Friday, March 26, 2010

Food! Glorious Food!

Why doesn't little baby Tiffany have the same sentiment? Food is such a joy! It's so fun to buy, to prepare, to cook, and it's so nice to slurp and smack lips and feel it mashing up between your cheeks and gums! Oh, have we forgotten to mention the myriad of tastes and aromas that fill your nose as you taste something new each week?

The purée business is so far so good. The following is a list I keep on my phone:

 Rice cereal
 Potato purée 
 Avocado purée
 Pumpkin purée
 Banana purée
Banana mash
 Sweet potato purée
 Barley cereal
 Applesauce
 Pearsauce
 Rice porridge
 Oat/Mixed grain cereal
 Carrot purée
 Butternut squash purée
Peach purée
Spinach purée
 Yoghurt
Pork rib porridge
Chicken bone porridge
Sweetcorn porridge
Carrot porridge
Brocolli porridge
Spinach porridge
Ikan bilis porridge

For the foods that I've made and offered to Tiffany, I put a symbol to indicate her reaction to it. Those without iPhone will probably not be able to see those symbols. So far her favourite food requires no cooking or preparation. Sigh. It's yoghurt. I got her Petit Miam. Very ex. 6 tiny pots of yoghurt for $5.50.

Currently, Tiffany's 8 months old. I'm giving her a bit more texture in her food and introducing more solid stuff to her. She's not used to it and resultantly gags sometimes. But I've got to keep trying. She has so far choked on:

Baby rusk
Banana
Oat cereal (Stage 2 Cerelac)
Very mushy pork rib porridge

My friend Edelweiss suggested I put sweetcorn instead of potato into the porridge to make it taste much better. It's stewing in my slow cooker now. The entire house is filled with the fragrance of JAGUNG. Mmmmmm... Mouthwatering aroma! I hope Tiffy will like her porridge better. I've tried cooking it for 4 weeks now, almost every day. After this nap when she takes her lunch, Tiffy will give her verdict.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Rubber Heartie

My heart is made of rubber
Soft and malleable
It floats on a pool of sweet water
That flows with joy and laughter

It's easy to melt my heart
It is a simple art
All you need is teardrops
And a sprinkle of tiny sobs

Whom does my heart hold dear
My little baby Tiffany
A whimper, a sob, I freeze with fear
Instinctively I crave to hold her

So how am I to sleep train her?
To opt for the extreme extinction
How am I to let her cry?
All alone in the crib by herself
How can I preserve my sanity?
When seconds seem hours ticking by
How my heart aches to hear each sob!
I'll feel I have to stop

It's going to be so very hard
To sleep train my precious daughter
For I know she's bound to break my heart
With as little as a tiny whimper  

Monday, March 8, 2010

Magic Number Five

Five times.

That's how many times Tiffany peed in her potty today. Do you think she has started associating peeing with the potty and the ssssssssss sound? I'm afraid to think so because I'm not sure a 7 month old can learn so fast, but somewhere deep in my heart I believe my daughter can do it! I'm a happy mommy!

*Happy sigh*

A Better Schedule

Today is a better day already.

I've decided to follow the sleep trainer's advice to stop following popular sleep guides on the Internet and follow her advice instead. I've been doing a popular 2-3-4 waketime schedule but obviously it ain't working for my baby. Instead, the waketimes are adjusted to 3-3-4 and bedtime can be pushed back till 8-9 o'clock.

I started this new schedule yesterday, a day after our Skype consultation with the sleep trainer. Tiffy slept better during her morning nap after we kept her awake for a longer time. We took a walk to the nearby coffeeshop to have breakfast and stimulate her senses a lot more. Afternoon's a no-go cos Tiffy slept during our grocery shopping in NTUC.

Last night's bedtime was pushed to 8.15pm (instead of the usual 6.30-7pm). She actually slept a lot better last night! She woke at 12 and 4.45. After quick feedings, she was back to sleep promptly. Yay! To me, not waking at 2-4am to play and not sleep IS a great achievement!

This morning I tried to drag her waketime to 3h but by 2 & 1/2 h, Tiffany couldn't hold out anymore. She was crying away and after quickly changing her diaper and clothes, she was alling asleep in my arms. After a quick feed and cuddle she was off to Lalaland! That was at 10am. Until now! It's 11.05am now. She's still sleeping. Yay! What an achievement!

Everything is still in the experimental phase. More updates and better news soon, I hope!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Baby Log

Ok, this post is kinda boring. It's for those who want to know how a 7 month old baby with sleep problems go through the day. This is what I record in my notepad every day. It's for my reference (but honestly, it's for me to record little successes with naps that are past 1 hour, poop in the potty, etc). It just makes me happy to look back on small achievements and remind myself "Today is going to be a better day".

Some typical entries:

3/3/10
6am Wake & milk
6.45am Diaper off
8am Diaper on
8.10am Milk
8.25am Nap.                Broken 1h
9.25am Wake & milk
10.25am Porridge & applesauce
11am Diaper off
11.30am Diaper on
12.30pm Nap.    Broken 1h 45min
2.15pm Wake & milk
3.15pm Pork rib porridge, pearsauce and mixed cereal
4pm Poop in the potty
5pm Walk
5.30pm Bath
6pm Milk
6.20pm Sleep (...1030-130-430-5.30)
5.30am Wake & milk & carry
6am Sleep.               Broken 11h

4/3/10
7am Wake & milk
7.30am Diaper off
8.50am Diaper on
8.55am Milk
9am Nap.            Broken 1h 30min
10.50am Wake & milk
11.30am Mixed cereal & applesauce
12.30pm Poop & diaper off
1.35pm Diaper on
1.55pm Milk
2.05pm Nap.         Broken 1h 20min
3.30pm Wake & milk
4.30pm Milk, pearsauce & mixed cereal
4.35pm Poop & diaper off
5.30pm Walk
6.30pm Bath
7.10pm Milk
7.15pm Sleep (9-1130-130-430)
4.30am Wake, milk & carry
5.30am Sleep.           Broken 11h

5/3/10
7.10am Wake & milk
7.35am Diaper off
8.50am Diaper on


The word "Broken" simply means assistance was needed from me for Tiffy to get back to sleep. It appears every day in the log, which means she has never fallen asleep without my help.

Sleep Consultant Consulted

Today JD and I got my mom to come to our house to babysit lil Tiffany while we Skype with our newly hired sleep consultant, whose name I shall not reveal until her action plan is carried out and proven to work.

After the one hour consultation, here are some problems with Tiffany's sleep schedule and patterns that were highlighted to us:

1. Sleep associations (Namely nursing and carrying. She needs be given an opportunity to learn how to self-soothe.)
2. Overestimation of her sleep needs (12.5h in total including naps. We doing 12h for night sleep and 1h each for the 2 naps.)
3. Bedtime too early (Currently at about 6-7pm. An age-appropriate bedtime is 9pm.)
4. Bedtime and naptime routine not soothing and obvious enough (Currently just a bath, cd and nursing for bedtime. No proper routine for naps.)

Our sleep trainer is going to give us an action plan on Monday, which we will implement on 19th March, the weekend after our trip to Phuket. I'll have to dedicate 2 weeks of consistent sleep training to solve Tiffy's sleep problems. Wish me luck.

Till then, it's still me using one of the only 2 tools in my box, nursing, to put baby Tiffany to sleep. I won't write much as I have too little sleep every day dealing with Tiffany's multiple waking and inability to soothe herself to sleep. Maybe when she can finally sleep on her own, I'll have time to work on my lappy and do more blog decor like putting up pictures and videos and all.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Teething Pains

Tiffany's 5th & 6th teeth have started showing (little white dots). Today is cranky day with 4 patches of dribble rash on her chinny chin chin and countless bouts of unexplainable crying.

God help me please.