Wonder Weeks - The 9th Leap (week 60)

Em begins her 9th leap this week. She's a full 14 months and we've come a long way from those newborn days! 

She is finally confident in walking unassisted (although if I am closeby, she would still ask for my hand), is starting to eat better again, especially in the mornings, naps are getting longer and less interrupted (I can lay her down without fuss) and she will usually sleep 2 cycles in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.

That said though, this wonder week thing is really causing her to act up in a way. She's been super clingy, has mood swings, throws tantrums if she doesn't get her way, doesn't want to sit down for meals, and the big one... nurses ALL night. 

According to the Wonder Week app, the stormy period lasts for about 4 weeks while she discovers the world of "principles". It's time to lay down those rules! I foresee temper tantrums... she should be learning to understand the difference between "yes" and "no", "yours" and "mine", "right" and "wrong", "rash" and "careful"... I guess here's she the fun really begins! My baby is turning into a little toddler! 

Em's eating habits

Before Em was born, the hubby and I always talked about how we hope she will have a wide palette and love all kinds of food. I love my food and ate pretty much everything I was "allowed" to during my pregnancy, so we often said how Em must be enjoying all the wide variety of food too.

When she hit 6 months and was ready for solids, I started off by giving her mashed bananas. That was the easiest food to start with. No preparation (apart from mashing), just scoop and feed. At first, she loved it! And then one day, I must have overfed her, giving her a full nursing session and then immediately sitting her down for some bananas. She projectile vomited not long after her meal and since that day, has refused to eat bananas or anything even banana flavored. 

From there though, we progressed to puréed pumpkin and that remained her favourite food for a long time. She would gobble up every scoop you presented to her and didn't seem to tire of it. I started being adventurous, mixing pumpkin and apple, pumpkin, sweet potato and carrots, pumpkin and peas, pumpkin and pear, etc. Sometimes she ate it, sometimes she didn't. Unfortunately, the days where she didn't want her food became more and more often and I momentarily gave up cooking for her, switching to pre-packaged foods by Happytot and Plum. At least if she didn't eat those, I didn't feel like she was rejecting my cooking.

Yep, it was the beginning days of wanting to be independent and wanting to feed herself. So the only way I could get her to eat again, was to prepare finger foods, stuff she could pick up and feed herself with her fingers. Her favourite became bread and I'm glad I started her on wholemeal because now she wouldn't have any other type of bread.

Since then, her favourite foods also include cheese (absolute love), pasta (spirals), and macaroni!! Lately, we've also added mee tai bak, laksa noodles (just the noodles, not the laksa soup), tofu, fishballs, chicken and fish (especially salmon) to the mix!

Wow, looking at the list above, I feel a sense of achievement in the sense that she seems to love adult food. I can take her to the food court and order her a bowl of chicken macaroni, sliced fish noodle soup, or fishball mee tai bak and I can guarantee you she'll gobble it up!

My only gripe at the moment is that still have trouble trying to get her to take her puréed pumpkin and I'm still searching for ways and means to sneak some green veg into her. So far, she seems to love carbs and meat! The only way I've been able to do this is through pasta sauce, but I don't want her to get sick of pasta, so I'm spacing out her pasta meals. She's ever changing though, so I really shouldn't stress about it, some days I'm just glad she eats!

Free Fun Activity #1 - Rooftop Water Play Areas

I've decided to keep a log of posts to remember all the awesome fun filled days I spend with Em - especially those that come for free! I think there's so much you can do with a bub while they are growing up and even the simple things interest them and teach them things. So here's my first post on a free fun activity you can do with your bub:

Rooftop water play areas!

Many shopping centers these days have a rooftop play area and most of them are water playgrounds, which is great for when the weather is too hot to bear, especially here in Singapore.

I recently took Em to the one at Katong I12 and we had such fun! It was the perfect weather - warm, but also cloudy so I didn't have to worry about exposing Em to the the scorching sun. Although UV levels are also quite high under clouds so technically, I should have put sunscreen on Em... I didnt (sheepish) but at least I brought a hat and she didn't try to pull it off for once! Anyway, this rooftop at I12 is pretty cool, apart from the water play, they also have these percussion areas with drums and tubes made out of metal that the kids can bang on to experiment with sounds. Educational yet fun :) I'm sure Em will enjoy banging on them when she's older!

Another great water play area is the new one at Changi City Point. Located next to the food court on level 2, the area is called the 3 Top and has climbing structures too so older kids can run up and down to burn off their energy. It's got plenty of dry land for those who wish remain dry, yet also plenty of wet areas to play in. 

Parents be warned: The water jets are strategically placed, it will be hard to follow your kid around without getting wet! Although the kids (and probably most adults too) will love it in hot weather!

The good thing is that this play area is equipped with proper toilets so even adults can change into clean and dry clothes after getting wet.

As you can see, Em is not quite walking on her own yet, so I still have to hold her by her hands and walk everywhere with her. It's tricky trying to avoid getting splashed while bending over to hold her tiny hands and making sure she doesn't trip. It's also interesting how I've noticed she doesn't seem to want to crawl around as much when she's in these sort of areas. Always stretching out her little palm facing upwards as her way of asking for your hand so you can guide her to walk :) So cute.

Anyway, I look forward to checking out more water play areas in the near future with Em! Especially when she finally starts walking/running around. It's such an awesome way to help her burn off her energy so she has good sleeps. Plus it's free! Hope you enjoy taking your bubs to these play areas too! :)

Waiting it out (WIO)

I recently joined a group on Facebook called "Wait it Out" Method Support and am so liberated and encouraged by all the mummies on this group. WIO is pretty simple, you "wait it out" with your baby/toddler until they are ready to wean, sleep independently, etc without rushing them into it with "traditional" methods like CIO or controlled crying or "no-cry" sleep solutions. It's for mummies who are content to give the baby whatever they want (or need) at any time of day (or night), until baby decides they no longer need it (or want it). For example, nursing at night.

For me, after a whole day of watching Em, I simply don't have the energy to shush and pat and coo in the middle of the night anymore in a bid to try and get her back to sleep. It's so much easier (and gentler in my opinion) to just pop out the boob and let her suckle for 5-10 mins then roll off back to sleep. Sometimes I do think she's old enough to understand she doesn't need the boob and get frustrated when it happens 5-6 times a night (like last night...) but then I try to remember a "mantra" in the group - "She's not giving me a hard time, she IS having a hard time". When I think this way, all I want to do is to be there for her and comfort her in whatever way she needs. 

Which is why I posted the following in the group the other day, also partly I serve as a reminder to me as to why I am happy to just WIO.

"I may need to cradle and comfort you to sleep, but I don't see anything wrong with that... It's the only time of day you are peaceful and still in my arms. It's the only time of day I get to snuggle you and smell your hair without you trying to wriggle away to play.

Why rush you into adulthood when you are just a baby? I'm going to treat you like a baby while you don't know any better. I'm going to hold you and comfort you as long as you let me . Because one day, you'll want to do everything on your own and when you are ready to, that's when I'll let you."

My baby's first steps

At close to 14 months, Em is finally confident enough to take a few steps unaided! She's still learning, so if there's something close by for her to hold onto, she still will. Or she will turn her little palms upwards to ask for your hands. But if none of these are available, I have caught her taking those cautious, but brave steps on her own! Although most times, she will still just plop straight onto her knees and crawl.

At the moment, the minute my back is turned, she's scooting halfway up the stairs, I really don't dare imagine what it will be like once she's confident on her feet! Won't be long now and Em will be a tough one to catch. The only positive thing I look forward to is longer sleeps at night if she's given the opportunity to run about and burn off the crazy amount of energy her little body possesses!

The next step (no pun intended) is to get her to wear shoes. We have always let her go barefoot, not even socks unless we are at the indoor playground. So now when we do put shoes on her feet, she lifts her feet so high for each step and walks like she's on the moon. It's hilarious to watch! Just takes a bit of getting used to I'm sure, she'll be running around in no time, it's time to bring out those knee guards!

Babyzen Yoyo review

We are planning a trip to Japan in August and are faced with the decision of whether to bring our trusty Bugaboo with us. It's an excellent buggy and we have never had any regrets purchasing it, but it is quite heavy to lug as extra baggage and I have always resented the fact that it cannot stand up on its own. This means you always have to have a hand (or 2!) on it to hold and support it. Not ideal when travelling, especially through Japan where it's so crowded through the train stations.

So when a friend of mine introduced the Babyzen Yoyo to me, I didn't need much persuasion other than the fact that it weighs only 5.8kg and folds up to a mere 20" x 17"!!! Which means it's small enough to take onto the plane as handcarry (yep! Approved hand carry baggage!) I was sold!!!

Here it is folded up with Em standing next to it. Look our little it is! Em now measures only 72cm so you can see the buggy is much smaller than her. The stroller truly folds and unfolds with just one hand and is super easy to manage even when carrying bub in the other hand - which I often have to do. I love how easy it is to handle! Even though the Bugaboo is also technically one-handed operation, it's a heavier stroller so I've always had to struggle a little trying to lift it into the car while carrying bub in one hand. I just know already that this process will be so much easier with the Babyzen Yoyo!

Plus it has a shoulder strap, so you can easily port it around. It can also easily sit on top of your trolley baggage (because its so small!) when lugging through the airport (and train stations!).

I am soooooooo excited to use this on our upcoming trip to Japan!!!!

There is a good deal going on for the buggy now at Mums and Babes, preorders for the Yoyo is only$499 (usual retail $699). But stock arrives only in August 2013 so it may not be in time for our trip. We had to get it from Mothercare in the end but at least we got the member discount on it.

We took it for a test run today and my verdict: A good buggy that's very easy to navigate and swivel around (u can push with just one hand), plus I like the fact that you can fold the handlebar down so it becomes like just a seat for bub especially when going places and you need to feed for example.

Cons: The shopping basket at the bottom is not very big and can only hold up to 2kg weight so it's not very suitable if you know you'll have lots of shopping. As a lighter stroller, inevitably it doesn't feel as sturdy as the bugaboo.

Edit (after Japan trip): Em totally loves the babyzen yoyo! She fell asleep in her stroller for the first time while we were holidaying in Japan so the verdict is absolutely positive! It was the best decision to take it with us because we could easily fold it up when boarding trains (you know how crowded the trains get in Japan!) and we could put all our "barang barang" on it while walking the streets (and shops).  It was also handy as a seat in some restaurants (just fold the handle down and it looks like a chair!) because we found that a lot of restaurants in Japan just didn't provide babychairs. We could also take it onto the plane with us and no one even blinked an eye at us, just stowed it in the overhead compartment.

Start of STTN for Em?

Em slept a record of 5 hrs 52 mins last night! Ok... I'll round it off to 6! That's STTN by all accounts of definition! It's the first one though so I won't get my hopes up yet. The downside is that we leave for our trip to Japan tomorrow so that might turn her sleeping all upside down again! Booooooo! At least I haven't gotten used to her sleeping for such long stretches yet so it won't really matter. Or maybe she will simply sleep all night while we're on holiday! One can only hope...

Her sleeping habits have improved recently though. Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of her nap, opens her eyes, tosses over, sometimes even gets up to crawl one step, then collapses back down again and sleeps for another cycle. Last night, she woke within 10 mins of putting her down, sat up in her crib and cried, but I leant over and patted her and I'm not sure if its cos she saw I was still there, but she then flopped back onto the bed and fell asleep. Amazing.

I guess what they say about Waiting It Out (WIO) is true! Babies will naturally start sleeping through when they are ready. Before that, they just want that extra cuddling and security in knowing mummy is there for them when they need it. I ❤ u baby Em! 

Unwanted advice

As parents, I'm sure we have all had our fair share of (unwanted) advice from outsiders on how to raise our babies.

"You should let them Cry it Out" is probably one of the most popular ones. 

Sure. Easy for YOU to say.

I was getting that advice even BEFORE  Em was born. At that time, my replies were closer to something like "yeah sure, of course I'll do that if I have to." I didn't think it would be a hard thing. On the contrary, I thought it would be easy for me because I can be quite hard hearted when I want/need to.

Now that Em is close to 13 months and still not sleeping through the night, I roll my eyes whenever someone dishes that advice to me. Especially when it comes from my parents. Like seriously? You think I haven't tried? "She's already 1," they say. "You should be able to just pat her to sleep." Wow. Like it happens like magic? Why don't you give it a shot? Then you'll see why I don't just "let her cry it out", why I can't "just pat her to sleep". 

Em is a very active baby. She very rarely, if ever, sits still for 2 seconds. The only time she does is when she is doing a poo. Seriously. That's how I know she's done a poo, she suddenly goes quiet for about 5 seconds, then starts bouncing and babbling again. But I digress. The point is, if I lay her awake in her cot, she will simply scramble to get up, climb, crawl out of her cot. I'm sure many parents can relate and those who have been through it say to just leave the room and let them "learn to self soothe". Well, I love my baby too much to just walk out on her when she's crying out for me. 

If she needs me, I want to be there. If she wants to nurse just for comfort, I want to provide her with that comfort. Why would I want to leave her to work it out for herself when she still needs me? Isn't that what being a mum is all about? Being there for your child? I seriously find it hard to believe that she'll still need me to put her to sleep when she's a full blown teenager. Ok fine, maybe I'll still need to be patting her to sleep when she's say... 4, or 5... the age when it seems ridiculous for your child to still need to be aided to sleep. But hey, whatever works right? Babies won't want you forever, soon they will be saying things like "go away", "leave me alone", "I don't need you", "I can do it on my own", etc etc. I know I was like that before. And my daughter has half my genes, so I'm pretty sure she'll have that streak of independence in her too.

So until then, I'll be here for my daughter. I'll soothe her when she's crying, comfort her when she wakes up in the middle of the night and nurse her until she's ready to wean, if that's what it takes to build a strong mother-daughter relationship!

Em's first swimming lesson

I took Em for her first proper swimming lesson today. After watching a video of a 1 yr 9 mth old toddler swimming, I felt inspired that Em should also pick up this skill. At least I won't panic when she's near the water and we can plan more family vacations that involve relaxing by the pool and beach! 

We have a pool at home and I know most people say to just take the baby down more often, let them get used to the water, they'll pick it up one day. Em has no problems with the water, in fact, she loves it! What I really want her to learn tho, is the ability to kick herself up to the surface, swim to an edge and keep herself afloat should she fall into a deep pool of water. Sounds ambitious for a one year old? Well, we'll see! 

After her first lesson, she wasn't ready to go underwater yet (like a proper dunk, not just dribble over her head). Baby steps... We'll get there!

I decided to pick Marsden Swim School at Turf City since its close to my parents place so swimming day doubles as grandparents play date day. Also, it's indoors and the pool is slightly heated so its comfortable for the baby (and me!) even on a rainy day. The instructor is patient and the timing for the group we are in only has 2 or 3 pairs of mums (sometimes dads) and bub's each time so we get plenty of practice during each session.

I'm so glad Em takes to water like a duck. I can't wait for her to be able to swim laps on her own!

Oh what fun, Em turns one!

It was Em's birthday a few days ago and I finally have some time to sit down and reflect. Leading up to her party, my mind was full of preparation ideas and everytime I was out at the shops, I was on the hunt for all things pink and purple or with butterflies. Yep, that was the theme, Pink and Purple with butterflies. And I love how it turned out!

Thanks to help from my sisters, the venue was decorated so beautifully!

 

We held the party at Rochester House and thank goodness it rained in the morning so the weather was nice and cool. Being an outdoor venue, I was worried it would be too hot for the guests. Plus we had haze in the week before too, but luckily that cleared up in time for the party.

Apparently, the food provided by La Viva Spanish was really good too, I didn't get to try everything, but I'm glad the guests were happy! Definitely a good venue choice for a first birthday celebration in the end, as we had a huge open area to ourselves, food was good, atmosphere was relaxed and kids could play inside the playhouse while the adults sat outside and chatted away.

We set up a Pink and Purple candy buffet table too, so guests could help themselves during the party and take some home in the "noodle boxes" as a goody bag. From pink and purple mentos and cherry blossom jellybeans, to pink and purple cake pops, this table looked soooooo pretty!

The cake pops were from Lollipop Cakes and the lovely Thet squeezed my order in even though she was already overbooked. And everyone said they were yummy, especially the red velvet flavored ones!

And here's her gorgeous birthday cake from Sweet Perfection! The team did such a fantastic job, with only email descriptions from me, I was afraid the cake would not turn out how I wanted it to look like in my head, but I'm so pleased with the results. It was strawberry flavored and everyone said it tasted yummy!

How time flies, Em is one already and soon I'm sure, I'll be planning her 2nd birthday! It's so fun watching her grow up into a little lady, I just wish time wouldn't fly by so quick.

My birthday wish for you, Little Em, is to always have that strong fighting spirit in you, may you grow to be a gorgeous lady, both inside and out!

Here's a video I made for my little girl to remember her first milestones. Happy Birthday little one! xoxo, love mum :)

Em learns to clap!

Em learnt how to clap today! She had been swinging one arm left to right for a couple of days and I just thought it was her new thing. Turns out, she had been doing a one-handed clap! She finally worked out how to put both hands together as she swung her arms and ta-da! *clap*!

She's got this proud, ecstatic look where she scrunches up her face in glee when she does it too. Priceless! I managed to catch this video while we were travelling in the car. A pretty good first attempt at recording her clap! :)

Almost one!

Em is now 11.5 months old... Where has the time gone?!?! It's been a while since my last update so this could be a lengthy one.

First of all, I'm so glad to say that Em has finally dropped her last nap! We're down to 2 consistent naps a day - the morning 9-ish till 10-ish one and an afternoon 2-ish to 3-ish one. They are still short by far, but Em has never been a good sleeper from day one so I'm really happy when she does just one cycle each nap at least. Usually we get about an hours worth and I've also progressed from having to carry her the whole naptime, to being able to put her down on the bed again. Yippee! 

Her night sleep is a different story though, or the same, depending which way you look at it. Basically, still terrible to say the least. We have say about 3-4 wakings per night? She will fall asleep consistently by 8.20pm every night, but wake at least once between 11-12, another between 1-2 and again between 4-5. If we're lucky, she'll sleep till 7 then, otherwise we have another waking around 6... I've started bringing Em into bed for a nurse lying down in the mornings while I catch a couple more winks since she has been waking so early. We'll see if this changes anytime soon... I'm definitely looking forward to her sleeping through the night!

At the same time, she's lasting really well through the day now, being able to stay awake for 3-4 hours at a stretch before getting cranky. It really allows us to get a lot more done during the day, plus we get to go out and explore more since she's awake for longer. 

Em's still not walking yet... Doesn't look too far away though. She cruises really well along the furniture and crawls really fast, especially when she's trying to get to something she really wants, like an open drawer :) Today was the first time she stood quite steadily on her own without leaning on anything, while we were in the pool. So I think it won't be long now!

Oh! And her latest face is the awesomest  expression ever! It's one that goes "oooooooh" and she does it whenever she uncovers something new, it's hilarious! I love it!

Em has also gotten really good at feeding herself lately. Her favourite is currently bread, she doesn't like her pumpkin so much anymore... plenty of food going to waste lately :( but here she is feeding herself:

We've also recently discovered some little snacks for her so she's been having fun exploring the whole self-feeding process. Her little fingers are really good at the pincer grip these days!

So my little baby turns one in a couple of weeks... What a milestone! Love her to bits as she surprises me each and every day with new discoveries. ❤

Hello 9-month Regression

It's been a while since I've had uninterrupted sleep. A good 9 and a half months to be exact. Everytime I think (or people tell me) things are gonna get better (i.e. better naps, longer nighttime sleeps, etc) things somehow take a turn for the worse. As if 2-3 nighttime wakings were not bad enough, along comes what experts term the "9 Month Regression".

The what???

Apparently this can happen anytime between 8-10 months and last anywhere between 4weeks to 3 months. Wait, WHUUUUUUUTTTT???? That's a big vague don't you think? For me, it feels like the 4 month regression has blended into the 9 month regression. Or maybe the 9 month regression began at 4 months. I don't know. What I do know, is that it's been a while since Em has been able to sleep any longer than 2.5-3 hrs at a stretch. Most of the time, she sleeps for 1hr durations before waking for a 5-10 min suckle and then going back down for another 1-2 hr stretch. Must this go on for 3 months??? Omigawd....

I've since decided to throw sleep training out the window, it's not for us I think. Em is way too dangerous when left to cry, climbing her crib, scratching her ears (sometimes till they bleed)... I figure a quick suckle is much more peaceful for all involved. And I can only hope and pray and cross all fingers, toes and eyes, that we will one day emerge victorious on the other side of these shenanigans. That she will one day decide to just sleep through the night. Till that day comes, I will power through her night wakings for she is my precious baby girl and this too shall pass in a blink of an eye. (Well... That's what "they" tell me!)

Standing, teething and Ma Ma!

Em is 38 weeks today. 38 weeks?!?! It doesn't sound like long, yet when I think about it more, it translates to just a few days shy of 9 months - THAT sounds longer. She's been out of he belly about the same length of time she's been IN the belly!

She's come a long way, little Em.. Only 3 more months of babyhood before we enter toddlerhood... I don't really want her to grow up so fast, yet it's so fun seeing how she's developing and learning new skills every day.

At 38 weeks, Em is now pulling herself up to stand, mostly with the help of furniture. We have to lower her cot within the next few days, it's getting a bit too dangerous because she'll pull herself up and lean over to see what's on the other side. Adventurous little girl with no fear...

She's also recently got her top two front teeth! I think it gives her a strange feeling inside her mouth so she keeps rubbing it with her tongue. To us, it looks like she's poking her tongue out at us... Cheeky monkey! Hopefully that will be it for the teeth for a while, so we can get back to some good sleeping cycles again. She's done well the past couple of nights since her teeth come through, waking but only for a few minutes and going back down without fussing. Hopefully we can get some long stretches soon!

Em also does this funny thing now where everything she grabs hold off, goes on her head. It's hilarious! She also lets out a very cute "ma!" as if to call out to you to "look at me! Look what I can do!" So so cute :)

Speaking of "ma", the hubby has been trying to get her to say "da da", to which Em retorts "MA MA!" Quite defiantly. It's soooooo funny! I have to try and get a video of it. Like everything else, you pull out the camera and she decides to stop doing what she's doing....

Em's first tumble

Oops! Em had her first tumble 3 days ago. She rolled off the bed onto the floor. Ouch!!! I was sitting right next to her and turned my back for a milli second, she lunged forwards and THUD! Actually, I distinctly remember hearing 2 thuds :(

When I heard the thuds, I remember turning quite unsuspectingly, expecting to see something had fallen onto the floor, it never crossed my mind that it would be poor little Em!! She was lying face up and had immediately started wailing. Omg... My heart almost stopped. I held her in my arms and instinctively rubbed the back of her head while I dialed the hubby (who rushed home upon hearing her ear piercing screams). Only when I held her back to look at her a bit later did I see the huuuuge lump on we forehead. My gosh it was hugggeeeee! Poor girl.... She was screaming her lungs out and this being the first time, I didn't know if it was hospital worthy or not. A quick call to the PD determined she should just be monitored for unusual activity, drowsiness or vomiting. Luckily she was back to her smiley self within minutes so that reassured me that she was ok. What a trooper!

Later that afternoon, I placed her on the floor mat since high spaces were now a no-no and look what she does - pulls herself up into a standing position to reach for the remotes instead of playing with her toys. Tsk tsk... This baby is a handful, can't take my eyes off her! I guess baby-proofing begins now!

8 months and counting

Where did all that time go! Em is 8 months old already and it's been a while since I've done an update. She's getting really close to crawling, but also loves pushing up on her feet a lot to stand so who knows which will come first! Personally, I'm glad she's not crawling yet because she's already such a hazard on the bed... Clever girl pulls on the sheets to pull herself forward to wherever she wants to go! Can't take my eyes off her, for now only the cot is a safe place on her own.

Sleep wise, we haven't progressed much 😔 she gave me so much hope with her one night of falling asleep without fussing and another where she practically STTN... I hope more of those nights are not too far off in the future... For now, Em still wakes around midnight and 4am... But even getting her to stay down past the first sleep cycle at 8pm is a struggle, she always seems to wake once or twice after going down for the night. The defiant little girl is very strong in protesting too when she doesn't want to be put down 😣

In happier news, she's so full of new expressions! Here are her new faces for now... A cheeky monkey look and a real ugly tongue sticking out one she discovered this morning! Love her funny faces though, makes me laugh 😂

Daddy is away again for a week so we are on our own again. Sometimes I wonder if she realised daddy is gone and if so, what she thinks. The baby's mind would be so interesting to uncover!

First words

She said it today! "MA-MA"! Actually she's been saying "mmmmm-Ma" for a few weeks now, we joke that she's just saying her own name... Narcissist! But this morning, I swear - and the hubby heard it too - she said the two syllables quickly and succinctly so her first word clearly is Mama!

Yay!

That is all. ^.^

Em's nighttime sleep milestone

Wow! For the first time tonight, I put Em in her cot 100% awake and one minute she's babbling, chewing on my fingers (biting really hard with her teeth actually), rolling all over the place in her cot, and the next she's falling asleep while I pat her! No fussing, no crying, just how it's suppose to be! I can't believe it! What a milestone for my little girl!!!

Actually the past couple of nights, she's woken up for her feeds (still waking 3 times a night) but gone back to bed in under 30 mins. Sometimes just 10! It used to take maybe an hour at least and she would still fuss when I put her down. So there's been a huge improvement! I've noticed she will pull off the boob now and twice in the middle of the night, she's done the babbling thing and grabbed my hand to chew on then rolled over and fallen asleep while I patted her. But I never thought it would come so soon, that I could just pat her to sleep the first go.

This is very exciting for me! Tomorrow night is CNY eve though so we'll be camping back at mum and dads... Hope that doesn't ruin this good turnaround!

Em's first tooth!

At 28 weeks, Em's first tooth is showing! It's the bottom front one on the right and it's sharp!

That's probably why we had those couple of bad nights where she was waking persistently... poor girl was probably in pain, or uncomfortable at least. Makes me feel a little bad now that I subjected her to crying when she could have been teething. Not sure if the vomiting can be attributed to teething too? It seems everything can!

Oh well, it's only the first tooth, plenty more to come!

Projectile vomiting

Oh dear, Em had her first projectile vomiting episode tonight. After her night bottle, she did a small spew (one handful caught by the hubby) and then when I breastfed her after that, she did the "Merlion". Poor thing, it was as if the whole bottle she'd just taken came right out of her belly.

After changing her pj's and the sheets, I thought I'd feed her again because surely she must be hungry and/or thirsty after that, I know I would be. What a bad decision that was because she did a second vomit which seemed to be even more than the first one!

Poor girl, only a couple of whimpers and she was smiling again. What a trooper!

Which baffled me, because she wasn't showing any other symptoms like diarrhea or a temperature, so it didn't seem like gastric flu. The only reason we could think of was that she might be overfed so her little belly was too full. Greedy guts probably drank her bottle too quick without realizing she wasn't hungry anymore.

Anyway, 4 pj's and 2 change of sheets later, all seems good now. Didn't have any further spewing incidents after that so that's a relief!

First taste of solids

At 6 months and 1 day old, we let Em have her very first taste of solids!

She kinda loves it, I think! I really hope she doesn't grow up to be a fussy eater. I've decided to make her food rather than buy jars of processed baby foods (of course sometimes I know I won't have a choice, like when I choose to eat instant noodles for lunch I suppose).

To start off, I tried mashed bananas because this is the quickest and easiest food to prepare. No cooking required, just mash! Although I've read somewhere that you can heat it up in a microwave for a few seconds before mashing so it's softer. Haven't needed to do this though.

At first taste, Em's face was full of confusion...

The next day (New Years Day), she probably liked it better... Or maybe she knew it was the first day of 2013!

And this is her on the 3rd day in her brand new highchair we got from Ikea. Love the high hair! Looks so un-ikea-ish haha.

Looking forward to trying all sorts of foods with Em, really hope she loves her food like me!

Sleep training - not for me... Yet.

As the title suggests, sleep training is not for me (at least at the time of updating this post the morning after). I started out writing this post with the full intention of updating it through the night and possibly also with the (false) full expectation that it would go like how everyone on the internet writes about their success. I guess no one writes about their "failures"? So anyway, here goes...

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Ok, I've made the decision! After many bad nights of terrible sleep and 2 nights of persistent night wakings after every sleep cycle, I've decided to try a bit of sleep training. No, I'm not going for the harsh CIO method as I am not sure if I can handle that yet - let's leave that to be the last resort if it ever comes to that.

What I'm trying is the Baby Bliss settling technique by Jo Ryan. It's (supposedly) a gentler method than CIO and not so much so a controlled crying method - though to me I don't really know how much different her method is to CC?

Anyway, it involves a lot of patting and shooshing until bub falls back asleep if and when she wakes at a time where she shouldn't be needing a feed. Right now, that's probably only 10 minutes away for me as Em has been down for about half an hour now since putting her down for her last feed. She always nurses back to sleep (quite easily), but what I'm trying to do here is to break this sleep association so she can transition through her sleep cycles without persistent wakings.

I will be updating this post as I go through this night (and the next 2-3 nights) so I can log my progress. I've already kicked the hubby out of the room (Em sleeps in a crib next to me in our room) so I have to persevere! Otherwise he would have been kicked out for nothing.

My mantra will be...

"I have to stick this out, my waffling will only confuse and make things worse for Em and she will end up crying harder and longer next time. Do not feed, she's not hungry. Pat and shoosh, pat and shoosh."

Of course I will feed her probably 2 times through the night, but just not when she wakes at the end of every sleep cycle, and certainly not if she's stirring only 10 mins after being put down! She's been doing this the past 2 nights, hence why I'm deciding to train her - I need her to learn how to self soothe/settle with as little help from me as possible. Only then will hubby be allowed back in the room (I kid, but yet again, I'm quite serious especially when I think about it at 2am when it's already been the 6th night waking!).

Wishing myself luck!

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Start of log
8.25pm: Put Em down for bedtime after nursing to sleep (yes, this was deeper sleep than it probably should have been)

9.05pm: Em wakes and I commence the Baby Bliss settling method. Jo recommends waiting at least 10-15 mins of crying before picking baby up, if the crying doesn't seem to be easing or is getting more distressed. Well, I decide after 6 mins that that is about the longest I can bear so I pick Em up.
End of log (yeah, short I know)
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Herein lies my problem... Picking baby up is supposed to calm them down. Or I'm supposed to try calm bub down at least and then when she does, put her back down in crib and commence settling because she most certainly will cry again. Which she did. My problem is bub refuses to calm down no matter what I do and I know the only thing that will calm her is giving her the boob. Rocking, singing, bouncing, cuddling... Nothing was working. So how do I put bub down in crib again if she won't calm down enough for me to do so? I wasn't prepared for this. Finally, I did manage to quieten her by temporarily taking her out of the room, and then quickly reentering and going straight to crib.

I did this 3 times over the course of 1 hour and bub's cries were not getting any shorter nor easing. Each time I lay her down to cry was for about 6-7 mins before picking her up. There was no temporary pause for breath or sobbing in between, just a continuous distressed cry. After 3 shots, I decided maybe she's just too strong-willed. Definitely very persistent with her cries and although I know it may be worse if I give up and decide to try again another day, at least I have a better idea of what I'm in for. I know she was just protesting and not in pain or hungry, but all that crying could possibly put her in pain (could hear the phlegm building and most certainly didn't want her throat to suffer), and make her thirsty for sure! Hell it was hard. I kinda thought I could bear it but it was harder than I thought it would be.

So I caved.

Yep, weak little old me caved and gave her the boob. And of course she settled. It felt good, for me and I bet it felt wonderfully settling for Em too as she calmed right down. Must be the rush of oxytocins flowing between us. She fell asleep and you know what, we both enjoyed a long 4 hr stretch of uninterrupted sleep. 4 hrs! That's the longest she's done in the past month! Could be the crying that tired her out but at least she slept. She did have another 2 more wakings after that though, 1 more than she was "supposed" to where I was too tired to realize that I'd picked her up at a time when I should have tried shushing and patting instead.

But it's ok! Going to see how it goes tonight. No crying, just see if she will settle to sleep normally and wake at longer (more normal) intervals. Then I know not all is lost yet and we can leave this sleep training stuff for another day!

Worst sleep ever!

Last night was officially the worst sleep Em has ever done. She woke at EVERY SLEEP CYCLE. I'm not exaggerating. That brings it to about 9 wakings from the time I put her down at 8pm till she woke in the morning at 7am. It got to a point where I didn't even have to look at the clock to know it had only been 50 mins or so since I last put her down. Ok, maybe once it was an hour and a half...

WHAT IS GOING ON????

The previous days leading up to this were bad enough - waking every 2 hours or so - but I didn't for the life of me expect it to get worse! It started during the holidays in Australia and of course I was only hoping it would get better when we return. That she would miraculously "mature" and gain a longer sleep cycle at 6 months like everyone out there claims will happen.

I'm so sad. Em used to do great 3 to 4.5 hr stretches, waking like clockwork at 1am and again at 4am for feedings. I can't believe I used to complain about that! I'd give anything to have that back right now. I guess we have REGRESSED. I do everything I can during the day to try and make sure she will sleep during the night and she regresses??? Urgh!

So now I'm caught in a dilemma, where I previously decided that I would simply nurse Em back to sleep everytime she wakes at night, I didn't account for the fact that it might happen at EVERY sleep cycle! What now? I know she can't possibly be hungry, she's just nursing for comfort as her way of transitioning between sleep cycles. What a mess I've gotten myself into! 

I really don't know how this happened... Or maybe I do. Maybe I cultivated this bad habit for her and now expect her to break it. Maybe it was over the holidays where I pretty much held her to sleep the whole night because she wouldn't sleep in a unfamiliar cot. Maybe that's where it started. Maybe it's the casual nursings I allow her to have as I put her down for naps. Maybe that's how she learns she needs to nurse to sleep... Or she's teething, or over-tired, or under-tired even... or maybe it's cos we started her on solids? But shouldn't that have the opposite effect? Whatever the case, I need to find a way of helping her learn to transition between sleep cycles without relying on me.

These persistent night-wakings have to stop.

Which brings me to the age old question - to sleep-train or not? And if I do, which method will I choose? The hard and fast CIO? Or gentle and slow "controlled crying"? Or maybe the really slow and "easy-on-the-bub-but-requires-lots-of-patience" no cry sleep solution? I'm sure they all work, it's just which one I think I will be able to commit to. After all, I don't want to start on CIO for one night and then not be able to go through with it the next - my waffling will only make things worse and confuse poor Em even more.

Maybe I will see how tonight goes before making a decision. Maybe it was a one-off... Though I doubt it. Heck, I have no idea what to expect from her anymore. I guess this is Motherhood!

Em's first plane trip

We survived! Em turns out to be a pretty good traveller and our flights to and from Gold Coast were relatively uneventful. Apart from very slight fussiness during both descents, Em fared really well! I guess the trick was to be ready to nurse at any time, especially during take off and landing.

We flew on Scoot and were really lucky the flight on the way there was only one third full so we managed to change seats after take off and sprawl out on a 3 seater. Also helped that it was a night flight so Em slept most of the way. Pity on the way back it was way too full, but we booked the "love seats" at the back so we had the privacy of a comfy two seater. Probably wouldn't book these for a night flight though as it's too near the kitchen at the back so the noise may interfere with bub's sleeping. Another point to note is not to book the food in advance on Scoot as you can purchase onboard for a cheaper price! Not sure why we had to pay $30 extra per person, per sector (total of $120 for aeroplane food!) when the same combo meal can be purchased onboard for only $17. Baffling. Anyway, lesson learnt!

Turns out all the extra stuff we took onboard was just that - extra. Didn't need spare clothes, toys, jackets, etc. What did come in useful was a little pillow to rest my arm while nursing, swaddles to keep bub warm and the ergo of course - Em slept in that the whole way and only come out in between sleeps for a bit of a stretch.

As for the holiday itself, it was great! Although Em didn't sleep very well what with time differences (2 hrs is heaps with a baby!) and new environments. She simply refused to go down for sleeps in an unfamiliar cot. Now we're back home, I hope she gets into a good sleeping routine... Come on body clock, kick in already! Hopefully the bad sleeping habits cultivated on the trip (i.e. sleeping in my arms pretty much the entire night and during nap times) will be undone and new (good) habits formed!