Hallucinations

There is a little talked about phenomenon – and maybe it only affects us – but most nights, Cat will truly believe that Aimee is in bed with us (even though she has NEVER slept in our bed). Each time, Cat reacts slightly different. For example sometimes it is just a gently pat on the shoulder from Cat, other times, Cat will leap up and go into panic mode frantically grabbing tightly onto me and yelling at me to NOT FALL DOWN. Of course I wake up in a state with Cat yanking on my arm/shoulder/ whatever is nearest.I used to think this was all due to lack of decent sleep, but it happened to me the other day. It was during the day and Cat was out and I was looking after Aimee. She went to sleep for an afternoon nap and so did I. Perhaps only 15 minutes had elapsed when I was absolutely convinced that Aimee had jumped, yes jumped, out of the cot and was lying helpless and unconscious on her bedroom floor. Still half asleep I leapt out of bed like my pants were on fire and madly ran into Aimee’s room bursting open the door. It took me a few seconds to see that Aimee was peacefully asleep in her cot just as when I left her. My heart was thumping crazily and I was just so scared, but calmed down eventually. But no, I didn’t get any further rest that day as I was haunted by my hallucination. It hasn’t happened again thankfully, but poor Cat is still bugged by her fears at night.

FEED ME SEYMOUR

Aimee got over the worst of her diahorrea eventually buther appetite remained stubbornly minimal for about two weeks. We wereboth very worried she wasn't eating anything, Cat even checked with the doctor but he didn't seem at all worried. Just said to come back if she carried on like this for another fortnight. A FORTNIGHT! She could waste away by then.Maybe he knew something we didn't. Almost immediately the next day, Aimee decided she was gonna eat. And for the past week now, she seems to be playing catch-up by wolfing down whatever you throw at her. Yoghurt, lentils, pasta, veg, porridge - even toast - she'll wolf it down with gusto.It's really great to see her eat so well after the trauma of her feeding strike. It is also a good op for me to experiment with new foods and Aimee seems to like everything at the moment. We still have avoided any meat though. The first time she tried chicken, she got diarhorrea. It may have been unlinked, but we weren't gonna take risks, so the nursery feed her veg. I plan to re-introduce fish soon. She liked it before, and I want her to explore with her hands more and feed herself. She is starting to do that with food I place on her baby table.

Aimee loves standing. She clings onto any handy object (playpen frame, door knobs, your trousers!) and just stands for ages. She then readjusts to a one handed show-off stance, then, sometimes, removes both her hands, but quickly plummets down onto her bum. I think she yearns to play like the bigger kids in the nursery. She's probably bored in the baby rooms cos the other two babies cry ALL DAY. I mean they cry when I drop her off in the morning and they cry when I pick them up at night. The carer has to cuddle them ALL DAY. So naturally Aimee is already thinking, this is boring! And stands by the gate looking out at all the fun in the toddler room. Sorry Aimee, but you'll have to stay there for at least another 6 months.



Aimee says three words so far: Mamamamama, Daddeee, uh-oh
I think the uh-oh is mean't to be Hullo, but she says it all the time so we just copy her and she loves it. She also loves being thrown around, upside down and spun around. We don;t do it too often, just in case we drop her, or she pukes on our heads, but it's a nice treat for her every now and again.

Hitting the fan

Shit, shite, poo, plop, brown stuff, "wing nuts" (that one from Cat) - whatever you call it we are up to our necks in it, literally. Little Aimee is still explodnig gallons of the liquid brown stuff and I am just sick of it. With her diarrhorea, the the nursery has a policy of not taking her in. So one of us has to take time off work. That in itself is not a problem. What is a problem is the not knowing when it will happen. Aimee gives off no signs of squeezing. She just sits there grinning and before you know it, there is a bad smell and all her clothes are soiled. Then there is the washing, scrubbing, soaking, disinfecting and literally shovelling off the litres ofpoo that covers her clothes. Poor Aimee, I guess it is not her fault. But it seems the nappies just can;t handle her explosive outputs.
The only plus side at least is that she appears to be completly healthy with no symptoms of dehydration of malnurishment. Her apetite is returning, albeit laced with an extreme degree of fussiness we have not seen before. But it is admitedly a struggle.
So, as usual with us Yangs. It is sleeves rolled up and all hands on the deck. I am swapping looking after my Dad shift with my Mum, sho is looking after Aimee, while Cat has to go to work. As they say, then the shit happens, it really happens big time. Let's hope Aimee recovers soon, or I will be buying shares in Biotex stain remover.

Bugs, TVs and Dummys

It's really true - when your kid gets sick, you get it too, with extra on top. This past week, the day after Aimee's night of hellish puking, both me and Cat ended up with constant vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps. Clearly, this 'bug' that Aimee caught from the nursery is very infectious. It was no fun being sick and looking after a poorly Aimee so I drafted in my mother, who was her usual saintly self and did everything in the house. We could not have coped otherwise. Aimee seems to have got over the worst of her sickness in one day but still has no apetite for solid food five days later. Me and Cat took much longer to recover, and are only now getting back into the swing of our routine.But today, the nursery asked Cat to come and pick Aimee up since she has been releasing some very runny poos in quick succession and they think she is still ill. Their policy is that any baby with diarrhoea is barred in case it spreads ot other children (how do they think Aimee got it in the first place?) This means a day or more off work for both me and Cat. A real pain but hwat canyou do? Aimee is actually fine and very happy.

New Aimee tricks - she stands very well and plays her piano standing up for ages. She can walk up stairs with assistance and, her favourite at the nursery - she crawls up to another baby to pull out its dummy. Aimee the highway robber! But the best is at home, she reaches out beyond her playpen and turns on the TV. Once it is on she turns it off and so on until she gets bored. Amazing,if slightly irritating if you are trying to watch TV.Me Mum claims Aimee can clap her hands and wave hello and bye.But I suspect these are just highly prompted but ramdom arm movements since none of us can get her to repeat these exercises.Not long now before she is one year old. What an amazing landmark that day will be.

Retching Time

Poor Aimee. Last night she got sick and vomitted non-stop all night. When there was nothing left to bring up, her little stomach was still spasming away and she was obviously in great distress.
We racked our brains thinking what could make her so ill. Was it our organic home-cooked baby food? Was it all the toys she stuffs into her mouth? Had she ingested something dirty from the carpet? Maybe all of these things, maybe none.
It was a tough night with calls to NHS Direct, then to the night doctor. But in the end, finally after 7 hours, the retching stopped and Aimee slept but we both kept guard all night in anycase.
Cat called the nursery to inform them of Aimee's illness and they said that she was the third baby to call in sick with identical symptoms. So, we found the most likely source of her illness - the nursery. Turns out there is some virus going around causing the kids to be violently sick, but are fine the next day.
Aimee is recouperating now, but still pushes out a little smile every now and again. That's what makes her so magic.

Go! Go! Go!

And she's off!!
Aimee can officially crawl - and boy does she move fast. Kind of like a very speedy young tortoise. Her target - anything dangerous on the far side of the room. It's really amazing to see, one day she was shifting in a semi-crawl maybe four steps, the next day, she was crawling properly on hands and knees. And she clearly loves it.
Aimee can now say 'Daddy' with alarming clarity. When I picked her up from nursery, she shouted out daddy. But ruined it by saying daddy to the nursery staff and even Cat. So obviously she doesn;t know what it means, but she says it lots which makes me happy.
Cat took Aimee to the weighing centre and, on the eve of her 10th month, she weighed 8lbs7oz which is plumb on the average for her age line. So we at least know she ain't starving.

Escape from Aimee-traz

Is it clever to be able to stand-up byyourself? Is it clever to be able to escape from a strapped down rocking chair? Is it clever to be able to crawl on your hands and knees?
It is when you are only 9 and a half months old. We Aimee has demonstrated the early steps in these essential skills. The photo below shows her escapology tricks.



Handful is too fine a word for it. Precocious would be better description. You cannot leave her alone for a second.

Luckily, we have enlisted the help of Nai-nai - my Mum. Today was the first day of her regular Monday baby-minding duties. To be honest, I feared that my Mum wouldn't cope and Aimee would have one of her really bad days where no food woul dbe eaten, no drink drunk and no cuddling or rocking would send her to sleep (erm, that's most days actually.)
I needn't have worried as Aimee enjoyed her most productive day ever, with full food, drink and sleep quotas completely satisfied. My Mum even had time to bathe her, take her out to the park and do some tidying and cleaning - wow! Clearly, we have much to learn in the Mum and Dad stakes.

Tomorrow, it's back to the day nursery where Aimee clearly also has a very good time. ME, well I have to make the mad dash to get to work very early so I can leave in time to pick her up in the evening. In October, I have requested reduced working hours so I can leave work early obviously with less pay :(

Addictive love

It is the eve of Cat's first day back at work and she has turned in early for the night. To ensure a good night's sleep, earplugs are in and Daddy is on midnight duty. Yes, the little one still does not sleep a full night and regularly wakes up crying. Is this normal? Who cares. It is normal for us now and we're pretty certain it won't be long before she growes out of it.



I have to say that right now, life as a Dad and as a family is wonderful. Each day with Aimee brings both me and Cat immense joy and satisfaction, more so now than ever before. She gives so much joy and fun back to us thatnot a day goes by without us breaking down in fits of giggles at Aimee's antics. Our friend Steve said that hanging around Aimee was addictive. That would be a very good explanation of things. Sure things aren't always that easy - especially at nappy changing time where she has the will of a tyrant as she struggles and fights to avoid the big clean-up. But boy oh boy, what a cutie she is.

I'll report on how my new role as daddy pick-up goes as Cat gets settled in to work and I add the nursery pick-up into my routine.

First day at the baby nursery

The day finally arrived that every parent dreads - the leaving of your precious little one to a bunch of strangers. Aimee's first day at baby-nursery was a a very successful day indeed. The nursery is quite large with three 'rooms' each containing children separated according to age groups. As soon as you open the door, there is a cacophony of noise - fun noise like laughter and yells and general racket. The baby room was very quiet and quite laid back. As we put Aimee down in the room and chatted to tha staff, Aimee just went about her usual routine of playing, observing everything, and playing. She was very happy. But not as happy as when the food arrived. She sat there all quiet and lovely at the baby chair and the staff brought in freshly cooked organic pasta and tomato with cheese. Me and Cat looked at it and then at each other. 'She ain't gonna eat all that' we both said. The portion was enough to fill a grown man let alone a baby, let alone a baby that is really fussy like Aimee. How wrong we were! Aimee finished the lot! I swear, it was the most we had ever seen her eat in one go. Plus she had pudding - although was visibly flagging mid way through the middle of her rice pudding. The other babies even looked surprised. Aimee just sat there and with each spoobful opened her little mouth wanting more.



Aimee even had a little sleep in the cot. A minor miracle considering the background noise. But she was soooo whacked out. Cat and I celebrated/calmed aourselves down with an Aimee-free lunchtime at Shanghai - the amazing Dim Sum restaurant in Dalston.
In the evening, Aimee ate all her dinner and drank all her milk. Could this be the dawn of a brand new Aimee?
Time will tell, but adding the nursery drop-off and pick-up routine into our daily cycle will take a lot of effort, planning and of course - lots of money.

Crawling, rolling, juggling

It is so hard to believe that nine and a half months ago, my life was about to take a huge leap into fatherhood. How innocent and unknowing I was then. Fast forward to now and I cannot imagine my life without this little bundle of love called Aimee.Aimee has developed in huge leaps recently. She now plays with toys and examines them rather than eats them or ignore them. She certainly has firm favourites - mainly a couple of furry toys she hugs at night. Yes, the dreaded night time. The pattern seems to be changing. She'll still wake up and cry at various points in the night, but I have put a firm foot down and insisted we do not attend to her needs. It so far seems to be working as Aimee will fuss for about ten minutes, but soon settles and doesn't stir until about 7am.
Cat has built a massive playpen out of TWO BabyDan cages. By linking them both up, there
is still (just) enough room to walk around the perimeter and switch on the TV. Inside, Aimee can roll around to her heart's content. Today, she even crawled for about a foot forward. Its the funiest thing. Her arms and legs were a frenzied blur but her belly remained rooted to the floor, but little by little, she inched forward to finally obtain the object she so desperately craved (some random toy).
With every positive, there is a negative. Aimee is still a massive fusspot when eating and drinking. We are convinced she takes in maybe a fraction of what she should be eating each day. But she has developed a whole raft of cunning techniques to avoid us getting the spoon into her mouth. We battle every day with this, and it frustrates us enormously. But, I guess somehow she does get enough to eat cos she seems healthy enough.On Tuesday this week, we put Aimee into the nursery for a few hours. This will be her very first time in the hands of strangers. It'll probably be me and Cat freaking out with nerves and hysterics rather than Aimee - who is more than happy with strangers. But it needs to be done. In a week, Cat goes back to work and thus begins a new chapter in our lives - the dual working parent juggling act.


A hyped Aimee inside the 'cage'

Sticky buns

A terribly long absence from the Aimee blog, apologies to all my three readers!
Well it certainly has been eventful recently. Firstly, Aimee’s Grandad (Ye-Ye in Chinese), my Dad, suffered a stroke and is recovering in hospital. Aimee went to visit him several times and seems to be quite excited with the hustle and bustle of hospital life. It certainly put a smile on my Dads face to see the little one. I especially adore his personal descriptive comments of Aimee. My favourite being the one where he likens her pudgy hands to Chinese dim sum dish called bao-bao – white puffy buns filled with sweet meat. Quite accurate.

Aimee now has three teeth with a fourth possibly about to appear soon – we hope, since each tooth brings at least 3 nights of painful crying at night and no sleep for me and Cat.
She is increasingly active and explorative these days. The front room has two padded play mats that cover the entire floor space – and still she finds nooks and crannies in which to wedge herself. All this from a baby who cannot yet crawl. The preferred method of locomotion is to roll sideways, or bum shuffle backwards. We cannot take our eyes of her for a second or some impending object will be grabbed or she will disappear down some cactus plant pot.

On a positive front, Aimee can pretty much go to sleep at night without the long drawn out routine of rocking, feeding, comforting etc that we have been doing for the past 8 months. After a generous bottle feed, a few words goodnight, we leave her in the cot to play with her toys (she loves cuddly animals now) eventually falling asleep. So far, only the teething pains have woken her.Aimee starts nursery next month. I’ll report on how she does in my next article.

Whispering Mee-mee

Things busy here chez Yangs. Baby Yang has a throat infection. Hence, Aimee is in pain and will not drink anything. As it is pretty hot weather recently, we were worried so the doctor gave us lots of painkilling drugs to give to her. They seem to work and she is sipping a few ounces here and there.
On the positive front, Cat checked out a number of local nurserys. Some are very professional and excellent - offering endless games and tests and a report sheet at the end of each day. Others are mere excuses for poor families to dump their unloved kids in unstimulating surroundings...very sad. Needless to say, you get what you pay for here.
Aimee also did her BBC photoshoot. She was of course a star and performed all her magic tricks, like sitting up, smiling, 'standing' and even 'flying,' right on cue. Pictures to promote the Robert Winston TV program should be on posters, magazines and newspapers in the Autumn.

Aimee's first holiday

Phew – we just made it back from a week’s holiday in Scotland. We decided to drive all the way from London to Arbroath and back again – that’s a lot of driving!
Luckily Aimee slept all the way in the car. Unfortunately, that meant she didn’t sleep during the nights and oh boy, how we needed the sleep. Still, she settled after about two days and got down to the important business of charming all those around her and meeting her cousin Callum, who was born in the USA four days before Aimee.
Just before we left, Cat got Aimee weighed and, for the first time, the health worker noted that she was dipping below her usual progress chart. Nothing to worry at this stage but she had dropped a centile on the expected weight chart. Cat and I dithered over what could cause this and concluded that her fussy drinking habits and copious diarrhoea meant she wasn’t gaining weight as expected. So we embarked on a more rigorous feeding regime with bottle/breast/expressed/spoon – whatever it takes to get that milk into her. It seems to be working as Aimee looks satisfyingly chubbier and feels heavier. She also is expanding her repertoire of solids – now loving the mashed banana and puree apple.
We had a very good time in Scotland. Aimee was exposed to a whole bunch of new stimuli – new faces, smells, sounds and sights. She obviously enjoyed herself as she smiled and laughed non-stop. At one stage, when I walking her in the pram into town, I couldn’t move for old ladies stopping me and saying how beautiful Aimee was! Guess they don’t see too many cute half Chinese babies in this part of the world.
The holiday was a good challenge for us. We proved to ourselves that we can travel with a baby in tow. It seems some days almost impossible to get anything done, but we managed it. Mind you, we did bring half a ton of baby accessories with us in the car to help cope. This compared with Callum, who came over with just a few essentials all the way from America.It’s a great thing that Aimee has a same age cousin, I hope they will meet often over the years and become close family, just like Cat is with her aunty and uncle’s family.

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.