AN’s 5 day meal/snack records

*edited details to update about days' meals after post was published. And I've also changed the layout of the post. Was trying out using Microsoft Word to publish to blog but didn't quite like how 'spacious' the whole post looked. hehe.

Monday
Rejected breakfast & mid-day snack
Lunch: Fried Rice (eggs/peas) – 2 tbsp
Tea:– 4-5 pcs
Rejected dinner
Night feed: Milk – 80mls

Tuesday
Breakfast: Milk – 100mls
Mid-day: Biscuits – 4-5 pcs
Lunch: Rice (meat/veg) – 4tbsp
Tea: Biscuit – 3pcs
Dinner: Rice (meat/veg) – 3tbsp
Night feed: Milk – 80mls

Wednesday
Rejected breakfast & mid-day snack
Lunch: ABC Pasta (pea/potato/carrot) – 5tbsp
Lunch pt 2: Spinach Noodles (MY food) – abt 3tbsp
Tea: Milk – 60mls
Dinner: Rice (peas) – abt 4tbsp
Supper: Chicken Strip – ½ strip

Thursday
Breakfast:Milk – 80mls
Rejected mid-day snack
Lunch: Rice (chicken/pea) – 5tbsp
Tea:Bread (w butter) – ½ slice
Dinner: Noodles (egg/spinach) – 5tbsp
Supper: Fried Chicken Wing – negligible

Friday
Breakfast: Milk – 90mls
Missed mid-day lunch
Lunch: Fried Rice (egg/peas) – 4tbsp
Tea: Biscuit (1 whole)
Dinner: Noodles - Half bowl!
Supper: Biscuit

Saturday
Breakfast: Milk - 100mls
Mid-day: Biscuit - 1/2 slice
Lunch: Noodles - 3tbsp
Tea: Milk - 80mls
Dinner: Plain rice - negligible
Night feed: Milk - 80mls

Sunday
Breakfast: Milk - 60mls
Skipped mid-day snack
Lunch: Baby food - 1/2 portion
Skipped tea
Dinner: Noodles - 5tbsp
Night feed: Milk - 30mls

Baileys & Maen had an arguement?

One is ignoring the other.

We went out earlier and when we came home, I realised both of them were like ... erm ... not on 'talking terms'.

While AN and I had lunch, Maen was chewing on her bone on their bed and Baileys was sleeping in the TOILET!

hmm...

I got him to come out and he walked warily, watching Maen's reaction the whole time as he took cautious steps towards me. Maen wasn't interested in him coz she was busy with her bone.

After we finished, I called for both of them to stay out of the kitchen with us and had intentions to shut the baby gate so that AN couldn't get in to play on their bed.

Maen REFUSED to budge even tho she was awake, lying on the bed, looking at me.

Baileys willingly followed, and then walked over to the other entrance of the kitchen (where it's been permanently gated), sitting there looking guiltily at the furprincess.

She was off the bed and lying on the floor by the time Baileys got to the other side.

He paced to and from the 'accessible' gate over the other entrance, Maen simply laid on the floor. And that gate was left open so that Maen could come out if she wanted, or Baileys to get in if he wished so..

Till now both are not 'talking'. Baileys is sitting at my feet, Maen lying sweetly on their bed.

What's wrong with them? Must have quarrelled in our absence..hmm...hehe

Ready to sleep alone?

Probably not but watching her get all excited over Baileys & Maen's new bed that day prompted me to consider fixing up her toddler bed so that she can sleep by herself.

But then again, she wakes up in the middle of the night so it doesn't help having her sleep on her own toddler bed too..

Nevermind then. The day will come ;p

It's starting to work!

By not making a fuss over AN during her meals as recommended by the articles, I'm starting to see things taking a turn for the better!

Save for her reluctance this morning during breakfast and morning snack, she was alright through her lunch, showed interest in MY lunch, slept, woke up and had a wee bit of pre-mixed milk for afternoon snack (abt 60mls), and then fed herself during dinner just a while ago.

The articles say to get her involved in food preparation. She's too young but I carried her while I cook so she could see what I was preparing.

That got her REALLY interested and she couldn't wait to try the food before her eyes! I was elated of course, but did my best to contain my excitement. Told her to wait while I transferred the food from the wok to the plate before I gave her some to try.

Asked if she wanted dinner (thought of waiting till Mr Liow gets back before we all eat together) and she said yes (she HARDLY says yes to anything, even if she wanted it...wow!!)

So I put the food together in the bowl and peeped at her feed herself. hehe. I'm not allowed to make a fuss over her eating anything, remember? And it's one of my resolution for this year, not to stare my life over her eating, however rare or precious those times may be..

While she ate, I did the dishes. She looked at me once in a while and all I did was return her gaze with a smile. She was satisfied and carried on digging in.

I noted down the food she had each day since Monday and total intake wasn't a lot. Good enough to us tho, given that she had almost nothing during the weekend before that.

This may or may not be one off (hope she's finally getting into food again) but it IS encouraging to see things moving instead of me going through a cycle of cook-serve-baby reject-throw food away each day. Worse when I get all impatient and make things difficult for the baby who's only going through a phase in growing up.

Thanks for all your prayers too!

Looking forward to tomorrow but I'm not pinning my hopes too high since the books also said that they may eat a lot a day and eating practically nothing the next.

**Edited at 8.30pm: I was snacking on french fries for supper (yes, I'll be putting on winter weight...) and AN was interested. She took a fries, noticed a chicken strip inside the box and reached out for the chicken strip instead. Then she slowly, but steadily munched on the chicken before passing less than half of it back to me..

If she will eat like this, our trip next week to LA (again, to meet my family this time) will be much less of a worry than our last trip.

Daddy's girl

AN wanted to play with the magnets on the fridge that came in shapes of our family (minus the furkids tho) so I took it down and passed it to her while I did some cleaning up.

Short while later, she came and took me by the hand and tell me "papa, work", pointing to the magnets. If I am to interpret her intentions, she probably set the 'papa' magnet further to indicate that he went to work. hehe.
She woke up at abt 6.30am just as Mr Liow pulled the bedroom door shut and started bawling. Mr Liow was going to work and this daddy's girl couldn't bear to let him go.

Oh no...let's hope she can handle the truth (that papa NEEDS to go to work.)

Keeping cool...

Now I've information on hand what I could do with a finicky eater and understands the psychology of one better but it still takes lots of nonchalance and persistence to ignore her non-eating at meals and present food in front of her 5 times a day, knowing that out of all 5 times, she may not even put food into her mouth at all.

Ignore in this case, means no praise even if she eats, no comments if she doesn't.

She's had very little food yesterday, better some than none.

She's up to her fasting self again today.

Refused breakfast and before-nap snack.

Couldn't help but ignore her totally coz I'm upset now, not because I'm working out what I'm supposed to be doing.

She's crying for attention now and must be wondering why I'm angry with her. I didn't expressed displeasure over her rejecting food tho. Didn't want her to associate meal times with 'angry mummy'.

I'll be going back to her after this post.

Am glad that there's Baileys and Maen around tho.

While I'm typing all these and while she was sobbing sadly minutes back, she went to in search of Baileys for comfort and Baileys, being Century's Nice Guy, licked tears off her face and made her smile a little.

And being the little baby that she is, she forgets Baileys once her tears have been licked dry by Baileys boy, and comes running to me demanding attention again.

Please pray for this mummy in me ya? I need all the wisdom and patience, as much as possible...

Books on parenting, again

Once upon a time, I needed books on infantcare and breastfeeding.

Now I need books on feeding a toddler and how to raise a happy and well behaved one.

I do enjoy reading but it's been a long time since I had time to sit down, undisturbed, to read anything. Anything except baby books, but even reading to baby gets disturbed by the easily distracted toddler.

I'm not complaining about that. It's cute that she looks interested in EVERY book around her during each read-a-book session (more like read-a-sentence). She wants to read all the books at a time, everytime. hehe.

Have attached pictures of my latest reads, in addition to re-reading my bible (in the toilet when I can afford to stay undisturbed when Mr Liow's home). I'm stuck at Leviticus again. hehe.

Will slot in reading these new manuals during AN's nap times while she nurses (I can't do anything else anyway.)

Baileys' Entry: Our new bed! + other goodies

Mummy got us this bed that she's wanted to get for us a loooooong time back! Tada!

Takes weight of up to 120lbs. Mummy can even sleep on this if she wants to, but then we both will not be able to join her.

Human puppy's more interested in this bed than we are..hmm..quite a nuisance.

"Here she comes.."

M: "That's MY bed..."
AN: "Wait.Let me make sure it's stable for you before you get up ok?"

M: "It is stable"
AN: "I know. It can hold both of us."

Maen got a little time to herself on our new bed finally....

She told me it was nice so I went to try it but not without the presence of the human pup

Where am I supposed to rest my butt when she has that big a part of the bed under hers??

Mummy's been chasing this 2 legged puppy away and encouraging us to get 'up' the bed. We did but it gets a little too cosy when this little one refuses to budge. Only when mummy brought the bed to the kitchen and shut the baby gate to keep the human pup out do we finally get to enjoy..hmmm...nice!




And then we get 3 bottles of shampoos for a bottle than papa broke.

He was in a hurry that day when he brought us back from the groomers' that he left our shampoo on top of the car and forgot about it. And when he moved, the bottle of shampoo dropped and was run over by the car behind.

It was no loss to us that we get 3 bottles back for 1 that was run over.

And then long time ago, mummy bought us a supposed airtight container for our kibbles, only to realise that not only was it not air tight, the lid didn't even snap fast.

And that was costly for such a common container -_____-" yet the lady kept insisting she couldn't do anything coz she left the company.

This time mummy got us another container, not really air tight but it's collapsible and zip-able!

Mummy says this should be big enough for our 13kg bag of Azmira when we get back but we are still hoping it's BARF coz human puppy will be old enough to not touch our raw diet, we hope.

Oh and we almost forgot to mention this. Baby gets to play with things while she eats as a distraction. She was given our fish oil to play with and mummy thought it would be fine...till she threw up one fine day and most of them were soaked in her disgusting retch!

Mummy attempted to salvage some of them by rinsing and then drying them. She realised it didn't work for most of those. That's too bad.

Mummy's little babies thought hard:

I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!

Oh yeah!

Thank God! I survived the 6hrs driving course (yes, only 6 hrs to get your license. Simple right? heheh) and passed the last 'evaluation' , in other words, my driving test, an hour ago.

MR Liow will bring me to MVD to get my license done tomorrow.

So, other than using my legs to walk and public transport to get around, I should be able to maneuver a car by now.

AN did something cute this morning when Mr Liow allowed me to take his car out for practice.

I wasn't really familiar with Mr Liow's car and was a little jerky in making turns.

This little girl was all strapped up in her baby seat snacking on rice krispies in her hands.

As I made those turns, she went "Wwwooooooh!" -______-" Talk about sound effects huh?

And when we finally reached the park (where we bring BM for walks), she actually looked really happy and clapped (as if she was really glad to still be alive...)

Some time during the 15mins or so, on our way there, she fell asleep. I told Mr Liow it must have been my rocky driving that lulled her to sleep.

She woke up to cheer me a little, continued with snacking on her Rice Krispies again, and while I practiced parking, she dozed off yet again. hmm...Sounds good to me, if she will go to sleep everytime I drive.

So ya lor, I'm a driver liao!

AN is NOT undergrowing, and New Year Resolution

Have I mentioned that AN lingers about 9kg on the scale lately? Her weight varies about 100g +/- at other times of the day but doesn't go any lower than that.

She's back on track and is in fact somewhere between 10-25% on her health booklet, no longer on the 3% that she used to be on!

All thanks to a mummy who chanced onto my blog and saw my concerns. She gave me this link which I initially thought was a little more assuring that our Singapore chart but upon more detailed comparison, the values are really not much different.

So, AN IS back on track!

Here's the link: http://www.fwcc.org/growthchart.html

Thanks, Happy Homemaker for the link!

She's almost back on the US chart for babies tho, and it doesn't bother me that much anymore coz she's asian (Zhu, Jo and some of you girls are right about the difference in the charts)

Mr Liow and I are a little disappointed with the PD that AN is currently seeing. She doesn't seem to be very well informed, given that she's the specialist and we (mainly, ME...) trust her completely.

She says AN is not growing, I nod my head (it was true given that she even fell below the Singapore chart. Fine.). She says not to give AN water till meal times, stop breastfeeding, give this and that shot. Me listens.

Mr Liow saw that AN hadn't taken a particular shot that she should have taken by her 20th month and asked the PD about it. The PD checked and agreed that AN needed that shot.

If Mr Liow had not gone with me, if he had nt been that sharp, we'd probably have overlooked that.

I asked if there were supplements or if she had any tips on helping AN eat better. Her answer was "no. If I had, I would be a millionaire."

Huh...?

I knew there are supplements for adults with poor appetites. I just am not too sure if there were any for toddlers. I don't really care if supplements like that make anyone millionaires.. And there were no advises whatsoever about what I could do to help AN eat better.

And then we start to miss Dr Terrence Tan...Never once had he made comments that benefit us in no ways..

I'm also to be blamed for listening to her blindly, attempting to wean AN before she's ready and making us both miserable, trying to force AN to eat without going through the proper channels (or at least be informed that AN's seeming defiance is only a result of her growing independence!)

Stupid me, stopped giving AN too much water (as advised by PD) and she's started to get constipated, again...*goes bang my head on the wall*

And only since yesterday while Mr Liow helped feed AN (I've no more patience to watch her shake her head and tell me "NONO NONO!" when I try to feed her, or watch her fling her food around when I allowed her to feed herself) had I time to read up more on finicky eaters at her age.

Realised I was doing everything wrong as I read: http://www.babycenter.com.sg/toddler/nutrition/

So, from today onwards, I will not make her eat if she doesn't want to, and I will not get upset (she has this weight gain to last her a little bit, I hope...hehe).

I will make a schedule and sticky strictly by it.

I will not put my heart and soul into staring at her during mealtimes.

I will (not the 1st time I said I will do this) try to take things easy with her.

These last 4 sentences shall be my new year resolution (better late than never, right? ;p )

FUSSY ENOUGH? OR PLAIN WIERD?

I keep losing my patience with AN over and over and over and over and over again...

At least 3 times a day during mealtimes. I try feeding her 5 times a day but have given up. I do not have that much patience, not much left and it's not coming back fast enough to last me 5 times a day.

I dread giving her food. I REALLY MEAN DREAD!

She gets upset, she starts sweeping, she screams, she cries, she throws herself backwards....and pulls all sorts of stunts just to avoid the spoon.

What's wrong with her???????

WHAT'S WRONG WITH HER????????????????????

What's better might not be best

Been a little over concerned about weaning AN and we (AN & I) had a big 'fight' this morning, all coz of the weaning issue. She's not ready and I am not too, in fact.

She refused breakfast, totally. Not even a spoonful of cereals. I made her another bowl of milk with Honey Nut Cheerios (one of her favourites) and that too did not interest her.

She wanted 'mem mem' instead.

The voice of the PD rang loud in my ears as I faced the dilemma, whether or not to give, "She gets filled up with breastmilk and has no appetite for anything else."

So, I thought I should be firm and not give in to her. She could cry all she wanted. How long could she cry, right? I thought after an hour or so, maybe when she's tired out from all the crying, she'd feel sleepy and go to sleep by herself.

Wrong.

She cried for 2.5hrs and wasn't ready to stop.

While suffering from the withdrawal syndrome of not having her 'mem mem', she actually started thinking of ways to get what she needed!

She came and kissed me all over (from my lips, to nose, to forehead, ears, chin, cheeks...all over my head) coz I enjoy having her kiss me before I give in to her ever since she learnt how to kiss and learnt the different parts of her face.

No luck with that.

She hugged me and sobbed sadly (she does that when she meant 'sorry', for anything, like making me angry this time?).

Still no luck.

She took me by the hand and walked me to the sofa where she gets her naps. I laid beside her and tried to read her a story which obviously wasn't something she wanted. She continued to cry.

I ignored her (I tried...me also heartache ok?).

She then thought it might make me happy if she packed her toys and while sobbing badly, she went to put all her toys together in a corner.

Still no 'mem mem'.

She started throwing tanthrums by rolling on the floor but that was wrong answer too.

Last thing she did, she took me by the hand and told me 'upstairs'. That's what I'd tell her when it's bedtime at the end of the day. I had no idea what she had in mind so I went upstairs with her.

She then brought me to her bed, laid down and started sobbing desperately.

hee. I thought this girl's rather 'resourceful', given that the PD said her head circumference wasn't growing as 'ideally' according to the chart.

I gave in (it had been 2.5 hrs since she started crying..) and brought her downstairs so that she could rest on the sofa. In less than 5mins, she fell asleep. That was persistent, for 5 mins of comfort, she could beg for 2.5hrs.

While reading advises by mummies who face the same problems with weaning baby in http://www.babycenter.com/toddler , I came across comments about PDs discouraging breastfeeding and mummies being given 'dirty looks' by PDs who saw them breastfeeding beyond a year old.

Was surprised to hear that coz I thought PDs in the States should be rather pro-breastfeeding.

Some mummies decided to allow their child to self-wean (like Clairemummy advised initially when I had thought about weaning AN), and that would be more natural, not to mention less painful for the child.

A mummy's comment caught my attention when she wrote something suggesting that we could only do this (in the case of our discussion about breastfeeding) for as long as 5 years (which is really an exaggeration, I hope). For how long more can our child need us as much as this? When this period passes, what remains will only be memories.

Then I recall AN making funny faces as she nurses and sometimes she smiles at me. Her little fingers start pointing into the air while she mumbles and nurses at the same time and her tapping on my chest affectionately. I like looking into her eyes and that hardly happens besides nursing time coz she's hardly ever still since she started crawling.

So, I guess, it doesn't take much for me to go ahead (and Mr Liow too agrees) with allowing her to self-wean.

As for her appetite, we'll just have to see about that. I think I'd been scaring her off food. The moment she sees me coming with food now, she'll look stressed up and start refusing even before she sees what's in the bowl for her.

And I'd been feeling the stress during each of her meals too coz she rejects food and for the 5 times a day (3 meals, 2 milk/yogurt) that I try, it's a bonus if she could willingly have just 1 meal without me having to coax or distract her.

My worries about her not eating is starting to turn into impatience...

Kindly remember us in prayers too ya? It hurts to think that AN might be frightened of me and sees me coming as an angry mummy each time when there's food in my hands.

Back from my lesson

I'm home from my driving lessons and have thoroughly enjoyed myself for those 3 hours!!!!

The roads here are wider and straighter than Singapore's, definitely an easier place to start off with. It's a plus that people in Tucson are also patient with me crawling at 40miles/hr in a 1 lane road (edited: Mr Liow said he travels at that speed too at those areas, so I wasn't crawling afterall!! muahaha!)

Another 3 hrs lesson to go and if I do not screw anything up, I should pass. I 'passed' the evaluation for this 1st lesson too.

I feel happy like a bird. hehe

Controlled...by...music

I was washing dishes in the kitchen when I heard the music on the system in the living room, change from that of her baby program to this on the radio station. She had been meddling with the remote controller again...and when I peeped, she was happily dancing..

Funny Mr Liow

Friends who know Mr Liow know that he's a joker.

He really has lots of funny ideas and has no qualms about carrying them out. hehe.

We had tim sum for breakfast this morning and I didn't feel like having Char Siew Bun. He ordered a 'basket' of them anyway and since I clearly wasn't interested, he had to finish all 4 of them.

What do you do when you do not wish to waste the food, do not wish to pack just 1 bun back, gets no help whatsoever from your wife and little girl who's hardly keen on food? You forcefeed yourself and does it happily.

*Drum rolls*
Presenting: The Finishing Bun...Finishing the Bun...or whatever you want to call it


And then in full view of the shoppers at Park Place Mall, he displayed his Kung Fu talents (with a little help from a 'little' someone)


You know who that 'little' someone is!

Morning routine

My daily duties start with Baileys and Maen.

1) Sweep away fur collected overnight
2) Comb away fur that died over the night on both fur-bodies
3) Brush away fur on their bed
4) Change water in their water bowl
5) Feed them

These, I can only do while AN's still asleep else she'll want to help. I do appreciate her willingness to help (for how long can she be this helpful, right?) but things get done faster if I am the one doing them all.

So, one fine morning, AN woke up early and insisted on doing something. I gave her the task of filling up their water bowl (can't expect her to help me wash and top up the bowl, can I? hehe.) She has the freedom to grab whatever she needs to help me with my 4 other to-do items and does them anyway, anytime anyday.


And after filling up their bowl, AN decided to help me do further sweeping.

Gymboree

AN has finally, for the 1st time in her 20 months of life, stepped foot in a 'school'.

It's so inconvenient that I can't drive and I had to wait till Mr Liow could afford the time to drive us there before I signed her up for the trial class.

It made me very happy watching her climb around and taking part in the little activities for the 45 mins we were there.

The class was for toddlers 16-22months of age and at 20 months, she's one of the eldest I suppose. She's so tiny standing among the little ones. hehe.

I expected her to be shy since this was the first time she joined a playgroup. Was glad she was ok and even offered a toy she picked up to another child.

Some pictures to share :) Very colorful place






AN helping to put the toys back


All fall down! I was showing AN a replay of this video a while ago and she starts to insist I play that with her over and over again and giggles when we both fall.


Very happy with the whole experience (in that she could opt to join in the little sing-and-dance activities or climb anywhere she wanted if she preferred to). Have not signed up but we definately will, after I get my driving license (yes, I'm still a passenger by status).

Talk about that, I've also finally booked my 1st practical lesson and will be behind the steering wheel this Monday (2 days from now) for 3 hours from 4pm - 7pm. Pray that I will be still be alive and no one will be hurt during these 3 hours. hehe.

AN's pet dog

Since Baileys & Maen are more part of our family than pets, baby gets no privilege of riding on them.

That day on Christmas Eve, Mr Liow's colleague gave her a giant dog that resembles a St. Bernard.

She now has a pet dog to ride on!

Check out the 'aiya aiya aiya'. She enjoys falling 'accidentally'.

Ninja Baby

Once upon a time, baby was able to push herself onto the little space on the back rest of our sofa bed.

Soon after, she mastered standing up on the narrow ledge.

We wonder when she'll start walking on walls...hmm..