Yan Yan – 4th month update

Yan Yan is four months old today. I missed updating her 3rd month progress, as I was away in Montreal then and was really busy throughout that trip. I was caught up with work upon my return and when I finally was able to afford some time to jot things down, Yan Yan was already 3.5 months so I decided to just wait it out till her 4th month.

We took her to the paediatrician for her vaccinations two weeks back and she weighed 6.7kg, was 62.1cm in length with a head circumference of 40.5cm.

Physically, she's learned to do quite a bit over the last two months:
- holding her head steady when held in a sitting or standing position at 3 months
- loves to stand and would push down on her legs to bear her weight
- rolling over while lying on her back to the front at 3 months, and started to inch forward while lying on her tummy at 3.5 months.



As such, it's getting difficult to change her nappy, or to dress her up, as she's really quick to turn herself over. And since she gained a little mobility, she has had a few accidents – once she rolled herself down from the bed onto the mattress beneath, through a slight gap between the bed guard rail and the head of the bed. Luckily her papa was sleeping on the mattress so he cushioned her fall. She also rolled and got herself caught between the bed and the bed guard rail several times. So we’ve really got to be extra careful when leaving her on the bed now.



Emotionally, she is a joy to wake up to. She's a really happy baby, and always has a gummy smile on her face. The other day at the paediatricion, she only let out a quick cry while being jabbed, but very quickly returned to her chirpy, cheerful self when carried, while flashing her gummy grin.





She responds by smiling and laughing excitedly whenever people coo or talk to her, and has recently acquired the habit of ooohhhing and aaahhhhing loudly, as if to invite you into a conversation with her :-) She definitely has a much better temperament compared to her che-che. She also loves to look at her own reflection in the mirror.

Most nights, she sleeps after her last feed at about 10-11pm till 5-6am the next morning, waking up only occasionally. On the nights that she does wake up for her midnight feed, it's still pretty easy on me as I'll nurse her lying down and continue sleeping :-) I'm truly thankful for her sleeping through the night as Yiu Yiu only stopped waking up for her midnight milk recently, after more than 3.5 years! Part of the reason why Yan Yan doesn't fuss as much at night is because she sucks her fingers to soothe herself. Sometimes she even sucks on her whole fist.

Sucking on her index finger

Sometimes it's her middle and ring fingers together

Che-che saw me snapping photos of mei-mei sucking her fingers and insisted I took one of her too :-)

TWO thumbs together also no problem :-)

I still can't decide whether it's a good or bad thing - good because she can soothe herself and fall asleep by herself without much effort, bad because she may carry this habit into toddlerhood and beyond.

It's also a breeze when ferrying her to and from the babysitter's house, or the occasional outings. Yan Yan will lie in baby carrier without any fuss, and entertain herself by looking out the window at buildings zooming past.



Again, in contrast to Yiu Yiu when she was a baby, who would scream the moment she was put into the carrier, and all the way home. I remember having to make several stops on the drive home to carry and calm her, or else she'd cry till she had no more voice. When I mentioned this to her the other day, the cheeky little girl said, "When I was a baby that time, I cried because the car seat is 不舒服 (not comfortable)". Haha! What a clever excuse.

The only worrying thing about Yan Yan thus far is her bowel movements. She passes motion only once in 4-5 days, and when she does, it's always yellow with a pasty, sticky, consistency and slightly foul smelling, very unlike the typical stool of breastfed babies which is soft and quite sweet smelling. When I was in Montreal, she actually went seven days without passing motion so hubby had to bring her to the paediatrician who inserted a suppository to help her pass them out.