Last night Shorty and I were talking about just a few months ago when Fighter was born.
He was the tiniest baby I had ever seen in my life. He had a tiny head, tiny body, tiny arms and legs and almost every part of his body had some tubes going into him. He was too small and skinny to maintain his own body temperature so he had to be kept in an incubator where we could regulate his body temperature for him. To help him breathe, he had a mask and with every breathe he took you could almost see his rib cage pushing out from his delicate skin on his chest.
Somehow in spite of all these things, there was life in him and rather than feeling sad to see him in that condition, Shorty and I felt thankful. Thankful that he was alive.
Next week would make it 3 months since he’s been born (or 1 month old in adjusted age… since he was born 2 months premature). Having him around the house has been a joy. Fighter cries every morning at 9AM because that’s when Shorty gets up to shower him. Till today, Fighter hates bath time.
The only thing Fighter hates more than bath time is changing diaper. It’s funny because he gets grumpy when his diaper is dirty but when we try to change it, he kicks around and cries like it was the worst thing in the world…. and this happens EVERY time.
He then stays up till I go to work and I don’t see him till the end of the day. By the time I get home though, somehow he’s awake again. My Dad tells me that he somehow automatically wakes up just before I come home. I don’t know how much of that is true but I’m just glad he does.
You can already start to see a bit of his personality. He has mood swings. Sometimes he’s really happy and sometimes he’s really grumpy. The latter is mostly when we wake him up or he doesn’t have enough sleep.
He has learned to both feed from the breast or bottle and can switch between the two quite easily.
He has a short temper. When he’s tasked to do something challenging to him at the time like learning to breast feed or even lifting his head up when we put him on his tummy, he groans and grunts in anger. But one thing certain he’s a Fighter. He doesn’t give up… he keeps trying over and over again until he gets it right.
Fighter is very very friendly and has a habit of looking at people. When he’s on his own he starts kicking around as if he was doing his own workout routine like in this video.
But when you carry him or when you look at him he starts staring you in the eye and never breaks eye contact. He has this pair of really beautiful eyes that we can’t seem to catch on camera. The best I can do is describe it. It’s a little twinkly or sparkly and he looks at you with these huge pupils. The first time he looks you in the eyes, your heart melts.
Fighter loves music. Whenever he cries, just singing to him will calm him down. He’ll stop crying and look at you intently as you carry on with your performance, like he’s your biggest fan. We sing everything from Nursery rhymes to Hey Jude or any Beatles songs.
He has this habit of touching his cheek with his tiny hands. He actually occasionally plays around with his hands that he accidentally hits his face with it. Then a short moment of silence passes before he lets out a wail.
Every day I look forward to spending time with him. He’s this really cute, grumpy and friendly boy that’s mine. He’s my son… and he’s my Fighter. To think that it was just a few months ago that I wrote this Letter To My Future Son... and now he’s here.
My blog and Instagram (@timothytiah) is going to constantly track Fighter’s development now because Fighter is now an important part of my life. For those of you who follow… I’m happy to have you guys along for the journey 🙂
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space