“Lets play ‘Follow me!’”
| January 20, 2012 | Posted by Mabel under Just Noah, Videos Galore |
This is becoming a regular game between the two of us after his 3pm feed or whenever he is awake (darn those neighbours upstairs – they have a nasty habit of dropping things on the floor, stomping their way around, etc – I’m this close to hitting the ceiling with my mop handle or worse, moving out).
Anyway, it’s amazing how time flies and to think, just last year, he was such a wee baby…and now? He’s beginning to “talk”.
Noah at 2 mths
| January 19, 2012 | Posted by Mabel under Just Noah, Progress Reports |
Age: 4 mths & 2 weeks
Adjusted age: 2 mths & 2 weeks
Motor Development
- Raises head when lying on stomach
- Stretches legs out and kicks when lying on stomach or back
- Opens and shuts hands although fists are still in clenched position most of the time
- Pushes down on legs when feet are placed on a firm surface
- Brings hand to mouth
- Blows bubbles when he’s bored.
Visual & Hearing Development
- Watches faces intently.
- Turns head toward direction of sound.
- Tracks moving objects.
- Smiles when he hears me.
Language Development
- Babbles a lot – he tries to immitate words like “Hello”, his own name and will even attempt to mimic sounds like “Ohhh”, “Ooo”, “Ahhh”, etc.
- His cries are more distinct and he uses different sounds as well as volume to get across his message. If he’s afraid, he’ll squeal like a little bird, etc.
Social/Emotional Development
- Smiles at people he loves to look at (plus a “Eee wohhhh” – I swear it sounds like hello!) or cries at things/people he doesn’t like.
Cognitive Development
- Discovered that if he moves his hand towards and object and touches it or shakes the crib like mad (we had a faulty mobile where it would stop halfway and only shaking would move it), it’ll move!
Other noteworthy things
He’s starting to sleep through the night – yay! – but I still dream feed him at least once. Is also going to bed earlier than before – yay! – but of lately, he’s showing signs of going for shorter nap times in the morning and afternoon (gets up at 330pm and then goes back to sleep at 430pm). Aiks, can’t win them all!
Sleep training Noah – Updates
| January 17, 2012 | Posted by Mabel under Just Noah, Parenthood |
The sleep training start didn’t go quite well. He woke up at 1030pm and stayed awake for another half an hour or so. I never got around to tracking the nights after that because somehow, at night, he’s such a little devil and throwing curveballs. One day, he would sleep great and the another day, not so great.
The night before last, he fell asleep in my arms after a feed – he would usually coo after a feed and then doze off in my arms (I’d doze off as well…I woke up at 10pm with a heavy arm, find out why, deposit him in his crib)- and didn’t wake till 3am for his next feed. (I dream fed him at midnight.) Time to celebrate, right? Wrong. Last night, I fed him at around 830pm and he nodded off but somehow he woke up at 9pm and didn’t want to go to bed until 1030pm. I was already tired of carrying and singing to him for 30 mins and Nil took over until 10pm plus. Both of us were exhausted so we bundled him into the swing. It worked over the weekend when he was acting up again so we thought why not? He fussed a little and then closed his eyes. At 11pm, I deposited him into the crib, he stirred. GAH. Consequently, he didn’t sleep until 1130pm when I went in to feed him – fed him, he cooed a few times after his feed, I ignored him, he went to sleep.
*sigh*
Now why can’t he go to bed without the incessant need to be cuddled and carried to death? Worse, it’s either that or I sleep with him. Well, one good thing is that he is starting to sleep earlier – 1030pm seems to be the latest unless we are having a bad night like yesterday – but it also means that his 9pm is pushed way ahead and that also means that my nights are crazy as 8pm is the time when I get Eva ready for her bath and bedtime. Gack.
Sleep training Noah – Day 1
| January 7, 2012 | Posted by Mabel under Just Noah, Parenthood |
Tired of living each night to night and of having no time for anything else, Nil and I decided to start sleep training Noah the same way we did with Eva – with some adjustments here and there. No CIOs for us – I must make that clear from the start. I never adopted it with Eva, even controlled crying so I see no reason for us to try it out this time around even though Nil was very tempted a few weeks back when things got really tough.
Fussing is different from crying. I know when Noah fusses and when he actually really cries.
For starters, we cut back on his napping during the day. He usually naps from 9am to noon, then 130pm to 3pm, 4pm to 6pm and then sometimes a short nap from 6pm to 730pm. Consequently, getting him to bed after 930pm was a chore and he would only sleep like close to midnight. Ugh. Our routine was also always changing which lead to him being thoroughly confused at times and us wondering what worked and what didn’t. We were also allowing him to fall asleep on us which made him dependent on us to help him sleep. Double ugh.
Today, I started our sleep training program.
After his 9am feed/bath and about half an hour of playing, he was in the crib awake at 10am and fell asleep shortly (this nap is never an issue – don’t know why – but the subsequent naps are always a problem). I woke him for his feed at 1230pm, played a little – about 10-15 mins – before putting him back in the crib awake. No music, no patting (he seems to hate it unless he’s being carried and sung to). He slept till 3pm when he “called” for a feed. Got his wish, then after some playing/carrying/singing, I put him back in the crib awake, told him to nap and that I needed to go to the toilet (badly!) before leaving. When I went back to check on him, he was starting on his usual gum-my-toy-to-death-before-I-sleep routine. I left silently and never checked on him again until Eva and I went to wake him up at 5pm.
We kept him up until 815pm (he had a feed at 6pm because he was fussing – hungry and grouchy) – poor tyke wanted to sleep badly and was dozing off starting from 630pm despite the noise. Had to do all sorts of crazy things just to keep him up. So I retreated to the room with him, made sure it was DARK (our mistake previously was that we kept the room dark but not dark enough), changed his diaper and fed him in the dark. Then I carried him for around 5-10 minutes, placed him in the crib, pat him a little (he complained) and sang (he complained). By that time, I reckoned I had enough of him complaining so I started this nice night light Andriod application I downloaded for my phone which basically uses the screen as a light and changes hue & shade every few frames. He stared at it, coo-ed and that was my cue to leave the room. I made the mistake of putting on some lullabies. When I went into check on him five minutes later, he was still fussing and doing his gum-my-toy-to-death-before-I-sleep routine so I got rid of the music. He coo-ed at the lights three times and closed his eyes.
Now to see if he’ll sleep till his next feed. Am keeping my fingers crossed!
His first social smile…
| January 6, 2012 | Posted by Mabel under Just Noah, Parenthood |
…arrived just two days or so before Christmas.
At first, I thought it was just a one off thing, y’know, something random. But as the days passed, I began to see that it was no longer a reflex smile but what we call to be social smiles. Meaning when he sees someone he likes, he’ll smile just like the way we smile.
He is also starting to coo and gurgle more, especially when you’re busy scolding him for not sleeping. Sometimes I swear he is saying “Aiyo”, “No”, and “Oh!” but it could just be the lack of sleep affecting my hearing.
Yes, he still isn’t going to bed on his own and is starting to have a hard time snoozing in the late afternoon which results in him wanting to sleep from 7pm onwards. Gah. So we’re trying something new. Hopefully it’ll work this time. I’ve decided to start sleep training him as I’d like him to join Eva in one room and it won’t work if he can’t sleep on his own because that means Eva gets woken up often, etc. By sleep training, I adopt the routine method, patting and turning on lullabies before leaving him to fall asleep on his own. If he cries, we go to the rescue by patting, etc. I foresee tough nights ahead.
Hopefully things will look up soon. Am keeping my fingers crossed and praying hard!
Introducing solids
| January 2, 2012 | Posted by Mabel under Info, Parenthood, Weaning |
When
Medically, it is advisable to start solids only after the 6th month as babies need to develop the right set of skills and physique to match eating from a spoon, chewing, swallowing and all not to mention that their digestive tracts mature at 6 months, allowing them to handle more complex foods other than formula or breastmilk.
However, some babies mature faster in terms of milestones and physique, showing signs of interest in food as well as ability to handle eating from the spoon. The general consensus is that the closer your baby is to the 6th month, the easier it will be to introduce solids. Baby will be able to swallow and well, there would be less problems internally with their digestive tract.
Introductory solid food feeding is simple – apply the four-day rule and only single foods at one time to check for allergies. After four days of eating one food, you can proceed to another single food OR a mix of pre-test foods.
How
The process is quite simple – you’ll need something to freeze the purees – either ice cube trays or special baby food cubes – and then equipment to steam and then blend/mash the food items you’re cooking up. With ice cube trays, you’ll have to make sure that you cover them while as they are freezing to avoid cross contamination. This is one of the reasons why I chose to freeze the purees in baby cubes and storage containers meant for weaning. Baby cubes come with an attached lid, making them hard to lose and best of it, they have measurements on the side – 70ml (2 oz) and 35ml (1 oz).
For the blending and steaming, you don’t have to get a special gadget (unless someone gave it to you as a gift as in my case). You can opt for those bamboo steamers and stainless steel bowls to steam your fruit and veg in – they are cheap and easy to fit in a wok. For blending, a regular blending or chopper will do just fine; just make sure to wash them well if you intend on using them for other purposes. Handblenders are great option as you can use them for making western soups and most mummies will even use them on congee and porridges! Babies don’t need to eat pureed food forever so consider this when you’re thinking of making a sizeable purpose of kitchen equipment.
With preparation of fruits and vegetable, be sure to wash them a few times to get rid of the excess dirt and sand (particularly common with leafy veg like spinach) or pesticide (fruits like cherries, apples, etc). After washing, fruits and veg need to be roughly diced up into manageable pieces. The rule is this – the bigger it is, the longer it’ll take to cook. So cubing vegetable and fruits especially tough ones like pumpkin, potato, sweet potato and carrots are definitely a most. Do note that some fruits need to be peeled such as peaches. Fruits usually take about five minutes of steaming – steaming is important because of all the cooking methods, it is the one that helps retain most of the food’s nutrients plus you can use the excess water in the pureeing process (with the exception of spinach and carrots because of the nitrate content) – while vegetables can take anywhere between 10-15 minutes depending on the item.
How to know if your vegetable is cooked? When it’s soft. Take a fork and pierce the vegetable. If it’s easy for the prongs to sink it, it’s cook. If not, steam it for a little longer. When they are done, blend them with a blender or food processor. How smooth depends on not so much the age but how long your baby has been on solid food. Babies who started solid food early may develop a preference for lumpier textures earlier than babies who have just begun solid food – logic, really. The general rule is to introduce lumpier and SOFT textures sometime nearing the eight month when they are used to eating from a spoon, familiar with smooth texture and are ready to take their jaws to the next step.
Things to look out for
What to introduce when
I started off by alternating a grain, veg and fruit per four-day cycle and would mix two ingredients together after the first three items to give Eva variety as well as ensure that her bowel movements are regular. For an idea on what to give when, do refer to the weaning food list here.
Constipation
Doctors classify constipation as hardness of stool so if your baby is pooing once every three days but the texture is soft like play dough, that’s not constipation. It’s consider as normal bowel movement. If baby is passing out hard, pellet-like stool, now, that is a sign to step up the fiber intake, especially if pooping times are accompanied by crying and blood (very bad sign of constipation).
NOTE that a red face is not a sign of constipation as babies learn how to control their bowel muscles at this stage so going a bit red at the toilet is fine.
Normal bowel movements for a baby on solids is like an adult – anywhere from three times a day to once every three days.
How to avoid constipation? The formula is simple – just make sure your kiddo gets more servings of fruit and veg than meat and grains as well as ample water. Insoluble and soluble fiber is important and a lot of Asian mummies make the mistake of giving less fruits but more grain and meat. Somehow I noticed that the food pyramid here is wrong (I bought a can of Quaker Oats recently and saw that the base of the food pyramid printed on the can is filled with grains whereas I remember clearly in Switzerland and from reading, that the base ought to be veg and fruits!).
Anyway, for info, poo inducing fruits are peach, pear, papaya, prune/plum (prunes are dried up plums just as how raisins are dried up grapes) and peas. Apples and bananas are constipating.
When babies first start solids, give fruits on an alternate basis as you’d be cycling through the four day rule with new food items (at least once every two to three days). But once babies are established on solids, meaning they are eating at least two meals a day, you should be giving fruits at least once a day. For toddler, that means eating up to five servings of fruit and veg a day – more than grains and meat also.
Allergies
The four day rule comes in for this. You basically offer the same food (doesn’t matter how you cook it) for for four days and see what happens. If baby has no rash or poo issues like diarrhoea, then it’s a green light item. Allergies are characterized by a rash or break out of hives around the mouth (oral allergy) or all over the body and/or the bottom as well as diarrhoea and sometimes vomiting. Usually acidic foods like citrus and tomato will cause a rash to break out on the bottom as it changes the composition of poo and pee so you would have to take a step back and stop offering the “offensive” ingredient until later.
If there is a family history of allergies – doesn’t matter if it’s from your husband or you – opt to give the item later. The golden rule is the later it is, the better it’ll be.
Top allergens are eggs, soy, dairy, strawberries, nuts, seafood and many Western/European nutritionists will tell you to wait until baby is at least 1 to 2 years old, especially for things like nuts.
