"no no no" + poo-poohing poo + sleeping through the night

during and after her illness, most of the Bean's latest words have been double syllabic. E.g. "purple", her current favourite colour; i think because she can pronounce it. she doesn't say "red" or "green" or "yellow". she can say "blue" though, calling red and green "blue" too!

then for the past 2-3 days she has finally begun uttering the dreaded 2-letter word: N-O. it is sort of every parent's nightmare: will this usher in the era of the Terrible Twos? does this mean she is going to assert her prerogative through denials of everything?

so far though, it has been helping her help me make decisions, which means i can offer her other options, narrowing the field.
to wit:
do you want to read this book? "no."
do you want to wear this pair of socks? "no."
do you want to eat your cruskit? "no no no."

we shall see if her newfound 'negativity' will lead to actual pitched battles (albeit of limited vocabulary).

with the illness behind us, the Bean is back on her potty, pooping properly, although she tends to be pooping in the evenings right before falling asleep.

and here's another happy matter to report: the Bean is sleeping through the night! yippee kai yeee!

two mondays ago i weaned her off night feeds* by pretending to be asleep and ignoring her snuffling and whimpering and crying for about half an hour. she got tired after a while and fell back asleep again, to wake only at around 7-ish a.m. for her morning milk feed.

she does sometimes still wake up suddenly (either fully or half-wake) in the middle of the night, but it is usually just the one time, then she goes back to sleep again after some patting and if i let her hold my hand. however, this too is occurring less and less now.

it is fabulous as it means that there is now continuous sleep for me at night.

* i still let her feed to sleep. this means that overall, we've cut down our bf to around 3-4 feeds on a 24 hr cycle: a pre-breakfast feed, post-lunch nap feed, sometimes another afternoon feed before tea, and a good night feed.

recent viral troubles

We had a couple of trying weeks not long ago, which partly explains the blog silence (but not fully), with the Bean contracting a viral infection that led to a bacterial one.

That meant what I thought was just a gunky runny nose (that lasted nearly 4 weeks) became something more serious when she began throwing up and having very high fevers (at one point reaching over 39 degrees celsius).

The GP was consulted. Apparently all babies and young children throw up when they get too hot. It is their bodies's natural reaction, to cool down by expelling liquids. The doc also said that the Bean may become constipated because of the loss of fluids and appetite. She suggested that I try watermelon or a sweet fruit before trying her on her usual meals. The sweetness will whet her appetite. We were given a prescription for antibiotics but told not to administer this for a few days till the Bean's situation worsens or if she doesn't get better.

So we waited an excruciating 2-3 more days before finally giving the Bean the antibiotic mixture. Thankfully, and sensibly, this particular antibiotic mixture is actually sweet and doesn't have a nasty bitter aftertaste (unlike the concoction prescribed by a doc in S'pore which was most foul). The Bean took to the medicine very well - it tastes like a banana/fruit shake - and so nearly did the hub unit, who did most of the administering. He really does have a deft way with giving the Bean medicine. It involves pretending to feed her toys, himself and mummy, the medicine before offering a dose to the bub. It usually works a treat. But of course, it helps that this medicine tasted good.

But one nasty effect from the Bean being ill was that she was mainly pooping into her nappies. It was disgusting as alternating with constipation was runny poo - an outcome of eating very very little and drinking mainly water. Her poo was also sticky and dark - gross.

She was even off breastfeeding for around 2-3 days, which was most worrisome. I had counted on nourishing her with breastmilk as was the usual practice whenever she got ill, so this unexpected outcome was troubling. However, it was probably because she had a sore throat. She had passed her illness to me and I also had a sore throat for a few days but I got over it quickly with herbal gargle mixtures and sucking lots of herbal throat lozenges.

Anyhow, she has recovered fully now and it is so wonderful to see her appetite come back. It was terrible to be able to see her ribs and a single chin; I was so used to my chubby girl. But she is putting some flesh back on again, so I am relieved.