Kaelyn is 3 months old

Kaelyn turned 3 months old yesterday. Looking back at the past month, which has yet again zoomed by very quickly, she has developed quite a lot.

At 3 months, Kaelyn:

• is 5.8kg, and about 60cm long.

• sleeps for longer periods at night, usually from 11pm (after her last feed) to about 7 - 8am the next morning. Great for all of us!
  

• is able to stretch her feeding times. Now, she survives on 5 feeds a day and feeding interval can stretch up to 5 hours sometimes.

• makes various sounds like 'ah-guu', 'ahh', 'eh' etc. I even heard her said something like 'muh muh' once. Is she calling me? She also laughs out loud when we play with her.
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• recognises my voice. When I call out to her, she will turn towards my direction.

• can grasp objects when brought to her hand, but for a while only.
  

• can swing her hands at a toy to hit it.

• starts to drool and play with her saliva by blowing bubbles.
  

• able to roll from her back to her tummy, and lift her head 90 degrees

• is easily distracted. She drinks lesser nowadays because she will be curiously looking around instead of drinking her milk. It's a challenge feeding her now.
  

Kaelyn's entertainment

I am amazed by how Kaelyn (and I believe all babies) can be so preoccupied by toys dangling above her head. For 30 mins to an hour (at times), she can stare at them, wave her arms and legs in excitement and sometimes even squeal in delight. And this can happen everyday.

It first started off with a music mobile at her cot, a gift from my aunt. This is her entertainment when she wakes up in the morning and in the middle of the night (even if it is not moving), and when no one is free to attend to her.


Seeing how successful it was in entertaining her, we started to bring out the rocking chair (with toys hanging), and the play gyms.

This play gym, a gift from my cousins, is used when I rest in my bedroom and need to keep an eye on her at the same time. Only our king-sized bed is big enough to accommodate this.


I use this rocker during play time, and she doesnt want to be in a flat lying down position. Good for when I am in the living room reading the newpapers or watching TV. A gift from my colleagues.


Lastly, another playgym from friends. We just brought this out today and it works as well as the rest. Also used in the living room, in front of a separate baby rocker during play time.


Thanks to all who gave these as pressies to us. They have done a good job in entertaining Kaelyn so far. Our lives have been made more peaceful with them.

Our helper

Remember I had reservations on getting a helper? We had wanted to get a helper to mainly do the household chores as we didnt expect them to be able to cook proper meals and definitely not to take care of our precious little one.

Well, my Filipino maid has been with us for 1.5 months now, and I must say we are very pleased with her. Not only can she perform the household chores to our expectations, she can whip up 2 proper meals a day, and care for our baby.

Household chores
I think most maids are able to do general housework so I shant go into details.

Cooking
Initially, my mum-in-law and mum would show/teach her how to prepare some dishes. By the end of the week, she is able to cook a meal consisting of rice, 1 vege, 1 meat and 1 soup. Although the dishes are just simple fares, I am impressed that she is able to pick things up so quickly, and do a proper job at that. I think she can cook much better than me now!

Caring for baby
I must admit she is better at handling babies than I am at times. I think this is primarily because she loves kids, and also she has a 4 year old daughter. She's good at coaxing Kaelyn to sleep and playing with her. We ever left Kaelyn alone with her a few times while we zipped out for an hour or 2 to get our groceries. This is something which I never thought I'd do with other maids. But if it is for a longer period than this, I still have my reservations.

Of course there are times when she makes mistakes, but as long as she gets the job done and has the right attitude, we have no complaints. We find ourselves lucky to have her with us. Hope she stays this way for the next 2 years!

Gastric attacks... and the potential cure

I was hit by a series of severe gastric attacks since 3 weeks ago. I dont know how and why I get them. I never had gastric before and my diet is mainly fish and vegetables. I think I have eaten more fish in the past 3 months than I had in the whole of last year!

The first attack came suddenly about 3 weeks ago. The stomach pain was quite bad but it subsided after a while. I thought nothing much of it but David suggested I see a doctor. The doctor told me it was colic (I thought only babies get colic!) and gave me some mixture.

The second attack came a few days later, in the middle of the night. It was so unbearable that David took me to a 24 hour clinic, and the doctor gave me a jab for wind. We suggested to the doctor whether it could be gastric cos the previous medicine for colic didnt help. The doc gave me medicines for both gastric and wind. I think the doctor is a newbie as he doesnt look like he knows what's wrong with me, and yet he made me $100 poorer. And worse still, I couldnt sleep the whole of that night as the pain persisted.

It got so bad in the morning that David had to send me to Changi General Hospital's A&E. The doctor there told me it was gastric and prescribed 4 types of medicines. The medicine helped but I still got occasional pains, especially at night. These pains greatly affected my milk supply.

3 days ago, a potential cure was in sight. David bought a supplement from GNC called 'AbsorbAid', which the staff there said would help gastric problems. And true enough, for the last 3 days the pain did not come back. I am keeping my fingers crossed... Seems like 3 doctors cant match up to 1 GNC staff!

The mathematics of breastfeeding

If I hadnt chosen to breast feed Kaelyn, I guess I would have breezed through motherhood and really enjoy my 5 months maternity leave (ha, like real). But since I have decided to go down this path due to all its benefits (contains all the required nutrition for baby, bonding, blah blah....), I'd very much like to get it right and make it less tiring and 'painful' for me..

I've gotten the latch on to work and the supply seems to be sufficient for the time being, but I am beginning to have doubts today. So far, so good. But I cant seem to figure out the mathematics of it:

Equation 1: Amt expressed w/o latch on - Amt expressed after latch on = Amt baby drank

I usually express about 4oz without latch on. Managed to get about 1oz after feeding. That would mean she only drank 3oz right? But it cant be cos that would not be sufficient for her to go through to her next feed. I usually give her 4 - 4.5oz via bottle to last for the same duration.

Equation 2: Amount expressed = Amount available for baby to drink if latch on

Sometimes I only manage to express 3.5oz when Kaelyn's needs 4.5oz. That would mean my supply is insufficient to meet her needs right? But when I latch her on, she manages to get by until the next feeding and I can even express perhaps 0.5 - 1oz.

Equation 3: Amt of time taken to finish 4oz via bottle = Amt of time taken to drink 4oz via bf

Kaelyn usually takes 20 - 30 mins to finish her bottle. But via direct breastfeed, the timings can range from just 15 mins on 1 breast to 30mins each on both breasts! How can that be?? Does it mean that both times the amount she drank are the same, depending on how hungry and sleepy she is? But that's way too wide a gap..

The equations above dont seem to be right. Maybe Theresa is right, I cant put my accounting cap on for this. But if babies feed more efficiently on the breasts than on bottles, then how do I explain the hour-long feeding sessions with Kaelyn?

Still trying to figure out how breastfeeding works.. Perhaps my supply is really not sufficient for her? Perhaps my pump is not efficient enough? Perhaps she was having a growth spurt? Perhaps she fell asleep and was just using my breast as a pacifier? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.....

One big milestone

Something exciting happened yesterday. Kaelyn rolled over from her back to her tummy on her own! I thought this would only happen end of 3rd month or in the 4th month, but she did it in Week 10 (2 months and 1 week).

We were at a friend's place when this happened. I was so excited when I saw Kaelyn's achievement that I ran out to tell David of the good news. A few of my friends didnt quite understand why I was so excited over this seemingly small matter. But to a first time mother, this is really great big news!

From now on, we have to be careful where we place Kaelyn in case she decides to perform the 'stunt' again.