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.