Stuffed

"I think our baby can't breathe."

At 2am last night, minibeanie was wheezing and breathing with difficulty. Out came the 'thing' that was bought from the pharmacy a few days ago. It is a contraption that alleviates blocked noses since blowing one's nose is a skill that's only learnt at age 4, apparently. Thus, one end of the device goes into the baby's nostril while you suck at the other end.

A LED light directed at his nostrils showed that both were stuffed with simply humongous bogey. Great. Reaching in by any means is not an option. Firstly, have u seen how small a baby's nostril is? It's barely 5mm across. Secondly, add a squiming baby to the mix. Last but not least, the skin in the nostril is rather sensitive - no infections, thank you. We tried hovering minibeanie over steam before suctioning in the hope that the moist steam will soften the rock hard bogey. No luck.

Finally, we decided to inject saline. I made a lukewarm saline solution of 1 cup water, 0.5-0.75 tsp salt & 1 pinch of baking soda. With a syringe, 1ml of the saline was squirted into a nostril before DH sucked out the offending object with the device. As Borat would say, greaaat success!

On to a less sticky topic, here are 2 pictures taken this morning after minibeanie's 8:30 am feed. I'm also glad to report that he's regularly sleeping through the night now :) 12:30 was the last feed of the night. ....there are of course occasional 'bad' nights where he wakes up and refuses to be pacified by the tutti (pacifier) or me.



minibeanie is 3 months & 4 days old

3 months & counting

minibeanie is exactly 3 months old today :> It'd be nice to have a tiny cake to celebrate* but it'd probably all go to mummy & daddy's waistlines so I guess not.

We're finding out about baby swimming classes as they take in babies as soon as they're 3 months old. No, it's not about kiasu-ism as one may jump to conclude :D No freestyle or breaststroke to be learnt here, it's all about having fun & water confidence. We hope that after a few classes, minibeanie could dive. It's not that hard for babies actually; after all, they held their breaths for 9 months not too long ago. So before minibeanie loses his diving reflex which is just like any of the newborn reflexes (moro, rooting etc) , we'll bring him to the pool. And does he take after daddy who was a national swimmer? We'll see!

Here are the 2 groups we're interested in: vauvauinti.fi & pikkudelfiinit.fi. Amazing pictures.

Tomorrow, we'll visit a friend whose baby's just 3.5 weeks old. minibeanie has a friend to play with!

* first time parents celebrate every single thing! ;)

minibeanie is 3 months old

Gearing up

minibeanie is nearly 3 months old! How time flies. He's now a charming little fella who smiles & babbles if his immediate concern is not milk. He's also beginning to discover his hands. There have been a couple of times when he seemed to reach for and grasp DH's extended finger deliberately.






We went out for a walk on Sunday. The temperature is falling fast and it's now +6c in the day regularly. In fact, it was 2.4c when we were out walking. The cold weather brings about some wardrobe challenges. First off, we put minibeanie in a fleece lined whole body suit before putting the whole bundle into a sleeping bag in the pram. And it's true, babies do sleep really well when they're outdoors. On Sunday, he slept for more than 4 hours straight & didn't budge even when moved in & out of a car-seat.


minibeanie is 2 months, 3 weeks & 6 days old

Chocolate

There was a brief moment of sunshine today after days of autumn rain, so I took the opportunity to get out of the house. Thinking I'd run a long overdue errand, I popped by my school to pick up my graduation diploma. The graduation ceremony was in June but if I remember correctly, I was feeling like a ready-to-pop mummy elephant then & feeling non too graceful, so there I was, 4 months after the fact. And of course, the diploma was no longer where it was and I'd to come back another day.

It wasn't a wasted trip entirely because I found a nice chocolate shop at a mall (Kamppi) nearby. Aptly called Kaakaopuu (Cocoa tree), there was a nice selection of Belgian Leonidas pralines and a variety of cocoa drinks beside the obligatory espresso and cappuccino. I got a Cacao Maya that was a little espresso cup of rich, velvety albeit slightly grainy chocolate with a hint of chili. It wasn't cloying sweet; instead, it had the slight bitterness of good cocoa. The tinge of chili was just right. Hmm...a tiny cup of heaven on an autumn afternoon.
And minibeanie was a perfect darling the whole afternoon.

minibeanie is 2 months, 3 weeks & 1 day old

Hint to someone: a 125g box of Leonidas will do very nicely for Christmas ;)

More on sleep

This is the result of a BabyCenter.com poll which gathered more than 7500 respondents. 89% of 3 month old babies sleeping for 5 hours straight?? Okie... hmph, from my spreadsheet (yes, don't laugh. I've made a spreadsheet that tracks when minibeanie sleeps/eats/wakes/amount drank along with useful statistics), he had been sleeping for 5 hours slightly less than half the time. Then again, n=7, a rather small sample size. Let's see! :)

By what age did your baby start sleeping for at least five hours straight on a regular basis?

	89%	By 3 months
	6%	By 6 months
	1%	By 9 months
	0%	By 1 year
	1%	After his 1st birthday

By what age did your baby start sleeping for at least eight hours straight?

	71%	By 3 months
	17%	By 6 months
	4%	By 9 months
	2%	By 1 year
	3%	After his 1st birthday

minibeanie is 2 months, 3 weeks & 1 day old

TGIW

Last week had been exhausting. My able helper, DH, could only put in half the time he normally did. Apart from getting home later from work, he had been inundated with phone calls and incessant work at his laptop. Well, there was an emergency with a teleoperator in middle east that started 2 weeks ago that culminated in a management escalation all the way to the CEO. Guess if shit hit the fan when that happened. With DH being the Technical Lead of the case, it was a struggle for me. In practical terms, we had dinner at 10 pm on some days.

Weekend was only slightly better as the case was still ongoing. Nonetheless, we (or I, to be precise ;) did a flash round of shopping at Stockmann, Helsinki's only respectable departmental store, on its last day of Hullut Päivät (Crazy Days) sale. DH & baby parked themselves at the store's cafe while I thronged with the crowd like a seasoned Asian shopper. Yep, after Orchard Road's pre-Christmas sales & Bangkok's Chaptuchak market, crowds of crazy women do not faze me.

minibeanie is 2 months & 3 weeks old

Demand vs. Schedule

At 3 in the morning, I want the feed to be a generous bite rather than a nibble. An upsized Big Mac meal rather than 2 steamed carrots. Here's the thing. If I get up at 3 am, I'd rather have minibeanie drink 120ml and not 50ml because with the latter, he's going to get up again at 5 am.

There are 2 schools of thought on feeding. Feeding on-demand means offering his feed as and when the baby demands for it. While feeding on-schedule means following a strict timetable. Most parents settle somewhere between the extremes. Here's my intent. Lengthen the time between feeds from 3 to 4 hours gradually by adding half an hour to the time he starts fussing...if possible. Feeding him as much as possible during the day so that he doesn't feel the need to make up for calories during the night. Have a major feed just before I retire to bed and avoid a nappy change (again, if possible) during the night feed. In theory at least, those should work. I don't claim credit for having come up with them; in fact, they are straight out of Murkoff et. al's "What to Expect In the First Year". Ironically, I chanced upon this section at a 6 am feed, the second one of the night. Guess if it was a eureka moment for me.

It's too early to say how it's working for me. But last night, minibeanie woke up only once at 5 am and the next time he demanded his milk was at 9:30 this morning. I reckon that's pretty good for a coming to 3 month old baby. Sleep-wise, it's a definite improvement for me :) And if someone says that's good enough, here's food for thought -

"By 4 months, most babies don't really need to be eating at all during the night. (From a strictly metabolic standpoint, babies can usually go through the night without a feeding once they've reached 5 kg...) If the night-waking habit continues into the 5th or 6th month, you can begin to suspect that your baby is waking not because he needs to eat during the night, but because he's become accustomed to eating during the night; a stomach that's used to being filled at regular intervals around the clock will cry 'empty' even when it's full enough to last a lot longer."

Murkoff et. al, "What to Expect In the First Year", 2nd edition, page 255

minibeanie is 2 months, 2 weeks & 1 day old

Big bean

I have a chest of drawers for minibeanie's stuff. The first drawer holds the "0-3 months/size 50" clothes, the second drawer "3-6 months/size 60" and the last one, "6-12 months/size 70". Yesterday, after trying to close a popper and finding that he's squeezed into his vest like a sausage, I'm resigned to the fact that I have to draw on the second drawer. Time to put those newborn clothes in storage... mixed feelings.

He is growing fast. On Monday's Neuvola (clinic) visit , he registered 5.855 kg on the scale and 60.5 cm tall. The little piggie :) In these pictures, Mirjami, the 'midwife' who had looked after me during my pregnancy, was examining minibeanie. Visits are now monthly. Typically, she'd take his weight and height, answer any questions we have and generally, assure us that he's growing fine. She'd also be administering the needed vaccinations when the time is right. Over the next few days, I will have to pop into the pharmacy to get a dose of Rota virus vaccination. That's one nasty bug.



minibeanie is 2 months, 1 week & 6 days old

Meet minibeanie

The night routine usually goes like this. minibeanie's fed at about 2330 before our bedtime. Then he wakes me up at 0400 for the next feed. At 0700, DH feeds him before leaving for work. But, that's a pretty good night because sometimes there are 2 feeds before the morning.

One day last week (can't remember which, all the days run into each other now ;), I fed minibeanie at about midnight. The next time I woke up, it was 0530. WOW! He slept through the night. What a milestone. Man, I gotta blog about it. I was feeling incredibly refreshed after 5 hours of sleep... who would have thought 3 months ago? But since you're only reading about this now, there's obviously more to the story. Apparently, DH had let me sleep and done two feeds before 0530. Ok, so much for minibeanie sleeping through the night.

Anyway, on one of DH's morning feed-cum-playtime last week, he made these 2 video clips. If a picture speaks a thousand words, what more of a video? Enjoy :)

ps. make sure your speaker is on.

Before the feed - 1 Non-Optimum Baby


After the feed - and all's good with the world

minibeanie is 2 months 1 week & 3 days old

Rock a bye baby

minibeanie in his dad's and granddad's crib. Seriously. It was made by his great-granddad in 1888 :) solid wood and weighs a ton.

minibeanie is 2 months 1 week & 2 days old