Last week was all about talking to dietitians and improving A-'s feeding. After the previous week's stern lecture from the pediatrician about A-'s slow weight gain, I got a referral to a public health dietitian associated with the Peer Nutrition workshop I attend, and booked an appointment with the private dietitian my pediatrician had been recommending for a while. The public dietitian reviewed the specifics of A-'s situation and suggested that we try adding a couple of snacks to A-'s feeding schedule, perhaps incorporating calorie-dense foods like cream cheese. The private dietitian measured her length and weight, noting her as 61cm (3cm shorter than last week's measurement at the pediatrician, but measured in a different way) and 5.79kg (a gain of 220g in 7 days, wow!). Both dietitians reassured us that A- looks pretty good, and is maybe just a small baby. That's a relief! That means that instead of focusing on just trying to get calories into her, we can focus on helping her build self-feeding and self-regulation skills, and we can expose her to a variety of tastes and textures.

The follow-up with the ocularist went well, too. He took out the scleral shell, examined it, cleaned it, and popped it back in. No fussing, whew!

I took A- for passport pictures. I forgot to put her in non-white clothes (she's almost always in a white onesie), so we borrowed a red T-shirt from the photo studio. The picture was a little awkward since we didn't get her arms through the sleeves, but oh well. The important thing is that it's done, and the photo studio said the passport office will take it.

I messed up by not checking my e-mail for the schedule for the appointment with the dietitian. It got classified as Updates instead of Important in Gmail, so I didn't get a specific notification for it, and I went a day without checking those folders. I should remember to star similar conversations, or maybe even whitelist/filter. Anyway, no biggie. The slot we had was just 1.5 hours after I thought the schedule was, so we went to the library and the drug store.

We passed on some baby clothes to Mrs. Wong for the granddaughter they're expecting soon. Here's hoping we'll have a neighbourhood playmate! Mrs. Wong gave us lots of chives and a few plants from her garden (akajiso, and a plant we can't identify). W- turned the chives into yummy pork-and-chives dumplings. Jen and E- came over for a visit, too, and I met up with Rachael and G- at a park to say goodbye before their move to Missouri.

J- had friends over, too. W- supervised them as they helped with her closet renovation, and I got them started with making pesto from the basil in our planter box. W- and I were pleasantly surprised that stuff actually got done. =)

A- observations: She likes playing with water, whether they're jets from the hose as we tend the garden or streams from the holes in her stacking-cup toys. She's better at manipulating things to get them into her mouth: fancy teething rings W- bought her, spoons of baby food, rice rusks with cream cheese… She's also pretty comfortable rolling onto her tummy, and often likes to spend time that way. We're slowly developing a feeding routine of 2-3 meals a day and 2-3 snacks. She's an avid eater, and this is a great time to sample all sorts of fruits and vegetables in season.

My left wrist started feeling a little weird, so I'm paying more attention to that. I'm not sure about booking a massage (hard to relax if A- is fussy) but maybe stretching and resting will help with that. I'll book a doctor's appointment or a massage if it gets worse or if it doesn't go away in a few days. In the meantime, it would be good for me to slowly explore what's going on there so that I can describe it to people. Hmm…

Anyway, life is starting to get simpler, at least in terms of A-'s health. Hooray!

Blog posts

• 2016-08-01 Emacs News
• Weekly review: Week ending July 29, 2016

Sketches

• Journal
  • 2016-08-01a Week ending 2016-07-29 -- index card #journal #weekly
  • 2016-07-30d Saturday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-07-31a Sunday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-08-01b Monday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-08-02a Tuesday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-08-03a Wednesday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-08-04a Thursday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-08-05a Friday -- index card #journal
• 2016-07-30b Anxiety and perspective -- index card #philosophy #anxiety #stoicism
• 2016-07-30c How do I want to tweak my decision-making -- index card #perspective #parenting #kaizen

Focus areas and time review

• Business (0.7h – 0%)
  • Earn (0.6h – 91% of Business)
  • Build (0.0h – 0% of Business)
    • ☑ Prepare invoice
  • Connect (0.1h – 8% of Business)
• Relationships (3.3h – 1%)
  • ☑ Take A- for passport pictures
  • ☐ Call cardiology to check follow up date, appointment info
  • ☐ Apply for passport
  • ☐ Call to see whether bassinet has been approved
• Discretionary – Productive (6.7h – 4%)
  • Drawing (3.6h)
  • Emacs (0.5h)
    • ☑ Do another Emacs News review
    • ☐ Do another Emacs News review
  • Coding (1.1h)
    • ☑ Make special feeding chart
    • ☑ Improve feeding display for days
  • Sewing (0.2h)
  • Writing (0.0h)
• Discretionary – Play (2.0h – 1%)
• Personal routines (23.1h – 13%)
• Unpaid work (80.8h – 48%)
  • Childcare (66.3h – 39% of total)
• Sleep (51.4h – 30% – average of 7.3 per day)