Misha: 19 weeks

Family trip
   We went up to Penang for 4 nights. It was quite a hectic trip but Misha managed quite well. She took a lot of short naps in the car and car seat. She also didn't get to sleep so well at night since we usually got home late but somehow she still would wake up around 7-8 am. Christmas eve dinner was at home (the only time we stayed in) and she fell asleep before 8pm! She got a good night's sleep then and we got to enjoy our turkey dinner :)

Eating
   I didn't pack the bottle and pump so we didn't bottle feed for 5 nights. Luckily when we got back she was willing to drink from the bottle (MAM...have yet to try the Avent ones).
   She is still easily distracted so it was a challenge making sure she was feeding enough. At home I will usually bring her upstairs to feed (since Meera is around its quite distracting). I hope this is just a phase and she will learn to eat with distractions around (I can dream...)
   I have also come to notice that she prefers eating from the right side. Whenever she is particularly fussy (too hungry or overtired) she refuses to nurse from the left side! I also realise that whenever I pump I get more milk from the right than the left.
   After our trip to Penang there were 2 days that she fed A LOT (sometimes from both sides!) Growth spurt? or maybe just catching up from Penang.

Sleeping
   Still taking short naps. But will usually take one long nap a day (1-2 hours long). She still doesn't sleep thru the night (my definition is night feed to morning feed) consistently. I am also not really working on this since I figure once Meera starts school, waketime will be earlier so I will figure it out then. Right now she will have her last feed at about 8.30pm then the next feed is around 5 or 6 am. But every once in a while it's earlier. So it's not out of habit but hunger. I guess I have higher expectations since Meera slept 12 hours straight by this age. But comparatively she is actually quite good already.


Milestones
   She has started to talk a lot. Constantly jabbering. At night when we put her down to sleep she will be yacking away so loudly we can even hear her downstairs! And if you talk to her she tries to talk back. So cute!
   She started noticing her hands and is constantly staring at them and moving her fingers. It's quite amusing to watch.
   She is starting to try and grab things. We have this toy which we fix on her stroller and we notice she will try to reach for the ball...not always and it has to be near enough to her for her to even attempt it.

   

 Personality
   I think she is starting to recognise people and have preferences. She always has really big smiles for Meera and will be looking at her if she's around. And whenever she is very tired or fussy I have to be the one to carry her to calm her down. Noticed this a few times before but it's starting to get really obvious now. Not sure if maybe the trip had anything to do with it though (could see she was quite tired and not getting enough rest most of the time). But generally she is quite easy to calm down.

Misha: 18 weeks (4 months)

4 month well visit
   Not sure if I've mentioned this before but we have been doing all of her vaccinations (the compulsory ones) with the Klinik Kesihatan at Putrajaya. It's free and surprisingly very fast. I remember having to wait a few hours every time we took Meera to the Pediatrician at Columbia Asia. But here I'm usually done in 1 hour! Plus it's so near the house. And did I mention it's FREE!
   So this month I took her in just to get her weighed. 5.74kg. No injection this round.

Eating
   Still feeding with the MAM bottle.Looks like Avent is out the window.

Sleeping
   We have begun the bedtime ritual of reading a story book. Right now, Jing will give her a bottle and then read to here. I decided on this book... short and simple. We use to read 'Goodnight Moon' to Meera but I think it's a rather long book for a baby. :)
   Her nights are starting to extend. After dropping the dream-feed last week, I was expecting her to wake up in the middle of the night but seems like she can manage 11 hours without feeding! In fact, I think the dream-feed was actually interfering with her sleep cycle. I notice when I do give her a dream-feed she actually wakes up earlier in the morning!
   I am still putting her down for naps by patting her thigh and shushing. She gets quite worked up when I try to turn her to pat her bum so I don't do that now. She is still taking very shorts naps. Most times its 30 minutes. Once in a while she'll take a 1 hour plus nap (2 times this week). So this means she takes like 4-5 naps in a day.


Disruptions
   The day after she turned 4 months, was a really off day. Naps were 30 minutes at most. She cried after each nap and she was so fussy! I read about Wonder weeks and week 19 is supposed to be of of the worst ones so I 'm chalking it up to that. I watched her through the camera and I could see her really struggling to sleep. She kept startling and moving restlessly. I wondered if maybe I should have continued to swaddle...
   Thankfully by night time she was okay and slept as usual. She did cry out about 1 hour after sleeping but managed to put herself back to sleep. The following day she seemed okay. Even took 1.5 hour nap in the morning!

Developments
   She is starting to hold on to things when its near her. She doesn't reach out for them yet though. She can also hold her head up really well now. And during tummy time she will hold her head up for a really long time. She can roll to her side but not a complete roll over yet.
   I've started playing the 'Baby Can Read' DVDs for her. And I've finally put up the mobile. She is quite fascinated with it.

Misha: 17 weeks

Eating
   Lately Misha has been feeding a lot more. Not sure if its a growth spurt since its been quite a few days. She is also getting more difficult to feed. Most times she does not feed well after she wakes up so I have to give her a top up feed before she goes to sleep. I'm worried this is going to become a sleep prop but I'm trying to make sure she is still awake after feeding by burping her.
   Early part of the week she was still refusing the bottle. Jing tries for a bit but once she starts fussing and crying we stop. Its a lot less time consuming and I don't get stressed out.
   Jing notice that she will suck a bit but then seems unhappy. So we decided to try the MAM bottle again. The first night she took 70 ml from it. And since then she seems ok with drinking from a bottle. One night we tried the Avent bottle again but she refused...so I guess she has a preference. We may try the Avent one again (I've already bought so many bottles!) at some point but for now will be sticking to MAM. I can see the teat is very different (softer and texturised) so maybe that's why she prefers it. She doesn't drink much though...only once did she finish the 150ml.
   This week I stopped with the dreamfeed. I did not find that it was helping her to sleep longer at night so I decided to stop.  And so far she has been doing quite well. I don't notice her getting up any earlier so I will continue with this. She still wakes in the early morning (around 5 am) for a feed.

New sleeping position

 Sleeping
   She is also having trouble going to sleep on her own. Most naps I have had to rock her till she sleeps off before I can put her down. I'm trying a new technique which is laying her on her side and patting her bum while making sh sounds. (It has worked for 2 naps - Tuesday). She will start of wailing but I just persist and she will slowly quieten down. I cannot keep carrying her and rocking as she is starting to get quite heavy. By the end of the week...this new technique has been working well. I put her down and just start shushing and patting. I have to shush quite loudly and usually I just pat her thigh (she didn't really like it when I rolled her to her side. She has been falling asleep quite fast like this but I'm hoping she will learn to sleep herself. 

Vaccination
   Took her for her last Rotavirus vaccine.

Schedule
   I still don't have a schedule down. With Meera off from school morning wake-time is not consistent so I guess it throws the whole day off. But typically she gets up around 7.30 am. Can stay awake for 1.5 to 2 hours before needing a nap. Takes about 4-5 naps a day and has 7 feedings a day (1 of which is a bottle feed). Bedtime is usually around 9 pm.

Milestones
   Her neck is quite steady now. She can keep her head upright whenever I carry her. She's also very fascinated with her fingers (She'll be staring at them for a really long time). I also notice she can reach and hold her legs. 

Misha: 16 weeks

Eating
   I left Misha with Jing for almost half a day (from 7 am- 4 pm). He tried giving her the bottle but she still refused. Finally he resorted to feeding her with a cup. She drank but it wasn't easy. When I got home she was nursing a lot (to make up for whatever feeds she missed). We have decided to still try with the bottle but not force it. If she takes it well and good but if she doesn't I'll just nurse her. At least we don't have to go through a nightly ordeal anymore (we spend a good hour trying to get her to take the bottle and it usually ends in tears). Not to mention how it stresses me out which makes pumping quite hard ( I realise that I need to be relaxed and calm to get a proper let-down). So moving forward, we will offer the bottle but if she refuses (after 10 minutes or so) I'll just feed her.
   She is still easily distracted during feeding times. Especially now that Meera is around (school holidays), I need to find somewhere quiet to feed her.

Growth Spurt
   I think she had a growth spurt during the middle of this week. For 2 days I noticed that she fed a lot more. Not only more frequently but she also nursed from both sides for a few feeds (which has never happened before.) Usually whenever I try to offer she will just turn her head away. This time she finished one side and seemed fussy so I gave her the other side as well. 


Sleeping
   This week we moved the playpen up to Misha's room. So she's taking her naps there but night time she sleeps in the crib in our room.
   We have also stopped swaddling her. She has been moving a lot that most times she breaks free of the swaddle anyways. So we have stopped altogether. 

Going Out
   I had my first solo outing with Misha this week. We went out for lunch with a friend and it was a lot easier than I had expected. I remember I never went anywhere alone with Meera till she was over a year old. But this round I guess I'm not as worried as last time. I even take her for her monthly vaccinations alone (which I never contemplated being able to do with Meera - I was always so worried about driving alone with a baby).

Misha: 15 weeks

Eating
 We are truly having challenges feeding with the bottle. It's becoming a real battle to the point where I am almost ready to give up. One night she simply refused to drink anything. So the next day I tried to feed her in the morning thinking if she was hungry enough she would drink... But I was wrong. I kept trying to offer her the bottle instead of nursing and she would cry and cry. It got to a point where she even refused to nurse after that. I think it was too traumatising. She went almost 8 hours without a feed. I started to panic.
And after that for the next 2 days she was very reluctant to nurse...I had to wait till she was drowsy or asleep to get her to feed or else every time I put her to a nursing position she would starting crying and arching her back. So for now bottle feeding is taking a back seat. Jing did manage to feed her by cup on one of the nights but after that she's also refusing that as well....sigh.
 I also notice that she is starting to get distracted while feeding. When she's hungry she will feed but after a few minutes, she will latch off if there's any sound that distracts her.

Sleeping
 If she's really tired she can continue sleeping in her car seat...but not for long I think. She seems to stir whenever I move the seat in or out of the car.
 She's also starting to move around quite a bit when she sleeps. I think I'm gonna have to stop swaddling her soon (we usually leave both arms out). 

Teething
As hard as it is to believe, I think Misha is starting to teeth. She is constantly chewing on her fingers and drooling heaps. It might also explain why she is refusing the bottle....

Personality
Misha is a really happy baby. She will smile (and laugh) quite easily. I notice she is especially jovial just before she gets sleepy. Like the calm before the storm. One minute she'll be laughing and you'll be enjoying the moment and the very next second she is wailing cos she wants to sleep! It's what I now refer to as the 'dangerous smile'.

Meera: End of Nursery

   Meera officially ended Nursery this month. It was marked with an end of the year concert and prize giving. Initially she was so worried about performing for the concert. She missed school for a month because my cousin was here so she went back to school in the beginning of November with the concert being held in 2 weeks. So she was quite behind the other kids and I guess that made her anxious. But I found out from the teacher that she was actually being given a lead role (so she must have been good) cos the previous girl came down with chicken pox. Meera was quite worried cos she was the only one performing that part and was relieved when the girl came back to school in time for the concert. I however was disappointed she lost out on the part.

   On the actual day, she performed quite well considering she was the only 4 year old in the front position. She also won prizes for colouring and writing.
She has really grown up a lot since starting school. We decided to start sending her to daycare as well so she stays in school till 4.30pm (she takes her nap there). This gives her time to work a bit more on her Chinese (the headmistress, Mdm. Loh is very accommodating - giving Meera extra guidance in this). I can see her Chinese improving in just a short time. Not only with the extra teaching but I guess interacting with the kids also helps. She hardly speaks but can understand quite a bit (according to Mdm. Loh).

Misha: 14 weeks

Sleeping
Lately Misha does not nap so well in the car seat. For the past 2 days, when I put her in the car seat to send Meera to school, she does not fall back asleep. She will be up for most of the ride and sometimes fall asleep in the car. Tuesday (19/11) she woke up (8am) and stayed up the whole time. At 9.30 am I figured she'd be tired enough to sleep so I put her down in her crib and she slept past her 45 minute transition ( this is a first in a very long time!). I could hear her moving about but she managed to go back to sleep. Since then she has been taking a few naps that are longer than 1 hour so I guess she's past the short nap stage (sigh of relief). It might also be that I have started to lengthen her wake times (right now its around 75 minutes).

Bed time is still a work in progress. Not sure what time to put her down. 

Eating
Misha has always been a fast nurser. And she never seems to need any comfort sucking so feeding sessions are quite short. Lately it's getting even shorter (under 5 minutes)! Except for the night feeding (which typically happens around 5 am)....she will nurse for 6-7 minutes.
Occasionally I try to offer her the other breast after burping but so far she has refused (she will suck and then gag and turn her head away...so I know she's done).
I have yet to notice any increased feeding due to growth spurts (still doing 6 feeds with roughly the same times.)

She doesn't spit up much nowadays. I still notice her tops getting wet but it seems more like drool. She's always sucking on her fingers (I have given up on the pacifier since every time I try she seems to gag on it).

Bottle feeding is still a challenge. Most days she is very resistant to the the point that she is half asleep before she takes the bottle (at which point I guess she's too tired to fight anymore.) This defeats the purpose of giving her a bottle so she has no issues when I leave her with someone else. Not sure what to do about this but we plan to keep trying once a day and fingers crossed she gets used to it (or is willing to accept it).

Milestones
This week she is starting to hold on to things. If you put something in her hand she will hold it. And when I carry her upright, her arm will hang on to my shoulder.
I also notice that she spends quite a while staring at the baby gym toys...she seems fascinated by the patterns along the arch.

Misha: 13 weeks

10/11 Misha loves the song 'Wheels on the Bus'. I was changing her and singing the song and she kept laughing and smiling.
11/11 I've started to try putting Misha to bed just by laying her down in the crib, swaddling her body and legs (I stopped swaddling her arms), and just saying shh and patting her. Today I tried it for 2 naps and it took bout 5-10 minutes.
12/11 Misha is sick...very bad runny nose. She had trouble going down for naps. Kept sneezing a lot.
Night sleep wasn't too disrupted...woke around 2 am and had to pat back to sleep.
13/11 No longer resisting the bottle
She is getting more interactive with us. Laughing a lot more.
Typical schedule:
7.45 am: Send Meera to school (she's usually asleep so I'll carry her downstairs and put her in the car seat.
8.30 am: Still asleep (I usually just leave her to sleep in her car seat. Tried to move her out but she wakes up. so I've decided to leave her in it). This is when I try to do laundry and whatever I can prepare for dinner.
11 am: Wake up (this is actually quite unpredictable. It can be as early as 10 or as late as 12 pm!
Once she wakes up I'll feed her. Then wait a while (so she has time to digest her milk) and give her a bathe. Typically, waketime is about 1 hour before she gets sleepy.
12.30 pm: Nap (she only takes about 35 minutes naps). During this time I quickly shower and have lunch.
1.30 pm: Feed
3.00 pm: Nap
4.00 pm: Feed
4.30 pm: Fetch Meera (sometimes she sleeps during the ride)
6.30 pm: Feed
7.00 pm: Nap
10.30 pm: Feed (we give a bottle for this feed. Right now it's 150 ml)
11.00 pm: Bed
 5-6 am: Night feed

So right now she's having 6 feeds a day and 3-4 naps.

Meera Can Read

Today...Out of the blue Meera tells me she wants to read Peter and Jane. So we got out the 1b book and surprisingly she managed to read almost the whole thing. She only had trouble with a couple of words. I'm guessing it's part reading and part memorization. I did test her on a few random words which she managed to read without any pictures so I 'm guessing she is getting the concept. It's also helped that I've been doing some phonics with her. Although it wasn't consistent she has managed to read a lot of cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

Misha: 2.75 months (12 weeks)

Still trying to figure out the best schedule for my posts. Sometimes there's so many things I want to write about but its so busy that by the time I get to it, I've forgotten half the stuff!

So here goes....

2/11/2013: Misha laughed for the first time. I've heard her laugh in her sleep but this time it happened after a feed. I was 'talking' to her and she suddenly laughed. Twice!

5/11/2012: Took Misha to the pediatrician (decided to use Dr. Chan in Puchong) for the pneumococcal vaccine. She was kinda warm the following day but nothing that needed medication.

My cousin left on the 31st but we were still busy with other things. Deepavali was on the 2nd which was also my Dad's birthday. And Jing's sister also had her reception on the 2nd so we had quite a few things happening around this time. Things have finally settled down so it will be interesting to see how Misha adapts to our routine.

E(ating)
Nursing no issues. Still working on the bottle. It's easier to give her the bottle when she's drowsy so we tend to do that nowadays. She still doesn't take more than 90 ml at a time though.
Update: 6/11/2013...after a bit of resistance she finished the bottle (90ml). Burped her and gave another 30ml which she also finished. This was about 4.5 hrs after the last feed (she was asleep from 10.15-11.05pm) Woke up and seemed hungry
Pooping is getting more frequent now (averaging at once daily).
I forgot to mention that Misha also spits up quite a bit. Not as much as Meera used to but it still happens. Lately though it's getting better. I also notice if she nurses too long there's more spit up so I try not to feed her to much. Every once in a while I try to feed her after burping and it always results in milk coming out. I have to believe that she is a really fast nurser (she's usually done in 7-8 minutes. Sometimes 6!)


A(ctivity)
I'm trying to incorporate more regular tummy time for her. The first time I did it (after such a long time), I was surprised by how well she managed. She had her head up for quite a while before she tired out. Still needs work but considering how little opportunity she's had, her neck muscles are quite strong. I think it also helps that we have her propped up a lot so she does get to strengthen it.
She's also not as clingy as before. Used to be I had to carry her almost all the time or she'd be fussing. But now she can handle some time on the gym mat or on her rocker. She's also starting to notice the bears hanging on the play pen so I am going to get her an actual mobile for the crib.


S(leeping)
So far she has been waking up quite late in the mornings...around 10-11 am. So bedtime also has been late (around midnight).  But with Meera starting school things are gonna have to change. I also notice she only takes very short naps (around 45 minutes).

Tummy Time

Misha: 2.5 months

My cousin and her family left yesterday so it will be interesting to see how Misha adjusts to the quietness. It has been almost a month of irregular hours.
We noticed that whenever we were driving and we stopped (like at a traffic light) she would start to cry. As long as the car was moving she is quite content to be in the seat. She also seems to be able to sleep for longer in her car seat. I guess the cocooning effect is there (same goes for when we carry her around in the Baby Bjorn carrier). Overall she sleeps best when she's carried (but I guess that's probably true for most babies).

E for Eating
Still  no major issues.She still seems to dislike the bottle. Have tried to move to the number 3 teat. Most nights she only drinks about 60-80 ml of milk from the bottle. She used to take up to 120ml. I'm guessing she's resisting the bottle but it could also be that she's not that hungry since she sleeps quite a while till her next feed.
Still doing about 6 feeds a day.

A for Activity
Still need to work on this.

S for Sleep
Nothing new to report.

Y for You
We've been pretty busy with our guests so that's been all I've had time for.

Pooping
Misha does not poop everyday! Initially I was very concerned about this but it seems its considered normal for breastfed babies to poop as little as once a week! So far she has gone up to a week without pooping. Although its nice to not have to clean dirty diapers daily...when she does poop its A LOT so its quite a mess to clean. Initially it was once a week but now its getting a bit more frequent..every five days or so.

Milestones
Misha is quite a smiley baby. Every time I go to pick her up she'll have this huge grin on her face. And she even tries to 'talk'.
Recently I notice she's always making this sucking motion with her mouth. Especially when she wants to sleep. So I've tried to give her the pacifier but she doesn't really seem to like it. She tries to suck her hand/fingers but that also doesn't seem to stick. I'm still not giving up on the paci but I don't remember it being so hard with Meera.

Sleeping with her hands clasped

Misha: 2 months

We've had visitors since the 5th. So there's been A LOT going on. we've been going out quite a bit and so far Misha's been handling it pretty well. It's actually quite easy with a baby this age since she's sleeping most of the time
and she's quite comfortable in her car seat (especially if the car is moving).

The Babywhisperer schedule is very loosely followed but basically,


E for Eating
Still  no major issues, no obvious growth spurts. Recently though we did have trouble with her taking the bottle. Initially I thought she was starting to dislike drinking from a bottle but I now suspect that maybe the teat was too slow. I realise that my letdown is quite fast and whenever she drinks from a bottle she seems to take a really long time to finish. I'm trying to move to a faster flow and hopefully that helps.
Right now she's down to about 6 feeds a day. She can usually go for about 7 hours at night without a feed so I guess you could say she's STTN.

A for Activity
This is still something that I haven't really worked on. What with all the traveling etc. she's usually either in a car seat or being carried around. But I notice that her neck is quite steady. Not fully upright but slowly getting there.

S for Sleep
Sleeping has improved. previously bedtime was always as struggle. She would cry for quite a while before settling down (it didn't matter if we rocked her or anything). I wondered if it was because of gas but it only seems to be for bedtime and nap time was not an issue.
Nighttime sleep can stretch as much as 7 hours. One night it even went to 9 hours! But I think it's more from tiredness since it's not happening consistently. Generally she can go for 5-6 hours at a stretch.

Y for You (as in time for yourself)
Haven't had much of that! More like time for catching up on things. But overall I do feel like I'm able to  accomplish quite a bit. I cook most of the days (mainly cos there's quite a bit of leftover meat in the freezer from the confinement lady's time). Cleaning has taken a back seat though. But right now that isn't really a concern for me. I try to fit in time with Meera but that has been quite challenging since timing it with Misha's needs are a bit difficult. Hopefully over time I get the hang of things.

Gas
Not sure if I mentioned this before but Misha is quite a gassy baby. From the beginning we've noticed that she's always passing gas. And quite often she will be stretching and squirming like she's struggling or uncomfortable with gas. It's improved a lot recently which maybe due to giving her the Boon Pharmacy Aniseed Elixir. 

Milestones
Misha has started to smile! Not just those involuntary ones but genuine interactive smiles. Initially they were shy little smiles but slowly its progressed to wide big grins which you can't help but smile back at. And she does it alot! I get the feeling she is gonna be one of those really expressive babies. And I think she's got a dimple (on her left cheek). She's also always cooing at us.

I also notice she's starting to drool a lot. Some people say its the beginning of teething....

Meera: 4.5 years

There's been so much going on that I have sadly neglected to update any of Meera's progress. And there are lots of updates!
This year Meera started kindergarten. And she loves it! Aside from the first day where she cried when we dropped her of it has been pretty smooth. Being the rule follower that she is, she has adapted quite well to kindy. As far as academics go, she is way ahead in English (as expected) but a bit behind in Chinese (again as expected). But socially she is having no problems adjusting.
I also became pregnant late last year and that has brought about a few changes in her life. Pregnancy was quite difficult for me but I never let on that I was pregnant to her. As far as she knew... I was not well. (for 9 months!) So she had to learn to be even more independent. She was quite understanding whenever I told her I was not up to doing stuff and was even quite helpful. Luckily my mom came over and spent the afternoons with her.
Right now her typical routine is:
7.00 am: Wake-up. Get ready for school.
8.00 am: Leave for school
12.30 pm: Come home from school
1.00 pm: Lunch
3.00 pm: Nap
5.30pm: Wake up
7.00 pm: Dinner
10.00 pm: Bedtime

She is quite independent now. Most mornings, she can pretty much get herself ready dressed and ready for school (I just have to help her with the zipper). Breakfast is also a lot faster now that I give her toast with butter. It used to take her a really long time to eat but now I cut her toast into 9 squares and she eats it up within 15 minutes! Needless to say we don't have a hard time in the mornings (fingers crossed it remains that way).

So far she has handled the addition of a new sister better than I had hoped. I have heard of so many cases where there's jealousy and stuff but till now Meera seems okay. I try to give her as much time as I can and I carefully choose my words whenever I tell her to be quiet or careful around the baby. As far as Meera is concerned I'm actually spending more time with her now than during my pregnancy (I was so tired I hardly did anything with her).

Misha: 6 weeks

So its been 2 weeks of figuring out how to deal with a baby (again). So far its been better than I expected. In fact I think it was a lot harder with Meera (especially emotionally). I only had a few emotional episodes. One in particular was 2 days after the lady left. I called Jing and he said he might be back late and I just melted. It was a tough day especially since Misha hardly slept. But other than that things have been not too bad.

I got the Baby Whisperer book and  I'm trying to follow the EASY method. Based on that I'll be blogging in that order.

E for Eating
So far breastfeeding is going well. No supply issues that I can see. However I have yet to notice any growth spurt on Misha's part. Supposedly they will need to feed like every 2 hours or more. Or they will feed for a longer duration but so far I've not noticed anything like that.
I looked at the logs I kept of Meera and it seems like I feed a lot less now. Which I put down to a few factors. Misha feeds a lot better, She doesn't need much comfort sucking and I am not always assuming that she is hungry. The last factor is mainly I think from past experience where every time Meera cried I used to think she was hungry. I know better now. 
I'm trying to put her on a 3 hour schedule so right now she has about 7 feeds a day (which usually includes 1 bottle of milk which I pump for). I am still contemplating if I should give formula once in a while given the difficulty we had switching Meera to formula. But for now I think I'll take my chances.

A for Activity
Right now there isn't much activity. Most days her awake time is a bath or just sitting in her bouncer. I want to start doing tummy time more regularly but with her reflux its a bit hard to time. She's hungry as soon as she wakes and I can't do it so soon after a feed so it's a bit hard to fit in. I do try to put her on my chest so at least that gives her some opportunity to exercise her neck muscles.

S for Sleep
As expected this area is where I am struggling with the most. I can't seem to time her naps properly and bedtime has not been smooth. Typically we need to rock, shh and pat to get her to sleep. Even then it can take a few attempts before she settles.
She does sleep during the night (thankfully) but its usually around midnight (or later) before she settles down. Needless to say I am starting to get tired (literally) of this. I figure there's no point in trying to regulate anything now since this whole month is going to be very disruptive with visitors and the wedding. So we'll try to set things right in November. By then she'll be closer to 3 months so that may also help.

Y for You (as in time for yourself)
Haven't had much of that! More like time for catching up on things. But overall I do feel like I'm able to  accomplish quite a bit. I cook most of the days (mainly cos there's quite a bit of leftover meat in the freezer from the confinement lady's time). Cleaning has taken a back seat though. But right now that isn't really a concern for me. I try to fit in time with Meera but that has been quite challenging since timing it with Misha's needs are a bit difficult. Hopefully over time I get the hang of things.

Family Trip to Port Dickson

Technically this was not a family trip since it was actually us going for a treasure hunt. Yup....us with 2 kids. And with Jing's colleague. Misha slept thru most of it.



But Meera was a champ. I prepared a little scavenger hunt to keep her occupied during the trip and she was fine till almost the end of it. We left home around 6 am and only reached the hotel at 2.30 pm so it was a long day for all of us!

We stayed at Lexis Port Dickson. A bit run down but overall clean. Jing took Meera to the pool and she had a really good time. Didn't have time to do much else but then there's not much to do anyway. We got a cot for Misha and she slept pretty well.

Misha: 4 weeks

Towards the end of the month I notice she is a lot more alert. It's not so difficult to wake her to feed. In fact there are days when she was awake for more than 3 hours. She also seems to be more aware of her surroundings. sometimes it looks as if she is looking at us and trying to communicate. :)

Breastfeeding
So far its going well. With the confinement lady around I pump and she feeds Misha. I was pumping around twice at night both sides and because of this I think I had more milk than Misha required. Generally she only feeds on one side but whenever I pumped I would do both sides. Because of this I now have quite a bit of milk stashed in the freezer. I figured better more than not enough. At least if my supply dips or she has a growth spurt I won't be overly stressed.

Towards the end of the month we stopped feeding every 2-2.5 hours and slowly lengthened it. But during the day she still needed to feed quite. I guess her stomach kinda got used to eating small frequent meals. I did notice that she could go to 4 hours at night so that was a positive sign.

Jaundice
Still jaundiced. I'm resigned to the fact that it will take time to clear. We had to go for a follow up at Putrajaya Hospital just to rule out any underlying conditions. They took more blood and urine sample but the results will take 2 weeks. However they seem to do this as a precautionary measure so not too worried about this. From our observations she seems to be doing better. Only her eyes are slightly yellow.

Sleeping
Still seems to not sleep well at night.

Confinement Lady
The aunty left on the 15th. (they only work for 28 days). And despite all my reservations and complaints I was truly sad to see her go. On the 12th day of postpartum, I got to eat a more varied diet so that definitely helped improve my view of her. :)

Although I still found her lacking compared to my previous ones, I've heard some are a lot worse. At least she was quite careful with all my kitchen things. I've heard horror stories of some of these ladies ruining things in the kitchen. I must say she was very careful with all my things and she also kept the kitchen very clean. Also whenever we did tell her to follow our way of doing things she was quite willing to comply (I of course we weren't very demanding either).

Meera
Meera went to Penang with my parents and only came back home on the 10th. She was away for almost a month! And I really missed having her around. She seemed to have grown so much while she was away.

at the barber

Full Moon 
We had her full moon celebration at Jing's parents' place on the 13th. As per tradition we had to shave her head. We decided to take her to the barber and get it done instead of doing it ourselves with a shaver. I was so much easier! I remember when we did it for Meera with the shaver she was screaming the whole time. Apparently the shaver works by pulling your hair and cutting it so it will hurt a bit. This time with the clipper it was relatively painless.

It was quite a long night. We only got home close to 1 a.m. Misha slept through most of it. We forgot to bring the bouncer but luckily Mahesh gave us a rocker for her full moon gift so she slept in that for most of the evening.

Introducing Misha Tioe

Another long overdue post....I'm not going to say much about the pregnancy. Except it was a lot worse than the first time. Morning sickness was bad (lost like 3 kgs the first trimester). Luckily it went away after that but I was sooo tired all the time. Luckily Meera was very understanding and didn't get extra clingy (I heard some kids sense these things and require more attention than before).

Delivery was faster than with Meera. No epidural and no vacuum. Went to the hospital at 5pm and baby was out by 9.30pm. I'll be recounting the whole story in Misha's scrapbook.

So this brings us up to date :)

2 weeks in and already there's so much to report.

Misha
This time round we were a lot faster naming her. Mostly due to the fact that everyone was nagging us to 'get to it'. Plus this time we weren't so occupied with hospital visits so we had more time to decide on her name.

Jaundice
Once again we are facing this situation. After the delivery I let my guard down a little since we didn't have to use the vacuum for her. But apparently other factors come into play. Seems like if the mother is blood type 'O' the chance of jaundice is higher. Go figure. And Misha is 'A+' so it lends itself to some sorts of ABO incompatibility issue.Needless to say we are more prepared this time. When we got discharged on day 2 she was already at 157 umol/L. So the following day we checked her levels again and had to admit her for phototherapy. After one night she got discharged but her levels are still on the high side 2 weeks on.

I've come to realise that as much as breastfeeding is good for the baby, it sucks for jaundice. The whole treatment plan for jaundice is hydration. So when your milk hasn't come in how to hydrate? All the breastfeeding advocates will tell you to just let the baby suck and suck but that actually doesn't work. They are so hung up on promoting breast milk that other options are not considered. Based on our previous experience I already prepared myself to give formula if necessary. Of course there is that small part of me that resists but I know my milk is no where near enough to hydrate her.

After countless visits to various doctors a few truths have emerged.
1. Its okay to give baby water (they normally discourage cos most people may go overboard)
2. Formula can be diluted. Contrary to all the advice you are given, in this instance its okay to dilute as much as 50%. (so if normally 1 scoop to 30 ml water, you can dilute with up to 45ml water)
3. Baby needs to be woken up every 2 hours if possible to feed. (this was really challenging cos she was so sleepy). We had to practically strip her down to her nappy, use wet cloth on her face. Even during the feed I had to constantly work at keeping her awake.

Breastfeeding
So far its been going ok. A lactation consultant came to see me during the hospital stay to give advice. Four years later and some things are familiar but some things are not. Initially she wasn't latching properly so I did have cracked nipples. Ideally after the baby unlatches your nipple shape should still be round. If it looks 'slanted' like the tip of a lipstick, then the latch is wrong. So once I saw that lipstick shape I knew I was in trouble. Unfortunately, although I knew it was wrong I couldn't seem to correct it. It took a few days and eventually it got better. Although I don't really know what changed. I did work on trying to position her better but in all honesty I don't know how it got better. I'm just thankful it did.
Misha does not seem to need much comfort sucking. I notice that she usually feeds for 10-15 minutes and after that she either stops or unlatches herself. Time will tell if this continues. Most advice say baby should suck for 20 minutes or so but she hardly ever does. I can only hope she is efficient at it. I do wonder if she's getting enough but I figure with me feeding her every 2-2.5 hours maybe that's all she can eat in one sitting. Once I space out the feedings then maybe it will be longer.

Sleeping
According to the confinement lady, she doesn't sleep so well in the night. There are times when she needs to be carried or held to sleep.  I read somewhere that babies born in the night tend to be active at night so maybe there's truth to that. Hopefully she gets it right in time...

Confinement Lady
We got a different lady this time. A bit disappointed with her. Overall she is okay but compared to our previous ones she's not as good. Initially I was so upset with her I even contemplated sending her back! I'm going to say it was hormonal (I'm allowed to use this excuse for the next few months). For 3 days I ate practically the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I vaguely remember my previous lady cooking fantastic food. This time round things are edible. Enough said.
Other things which were different: she only uses disposable diapers (no cloth diapers), she use the washing machine to wash all our clothes, food is served downstairs (previously I was upstairs the whole time...even food got sent upstairs).
Although they are mostly inconsequential things, we just feel a bit cheated. We're paying RM3700 this time (4 years ago it was RM2800) but getting less for it.
I just keep telling myself better someone than no one. Hopefully I can keep convincing myself till the end.

Meera
So far she's been great with the arrival of the baby. Of course it's hard to tell since she's living with my parents right now. She seems quite excited about the baby but then she only sees the baby once in a while when she comes to visit. It will be interesting (for lack of another word) when she comes home.