Milestones and some changes

Two days ago I started to 'train' HY not to wake up for milk feeds anymore.
Afterall he is almost 3 and I've been struggling to wake up up to 3 times a night or even up to 4 times a night to make milk for him.
Because of his constant night feedings and whinings, I felt my patience for him wearing thin and I do not know how to deal with it.
I spoke to a good friend who had a 10 yr old child and she advised me to give him an additional meal ( supper) before bedtime so two days ago I tried it.
Of course I had to use some tricks to make him take some more of the porridge.
But that is not all, I had to be firm and almost intimidating to reject him when he requested for milk at night. On the first night, HY woke up twice asking for milk even though he had the 'supper'. I had to threaten him to keep quiet to avoid waking up HK.
On the second night, he woke up once. For both days I only gave him the milk at 7am.
I'm sure my method to stop his night feedings will work but just hope it will happen soon.

In a recent conversation with my hubby, I was telling him that I felt that I was incompetent as a mother and my inexperience made it worse. HY is picky with food and doesn't take breakfast. Recently I started to coax him to have a slice of bread with cheese. He only finished the bread and cheese on one occasion when he was told to share the bread with others.
Hence, I am very determined not to make the same 'mistakes'... Therefore I came up with a schedule for HK. And I'm still trying to make changes in HY's mealtimes and diets.

HK's meal schedule:

Breakfast

1/2 slice of wholemeal bread with fresh milk in cup
Oatmeal with fresh milk and honey
Biscuits With fresh milk

After bath and before morning nap
Prune juice or other type of juices

Lunch
Porridge with vegetables and/or 1 type of meat

Before Afternoon nap
Milk ( and biscuits)

Dinner
Porridge with vegetables and / or meat
Fruit


At the advice of the friend, I had also cook some green beans with porridge twice weekly to reduce heatiness of the kids. My boys were very prone to inflammation of the throats and I hope the green bean will relieve some body heatiness from them.

Ok time for recent Milestone records:

HK could now stand up with support but he could barely walk yet.
He's enjoying music and will shake his body when the music is catchy.
He does plenty of funny expressions and knows how to kiss on request, do the 'gong xi' gesture and high fives. We started to put him at the potty when he makes the ' going to poo' face.

For HY, he could speak in longer sentences at times but is currently crazy over angry birds.
His latest loves are jay jay jet planes DVDs.
We are going to start potty training him this week.
So far he had gone to the toilet and pee on the floor without cue from us.

It is now end of August..

and HY had been going to The beehive playgroup for almost 2 months since 12 July 2011.
He managed to settle into school ( without all the fuss and crying ~ finally!) in about one month and he likes Teacher Yvonne, his small group of classmates namely Matthew, Ana, Kazumi, Yu-Han and a big sister from the K2 class name shayna. :)

HY can now sing twinkle twinkle little star song, baa baa black sheep, incy wincy spider, two little dicky birds. Can also recite numbers 1 - 10 very quickly. Also recognizes alphabets A-Z.

He has became more active, vocal and at times mischievous. As a mother for a boy like this, I am almost always exhausted but I count it my blessings.
We feel very happy that he has came out from his former self and is now a livelier boy, less whiny and less afraid of strangers.


Some milestone for HK:

can flip on 21 march 2011 (4 mths plus)

can sit properly and upright on 20 July 2011 ( 8 mths plus) 

can officially crawl well commando style on 2 Aug (9 mths)

started 30ml similac on 17 Aug, 60ml on 18 Aug (9 mths wk 2) and Increased intake to 120ml on 19 Aug to prepare him for the switch to formula milk by one year old.

Demise of Wang Wang

My Parents in law's favorite chihuahua passed away on 13 Aug due to kidney failure. His condition worsen very quickly. He was just 4 years going on 5 years old then. He was such a beautiful chihuahua of the right size and cute little face. The last time I saw him was when he sneaked through our metal gate to come in. He was never really friendly with me but on that day he came into our house to give my toes a lick. I didn't expect that was the last time I would see him.

Til today my in laws still feel very sad about his death. Wang Wang was buried under a patch of grass and soil behind my inlaw's home along side with his siblings who did not survive at birth.

May Wang Wang rest in peace.

Probia of school

We had tried unsuccessfully to coax HY into attending school. I had tried to bring him to the nearby schools for some exposure but he would throw tantrum before we could reach the entrance of the school. Hence we decided to keep him at home probably til he turns 3 before we would sign him up for classes.

One thing to be happy about is that he had been taking his meals well. Just earlier today he finished off a big piece of Sara lee cake moments after having lunch. Usually he would play with food and throw them all over the place and I'm glad he is at least making some progress.

For HK on the other hand, had started cruising around on his walker and is very responsive when he sees me and other people that he knows. He also started to become fearful of strangers but we are trying to bring him out more often. His meals are getting more varied and had since tried broccoli with sweet potato too. Will let him have a taste of more food and fruits to avoid him becoming a fussy eater like his big brother.

Developments updates for HY and HK

Hk finally recovered from his diarrhoea after 10 long days or almost 2 weeks. Spent $100 plus on his medical bills. At the last visit to the PD I was advised to feed him soy milk instead as it was suspected that my breastmilk might contain lactose. My parents and hubby were telling me it must be my breastmilk stored in the fridge that is causing his diarrhoea. And that made me quite upset and worried about not being able to feed him breastmilk. Nevertheless, I decided to give him a few more breastmilk (bm) feeds to see if he still pass loose stools. I was quite surprised that his diarrhoea did not return.

Developments
It is a relief to me that Hk is back to his happy self. He started to make cute funny faces at us. He'll pout his lips or open his mouth widely when laughing. He has also become very active, flinging his arms and swinging his legs and trying to flip even when we carried him.
He had also recognize us and would stick to me in the evenings.

Food
HK had tried rice cereal and oatmeal cereal so I started him on potato puree (which he doesn't really like) and brown rice cereal from happy bellies. I'm going to
start feeding him pureed vegetables like carrots/pumpkin/broccoli etc.
We got him the Phillips Avent steamer blender recently and so making pureed food is a breeze now! Hk is taking two meals per day in between milk feeds.

Diarrhoea

Poor baby HK had diarrhoea and today is the 6th day. Brought him to the PD on Monday and she diagnosed him as having stomach flu. HK also had the running nose and phlegmy cough.
Up until yesterday his diarrhoea was quite severe as he would poop almost immediately after he had drank his milk or taken his cereal. Dr Loke advised to feed him rice water or finely cooked porridge. I wanted to feed him freshly cooked porridge so I mixed the Bellamy brand rice cereal with some rice water and soft porridge rice. He seems to take it well and as the porridge had been well cooked the rice is very soft and could mixed very well into the rice cereal. I was feeding HK oatmeal previously as he had constipation then and oatmeal made his diarrhoea worse.
Today he had pooped watery stool once in the morning after milk.
I am still worried about him and hope he will recover soon and revert to his happy cheerful self soon.

first time...

Today is the first time I smacked hy once and on his shoulder/back. I really really lost my temper.
I never believe in hitting my child but i just lost it when I returned to the room and saw that hy has shaken hk's rocker roughly, causing hk to wake up from his sleep, despite telling him not to do so. It was not the first time he did this and usually i let it go after lecturing him. I didnt really had a hard time rocking hk to sleep but I am feeling very tired and hasnt been myself. Probably because I am down with flu, throat infection and slight cough. The night feedings and coping with two kids during the day had taken its toil on me. I suspect that I am also under stress from staying at home since the birth of hk and rarely going out for relaxation or enjoyment. The last time I had gone out for a date night with hubby was for our 3rd year wedding anniversary on 30 march.

Anyway,I had explained to HY why I had hit him after he stopped crying. He just kept quiet and listened. He did not apologise and neither did i ask for one.

Well during the day, HY would busy himself with throwing toys everywhere, taking things out frm the drawer and throwing them on the floor. Otherwise he would watch cartoon, play applications on my iPhone or nap for a while. If the weather is good, we'll visit the playground nearby and do some marketing at the supermarket. Hy is like an energizer bunny always moving, exploring, doing things with his hands around the house. I  wanted to teach him at home but it had been very difficult ever since i had hk.  I felt tired easily and overwhelmed by the kids everyday.

I was just thinking to myself should i decided not to send him for playgroup i should really sit down for 15 to 20 mins a day to do some activities with him. He is getting bored and frustrated too. But then again teaching him at home will be different from what was being taught in school.