When they both fell ill

Last week was terrible. First Josiah was sick and had to stay home the whole week. His appetite dropped drastically that he has lost some weight and looks even skinner now. Then it was Sophie's turn to fall sick. Not only did she have high fever of 39.3, she was wheezing and asthmatic. I had to bring her to the paed to be nebulized several times a day. The travelling to and fro was exhausting and not to mention the sleepless nights that I had to endure. The good news is they are both so much better now. We will be heading to KL tomorrow. Hope I can manage the two of them while Daddy is away.
I was concerned about Sophie's diet for a while now. She doesn't seem to enjoy food and milk. She still has to be syringed fed, and food has to be either pureed or mashed until soft. I also have not introduced salt into her diet as babies this young will not know the difference.
Anyhow when Sophie was at the paed last week I took the opportunity to tell the Dr about my concerns. As expected, the Dr said that there was nothing wrong with her, her weight is good, and babies will eat when they are hungry. Babies never starve themselves, so do not force her to eat! When I told her that I have not introduced salt into her diet, the paed actually said it was alright to put a tiny bit of sea salt to bring out the flavour of the food. She also said that she can drink honey much to my surprise because it is a common rule of thumb and stated in every baby book that I have read that honey can only be given after 1 year old. Anyway I am skeptical about that so I will not be giving her honey anytime soon (although there is no family history of any allergy to honey, or any food actually).
However, since Sophie has been rejecting food, which means turning her head away when the spoon is put at her mouth, or using both hands to push the food away, or shaking her head vigorously for 2 weeks now and the food ends up being thrown away (which I cannot stand) AND the fact that she is almost 11 months, I finally caved in. I put a tiny little bit of sea salt into her porridge and you wouldn't believe it. She likes the porridge! Not in love but at least she was not rejecting the food anymore. Oh my, my little baby is a food connoisseur!

Josiah is down with fever

Poor Josiah is down with fever since Saturday night after going swimming in PSC in the evening. The weather was hot and hazy. He has no appetite to eat and everything he eats or drink is vomited. This morning I took him to the clinic and they took blood sample to test for dengue. Thank God it is not dengue. Hope he gets well soon.
On another note, Josiah is now diaper free. He has been diaperless for weeks now. We were worried that he might wet the bed but so far there hasn't been any incident. He will usually wake his dad up in the middle of the night when he needs to pee. 

Josiah the little home minister

Josiah is now very verbal and he questions a lot of things. An example of a conversation we had last week: Daddy had to go to Putrajaya for a hearing so he took the earliest flight there in the morning. When Josiah woke up, he immediately noticed Daddy's absence. He promptly asked me the following questions:-
J : Where's papa?
Me : Papa's gone to work.
J : Huh? So early ah?
Me : Yes.
J: Why?
Me : Papa has gone to KL for work.
J : Oh. Drive ah?
Me : No. He took the aeroplane.
J : Oh. Alone ah?
Me : No, he went with uncle X.
I found this so hilarious! I wonder who's interrogation skills he inherited.

Sophie's 10 months milestone

My darling Sophie is already 10 months old. How time flies. She is more mobile now as she can crawl, stand up on her own and recently started to cruise. She also knows how to vent her frustration at her brother when he snatches her toy by screaming! Can't believe she is going to be 1 soon.
The only thing that makes me worry is that she still doesn't want to drink milk from the bottle, hence she is fed milk through a syringe. She also refuses porridge unless it is blended. I know that babies at this age not only take porridge easily, but some even start taking soft food like bee hoon, spaghetti and steamed vege. But not my Sophie unfortunately. I tried giving her biscuits that melt in the mouth but she either gags on it or refuses them. I really am at wit's end.
I have also stopped breastfeeding/pumping. For the record, Sophie was exclusively bf until 6 months and until 9 months had bf mixed with formula. If she had been a good drinker with a healthy appetite for my breastmilk I would have definitely continued. But drinking is a nightmare  for Sophie (be it formula or bf) that I could no longer carry on as I had no motivation left. Well, at least my breastfeeding journey lasted longer for Sophie than Josiah.
For now I hope Sophie will learn to chew with her two bottom teeth and be able to take at least mashed porridge.
It's also time to plan for Sophie's 1st big do! :)

Small eater

Dear Sophie is such a small eater and drinker that I can't help but worry that she may not be getting enough. She drinks about 15 oz of milk a day and she has cereal twice a day but even that is a struggle for her. She takes more than an hour to finish 3 oz of milk each time. Feeding time is always so stressful for me. She doesn't seem to enjoy milk and food. Most other babies I know finish their milk within 5-10 minutes. Sophie really test my patience. I am going crazy. Why are you such a difficult baby? Please be good and finish your milk/cereal :(

Josiah is a real cutie pie

Josiah may be only 3 years old, but his command of language and understanding exceeds that of a child his age. I think it was a good decision to send him to nursery so that he gets good peer pressure. Of course, the only bad thing is that he often falls sick but it is inevitable.
He is progressing well and I enjoy his company (most of the time). Even mom says that he is so cute. Not so much of what he says but rather how he says it. I cannot help but realise that his speech and actions mimic hubby and I. Therefore it is very important that we speak and do the right because children pick it up, even subconsciously.
It is a joy to have my two little angels. I feel extremely blessed.

Sophie's having fever again

Sophie is now 6 months and 5 days old. Although she is exclusively breastfed, she has fallen ill a few times. This time, she had fever since last Thursday and I took her to Dr L yesterday. As the fever is only low grade, she was given a antibiotics over a course of 7 days. It started with Josiah being sick and then hubby got infected, then myself, then MIL and even the helper. My friend Carol said that I should not doubt my breastmilk because if Sophie did not drink my breastmilk, she would be more sick than she is now. I must admit that I do feel demotivated sometimes especially when Sophie rejects my milk and she drinks so little. At the 6 month weigh in, her weight is 6.9kg. Dr L says she is on the small side but there is nothing to worry about as long as Sophie is healthy and is meeting the milestones for baby her age. She says its not good to have a fat baby :)
I have been feeding her one spoon of cereal everyday for the past two weeks but everytime she spits it all out. I have even tried giving pureed pumpkin, banana and avocado. She will thrust her tongue and spit out everything. I am started to get a little bit worried. I remember that when Josiah started on semi solids, it took him about 4-5 days to muster the ability to accept food from a spoon and swallowing. I hope Sophie will start eating soon. We have been praying every day for Sophie's appetite for milk and food to increase so that she will grow bigger, healthy and strong.