Half a year is already passed !! The time flew... oh maybe now I am feeling that time flew, I remember there were many days (and nights) which seemed to go on and on without any end in sight :-)

I would be uploading some pics of Radha (finally) on Januarymommie, will send mail to the group. They are not very good quality snaps as some are taken with mobile phone and some in adequate light. Actually I was waiting to get some pics from home but its delayed everyday.. today I thought, forget it, better something than nothing.

Radha has become naughty just like all the baccha party on this board. She is thin, not exactly underweight but definitely on the very low side of the growth curve w.r.t weight.. so Vani, you have some company here.

I started Radha with semisolids when she was 4.5 months old as I had to rejoin work when she turns 5 months. The bottle was started 1 week earlier to that and Sush, you at least won the battle in the end.. I am almost lost on that front. With SOOO MANY different tries she almost refused to take the bottle.. well almost because she takes it only once a day and that too when I am not home. Her milk intake through bottle is very very less, so we give her milk in all her food items. Doc says its fine, if she likes solids more let her have it.
I am breast feeding her from eve till next morning.. And she sees to it that she gets her quota right, because she wakes up every 2 hours in the night for feed. There was a time when she woke up every hour !!! and that too when I was home full time during the day. Thankfully she has shifted to 2 hrs schedule, I am desperately waiting for the day when she sleeps through 6 hrs (at least) and I can once again experience what it is like to “sleep”... Zzzzzzzzzz

Regarding food we are not giving her anything readymade. We (me and mom) prepared cereals for her by wash-dry-roast-grind method (rice+moong daal, 2:1).. She also has Raagi (that doc said can be bought from the market, called Naachani Satva). Recently we prepared Wheat \";Satva\"; for her... well my mom did. It is prepared by soak-sprout-dry-roast-grind method (referring to Dr. R K Anand's book on childcare, the book is very very good, a must have). She loves all these cereals a lot. We cook it in water with little sugar/or salt , then add milk to it.
Radha also loves mangoes, banana and chickoo. I mash it and mix it in milk to make quite thick milk shake. Now we want to start her on veggies. Planning to mix cooked veg in daal-chawal wala cereal to make 'khichadi'.
I haven't yet given her cerelac, would try that sometime...

She could roll over when she was 4 and 1/2 months old but was not at all interested in it. She started real roll over only 2-3 weeks back i.e. when she was 5 and 1/2 months.
Around same time I generally made her sit when she was playing with a new toy and was amazed to see that she could sit without support for some time! Now she sits almost all the time with support and if she is concentrating then she can sit very well unsupported too… the moment her attention is diverted -- ddhhooop and fall :-))
I have a feeding pillow which is being very very useful for her to sit !
And yes she also started standing up from lying down when she was less that 5 months. Of course we gave her fingers to hold and some support, day by day she needs very little support to come to sitting position from lying down and after that its her job completely.. just needs to hold our fingers to stand, no help required !! Its wonderful to watch each small development day by day.
Oh, I can go on and on about what Radha does and how she does and how cute it is :-)))
Ok, one last cute thing. 2 days back she wanted to have the glass that her dad was drinking water from… so we gave her katori filled with water (I boil her water and katoris, spoons too..), she just sprang for it and thrust her mouth onto it and then started making blup-blup bood-bbod sounds with her tongue, it was so funny.. when I started recoding it, I couldn't stop laughing. so the shoot is like this: a cute little baby trying to drink from katori, making funny sounds and Rawana like laughter in the back ground :-)))

Guess I should stop now and not try to write everything that I or Radha did in last 6 months!

Waiting for latest updates from everybody.
love,
Archana.
Vidya replied. Archana
I couldn't write to your other message but I was so happy to read the news about Radha's health. One of our friend's daughter had problems in her lungs and it was so heart wrenching.

You must be feeling so excited at each of her developments. So, don't feel bad in writing long messages. We all enjoy it so much when we hear other babies accomplish a milestone. Looking forward to see Radha and you.
Take care
Vidya Vani replied. Hi Archana,

Felt good to read about Radha... I can imagine the incidents that you have explained. Its amazing how fast they grow!

When she sits... is she able to sit straight? Rishi also lifts his head and shoulders and always tries to sit, but his back bone is so bent while he sits, so am afraid to let him sit. He can sit with support and as you said, within seconds, he will stand just holding our fingers and if I make him stand on my tummy, he will march and try to climb my chest!!! I am also giving him Raagi and Wheat Kanji. He seems to like it, but he wants sugar in everything. Doesn't take salt. Also giving him musambi juice.

Have fun with your princess and do post pictures soon. Waiting to see her.

Take care.

Love
Vani Archana replied. Typo in subject itself na.. its Radha and not \";Radhs\";. No short-stylo name for her as her name is already small enought :-)
Ofcourse we call her many diff names.. current favourite is \";Foodki\";
(foo-the-ki), Because she starts doing \";fudak fudak' sounds when something is not as per her wish :)