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..