Starting solids soon?

micro-b is 5 months old today! And a month (or less) to go before introducing solids! Hip hip hooray! The sleep-through-the-night routine is a distant memory. In fact, ever since he got the cold in early Jan, he had begun waking up in the night. Ok, so I thought he'd settle back into the old rhythm after the cold but no, he's still at it :( Yes, I've read that these things happen...illness, teething & growth spurts do that. Recently however, it becomes clear that he's increasing his feeds and over a month, he has increased the amount he drinks by nearly 30% which is phenomenal.

Last night, he got me up twice. I'm so sleep deprived as a result. I know it's bad but I'm so tempted to start popping a spoon of cereal into his mouth right now. Why don't I? There's an increased risk of allergies by starting solids too young.. and since micro-b has eczema, I'll just have to grin and bear it for another few weeks or so :P


microbeanie is 5 months old
minibeanie is a 2.5 year old toddler

Sleeping through the night ... at last!

Last month, I was wondering if it was a fluke that micro-b slept through the night. It turned out that it was ;) Then, we were still in Finland and a week later, we returned to Chengdu. Miraculously, micro-b began to sleep through the night consistently upon our return. I wasn't about to celebrate prematurely in case it was jet lag but it has been 3 weeks now and I didn't have to wake up at 3am once in that period! ....[victory dance]....

In fact, micro-b's quite the perfect baby sleep-wise. The last feed usually ends at 10pm, we zip him up in his sleeping bag (he'll kick off his blanket otherwise) and he sleeps until 8 the next morning. Bliss!!

Here's a series of pictures I took while in Finland in mid November.



microbeanie is 3 months, 1 week & 3 days old
minibeanie is a 2 year & 4 month old toddler

Through the Night!

micro-b slept through the night for the very first time last night! He had his last feed until 10pm and I thought, well, he'd be up 3 or 4am as usual. But no, I woke up at 10am. Yes, 10 o'clock, a sane hour to get up when it's considered day, not 4am when the only things up at that hour are drunks lumbering home and crickets. You see, I got to get up at 10 because dada took the 7am shift AND micro-b was a perfect baby.

Was last night a fluke? We'll see...


microbeanie is 2 months, 1 week & 2 days old
minibeanie is a 2 year old toddler

October 09

It had been FOREVER since the last post :P I do know that some of you are following this blog so I'm sorry to disappoint. Besides the fact that I hardly have time for anything these days, it had proven impossible to log onto Blogger (& Facebook for that matter) recently. Either the proxy server I'd been using needed some new config or that China's Great Firewall had finally caught up with it, I don't know. My tech support guy had for some reason been quite busy as well ;)

Well, tons had happened in the last month or so. In a nutshell, here's what happened in October 2009.

• We took a whole week to 're-tune' mini-b's sleeping habit back to sleeping alone in his own room. A month of molly-coddlying by his paternal grandmother did some damage. The worst night was when mini-b came to our room crying for the 3rd or 4th time after being accosted back to his bed and I was ready to cave and let him climb into our bed at 6am. Thankfully, DH held his fort.

• mini-b started half day playschool at Eton House! We're really proud of him for he didn't cry a single bit. All he needed was to be shown the train set and he would settle right in :D The main focus was on gaining independence such as eating by himself, washing his hands, putting on his shoes etc. He also learnt boundaries, respecting others' rights & group work such as there's a time for art class and Chinese class (<-- I was told by the teacher, Miss Lauren, that he isn't so hot for Chinese class... fell asleep once! :D the apple didn't fall too far from the tree, I thought. I think school had done mini-b a world of good. Just 3.5 weeks into it, I noticed that he'd begun using a lot more words. The stimulation he received in that 3.5 hours everyday was certainly a lot more than what I could give at home even without a certain bundle.

• Speaking of the bundle, micro-b had grown! He had started smiling and sleeping for longer stretches of time. Hallelujah! Right before we left Chengdu for Finland, the longest he slept at night would be 5 hours - waking up just once to feed in the night. It was a huge improvement over the last week when 2 night feeds actually meant at least an hour of sleep less.

I'd put up some pictures if I could. Here are a couple from the first week of micro-b's birth. Already feels like ancient history.

19 days old

Big brudder the tutti pusher

microbeanie is 2 months & 3 days old
minibeanie is a 2 year old toddler

Sleepless

I'm exhausted. I can't sleep these days. I'd be so tired by 9pm that it would be an effort to trudge upstairs to tuck minibeanie in (even though he says so endearingly "mama mama" and points at the stairs in front of him) but once I lay my head down on the pillow, it'd take a long time before I fall asleep.

One major reason is, I can't get comfortable. From the fifth month on, it only means 1 sleep position - on the side! Turning is practically a pain. Imagine hoisting a watermelon to the other side in slow mo because of a sore pelvis. I haven't slept through the night for a very long time. Yes yes.... this is perhaps God's way of preparing soon-to-be mothers of newborns for the challenges ahead... but that is not in the least bit comforting at the present because I AM GRUMPY AND TIRED!

And as if I don't have enough discomfort in bed, gastric reflux from the obligatory suppers I have these nights make it worse :(

Then, there are the things that go on in my head - things to do before the birth, minibeanie's birthday part next week, worries about the baby and even the fact that I can't sleep. It seems as if the moment the lights go out and all's quiet, my mind runs at warp speed. Great, making mental notes and worrying don't exactly make for a relaxing bedtime routine.

My fuse is <----this----> short today. Just as well I don't drive because I'm positive I can kill someone with my bare hands if he cuts into my lane without warning.... which in China is as commonplace as "你好".

ps. "insomnia often occurs in the third trimester." (source)


minibeanie is 1 year, 11 months, 2 weeks & 3 days old
microbeanie is 30 weeks 5 days in utero

The first 3 nights in the not-so-scary bed

I don't know what other mums think although I suspect some will have differing views. My parenting philosophy is that I'm raising young adults and that means setting them onto a path of independence. From the time they can walk unaided, feed themselves (by whatever messy means) to the time they become contributing citizens of the world. On this matter, let it be known that I expect the boys to move out of the house by the time they're in their early 20s - sure, come back for weekly family dinners but leave the laundry out :P

Since sleep independence is one of the many steps towards this goal, I'm happy to report since the last post that the migration to his own room and bed has been smoother than expected. No tantrums during bedtime except that he wants to play with the cars on his table.

On Friday night, he woke up at 1am. I found him sitting up in bed groggy still. Gently toppled him down to the sleeping position, put the tutti back in, positioned the bolster, gave him a few pats on the bum and that was it. He was out like a light bulb :) 2am: I heard the handle of his door cranked open. minibeanie marched out crying and looking more awake that I liked. I ushered him back to his bed despite vehement protests of wanting to go down to play. He soon quietened down when I tucked him in, sang a little to him and laid down close to him. In a short while, he was asleep and I sneaked out. The next time he got up was at 7am and by then it was dada's duty. Dada marched him back to bed and rather surprisingly, minibeanie managed to fall asleep again, this time until 10am. Heavenly rest for all of us!

Night 2, Saturday. The night passed without any incidents but he got up at 7am ;P

Night 3, Sunday. Ditto.

Then, like a comedy, just when we congratulated ourselves on a job well-done, minibeanie woke up THREE times during Tuesday night.

2am.... 3am.... 5:30am..... and finally at 7:15am, dada decided to throw in the towel and called it a 'night' by getting his morning espresso.

It was the same thing each time it happened. *Clunk!* the door of his bedroom being cranked open, then the baby monitor in our room buzzed (funny how it never picked up anything before that). A split second later, a where-are-you cry followed by censored expletives and groaning in our bed. Then, either dada or me would lumber out of bed, shoo the rascal back into his own room and bed with a curt single-word command, "Bed!" before trudging back to disrupted sleep. As a result, both of us had been panda-eyed for the last 2 days.

I think this would pass. Just like the time when he started sleeping in his open crib and tried to make 6 escapes within a half-hour, this is one of those things. I told dada that this is practice for the not-so-distant future when we'd be waking up every 3 hours. I don't think he was too amused :D


minibeanie is 1 year, 11 months, 1 week & 6 days old
microbeanie is 30 weeks 1 day in utero

Sleep

Today marks a milestone. We're officially migrating minibeanie to his very own room for the night! 2 weeks ago, we started playing in the room during the day - I gave him a set of new army tanks, hovercraft & trucks that were played solely in his bedroom upstairs. This week, he had been taking his afternoon naps in the new bed and now finally today, we're going to take the leap and reclaim our bedroom for the two of us..... at least for the next 2 months ;)

Getting the bedroom ready had been a long work-in-progress. For a year, the room had been nothing more than his closet & changing table ;P Getting the landlord to agree to paint the wall was the first step in February. Then, it was a trip to the hardware store to buy the cheery yellow paint (阳光普照 - "sunshine yellow") that I envisioned the 1 wall to be painted. And since he began watching Winnie the Pooh, thanks to the Christmas DVD he got from his mummi (Finnish for grandma ;), I got a set of made-in-Korea Pooh wall stickers. This was followed by a mega shopping trip at Ikea's... Then, without boring everyone with a blow-by-blow account of what was assembled and when, it was suffice to say that this process of assembly stretched over a period of nearly 2 months. Thus, we finally come to these last 2 weeks where I put away the odds & ends, hung up the pictures and vacuum-sealed & categorized minibeanie's outgrown clothes ready for his micro brother.

He has been asleep for 20min now. I'm 'standing guard' outside his room in the study anticipating the prison break :D Time will tell how many times we'll find ourselves woken up by minibeanie marching into our room in the middle of the night straight into our bed or if we have to get up and soothe him because he cries waking up in a strange room all by himself. But for now, I hope he gets some zzz and for us some privacy.


minibeanie is 1 year, 11 months & 2 weeks old
microbeanie is 29 weeks 2 days in utero

zombied

At 10 months, you thought that night wakings are for newborns or finicky babies. But for the past few nights, minibeanie had been waking up at 4am and seemed to take forever to return to sleep. He would have a huge appetite for milk, as much as 50% of his daily intake, and be wide awake standing by the crib railings and calling out to his comatose parents. And when he didn't get any attention, his babblings quickly became a shrieking crescendo. Finally, one of us would break. Last night, it was DH who stumbled out of bed at least 4 times to feed him twice and to pick him up. I was feeling the beginning of a cold with a sore throat and felt bone tired.

On Saturday night, we let him 'cry it out' which was a sleep training method. We decided that it was too cruel and heart-wrenching so we changed track and last night, we tried the PU/PD* method which would work in principle if the baby wasn't hungry! And judging by the amount of milk minibeanie drank, I'd say he was ravenous. Which begged the next question, how/why did his feeding schedule become so warped that he started consuming most of his milk at 5am? It could be that we were subconsciously giving him less milk during the day because we were now on powder formula. Previously, we had the convenience of 'pret-a-boire' formula milk - just open the packet and pour. I'd try stuffing him silly with milk today and see how it goes. Then again, one couldn't keep a baby that hungry during the day - could it be a growth spurt?

Night wakings appear to be a common 'affliction' among 10-month-olds. I read of similar experiences and 1 explanation of it could be separation anxiety brought on by their increasing independence.

*Pick up/Pick down

minibeanie is 10 months & 3 weeks old

Sleep deprived

minibeanie has been waking up at 5:30 for the past few days and doesn't fall asleep again until 7:30. And then he will be springing up again like a jack-in-the-box at 9. If I'm not a morning person usually, I'm even less so now.

When the little 'un was a teeny baby, I always thought it would get easier. NO, that's a fallacy or myth! Somehow, despite more frequent feedings, I still had time for my afternoon 'therapy' with Dr.Phil or Grey's Anatomy with a cup of tea. These days, if I wasn't changing up to 5 poopy diapers (it was once a day!) or cajoling him to eat his lovely mash, I would be rescuing him from mortal danger and responding to his pitiful "I'm bored!"/"where-are-you, I-can't-see-you!" cries. Nonetheless, everything's forgiven when he laughs. He's an angel to us :)


minibeanie is 8 months, 1 week & 5 days old

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

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

milestones

Not unlike the corporate world of target setting, every parent is obsessed with milestones. Is the baby turning over according to what the books say? She should be able to say her first word or she has to take her first step by a certain time. But every child is different. So these well-meaning developmental milestones can in fact be highly stressful for an obsessive parent. As for me, I'll like to think of myself as a laissez faire parent. As long as the kid is growing fine, I'm happy.

A week ago, minibeanie appears to have reached a certain milestone - social smiling :) If you wrinkle your face and stretch your mouth from ear to ear, he tends to respond in a like fashion. Oh yes, it also helps if you talk in a high-pitched voice in highly exaggerated tones so that he's engaged. I've become a clown; that's embarrassing.

A sign that minibeanie's more socially aware, his sleeping hours have also changed from the early newborn days (I can't believe he's no longer a "newborn"!!). He's usually wide awake in the morning, all coo-y and wanting to play. This period of wakefulness lasts until the early afternoon when he will nap for a little while. Unfortunately, mornings for me are rather dreadful because I'd be recovering from the night feeds. So much for engaging play when I can hardly peel my eyes open.
minibeanie is 1 month 3weeks & 2 days old

Rock a bye baby

For the past 2 days, it has been difficult putting minibeanie to sleep. I mean, his arms & legs would be waving in the air, doing a nice job of removing his blanket, all the while making little whimpers. We call this "fussing". It either means he wants to be burped or wants more milk OR both. And when he's finally asleep, he could be making little sounds in the cot. A little yelp, cry, grunt or a squeak...yes, very endearing but not when it's 2:30 in the morning and you've a ear cocked for his cries. Then, it's our turn to be awake.

Nonetheless, he's the sweetest dear when he's asleep. Then, much as we'd like to give the little 'Care bear' (DH's moniker for minibeanie) a tight squeeze and a peck on his cheek, it's best to let sleeping babies lie.


I thought I'd have a savoury scones for lunch tomorrow so I made these quick & easy scones from black olive tapenade & minced garlic. Hmm...if I could have some hearty soup to go with it... :P


minibeanie is 1 month 4 days old

Daddy back to work

It's DH's first day back at work today after 3 weeks of being a SAHD*. And he wants to bring minibeanie to work, feeding & burping him in meetings :) So, in more ways than one, today is a little new chapter for all of us, for I'll have to manage on my own obviously.

Here are a few pictures of the sleeping minibeanie. He makes the cutest whimpers, snorts & squeaks when he sleeps. I often say there's no need to get a baby monitor because he lets us know when he's ok from the next room! :D
Sadly, his lovely mop of newborn hair is beginning to thin, revealing another feature that he inherited from his dad - the hairline ;) For some reason now, minibeanie's hair 'style' above reminds me of Jack Nicholson.

*stay at home dad

minibeanie is 3 weeks 4 days old