Baby C Has Her Own Plans

When Big C was a baby she taught me a lot.  So when Baby C was born I had a lot of "plans" for how this infancy was going to work for the two of us.  First off she was born a "big" baby, especially for Indonesians, at 4.1 kilos.  Everyone who came to visit told me that I was so lucky because a "big" baby would sleep through the night faster.  That is FALSE.  All of you who said that are wrong.  Yes, Baby C has given us some good nights of sleep, even almost a week of 10 hours each night.  However, a big baby just means that they have more belly that they want to fill up.  (I will expand on this later)

The other plan I had for us is that she would stay my "blob" for a very long time.  I was hoping for the first five months she would just lay where I put her and would not move.  As I have already discussed with you she started moving her body in circles during her second month of life and rolling in her third month of life.  On Tuesday she will be four months and I need to admit that I am scared of what this month will bring.

My next plan was to keep her on breast milk alone through the first six months of her life.  So far that has been working out great for us.  However, when she reached about 15 pounds a week or so ago she started waking every four hours to nurse again during the night.  I discussed this with my local, American ped here and some friends and decided a few things could be causing this.  1) She had a cold and that got her out of her sleeping rhythms 2) Growth Spurt 3) She is just looking for a cuddle or 4) SHE'S HUNGRY.  Over the last 10 days I have been trying to figure out which one is causing our problem.  Here is my conclusion after my thorough study (Thank God I learned the Scientific Method in Grade School):

It could be the cold thing or the cuddle so to rule that out I have let her cry through the middle of the night feeding.  80% of the time this is not working at night.  When she wakes from nap early if I delay getting her she 100% of the time will go back to sleep.  At night; not so much.  Also, let's say Papa D gets her, he can't calm her down.  She will only calm once she gets to have some milk.  So I feel I can rule these two reasons out.
It could be a growth spurt....but for 10 days!!! Lord, if that is the answer then please HAVE MERCY!  This baby can't keep growing like this!
Which leads me to she is hungry.  I honestly think this is the answer.  When I feed her at night she goes to town.  She eats a full meal and she does it fast.  She does not dose off while nursing until she gets all that she needs.  
Conclusion: I think Baby C is hungry.

Response to Conclusion: I think I need to start feeding her a little and see if this helps.  Problem: I can not get rice cereal here unless it has added sugar or MSG.  Solution: Make your own!  Grind up uncooked rice.  Boil 1 cup of water.  Add 1/4 of ground rice, whisk constantly as it cooks for 10 minutes.  Add formula or breast milk until it reaches the consistency that your baby needs.  Add fruit or veggies if they are ready.  WOW, I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD MAKE YOUR OWN RICE CEREAL AND NOT BUY IT IN A BOX!  How amazing is that!

So back to my plans....I'm throwing them in the trash.  Big C and now Baby C are teaching me that I can plan all day long but my plans will not control them.  They are who they are and I give thanks for that.  Parents, if you haven't learned yet, you have to let your kids grow as they are ready, test boundaries on their timeline, move mountains when they can and not when you say.  Let our kids be themselves not us.  We can teach them what is right and what is wrong, we can teach them truth but we can not hold them back from growing up.  If this were not true I'm sure my parents would have me living in America right now.

I hope my girls take their time growing up but if they choose to run at full speed then we all better back up and watch them turn that run into flight.

Uncooked rice cereal, we haven't tried preparing it yet