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!