11th to 17th August 2013

11th August 2013

12th August 2013

13th August 2013

14th August 2013

We left Gio with the nanny as we went for dinner.

15th August 2013

16th August 2013

Saturday, August 17th 2013
My wife and I went to Church for a meeting and left Gio with the nanny. This does not normally happen in the morning.
After that, we went to buy some toys for our friends’ daughter. Of course we got some for Gio.  Today I washed Gio single-handedly, while my wife was doing something else.

Some things I did not mention:
Maybe two or three weeks ago, Gio started sticking his tongue out in an attempt to put it to various things – his clothes, his feet, someone’s arm etc.
When you put Gio to sit, he immediately starts looking for something to pull, usually to his mouth. Immediately, as in as he is landing, he is looking.

Battle Of the Genes and Other Stories

Gio’s hair has never been cut since he was born. It gradually fell off and seems to be growing afresh.
Actually it has never been combed either and we are not styling it in any way, contrary to what some people seem to think.
‘You are braiding his hair and he is a boy?‘
‘You are twisting his hair?‘
‘If his father is okay with it who am I to protest?‘
The knots, braids, twists or dreadlocks are all self-forming.
Maybe we will shave him when he turns one.
***
Long before Gio was born, my wife and I each used to declare that each had the stronger genes.
It was going to be the battle of the genes.
After Gio’s birth, most people say that he looks like my wife (except for his hairline and shape of head).
My wife finds it very funny that someone said that all I passed on to Gio was a deep voice.
My response is usually that you can’t start rejoicing that you have won a half-marathon when people have only run 500 metres out of the 21km
***
Gio was born weighing 4.04 kilos (8.9lb)
One day, I heard a conversation between my wife and her mother that went something like:
Wife: What was my weight at birth?
Ma: 3.6 kilos (7.9lb)
Wife: That’s heavy, right?
Ma: Yes
Me to Wife, later: I could see your attempts at claiming responsibility for Gio’s birth weight.
***
It had not occurred to my wife that it was possible for Gio to reject food when we started feeding him (solids). She was a bit taken aback when I mentioned that possibility. Turned out she was right. Gio generally took to eating with lots of gusto.

5th to 10th August 2013

Monday, 5th August 2013
I told my wife it was time to introduce a third food item to Gio’s diet.

Tuesday 6th August 2013
I again said that we should introduce a third food into Gio’s diet.
Gio was not very keen on having pumpkin. The nanny said that even in his daytime meal, he had been reluctant to eat.
My wife said we leave it and try rice cereal. At first I said she should just breastfeed him, but later said we could try the rice.
He ate the rice cereal more readily than the pumpkin.

Wednesday 07th August 2013
Again, Gio was not keen on having the pumpkin. Again, my wife prepared rice cereal and he ate that more readily. Maybe he is tired of pumpkin. Time to introduce third food.

Went to clinic for monthly weigh-in. Gio is now 10kg. Nurse said 500g in a month is good weight gain for his age and again said that he is overweight anyway.
He was also given Vitamin A oral drops.

08th August 2013

Trimming Gio’s nails as he sleeps

09th August 2013

10th August 2013

Introduced porridge. Gio took it reasonably well.

1st to 4th August

1st August 2013
Started feeding Gio pureed pumpkin mixed with formula.
He took it reasonably well.

The formula tin says that once the tin is opened, the formula in it must be used within 30 days.
We had a tin we had opened a while back that still had formula in it. We did not want to take chances by giving that formula to Gio, so we have been using it ourselves as milk powder 🙂

Fed Gio pumpkin twice today.

2nd August 2013

Saturday, 3rd August 2013
I bought hinges to hold the cot together and put an end to the nightly fixing. One side went in well, the other was a bit problematic – the Made in China screws started sort of chipping.
Sunday, 04th August 2013
Went for a friend’s (one of the three avid readers of this blog) daughter’s 2nd Birthday Bash.
I asked two friends, one a clinical officer and another who works in a children’s home, whether it was dangerous to carry a child by his arms only.
Their response was immediate and unanimous: Yes. The child’s shoulder’s are not strong enough yet.
The one who works in the children’s home said carrying a child like that is actually a reason for dismissal from employment at the home. It can cause dislocation of the shoulder.
On another subject, she also said that it is normal for a child’s poop to be like a paste when he starts eating solids. The poop is like clay or Plasticine (r) or play-doh (play-dough?).

When we got home my wife prepared Gio’s second meal of pumpkin of the day. We sat him in his high chair, strapped him in and my wife started feeding him. She feeds him pretty fast before he loses interest. She then told me to add a cloth round his neck to serve as an additional bib. I got the cloth and my wife stopped shipping spoonfuls to Gio’s mouth to allow me to put the cloth round his neck.
Gio let out a shout that surprised us. He apparently did not appreciate the interruption of his meal, brief as the interruption was.

28th to 31st July 2013

28th July 2013

29th July 2013

30th July 2013

31st July 2013

24th to 27th July 2013

24th July 2013 – First Solids, Day Two
The second feed of solids went fairly well.

As seen below, we’re also trying different spoons for less drip onto the bib and more into the mouth 🙂

My wife discovered that she has been giving Gio too little rice cereal. She was counting the teaspoons after mixing the cereal with the formula, instead of before. We had a discussion(hahaha, discussion indeed, read ‘Kay please get your notebook and write these measurements) about that and I told her to write down how much cereal to measure out for the next two feeds.

Below, Gio also finding out how much cereal he should get, seems the whole family is involved.

25th July 2013 – First Solids, Day Two Again
Yesterday my wife discovered that she had been giving Gio too little rice cereal because of counting the teaspoons after mixing the cereal with the formula, instead of before.
No wonder we hadn’t seen any change in Gio’s behaviour, like sleeping more etc. So today was going to be a fresh Day Two.

She mixed 10 teaspoons of cereal with the formula, the meal almost filled the bowl.

She breastfed Gio a bit then the feeding started. Gio was a bit sleepy but we ignored it. He started off very well, opening his mouth, eating/sucking, and he seemed to enjoy it.

After a while he started fussing and rubbing his eyes. Yup, sleep for sure.
He had taken more than half the bowl. We tried giving him more but he got more agitated so we stopped. My wife breastfed him and he slept almost immediately.
Tomorrow we will give him the meal when he’s wide awake and alert.

26th July 2013
Saturday 27th July 2013
My wife went with Gio to a wedding and later to her chama (Investment Group meeting.)

At the chama, the ladies as usual fussed over Gio for a while. My wife says those interruptions are why the chama ends later than the stated finishing time. Gio has a deep voice and one lady at the chama says that’s the only factor Gio inherited from me 😦    . . . normally when Gio wants to feed, his voice becomes deeper as the boob is being unleashed so one of the chama ladies was so fascinated  and kept saying ‘ Eh the way this guy approaches his meals, hahaha’

23rd July 2013 – First Solids

Tuesday, 23rd July 2013 – First Solids
Gio turned 6 months today. The long awaited day of introducing solids is here.
My wife and I spent longer than I had anticipated assembling the cot. We would push one side in and the other side comes apart.
We finally managed, but now the mosquito net does not cover the new cot as well as it did the old one.

Went to Nakumatt to return the Milupa and get Purity instead because Milupa has sugar.

Also bought some baby porridge, surprisingly the recommended ones all have mixed grains which goes against the principles of weaning.
(You should introduce single food items, so that if there is any adverse effect, you can immediately nail the culprit.)

Got home and found Gio was hungry.
Let’s do this.
I need to call the lactation lady and ask what amount.
“Just follow the directions on the packet, I don’t see why you are fussing. Do we have water?”
“Yes.”
“And the plate or bowl?”
“Oops! We need to wash it and put it in the sterilisation water.
Let me just breastfeed him for now then we do this properly later.”

So Gio breastfed and slept a bit.
After he woke up, he was washed and I dressed him as my wife prepared the first meal.
The rice cereal is meant to be mixed with either breast-milk or formula. We chose to go with formula so that we don’t waste valued breast-milk in case Gio doesn’t finish the meal.
There was a lot of discussion about quantities, but finally we were ready.
Armed with the lactation specialist’s script, it was all systems go.
My wife first breastfed him a bit as directed then sat him in his new high chair.

She put a bit of the cereal in Gio’s mouth. He made a face. He seemed to be tasting it and sort of chewing it, but he did not seem particularly interested.

We tried several more times to give him the food, putting some in when he opened his mouth, but he seemed more interested in the chair and things around it. However, he did not really reject the food.
I suggested we move him from the chair and feed him while carrying him. There wasn’t much change.
I then suggested that my wife lets him touch the food and put it in his mouth himself (as he does with everything he holds). She gave him the spoon and predictably, he moved it to his mouth.
I was about to suggest that we stop and try again tomorrow, since one of the main objectives of the first feed was simply to let him get used to the idea of eating something. I felt we had made a reasonably good introduction. My wife suggested that we turn off the TV, and we did.
Then it seemed something clicked. Gio actually started opening his mouth to be fed! This was about 15 minutes after we started feeding him.

Time and again, he opened his mouth. He even leaned forward towards the spoon! I was amazed.

My wife asked the nanny to bring the remaining cereal and she added a little to replace what had poured. He finished the amount we had apportioned to him, sat with my wife a few moments, breastfed, then slept.
We hoped he would sleep for 6-8hrs, but Nope!