Introducing Solids!

These days being a parent I have significantly changed my shopping list to suit more on my child lesser for myself . Today, when Hayden was given his Rotavirus oral vaccine and pneumococcal vacine, his pediatrician asked if all is well with him....

Dr Foo: Your baby is doing really well! Weight is good & really active too! Is he still eating well?

Me: Yes, but recently he gets really cranky and usually he will have his milk every 3 hours interval, but for the past 2-3 days, he gets hungry every 2 hours and would just continue to cry until I feed him again eventhough its not the time yet!



Dr Foo: Ahh.. this is the sign where you can start him with solid food! He cries because he is not full. So try to give him solid food once a day. You can either give him for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Me: Really? But he is only 5 months old! I thought babies would only get to eat solid when they are 6 months.

Dr Foo: It all really depends on the baby. Since he has shown sign that milk is not enough for him, you can now try solid. 

So there I went getting excited about the fact that my little Hayden is gonna have his first solid today! After dropping him off at home, I went straight to the mall, screening through all the brands of baby food/cereal. My excitement turned not-so-excited-anymore when I was at the aisle filled with ROWS AND ROWS of baby food. There were Heinz, Nestle, etc and Nestle brand in particular has Stage 1, 2 3 and 4. For Stage 1 alone, there are "Rice Only - with milk" (blue tin), "Rice Only - without milk" (green tin), "Rice and Soya" (brown tin), "Brown rice" (pink tin). WHOOAA! I have no idea which to buy! After making some calls to my mom and my good girl friend Vivian (her baby is 1 month older than Hayden), I finally made up my mind. I went for the blue tin (RM9.60 for 250g).

At 8.30pm (2 hours ago), Hayden had his dinner. The cereal was pretty easy to make. 4 spoons of cereal (it is in power form but with texture) and 4oz of water. After mixing it, it becomes milky with some soft texture in it. He could actually drink it like his usual milk and he finished it all!

So what's next? I have to watch his poo of course! Lets hope his poo turns out normal tomorrow morning! 

Hayden's menu: Enfalac A+ & his new Nestle Cerelac 

My Twinkle Little Hayden at 5 Months Old!

Hayden is 5 months old today. How time really flies! Before you know it, we will all be old hags whilst our child (+ren) grow up and taking over our place as the "kids" in our parents' eyes. I thank God for blessing us with Hayden and like a broken record, I am going to say it again: I absolutely love being a mother!

Hayden, at 5 months now, is such a doll! He is able to respond to us whenever we call his name. He smiles alot when we talk to him (he probably thinks we look funny when our mouth move). He squeeks, coo and laugh when we make funny noises too!

At this point, I am waiting to see when he would be able to roll over. He already started to twist his body sideway at 4 months but thats it. His neck muscles are visbly stronger too when he tried to lift his head up when he wakes up!

His sleeping pattern? Well, when he was younger (3 months back that is), he established a sleeping pattern where he would wake up twice in the middle of the night. Once at 2am. Another at 5am. I am quite used to get up and feed him despite being in a sleepy state. The books I read and other experience mothers told me: "When he gets older, he would not wake up middle of the night anymore..." "He would sleep longer if you turn off the light so he knows its night time..." "Let him cry till he falls asleep again..." "Let him drink more than the usual amount before his bedtime". So guess what? I've tried every method and right now at 5 months he is still the SAME. His sleeping pattern did not change. His last feed would be at 7.45pm before bedtime. I know some of you probably would advise me to feed him last around 10pm so he would sleep longer. I've tried that method too. Doesn't work. He has subconciously set his own alarm clock ...

Little baby Hayden is a joy to my life. I love him to bits! Hubby and I would definitely want a second child in later year(s). Be it Hayden's lil' brother or lil'sister, doesnt matter. So long he/ she is healthy. Agree? But of course I am openly hoping that my second child would be a girl!

Like they say, picture paints a thousand words. But video paints a billion. So here's a treat for you - a video of Hayden today.

  

Best of Bangladesh

So much to share, so much to blog. Its 10.20pm now and baby is fast asleep in his room. In this new post, I want to share with you my experience being in a country where no one would ever thought of visiting - Bangladesh.

On 3rd March 2011 we flew to Dhaka, Bangladesh in MAS together with a group of delegates from the Malaysian hospitals and our Ministry of Health personnels. We were invited to attend a Health Tourism exhibition and to showcase to the Bangladeshis that Malaysia, too have good hospitals with good specialists and they should consider coming over to our dear country for elective treatments (Bangladeshis usually opt to go to Singapore or Bangkok and hardly to Malaysia! - don't quite blame them if you know what I mean).

We were there for a good 3 days and to summarize how it was:-

a) People - There are alot of nice friendly people.
b) Food - Go for their nasi briyani. Absolutely a must try!
c) Shopping - Beautiful textiles, beautiful sarees. You can get them in places like Aarong & Bashundhara
d) Hotel - Sheraton Hotel rated 5 star (4 star for Malaysian standard). One commendable thing about the hotel is that they serve great food!
e) Streets/ Roads - They do have highways and they have alot of trishaws on the road.
f) Air - Dusty with fuel smell
g) Transportation - You have to hire drivers from the hotel. A good 400 Taka (around RM20) per hour. It is absolutely not advisable to get taxis off the road as the streets can be pretty chaotic!

All in all, it was a good experience for me. Being in Bangladesh, makes me appreciate the life that I have right now. Here are some photos that captivate the best of Bangladesh.

Street of Dhaka - Cute little mini cabs! They roam around the streets like ants! 

You can make beautiful sarees from these materials! Absolutely gorgeous!

Bangladesh's Nasi Briyani (rated the best in the world!)