Showing posts with label Solids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Solids. Show all posts

February 26, 2011

11 Months!!

One month to the first birthday! Yay - I can't believe it is already a year... I was 33w PG last time this year and had kind of started to relax a little! We were barely a month away from seeing our miracles!

I normally try to note down the dates on which these babies of mine reach certain milestones... but things are so fast paced now a days, that it is hard to keep track. So, here goes their monthly update!

-It's a little over a month since we got back from our 2 month long vacation abroad... and now can I truly say that we have a "schedule"... till now, there was no freakin feeding schedule. They drank milk (formula) any time... and mostly just 4'ish oz! RM started drinking 7-9 oz of milk at one time in the last month... and RT started drinking 6-7 oz milk at a time just this week! We still consume quite a bit of milk. During the day time we drink milk when we get up/before breakfast(7'ish), then before our first nap at around 10 am, followed by post-lunch milk (2'ish), and then again between the 2nd nap and dinner time (5-6'ish). They drink milk again before sleeping and then once or twice in the middle of the night! My Mom tells me that I used to consume over 1.5L of milk as a child well in to my 2nd year... the babes are probably following my footsteps!
- They usually sleep for around 11 hours at night. From 0700-0800 pm to 0630-0730 am. And then take 2 naps between 1.5 to 2.5 hours long (sometimes 45 minutes)!
-We went to the GI on Feb 9th for their reflux. RM weighed 21 lbs (40th %ile) and RT weighed 19.8 lbs (50th %ile) at around 10.5 months. The doc was happy with the progress and we decided on trying to wean them off of their medication by dropping one of the dosage and not increasing the medication (per dose). Both had a cold during the GI visit, so we waited till they felt better. On Feb 17th we dropped the evening dosage. RM had to go back on it in a weeks time since he started having issues in the middle of night. He was getting up very uneasy and burping quite a bit through the night (his classic reflux sign). We will probably try to get him off of the med again some time next month after their birthday! RT is still off the med for almost 10 days and she seems to be doing fine (touch wood). The plan is to keep them on one dosage a day for a month and then try completely stopping the medications after that.
-Their 9 month bloodwork (done at 10 months) was on Feb 16th. RM was a hero! He - did - not - cry! He patiently observed what the techs were doing, he didn't twitch or fuss or struggle... he just watched! The techs wanted him to come give classes to other patients about how to stay calm during a blood draw! ;) His sister, however... compensated for him! As soon as RT saw the tech put on gloves, she knew something was fishy! She cried! And did not calm down till we got back in to our car! The results came back normal!
-RM now has 4 teeth (2 upper and 2 lower), RT has 3 teeth (1 upper and 2 lower).
- RT very easily stands up unassisted. She will go over or around anything with great ease! RM is starting to experiment standing unassisted. Both are attempting to climb on furniture.
-We did end up buying the Zanny Zoo, and they love it! They also received this cute little couch from their Aunt! I am starting to clear up some of their old items (rockers, bumboo) to make space for all the new stuff that might be coming their way during their birthday. Unfortunately the Jumperoo is also going to have to go! They get really wild with it! They shake it and rattle it and walk around it and try to go under it - it freaks the crap out of me! RT still likes to bounce in it, but RM is ready to come out of it in less than a minute! The Snap-n-Go is gone and we now have a Bobs stroller! We also picked up Evenflo Truimph 65 convertible car seats from BRU. We exchanged our old car seats for a 25% off of the new seats along with a twin discount! So it turned out to be a good buy! It is so sad to give up on all these items. These were their first belongings... the car seats - they came home with that, back then even the straps looked larger than them and today they hardly fit in to them! I guess it is all a part of growing up!
-They both distinctly call out "Daddee" or "Daddaa"! They absolutely go crazy when Daddy is home over the weekend. If they are playing with him, they do not want to eat or sleep! RT will randomly say words at her own whim... not necessary that she will ever repeat it. Though, she does call out Mumum when she is hungry and then she will start sucking on her fingers. RM will just start fussing when he is hungry - he doesn't have any sign for it. They both have gone through times when they have called out Mamma, Ganny etc... but nothing like a repeated Daddee or Daddaa! :P
-RM holds his bottle, RT still doesn't... or rather we still have not let her - because the moment she gets the bottle in her hand, it has to come out! This girl really needs to learn to keep the nipple in her mouth! Sippy cup is still no success in this household - I guess, I need to work harder at it!
-We have finally succeeded in liking the taste of water!
-We have started giving them milk products like cheese, puddings etc.
-We love nectarines, kiwi, banana, pancakes, puddings, eggs, spinach, cauliflower etc. We experimented with egg white, and it was well accepted, so the babes now get whole egg and not just the yolk. Salmon was a no go! Need to try some other fish! BTW, 90% of our food is home cooked
-RT can communicate really well... she once pulled out all the diaper changing supplies and then pointed at herself and yanked at her own diaper as if she wanted her diaper changed. When you tell her that it is time to go to bed for the night, she heads to our staircase to go upstairs and sleep. She will not sit on her high chair till RM joins her. She will not go to their bedroom (at night) unless RM joins her. She loves the "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from Lion King and she will make you repeat the video several times... and she will start dancing every time she watches it! She can identify a duck in real life and in cartoons, toys bath tub. She signs by doing a hand motion denoting quack quack! She can make a fishy face! She is one smart lil cutie pie!
-RM on the other hand is one naughty child. He has figured out how to turn the TV on (they don't get to watch TV), he will yank at the (saftey) gates and locks, try to pull off links (of toys). He loves to pass through small spaces. If you are sitting on the floor resting against the couch, he will want to pass through between you and the couch. Pranks aside, he is a darling! He will get very cuddly and hug his sister and all of us. He loves food, when not on his high chair, he will take a bite and run (crawl) away and then come running back to have the next bite.
-If one is napping, the other one gets cranky - probably because they have gotten used to each others company and dislike being alone! They love other children too and instantly socialize. They are both such a lively children... I just hope they both stay that way.
-We wear 3 different kinds of diapers. We usually wear Nature Baby Care (Naty - chlorine free) size 4 diapers at home. When stepping out we go for Pampers size 3 (since Naty can leak if they go over 4-5 hours ) and at night RT wears Pampers size 4 and RM just started using Pampers size 5 (since size 4 started leaking). BTW, I love the Naty diapers, yes they can leak if they stay on for too long, but we usually change diapers every 3 hours or so. They stay dry, no rashes, fragrance free, chlorine free!
-We went to the aquarium on 02/20 and they loved it! Looks like we will be going again some time this year. I want to take them to a local Safari once spring is here. Speaking of which, I am also looking forward to the local Cherry Blossom festival! Can't wait for the Spring to arrive!

November 15, 2010

Herbs & Spices

We started with solids a little after 4 months. Their first food was rice cereal, which they very quickly got bored off. There was a time when they were "happy" with the food being repeated (butternut squash, sweet potato, carrot etc)... and all these things more or less tasted sweet! There came a point where they just refused to eat this same old baby food. Cereal was a big no no! That's when we started introducing stage 2 food and also started mixing and matching items. A couple of weeks ago when I was speaking with the Ped, he said it was okay to start introducing them with any ethnic/traditional foods that we might be eating. We use quite a bit of spices and herbs in our food... so we have recently started introducing various things and they are loving it. Their food has started tasting so much like ours (only milder). We have so far introduced black pepper, cumin, garlic, turmeric (in that order). They are also munching on some of our foods since they are so interested in what we are eating and they seem to be doing fine!

August 18, 2010

BF'ing (BM'ing) & Solids

Thank you for your supporting comments! It is just hard to accept that we have lost that real breastfeeding! And I know I will be going through another such withdrawal in a few months time! I am still pumping (~2 L)... and we plan on transitioning them to formula after 6 months and hopefully get them on to formula (+ solids) by 8 months.

The babes will be 5 months in a weeks time, which essentially means I will be continuing the marathon pumping session for 1 more month... I have been 100% committed to providing EBM and ideally I would have loved to provide breastmilk for them up until one yr. But this is not mentally easy and plus we will be traveling internationally at around the 8-9 month mark (and will be away for 1+ month) and I don't think it is going to be feasible to keep pumping the way I do at that point of time! I hate to think that my "breastmilking" days are nearing its end. The babies are what they are today pretty much because of what I have provided them (which includes average weight gain (50 percentile'ish) and also the "Reflux") and I feel fortunate to be able to do that (sp since I wasn't sure about how my supply would be with the PCOS)!

We started solids (rice cereal) on August 8th (once a day). It went from not know what the heck we were giving them to grabbing the spoon and trying to put it in to their mouth. I wouldn't say they are a pro at eating the (semi) solids, but they are improving. We are hoping to start with either avocado (high calorie), banana (high calorie) or carrots (reflux friendly) next around their 5 month birthday! I was planning on waiting till around 6 months, but the Ped seems to be okay with it and... I am aware of a few cultures starting solids as early as 3 to 4 months... and have also noticed the occurrence of reflux being less amongst those babies. May be they are able to keep their food (milk) down better? Though, I guess each child is different and each situation is different!