Our Journey Together as One

I am still alive, still alive!!!! My little monster is officially 14 months old tomorrow! What a super duper bad temper girl I have! Hmmm….

Below are brief milestones that my little monster achieved so far:- (p/s: I am not comparing my kids with others. The purpose of writing down her milestones is merely for my record purposes. You know, memory getting shorter when you have a little monster with you!)

• Sits without support

• Had Roseola or “false measles”

• Had chicken pox after infected from her elder cousins. In fact, she was the last one infected in the house after all the kids.

• Started to crawl – military style

• First time waving goodbye to mummy when I was off to work. Oh my….i was really reluctant to go to work that day!!!

• Started to consume formula milk

• Pull herself to sitting position

• Crawls well, with belly off the ground

• Clapping hands!

• Sprout her first tooth

• Able to identify monkey from the playmat

• Shake head when she had enough of her food

• Show her tummy when we asked if she is “bao bao” (full)

• Loves to push and throw things around her if she is not happy

• Completely weaned from BM

• Weight at 8.7kg on her birthday

• Stands while holding onto something

• Had her first hair cut at Jusco on 1st Sept.

• Loves to wave goodbye and her grandpa just falling in love with her way of waving goodbye!

• Has bad temper tantrums which really testing mummy’s

• Stands alone for a couple of seconds

• Walks with support

• Able to adjust herself from bed / sofa to floor so she would not fall down

• Holds out arm to help us dress her. But she hates to wear diapers and pants!

• Learning new words. “hua” means flower and “yao” means want in Mandarin

• First visit to Jonker Walk on 15 Oct 2011

• First visit to Genting Highland on late Sept 2011

Yes. You heard me right. En Qi was down with Roseola, or what Chinese called, “False Measles”. It was happened on last Tuesday night. En Qi just hit 8 months old. Her temperature was suddenly going up more than 37.5 and immediately we gave her 1.5ml of paracetamol. In the middle of the night, her body suddenly was burning hot and the temperature was going up more than 38.5 and I gave her another time of 1.5ml of paracetamol. Her temperature was not going down in the morning, and immediately we brought her to her usual doctor. Doctor suspected her having Roseola as her fever did not going down even though she has taken paracetamol. (anyway, according to doctor, En Qi shall be given 2.5ml of paracetamol instead of 1.5ml as her weight increased. 1.5ml of paracetamol was prescribed to her when she was 3 months old).

Her fever was continued for about three days and I was so worried. She could not talk. The only thing she can do is crying. She could not sleep well either. No appetite, not taking any cereals or porridge. All she wants was mummy’s breastmilk. Once she recovered from fever, we noticed that there were red rashes appear on her body. The red rashes spread to her face and around her mouth.

It was a week already since she was down with fever last Tuesday. En Qi’s body still full of red rashes. Doctor said nothing to worry as long as the fever goes down. The red rashes will disappear few days later. I just hope that the red rashes do not bring any discomfort to her. Awww….how I miss my cheerful and bubbly En Qi.

A super delicious recipe from Avent!

Ingredient:

• Small bunch of fresh organic broccoli

• One white potato

Wash the both ingredients and cut them into small pieces. Throw everything to the Avent steamer blender. Add 200ml water and let it steam for 20 minutes. After steam, blend it for 2-3 times. Ready to serve when it is cooled.

Yummy puree! Mummy loves it. En Qi’s cousin loves it and of course En Qi loves it as well.

Ingredient:

• ¼ of organic pumpkin

First, clean and cut the pumpkin into small cubes. Throw everything into the Avent steamer blender. Add 150ml water and steam for 15 minutes. Discard any excess water due to steaming process and flip the blender to the blending position and start blend for 2 to 3 times for 5 seconds each. Ready to serve once it is cooled.

Gave En Qi one cube each day for 3-4 continuous days. No allergy noted but pumpkin caused constipation.

This recipe comes together with my great toy, Avent steamer blender.

Ingredients:

Clean and remove the skin. Cut them into small cubes and throw everything into the steamer blender. Add 200ml of water and let it steam for 20 minutes. Discard any excess water and blend 2-3 times. Ready to serve in 20 minutes!

Again, I filled 3 cubes, for 3 days. About 30ml each cubes. En Qi took one cube each day and she happily finished all. No allergy noted.

Sweet potato can be given to baby from 4-6 months old. Again, I bought organic sweet potato from Jusco. I love Jusco as there is a section for all the Organic foods, veggies, etc.

First of all, clean and cut the sweet potato into small cubes. Throw everything into steamer blender. Add 150ml water for steaming purpose. Steaming for 15minutes and discard any excess water. Flip the blender into blending position and blend for 2-3 times. Ready to serve in 20 minutes!

I filled the sweet potato to the baby cubes. Filled up 3 cubes and each cubes contained about 30ml of sweet potato puree. I have no chance to feed my girl with sweet potato as I was working. I prepared the puree after I was back from work and put into the freezer/fridge. My MIL would take out one cube each day for my little girl. According to my MIL, En Qi loves it! Sometimes she laughed when she had it. No allergy noted.

En Qi has been heavily relies on cradle to sleep since she was 1.5 months old. Be it morning nap, afternoon nap or even at night. But it is really disaster for us when we go for travelling or anywhere else as En Qi just could not sleep without cradle and kept on fussing and crying.

I read a book recently, Asian Parenting Today. It is a very good book for first time parent like me. The book tells u almost everything from baby’s first day until 1 year old. One part that interests me is how to put a baby to sleep at her own. En Qi usually sleeps in the cradle during daytime. For bedtime, we will normally put her back to her own bed once she slept in the cradle. So, yesterday me and hubby tried to put En Qi to sleep by her own. How???

1. Make sure she is well feed during daytime and before sleep.

2. Off the light, a little bit of dim is alright.

3. Leave her alone. En Qi was playing by herself in her cot. We were secretly watching at a corner.

4. She was playing for about 15 minutes without making a fuss. I saw she rubbing her eyes few times (indicating that she is sleepy) and her pacifier dropped few times and I gave it back to her. When she rubbed her eyes for 4th or 5th times, I gently pat her to sleep. Very soon, she fell to sleep!!!

I am so happy I did it. And I am more happy that En Qi is actually able to sleep in the cot rather than in the cradle. Although it was only first night, but I am going to do the same everyday. I am alright to let her sleep in cradle in the afternoon but night time, I would prefer her to sleep in the cot.

Hubby was excited to make apple puree for En Qi. I wanted to make sweet potato instead of apple. But well, hubby just bought one huge packet of Washington red apples from Jusco. He cleaned and cut the apple to pieces, while I get ready the blender. Throw everything to the blender and let it steam for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, flip it and blend two to three times for about five seconds. Ready to serve once it is cooled.

Well, new taste for En Qi again. The apple puree seems “sour” to her (from what I see from her face expression). No no no…it was definitely sweet, not sour! She closed both eyes, closed one eye (super cute!!!) when I fed her little by little. Anyway, she able to finish about 1.5oz of the apple puree. The remaining? Goes to daddy’s and her cousin’s tummy!!!

Carrots are one of the baby’s first food as they are easy to digest and are packed full of nutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Calcium

Organic carrot (yes, I am trying to get organic food as long as I can)

Clean, remove the skins and cut into small chunks. My MIL told me organic carrot may not need to remove the skin. Add about 200ml water to the steamer blender and throw everything into it. Ready to serve in 20 minutes! It is simple as it is!

I normally will prepare more as En Qi’s cousins will normally come and “kacau” and asked for the food as well. Surprisingly, En Qi loves the carrot puree!!! She did not tingled as how she was when we offered her new food. She happily finished all. While her cousins who always asked for En Qi’s food rejected the carrot puree after one spoon. However, the carrot’s stain is quite stubborn. It stained corner of En Qi’s mouth. :=p

Next morning, En Qi poo! And as much as I expected, the color of the poo is a little bit orange-ish.

Two weeks after having cereal, I decided to introduce banana to En Qi. Why I started with banana? Because banana is one of the first few fruits that can introduce to baby and I only have banana at that time. Beside, it is easy to prepare. What I need are:

• 1 ripe banana

• Philips Avent: Combined Steamer and Blender (a great toy from my bunch of good friends, thank you so  much!!)

 

• Peel the banana and cut it into small dices (about or less than 1cm each dice)

• Throw the banana to the blender and blend.

What was En Qi’s reaction tasting the banana? Exactly same like when she had her cereal for first time. Her whole body was tingled. But this round, her body was tingled more! LOL. I made another banana puree at the 3rd weekend and I guessed she does not like banana? She tingled when she had her first and second time attempt on banana puree. This morning, I made banana puree as her breaskfast. Yeah, she no more tingled, guess she already able to adapt the new taste. 

Know what, En Qi poo two times in a day after having her banana during her tea time. (her second attempt having banana) I could hear she was farting while having her banana.

Next week, I am going to start carrot puree for En Qi. Yay!!!

Yeah, I got new toy.

After much consideration and research, I finally got myself Medela Pump In Style (PIS) Advanced Backpack (electric double breast pump). My dream electric double breast pump is actually Medela Freestyle (FS), but well, I settled with Medela PIS instead due to the following reasons:

1. Price : RM1,750 vs RM1,500 – Okay, RM250 more is quite substantial to me. The money able to support my little girl’s one time pneumococcal vaccine injection.

2. Bag : Tote bag vs Backpack – oh yeah, I could carry my backpack and handbag easily now, rather than one tote and one handbag.

3. Bigger power of the motor - Thus, the suction is stronger.

I love my Medela PIS so much. It is really saves me lots of time. I can finish my pumping session within 10mins compared to 20-25mins for Avent single electric breast pump. You may be think that 10mins vs 20-25mins, is not much different. Just bear with it. But for a working mum like me, who going to pump in office for one or two times, the 10 to 15 minutes difference is really a matter!!! Sometimes, it only takes me 5 mins. Besides, my dear able to sleep soundly when I pump in the middle of the night (it is definitely quieter than Avent).

With this Medela PIS, I am more confident and encourage to breastfeed my little girl beyond one year old. I was so frustrated and down when my milk supply going down when I used Spectra 3 electric breast pump (borrowed). After all, only I realized that the milk stimulation function (2-phase expression for Medela) is really works.

I love my Medela PIS. I enjoy my breastfeeding journey. It is a wonderful experience.



En Qi is now:

• Weighs 7.1kg
• 66.5cm long

• Actively rolling over and able to roll left and right now

• Is still learning how to sit unsupported

• Screaming loudly to indicate her objections

• More and more playful nowadays. She can laugh so loud while playing with her cousin.

• Sometimes she does not like to be left alone in her spring cot. She would cry to get our attention. Once we carry her out from spring cot, she smiled happily!!

• Stranger anxiety. Very picky on people around her. She would cry if strangers trying to play with her. Only few people able to carry her, mummy, daddy, grandma, auntie (our Vietnamese maid) and uncle.

Last two days, I was having long chat with my cousin through MSN. Her son, Ian aged 4 years old able to recognize a lot Chinese characters. I asked her how she trained his son, etc. I asked her the proper way to use flash card. Everytime I am trying to show flash card to En Qi, she would look other place in few seconds. She told me that the correct way is to flip the cards as fast as we can. I tried the method when I went back home after work. At first, En Qi seems very interested. She looked at the flash cards until I finished one round. But once her daddy stood beside looking how mummy flash the cards, her attention distracted and kept looking at her daddy. Daddy then laughed at me for failing to attract En Qi’s interest. Surprisingly, En Qi also laughed (WITH SOUND) happily when she saw daddy laughed!!! Ahh… She melted my heart instantly. I could not forget the moment she laughed until today. My happiest moment. :)

- about 67cm tall now.

- able to roll over. Yeah, she made it!!!

- reaches out of object.

- amuses herself by playing with her fingers and feet.

- able to grasp her toys.

En Qi is growing each day. We are learning about her sleeping pattern, sleeping time, drinking time, playing time, her favourite stuff, etc. We are more confident in handling this little naughty baby.

Another month, En Qi will be 6 months old. I just can't wait!!! TIME FLIES!!! I cannot believe I can stay strong until so far. Being fully breastfeeding while working and taking care of her everyday after work are really really not easy. Many times, I thought of giving up. I am so grateful that Dear is there supporting and helping me all these while. He is the one feeding En Qi in the middle of the night, not me. Awww...I am so fortunate for having an understanding hubby. :=)