By the way, I was not charged for extra luggage since it was an international flight.  Anyways, then I realized how crazy it was that I didn't pay for a sit for baby (what was I thinking? 12 hours of active baby on my lap? how was I going to eat, sleep, what if I wanted to use the bathroom?).  So I did the normal thing; i.e. to switch to panic mode and called the airline and they told me that the plane is not full and I just need to bring a FAA approved car seat.  I asked them if they had a list of car seats- of course not! so I went on google search and found nothing.  I came across this site hough http://www.flyingwithkids.com/ and then came across this Car seat n stroller combo

(I am not paid to advertise this) but anyways I bought it from amazon and it came just in time. A bit pricey but well worth it especially since it came from baby's electronic piggy bank (she will thank me later).

So here's what I did- I used it as a car seat to get to the airport; packed in a close by packing lot and carried baby girl in a baby carrier and dragged the first two bags (by the wheel of course) and checked in.  Then I begged the lady explaining my situation and telling her I had one more bag.  She felt sorry for me and told me she would wait since I was very early to check in.  So I got the last bag and so was down to carry-ons. I then strapped Mmeso back to the car seat and drove to the further-away-daily packing lot, turned the car seat into a stroller with baby in it, carried my bag pack and my hand bag and got on the shuttle that goes from the lot to the airport.  At this point I was really feeling like super mom- I was so excited that everything worked out.  I got to the airport and got through the security check point with my child in one piece.

Two of my siblings met with me in my connection flight and it was so nice especially when I had to run to the bathroom.  Delta was so good to me, they sectioned a window corner for me and baby girl.  However, when I was coming back the people in Nigeria refused to give me a sit for baby saying that I should carry her and use a bassinet.  I gave up arguing but as soon as I got on the flight baby started jumping all over the place and one of the flight attendants asked me what I was doing in the bassinet section when I explained what happened she told me that baby girl was too big for the bassinet and she will get me a sit since the flight was not full.  She ran out to grab the car seat and we had a safe return home.

It was a very stressful experience especially with little things like to bath baby girl without the water going into her mouth.  She hated bath time throughout our trip while it is something she looked forward to here in the states; she also wanted to eat everything and so I gave in the last 2 days and she came down with some diarrhea  but we were coming home and it didn't seem to bother her so I did my job by keeping her hydrated with lots and lots of breast milk.

It was well worth all the stress but we wished we didn't listen to people because I almost didn't go and my husband changed his mind at first about emotionally supporting the trip. But I switched from wife and mummy mode to doctor mode and gave him all the true facts and he was back on.  Those negative people got to hubby and they still have things to say telling me "I'm so lucky that nothing happened to her and if they had known they would have told me not to go, it is unsafe for the baby..."  It didn't matter that I was a doctor they really felt like they were given me the facts.  They were telling me all kinds of diseases she could have had some they couldn't even pronounce correctly lol

Why did I insist on taking her? I wanted her to meet her daddy's side, I wanted her to go home, I wanted to attend my sister's wedding and I couldn't leave my kid behind plus she was still nursing; I also wondered about those people who are overseas on mission with their children, or those who are born here and go back home. Or what about baby girls parents (us) who were born and raised in Nigeria or even the same people who were talking- some of them just left Nigeria.  I did think about her safety and sat with her doctor to make sure I was not missing anything (the only thing he reiterated was wear long sleeves as planned, limit exposure to her, and avoid water contamination if possible boil the bottled water).  But just like my husband and I think about our safety before going home, we thought about her safety except with her we had to be extra cautious but extra cautious does not mean you have to wait till they are teenagers.  It was definitely worth it all.

So Much Has Happened

Hubby left for deployment :(

This Picture Was Taken The Day He Left

He left in January and we've missed him so much.  He will be gone for 6 months and so since we knocked out our anniversary in December, I put something together us to celebrate all of our birthdays.

Our Attempt to get papa a cake picture- her face made me give up

Then my sister Chioma and I threw my sister a surprise bridal shower- which by the way was a lot of work to surprise her.  She loved it.

The Lady Makes Such yummy cakes

this was the winning toilet paper dress :)

very competitive and fun group- caught cheating lol

The shower was fun and my sisters spent the night, helped with the cleaning and disappeared while baby girl and I were at church.  Then I planned for Baby and I to go to Nigeria.  I debated it for so long and then hubby and I discussed it and purchased the ticket.  But after all the expenses and learning more I almost changed my mind.  It was very stressful and I packed for mostly her.  I am still lactating and hence couldn't take malaria prophylaxis and she couldn't either and so I packed long sleeves to avoid mosquitoes.  But when we got there it was so hot and sticky that I couldn't torture her.  Luckily my MIL lives on the top floor so they were easier to avoid.

Mmeso did so well on the plane ride, people hardly knew she was there, she was so happy like she knew she was going home to meet her family.
I didn't take her with me for my sister's traditional wedding.  There were too many people there and they would all want to hold her.

the sisters

the parents

Mr. & Mrs.

Mmeso met everyone in her papa's side and was so happy during the whole trip.

Mmeso dancing- she's good too lol

Grandpa blessing her and given her a proper welcome to the villa

The Cute Couple

Me & My in-laws

The Siblings

Siblings from both sides

We really had a short 10 day trip and then came home with M.I.L and I am now looking for full time employment and while I'm gone she helps watch Mmeso

Mmeso in the flight on her way back

We really thanked God almighty for journey mercies and such a joyous month for all of us.  Congrats to all the new bloggers who had a baby and who got married.  Hope your month has been awesome.

'Onye-Ala'

I hope you are all doing well.  Onye-ala in my language means one who is insane. No I am not calling any of you that and thankfully neither I or anyone in my family have gone insane.  Well not that we know of anyways.  In fact we are doing quite well and I will soon post an update.
Back to Onye-ala, this is one of the stage names my brother acquired from back in the day when our dance group "Nwanne na Nwanne" were still performing. Basically he danced like a mad person during his free style.
I'm devoting this blog post to this particular brother of mine because he has decided to embrace entertainment with a much warmer embrace.  I can't elaborate any further, you just have to watch his hilarious skits.  I have posted some for you and you can follow him at www.onye-ala.com
Please show your support by sharing your thoughts and liking him on youtube.

Day Buy Day Intro

Day Buy Day Episode 1

Day Buy Day Episode 2

Onye-Ala Battles Conphidance to D-Banj