Progress

Mei Xi is getting more expressive every day. She said 'Her' and 'Hi' on Monday, as well as 'Ah Goo Ga', 'Ah Ne Gu' and 'Ah Bah' on Tuesday (and since then, I've been trying to teach her the 'm' sound... heh..). She is typically most vocal in the morning, after a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast. And she seems to be trying to communicate with her entire face, and not just the sounds she makes. Even when she says 'Ah Goo', she can say it in different ways, with different emotions - 'Aaah Goo' (with a long drawn out ah), 'Ah Goo' (loudly and brightly, when she is happy) and 'Eh Gooo (in a pitiful manner when she is sad). When she sneezes, she often says 'Ah Woo' after that.

Now that she has gained mastery of moving her hands and kicking her legs while lying on her back, she has grown bored of being put in this position. Her current favourite position is to be put tummy down on the Boppy while she lifts up her head and looks at things around her. She can happily stay in this position for a long time - until her diaper is soaked through to the bedsheet underneath the Boppy. She also enjoys sitting upright, and is getting better at this every day. She used to topple to the right or left very easily, but she can now stay in an upright position for a longer time. Her eyesight has improved too and she is able to follow me as I move around the room. This afternoon, she even watched DVD - the 'Baby Bach' DVD. We borrowed this for her as she seems so easily bored with her toys unless we make them move for her. The colourful, moving images actually captured her interest and attention for quite some time. Over the last few days, we watched a couple of Vegetales DVD (a Christian-based series of stories for children, with singing and dancing vegetables) - I love the series and the catchy songs, but Mei Xi wasn't as keen on it =p I guess 'Baby Bach' is more age-appropriate.

There has also been progress on another front - after all the relactation efforts, my milk production has indeed increased, and Mei Xi is taking more breast milk (which we call 'mummy milk/mummy nai3) rather than formula (which we call 'daddy milk/ba3 ba2 nai3). Still, my supply is erratic, so some days, she enjoys almost all breast milk meals, while on other days, some formula supplementation is necessary. I am always worried that Mei Xi undereats, while Minhui worries that she overeats. At least we know that with breast milk, she can better regulate how much she consumes. And to our relief, she is gaining weight, gaining flesh, and growing well... and looking more and more like a little dumpling (xiao3 ba4 zhang3) actually. In fact, she has outgrown some of the newborn clothes and we will be upsizing her disposable diapers again once her current lot runs out. When we measured her earlier this week, she was 59cm tall/long, and 11.5lbs heavy - both of which were at the 50th percentile for a 3-month old baby. Not bad eh, considering that both Minhui and I are way below the 50th percentile ;p