Saturday, August 29, 2009

Rianne is 6 months old!

Being a preemie, it's not unusual for Rianne to be smaller in size than the other babies of her age. However, when her cousin Joelle, 2 months younger than her has the same weight as Rianne, I became rather conscious.

Rianne does drink lesser milk than Joelle, if you look at the intake per feed. My baby takes 80-100ml/120ml of breastmilk every 2 hourly, and the latter drinks 175-180ml formula milk at an interval of 4 hours. But on totality, Rianne actually has more milk than her younger cousin. Not forgetting the twice cereal feeds Rianne drinks with 70/80ml of breast milk.

My little talkative princess although smaller than her peers, is not developing any slower than any of them! Take her motor skills for example, she's learning to sit already (pictures as shown in previous post) and before she could even sit on her own; she's now taking baby walking steps on a walker! It was my mum's idea to put her in a walker, and surprisingly she managed to take several steps.. ermmm, however they are in the reverse direction which I don't know why! Hahaha..

The other thing which I am so proud of Rianne (and I'm very certain Annie Mummy is too) is, her ability to poo using a potty! Yes, you have not heard me wrongly; a potty. Some toddlers only learn and succeed pooing in a potty at the age of 1-2. My darling baby knows it's poo-poo time when granny flashes the brightly coloured (it's orange in colour!) potty after her morning feed, and another time after she had cereals. Now then I realised how baby poop actually look like in solid form, when it's not squashed in a diaper.. Nasty.

Rianne does have a few unusual habits, even at 6 months old. She shakes her legs when she is seated on people's laps and when she hears music. She loves to check herself out in the mirror, especially when her hair is being combed. She likes looking at you from the mirror, and then at your face just so that she knows it's is the same person. She enjoys watching the telly, but not animation and the cartoony stuff though she still like the nursery rythmes dvds we got at home.

She loves it when you play peek-a-boo with her, and the more I play with this little bundle of joy, the more I wish I can stay with her all day and night..

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Back!!

Been out of blogging actions for a while, due to a faulty router. The D-Link router which my brother-in-law gave (during his courtship with my sis, trying to curry my favour I suppose! hahaha!!), became totally powerless one day. Regardless how me and my mum tried to connect the AC, it simply doesn't work! Then my colleague reminded me that I still have a modem. By plugging my lappie directly to the modem, I will be connected to the network..

Well, some updates on Rianne's condition. After she's been diagnosed with the genetic disorder (NF 1), we've been following up with eye checkups at the hospital. Poor baby her.. she was put to horrible eye tests with administration of 8 different types of eye drops, to see if there's anything growing (likelihood of a tumour) at the back of the eye. My little princess was so brave to got through the first 6 drops without shedding a single drop of tear. However, this smart baby was so clever to know that the second time into the treatment room would mean another round of eye drops; she immediately struggled and cried when my mum tried to keep her still.

There were many other kids & babies older than Rianne, (except one who's only 4 months old) at the eye centre awaiting to be checked in the scariest way ever.. A father & mother of a 2 year old girl was telling Annie Mummy and me how some of the checks were carried out. They said the doctors would pry the eyes of the young children with paper clips, and then shone super bright lights into the poor sockets. I was so terrified that Rianne's doctor will be using such method, but I had overworried. The 'nerdy' looking female doctor was so gentle, and even sang "Twinkle, twinkle little star" in a lulluby version to Rianne. Her nurses were also so kind, and used lots of toys to distract Rianne while the doctor checked.

The doctor explained to me that currently there isn't anything behind Rianne's eyes, probably just a small cafe au lait mark on one of her eyes which is harmless. However as the growth of a tumour can develop anytime, and Rianne is still too young to notify the adults of any discomfort/visionary problems; the doctor recommends us to come back semi-annually for checks.

At the counter while checking out, Rianne was the limelight at the eye center when she made singing-like sounds, and was 'chatting' to almost everyone. All the nurses love her, as Rianne was all smiley and talkative! Hmmmmm, maybe my darling's trying to create good impressions so that the nurses will be kinder to her the next time. Hah!