Talk is Not Cheap But Invaluable!

Baby now can 'speak' more 'words'. Besides anggu and coo, he now speaks "A", "boo", "poo" and makes other sounds. He talks to all things - living and non-living - that attract his attention. He talks to my mum's wardrobe, the origami fish and pineapples hanging from the ceiling lights, the ceiling fans, pictures, and of course daddy, mummy and all the adults who shower him with love daily. And he plays with his saliva too. He can get quite slobbery at times. Boo!

Therefore, to me, the notion "talk is cheap" no longer holds true. It's a joy to see baby learn to talk.

Rhythm is the Answer

Tapped my fingers on bb's rashule while he's sitting in it and bobbed my head left and right according to the rhythm. Guess what? He tried to bob his head left and right as well, albeit only very slightly.

Feeding Amount -- 150ml

Ha... Junior is in his 10th week and I've since increased his fm feed to 150ml. Still supplementing with bm. And I'm still deliberating whether to continue feeding him bm when I go back to work come January. Let's see if there are any signs of the supply increasing.

Pop-up Button

I've heard people say that babies with an outie belly button may have cried too much. Junior has it but I don't really think he cried a lot. Pd said his tummy muscles may not be that developed yet thus can't hold his belly button in. Again, this condition would go away as he grows older. Hope so.

Eczema

Baby started to have some blotches on his face a couple of weeks back. Off-colour patches surrounded by redness. Checked with paediatrician that he could have eczema but that they will go off when he's older. This is more common in babies with a family history of eczema. Berry has eczema on his fingers. Hmm... But the condition seems to be getting better with the cream given by the pd.

Baby's Tears

Read before that once baby's tears start to drain well, we can stop cleaning his eyes using cooled boiled water and cotton wool. I thought I saw baby's tears when he yawned today. Is that a sign of his tears starting to drain well? Hmm...

Mouldy Neck?

Noticed white spots on junior's neck. Wondering if it's the same as a friend's daughter who had a mouldy neck when she was young. I'm doing my best to keep junior's neck dry and clean. Yet another condition to ask the paediatrician.

[Doc said it's heat rash. They will go away in time to come. Well, I think they will only go away when junior's neck is no longer in folds.]

Look Here!

Baby started to follow objects since he was about 3 weeks old. Sometime back, he began to notice my hair dangling over him while I was feeding and he even tried to touch my hair with his mitten-covered hand. And when my head moved left and right, his gaze followed where my hair was.

I notice he tends to prefer to look to his right. Not that he doesn't turn his head left and right to look at things but it's indeed a little worrying to see his head turned to the right most of the times. If there are 2 persons on his either side, he'll look at the person on his right.

I read about this condition called congenital muscle torticolis where a child's neck cannot turn both ways and only on one side. Hope junior doesn't have that. Shall ask the paediatrician when we next see him.

[PD said perhaps when he was in the uterus, he constantly turned to the right. Just have to turn his head back whenever he turns to the right excessively. I'm not quite convinced. I tried turning his head to the left before but to no avail. We bought a dimpled pillow for junior which seems to be helping him turn to the left, somehow. So we shall observe further.]

Green Poo

Junior had green poo for almost a week. My mil said he must have been frightened by something. Much as it's a common belief, it remains as just a belief for me. I read from a website that this could be due to 3 possibilities - overfeeding, underfeeding or not enough fat intake (ie, not getting enough hindmilk for breastfed babies). Mine could well be the 1st. I've been combining bm and fm for almost every feed, in a bid to keep the bm supply flowing, no matter how low it is.

Decided to accumulate all the ebm for 1 feed and give fm for the rest of the feeds to better manage the amount fed each time. Seems to be working.

Nevertheless, shall ask the paediatrician for advice. See what he says.

[PD said sometimes, formula-fed babies tend to have green poo. What's the logic?? I'd think it's coz formula-fed babies are usually overfed and thus explains the green poo. According to a famous lactation consultant at TMC (from her book on childcare), formula-fed babies tend to experience overfeeding.]

Baby at Week 8

Compare this with the foto at week 6. Junior has grown. In this foto, he was singing to Hillsong.

Week 8 Growth Spurt???

Baby at week 6

This week, baby seems hungry constantly. He's asking for a feed every 3-3.5hrs, compared to 4-hourly feeds. Wondering if the 130ml fm at each feed is getting insufficient for him. Sometimes, I supplement with bm. (Ha. Yes, now bm has become the supplement while fm the staple. Still working fruitlessly on increasing the bm ss.) To increase fm to 170ml per feed seems ridiculous. He's only taking about 140-150ml of fm at any one time. Wastage. So I'm settling for 130ml every 3-hourly.

What I read is growth spurts occur in week 3, 6 and 3 months. So a little surprised to see a growth spurt symptom in week 8.