Rolling over
As mentioned in my last entry, Anna is now rolling over. She just cannot lay on her back for more than a minute! This also goes for sleep time. She now prefers to sleep on her tummy. We were worried at first that she'd face-plant onto the bed and not be able to breathe, so we'd turn her back around all night long. But she soon showed us that being on her tummy is her preferred sleeping position and she's happy to turn her head to the side. She still can't quite turn from her tummy onto her back, although she has done it a few times by accident and boy does she surprise herself (and not to mention us!). Here's a photo of her after she did a double roll and ended up 1 metre away from where we'd put her down on the playmat :)
Eating solids
I wasn't going to start feeding Anna solids until at least 6 months, but a visit to the early childhood centre was to change that plan. At 4 months and 1 week, Anna weighed a whooping 7.98kg and was 69cm tall so the midwife advised that breast milk alone was no longer going to cut it! Anna took to food like a fish to water, from the very first spoonful she seemed to know exactly what to do. In fact, she even pulled the spoon towards her mouth! David says that since she's half Cantonese, she's gonna love her food (there is a saying in China - Cantonese people will eat anything with four legs - except the table.). So far she has tried roast pumpkin, mashed avocado, banana and broccoli, and stewed apple and pear. We also bought her a little sipping cup with handles and she can now drink water on her own – we are so proud!
Swimming
David and I were always keen for Anna to start swimming lessons as early as possible so when my mothers' group brought up the idea we jumped at the chance to sign up straight away. On Tuesdays, we all travel to the apartment where one of the mums live to use the indoor heated pool in their building. Our teacher meets us there for the 20 minute lesson (small babies can get cold very quickly in the water, thus the short lessons). We sing songs and help our babies float and become comfortable in the water. Recently we started to put their heads under water momentarily after using a command sentence that we've practiced in the bath at home everyday. For Anna, we've been dunking cups of water over her head for a couple of months now, always using the command “Anna, ready, go!”. She now starts to shut her eyes and hold her breath by the time we say 'ready', it's very cute :) Anna is getting more and more comfortable in the water, her arms and legs are relaxed and floating and she hasn't cried in the pool since the first lesson.
Other major achievements:
- Responding to her name – Although this doesn't happen all the time, she's definitely learning her name and would often respond by turning her face towards whoever is calling her and smile
- Blow raspberries – After much practice Anna finally learned to blow raspberries, although she's since lost interest in doing it :)
- Holding toys – We have been receiving a weekly newsletter from a baby website about developmental milestones for babies and one of them being hand eye coordination. We soon realised that all of her toys were too big for her to easily hold with one hand so we bought a couple of new toys – a rattle and Sophie the Giraffe. For the uninitiated, Sophie is a very famous teething toy from France and has been produced by the same family for over 40 years. It's made from natural rubber and food dye so it's super soft and safe for baby to chew on. Not only is it a great teething toy, its legs and neck are also nice and thin so that it's very easy for a baby to wrap its hands around it. These 2 toys have dramatically improved Anna's ability to hold things in her hands. In fact, she's now moved onto the next skill – throwing her toys!
- Sleeping – Sleep has always been a major issue with Anna (for most babies really). Until about a month ago, Anna has been sleeping in her bassinet which was nice and snug. She could fall asleep without much fuss and the bed was small enough to stop her from rolling over. But soon it was time to move her into her bigger cot – all of a sudden, she was in this big white bed with all the room for her to roll so she started to struggle to fall asleep. We had a couple of sleepless nights trying to settle her and I ended up just feeding her to sleep and then putting her into the cot when she's asleep. This was a really bad habit to develop as she was starting to associate breastfeeding with sleep. So after much crying (sometimes screaming), scratching her face, and me ringing the parents helpline, she's finally learning to sleep in her cot without a breastfeed. She always needs to get into her comfy position – on her tummy and face turned to her left – then we give her the dummy and like magic her eyes start to close (well, this happens most of the time, but we still have the occasional tantrum here and there). She now also stays up for 2 hours at a time and she's as regular as clockworks – once those 2 hours are up, she lets you know she's ready to sleep with yawns, eye rubs and a few girly screams :)
- Sucking her toes – Anna has always enjoyed sucking on her fingers and now she's discovered that her toes are quite yummy too. Sometimes she has her fingers and toes in her mouth all at the same time!
- Sit ups – When Anna doesn't want to be put onto her back she lets you know by refusing to put her head and legs down. It looks as though she's doing crunches! Funny and cute at the same time.
We're very proud of all of Anna's achievements and amazed at her incredible growth rate. As a shop assistant said to us recently: She must be in the 130th percentile!
Anna is truly off the charts!
