19th to 22nd July 2013 – First Solids Preparation

19th July 2013Saturday, 20th July 2013
My wife went to buy a used high-chair that was on sale for 2,500/- but found that it was too worn out and would need some repair. She left it.
Went for the second dose of Rotavirus. It is 3,400/- at Gertrude’s but they said they do not want to give a different brand from the one that was given as the first dose. Back to the paeditrician’s. Gio was given oral drops and my wife was surprised that the drops were so few. It turned out that those few drops were polio vaccination. He was then given the Rotavirus drops.

Went to Nakumatt supermarket. The high chairs there were unappealing.
Baby rice cereal came down to Purity vs Milupa. Purity was 200/- for 200g while Milupa was 250/- for the same quantity.
Milupa won, for the reason that they described theirs as ‘Gentle’ Baby Rice.
My wife picked rubber duckies (that I had mentioned from time to time before) for Gio’s bathtime.

Gio’s cough seems to have become worse. It no longer sounds dry.

Nowadays Gio shouts instead of the crying that he has been doing.

Sunday, 21st July 2013
The rubber duckies made their debut. Gio seemed to enjoy playing with them. (That generally means reaching for them and putting them in his mouth).

Went to Church.
Went for our Marriage Enrichment Group meeting.

Had some cake for Gio’s Superstar, to celebrate the good work she has done so far, two days before he reaches 6 months.

The rice cereal box says 32g to be mixed with 210 ml of follow-on milk.
That means the box of 200g will only be enough for 6 feeds.
If we are to feed it to Gio once a day, as suggested by the lactation lady, it will last less than a week.
22nd July 2013
Went to the supermarket. Milupa Gentle Baby Rice has sugar listed as one of the ingredients. Purity doesn’t. Also, the instructions on the Purity box ask for 5 teaspoons of the cereal to be mixed with 140ml of milk (or formula). Milupa says 8 teaspoons and 210 ml of milk per serving, meaning that Purity would last longer.
Gio’s cough persists. His nose is also a bit stuffy.
Went to Kasarani to look at a cot that a lady there was selling. She also had a high chair.
The items could not fit easily in the Vitz. (Told you we needed an Amazon).
I told my wife, either Gio travels in the front seat or we come for the stuff tomorrow.

Related articles

• Introducing Food (teamsama.wordpress.com)
• The Myth About Single Ingredient introduction (plumorganics.com)

15th to 18th July 2013

Monday, 15th July 2013
Bath time moved to a later time than has been the case of late.
Gio slept at 9:00, as opposed to the 8:00 or 8:30 that has been the trend the past few days.

16th July 2013

Gio can now roll over fully from his back to his tummy. After that he takes a few moments to pull out the arm that is now underneath him.

Against Grandma’s advice

17th July 2013
Was out of the house till late and did not get a picture of Gio today 😦

18th July 2013

Shoot Photos

Here are some of the photos from the shoot with Japho

http://japho1.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/meet-the-gumbas/

11th to 14th July 2013 – More Prices, Walking Age, Beliefs

11th July 2013

Friday, 12th July 2013
Went to Biashara Street. There are car seats there that cost around 6,000/= and I think even 4,000/=
High chair for 4,000/-
High chair whose height can be adjusted 7,500/-

Wooden cot with mattress and net for 12,000/
My wife said it was softwood and I said what does it matter?

There was an Avent ‘3-in-1’ breast pump on offer for 12,000/-
I asked what 3-in-1 meant.
Electric, battery-operated and manual.
Usual price is 15,000/-
My wife contemplated buying it.

The Medela electric pump is 12,000/-

Picked Gio’s Grandma from bus stop.
I her asked about Gio’s cousin.
“She is now one year and four months old.”
“So she is walking already?”
“Yes, she walked at 7 months. Just like her mother.”
Saturday, 13th July 2013
Around yesterday Gio began making a razzing sound (sort of buzzing and blowing saliva through mostly closed lips). He is doing it a lot today.
Went to visit a relative.
While we were there, I lifted Gio over my head to place him on my shoulders (or neck, if you prefer). His grandma said that carrying him over my head will make his teeth delay in growing. (Remember this?)
14th July 2013
“Don’t eat your toes,” said Gio’s Grandma.
“Why?” we asked.
“You want to hear another one?” she asked, laughing.
“He will delay in walking.”

7th to 10th July 2013 – Boy Or Girl?

Sunday, 7th July 2013
Went to Church with Gio. He was generally quiet during the service and slept a bit.
He was asleep when the service ended. We put him in the stroller and he went on sleeping even as we wheeled him on the parking lot that had stones.
I rather sympathised with him for having to sleep in a seated position.

We were invited to lunch by some family friends and one of them asked if Gio was a boy or a girl
“Boy”
She said she thought he was a girl because he is so beautiful.
“What a waste of beauty!” she said.

With my sister Apondi

08th July 2013

09th July 2013
Went with Gio to a fund-raising concert. It was rather loud at first, but the volumes reduced somewhat when the concert proper started.
At some point Gio was shrieking and I was covering his mouth.
Someone told me to let ‘her’ make noise.

We left at maybe 10:15 p.m.

10th July 2013

04th to 06th July 2013

04th July 2013

05th July 2013
Gio has a cough 😦 06th July 2013

Here is something from one of the blogs I follow:
http://winterindecember.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/blog-shout-out-101/

Thanks, Winter!

01st to 03rd July 2013 – Unwell

1st July 2013
Discovered a boil on Gio’s head 😦
It had actually grown to the point of bursting. We squeezed it (against the advice of various web sites)

02nd July 2013
I was in town and my wife was at home with Gio. She called me and asked me to Google what a baby’s temperature should be, and said Gio’s was 36.7 degrees Celcius.
I Google and first found the temperature in degrees Farenheit then moments later that normal temperature is 36 to 37 degrees C.
03rd July 2013
Gio’s nose sounded a bit stuffy. He was also making crying sounds as if he was uncomfortable. I sat him up and moments later his nose was running. But that went away and he resumed breathing through his nose. My wife said he refused to feed at night. Gio generally does not seem himself today.

We went to see the lactation specialist (I’m not sure that is what she calls herself) about weaning Gio. She gave us an informative talk. (She charges KShs 2,500/= per session).

Went to the clinic for weight check. 9.5kg. He has gained (only) 300g since the check last month. His temperature was about 38.2 degrees!
We went and saw the paeditrician (following the matter of the not-so-good medicine from the clinic). She gave him some medicine and prescribed some more.

By bed time, Gio was a bit more cheerful and more like his usual self.

Some relatives/friends gave us a stroller for Gio.

(Sometimes I think of writing a post about all the things Gio has been given, then I fear that I may offend some people by forgetting to include them…)

27th to 30th June – First Night Alone

27th June 2013

Went with Gio to a funeral meeting.

Friday, 28th June 2013 – First Night Alone
My wife and I wanted to go to a tribally themed night at a local restaurant. (Mulembe Night, for you Kenyans)
My wife had a laid out plan:
– Stock up on milk for the night. Check.
– Invite her sister B to be at hand to attend to and give milk to Gio if need be. Check.
– Put baby to sleep and exit the house
– Have a great time

We were coming from a funeral and we picked B near our house. So far, so good.

When we reached our place, B got out of the car with Gio and went to the house with him, while my wife and I remained to carry this and that.
We reached the house and found Gio crying. B was trying in vain to calm him.

I took him and he stopped crying.
I was a bit surprised. Gio usually looks at me with little interest. Ok, he occasionally gives me a spontaneous smile and may smile or laugh if I make effort.

He fussed a bit more after that and he was given part most of the milk that was meant for the night. He eventually slept and we left.
We came back home around 1:30 a.m. and found all was generally well.
Later, we were told that he had actually woken up soon after we had left and B had given him the remaining milk! Good thing my wife had not known that Gio was at home without any milk waiting for him.

That was the first time Gio remained at home at night with both of us away.

Why we need an Amazon 🙂

29th June 2013 – Free Food 🙂

I went to the supermarket with Gio’s sister, who is 6 and a half years old. (She lives with her mother).
As usual nowadays, I went to the baby food section.
A lady approached us:
“We have an offer on this baby food. Buy one get one free. You can start this at 4 months. This one can start at 6 months. But if it’s for her” (indicating my daughter!), “I suggest something higher.”
Really? A 6 year old taking baby food?

I was thinking how I was not buying immediately, then the lady said:
“Offer will be on until end of July.”
Yay!

Added the countdown to start of weaning to the blog.

Gio went with my wife to my wife’s chama (investment group) where the women, ten in number fuss over Gio. The kids of the other mothers were also around and they immediately started poking Gio. When asked, they said that Gio was a doll. My wife tried to stop them but surprisingly, Gio’s nanny was more firm with the boys, to my wife’s amusement.

Something I keep forgetting to say. If you spot any spelling mistake in(on?) the blog posts, do point it out. Thanks.

30th June 2013

“If I was someone else,” said my wife, “I would probably feel jealous about the nanny.”
“Why?”
“When I am with the nanny and people ask about Gio, his development, whether he is now sitting and so on, she answers. She doesn’t seem to think that the questions are directed at me.”

Went to church and then to our marriage enrichment group meeting.
There was the 3-week-old baby I mentioned recently and the 11-month-old girl that we hanged out with a while back.
Gio weighs as much as the 11-month-old. But people say children lose weight when they start crawling and walking. We’ll see.

For the record, Gio’s nanny does quite a good job and my wife and Gio like her 🙂

25th to 26th June – Case of the Missing Diapers

25th June 2013
Some friends who visited a while back brought us a packet of the largest size of diapers. We have not used them. They are now missing. There are four people who live here – my wife, me, Gio and the nanny…

Meanwhile, it is 28 days to the start of Gio’s weaning. I went to the supermarket and looked at the first foods available. Some seemed to have too many man-made ingredients, such that I thought maybe we should make just most of the food ourselves.
—
For the record, the pictures shown on the post mentioning the baby shoot are NOT the photos Japho (the photographer) took.

Wednesday, 26th June 2013
My wife asked the nanny to look for the diapers. Later, the nanny said she did not find them. My wife implied that then she must have taken them. The nanny denied passionately and said she would not do such a thing. My wife sort of believed her, but the diapers are simply not there. Or at least we don’t know where they are.
[UPDATE: For the record, Gio’s nanny does quite a good job and my wife and Gio like her]

Gio was cranky. My wife thought his gums were causing discomfort. She put her curled finger in his mouth for him to gnaw. He was calm for a while doing that. She then transferred the task to me. It felt a bit weird. After a while, he started fussing again.

I resorted to what usually works for me: I stood up while carrying him. He stopped fussing and was now staring at my wife and smiling at her when she paid him attention and talked to him. I said she was his superstar.

A second person commented on the Rotavirus post and said we paid too much for the vaccine. Should be about KShs. 2,800/-

27 days to the start of weaning.