Success!

Today I served the other half portion of the carrot porridge, and this time it was a success! Little Andrew finished the bowl of porridge in no time. So I guess it really wasn't the taste that he didn't like yesterday, it must have been he was cranky/moody. 

I read many websites to give baby formula first then the solids, I never really do so. I tried to time baby's feeding schedule, I always try to feed him at least 30 minutes before his meal. This way he is not too cranky (oh believe me the baby can be very cranky when he is hungry!) to finish the solids I gave him. And I didn't want to add milk into the porridge I made, so he will get the real taste of food and not relying too much on having the milk taste in every food that he takes. 

So for now, his "meal" time has been"

- 180ml milk if he wakes up around 7am (if not will skip this) so he will go back to sleep

- 180ml milk after his favourite bubble bath around 9am-10am

- fruit puree 30mins before his lunch time milk

- 180ml milk for lunch around 12noon- 1pm

- 180ml milk for tea time around 3pm - 4pm

- porridge/baby rice around 6pm - 7pm

- 180ml milk before he goes to bed

It's 4-5 times milk, one fruit portion and then one solids meal for a day.

Carrot Porridge

Technically, this is not the first time using the Beaba Babycook, I made Apple Purée for Little Andrew before this.

Yesterday was the first time I used the Babycook with rice cooker. I wasn't sure how much rice or carrot to use so it's all experimental for me and Little Andrew.

I diced up a carrot and put half back to the freezer. I use the Babycook to steam the carrot (Setting no3). And after which I leave it aside to cool. Then I prepared 1/4 cup of rice with 150ml water and steam it in the Babycook rice cooker (Setting no3) and steam it twice making sure the rice is properly cooked.

After which I blended both he carrot an the rice. I added in water from the residue of the carrot and rice since it was already boiled and probably containing the nutrients from the carrot and the rice. I didn't blend it too fine leaving some texture to it.

After blending it, I leave half for afterwards and other half I freeze it for tomorrow.

During feeding, Little Andrew lost interest half way eating. My guess was he just woke up from nap and was way pass his feeding time, he was a bit cranky. I wasn't sure was it because of the taste or rather lack of taste since I didn't add any milk to it.

Anyway, I have another half in the freezer and I will try it again. In fact, little Andrew got to try it for another couple of days!

It's always touch and go...

There are days that little Andrew would sleep through the night and there days he will wake up a couple of times. Sometimes he needs milk, sometimes he just want extra attention.

On good nights that he sleeps through, once his buddy (i.e. pacifier/soother) fell off he will not need it back. On some nights, he will need his buddy to sooth himself back to sleep and will not require any patting or milk. Some nights will require extra patting. Worse case scenario is when he refused to go back to sleep after giving him his buddy and lotsa patting, and he will starts crying for milk.

Obviously my favourite nights are the nights he would sleep like an angel until the next morning.

I'm trying a new routine. Because I realised lately if he has his last meal (baby porridge) even as late as 8pm, he will wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes he needs milk to go back to sleep. So today I'm letting him have his porridge as his second last meal of the day, then give him his bubble bath and play a bit before giving him his last bottle of the day.

I'm trying to see if he will sleep through his way. Because I wonder if he wakes is really due to hunger or is it something else, like teething that could wake a baby or keep the baby up all night.

Separate room

Since the day Andrew returned from the hospital, he has never sleep separate from daddy and mummy. I am not sure if I want that day to come.

Well, I'm worried! What if I can't hear him cry? What if he fell off the bed? What if he wiggles and got trapped in between the bars of his crib? So many what ifs.

Or maybe I have detachment issue! I just want to e close to my baby. Sooner or later, eventually one day, he will not want to sleep with me anymore, right?

I know it's for the best of the parents to sleep separate from their babies/children. But what if it's not the best for the babies/children?

Bubble bath!

Little Andrew absolutely loves his bath time! It's easily his favourite time of the day when he soaks in the warm water filled with bubble.

Since he was born, he loved his bath time. He will never resist bath time. You can bath him any way and he will never complain. Little Andrew just LOVES bath so much.

Because I had c-section, his daddy bathed him daily for the whole of first month. And daddy did a great job!

Since Little Andrew loves water so much, we brought him to Singapore for tub swimming experience.

When is the first tooth gonna come?

Little Andrew drools so much and it makes me wonder where on earth the drool comes from?! The amount of saliva is just crazy! It's never ending wiping it off this fingers and his mouth, and it's so much that it even drips down to his neck and rompers!

I wonder if his first tooth is coming out soon. Besides the drool, he BITES everything- from his fingers to anything that he can get his hands onto.

There is no fever so far. I read that ear pulling and cheek rubbing are also signs of teething - he tugs his ears when he is falling asleep and will rub his face on us whenever we carry him.

I am so excited and can't wait for the first white cap to appear.

Sitting up

Little Andrew can now sit up with support. And he is loving it!! He is now applying his roll over and sitting up skill when he's in his stroller! That's not good! And he likes to roll to his side whenever he had his diaper change.

He likes sitting up in the car. He likes sitting in the edge of dining tables (my bad for letting him). I also let him sit (supported) on my bed and watch some TV while I do some works nearby (of course watchfully all the time and cushioned with pillows).

I can't wait for him to sit on his own, especially during meal time in his high chair!!

Afternoon Nap

Little Andrew has no problem sleeping through the night BUT he has problem napping these days.

He used to nap after his morning bath for about an hour or more but he doesn't do that anymore. In fact, his nap time is all over the place and it's mostly not more than half an hour. What can I do in that short time? Wash his bottle. If I'm lucky, I can run downstairs and throw the laundry into the washing machine. There is not much time and only the essentials can be done.

Taking care of the baby in the day is no joke especially if he is not keen in self-entertaining for too long.

Little Andrew allows very short time of self-entertaining. So again, I can only do the essential stuff.

Oh and napping means I've got to stay near him when he naps. And he needs heavy patting, sometimes he wants to be carried. And of course this will require his beloved buddy - the pacifier. If I leave his side, he will wake up. If his buddy dropped, he will wake up. If I stop the patting, he will wake up.

Such is the drawback of having to sleep through the night.

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.

Hair gone, all gone

Today is the day little Andrew had his hair shaved. Maybe I'm biased with my little Andrew, he still looks cute without hair. In fact, even cuter than before.

Traditionally, Chinese shaved their babies hair by the end of 30 days. I heard that it is to get rid of the "dirty hair" that the baby is born with. And thinks that after shaving, the hair will look thicker and nicer.

I never really wanted to shave little Andrew's hair- never for esthetic reason. But lately he is losing his hair so much. I see them all over his pillow, on my clothes, sticking to my arm after I carried him, onto his towel... just everywhere his head run against or rest on! And it is getting patchy with bald spot here and there.

And the other day while shopping, we saw this shop that helps you to make souvenir out of your baby's hair! Now that is interesting!

So we decided to shave little Andrew's hair for memory reason. I really think he looks cuter now. My dad calls him the Shaolin Master 少林大师 :)

Back to his bed

We have successfully return back to sleeping in his own crib! Yes!! What a huge success.

One night about a week ago, I decided little Andrew is taking up too much space in our bed. Before he fell into deep asleep, I tried putting him on his crib. To my surprise, he didn't resist much. He gave out a few grunt and fell back asleep! I thought to myself, "SUCCESS!!!"

I am glad I let him sleep with us because he needed lots of TLC and "immediate" reaction to every cry when he was sick. I think it helps him to feel secure and less fussy. In fact he had trouble falling asleep at that time so we let him sleep with us in our bed. And that allowed him to sleep longer hence speedier recovery!

I knew eventually we had to let him go back to his crib. And I am glad he didn't make a big fuss when the time came :)

Sleeping with the baby

Ever since Andrew fell sick, coughing, he never really return to his bed. He is now permanently sleeping with us. I certainly hope he will eventually sleep in his crib - but I really doubt that is gonna happen anytime soon.

When we put him to his crib, even though we were so sure he is in deep sleep, he would instantly wake up the moment we put him down! It's as if there is a special perimeter sensor embedded somewhere alarming him whenever we move him from our bed to his crib.

And I think we both hate to see little Andrew cries. So we just let him be. Hi daddy will always say put him to his crib, let him be and cry it out. Well you see, the thing is I can't bear to see him cry. So is his softy daddy. This is also why he always end up sleeping in our bed. (And yes he is now sleeping in our bed) Attachment issue? Maybe.

I know co-sleeping in dangerous and needs to be extra careful. He refused to be "walled up" against us. He wants to touch us, even with the tip of his finger, when he sleeps. I guess he just want the assurance that we are there for him.

I am not sure if he will ever go back to his crib but slowly I will attempt. A friend of mine has an older toddler, he will not sleep in his own room but definitely not allowed on her bed. So he now sleeps with his parents, on the floor in a separate mattress.

The thing is Andrew might just hate to crib because it's more confine or even perhaps claustrophobic. I guess we have to continue trying putting him in his crib or get him a separate mattress. I have many friends who still co-sleep with their children, even if they are 10! I'm not sure if we will want that.

Well, I guess we just have to figure this out as our baby grow. He might want his crib tomorrow right? Hopeful.