Feb-May 2011 Mommies

Libra - i have a good friend that has a bilingual child (2yrs old) and she has taken a bit longer to talk but now speaks both english and afrikaans. her mom speaks afrikaans to her and her dad speaks english.

I have tried givimg nan to amelia a few months back but she refused it. I bought a new tin of Lactogen today and i made a top up bottle for her "goodnight feed" and she downed the whole lot.
So i wonder whats thats all about . I didnt know that formulas tasted different?

Kimika - thanks for the breast feeding info it all makes sense now. She does get very distracted while she bfing. I have started feeding in her room now without a noisy toddler around.
I hope little R gives you some decent sleep tonight. I think there is a 6 month growth spurt.

Lucy - it was so nice meeting you today. Im sorry Amelia was such a pain. She is normally a very content happy little baba, not sure what her prob is today. She has been like that the WHOLE afternoon!

Amelia had her last pentaxim this morning. And weighed in at 7.7kgs. She is gaining perfectly - just above the 50th centile. I took some advice from the Sister and gave her a top up bottle at bed time, because she just isnt stretching feeds at all during the night. so i'll see how tonight goes.

Its freezing cold here - snowing about 30km away from us.

Another weekend just GONE! amazing...

hehe.. well R has learnt to let go before pulling away.. he did that so much for a while Thank goodness! LOL

Libra, I dont have much experience in being bilingual but I can say from experience how fast they learn! My oldest is not yet 2 1/2 and we are both Afrikaans.. in fact he doesnt really have any English influance other than the tv.. and we noticed he started playing with his toys in English Its really funny.. but shows you that already he has started to learn/understand some words. Its so cute!

Lucy, those classes sound fun! I can imagine the moms prob enjoying it almost more than the babas

AFM: Reuben's night time routine has now gone to the dogs! Last night he woke up about 4 times while we were watching movie.. so I eventually just have him watch with us.. yes I know its really bad but I just wanted to get the movie done with already! And then I put him back to sleep.. just to have him wake up another 4 times in one hour!!! He doesnt cry, just wakes up and starts talking or singing.. really weird. So I put him in bed with me and he sleeps without waking up again.. aiii...
Tonight he has already been awake 5 times! He falls alseep fairly easily again.. wonder whats up? I have no idea when its time for a growth spurt again? Awww well.. no use complaining hey? hehe..

Oh I wanted to say, I weighed him at 5 months and he was 7kg, 68cm. So he is doing great, growth curve still dead on track. He now weighs what my oldest boy weighed at 7 months! He is not huge but his older brother's growth took a huge dip from 5 months onward. But the paed was never worried and kept saying he is perfect

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!! xxx

Tessa is stirring so lets see how fast I can do this !!

Kimika - My baba is still mainly BF and she hasn't changed routine in about 2 months, even when I substituted the 2 day feeds for formula!! See definitely is going through the distracted phase. Does the latch unlatch thing all the time (and yes Libra she likes to take my nipple with !! ouch!) I have these bright cartoon kitties on my warmest PJ's and she LOVES talking to them when she should be drinking !!
Toptots we did movements to music and marching, looking in mirrors, painting their feet, getting them to feel different textures etc etc so much. She explains why you do it all as well which is great. She loved it and so did I!

Missesmom - Good luck for the skin test. The shake seems to be working already. Thanks SO much.

Libra and Rakker - I have been wondering the same thing about the 2 languages (english and french for us) As a bilingual baby I did battle a little when I started school but I spoke french to my parents. So they then started to speak english to me and I did fine at school well better than fine. But it was fine and I now speak both although french is getting a bit rusty since my grandparents passed away. In mauritius last weekend my cousin said that I haven't lost my french or accent so that is great. But I think maybe the idea of one person speaking the language is great. I think I'll designate that task to my Dad, he is already referred to as Grandpere anyway!!

Anje - I use Nan HA and it has worked well for us! Good luck hun, I was very upset when I had to start preparing for work and introducing the formula. I am fine now and see the benefits and it is nice on the weekends too when you want to do stuff. BUT I guard the rest of my BF feeds very protectively!! Like monday I have to miss the morning feed as I have early appointments ..........grrrrr. Just one day just one day!!

Super weekend to all!

Thanks Rakker, that's good to know!!!

Libra, introducing a second language is no problem at all. It is at this stage that they acquire language the best. What you should do, though, is to be consistent with the language you speak to her. A specific person should speak only one specific language to her. The confusion comes in when 1 person speak more than one language with the child.

Oh and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend

Typing with one hand really is a drag....each time I want to start typing Megan decides she wants attention, hence the short posts.

I'm trying to think what everyone said because I don't have time to read it all again.....

Kimika, I think Megan is already at that aware stage. She loves drinking a bit than pulling her head back (and with it my nipple) then let’s go for a few seconds then latches again and so it goes on until she eventually cries and I give her a bottle. But I can see when she pulls back that she looks around a bit. I was actually laughing at her the other night, we were sitting in front of the fish tank (DH has a marine tank and she just loves looking at it) and I started feeding her, it was so cute, she would suck a few times, pull her head back and look at the tank then come back and suck a few times and so on...you just see her little eyes follow the fish the whole time...

MissesMom, I'm so glad Em has no food allergies....I look at kids that have food allergies and it really sucks! Think I'm also going to start the shake to see if it helps with my milk...I found a half a tin in my cupboard leftover from my pregnancy, but it was rock hard solid so I threw it away...will get a new tin the weekend.

Meags hope you have an uneventful journey back hope...I don't know if I'll be able to travel like that without my DH...and a nanny really is a good idea, don't know what I would do without mine, it’s so nice knowing that I don't have to worry about cleaning my house (and the dreaded ironing) and that I can just focus on Megan.

Anje I know how you feel, I also didn't want to give M formula, but she was also crying a lot.

Schatsie, sorry to hear about the situation with your mom. It's always difficult dealing with 'older' people. They all feel that because they raised kids they can tell you how you must do it. It also frustrates me a lot, I've learned the phrase 'I must remember that', but I tend to ignore it if I don't agree with it. They all mean well, but it’s not nice if they tell you the whole time what to do.
I think before you know it you are going to have a little boy running around your house

I hope I didn't forget about anyone...

Yesterday was my grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary so the whole family got together at my parents house. Had a great time.... Wow 60 years is a loooooooooong time, don't know how my granny did it
We tried to get photos of my grandparents with their great-grand kids, Megan, my niece (18 months) and my cousins little girl (11 months), did not work out.... Megan was sitting quietly on my granny's lap looking at everyone but the other two were screaming and crying and we couldn't get them to sit still. It looked quite funny because you had all these adults jumping up and down and making all these funny noises... Guess when Megan is that age I will also not get her to sit still....

How do you all feel about raising a child bilingually (is that the right way of putting it?) DH and I speak English to each other and will raise Megan in English, but I grew up Afrikaans so I want my family to speak Afrikaans with her. My dad's side of the family is English, so I could speak English from an early age and I want Megan to be the same... A lot of people have told me that it's not good to speak two languages with them when they are this young because it confuses them and they end up mixing their languages and it takes them longer to talk properly. Personally it doesn't bother me (if she mixes her languages) when she's young, because she should know the difference between the two once she starts school.
But then again I was also told by the one sister at the hospital that babies associate languages with people and not the language itself.

Well it took me about an hour and a half to write this post...between typing with one hand, entertaining M and changing her nappy...oh and having a shower... I just love my maid, she comes to me and tells me I must go shower she will look after Megan