Ryan is now 27 days old.
This was taken this morning after his feed and after his mum gave him a bath.
don't disturb me!!!
Letting him sleep in prone position to avoid his head from getting flat (like me).
Even at 14 days, he was showing good neck strength and could lift and move his neck un supported. We just need to watch out for sudden snapping motion that he do at times.
He is feeding on his mum's milk and we are supplementing with formulas for reasons that we can't seems to keep up with his ferocious eating habit.
From a 2 oz per meal baby, he is not drinking 4oz, sometimes 5oz per meal. Feeding is every 4 hours, but his biological clock is better and more accurate than any alarm clock as he wakes up 30 minutes before his feeding time, without fail!
For first time parents like us, choosing formula was hard. There is so many out there on the shelf, each promising you the sky where the nutritional benefits were. Some claimed to be as close as breast milk, which we all know nothing comes close to breast milk, so, i deliberately avoided those that has such claims.
AA, DHA and ARA are all overrated, but most milk formula has it in them.
due to the fact that it's not right to advertise the milk formula, the following blog entries will be without hyperlink to the respective brands.
We started off with S26 Gold. The most premium whey based milk formula with fortified iron, AA( or sometimes knowns as ARA) and DHA. It was given away as sample. At RM28.80 RRP per 400gm, it's easily the most expensive can of milk in the market.
We feed Ryan twice daily on formula. Letting wifey rest during the night feeding and early morning feeding. Breast feeding is and should be on demand. And as easy as that may sound, it's actually very hard. Breast fed baby sometimes need to be fed up to 15 times a day, that's like every other hours as their appetite is as fickle as when i go shopping for grocery (got to get the best goods with the best prices).
S26 came with their own host of problem for our bub. Firstly, it was the irregular passing of motion. Before S26, Ryan poo after every meal. When we introduced S26 into his diet, he poo only once, twice at most everyday. And i suspect that it gave him Colic as well due to indigestion and gas build up. In short, S26 Gold, though the most premium and expensive, is simply too rich (of content) for Ryan 's tummy to handle.
So, there i was, searching the internet for the best other possible formula. Similac, SMA, Snow, Nan all were returned as search results. There were also a 2001 report on the violation by the formula manufacturers where marketing and claims were concerned. All of the brand from A to W were implicated with mostly giving away samples and promoting the formula as substitute to breast milk.
There i was, at the baby's food aisle in one of the many hypermarket in Klang Valley, looking at all the brands.
Price was secondary, but a decisive factor. Primary and most important criteria is the nutritional benefits. I found myself comparing Nestle Nan HA 1 with S26 Gold. Content wise, it's true that S26 Gold tops all the others on the shelves.
Nan HA 1, however, was just slightly below what S26 has to offer PLUS it claimed to be hypoallergenic and easier on the tummy. In short, easy digestion. At Rm44.85 per 900gram, it's about RM16 cheaper that say, if i continue to feed him S26 Gold (of the same weight).
So, i did more research. More forums were reviewed and more mother(funnily, most of these forums were female infested, i seems to be the only father there!) were happy with Nan HA1 than S26 or even other brand.
Some even went to give the baby Goat's MIlk, as it's so claimed to be closest to human milk because of the low lactose level. Some vegetarian babies were put on Soy based milk.
But one thing for sure, where S26 Gold is concerned, out of 10 respondent, 9 says that it causes their baby to have constipation. The 10th is feeding her baby on Goat's Milk.
But when i search for S26 Gold forum, their review were good too, where the formula were concerned, but they all agree that it's the most expensive at USD20 per 400gram. But they did not rule out that it does make their baby constipated when on that formula. To them, the benefit outweight the constipation, as they find their baby put grow much faster and stronger.
Where Nan HA1 is concerned, most of the mother that converted to this formula were also users of S26 Gold in the beginning. Soon after changing to Nan HA1, the constipation seems to go away and the passing of motion seemed to had been back to normal. Baby were also reported to be less cranky.
"Only one way to know it this is all true la" i was telling myself.
So, yesterday, at 11pm feed, we gave Ryan 4oz of Nan HA1, there seems to be less gurgling sound towards the last 2 oz(which sounded like you had phelgm in your throat as you swallow the milk), and he seems to like it more as he does not expel them out as much compared to S26 Gold (where he will push some out from the corner of his mouth, at times, wetting the whole part of the hankie).
Maybe it did work. So, i told wifey that we need to monitor if he slept more soundly and less cranky.
Before this, he would sleep for only an hour before waking up, crying. By then, me and wifey would had our sleep reduced from 3 hours between feeding at night to 1 hour at most. Which explain why both of us were almost too tired by 4pm everyday.
Guess what. Ryan slept for a good 3 hours before waking up 30 minutes before his feeding time. He was fed again at 2.30, which takes him 30 minutes to finish the 4oz of milk. But for the 3am feeding, we gave him expressed breast milk. Soon after the 3am feeding, burping and settling him down to sleep, he did not wake up until this morning at 6.30am for his 7am feeding time!
This is absolutely a record sleeping hours for me and wifey! a good almost 6 hours of rest with 3 hours each in between feeding! We only manage to clock in 2 hours at most everynight since we gave him formula about 2 weeks ago! Which, coincidently, was when his colic started to give him problem as well!
Wifey bath him at 8am this morning and changed him. We were surprised to see him passing motion in the morning as opposed to non for the past 1 week plus (where he passed motion only ONCE in the evening).
He went to sleep right after the bath.
so peaceful...
As i went back just now at 10.30am, he was awake for his next feeding. Wifey fed him breast milk and the last i checked, he was sleeping after his burping!
Long lashes, not like mine!
Oh ya, Wifey and Ryan is back home (to our own home) already. Baby settling in fine with the new enviroment. We needed this to get accustomed to the soon to come routine of waking up, feeding, burping, giving him morning bath, and leaving for work while my mum or wifey's mum take cares of him until we come back from work.
So far so good. I already sense that it would be a great Christmas with Ryan and Wifey around. What more could i ask for?
ok, apart from the fact that he sleeps through the night like this morning so me and wifey could get more rest!
Oh ya, have i spoken about diapers???
By the way, wifey's supplier bought Ryan a Full Moon gift. It's a Fisher Price's Swing.
Aquarium Take-Along Swing™
Thank You very much for the gift!
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