Our little munchkin is 4mths now! From a girl who was underweight, she has now become way above average in a weight still at 90th percentile!l Not to mention her height has also crept up to 90th percentile. What giant have I birthed? She is even bigger than an avg Ang Mo baby! lol.
Here are her developments:
1) She used to sleep for 10-12 hours BEFORE we took her to Malaysia. After her routine got completely mucked up in Malaysia (thanks to the heat there too), she now sleeps for 7 hours and always wake up at around the 3amish mark. zzzZZZZZ.
2) Her routine at present looks like this (and it is always the same! So it's true that baby craves for routine):
> wakes at any time from 3-4am mark for a quick feed and dozes back off to bed
> 7:30am, wakes properly for a feed and then does a big poo
> I then put her back to her cot to sleep (more like for me to get more sleep) and then both her and myself will wake up at around the 10am mark
> play for an hour, then gets tired and goes back to sleep. Sleeps for about an hour, wakes up, feed, change nappy, play, tired, sleeps and repeat throughout the afternoon
> 6:30pm - baby gets a bath
> 6:45pm - top up feed
> 7pm - goes to bed
> 7:30-8pm - cries to be picked up
> 8-8:30pm - I carry her for a quick walk around the house or she may just sit on my lap while I watch TV
> 8:30pm - back to bed in her cot
> 8:30-9pm - she does a few small cries before she finally dozes off by 9pm!
> 3-4am - wakes up for a short feed
and repeat the whole cycle
3) While we were in Malaysia, I noticed her lower left and right gum was pretty swollen and then a white ball started to appear on the gum (kinda like an ulcer) and I took her to the pediatrician in Malaysia straight away. Thank God he said it was a cyst and was not at all harmful. When I got back to Australia, I got a 2nd and a 3rd opinion from my GP and the Maternal Child Nurse. Both also said it was harmless. The growth she had was called 'Epstein Pearl' which is relatively common in newborns. The cyst will eventually pop by itself and will not cause any discomfort to the child in any way. To date, her right epstein pearl has popped. Thank God!
4) Every Chinese aunty that meets her always tell me that Davina is very alert for a baby. Her eyes are always fixated upon an object she sees and is quick to turn her head when the object moves. She is definitely more alert than Zach cos when we're in a completely new environment, she will suddenly do a 'scared' cry. Or, when she's discovered the person carrying her was not who she thought it was, she will also do a 'scared' cry. The aunties all tell me that she will be a very smart girl and will be very studious too! I hope so!
5) At such a tender age, I can already see her personality shine through. I always describe her as feisty, fierce, determined to get what she wants and will set all out to achieve it. Little things she does for example: there are times where I am breastfeeding her and she will detach herself from the boob and I would think she's done so I'll proceed to hold her upright (vertical) in order to burp her. But then she will start to perform her deafening 'scream' cry and I know straight away that she is telling me 'MUMMY I AM NOT DONE YET! I WANT MORE MILK!' and as soon as I place her back down on a horizontal position, she will be kicking away looking so happy :) But if I don't give her more milk, she will cry non-stop! Another example, during her awake hour, she likes to be held in 2 positions and 2 positions only. These are: her facing out to the world (ie her back against your chest) or her chest on your chest so that her neck just dangles over one of your shoulder. If you hold her in any other position, she will cry non-stop. She absolutely hates the rocka-bye-baby hold. She also loves to go for a walk. If you hold her for too long sitting down in one position (long as in like no more than 5mins!), she will start to cry non stop cos she is telling you to get off your butt and walk around so she can see her surroundings. I kid you not! She is one fussy xiu jie olright! She definitely can't sit still. Must utilise every moment of her waking day. I must admit though, she is definitely better at communicating things that she wants to ppl better than her older brother.
6) Similar to her brother, she loves it when I sing twinkle twinkle little star while doing the actions. She gives a big smile whilst lookingup when I get to the part 'up above the world so high' :)
7) She hates the dummy and the bottle! Yikes how am I ever going to go back to work. She will not take the bottle at all! I've already changed 3 bottles and 2 teats for her.. still no luck. It's costed me $60 already! ARGHHH! H.E.L.P!
8) She loves to laugh when you laugh especially when sits on your tummy while she is looking at you and then you pretend to eat her toes. She would just break out in hysterics. So.darn.cute! Like her brother, she also loves to kick on the keyboard. I love seeing her eyes in sheer excitement every time she kicks.
9) Many books says by the age of 4mths, a baby should no longer be swaddled/wrapped. So I have since stopped swaddling her (maybe that's why she's not sleeping for 12 hours?). At the start, it took a while for her to adjust as she would only sleep for max 5hours. But after I gave her her bolster for her to hold onto and kiss, she would fall asleep much faster and sleep longer if the bolster just touches her face as I think she feels more secure. I think I have just created her security 'blanket' for her :)
10) She now weighs 7.6kg at 64.2cm with a head circumference of 42cm.
I know I have said this before, but even though she was a very naughty baby to start off with, she is now becoming a much easier baby to look after (better than Zach) cos she is a much better sleeper and she knows how to sleep awake unlike Zach (which mind you was our own fault cos we never properly taught him how to). Oh how we love her!
Click here to see Zach's 4 month's development.
