It’s been a couple of weeks now since my daughter has been born. A couple of wonderful weeks that I’ve had to get to know her a little better. Here are a few things about her so far.
1) Her name is Penelope Rose Tiah
Months before she was born Shorty had been going through baby names for girls. She must have went through some 100 of them before she finally got frustrated that I wouldn’t commit to a name. Finally she said the name “Penelope”. A name that I thought was really cute. But I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to commit to that name.
As the months drew closer the name Penelope began to grow on me and before long I knew that was what I was going to name her.
Her middle name Rose was decided just on the morning of me going to do her birth certificate. Initially we were thinking of called her Penelope Sloane Tiah but we thought Sloane might’ve been a little too pretentious. So Shorty suggested Rose and we thought “Penny Rose” sounded really cute.
So Penelope Rose Tiah was the name we settled on.
2) She seems to like to open only one eye at a time.
This was something that scared us for a while. That she would open only one eye. At first we were worried that she might have had a lazy eye or something but as time went by we noticed that she would open one eye sometimes and then the other eye on other times. And finally we have seen her on rare occasions when she opened both eyes at the same time.
3) She sleeps no matter what
Compared to Fighter, Penny sleeps all the way no matter how noisy her environment is. When I say noisy I mean it can be really really noisy especially with Fighter occasionally wailing or crying in the house because he wants to play with something that we won’t give. She also tends to sleep most of the day. Only waking up at night.
4) When she’s awake she fusses a lot…
Sometimes Shorty gets really frustrated because Penny cries and she can’t figure out why. Then when Shorty passes her to the confinement lady, Penny will calm down. That made us think that perhaps the confinement lady has some special super power that we don’t know about.
5) She loves being carried
She loves it. If she’s fussing around, the easiest way to solve that problem and satisfy her is to carry her. Just carry her, hold her tight in your arms and she will quiet down. Talking to her sometimes helps too. She probably can’t understand me yet but perhaps the sound of my voice helps calm her down a little.
6) She can drink for an hour…
Shorty is breastfeeding Penny. With Fighter it was quick. Just 10-20 minutes and that’s it. He’s done. Penny on the other hand can go on for an hour. So long that I’ve seen Shorty in the middle of the night sleeping while sitting up straight and holding Penny. Maybe that’s a sight many mothers might be familiar with.
7) I think she’s gonna be really tall
When Fighter was born, his hands were really short and a little fat. His legs too. Penny on the other hand has really long fingers even as a newborn. I suspect she’s gonna be really tall. Shorty and I sometimes wonder what the brother and sister dynamic would be like if she ends up being taller than Fighter. I think we have gotta teach Fighter how to play basketball or swim a lot.
So that’s 7 quick things I’ve learned about my daughter so far. I can’t wait to get to know her better.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space