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