Tabs

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

My Baby 12 Months Nap Routine



Don't we love the new ages and stages that our baby goes through. My daughter was at the stage of refusing morning naps but clearly still needs it. She can't deside if she wants a late or early morning nap. But she is still quite consistent with her afternoon nap. Routine is changing a lot round this age.

To be honest I do not always stick to routine. A lot of the time we have days where she only has one nap a day and other she has two. It varies day-to-day and depend on activities in the day also. My daughter has times where she sleeps right through the night and times when she needs a breastfeed to get back to sleep 1-2 times and other times when she wakes up, has a moan then falls right back to sleep few times in night.

I have always breastfed her to sleep. I find it is best for us less stressful. 
Don't get me wrong though sometimes breastfeeding to sleep doesn't work so I do have to put some effort in by comforting her at interval the 5mins - 10mins -15mins so on til she relaxes to sleep or holding her til she sleepy enough to put in cot. Sometimes I hum along with her lullaby music machine. 

I cannot control and make my baby sleep but I can make the environment relaxing and calm. Having a naptime routine is great to have, which is slightly different to night routine. (Night routine blog coming soon). This is what works best for my daughter and may not work for anyone or at any baby age & stage. This is only a guide to help a mother out!! 

Here is my method to naptime

By the end of playtime things we usually quiet down and she brings me books to read her. She like the animals alphabet picture books. Once I see the tired signs (eye rubbing, eye bags, red eyes - (sleep cue blog coming soon) I'd tell her naptime and carry to her room, turn on music machine, change her nappy, start breastfeeding til she is asleep & place her in cot when i notice her fast asleep cues ( snort, lazy arms & legs and light latch or unlatches from boob). 

My method does not work from time to time due to fussiness, over active arms & legs and playing the latch on latch off game, while having a conversation to my boob and also aching of the back, Most of the time I have to hold her tight to control her mini tantrum and guide her back to suckling breast.

If that is unsuccessful i'll lay her down in her cot wait rougly 10secs if she gets up i'll offer her water from sippy cup then offer breast again and usually she settles and falls asleep. If she is too wound up with the activeness and fussiness I'd do the same thing lay her in the cot but wait in the room and let try and settle and if she stands or sits ill lay her down and quietly say "it's nap time". I repeat this 3 times and the 4th time I say nothing til she is staying laying down and is a bit quieter i'll leave the room. I then check her in 10 mins and usually she is asleep by 20 minutes - 40 minutes at most.

Although other times she is simply done, finished, with the breastfeeding session so I let her get on with her activities and just wait til she is ready for a nap. (wish I didnt stress so much in the early days but that a novel to tell). Like I said you cannot force a baby to sleep or let alone anyone, am i right?

What is your babies/toddler nap time routine?







Wednesday, October 22, 2014

One Year Baby Update




It's has now been ONE year since the day I was in the hospital in giving birth to our daughter. The year has gone by so fast yet I still remember most of the lovely milestones and her first-ies.

As of this day she is a great walker and is well on the way of running around. Ella is a busy girl she is into everything and bringing me all her books to read. I can ask her to bring me whatever toy I ask her to get like i ask her "where's your elmo, bring mummy elmo?" and she will look around and walk to it pick up elmo and pass him to me. It's the same with books. Such a clever girl.  She eats food that I eat so well now although she has been teething quite bad for the past few weeks so she has not eaten that much so she been snacking now and then. Ella still loves good breastfeeding sessions 4-5 times a day, even with teething.

Within almost 3 months Ella has cut almost 6 teeth. Her to top front teeth are fully out. i'm not looking forward to getting bitten with those bottom teeth coming through but she has pretty good so far (knock's on wood). Night have been rough but we slowly getting back onto our normal night routine. I usually put her to bed at 7pm and then breastfeed her once at round 2am and she sleep through to 6:30am.

Ella has reached all the milstones either early or on the mark. She started crawling a 7 months then not long after that she was using everthing to pull herself up and then at 10 months she was using her walker trolleys and before I knew it she was taking steps on her own at 10 and a half months and at 11 months she stood up and walked on her own. Of course I had encouraged & praised her a lot and held her hands. Praise helps, it gives them a sense of achievement and they feel really good.

Not much to update on as she has reached the 1 years old. She sleeps better, eat better, gets around the house better and gets into everything. Now the joys of having a toodler and tantrum will be on my way. The joys of parenting.


Little Swimmer


Swimming is so fun with a baby. I have been practicing blowing bubble with her and her has not quite got the idea as she just bobs her open mouth in the water but to my surprise she blew a bubble. I so proud of her all this practice is paying off. She made a 7 year old friends pity i forgot her name but she was playing peek a boo with Ella and did lots of high fives. Ella favourite thing was the fountain. We were splashing about at the pools for an hour. That was Ella record she didn't want to leave for lunch she wanted to keep on swimming. Yet again another awesome day with my cutie pie. My great little swimmer.

Ella First Birthday










Ella first birthday was a blast. Can't believe she is a whole one years old!! My baby grew to fast! If only I took more photo I was living the moment. She opened up lots of presents from friends and family and not long after the candles were blown out the pink icing was all over me her the table and the other 1 year old kids. Ella got me good. I was pink on my face, shoulders, legs and arms. In the end she didn't eat any cake but did enjoy the other snacks which were. The rest of the day she was playing with her new toys and lot of laughter and giggles. It was a beautiful sunny day so we were outside just hanging out and chatting and so on. All and all we had a great day and we all slept well that night. 

Sunday, October 12, 2014

My sweet little angel




       My Sweet Little Angel


My sweet little angel, when we first meet, you engraved my heart with pure love that I cannot regret.


 I held you close with the umbilical cord still attached. You washed all the pain away when your skin touched mine. I was flooded with joy and happiness flying on cloud nine.

When you opened your puffy eyes mine filled with tears. Your my little girl and you were finally here. Time has flew by and now you growing up and will be turning one years old soon





Friday, October 3, 2014

OMG She's Walking



I couldn't believe what my eyes were showing me. My 11 month old did something new.

From crawling position Ella put her head back reached her arms up and balanced standing up right on her two feet then began to take a few unsteady steps towards me with a huge smile on her face as if to say mum look at me I'm so clever.
That she is, clever!

Ella started off with walking along furniture and then eventually moved of the furniture and sort of swung to the other furniture. After 2 months of using her wooden trolley she finally let go of the trolley and started to walk. It was not long until she took one step to get somewhere then before i knew she was taking 2 steps and eventually 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 steps within two weeks after that she was taking all those steps but she could not stand up on her own she needed to use something to pull her little body up.

Many days went on and Ella was getting better balance on her two feet with the help of mummy and daddy and other objects in her height to get her up and about

Finally Ella pulled her body up from the floor and began to balance on her two feet with no help at all and walked unsteady towards me..LOOK ELLA IS WALKING!..I swear all the neighbours would have heard me. I yelled out to her daddy in the other room so he could see this wonderful milestone of the many of Ella's journey to growing up.

That moment is forever embedded into my memories just like all the other milestones and first moments.

I am a proud mum and now I need to have eye at the back of head to keep up with my little walker.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

6-11 Months Baby update + Postpartum

It has been awhile since I have written on here so here is an update of what has been happening for these past 6 months.

Lets start with solids as that is a big milestone at 6 months old.
It was exciting to give her her first taste of food as she had only ever consumed breast milk so this mummy was determined to see how Ella would react. I started her off with a 2pm solid feed as she seemed happy at this time all rested from naps. Her first food was purred banana. I didn't want to bother with the baby rice cereal stuff as it really has no nutritional value. It was so hard to get her to open her mouth and spoon feed her this but after a few taps on the mouth and taste of the banana she finally let me spoon fed her. She only had a few spoon fulls so I usually ate the rest of it. It was like a daily smoothie for me, tasted gooood!! It felt like forever to get to her eating I cannot remember the order of what I feed her but I just eventually started giving her different fruits cooked and cooled pear and apple then I moved on to giving her vegetables such as carrot pumpkin potatoe kumara. While I was getting Ella into solids she became very fussy with taking naps during the day again and I was really struggling and was starting to become obsessed with getting everything right and organised as I am a person who runs more smoothly when there is routine. I turned everywhere to solve my problem of getting Ella to sleep during the day. I was getting frustrated and angry it wasn't working and Ella was getting more and more overtired. I swear I tried all the tricks in the book. I ask for advice for family and friends and also from the ladies on the mummy group on the facebook even look at website on the internet I called plunket and healthline and still I was obsessed with no real plan to get Ella sleeping. I spent a lot of my day stressing out about it and crying. Enough about that where was I that's right SOLIDS..once ella was enjoy her fruits and veges I started introducing meat by mixing it into her veges and she wasn't to keeen but with time she was being spoon by me and was actually enjoying it by the age of 8 months. Must of been because she started crawling at 7 and a half months old. All that crawling must of worked up her appetite. I ened up buying Ella baby food from the supermarket as it was becoming to time consuming and a waste of food to make it myself so I brought baby food pouches. I pick the fruit one mostly as she like banana the most and I started picking the more meat and vege ones. So preparing her meals was much easier she either ate it cold straight from the pouch or I heated it in a bowl in the microwave for about 20-30seconds on med.high. So it took from 6-8 months to get her eating lunch and dinner which was only few spoons and it slowly increased day by day till i felt she was ready for breakfast. I never pushed breakfast on her because she never really wanted it as she just get a breastfeed first thing in the morning even sometimes she wouldn't have breastfeed in the morning either because of the 2 night feeds she had.

Ella started crawling at 7 and a half months. 
Not long after that she was moving across furniture and reaching out to other furniture across from her so she was getting mobile quicker than a thought a baby would.

By 8 months she was a successful crawler and was already looking ready to stand on her own as she was standing for more and more seconds each day, went from 2 second to 4 to 8 and so on.

At 9 months old Ella and i had become bit more relaxed with her sleeping for naps and at night as I thought to myself is it really worth the effort and energy when all it is doing is stressing her and I out so by 9 months she was sleeping really well and with that she was more comfortable with eating solids. She eats what we at this point a little bit mashed then how i would have my food but the same stuff and she loves getting messy and squashing her food through her finger and rubbing it all over herself and her high chair. I brought a high chair from a friend of mine so I got a awesome deal and didnt have to pay much at all. Overall the 9 month mark of being mum is so much more relaxed for me but it still isn't easy but I am coping so much better.

Between 10 month old and now 11 month old Ella cut her first tooth. The top middle left tooth look so cute when she bites into biscuit and leaves a tooth mark. So these part two months has been tough because of this teething business going on so sleep has been a little tricking for my little one and she is wanting to chew and bite anything and everything. Glad she has not bit me yet. She has been wanting to breastfeed a lot more and has been rather clingy towards me and it driving me crazy though I do like the cuddles. To this day today Ella is cutting a second tooth but it is playing pee-a-boo and hide and go seek so it playing on her gums. I'm rubbing teething gel on her gums and sometime giving her pamol and it seems to be helping especially before meal and before bed.

So summing this all up life as a young mum has been a wonderful journey for this almost one year of it. Im proud to be still breastfeeding and never needed to spend a cent on formula for my baby. I'll wean my girl when she is ready as of now she is far from it.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Baby Update + 21 weeks postpartum

My baby girl is 21 weeks old now making her 5 months in 5 days time. It so exciting she is getting so much closer to 6 months. And we all know what 6 months means. Solids!! I can't wait to get her started with having a taste of purred food. I just brought her baby spoons. I tested to see if she is close to being ready for solids because she showing all the signs and i just had to see if she would eat a little bit off the spoon and to my surprise she tasted it and swallowed I'm so excited for her. She was enjoying the purred banana i gave her. I only gave her tiny bit on her spoon 3 times. The test was great. 

I have a Plunket metting on Friday 14th in the morning and we are going to talk about solids and of course get her weighed and measured and also her development. I'm going to see if they think she is ready and I can get her started on food. I am still going breastfeed her of course it is still needed. I plan to wean her when she wants to wean herself, I don't mind if it over 2 months. Breastfeeding is the best!. 

She is hitting all the milestones for her age. She is not sitting up but she is rolling over every now and then though it is very rare to see, she doesn't roll over much at all. Grabbing and reaching for toys is so easy for her now and she is chewing and reaching for anything everything now especially my food and drinks. Her speech has developed a bit more she is babbling saying abaa and amaa, as she says abaa she opens and closes her mouth to help make the sound it so adorable. I swear i heard her say Mumma quite a few times but im not sure its that. Right now it an exciting time for this mumma. Omg she loves her jolly jumper she squeal and coos and babbles so loudly and bounces one foot after the other sort of like skipping.

Enough about her now about my. I'm 21 weeks postpartum and I feel really great. I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight. My jelly belly is starting to firm up nicely. I still have a lot of toning to do but it is okay. I have no excerise routine anyway. I am only breastfeeding and doing a daily walk and sometimes twice a day. My dog loves it when i do a walk twice and plus it make my daughter have another nap. The pram sends her to sleep well most of time when she not talking away to herself in her baby language. It great to have a happy baby she is mostly happy all he time. She only ever cries when she is hungry, has dirty nappies, doesnt want to have a nap and is bored of having tummy or floor time. She has always been quite an easy baby. ahh Knock on wood. I actually did it just then. 

overall she is doing really well and so I am and my partner is getting so much more involved it is s great!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

4 Months postpartum

I've been a mum for 18weeks now and im still loving it there are time when I want to just run away when things are not working out but I stay strong and handle the jandle. With being a mum i have never had so much patience and never as strong, determined and consistent as I am now. You got to have all those qualities to get though the minutes, hours, early hours and day n nights. I moved my daughter to her room at 3 months and she doing so great at sleeping at night it very rare for me to get up in the mid of night feeding her. I'm also enjoying early nights too as she has a much earlier bedtime of 8:30.

Well I've had some difficulty these past few days because I decided to put Ella in her cot now and it been so hard to get her to have a nap during the day she cries and cries and yells it like she telling me off and being very stubborn. I used to rock her bassinet back and forth to get her to sleep but i can't do that in the cot as it has no wheel it all wood so there no way i can rock or make the sound of the bassinets wheels so now it just the radio, my presence and my touch for reassurance and my gosh 2-3 hours of a crying baby is draining. What do you do to get an infant to sleep during the day? It seems totally impossible! but it's do-able when you figure out what works for your baby. I have to totally tire her out by a lot of stimulation and time outside otherwise ill have a crying baby for ages in her cot.

I know it only been two days in her cot but it feels like it has been forever as her naps are not working but she sleeps wonderfully during the night. I can't complain about that but this mumma needs timeout during the day. Sometime naps work but half the time naps don't. Looks like playtime for my girl is going to get a lot more active so i get her tired out so nap time is easier so I can enjoy my own alone time even if it just 30mins. I go crazy because when i put her down for nap it takes 30mins to feed her read book to her and stop her crying. sometimes the crying goes for 40mins or more. I may be over doing it but I want a routine for her to sleep at 11am and 2pm everyday and i believe routine helps babies because it help them know what happens next. So to some this all up im trying to get my daughter to nap in her cot and not cry for 30mins straight. It should be this hard for a 3 month old right?

Part from sleep im also having problem getting her to breastfeed in the morning she wakes at 7am and doesnt want it she sucks 3 times then unlatches and it feels like im fighting then she shows signals that she hungry but she refuses. it not til 10am or even 12pm till she actually breastfeeds it worries me so much..I trying new feed times so her eat..Sometime she wakes at 5am for a feed so it could be why but it only just become a problem. All i can do is wait till she hungry so my feeding routine has flew out the window and it at any time though i still try to feed close to her normal 3 hourly times 6am 9am 12pm 3pm 6pm 7pm (sometimes 12am) 5am. I may be ranting on a bit but thiss is what on my mind and i thought id write something new on here

Facebook Mummy group

One day I was on Facebook and my cousin invited me to a closed group called Mummy Matters. I didn't even know there were such a thing as groups on Facebook. I couldn't believe it there were so many mums on it from all over the world commenting about what ever is on their mind about their babies and pregnancies. At the time I was about 7 months pregnant so many of the comments that were posted I could relate to. The group is a place for mother to just let their hair down and talk about what ever is bothering them without feeling misunderstood or judged and just mums getting along and helping each other out if one has a question about pregnant, babies, their annoying husbands/partners/sperm donors and any life troubles.

I found it do helpful when i had so many questions since i am a first time mum so I posted alot and have begun to get recognize some of the ladies name but i grew bored of mummy matters and found a new group called 203 October babies and I have been on it since it the best one so far. All sorts of ladies around the world even few New Zealanders too.

The support system for new mums these days has grown so much and is now so much stuff on the internet and even coffee group or parent hubs to go to to chill out with yours and other baby it great because being a parent is hard especially being a mum.

If you struggling never turn down help it is good to have help and with being a mum iv asked for hhelp a lot more than i ever have in my life.

Monday, January 20, 2014

14th Week as a Mother

Time keeps going by so fast, my baby girl is already 3 months old. I can't believe how big she is getting. I moved her into her own room but she is still in her bassinet, it a fair bit till she grows out of it of course. She has been sleeping so well all on her own. Her and I now get a descent 5 hours sleep at night. She wakes up 4am still. The easy baby I knew is no more. It been driving me crazy because it has interrupted her daytime naps, her feeds and playtime. Instead it's no morning nap and she naps at 1pm.

Breastfeeding has been difficult because she cries and flails about when I go to feed her even when she is hungry. She shows me all the signs. Dribbling, sucking hands, air sucking, lip smacking, turning to my boob like she smelling the milk. I've had problems with oversupply so I have been block feeding and pumping a little out so she doesn't choke and miss out on my hind-milk (the high calorie fat milk). If you don't know what block feeding is it's when you feed baby on one breast for a few feeds and pump a little from other breast if it like a rock melon (really hard) then repeat again but switch breasts. Other than that breastfeeding is painless and comfortable, well, it is when my baby isn't pinching or scratching me with her cute little hands.

My baby girl has been very picking she only like feeding off my right breast and not my left boob for some reason. She only breastfeeds on my left boob when she is tired.

I rang plunket and they suggested me to do a feed & sleep blog to see what time period she is fussy. After two nights I figured out that she fussy between 6pm - 9pm. It's the worse time because it when we all want to settle down for night time and instead we have a screaming baby. It's hard when your baby cries and nothing soothes them fast so you got to  try everything in the book. Night time baths is so helpful, it's the only thing that settles her enough to breastfeed her to sleep. Yes I nurse my baby to sleep else we will hear constant crying.

Three months of being mummy has been an eventful & exciting & tiring time for me but i have been enjoying seeing my girl growing up even though I want her to stay little & cute.

The milestones are the best. She can hold her head up really well. She likes sitting up and standing with me supporting her of course. She really liked the play mat with the dangling town by, she grabs & hits them (the sad thing is, is that she has grolwn bored of it) and she is alert of her surrounding by seeing & hearing. She is full of smiles and she is starting to giggle but it more of a squeak gargle sound. Whenever she cries i swear i her say mum but im not sure.

She is hitting all the milestones of a 3 month old part from rolling over because she absolutely hates tummy time i tried all i can so I give her small dozes of tummy time otherwise her arms and legs are quite strong.

She is weighing at 12lbs 5oz right now and she is fitting into some newborn and mainly 0-3 month old clothing now yay.

So I sum it up this has been a wonderful journey for me even if breastfeeding has been challenge. Life's all about learning don't cha think!