Happy 1st birthday, Sofia!

Feeding
Exclusively breastfeeding from day 1. Started her solids from 6 months. Loves rice, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, chicken, beef, oranges, pears, sweet potatoes, potatoes, plain water, fish crackers, dry rolled oat. Dislikes banana, papaya, fruit juice, bread. Allergic to eggs. I try to make most of her meals into rice porridge but she is just more interested in what the grown-ups eat. Now I have my meals standing up, otherwise she would climb onto me and beg at my plate. We try not to give in because she just had her first episode of bad constipation for about a week. She’s fine now but I’m trying to get her diet to improve.

On beastfeeding, she is feeding almost non-stop towards approaching her 1 year mark. It is exhausting for me. She has been having breastfeeding problems from day 1. Her mouth was too small, her latching was not so good, mastitis, blocked duct, and now…she is just one impatient baby. She would start latching on one breast, barely even working on getting the let-down and when the let-down was finally arriving, she decided she had waited too long and unlatched. And there goes my milk spraying all over the place. Even if she did manage to drink some milk, it would be just a few good gulps before moving on the the other side. She would go back and forth until she falls asleep or decided she has had enough.

She is very animated while breastfeeding. She just can’t be still. Her leg would push my legs and her other leg would be high up her head and her arm pulling on my hair or something. Or when I sit on the sofa, she would stand on the floor whilst latching on me and I had to bend down a bit. Sitting on my lap, tummy facing down, her butt sticking up on top, every possible position you can imagine, she is one creative baby when it comes to breastfeeding positions.


Playing & Interest
She loves Mickey Mouse! And soft toys. I downloaded the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series into my handphone. I put her in the cot together with some toys and let her watch the MM Clubhouse whenever I want to do my chores, or a nap once in a blue moon. From then on she woud recognize Mickey Mouse whenever she sees one outside and goes “Aaahhh!” in her high-pitched tone.

She just loves playing and attention generally. Any silly game would make her beam in delight, especially if it involves Emmet and running. Emmet is her ultimate playmate. She enjoys me singing to her and loves the Wonderpets song. She likes watching shampoo commercials. Recently likes watching kids and babies on TV and in magazines. Also likes playing with cloths and fabrics. Shows interest in cooking but now she screams whenever I go into the kitchen. I think she knows she’s unlikely to get any attention once I go inside.


Physical
She was born 3.52kg. She was a tall baby. She maintains her slim figure throughout her first year. I lost hope of ever wanting to see her become a chubby baby like Emmet was. She is today 74cm high.

My first thought when I looked at her face after she was cleaned by the nurse was, she looked like Emmet! My family thought Sofia took after me. Rizal’s family thought she took after him. But now eveyone thinks she has my features more. She has become fairer from her 2 months age. I doubt she’ll be as fair as Emmet though. But she has a prominent nose and clearly-defined brows.


Motor skills
She sit up at 5 months. Can roll-over at 2 months. Started crawling at 7 months. Skipped the commando crawl. Started walking towards the end of 9months. Still walks like a drunken sailor, as my neighbour put it.

She can pick up small objects and put in her mouth. She can chew it for a long time and not swallow it. She just showed interest in holding a spoon to feed herself. She can wave at anybody’s command. She does hi-five with people she knows. She claps when she’s happy or wants me to sing. She hits when she’s crossed, toys or people, but in a very gentle way that is. She goes down from a sofa differently from Emmet. Like a lady if I may say so myself.


Hygene
Because of her eczema, she bathes once a day. I bathe her with either just warm water or with emollient cream like aquoes cream. I also clean her bottom with aquoes cream whenever she soils. I apply either QV cream, aquoes cream again after every bath on the whole body. Sometimes I apply La-Roche Posay Lipikar Baume on her face. She regularly needs to be on hydrocortisone as well for her frequent flare-ups. I stopped using Bepenthem, Drapolene or any other nappy rash cream since I find they didn’t help in improving anything for that matters. What’s more interesting is that, she very seldom gets nappy rash eversince I stopped using nappy rash cream.

She started on wearing muslin squares with nappy liners from less than 1month of age. She is only on disposable diapers at night and during long outings. Her skin cannot tolerate the disposable diapers too much though. They gave her rashes around the waist area. I clean her six teeth using clean and damp muslin squares.

Speech
She can say ‘CAR’ at 11 months! Once upon a time she was chilling at her favourite spot, the balcony and looking at the parked cars below the flat and said ‘Car!’. Other than that she babbles but not as much as Emmet was before. Sometimes she sings along with me in a song.

Sleep
She sleeps late. She would wake up around 8am. Naps at 12pm for about 2 hours. Naps again at 4.30pm if I’m lucky. If she naps at 4.30pm, she would sleep around 8pm or 9pm and woke up close to midnight, just about my bedtime. She might skip the afternoon nap alltogether.

She sleeps with me from day 1, so breastfeeding is easier at night. It is a good thing that we decided to get a king size bed before I delivered Sofia. I can sleep without touching the walls, finally!

Misc.
She is very attached to me. It is very hard for me to get anything done. When I do get a thing done, that just means that there are things that are not. I do laundry carrying her around, I dry clothes carrying her, I even had lunch carrying her. I do my baking carrying her around. These days, Mickey Mouse no longer does the trick. But there are days when she just wants to hang around at the balcony looking down on the stuff happening at the parking lot.

She smiles generously when played with and cuddles with me as much as she possibly can. She even has this ‘mengada-ngada’ look where she opens her mouth wide and shuts her eyes and run towards me with arms wide open.

All of us adore her, the princess of the family. She does wear a lot of pink, but most days she is just clad in Emmet’s baby clothes. She hates hats or anything put on her head.

I’m expecting more hardwork in the future but I will try my best in raising Emmet and Sofia since I don’t have any great ambition. My payers are they would give their utmost cooperation and listen to what Mommy says, always!

Happy birthday sweet Sofia!