Sleeping through the night

I'm glad that little Andrew is back to sleeping through the night. He now sleeps by 9pm-ish and wakes up for a feed between 5am-7am and will head back to bed for another 2-3 hours before I give him a morning bath.

I'm so happy that little Andrew is able to sleep through the night already. I've heard from friends that their babies don't sleep through the night until they are 10 months old or even 1 year old!!

Did I really train him to sleep through the night? Nope not really. I didn't let the sun shines into the room during the day, nor did I purposely put up noises for the day to teach him the difference between day and night. I think the baby's job is to grow an not stress about day time or night time.

The only thing I did was letting baby wear short rompers during the day and long sleepsuits during the night. Other than that, the curtains were drawn 24 hours and even I sleep all the time! I need to sleep during my confinement so I didn't care if it was day or night, I sleep as much as I can. And I let the baby be and sleep whenever he wants.

Once his stomach and body clock is ready, he will miss one feed at night by the time little Andrew is 1.5 months. And by the time he is 2 moths old, he sleeps through the night occasionally. By the third months, he is already sleeping through the night!

Lucky me? Or maybe because baby is formula fed kept him full for longer time and he is more regulated by it. I admire all mommies out there who breastfeed and had to wake up every 2 hours to breastfeed for the longest period.

First purée

On 25 March, little Andrew had his first taste of apple purée! And he seems to be loving it!

I made the purée with my new toy- Beaba Babycook! It can be used to defrost, reheat, boil/steam and blend baby portion :) It's really easy to use.

I first boiled the diced apple then blended it to fine purée. It was watery and not too chunky since this is baby's first time. The purée was still hot so I had to let it cool a bit. But I didn't want it to be too cool so at least it is just like his milk (temperature).

I decided to give him the purée 30 minutes before his next milk. So he won't be too hungry and ended up not trying it at all.

So by 7.30pm, he was ready and so is everyone! I sat him in my lap for the feed and in went the first mouth - NO REJECTION!!! Woohoo!!! Success!

Unfortunately I have no idea how much did I feed him! :D I didn't really read the units on the side of the container I fed little Andrew with. I think I should start noting down how much I gave him.

At first he was just licking the spoon but after a few spoon, he was so gullible. He couldn't wait and moved his head forward before my spoon reached his mouth! Hahaha! Oh yes! He is definitely loving it!

It was messy (in his face and clothes) because we didn't have a bib. I totally forgotten about getting the bib. (We bought one the next day!)

I would say baby's first "meal" was a success!!!

Roll baby roll!

Baby is 4mo last week and he finally rolled over from front to back for the first time. I thought the day will never come because first of all he hates tummy time (besides ON me) and he is hardly on tummy to "practice" the rollover.

2 days ago, as I saw he was on good mood, I put him on his tummy on our bed. He wasn't complaining which is good sign. So I sat next to him and continued talking to him. He was facing his right but I was seated on the left. And I guess he must have been trying to look for me so he instead of just turning his head, he rolled over!!

It was over in 2 seconds!!! And luckily the ever-shooting-baby's-photo-mummy got the phone in hand and in time to document baby's first rollover!! HAHAHA!

And today little Andrew surprises mummy once again! I was putting him to bed and was patting him. He just turned his head upwards and towards me and I can see that his body is trying to rollover. So I got out of the way, and he just rolled over from back to front. This time it wasn't caught on camera because he was getting ready to sleep and the lights are dimmed and my phone wasn't with me.

Again I tried for "seconds" but I guess it was times up and baby wanted to sleep already. But not 2 minutes later - no, he didn't rollover, instead I knew he need to poo! Well true enough, after a bit of "encouragement" (a bit of mmmm-mmmm), baby pooed out a foot-long sausage! Since his birth, I think he had not poo in the diaper for more than 10 times. He didn't like it and I didn't. And so happen that mummy can pick up his signal most of the time and let him poo "outiside" his diaper.

4 months already?!

It has been 4 months already? Where did time go? It felt like only yesterday that Andrew was born!

Let's see what can he do now:
- Lift his head steadily and turn left/right
- Grip his mug holder, though still need more training in the aiming
- Learning to grab hold of (familiar) stuff
- Kick hard and beginning to curl them
up
- His hands can now reach his toes! (Wonder if he will ever grab them and suck them!!)
- Sit assisted
- (I think) recognises daddy and mummy now
- Wails when he is hungry!!!!!
- Feeds every 3 hours when he is awake, and rarely 4 hours.
- Sleep through most nights now, between 6-8 hours. Then he will drink up his milk and sleep for another 2-4 hours.
- Enjoy watching tv and thank goodness it's only for short time and he is not demanding it!

Loves:
- Bubble bath (First love)
- 如意油 (Chinese oil)
- Sucking his fingers (Maybe fist more like it)
- Birdie
- Giraffe (he has a thing about giraffe!)
- SMILE!!! :)

Hates:
- Heat
- Water (That's what the mug is for!)
- Spraying his nose
- Sleep in the crib

That's all I can think of at the moment :)

Tomorrow little Andrew will be seeing his doctor for his 4-month check up. And I hope doctor is ok with trying him on some solids!!!

Tummy Time

I previously blog about little Andrew sleeping on his tummy (http://antheama.blogspot.com/2011/12/sleeping-on-tummy.html?m=1). Now to follow up on what happen after that...

He never sleeps on his tummy ever again. I'm not sure why but he is just not one that sleeps on his tummy.

Older folks kept telling me that sleeping in the tummy means baby can sleep longer and will sleep through the night faster. But I don't need sleeping on the tummy for little Andrew to sleep longer or through the night sooner. He already is doing great. He started sleeping through when he turned 2 months old. So I think he is alright.

I didn't want to force him to do things that will agitate him. I let him lead the way, he will pace himself and whenever he is ready he is ready. If I ever force him to do things the way I want, he is going to hate it even more. So baby steps and he might just surprise us! Just like how he got to steady his head now. He was wobbly for 2-3 days and the next thing you know, he got the hang of it!

I haven't done much of tummy time on the bed with little Andrew. Up until now he still doesn't like tummy time. Not sure if it will be better if I do it on the floor but I need something on the floor to keep him safe/warm/clean. He can't be doing it ON the floor... so I'm thinking of getting one of those foaming alphabet floor mat for him.

Is it really important to have tummy time? If he doesn't is it really going to hinder his motor skill development? I'm not sure.

I'm really not too keen to force Andrew to do tummy time. Let's see what his doctor says when we see him next week.

What happen to sleeping through the night?

It has been 3 nights that little Andrew waking up between 2am - 3am for milk. What happen to sleeping through the night? I would love to sleep uninterrupted again baby.

Lately even after his milk, he sometimes cried. This makes me wonder if he is really hungry or he is just making a fuss. At times he would just go quiet after giving him his pacifier - which signify he wanna go back to sleep. Sometimes he would need a bit more coaching to calm down. And of course there are times he is satisfied after the milk.

If he is always kicking a fuss after milk, I would think he is ready for solids but he isn't doing it all the time. So makes me wonder if I should give him more milk? But he sometimes spit out quite a bit so that's why I'm hesitant in giving him more milk. As it is, little Andrew is drinking 150ml. I doubt he can drink more than that. Will have to monitor a couple of days more and see how it goes.

Little Andrew will be four months next week. I will check with the doctor to see if I can try some solid food with him :)

Breastfeeding

I was just reading an article about this mama who didn't breastfeed because firstly she didn't like the feeling and secondly her supply ran dry sooner than she thought.

Well I can reply to her sentiment. I wanted so much to breastfeed little Andrew and God has other plans for me and it didn't happen at all (if I may say).

When I was still in the hospital, the nurse tried to show me how to breastfeed. But when little Andrew was (and still is) hungry, he couldn't wait at all! When I tried to breastfeed him, due to my low supply (trust it was hopelessly low), he just couldn't wait and has not patient in trying to latch on. He would wail and shout and cry when hunger struck (and yes he still is).

On the day I was discharged, little Andrew was already hungry as soon as we got home. And so I tried to breastfeed in my room. Along came my mother-in-law. She came into the room without knocking (or she did and I couldn't hear because of little Andrew cries) while I was trying to let Andrew latched on! OMG!!!! It was such traumatic moment for me! I don't know why I was ok in the hospital when the nurse (a complete stranger) stood there and even helped me to press my breast. But for my mother-in-law to see my exposed boobs was really unexpected and very traumatising for me. I wasn't sure if that traumatising event caused me my breastfeeding function. Is it possible?

Anyway back to trying breastfeeding. I also pumped with the electric breast pump in hope of increasing the flow. Failed.

I tried having those milk tea which claims to help increase your breast milk supply. Well, I must say it kinda helped. You see... before having to try the tea, my supply was 2 drops (sadly it's that little) each time I expressed and none at all when I pump. But after having the tea for a couple of days, my supply increased to... wait for it... 20 drops. Sigh...

I tried to pump or express every time after I bottle feed little Andrew. But the more I tried, the lesser the supply. So I tried once a day and that was when my daily quota of 20 drops fill up more of the tiny container. I still feed the baby with the 20 drops!!!! Better than nothing right?

After a while, the supply was slowly diminishing. Until it was back to 2 drops each time.

To those who can breastfeed their babies, some will never understand why some mummies (like me) just couldn't breastfeed. To some, it came easy. Some tried harder and got the flow working. But there is still some (like me) who just tried every possible way and just couldn't get it to work.

So for all you naysayers out there, be more considerate and don't assume people like us (me) do not breastfeed because we didn't try hard enough.

When the baby fell sick

Last night I didn't sleep well. I woke up almost every hour to check if little Andrew is ok, if he is still breathing. I'm worried that with his blocked nose, he won't cough or cry or wake up. When I hear him cough, I felt better. If not I would get out of the bed and placed my hand over his chest, checking on his breathing.

Little Andrew did very well last night. Well, maybe some credit to the cough syrup. He slept by 9.30pm (last milk was 8.30pm) and woke up at 5.30am for milk. He slept for solid 8 hours. He still slept through even when he cough, which is good. I want him to sleep as much as he can because he is gonna all the rest he can so he can recover faster.

My poor little Andrew.

He is still in very good mood throughout the day even when he is sick. I guess babies don't know what sick is. I pray for his speedy recovery and I pray that he will stay healthy.

Sick again?

Poor little fella is sick again. His cough at 6am woke me up. He wasn't just coughing once and stopped but was easily continuously for a few minutes (and it felt like forever).

He wasn't complaining about the cough as he was still sleeping when I peeped into his crib. I woke him up to comfort his cough. And I gave him some cough syrup which he hated it. It's then time for milk. He went back to sleep after milk.

Little boy must have been so drowsy and sleepy that he slept till 10am, which is quite rare. He normally wakes up by 9am for next feed and his favourite bath time.

Now that he can sit up supported, we decided to sit him up in his baby tub to bath him. Little Andrew LOVES bath time and best if it's bubble bath!!! He used to stay quite still in the tub but now he is beginning to kick and wave so much! He is totally enjoying it!

After his bath, we called the clinic to schedule an appointment for noon.

Little Andrew is such trooper. No crying during measurements and examination. In fact he enjoyed the examination table at the doctor's clinic. You see, Dr K has this bouncy animals hanging over the table. And little Andrew totally digs animal now so he is loving it!!

Dr K prescribed the same cough syrup we still have at home as well as seawater solution for his nose. Oh and plus the nose drops.

I like the way Dr K described the function of the seawater and nose drops. He mentioned that the nose is like a drain and now it's blocked. So you use the seawater to flush it. And the nose drop is to dry up the wet drain after it's flush so that the drain will flow smoothly.

I hope little Andrew will get well soon. I felt so miserable when I heard his cough this morning.