The Third Month

Rayray turns three months old today and oh my, where did the time go? I really cannot believe it's been three months!

Rayray now knows mummy is her favourite as she wouldn't let daddy or the helper to hold her when she throws a strop or when she is sleepy, which is a huge blow for T and I. I need and want rests sometimes but Raychi wouldn't stop crying till she is in my arms. Therefore I have decided not to pick her up as soon as she wakes up or cries as she needs to learn not to associate crying = mummy.

Other than that, she has officially outgrown all her 0-3 months clothes and even some of the 3-6 months outfit seem rather snug! Oh dear oh dear....

Eating - Feeds 6 times a day but I still can't get her to feed on the bottle but I shall keep trying

Sleeping - She now can stay awake for longer stretches of play during the day. She wakes up at around 2/3am after her late night feed then sleeps through till 6/7am.

Development -

• She now laughs out loud and the sound is probably one of the cutest sounds ever. Rayray is generally in a good mood every morning after feeding her so I would spend 20 mins or so playing and talking to her. It is so rewarding to see her responding by saying things back i.e. 'ah-goo' and 'ummmmm', 'ahhhhhhh', ;oooooo'. 

• She can hold her head steady when upright

Raychi on her tummy + her funky punky hair

And just for the record, I didn't specially set and cut her hair like this! It is al natural!!!

• When I hold her upright on my lap, she could bear some weight on legs as if she was trying to stand up!

• She has discovered her little hands by licking and chewing them and she does it rather often. I would take her hands away whenever I see her doing that but sometimes she would wake up in the morning and sucking them happily in her moses basket till I hear her own squeals! I tried giving her dummy the first time over the weekend but she struggled to suck it so I decided not to do the dummy bit yet. Instead, I have given her Sophie the Giraffe! She would stare at it for a few seconds and lick it when I offer it to her as she can't hold objects yet!

• I read to her in the afternoon after her 2.30pm feed and she would look at the books with me! Generally Rayray would lie on her play mat happily up to an hour before making a fuss. Now we have got her a bouncy chair so she can see us walking around the house rather than just lying there. 

• She has been suffering from colic pretty badly lately and it really breaks my heart to see her crying and all I could do is to massage her to ease off the pain..... I thought breastfed babies shouldn't suffer from colic, well, at least not as much as bottle fed babies but it doesn't seem to be the case here.

Raychi and Sophie the Giraffe

Rayray's progress:

1-2 months

0-1 month

2 months and 17 days

My sausagy Rayray

Raychi had her two months jabs and she weighs a whopping 6.5kgs - upper 97 percentile and she is not even on formula! I remember back in confinement centre, nurses said that exclusively breastfed babies do tend to put on weight steadily and when they do they pile on properly! Haha Raychi is 57cm long which places her at 50 percentile though we thought she was longer than that since all her 0-3 months clothes are too tight and short for her and they meant to fit for babies up to 60cm.

Rayray didn't cry as much as we expected since she had to have two jabs. She calmed down as soon as we cuddled her so it was a relief for me as I was about to burst into tears myself!

Other than that, I have finally cracked how to get her to go down for her 9am nap and the secret is I need to get up at 7am! So hard luck for me...boohoo She would make a fuss for a minute or two but closes her eyes soon after that. However, her lunchtime nap between 12noon-2pm hasn't been going terribly well as she is going through the so-called REM. Apparently babies at this stage take on a more adult sleep cycle as they drift from light sleep into a dream-like sleep, then back into a deep sleep and in the case of Rayray, she wakes up fully. Also, in the evening, she has been going to bed at 8pm opposed to the 7pm... She needs a lot of comforting, cuddling and also seems to have an insatiable appetite. Though I know she is going through another growth spurt but I still try to stick to the routine.

CNY Feast I

We had been eating out everyday during CNY apart from new year's eve. We had lunch at 龍少爺海鮮, a Cantonese seafood restaurant on the second day of new year and we were very impressed with the food. Ingredients were fresh with good flavour apart from the crispy prawns which turned out not so crispy and it tasted rather sweet for our liking.

Braised chicken feet and peanuts - this doesn't look too appetising but the flavour was excellent

Seafood Salad as a starter

Stir fried glutinous rice with chopped sausage - this was delish

Lobster in curry sauce, with deep fried buns on the side. I have always been a big fan of fried buns and the combination of that with this curry sauce is divine

Black bean on dusky grouper - I have to admit that I am not a big fan of groupers but this was cooked to perfection! The meat was tender and juicy

Spring onion and ginger crab - delicious but I can never be bothered with all the shells and all that hard work ending up with tiny bit of meat.

Salt and Pepper Abalone - again, I don't really like abalone but good seasoning. 

Crispy Prawns

Chicken Soup 

Fruit Platter

Raychi's First Chinese New Year

An orchid centre piece for the living room

We hadn't celebrated CNY in Taiwan for ages and it was wonderful to have Raychi with us this year.  It was fun to do all the food shopping and relatives come by to visit as well as decorating the flat and buying flowers etc. Raychi was fascinated seeing different people and she just couldn't stop cooing at them!

Of course we had to dress her up in a little red outfit with matching tights!

and with her little red cardi!

The Second Month

Raychi turned two months on 21st January, just before Chinese New Year's Eve this year and so that was the excuse I had for not posting this earlier as had been 'busy' (busy doing the usual baby business really) but I knew I'd better get a grip before I forget it again.

I still watch and stare at Raychi with amazement all the time as I can't quite believe how I brought this little creature into this world and how much love I have for her! Ok, I might be getting a bit emotional here but her every movement still fascinates me.

Miss little grumpy pants

Raychi had red spots all over her little face, ear lobes and behind her ears. It got worse and worse so the helper suggested using green tea to cleanse her face. (I did get the nod  from doc but green tea water dries out the skin so we shouldn't be using it for too long)  It got better for a week or so but then the condition worsen again so we had to take her to the doctor's. It turned out that she suffered from atopic dermatitis and the doctor prescribed some cream and we got her some emollient lotion to sooth the skin.

Poor little love's face

Height - 57cm

Weight - 6.5kg

Eating - Feeds 6 times a day. We started giving her bottle at the 10pm feed but after a few times, she decides she prefers mummy's boobies. Okay, this is understandable but also very frustrating as Tao wants to be able to feed her too and we have tried various things i.e. me not being in the same room (it worked a couple of times) and T feeds her with the same position as I feed her etc. We will just keep trying as I think it is important for her to learn to feed from a bottle.

Sleeping - We are still struggling to get her to learn to sooth herself to sleep, especially the 9 o'clock morning nap. We either let her fall asleep in our arms or sometimes with helper's insistence, we let her cry in her cot and she tires herself out. However, I think one of the major factors is that I am not strict with the routine i.e. I don't get up at 7am to feed her and when I do, I always doze off in bed with her and then wake up at 8am therefore she doesn't get tired at 9am.

Development - 

• Raychi now smiles spontaneously especially to strangers! She loves cooing to people when they talk to her and smile at her! It is very entertaining to watch and I think she will be a little chatty box once she starts talking. 

• She sometimes squeals in delight particularly after her bath or when she is on the play mat.

• She now also turns her head around when she hears noises and stare at people when they talk to her. 

One happy daddy

Little Miss Chatty Box

Raychi is genuinely a good baby who doesn't really cry and seems like a pretty contended little happy baby and we are ever so grateful having her in our lives.

Little swimmer

Rayray's progress:

0-1 month