Motherhood

Motherhood is always a blessing. My baby has had cough and cold for the past four days. I took him to the doctor yesterday because his cough seems to be worse. It was a good thing we went yesterday instead of waiting until Saturday to have him checked. It turned out that he might have asthma. I am thankful that a cousin of mine lent us his nebulizer. It was my first time to operate it and at first,  baby cannot stop crying. After two sessions of nebulizing, baby started to get the hang of it and just allowed himself to breathe through the mask. Of course, every now and then, he grabs the mask and wants to eat it.Lol.

 Even though we did not sleep well last night, I find motherhood fulfilling in spite of situations like these. I am still on leave today to monitor his condition. He needs to be on the nebulizer every four hours and I want to be the one to do it to make sure it is done right. I also want to prepare his antibiotic myself to make sure it is the right dosage. I could not trust completely to let the nanny do it without my parents in the house. My parents are out of town so I made a decision to just avail of my vacation leave to be with my baby.

I still have a lot to learn about being a mother. I am grateful to other mothers who share their experiences with me. No matter how many articles I read about parenting, nothing beats experience:)

Baby Scare

     I felt really horrible yesterday. I go home every lunch break to nurse my little one and my new routine since mixed feeding is that after feeding, my baby falls asleep and I leave him in the middle of the bed with pillows around him and I would prepare his formula for his afternoon feeding. I want to be the only one preparing his milk to make sure that it is sanitized.  I would be gone only for a few minutes. Yesterday, while I was preparing his milk, I heard him cry and his nanny immediately rushed to our room to comfort him. I thought he just woke up from his sleep and cried because no one was around. I knew something was not right because his cry was louder than usual. I ran to our room and asked his nanny if he fell and she said yes. She found my son lying sideways on the floor. I felt like a terrible mom for leaving him alone.  I should have realized that my son is already 7 months old and pillows will no longer protect him from his movements.

     I immediately asked opinions from friends who are in the medical field. All of them said that if there are no danger signs, my baby is fine. Danger signs are vomiting, nosebleed, no energy, always sleeping, and non-stop crying. I should also observe his behaviour for 24 hours. Thank God that my son do not have the danger signs. As soon as I carried him yesterday, he stopped crying and started smiling. While I was at work, I kept in touch with his nanny to monitor his behaviour. I am really grateful that he is ok. I promised myself that this will be the last time he will fall off the bed. I would never leave him alone again on the bed. 

Mixed Feeding

My baby is seven months today and he officially had his first formula. After six months of breastfeeding and pumping, my milk stash finally caught up and I have no choice but to supplement with formula. I am happy that I reached my goal of giving him only breastmilk for six months. My original goal was actually only three months because I had to consider going back to work. I was not expecting I could stretch it to six months. For that, I am gratefulJ

I bought the small can of NAN HA2 for my baby. Most mommies I know are using S-26 but I have read somewhere that S-26 contains a lot of sugar. I am hoping that my baby will not have any bad reactions to my chosen formula.

I am not yet ready to give up breastfeeding. I love our breastfeeding sessions because it’s a special kind of bonding between mother and child. I think I have to start eating more clam soup once again to increase my milk supply and hopefully I may not have to supplement with formulaJ

A Day at the Beach

We finally took our 6-month old to the beach for the first time. We left the house around 5:30 in the morning and our baby knew that we were going out because he was squealing with delight. The cross to the other island took only about ten minutes. Our baby was curiously looking around and I bet he was wondering why there’s so much water around him.

We arrived at Paradise Island around 6:15 AM and there were only few customers because it was still early. We wanted to be early to avoid the crowd and of course to be able to enjoy the beach with fewer people and the sun still skin friendly. We fed baby first before taking him to the beach.

The first time our baby’s feet touched the water, he seemed a little frightened and he clung to me like he was afraid of falling. But when we slowly submerged him and his body started to adapt the cold water, he seemed comfortable yet still curious. After a while, he started to kick in the water: a sign that he’s enjoying himself.

After his swim, we washed him with fresh water and put on fresh clothes. It took only seconds before he fell peacefully into dreamland.

I am excited to take him again to the beachJ

Videos for Babies

    My son is almost five months old and he is starting to be curious on a lot of things. I started showing him videos for toddlers and he is already reacting. One of his favourites is the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star video. There is an owl in the video that flies with the star. He makes a sound every time he sees the owl.

    I am thankful to YouTube because we do not have to buy DVDs for babies and toddlers. Those educational DVDs like Baby Einstein are a little expensive so I was so happy to see some of them on YouTube.

Baby Weight Loss

 I bring my baby to the pediatrician every month for his regular check up and immunization. During his check up, the doctor measures his head, length and weight. She also checks up my son’s breathing if there are abnormalities. My son just turned four months and when we had our regular check up, we found out that he lost 200 grams of weight.   

We were analyzing the cause of his weight loss. The doctor suggested that the quality of my milk was deteriorating so I had to eat healthier foods. She also suggested giving him solids if he is ready. She mentioned that one of the signs to look for if the baby is ready to eat solids is when he starts opening his mouth when we are eating. Also, if the baby starts rolling and lying tummy down on his own. My baby has not started doing any of the mentioned signs so he is not yet ready.

About  two weeks before his check up, my husband and I were more rested at night because our son sleeps about five to eight hours straight without feeding. We realized that this is the major cause of his weight loss. Though, I would love to sleep the whole night without waking up, it is not healthy for the baby. Breastmilk is faster to digest than formula milk so I have to feed him every 2-3 hours.

 So now, I wake up every three hours to feed my son. It’s a good thing that he still feeds even if he’s asleep. I want to prolong giving him formula as long as I can and I want to start giving him solids when he is almost seven months. I just read so many articles saying that delaying solids will be more beneficial for the baby as allergies and having diabetes can be avoided.

I hope and pray that his weight will improve on our next visit.