She's a model and she's looking good...

Poor Aimee is suffering from a bout of explosive diarrhoea. Well we think that’s what it is as she seems to be constantly squeezing out poops – up to 8 or 9 times a day. She doesn’t seem distressed by it, just mildly relieved after each evacuation. But feeding her is a bit of a problem as she doesn’t seem interested in anything we try, so it’s a matter of plenty of patience and perseverance in order to maintain her fluid levels.
Despite her non-stop popping, Aimee is smiles all round as she greets every new face and every camera lens with that big grin of hers. Last couple of weeks she’s met her cousin Alastair and our friend Volker.There must be something in her smile since the BBC now want to feature Aimee in a photo-shoot with none other than Sir Robert Winston – he of Child of our Time TV fame. Winston is working on a new series and they need some nice babies to publicise the program – step up Aimee Yang, cat-crawl model, celebrity in her own babyverse. The photo-shoot is planned for late june, before then, we need to get her to learn to sit upright without falling over. With a holiday in Scotland planned next week – we’ll have to get her to learn this trick while dealing with the totally new experience of Arbroath.

Sleeping Beauty

Aimee asleep during mid-feed!!


Aimee slept for a full night for the first time in her short but lively little life. We didn’t do anything particularly different, in fact just the normal routine of milk at 6.30pm, and lights out by 7pm. After listening to her fussing for about ten minutes, Cat fed her again. Then that was it. A couple of very sleepy moans at 3am which got me out of bed, but she did not wake up from them. Of course once I was awake, I could not sleep. Aimee then woke up about 5.30am, so all in all, she slept for 10 hours solid – ole Gina Ford would be very impressed.
The trick seems to have been Cat adding an evening meal of solids to her daily food schedule. Up til now, only lunch was on the menu. But this time, a couple of cubes of pear seems to have helped. She turned her nose up at pear at first, but after a couple of spoons, eventually wolfed it down like she does all the other foods we have tried. We are both really pleased with her progress on foods and I am keen to cook her more variety of vegetable and fruit. We are also beginning our preparation towards our holiday to Scotland. It’ll be a very long car journey – something we know won’t go down too well with Aimee, but there is no other option really. It will be a big challenge for us, but also a nice chance for a change in scenery.

Aimeeland

Aimee finally has a room of her own. After enduring months of procrastinating about the state of the spare room, I eventually found a good builder who fixed us a brand new ceiling. The new room looks so smart I half suggested me and Cat actually move in, and Aimee have our bedroom.
On her first night in the room, Aimee slept for a good 8 hours with one crying fit in between. Not bad and perhaps the start of a better sleep regime - well it makes a change for us from kipping on the floor.
It's been a very hectic social week for Aimee as she whizzed from one set of grandparents to another and met up with her Aunty Sylvie and great Aunty Margaret all within the space of a week. Luckily she has the fuel and energy to cope as she is wolfing down her solids now.
We moved onto a curous blend of organic carrot and apple puree. Not too watery, not too thick. A bit messy but she swallows more than spits out, which is a very good sign.



She is also feeding on breast milk slightly better during the day, but still relies on her late evening feeds to catch up on the fluid ounces.My next challenge, is to get Aimee to drink fluids from a beaker. But maybe in a month or so.

Good news on the job front, Cat has been offered a full job at the BBC (all jobs were up for renewal in the big shakeup). We are contemplating the idea of using their creche facilites at White City. Both our companies offer the childcare voucher scheme (tax free vouchers to use at nursery or childminding facilities), which we will probably take full advantage of.

Spring time cheers

It's nice to have some decent weather recently, well not awful cold of winter anyway. So it is much more fun taking Aimee out and about. Towards the end of April, Aimee's second tooth appeared:



And they sure are sharp little tegs! As Cat is finding out during feeding time, one can usually hear a very loud "OUCHHHHH!!!" at regular intervals during breast feeding as Aimee tries out her new weapons.

The sleep thing is still very hit or miss. I suspect the main factor is her teething, rather than dependency on feeding or comfort, since a bit of Calgel sometimes does the trick.

Aimee's Aunty Sylvie and Uncle Matt have popped over the the UK for a short visit and it seems Aimee is proving a big hit with them. Some of the photos on my Pbase site shows her grabbing a giant Tigger - this is quite a new thing, Aimee now wants to reach out and grab anything and everything that takes her interest. If she can't have it, she yells in frustration - a sign of toddler tantrum in years to come maybe?

Eating solids has been going very well, in fact she is an unstoppable hoover machine lapping up my organic veggie mush every day. So far we have tried baby rice, sweet potato and next in line is carrots. After a few more weeks, we'll move onto fruits. I think we already see the effects as Aimee is filling out quite a lot!

Finally, we're encouraging Aimee to sit upon her own and she is almost managing to stay inposition and using her hands on the floor to stay there. She usually falls to one side but we'll keep trying.