Misha: 41 weeks

Solids millet, dried scallop (cooked with her porridge), fried shallots, grapeseed oil (for frying)
I read that millet is more nutritious (and has more fat) than rice so I've started making her porridge with millet as well.
This week started with her eating quite well but by the end of the week she was starting to fuss after eating a bit of food. She would usually eat like 2-3 oz and then start to refuse (she can shake her head and try to push the spoon away). Not sure if she is bored of the food or just full from all the food I've been giving her... But if I offer her fruit she is always willing to eat more. Sigh...
I also tried to add some fried shallots to her porridge and that seems to interest her. But I have to place it at the top of the spoon so she can see it. Not sure if she likes the texture or the taste? But it seems to help her eat more. I have given up trying to force her to eat 180g (6 oz.) of food per sitting. I shoot for 150g but sometimes even 120g is a challenge.
Somehow she starts off eating quite enthusiastically but halfway thru she starts fussing....yet to figure out what she likes enough to eat more of.

Signing
I tried to change her diaper after nursing her and she started fussing and clapping (which was her way of signing 'more') cos she wasn't done nursing.

Bottle
Changed to #2 teat in the hope she would drink more milk. It seemed to work since she drank 145ml which hasn't happened in a while. Hopefully this helps her drink more.

Misha: 40 weeks

Clinic visit
Had her 9 month checkup this week. And she has lost weight! At her 6 month check she was 6.57kg. This time she was 6.55kg. Although its very minimal (negligible) she should have increased weight so it's a bit worrying. Had a long chat with the nurse and was given a few pointers on how to increase her weight.
1. Add oil to her food. Suggested about 1 tsp. a day. To her porridge or fry garlic and give
2. Add formula if needed
3. Reduce cereals (less calories) and give more porridge

After a bit of reading...I have decided on a few things:
1. Add grape seed oil ( need to buy)
2. Add tahini to her diet (very high in calories and fat)
3. Start avocado regularly
4. Feed more (I have to aim for at least 6 oz. of porridge for lunch and dinner...and make it thicker)

I am going to hold of from formula for now and see what happens in the next checkup. For some reason I am very hesitant to give her formula so I am going with my gut.
She has yet to fall ill and I feel that must be a sign that I am doing things right. It can't be all about numbers.
Next check up is in a months time so hopefully she gains some weight by then.

Initially I was thinking I need to nurse more or maybe top up with formula but I've noticed she doesn't really want to take much milk. Even when I pump and give her in a bottle she won't drink much. So seems like its pointless to add formula. I just need to make sure whatever solids she takes is packed and dense so less fruit purees and more fatty foods.

I also need to try and get her to nurse more. Lately she only seems to nurse like 3-4 minutes and she is very easily distracted. But now I am starting to feed her from both sides (it seems whenever the flow slows down she will latch off), so now whenever she latches off I will try to get her to latch on again (she usually will for a short bit) and then I switch her to the other side. So she is definitely nursing more this way. I try to aim for a total of 6 minutes at least . I think she is getting more milk now cos her diapers seems fuller now.

Solids spinach, ikan bilis, tahini
I have started to give her avocado to increase the fat in her diet...she can eat half a fruit for breakfast with some cereal mixed in.
Spinach was a bit difficult for her since its not like the other mashed up vegetables but she ate it with minimal fuss.
The first time I gave her tahini I added it to her cereal and banana and after her nap that morning she threw up! I thought it was due to the tahini but she was fine the second time she ate it so must be a coincidence. Or maybe a sign I was feeding too much...
It was the first time she has spit up that much food.
I let Meera feed her a bit this week and both of them really enjoyed it. Misha would open her mouth really big for Meera and also eat quite willingly. (trying to give her 6 oz. of food is quite challenging on some days.)

I was initially thinking she wouldn't be able to finish so much food but most days she can. And nursing doesn't seem to be adversely affected either. I just need to keep offering her the chance to nurse more and don't assume when she latches of that she is done. Nowadays I keep offering until she starts to fuss and whine. She will even sometimes shake her head 'no'.

Milestones

She started crawling this week! I kinda encouraged her with toys and by lifting her stomach of the ground with my hand and she finally got it. *beaming*
She still seems to do the combat crawl once in a while though. She's also started to pull up on stuff now a lot more so we have finally put her crib one level lower and adjusted the play pen mattress lower as well. She likes to pull up on the sofa but usually on to her knees only.
She does go all the way up to her toes but not often. And when she does it she gets upset since he doesn't know how to go back down. There were a few times she did this in the crib and I had to help her down.
She also started swinging doors lately. She spent a really long time just swinging her room door back n forth. I was afraid she might get her fingers caught but she was fine.

Sleeping
This week she stopped her third nap. Most days she can handle a 3 hour wake time. It was kind of a sudden since last week she would be cranky by 2.5 hours. But I noticed she was handling it better this week so no more evening naps. But some days she goes to bed before 8pm.
Moved her crib one level down.

Stranger anxiety
On Saturday we had lunch with Jing's dad and he carried her with no issues. We usually see them for dinner and she will usually cry whenever they try to carry her. I keep saying its cos she's tired at night and true enough she was fine the whole time that he carried her in the afternoon.

Misha 39 weeks (9 months)

Solids egg yolk, fish
Eating is going well. Finally started her on proteins. She seems to love it. I thought she might have trouble with the fish but she ate it quite happily. Maybe cooking it with ginger helps reduce the fishy smell...or she just likes fish.
Still giving her 3 meals a day. But now breakfast is some sort of cereal with fruit and porridge is for lunch and dinner. I notice she sometimes doesn't want to finish her food but if I give her a fruit purée she will eat that. So I give her fruit between mouths of porridge to eat finish.
Fingers foods are going well. Right now she is eating these mini rice cakes and biscuits. She seems to be better at holding on to the food...and if she wants more she will wave her arms up and down.

Sleeping
This week she has been waking up earlier...usually around 6.30am. A few days was 7 am but she will just play in her crib till I get her. I'm thinking she needs to drop her evening nap but I don't know how to extend her wake times to do it since she usually starts fussing 2.5 hours after being awake. And seeing that she usually wakes up by 3 it's a bit hard to keep her up till 8!

Her schedule right now:
7.00 am: wake up (sometimes as early as 6:30 am)
7:30am: nurse
9:00am: breakfast (sometimes earlier if she woke up early)
9:30 am: nap (1- 1.5 hrs)
11:30am: nurse
12:30 pm: lunch
2:00pm: nap (I'm trying to extend this as late as possible)
3:30pm: nurse
4:30pm: dinner
7:30pm: nurse or bottle
8:00pm: bed

Right now she is alternating between days that she takes 3 and 2 naps.
I've tried to give her 5 feeds a day but its been quite hard to fit it in. I notice if I feed to soon she won't really nurse well so it defeats the purpose of adding a feed.


Milestones
Can wave but not consistent. Sometimes she doesn't seem to notice when I say 'wave'. She started to try to pull up on the sofa but only up to her knees.

I notice whenever Meera sings she will start to clap her hands.

Misha: 38 weeks

I think I mentioned this already but it bears repeating...Misha is a really happy baby. She is always ready to smile and laughs really easily. All I need to do is cover my face and play peek-a-boo and she laughs....or if I tickle her torso.
She likes to clap her hands a lot. Not sure if its claps or she's trying to sign 'more'. Since whenever I say 'clap' or 'more' she will bring both hands together.

Sippy cup
She is finally starting to suck (and not chew) the spout. Water is still spilling out though cos after she sucks and gets a mouthful...she doesn't swallow. Sometimes she will smile (like she is proud of herself) and the water will dribble out! LOL
I decided to try the straw cup again...and this time she succeeded straight away! I guess once she could suck on the spout, the straw was easy. I sat and watched her do it and maybe it distracted her cos she would suck, then smile and water could come dribbling out!
She seemed to really like drinking from the straw cup. I tried taking it away and she actually got upset. She also signed 'more'! It was like a fist bump with both hands.

Solids barley, rice porridge
Finally transitioned to porridge. So far she is accepting it quite well. I make it in the slow cooker so it's quite soft. She takes a bit longer between mouthfuls. I don't think she needs to chew but there is definitely more texture to it than the cereals she's used to. Whenever I gave her the cereals or purees I was practically shoveling it into her mouth with hardly a pause.
She seems to be eating less this week. I try to give her a veg cube with cereal then apple for lunch and dinner. Sometimes I have to start on the apple in between the veg to get her to finish it up. She doesn't seem to like most of the veg ones. Maybe she's bored with it.
Whenever we go out I will usually try to feed her from a jar...most times I add cereal to it. Usually apple or peach and she will have no trouble finishing it. 
Right now she is quite consistently having 3 meals a day.

Nursing
Somedays she only had 4 feeds in a day. But she still seems okay. I am very conflicted about her feeding now. Not sure if I want to start her on formula or not. I have already surpassed the 6 month mark but part of me wants to go to 1 year. The other part of me wants to stop stressing about whether she is getting enough....not to mention my pumping issues. Seems like I can't pump as much nowadays. It can't be the pump since I got a new one...and yet I can't seem to get as much as before. So nowadays I sometimes nurse her before bedtime and pump before I sleep. This way I can get enough for her bottle feeds. So her bottle feeds are 3-4 times a week only. Hopefully that's enough to keep her familiar with the bottle.
I need to keep reassuring myself that she is getting enough and not stress so much. I will decide once I go for her 9 month check-up . 

Signing
'More' seems to be used when she wants something....so maybe she has her own interpretation of it. I also sign milk and all done but haven't seen her use those. Sometimes she makes the sign for milk (open and close palm) but not in context.

Sleeping
I think she is ready to drop her third nap but I haven't figured out how exactly to do it. She usually wakes up around 3 pm so it's tough to keep her awake till 8. I also like how I can put her down in the evening and am able to cook and eat dinner while she takes her third nap. Still need to figure out the best timing for this.

Misha: 37 weeks

Solids purple sweet potato, HappyBellies brown rice (with DHA and probitoics)

This week I notice she is getting much better at eating. She will open her mouth properly for the spoon and eat really well ( before her mouth hardly opens and I have to shove in the food so there's a lot of food around her mouth which I have to scoop off. But now it's so much better. She's also starting to eat a lot more. Some meals as much as 110g. I've also started to give her 2 course meals....first is rice with veg. Then dessert (apple). She really likes the apple.
I tried to give her papaya which I mashed up with a fork. It wasn't smooth like a purée and she did not like it. I think the lumps really confused her. She did her whining bit and pushed it out of her mouth. 

Wonder Weeks
This week there were a few days where she started to cry when I put her down for her naps. And a few of her naps were 30-45 minutes. After that she would cry until I got her up. It's been a while since she cried for naps so I started surfing the Internet and came across Wonder Week 37... A fussy time for babies which generally can start as early as 36 weeks and last for 4 weeks! After 2 days she seemed to go back to her normal self

Nursing
Right now she is feeding 4-5 times a day. I tried to feed her more often but most of the time she refuses or just feeds like a minute before latching off. Sigh.... As long as she sleeps well I am gonna have to assume she is eating enough.

Milestones
Nothing much to report. She is still doing the combat crawl...much faster. She can also sit up on her own. Initially it was a bit unsteady (so I was worried she might fall over) but she managed to stay upright. By the end of the week she was pretty stable and quick about it.

One day I had my hair wrapped in a towel (like a turban) after washing it and I picked her up. She kept staring at it and giving a puzzled look. She was really not happy with it and was on the verge of crying. After I took it off...she still kept staring at my hair like she couldn't believe what had happened. Lol

Understanding 'No'
Now that she is moving around I had to start setting boundaries. So whenever she tried to 'taste' the rugs or come into the wet kitchen I would say, Misha...no!  And she will hesitate. Sometimes she listens but sometimes she goes ahead and does it anyway. But I can tell she understands.

Signing
I've been signing 'more' to her. Especially when I give her finger foods. Notice she is trying to sign it whenever she sees the food. Only for food though. Need to use it for other things as well so she truly gets the meaning.