A Slice of Pear

These are my first few tries at baby led weaning. I'm still a little worried that she might choke on it so I'm really watching that pear closely. She enjoys sucking on it but not that overly excited. The pear was not that sweet.

Sitting

Soph has been slower in reaching this milestone. She sits for a few minutes and is still a little wobbly on her balance. But she is getting better everyday. Maybe slithering still take precedence. This morning she was practising sitting before going to daycare. She likes pushing the pony with blocks recently - another excellent hand-me-down from G.

Goodbye Jungle Gym

Now that Sophie is slithering everywhere, the jungle gym can no longer contain her. Still, it has served me well in keeping her occupied during all those times I had to spend pumping and couldn't play with her. I dismantled and stored it away today, marking a new stage in Sophie's life

Sophie in The 3 Musketeers in Buggy Ride

These 3 kiddos at daycare always hang out together in the late afternoons. The other 2 kids are actually from the ladybug room meant for older babies. The boy on the left is Jakie who used to be in the nursery with Soph.

Oh so cute Count Dracula

Friends at daycare

Soph hangs out with a few kiddos in the nursery. There was Jacob, a cute ten month old who is always trying to escape. He even crawls to me. He has since moved on to the older babies room.
And there is Charlie who is one day younger than Soph. Her mom works at the daycare too so she is only there for half a day and can get breastmilk as and when she wants. Lucky her. Here is Sophie hanging out with Charlie. Sophie is using the boppy because she still needs support sitting. Charlie is sitting up nice and tall and I heard she is even pulling to stand.
The story of the photos that day goes something like this. Charlie offered a rubber ducky to Sophie. But just as Sophie was going to stuff the ducky into the mouth, Charlie snatched it back so she could chew on it. Funny.

And then there is four month old Caitlin who just joined a couple of weeks ago. I heard she cries a lot because she is used to being carried. Poor girl, I hope she gets over it soon otherwise her crying might disturb Sophie's naps! She kind of looks like a baby at one of our Gymboree classes. I have yet to see the mom to verify.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog Song

This song was going on forever at the Mickey Mouse party. It is so catchy and now we are so addicted to the tune.
Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Dig-get-ty Dog!

Cleared!

Dr. Knudsen the pediatric neurologist called me yesterday evening and told me there was good news with the scan.  He said the waves looked pretty normal and we should come in for a follow up checkup three weeks later. Phew! I told Soph seems to be jerking more before sleep and he said those may be hypnic jerks but they are harmless. Actually she jerks at some other times but I am wondering if they are voluntary. Anyway, it puts my heart at rest now. We should still continue to monitor her and take more videos if we can to show the doctor during the follow up visit.

Birthday Parties Weekend

Casting aside my worries about the test results for the weekend, we attended two birthday parties and a dinner hosted by our Indian neighbours living across the street.
The first one was a birthday party for a five year old boy Tyler of the old housemates. Avengers theme party. Not too exciting for Soph but she was in a good mood that afternoon so it was great.

Happy mood on car ride to Tyler's birthday party

The second one was a birthday party for a two year old. Mickey Mouse theme party. We did not know the family very well but went because Mickey and Minnie were going to make a guest appearance. It was a very well planned party with everything Mickey. The menu was simple just hotdogs but they had Mickey themed menus describing how to make the hotdogs and Mickey related names even for drinks.. And party favour bags with Mickey jigsaw puzzle and Mickey shaped Oreo cookies. The mom made Mickey party hats too, they were so cute. All these despite the fact that she just gave birth about a month ago. It inspired me to make something unique for Soph's first birthday party too. Sophie was chill about Mickey Mouse, she was not overly excited but was not scared either. dd was apparently having a whale of a time, reliving his childhood days like a big kid.

All dressed up for Mickey Mouse party

Checking out her shoes

Mickey Mouse birthday party!

And then dinner at the neighbour's house where he invited the neighbours living beside us too. It was nice to get acquainted with people living close to us. I thought we would get dinner the moment we reached. But they sat us down and treated us to pre-dinner drinks and snacks, so I knew Soph would get cranky by the time dinner started because she missed her evening nap. But we managed to keep up the poor struggling kid until dinner and dessert was over before we bade goodbye.

What to wear for Halloween?

It's Soph's first Halloween and my second but my first to dress up.
Found some cute stuff at Target

EEG Scan 2

The scan was rescheduled for Friday so no sleeping for Soph on Thursday night. After picking her up from daycare, she gave up her evening nap by rolling around the bed and I did not persist. She even rolled onto my lap and gave me big smiles. Sweet. I think it was the first time she showed affection for me. I felt bad for what we were going to do to her later.

After dinner, we went to Target again to while away time till midnight and get her distracted. She was struggling to stay awake midway but eventually gave up and dozed. Since she did not take an evening nap we let her doze for half an hour till we left. Back at home, she played with her toys and knocked out at midnight again with her grab ball in her face.
dd tried to wake her at two but she would not budge. I was unconscious. At four, we woke her and turned on all the lights. I pumped and went back to sleep while dd took the first shift from 4 till 6. I woke up and took over from him. Entertaining a baby and playing with her for five hours is not easy! We even broke a house rule and watched Barney on TV. Poor Soph was struggling to stay awake and there were times when she was rubbing away at her eyes. But we are so lucky that even when she's tired she does not cry and kick up a fuss. I guess she potentially makes a good traveller. Finally everyone was awake at daybreak and we were out of things to do. I suggested bringing her for a stroll for the last hour before leaving. She stayed awake and even laughed when I did peek-a-boo with her on the ride. Such a happy-go-lucky baby.
On the car ride S was dozing off. Oh no, I could not let our efforts go to waste. I nudged her and she cried. She dozed I nudge and she cried repeatedly until we finally reached.
The scan was a terrible experience. This time the technician hooked her up while she was awake. She swaddled her tightly and stuck each probe on. Soph was wailing for help. I felt so heartbroken and helpless and could only pat and comfort her. After it was finally done, the technician tried to force feed her while she was crying. I yelled "she won't take a bottle if she's crying!" I took over her spot, holding Soph's neck in one hand and patted her with the other. I wanted to calm her down before offering her a bottle again. But she was so tired that she just dozed off to dreamland with her head still in my hand. I had to hold her head in that position for a good thirty minutes while she took the measurements. dd and I sang 'Twinkle twinkle little star' and 'Toe-knee chest-nut' the whole time. Soph did not wake up throughout. Phew! But she was having those little hyperventilating breaths from over crying.
She could not really wake up for the awake bit of the experiment because she was so tired out from crying. The scan was finally over and I removed the probes from her head. Ouch because they were stuck on with some sticky pasty stuff. I never want to do this again! I wanted to take a picture of her with wires on her head but I doubt I can bear looking at it again so I did not take it.
Soph fell asleep almost immediately once she got into the car. She continued sleeping when dd carried her into the house. It was heart wrenching to see her poor head with blobs of sticky stuff and all weak on daddy's shoulder.

We gave her a bath and packed her off to bed where she slept a good four hours.
Now we wait for the results. Still very lucky overall because Soph stayed cheery even though the times she was so tired. Proud of her!

What a Miserable Day!

Soph has been having some random jerks for a while. It started off during feeds and now sometimes she does it before sleeping too. They are like little hiccups in her lower body. We told the pediatrician about it and she referred us to a neurologist. We went down for an appointment on Tue and he suggested that Soph did an EEG. Some scan thingy where they paste a bunch of electrodes on your head and measure the brain waves. They want to check for infantile spasms. Wah sounds serious.
The instructions for the scan was terrible. During the scan she has to stay asleep. So the night before we had to keep her up till midnight and then let her sleep till 5am and then make her stay awake all the way till her scan at around 9am. It was tiring for everyone! She knocked out around midnight with the grab ball still in her hand. Poor girl.

Fell back asleep trying to roll over and scoot

At the hospital we put her to sleep. The technician gave us a time limit of 45minutes-so stressful! We gave her a bottle then lied down with her and she knocked out in about 5 minutes. Easy peasy I thought. Then the technician came in and started making markings on her head. That woke her up and she would not go back to sleep. Grr I did not know that she would be moving her head around so much.
Attempt number two to sleep. I lied down next to her and she tossed and turned. She looked kind of awake and I thought she was never going back to sleep. But eventually she did and I thanked my lucky stars. The technician came back in and she started attaching those electrodes to her head. I put my hand on her body to help her stay asleep but she was simply adjusting her head too much! After she had a bunch of attachments on her head she woke up and was bright eyed! And the technician was not done yet. I wanted to curse and swear at the situation. The technician said Soph did not come in sleep deprived enough. I was pretty upset because I thought we tried hard enough. I explained to her that baby's sleep cycle is only 45 minutes, so if she had to do all the markings and attaching the electrodes and still need another 20 minutes for measurements, I do not think we would be able to do that. And Soph was a light sleeper too. I did not like how she was so unsympathetic about the situation and compared how other babies and kids were able to do it because they usually come in crying, hungry and tired and crashed right after they drink their milk. So we could not carry on with the scan because it was out of the time limit. They had to reschedule.
Back at home, she was more cranky and was unable to sleep well. I had to carry her to sleep (usually not the case) and she would wake up if I tried to lower her into the crib. Eventually she adjusted and had better naps towards the end of the day.
We sent more updated videos of Soph's jerking to the neuro's office, hoping he would say she is ok and did not have to continue with the scan. But he persisted and wanted it to be completed by this week just to rule out the possibility. It was good that they were so on the ball with it. Poor Soph has to endure another sleepless night tonight because the scan is rescheduled to tomorrow. But ultimately I hope the scan shows that she is OK! She is still growing, babbling, reaching for things, rolling everywhere and even lunging foward for toys now. When I researched on infantile spasms, the information online seems very scary!