Our close family friend who also lived in the same apartment building gave birth a couple of weeks ago. The couple had been anticipating the birth of baby #2 after trying for years as their elder son is the same age as Pristine (7 this year).

We had no other time to go the hospital except after my work so I hoped the baby was still available for visitation and some holding. In Japan, hospital visitations close at 7pm. We were lucky because in Dubai, it’s until 10 pm.

Lordy, look at that baby! I can’t recall Pristine being so small 6 years ago. And the smell! That very nice baby smell you just want to bottle up and take home with you, sniff whenever you have that baby smell craving? Heh, that’s just me.

Pristine and her friend (the baby’s older brother) can’t get enough of the baby! They took turns holding the milk bottle – makes you think how awesome it would be if they would be taking turns taking care of the little blob when it cries in the middle of the night!

Baby Riley was born 4 weeks early and was so small, weighing at only 2,300 grams. Pristine came out at exactly 40 weeks, 0 days at 3,562 grams – so much bigger than this baby. See I can practically interlace my arms around him!

The baby wasn’t totally amused with me holding him and practically squirming away. He was hungry again  (we stayed that long in the hospital although we know we would be seeing the baby anytime since we’re neighbors. Duh). Feeding time!

Of course Pristine asked things when she was a baby (she loves these sort of questions about her past). I told her she was breastfed completely and exclusively and did not have any infant formula milk at all. That she hated rubber nipples like pacifiers and those attached to the bottle. I had sore nipples during the first few weeks of breastfeeding. It was painful, raw and bleeding. I regretted having told her this because it made her sober. Then in a typical Pristine kind of way, she hugged me, held my breasts and said: “Sorry, boobs.”