Little China Doll

Just because I am procrastinating and not wanting to finish my study, I fiddled with a couple of Kaitlyn's photos... She's so cute in this little Chinese outfit. I also realised I have over 400 photos to sort and organise to upload to somewhere one of these days, or get them printed. So much to do, and no time at all. (for some reason it's a bit pixelated, just click on the picture to get a smoother look.)

I want to do it myself!

Changing Kaitlyn is becoming increasingly difficult as she now rolls around, reaches over her head to hand us the baby wipes (after playing with the packet for ages first LOL), and reaches over the sides of the change table to get the butt paste (for nappy rash).

Due to the warm weather, we sometimes only put a nappy and a top on Kaitlyn during the day. She has learned to undo the tabs of her nappies and been trying to pull her nappies off whenever she has a chance. It's almost like she doesn't like wearing nappies anymore. But hey, I wouldn't blame her, I can't imagine being in nappies all day is all that comfortable. She does have pretty predictable times for pees/poops, so maybe we should start potty training soon.

She's also started to hit and grab for the spoon whenever she's being fed solids. She will give us a big giggle if we let her hold the spoon and put the food into her mouth. She also grabs for the bowl. She's such an independent child. Although, I am not sure I am ready to deal with the mess of her feeding herself yet. So we are going to start soft baked vegies as finger food and let her play with those first. She can use the spoon in a couple of months.

On the teething front, she started drooling buckets again the last 2 days and I could feel a hard spot in her bottom gums. Part of me hopes teeth are coming soon, so we can give her more finger food. Part of me wants the teeth to stay away as I would really hate being bitten and don't look forward to any sleep disruption due to teething. I guess it's ok, either way.

She mimics us when we talk or chew, so she's constantly moving her mouth. It's adorable, she looks like one of those really old toothless ladies that babbles all day long.

It's easy to tell her moods now, and she's letting us know what she does or does NOT want. She will do a "happy clap or thump" when she's excited and happy, where she gives you a big smile, taps her hands or feet on whatever surface she's on, and huffs and puffs. When she's unhappy, she wrinkles her nose (sort of like Samantha in Bewitched) and huffs and puffs, sometimes screams a little. She reaches out to us for hugs, and will hug us around the neck very tight when she wants to be affectionate. When she had enough cuddles, she will lean backwards and point at wherever she wants to be, floor or chair, or her Kandee Car.

I just love watching her personality unfold.

Self-weaning or Nursing Strike?

I have a baby question.

Kaitlyn has been less and less interested in her bottles lately. If I am home, she will nurse off the boobs for about 10 minutes, then drinks 30 to 120mls (mostly closer to the 30mls) of bottle. But most of thetime, it seems that she just wants to push the bottle away It makes me feel like I was force feeding her, and she's getting upset at the sight of the bottle. When I am not home, she still wouldn't take more than 50mls each feed, that means she only gets150mls from 6am to 7pm!!! According to all the baby books and stuff, she should be eating 210mls for EACH MEAL. I try to squeeze in an early morning boob feed and try to get her to eat for as long as possible (she's normally half asleep and can be "made" to keep sucking) and I feed her before she goes to bed. I doubt I have much milk by the end of the day though.

Anyways, She loves her solids and will eat 80mls to 100mls of solids 3 times a day (morning and lunch, 2 cubesof avocado, 1 cube of fruit, some fomula to thin it a bit and 2 scoops of rice cereal. at dinner, mum makes rice and chicken congee for her and she will eat 100 to 150mls of it).

She put on 300gms inthe week after we came back from Tresillian (but that's after she'slost 300gms while we were there), and she has not put on ANYTHING now for 3 whole weeks! She's falling off the growth chart... down to 10% now... my poor baby.

She doesn't seem hungry or upset or sick at all and is producing plenty of wet and dirty nappies. I am just worried that she's not eating enough milk...

Is she self-weaning already? or she is on a nursing strike? I am not sure how to get her to put on some more weight... /sighs.

Any ideas?

First Blood

Kaitlyn got into a small accidently yesterday and hurt one of her fingers. We put her in her pram, and I didn't realise her hand was on the side when I moved the handle over to the front, it ran over her hand, and peeled quite a bit of skin off one of her fingers and drew some blood. My dad totally freaked out. She was quite a brave girl, only cried for a minute or so. She didn't even cry when she had a bath last night. /sighs I guess kids get hurt all the time... I need to be more careful though.

Kaitlyn drives better than mummy ;)

Kaitlyn's doing great with her walker, she "walks" all over the house in her little "Kandee Kar" ;) She even does a very beautiful 3-point-turn. By the looks of it, she will be a much better driver than me :D

She's still learning to crawl properly. She now sticks her bottom in the air, but everything she tries to move forward, she ends up going backwards and she gets frustrated. She's sooo very cute though.

To eat or Not to eat, that is the question...

Ok, this is a vent.

Articles and websites like the following are starting to get on my nerves:

• The numerous news stories on the "poison milk scandal"
• http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/nuts-allergy-advice-feeding-the-crisis/2008/09/25/1222217431065.html
• http://cleanerplateclub.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/sweet-surprise-the-corn-industry-apparently-doesnt-know-whats-wrong-with-high-fructose-corn-syrup-but-i-do/
• http://www.sweetsurprise.com/
• etc. etc. etc.
• such as the eat fish/don't eat too much fish debate...

Start solids early? Start them late? Start on very few choices or just start them on the lot? Toilet training too early will harm their self-esteem?? As my dad was saying, in the "good old days" who ever heard of the concept of food allergies? He certainly didn't know of anyone that had them? Why the heck is it that these days there are so many cases of fatal allegies in people when we are being more "awared" and "careful"?

In our generation and generations before us, we all grew up, more or less healthy to a point of being a functional member of society.

I grew up with:

• powdered formula milk,
  
• cots with led-laced paint,
  
• sleeping with pillows and on our tummies while being covered in a mountain of covers in winter
• 2nd hand smoke
• drinking alcohol at a tender age of under 10 (granted it was like 1% alcohol)
• Drinking water when I was 2 months old
• having rice cereal in my bottle at 2 weeks old
• eating eggs and all sort of meat and vegies by 6 months old
• learned to walk in non-AUS-standard complying wooden walkers
• was potty trained by a year old
  
• I ate pretty much everything that was put in front of me
• I definitely drank heaps of fruit juice...

Everyday, there are new research/findings on what we should or should not eat, how everything around us will eventually kill us (although just being born, will eventually kill us anyhow), or how much evironmental footprint each of us is leaving on this planet just by existing. So, what to eat, and what to feed our children? Is it because that people have lost the ability to use their common sense and started to feed their babies on a diet of nothing but potato chips (read that story in MX a couple of months ago)? Or was it because companies have lost all sense of morality and started adding not only cheap substitutes but poison (See the poison milk powders in China) to the foods and other products they make?

I want to believe that most of us is capable of using our brains, afterall, it took millions of years to get our brains the size that they are today. I want to believe that companies don't JUST want to make money, that some maybe still have a thread of humanity left (afterall, they are run by humans, aren't they?), and try to do the right thing. But the world is so so F***ED UP right now, that everyday, news stories are making me doubt it all...

Well, I will continue to feed my baby fruit juice, I will continue to supplement her with formula (just not the "made in China" variety), I will continue to make sure she has a balance diet (even including sugar, potato chips, fish, nuts etc. etc.) I will however make sure I make most of her food, and as she gets older, to keep her away from processed food and fast foods as much as possible. Personally, I don't believe any particular food is evil, be it sugar, corn syrup, salt etc. I do however believe eating everything in moderation.

I solemly swear from now on to filter out media hypes about what to eat and what not to eat. I shall live my life with moderation in diet, exercise and hard work. I shall teach my children to do the same.

I do sincerely wish though that companies and the people who run them can find it in themselves to do the right thing and not poison our children...

Playing with another baby

Yesterday, my mum's friend's son brough his wife and 5 month old baby girl over for a visit. The baby was quite cute, and very chubby. She is 2 months younger than Kaitlyn but more than a kg heavier. Putting the 2 kids side by side, Kaitlyn looked so skinny. /sighs Not sure what I could do about it, as Kaitlyn just doesn't want to eat very much each meal. According to the formula can label, by her age, she should be eating 210mls each meal for 4 times a day. Kaitlyn eats about 100mls (max) a meal, for 5 times a day. Granted, she loves her solids, and will eat 60 to 100mls of rice cereal mixed with formula for 3 times a day. She's on the growth chart at 30 percentile, while being 80 percentile for height and 50 percentile for head circumference. I don't know, maybe she's just not a chubby type of baby.

Anyways, the 2 babies took a while to get used to each other, and they were so curious about each other. Kaitlyn kept wanting to grab the other baby and I had to make sure she was only grabbing the feet. Then, she tried to take off the other kid's socks LOL. I think just because Kaitlyn doesn't like to wear anything on her feet, she assumed other kids don't like it either? I gave the little baby some of Kaitlyn's toys to play with, but everytime I put a toy down, Kaitlyn will subtly move it towards herself... and soon, Kaitlyn had a pile of toys around her... Mmmm... looks like she has not learned to share yet.

I really need to learn to drive. So I can take Kaitlyn to play groups or baby gymbaroo. She loves playing with other kids. I will post some pics of this "play date" later, whenever I get them uploaded to the computer.