Renzo's development - Month 10

10 Month vs. 09 Month
Weight: + 1.2kg (OMG~!)
Height: + 5.5cm
Head Circumference: not measured

The previous one month has been a truly great experience for us. I am thinking that a few years down the road, when Renzo grows up, probably we will be missing this period of time the most. The reason is simple, baby Renzo is learning a lot and our interaction with him becomes so fun. But at the same time he has not learned to argue with us, how to cry for his favorite toy at shopping centers, and how to refuse vegetables during his meal time. So we simply enjoy taking care of him as much as playing with him during these few months. And those things he's learned simply brings us so much joy and sweet memories.

I have already lost my count of how many items he could recognize by now. And finally he is able to point at every object with his small index finger. It's so enjoyable when you watch him turning around and pointing at different objects one by one. He's learning to say "ball ball", which must be his first few words besides "papa", "mama", "daddy" and "mummy". And he could even pick a "yellow color ball" accurately from a cluster of items in his bath tub including balls in other colors. And just recently, he started to wave goodbye to Aye Aye before bedtime. Aye Aye has been teaching him to wave his hand for months, and suddenly on one of the evenings, he waved at Aye Aye right before she went out of our room after bathing Renzo.

Besides being able to point at different kinds of items, Renzo starts to "poke" at his little tummy with his right thumb when you ask "Where is Renzo?". And if you ask "How old are you Renzo?", immediately he will respond by lifting either his left or right index finger, symbolizing that he is 1 year old (well in another month plus). He covers his milk bottle with the cover after feed; he points at his water bottle when he wants to drink, and he points at the TV when he wants his "Leapfrog DVD" to be played. And the fact that he recognizes my parents, my parents-in-law, my sister and brother-in-law, is just making everyone crazily happy!

Now we are anxiously waiting for this little boy to start talking and walking on his own, which will be another amazing milestone...

Just realized with didn't take any pics at all these past few weeks... So all we have is a little video of little Poopersaurus tearing down my camera phone after calling out a loud "Mama~!"
*PS: Sorry about the orientation of the camera... will remember to hold it in an upright position in the future...=P

Renzo's favourite "where is ..." game

For the past 1-2 months, Renzo has been learning a lot from all of us.

Every night when I reach home, I will ask him "Where is fan fan?", "Where is potty?", "Where is the clock? "etc, and it has became a daily routine for us to check on Renzo's progress. It is pretty amazing to see how many things he could actually remember at such a young age.

Let me count those objects/people he can identify by now:
Clock
Fan
Light
Cherry jiejie (he will look at Cherry's photo when we ask "where is Cherry jiejie?")
His potty
His hat
His alphabet poster (when we ask "where is A for Apple?")
His good behavior poster (when we ask him to "be patient")
His number 1-20 poster (when we ask "where is Kangaroo?" since there is a kangaroo on that poster)
Mickey mouse (a wall sticker)
Our house door (when we ask "where is xx-xxx" which is our unit number)
Computer
Diaper
Pillow
Car (his toy)
Apple (his toy)
Dog (a picture on our calendar)
TV Mirror
Fish (both the fake toy at home and the real one in my brother in law's fish tank) Daddy
Mummy
Aunt Ayeaye
Yiyi (my sister)
YiFu (my brother in law)
Cherry jiejie (haha can be confusing though as he knows where is cherry's photo also)
Grandma (through webcam on computer)

Of course when he is not in good mood, he will not bother to answer your "where is..." questions. But when he likes to play with you, he can really "answer" all your questions correctly by looking at the right direction, and when you acknowledge that by saying "smart boy, very good Renzo", he will smile and clap his hands.

Amazing stuff right? Nah.. to me, the most amazing thing Renzo has done so far is: in order to grab his shampoo bottle which we put on the floor during his bath time, he throws his toys (used to attract his attention and keep him sit still) out of the bathtub, so that he could pretend that he needs to pick them back up, but in fact he's obviously aiming at the shampoo bottle only.. LOL

I guess babies' brains are just like a sponge and they are willing to and able to absorb as much as possible, as long as you are willing to teach them. Early education and cultivation is extremely important, and that's why I am not surprised when I came across this less than 2 years old boy who has mastered all alphabets and even basic phonics. His mummy has done an extraordinary job in self-teaching him, and this nice lady has shared her secret with me - a set of Leapfrog learning DVD. I bought the set for both Renzo and Cherry, it is still early for Renzo but Cherry is benefiting a lot from it. She used to know maybe less than 15 alphabets but after using that DVD for less than a month, she knows all 26 alphabets and even knows how they sound like(phonics).

I am not forcing Renzo to study hard now, I just believe that early education can help kids understand that learning is fun, not stressful. And to properly teach your kids, do not rely on anyone else, especially school teachers, we parents are the first and best teachers for our kids ever.

Renzo's development - Month 09

Renzo has just turned 9 months a few days ago, and this time, again Win brought him to Polyclinic for the checkup, there's no injection this month, but a series of assessment tests done to test his physical development. And our boy has passed all his tests with flying colors!
09 Month vs. 08 Month
Weight: + 0.4kg
Height: + 1cm
Head Circumference: +2cm (vs. 06 Month)

I start to get used to the fact that I am not able to bring Renzo to clinic as usual. And now Win becomes the one who spend more time with our boy instead. He has really sacrificed a lot for our boy, he's been working half days for quite a while, reason being that I am too busy with my new job and not able to come home on time every night. Now it is my turn to receive Renzo's photos at work from his proud father.
And on last Thursday night when I returned home after work, I was amazed to see that Renzo was able to recognize quite a few objects. He knows where is the fan, the light, his potty, his alphabet chart, cousin Cherry's photo, Mickey mouse wall sticker and the Kangaroo on his Numbers poster. We've introduced Renzo to a number of objects since a few months ago, and now our efforts finally got paid off. Of course we must thank Ayeaye for her great contribution as well, I am sure Renzo learned Mickey Mouse sticker from her at least.

Major development
1. He has a total of 6 teeth (top 4 and bottom 2).
2. He is able to pull himself up to standing position while holding onto something.
3. He is able to recognize a few objects (as per listed above).
4. He tried egg yolk on 8th May for the first time, no allergy.
5. He tried cheese on 9th May for the first time.
6. He cruises when we hold his arms.
7. For the very first time, he slept from 9:50pm to 5:30am without waking up in the middle on May 14 (too bad that was the one and only one time).
8. He tasted chocolate ice-cream and durian (super tiny amount).
9. He is able to pass objects from hand to hand.
10. He is able to throw objects using his hand (he seems to have more dexterous left hand, well, like daddy like son, LOL)
11. He enjoys "crab walk" in his walker

Renzo's diet is pretty healthy so far (well yes you might think I've been feeding him too much, in fact I am not, and I also make sure whatever I give to him is good to his body). He has tried outside food for only twice (when I was lazy to cook and having a crave for dim sum). It is tiring to prepare his food during weekends, so usually I spend a Saturday morning, and cook the stock and dumplings that can last him for about 2 weeks.

The stock I make for his daily meal usually contains 7-8 items, such as:
- Spinach
- Celery
- Asparagus
- Carrot
- Pear
- Papaya
- Mushroom
- Winter melon
- Pork

As for the dumplings, I use things like:
- French beans
- Mushroom
- Chicken meat
- Threadfin fish

And he always has fruits (1 banana or 5 grapes or a few pieces of papaya) after breakfast and lunch, and 1 cup of yogurt after dinner. I just can't wait to introduce a larger variety of food to our boy in another 3 months time!

Renzo's development - Month 08

For the very first time, Win brought Renzo for his Pneumococcus jab (2nd dose) at polyclinic on Apr 19 himself, and I was not there with them because taking leave is not something I usually do when I start a new job. I felt really bad about it because in the past I was always the one carrying Renzo when he had the injection, but this time Win had to do it, and according to him, instead of whining a little bit during every injection, Renzo really cried this time.

Overall his growth is really good, well his weight is a bit on the high side but he is all healthy, that's more important to us.

08 Month vs. 07 Month
Weight: + 0.3kg
Height: + 0cm
Head Circumference: not measured

Major development
1. His top 3 incisors erupted.
2. He is able to crawl well.
3. He looks at the fan when you ask "where is the fan?" and looks at the poster on the wall when you ask "where is C is for CAR?".
4. He uses his potty to pass motion most of the time. He pooped on diaper for no more than 3 times in the past 2 months.
5. He had his first outside meal at crystal jade restaurant on Apr 24.

Renzo has tasted a wider range of food during the past 1 month, that even includes some oily and salty stuff at the restaurant. It was really fun to watch him nibbling on "roasted duck kway teow noodles" and "cha siu bao (chinese steamed bun)", of course we only let him try the dough but not the filling. Of course he enjoyed his meal very much, and I was really worried that he will refuse to eat any home cooked food since they are usually less tasty. Anyway guess we might not let him try outside food again till he is 1 year old maybe, the reason is simple, outside food are too unhealthy and his digestive system might not be able to take it for the time being. Since I am working and AyeAye has not much time preparing Renzo's daily food, I've made stocks in an ice cube tray and a lot of dumplings for Renzo's lunch and dinner, so AyeAye could simply add them into Renzo's ABC pasta. During weekends, I cook porridge for Renzo as it requires longer time to prepare.

And finally, after so many months of crazy online shopping, I bought this nice little hat for Renzo at a small shop that sells kids apparels. The hat is made and imported from Korea. I was quite reluctant to pay 25 bucks for it initially. But when Renzo saw his own reflection in the mirror with this hat on, he was chuckling like nobody's business, his sweet smile simply melted my heart and I couldn't think much but made the payment immediately, LOL..

Renzo's development - Month 07

There is no vaccination for Renzo scheduled in March and thus we have to do our self measurement for him at home:
07 Month vs. 06 Month
Weight: + 0.3kg
Height: + 1cm
Head Circumference: not measured

I feel that his motor skills have improved greatly during the past one month.

Major development
1. He is able to pick up snacks from plate with his fingers, bite and chew with his gum and 2 little teeth.
2. He called “papa” on March 06.
3. He called “ma” from March 11, and often call “ma”, “ma” when he cries.

4. He claps his hands often.
5. He is able to pass items from one hand to another.
6. He has great interest in crawling although he has not mastered the skill.
7. He is able to drink water from straw.
8. He is able to do “high five” with us, he responded to “high five” since he was about 4 months old, but now he can do it very well.
9. He knows the meaning of certain words, when I say “car” and show him his toy car, he will play the wheels with his fists, and when I say “C for CAR”, he will look at the alphabet poster on the wall. So I think he can relate these two together.
10. He is able to use his potty!!! He’s not potty trained yet but he started to use his potty very often and we do not need as many diapers as before nowadays. Ever since he got his new potty (for almost 2 weeks), he only passed motion onto his diaper twice, the rest of the time, he did it in his potty!! (Make me feel that this blue puku potty is the best investment I’ve made so far!!!) And I can’t agree more with my sister and parents that bad habit is formed not because our kids are not doing well enough, it is because the parents are just too lazy. If we are willing to bring our babies to potty more than 10 times a day, and clean up the mess whenever they get wet or dirty without diaper, every parent can figure out our babies’ pattern and get them toilet trained as early as possible.
11. Unfortunately, he’s still drooling like crazy, as always, and here’s our “solution” to it:

Scarves, a lot of scarves

I’m starting to feel that the bonding between AyeAye and Renzo is getting stronger, although our boy still cries hard for mummy’s hugs, he likes to see AyeAye and to be carried by her. And we believe that we are lucky to have her in the family. On a few occasions I really left only the two of them at home for almost a whole day and she was able to manage Renzo very well, and even noted down his sleeping and feeding times without being asked to do so (she’s smart as she knows we are tracking such information). When Renzo tries to crawl, she’s on all fours and chuckles besides him; when Renzo wants to poo poo, she sits beside his potty and makes “en en” sound to stimulate him; When Renzo cries, she sings her Myanmar lullabies which no one in the house understands; When Renzo achieves his “firsts” milestones, she is as excited as us parents. I think she plays an important role in Renzo’s growth and development. And I am sure she’s also grateful working for us, as she told me that she didn’t expect us to buy coffee mix for her daily consumption and her mother planned to send that to her from Myanmar, and she even brought her own lunch box here as she didn’t expect that we would let her eat with us together on the dining table. I think she’s a sincere and hardworking girl, and I am sure if she works with us for only 2 years, most probably Renzo will have no impression of her in the future even if we have all her pictures well kept.

And these are the picture we asked her to post back to her family, new clothes, nice food and cute baby of course, haha, hope her mother will allow her to stay with us for longer time, LOL..


On a side note: Renzo has received his passport, and I have to praise Singapore Immigration for their efficient service. Despite the super crowded waiting area and long queues (as always), we managed to collect his passport in less than a minute, that all should attribute to the convenience of online application and e-appointment through ICA website!! (applause!!!)

Renzo's development - Month 06

Personally I think most babies’ physical growth tend to slow down a bit around 4-6 months, and so does Renzo's.

06 Month vs. 05 Month
Weight: +0.4kg
Height: +1cm
Head Circumference: +4cm (vs. 03 Month)

With the 3rd dose of Hepatitis B injection done this morning, finally he has completed all his compulsory vaccinations that he supposed to take below one year. And we made an impulse decision at the polyclinic, which is to let Renzo have his 1st dose of Pnemococcus jab today together with his Hepatitis B injection. The initial plan was to have this only during his 7th, 9th, and 12th month, but since we all understand the importance of Pnemococcal immunization, we do not want to risk it and wait for another month. Luckily our boy is strong and brave, he just whined a bit after each jab but didn’t really cry out loud, well that’s the usual him, haha.. We still gave him 3.75ml of paracetamol as he was extremely grouchy, and I’ve boiled Chinese barley water for him. For those mummies who are interested to know, the recommended dose of paracetamol for 3-6 months baby is 2.5ml and for 6-9 months, that’s 3.75ml. As for the barley water, we need to boil the Chinese barley instead of Holland barley, as Holland barley has better flavor but only Chinese barley has the cooling effect.

The past one month was indeed a “nightmare” for me, as Renzo’s sleeping pattern has not improved at all, he continues to wake up almost every hour for a total of 6 – 10 times every night without a fail.

So for the two major changes happened during the previous month, the good one continues to be good, and the bad one continues to get worse.

- The good one:
Instead of having 5 feeds per day, we further reduced that to 4 feeds only and there’s no midnight feeding anymore.
- 1st feed around 7am (180ml)
- 2nd feed around 11am (210ml)
- 3rd feed around 4pm (210ml)
**Shower around 830pm**
- 4th feed around 9pm (300ml)
Well this schedule looked pretty cool and our life became much easier, as we have a good 5 hours interval between 2 feeds, during which we can happily bring Renzo out for a good stroll at the park, or even to shop around Orchard Road (in fact there's nothing to shop about because recently I have been purchasing most of Renzo's clothes online from jshoppers.com, as they are having this free shipping and handling fee promotion for purchase above 1500 yen, call me online shopaholic.. haha but seriously i've read good reviews about this website and so far I'm very glad with my purchases..). Although the last feed of 300ml scared me, he was still having a total of 900ml which is below the recommended amount on the milk powder tin for his age. But this nice schedule lasted for a few weeks only before it changed completely. After we introduced solid food to Renzo, here’s his new schedule:
- 1st feed around 7am (180ml)
- 2nd feed around 11am - solid
- 3rd feed around 2pm (180ml)
- 4th feed around 6pm - solid
**Shower around 830pm**
- 5th feed around 900pm (210ml)

- The bad one:
The reason I said the bad one continues to be even worse, is because last time when he fidgeted and wiggled during each wakeup, sometimes I could just pat him to sleep back again without picking him up from his cot or giving him water. But currently if I do not pick him up or give him water, he will be wide awake with his eyes open coupled with cries and screams. We have ruled out some of the possibilities after some trial and error. We’ve changed back his diaper brand to MamyPoko again, because he started to wake up often after we switched to Fitti premium 360 diaper; We’ve been giving him teething tablets since his bottom 2 incisors have erupted; We’ve tried Feber’s “cry it out” method by leaving him alone when he wakes up during his sleep; all these have failed us and some mummies on Singaporemotherhood forum who are experiencing the same thing have told me that it is just a phase and our babies will outgrow it eventually. Well not that I do not believe in it, I am just afraid that before Renzo can outgrow this, it becomes a very bad habit which might follow him for years.

I hope it is just due to teething, and the Hyland’s teething tablets (a lot of mummies swear by it) I bought from an online spree seemed to work on him, but I decided not to give him unless he is super cranky since I do not like to let him rely too much on medication.

Major development
1. He started to have 2 solid meals a day from February 9, 2010.
2. He is able to clap his hands.
3. He reacts properly when we say “high-five” or “gong xi gong xi” although he is not able to do these 2 gestures 100% correctly yet.
4. He jabbers a lot and invented his own vocabulary “ah jia” which no one knows what that means, but he can say that for more than 5 times continuously.
5. He is able to sit unsupported for a long long time, and he can even reach out to a toy, grab it and play with it with both hands, and still balance himself very well.
6. He is able to roll over (flip from tummy to back and back to tummy again). But sometimes he just likes to practise this skill at the wrong time...

Some notes on his solid food intake:
- He does not really like too sweet stuff.
- So far his favorites are Healthy Times Oatmeal cereal + Morinaca Manna baby biscuit and banana puree.
- He hates pumpkin and Nestle Apple n Cranberry cereal.
- He likes Moon Rabbit brand brown rice powder with ikan bilis although we all cannot take the fishy smell.
- His poo is a bit harder after starting solid, although he’s been drinking a lot of water as usual. Thus we need to be careful while giving him food that might cause constipation, eg: banana has a lot of fibers but we need to choose the smaller ones and cut off the core as the seeds will cause constipation (according to many experienced mummies but no scientific proof on this).

And Renzo just experienced his very first Chinese New Year festival. There’s nothing worth noting down at all as it is again the usual tiring period for everyone and Renzo especially, because we have to bring him along for visiting.The only sweet moment was when we put red packets under his pillow at 12am on first day of Chinese New Year, which is something our parents have been doing for us in the past, while we do the same for our precious little one, the feeling is just so heartwarming..

Renzo's development - Month 05

We brought Renzo’s for his last 5-in-1 jab yesterday, and I must say time really flies. I could still remember vividly when we brought him to polyclinic for the very first time for his first 5-in-1 jab and he was so thin and fragile back then. Now look at his growth during the past one month:


05 Month vs. 04 Month
Weight: +0.6kg
Height: +4cm
Head Circumference: not measured

This time he did not develop any fever after the jab at all, yeah!!!

He did cried quite badly after Win brought him home (I was doing grocery shopping during that time), and when I came back and carried our boy, he stopped crying and fell asleep in a few minutes. But we still gave him 2.5ml of paracetamol since the nurse told us it can be given to baby if he is very grouchy after the jab. At the same time, he's been drinking barley water from the night before his jab and I believe it really has some cooling effect, as compared to last time, his body did not turn hot in the afternoon and evening.

This month a few of our friends visited Renzo, as were the months before. This pair is really worth mentioning, hehee.. Chang and Huiting are a super sweet couple, thus we strongly believe potentially they will be good parents and good in-laws. So if they are going to have a baby girl (really high chance since they wanted 4 kids) in the future, maybe we can introduce our Renzo to their girl girl?

Yeah a picture of Renzo with his favorite neck float and "future in-laws"? Nah, too early to say... haha..

Another great visitor is our best friend Zheng Cheng, who bought us 2 nice books to help us understand our baby better as new parents, that's so thoughtful of him. And apparently Renzo also knows who is nice to him, he was making a lot of noises at first, but the moment he saw his uncle Zheng Cheng, he flashed a big friendly smile and even tried to tease Zheng Cheng by making funny sound non-stop. (We should have taken a picture of those two laughing together..)

I mentioned in my post the previous month, that although Renzo still cannot sleep through the night, he can sleep quite well after bathe for around 4-6 hours straight. Now during this one month, there are 2 major changes to his feeding and sleeping routine, one is good, the other one is really bad.

- The good one:
Around the last week of December, we decided to increase his daytime milk intake from 150ml per feed to 180ml per feed after he went on “milk strike” for 3 days, and at the same time we finally changed his Avent milk bottle teat from #2 to #3 as before that he was not able to handle bigger teat very well. Amazingly, he can finish a 180ml bottle in 6-12 minutes, previously with his 150ml bottle, it usually took him 25 minutes to an hour. So the culprit could really be the teat I guess and I should have thought about it and changed it earlier. Anyway although it is a bit scary to see Renzo finishing his full bottle in such record-breaking time, at least the good thing is, we managed to drag his feeding interval to about once every 4-5 hours. And he is having 5 feeds per day instead of 6. The schedule goes like this:
- 1st feed around 830am (180ml)

- 2nd feed around 1230am (180ml)

(nap about 1 hour in total in the morning)
- 3rd feed around 530pm (180ml)

(nap about 1.5 to 2 hours in total in the afternoon)

**Shower around 830pm**

- 4th feed around 900pm (240ml)

(sleep from 940pm-1020pm to 400am-420am)
- 5th feed around 420am (180ml)

(sleep from 430am to 730am)

- The bad one:
In the past, he is able to sleep for a straight 4-6 hours after his last feed, but recently, Renzo has been waking up very frequently at night, averaging about 5-8 times, and only 1 out of the 5-8 times, he is up for his milk, the others were for no apparent reason. Most of the time I have to give him a little bit of water then he will sleep back again. Sometimes he also can sleep back after I pat and rock him for a short while. Till now we are still trying to find a solution to this. We came out with a few possibilities after doing some research online:
1. Some mummies mentioned that according to PD, if baby can sleep through in the past but suddenly wakes up often at night, it could be due to over stimulation. So we try to dim the light immediately after his shower and play some classical music to help him relax and calm down.
2. Some mummies suggested that it could be a sign, that our baby might need to start on solid food. Well we are still trying to wait till he turns 6 months and meanwhile we will continue monitoring his situation first before we really decide to start him on solid slightly earlier than intended.
3. We might be giving him too much water in the morning. Well I have to say in a way our maid helped to cultivate this habit because whenever Renzo cries hard, she will try to pacify him by giving him water. And most of the time Renzo cries badly because he needs to sleep. So in the end it became his habit that he needs to suck on his water bottle to fall asleep. Therefore I instructed Aye Aye not to immediately give him water when he wakes up half way from his nap. Like Win once mentioned to me, the water bottle serves as his pacifier now, so it is better that we can do something to change this habit of him, or else it makes no difference from giving him a pacifier. But whether this is the root cause, we do not know because he has been drinking a lot of water since birth but only recently this problem surfaced.

So changing his habit of waking up many times at night for water is the next challenge we have and hopefully we can get this problem resolved within a month.
And maybe it is because of interrupted sleep at night, sometimes during the day Renzo can be quite tired, here’s the proof , he fell asleep on his own while playing half way in his walker.. :)

Major development:

1. He can sit on his own without support and play for quite a while.
2. He can reach out for toys and grab them very well.

3. He enjoys playing, laughing and communicating with people more.
4. He's been drooling a lot more than before.

Well those are the only major developments for the past one month. He still cannot flip, and according to his health booklet, we need to consult doctor if he still cannot roll over by 6 months. Now it is time to get him play on his play mat more often and encourage him to flip then.

To help with Renzo’s mental development, we have been playing baby rhymes during daytime, and “Your baby can read” DVD occasionally, as well as some classical music at night for Renzo. My father advised us that music is very important to baby’s growth and he has bought Renzo a whole set of musical DVD specially designed for baby’s brain development. I also tried to read story books for Renzo, but it seems that he is more interested in Ancient Chinese Poems. And the most “kiasu” thing I did (to our non-singaporean friends, Kiasu is a Hokkien word that literally means 'fear of losing' (In Mandarin: 怕输). , was to read up on the best childcare centers and top primary schools in our area. Well one day you people will understand why when you become parents ^_^

Renzo's development - Month 04

Our little boy (err nope we should say big boy) is growing really well during the past one month, both physically and mentally.
04 Month vs. 03 Month
Weight: +0.9kg
Height: +3.5cm
Head Circumference: not measured

We went for his 2nd dose of 5-in-1 on Dec 14, and he developed a mild fever of around 37.6-38.1°C for a short while, and quickly recovered (in 20 minutes maybe) after giving him 2.5ml of paracetamol.

Till now Renzo is still not able to sleep through the night, usually right after bathe he can sleep for 4-6 hours on average, which is considered a huge improvement as compared to the first 3 months, and he even had a record of sleeping for 7.5 hours at one night as he did not sleep much during the day. Looking on the bright side, we are really proud of our boy because at least we can completely drop the idea of using Sarong or pacifier to help him sleep better (in fact, never in my mind have I considered giving him those). Because I am 100% used to his night feedings at about 3am and 6am, and luckily 4 hours of sleep every night is quite sufficient for me and now I could even sleep for nearly 6 – 7 hours in total.


Major development:
1. He can support his head steadily.
2. He babbles a lot more and can even say words like “meh meh” (obviously there’s no meaning to it). And he is making more funny noises, e.g. after he sneezes, he will make a sound like “arhhhh”, or after he yawns he will make a sound like “eiyhhh”.
3. He smiles and laughs a lot more and sometimes it seems that he laughs just for the sake of teasing us.
4. He flipped from tummy to back once at Win’s parents’ house with a bit of help from Win.
5. He can hold his both hands together firmly.
6. Sometimes he can play with one of his feet using his hand.
7. He blows raspberries and sucks his fists very often, and he is also drooling quite a bit.
8. He can sit on his own without support for a few seconds.
9. He can hold his milk bottle (should say water bottle as the milk bottle is a bit too big for him) and drink on his own for a very short while.

Aside from Renzo’s development which is quite steady at this moment, there were quite a lot of thoughts and discussions going on between me and Win around a few topics:

To shave or not to shave?
Well since there’s no scientific proof that shaving baby’s hair will make it grow thicker, we agreed that we are not going to touch Renzo’s hair. He has this balding line around the back of his head, and the uneven look makes a few other people uncomfortable about it, including my father, my sister and brother-in-law, whom have all suggested to us to shave Renzo’s head, and keep his fetal hair and make a Chinese Calligraphy brush from that. But my mother supports our idea of not shaving since Renzo still has his cradle cap and that area is a bit soft and using a blade to shave over can be quite painful and dangerous.

Is Renzo ready for solid food?
It is not difficult to come to an agreement of waiting further until he turns 6 months old, despite the fact that my parents think otherwise. They are pushing us to give Renzo fruits and cereal from now on, but from our research and readings, it is not advisable as baby’s digestive system is not fully ready yet and he should be able to get all the nutrition needed from breast milk or formula milk even till he is one year old. So we will only start shopping for his utensils in another 2 months time.

How should we bring up our precious baby in a better way?
We have to face the fact that I only have a little more than 3 months with my current company, and it is impossible for me to get another job which allows me to work from home. We had this same discussion 2 months back, when we were going through our toughest period – Renzo was super difficult to look after, I was extremely tired during confinement and not getting used to the life of being a first time mum, my mother was struggling due to her bad health condition thus not able to help us for long, my father was planning to come over only next year due to his work commitment and I have to start work in Dec, Win’s parents offering to help only after Renzo is about 1 year old due to work commitments as well - in short we just have no one to help us besides we ourselves. At that time, my father helped us make this decision to hire our maid and till now I must say that’s the wisest choice, it just feels great when we do not have a need to ask for help from others. And what’s more important? Renzo is our baby and we have the responsibility to take good care of him, we should not even think about getting help from others in the first place.

So we’ve set our minds strong that it will be the same after these 3 months+, as long as we have no problem to maintain the current situation financially. The logic behind is pretty simple, I could foresee that things will only get better when Renzo grows bigger, that also means in no way that we cannot manage things on our own, since we did it and did it well even during the toughest period.

Dad has been reminding me many times that we must give our full trust to Aye Aye (our maid), and all grandparents (including themselves) will only spoil the kid, so the best person we can rely on is no other than ourselves and our helper. I truly agree that my father is right because he is the one teaches us to always put our baby’s benefits as top priority, instead of prioritizing adult’s convenience. Till now, Dad is still forwarding me those useful articles on how to educate and cultivate our kids at different stages, and the efforts he had put in that brought up my sister and me is really something that can benefit us and even our children in many years to come.

We might not be able to provide Renzo the best, but we will promise him our utmost!

Renzo's development - Month 03

Renzo has just turned 3 months old this week, many of our friends visited him and all of them commented that he is a really big and chubby baby.

03 Month vs. 01 Month

Weight: +2.9kg

Height: +6.5cm

Head Circumference: +4cm

Compared to the major changes that occured from month 01's transition to month 02 (one most significant example being his serious vomiting stopped at month 02), it seems that nothing has happened this month, but in fact I think he has improved a lot in terms of his daily feeding and sleeping routine.

Renzo's daily feeding schedule at 3 months (starts from 7am):
- 1st feed around 8am to 930am
- 2nd feed around 11am to 1230am
(nap about 1 to 1.5 hours in total in the morning)

- 3rd feed around 4pm to 530pm
(nap about 2 to 3.5 hours in total in the afternoon)
**Shower around 7pm to 740pm**
- 4th feed around 8pm to 930pm
(sleep from 9pm -1030pm to 130am-3am)

- 5th feed around 130am to 3am
(sleep from 2am-3am to around 4am-5am, then I have to carry him to sleep till about 530am-6am)
- 6th feed around 530am to 6am

Around end of Oct, we tried to change his shower time from 7pm+ to 8pm+ so that when I return back to work, I still have ample time to rush back home and shower him. But as a result, we have to feed him 7 times instead of 6 times a day, because when he cries around 6pm to 7pm, we substitute the shower with another feeding in hope that after his shower around 8pm+ he will drink around 10pm and sleep around 11pm and only wake up once from then till 7am next morning. But too bad, somehow Renzo just has this bio clock running in him that right after shower, he must have a bottle. Thus we only managed to drag his shower time by one hour, there's no change in his sleeping routine and still, he ended up having 1 more feeding around 6pm+.

Basically that means our new schedule has failed completely. And hence I just reverted back to the old schedule on Nov 12, fortunately my bosses (one Dutch boss in the Netherlands and one US boss in Singapore) allow me to work from home, and that means I can shower him around 7pm without the worry about not being able to reach home before that, and most of my night conference calls only start after 9pm so there's no conflict at all. A bit off topic but seriously western bosses are generally more understanding and humane in this aspect. Of course I think being able to work from home attributes to my dedication to work also. There was one day I left Renzo at home with Winson (poor hubby was on MC that day) and our maid, and went back to office from 10am to 5pm to re-image 13 computers. Great thing is these 2 bosses always appreciate my work and in return, they are very flexible with my working schedule and help me solved the biggest problem so far.

Why I said so? Because our maid Aye Aye is really having a hard time handling Renzo. I have no idea why, Renzo just cries hard in her arms, of course not all the time. So the biggest problem was, who can look after Renzo once I started working? Our initial plan was to leave him to Aye Aye and let my father-in-law come to our house every morning, just to supervise her. Basically he is not able to help with anything despite that he has babysitting experience in the past. Nowadays babies are very different, not to mention that Renzo has a lot of "patterns" and not easy to look after at all. And I could already imagine that our poor little boy is crying badly and the two just have no clue and no idea how to console him. But now at least I will be around, and it is not a compulsory thing for my father-in-law to come everyday, instead he can just visit us at anytime when he wants to.

Major development:

1. He can almost support his head steadily.
2. He can burp by himself without us patting his back or carrying him.

3. He coos a lot more and changes his tune very often.

4. He is able to grasp a rattle and swing it for quite a while.

5. He drinks 90-150ml per feed and 180-230ml for the feed right after shower, 6 feeds per day and total around 800-970ml.

6. Finally he likes to stay and play in his playpen, sometimes he can sleep for quite a while inside. That also means we need to carry him less often than before.

Now we do not really have much worries like what we had in the previous 2 months, because after reading a lot of posts on Singaporemotherhood.com, I started to realize that many Aug mummies are having same or even worse situation than us, and all of us just have to face it and slowly find our own solution. The only thing that we still can not manage well, is when Renzo cries very very badly for 10-15 minutes, even I cannot stop him, that means he is extremely tired and frustrated because he is also hungry at the same time. We just have to let him cool down, and feed him while he is half awake.

I have consulted some other Aug mummies, and a few lucky ones have their babies sleeping through the night from as early as 6 weeks. Some of them are using pacifiers, some are not. I wish I could train Renzo to sleep through the night (I still do not want to give him pacifier), but even if he could not do that, I am fine with the current schedule and waking up twice during midnight is not a problem to me anymore.

Renzo's development - Month 02

Another exciting month have passed. There’s no vaccination done this month, so we did not do any “official” measurement at polyclinic but based on the readings on our digital weighing machine (basically Daddy Chan carries Renzo and takes a weight and thereafter, Daddy Chan takes his weight again and we take the difference), Renzo should be about 6kg by now. Yes he is really a big baby!! Can’t believe he can be so chubby now (erh I don’t like to use the word “fat”) compared to his size when he was first born.

Major development:

1. His feeding time dragged from every 1-2 hours to every 3-4 hours from Sep 24 onwards. And finally we managed to reduce his feeding time to 6 times a day from Oct 04. (used to be 8-12 times and even more). This is really a tremendous improvement as now I can have some time to catch 2 TV series and even cook dinner every night.

2. His neck gets much stronger and can lift up for quite a while.

3. He starts to drink quite a lot of water during and after feeding.

4. Able to differentiate milk and plain water clearly by rejecting his bottle when he does not want to drink either one.

5. From Oct 06, he starts to smile to himself while looking into the mirror.

6. From Oct 11, he starts to move his hands and legs and lean his body towards Mummy Chan for cuddling when being called for. (So touching, sorry Win, don’t feel sad if he has not done that to you yet, he just needs more bonding time with daddy)

7. Starts his baby talk very often, and besides “arh” and “orh” and “eeh”, sometimes he can making sound like “arh-orh” or “eeh-orh-arh” or even longer “sentence”.

8. We were quite worried about overfeeding him but now he takes about 850ml (+/-) of milk daily which is perfectly normal based on the guideline given on formula milk tin.

Daddy Chan and Mummy Chan's new worries from this month:

1. Ingrown nail

Our poor little Renzo had ingrown nail for his right thumb after a finger nail cut and recovered only after about 1 week time. We should have thought about that because me, my sister and my mother are all having this same problem. Now we dare not to cut his finger nails too short.

2. Scratches on his face

Since we can’t cut his finger nails too short, and he stopped wearing mittens after full month (for better development as baby learn new things through touching with their little hands), now we see more marks on his face. Luckily baby’s skin cells regenerate really fast so hopefully there will not be any scars left.

3. Need of cuddling

I have to cuddle him to sleep for a few hours at night, and during daytime he cries often while sleeping half way, and all he needs is just attention, so we have to spend quite a lot of time carrying him. My in laws advised us to use sarong, I am pretty sure it is going to help, but for sure we cannot let him sleep in sarong at night, so I rather just do without it then.

4. Way of carrying

From Oct 11, after a growth spurt, he started to prefer being carried in an upright position. We have not figured out the reason but if our bicep muscles are not strong enough, it can be a really big challenge.

Daddy Chan and Mummy Chan's worries from previous month:

1. Renzo is not sleeping much especially during daytime (Improved)

Same as last month, he is still not sleeping well, but at least now he seems to have a pattern. Usually he has 1 or 2 naps in the morning for a total of 1 to 1.5 hours. And then sleep another 1.5 to 2.5 hours in the afternoon. At night he can sleep for 3-4 hours after bathing, and then from 1am to 7am I will have to cuddle him to sleep for a few hours because he will wake up once I put him into his cot.

2. Vomiting (almost resolved)

I must say there’s really big improvement from 2nd month onwards as Renzo did not really vomit this month, despite spitting up a little bit sometimes. Of course we still need to be extremely careful while feeding him, because if we push the milk bottle teat too deep into his mouth, sometimes it really irritates him and cause him vomiting.

3. Awake after bathing (totally resolved)
Now we fixed his bathing time from about 7pm to 8pm. And usually he can eat a bit more as long as the previous feeding was about 4 hours apart. Or if the previous feeding was only about 1-2 hours ago, he can be very tired after bathing so he does not eat much. But the good thing is he can sleep for 3-4 hours right after that.

4. Passing motion (Improved a lot)

"Poopersaurus" starts to have 3 times bowel movement a day from Oct 01, and further reduced to only twice a day from Oct 08. Guess we should not call him poopersaurus anymore.

And my biggest achievement for the month is – I managed to understand Renzo’s cue a lot better, 80% of time I can tell when he wants to:
-fart

-burp

-past motion

-have milk

-have water

-sleep

But of course, the most satisfying achievement would still be when I call out to him "Want mummy to carry?" and then seeing his little body arching towards me and kicking frantically. That feeling is just pure magic... And the smile on his face - Priceless!!!

Renzo's development - Month 01

Renzo went for his first vaccination on Sep 14 at the polyclinic right opposite our block, which is the 2nd dose of Hepatitis B injection. Fortunately he did not cry out loud, brave boy!! The doctor did a brief check on him and commented that he's growing very well. I did asked her advice about Renzo's sleeping and feeding pattern, apparently our little boy is eating a bit more than what he should take at his age, but sleeping a lot less than most newborns. But it seems that even the doctor can't do much about it since every baby is different. We will just try our best to establish a proper routine for Renzo so that hopefully he can be fed every 3 hours and between feedings he could fall asleep easily.

The past one month is really tough for each and everyone of us, including Win, my mother and myself. Okay not just us, even my sister. Kelly came to my place a few times to help out, and even my little niece Cherry loves to sing song and pat Renzo to sleep (see our little helper in action - shaking Renzo's milk bottle).

My in laws did give quite a lot of comments about how to handle Renzo, such as giving him sarong so that he could have sound sleep especially during daytime. But I insist not to give in because I am afraid that as a result, Renzo will not sleep without a sarong, so it is going to be even tougher for us especially when we need to bring him out. Now then I realised that I am really particular about anything related to Renzo (that's for sure, he is my precious little boy). I would say that it is not easy to look after this little guy but it all worth the efforts. Good habit must be built since young, so sometimes we just have to let him learn through the hard way.

Here's Renzo's development during the past one month.
01 Month vs. At birth
Weight: +1.505kg
Height: +4cm
Head Circumference: +4cm


Major development:
1. When he is hungry for milk, he cries and swings his hands. From 11 days onwards, when we put him in sitting position, he knows it is feeding time so he stops moving around, and when we tell him "coming coming (in chinese as that's what my mother always says), he stops crying and wait for his milk bottle to be served.

2. On day 11, he started to turn his head from one side to another while sleeping, and I only realized it the next morning.

3. On day 12, he started to reject milk by pushing his milk bottle away with his little hands. Of course he does this once in a blue moon, we wish he could do this during every feeding so we could get his cue immediately and do not need to worry about overfeeding him.

4. On day 14, he laughed out loud to himself while asleep, with a funny sound, and his whole body was shaking, he still does this every now and then, that's so cute as long as it does not happen at midnight, haha..

5. On day 19, he tried to lift up his head for the first time.

6. On day 21, started to recognize people, especially my mother who feeds him often.

7. On day 27, "Potty trained!!", he pooped and peed into dustbin twice when I removed his diaper and hold him in position.

Daddy Chan and Mummy Chan's worries:
1. Renzo is not sleeping much especially during daytime
On average he sleeps about 11-14 hours in 24 hours time, but for baby at his age, they should be sleeping around 15-20 hours instead. Of course this is not going to affect his development, just that we as parents or carer need to spend more time looking after him. The unfortunate fact is, he can just wake up crying because he needs to pee, burp or even just fart.

2. Sensitive nose
I asked for malay massage service which is a 5 days session, but right after the first session, I realised that with the wraps on me, I could not even cuddle him properly and those herbs are making him agitated. So I immediately called it off and for now, I guess I cannot even do things like rebonding my hair or a pedicure session, I am sure Renzo is very sensitive to the smell of chemicals, just like his father.

3. Vomiting
Yes I meant really vomiting, not spitting up a mouthful after feeding. There were at least 3 to 5 times that Renzo vomit out at least more than half of the feeding and even through his nose. This is the most scary part for me so far. And because of that, my mother dared not to feed him for a few days. Now he is getting better, and also we are trying to limit his milk intake since serious vomiting could be due to overfeeding. And based on our record, yes it is quite true as those few times he really drank a bit more than usual. And because of frequent vomiting, we have to change his nappy only before feeding, or else he will easily puke his milk out when we move his body. Luckily he still can sleep with pee and poop on his golden butt, although not always..

4. Awake after bathing
His bathing time is usually around 730-8pm. And we noticed that usually he eats a lot after bathing, which supposed to be normal. But it seems he will just ask for more and more milk and refuse to sleep till about 10pm. Thus the feeding after bath can drag for more than 2 hours. And the more we feed him of course the higher chance of him vomiting everything out. So we decided to change his bathing time to about 930pm instead, and hopefully he will fall asleep easily after feeding.

5. Passing motion
Renzo had no bowel movement on Aug 27th, and I called the nurse immediately but was advised that it is alright, and I only need to bring him to doctor if he does not pass motion for 3-4 days. Luckily on the next day he pooped quite a bit. And he even had a record of pooping 8 times a day, that's where the nickname "Poopersaurus" from Daddy Chan originated from. But now with slightly less milk intake everyday, he has about 2-5 times of bowel movement a day, and his stool is soft, yellowish and seedy, which supposed to be quite healthy.

Pic courtesy of Renzo's Godpa, Mike Tan (http://4stillangles.blogspot.com/)
Now we just wish for his better development at month 02...