Pump Free!

When Maddy hit around 16 months old, I stopped pumping at work. Before that I'd pump just once midday. One, because I was afraid if I didn't, my milk supply for evening would be affected. Two, because sometimes my boobs would still be engorged with milk. But when I stopped pumping, I found that I still had enough milk to feed Maddy when I get home from work and during the night. And my boobs weren't that engorged anymore.

Next step, when I go to Vancouver for 6 days in June/July, hopefully Maddy will be completely weaned off direct feeding already.

Then time to make a new baby!

Practice Makes Perfect

Maddy's around 16 months now. She has a tendency to repeat certain actions around 10x, as if she was practicing to get it right. One time, she would keep opening the door to her playpen, enter inside, close the door, open it again, step out, and repeat!

Or she would open and close doors, as if to see how they work. Or sit down and lift herself up using the pack and play rail on a cycle.

It's really interesting to observe them doing this, showing how their mind works, and how they're struggling to perfect a task or simple activity, committing it to muscle memory or such.

Maddy at 15 Months Old

Food She Likes

Papaya
Grapes
Apples
Pomelo
Mangoes
Ponkan oranges
Eggs - hardboiled with mayonnaise, scrambled or sunny side
Pasta noodles, pancit
Congee
Rice
Squash, carrots, malunggay
Cream of squash/pumpkin
Rice+monggo
Dutch Mill
Chuckie
Fita/Marie cookies
Halo-halo (that one time we were in UCC)
Generally little bits of meat or fish

Food She Doesn't Seem to Like

Milk - huhuhu
Oatmeal
Bananas
Sayote
Doesn't seem to be into potatoes as well

What Can She Do

She can walk.

Say a bunch of monosyllables like Ba (for Barney), Bo (for Ball), Buh (for Bubbles), Mama, Dada, Ter (for Water, sometimes), Aw Aw (for Dog).
But she already recognizes a lot of things and can point them out. She can point out, when you say the word, for Book, Pooh, Dog or Aw-Aw, Mama, Dada, MiHy (MIL), DiDav (FIL), yaya, apple, banana, orange, slippers, as well as ball, Barney, bubbles and water.
She also allows me to brush her teeth and when I say it's brush teeth time. Then she just grabs ahold of her banana toothbrush after.
She can hi-five and align her finger.
She can also dance or jiggle her butt a bit, mostly to commercials and random songs.
Care of gymboree, she can hug+kiss, as well as pack away her toys (and anything else you tell her to pack away...like laundry)
She can also do the hip hip hurray move.
She has like a set of toy kikay stuff, and she can more or less put "lipstick", comb her hair.
She can drink from a cup better. She skipped the sippy cup phase.

Little Quirks

She loves to lean on her back against the bed mattress while standing up.

(what in the world are you doing kiddo)

She essentially wants to do whatever it is she sees you doing - feeding herself (the mess!), cleaning the floor, brushing her teeth.

(little helper)

(messy eater)

She blows on her food sometimes before eating it, because I guess she sees us doing it.
There are a few times she'd ask to go inside her Pack and Play, sit inside, and ask for one of the flip board books on my night table. Then she'd just flip through it on her own. I really need to get more of those.

It's not a milk strike huhu

So it's been almost 3 months already that Maddy has stopped drinking pumped/expressed milk while I'm at work. There was a brief maybe 2-3 day time when she started drinking it again, but nope, ended quite quickly.

I have come to the conclusion that she simply does not want or like pumped milk anymore.

Recently, we have been successful in having her finish small cartons of Dutch Mill (80ml) or a bottle of Yakult. We only give it to her once a day, and on alternate days.

Before she stopped drinking my pumped milk, I would pump twice a day when at work to produce two (2) 3-4 oz bottles. That's a good respite already considering that when I started, I would need to pump 4-5x a day to give her 3-4 bottles of milk. Since her appetite for milk decreased when she started eating more solids, 2 bottles of milk of day was enough.

Now, I'm only pumping once a day, and mostly just so my supply doesn't diminish further. Problem is she doesn't even take it anymore, and she feeds more at night when we're asleep.

I do want to stop, but may 40% of me says that this is convenient, she's getting good nutrients from direct feeding and from solids, she doesn't seem to need formula yet, except that I feel like she's constipated all the time from not drinking enough liquids. We've been trying to remedy that with more water, Dutch Mill and yakult.

Soon will ask pedia again if we can give flavored milk. Better than nothing.

She also seems to be more inclined to take on new drinks if they're offered through straw or through.. well.. the Yakult bottle. She seems to be complete averse to drinking anything at all from a feeding bottle anymore. Big girl na.

I am just hoping that without formula or fresh milk, she will grow normally and get enough nutrients. BUT. A bottle of formula or fresh milk, at least before sleeping, would be good sana, if only to help her sleep longer.. aka help me sleep longer.

Maybe I'll be stricter with enforcing no more breastfeeding when I get pregnant again? Nyak. Will see.

(Pumped) Milk Strike!

Gah!

Maddy's been on a bottle milk strike for more than a week now!!! She's refusing to drink from the bottle while I'm at work during the day, but is perfectly fine latching on when I get home and several times (huhuhu) at night.

Based on other mommies' opinions and advice, it appears that Maddy has figured out we've been sneaking in a bit of formula to her bottle of BM, and now has "trust" issues. She's refusing the bottle altogether, whether it's mixed or not. Can a 1 year old even be THAT smart and discerning??? Pwede ba un?!

At least she's eating solids more or less well enough. I make sure she's well fed with solids and drinking enough water.

Pedia says that at this age, they need to drink only around 16oz or 2 glasses of milk a day (whether formula or breastmilk). I really really want Maddy to start drinking like a normal toddler, of around 2-3 bottles of milk during the day, and none at all during sleeptime. Mommy needs straight sleep.

MIL suggests I put powdered formula a bit on my boobs. Okay will try that.

The Miracle That is Oregano!

Tuesday

Tuesday morning, Maddy woke up with a cough. It wasn't alarming at first. I thought it may be just a morning cough, but throughout the day, she would keep coughing intermittently.

By evening, she developed a low-grade fever, around 37.5 C.

Wednesday

By Wednesday, she had a runny nose already and we went to see the pedia.

There was no fluid in her lungs, so the pedia suspects it's just the common cold or some viral infection.

He prescribed Muconase nasal spray, to clear out the lining of her nose and thin out the mucus, 2x in each nostril, sprayed 4-5x a day. He also prescribed that she keep take Allerkids (cetirizine).

The two kids of a couple of mommy friends I have in Cebu just also had coughs and colds. Tin said that Lexie was on meds for 5-6 days without improvement. She finally got hold of oregano leaves, prepared them for Lexie, and saw significant improvements in Lexie's breathing, congestion and cough!

Being a believer in herbal medicines, I quickly found a way to buy 2 pots of oregano from a yoga teacher somewhere. I brought them home and set them by the balcony. The pots were Php100 each.

Thursday

There are 2 ways that oregano leaves can more or less be prepared. In both cases, the leaves have to be rinsed thoroughly, with water and vinegar first, then rinsed again for 2 more times in water.

(the leaves are covered with a light white fuzz, which you should remove as you rinse)

First, you only let around 5-7 leaves rest in hot drinking water or over cooked rice for 3-5 minutes, so that the leaves become softer. You then squeeze the leaves to get the oregano extract/juice. You can feed it to your baby by dropper or syringe (sans needle) 3x a day, which is what I did.

(oregano extract)

Second, you can also boil the leaves for 10-15min in 2-3 cups of water, allowing the oregano's juice to seep to the water. You can take 1/2 cup of the oregano water throughout the day.

(oregano water)

Wednesday her fever increased, and she was so restless in her sleep. She couldn't breathe properly and her head must hurt. I put on the Euky Bear vaporizer to help.

Thursday, when we gave the oregano, we saw some improvement and her fever went down. But her nose was still running.

Friday & Saturday

As we kept giving her oregano, her runny nose decreased, but her cough worsened. This could be expected though, as per pedia. Since I kept on spraying her nose as much as I can, the mucus thinned and kept dripping to her throat, causing it irritation. The coughing is an effect of the mucus being cleaned out.

But she had no more fever on both days. I kept on the Euky Bear still for the evening.

Sunday

By Sunday morning, *pwera usog*, she has no more runny nose, and a couple of rattling, looser coughs. Not like the hard hacking coughs she had yesterday and Friday!

I will keep at it with this oregano until she gets better. I don't think oregano works overnight, but seeing improvement in less than 5 days is certainly a relief for this worried momma.

Maddy's teething-related fever

Sometime 2 weeks ago, Maddy developed a fever which we suspected was related to her teething, specifically her incisors coming out. The gum area was sore and she kept wanting to bite or chew things, and she would grind her teeth sometimes.

Her fever reached 39.2 maybe at its highest. We only gave her tempra when her fever reaches 38.5 and above, as per pedia advice. We didn't administer any meds but just monitored her temperature. We didn't give her a shower like we always do in the mornings, but just sponge baths throughout the day. Sleep time was worse because her gums or teething would give her such a hard time and she kept moaning in her sleep.

I feel like breastfeeding helped her get well better, since sucking supposedly helps alleviate the teething pains. We also put KoolFever patches 2-3 times a day.

She was so kawawa when she had her fever. She refused to be put down, she wanted to be carried all the time, and she would only sleep if on top of someone (except for me, I think the breastfeeding helped her sleep more soundly and I can manage to put her on the bed).

Her fever disappeared in 3 days, but she developed roseola or some post-fever rash. We weren't sure if it was itchy, but just in case, pedia prescribed some cetirizine drops. The rash was also gone in 3 days.

As with all her sickness, I wished that her sickness would transfer to me instead. And as always, wish granted.

I developed a sore throat not long after, care of some post-nasal dripping. Fortunately *cross-fingers*, I haven't developed a cold. I attached it immediately with Manuka Honey, Echinacea, lots of Vit C, and hot water or salabat with lemon, cayenne pepper and honey. I also took Sinupret, to thin out the mucus.

Now, it's more of an irritating hacking cough interspersed throughout the day. Damn mucus along the throat lining, irritating the nerve endings. The Company Physician also prescribed Kamillosan spray for the throat to reduce inflammation, and some mucolytic tablets to be taken 2x a day, by dissolving the same in 1/4 cup water and drinking it. Let's hope this works.

(the dissolved mucolytic tablet makes it look like Sprite!)