Sleep training day 31

Last night wasn’t too bad after the short stretch at the start. My daughter had a 3hrs and 2.5hrs stretch. She woke up around the same time as yesterday so I know when to start walking her. Although time varied a little because I let her stayed up a bit longer before walking her for her 1sf nap. It only took 10mins and she slept for an hour. With her second nap, we went out to lunch so we headed back home for a nappy change before walking her. It was a longer stretch than yesterday again and it took around 20mins to walk her. She slept for 41mins. We need to add in a 3rd nap or else too much stretching. It only took 6mins to actually walked her to sleep but needed 15mins to be sure she was asleep and be put down to cot. 3rd nap lasted for 30mins. The duration isn’t too bad today and worked out fine because we headed to a friend’s for new year party. I stretched her wake up a bit before heading home to start her night. Tonight after feeding her I was too lazy to get up so I climbed into the cot to put her down. It is a success on first go but fingers crossed she sleeps OK.

2015 is almost over. This year is certainly  full of joy and excitement! I have became a wife and a mother. Last year this time I was drinking at a friend’s party waiting to count down. This year I sit silently in bed in the dark waiting for midnight to strike with my little one (hopefully)  sleeping next to me in cot. I am sure 2016 will be another awesome year with a lot of laughter and love.

EDIT: what am I saying? I was pregnant this time last year! I wasn’t drinking at all!

Sleep training day 30

Maybe I should rename this to sleep blog instead of sleep training since I am not really training. Day by day I am doing the same thing and hoping for the same thing – longer stretch at night. Last night actually wasn’t that bad compare to previous nights. My daughter slept for over 2hrs for each stretch and one was nearly 3hrs. Maybe me getting in cot made her felt secure, not sure. One thing I noticed is that when my daughter is up when I am getting her to cot is that she will lift her head and legs, like reverse plank. Maybe this got her harder to settle when getting to cot since before she would still have head touching the mattress.

Today, my daughter woke up at 7.46am. Too early for me but she just didn’t want to go back to sleep. First two naps was good, I was able to walk her to sleep in around 20mins and be in cot. Both naps were over an hour long. 2nd nap ended at 3.30pm ish so I needed to add in another nap since I won’t be able to start her night too early. My daughter showed tired signs with yawning and rubbing eyes but still took me 30mins to walk her to sleep. Her nap was around 35mins long. Not very economical where I need to walk 30mins to get 35mins sleep out of her.

My daughter is learning to crawl so she was very active tonight and was hoping to tire her out. I needed to wait till 10pm to start her night because she woke up at around 7.15pm. I fed her and then get her to cot. I thought tonight she won’t wake too early since she isn’t overtired! Less than an hour and she was awake crying. Oh well, better than last few nights where she woke around 20mins of sleep. We got her back to cot now, she let out a few cries but managed to go back to sleep herself. Fingers crossed tonight will be a good night.

Sleep training day 29

It is like a routine that my daughter’s sleep is bad for the first part of the night where she will wake up very frequent and then the rest of the night is every 2hrs. To be honest I feel like a failure. Why won’t my daughter sleep better? Is it something that I have done to cause this? Is it some developmental milestone that I am missing? Possibly teething? Please tell me this is a phase! For 6 months I only had 3 good nights sleep and the lack of sleep is really getting to me.

Today, my daughter had two naps. The first one was around an hour if I count the time she slept on my husband’s shoulder. My husband was able to get her to sleep but unable to put her to cot so he transfer our daughter to me to put to cot. With second nap, she only slept for 30mins in her own cot and woke up at 4pm. That’s a really bad time since I won’t be able to get her to sleep by 8pm and I was really tired since I napped while she napped, so I got her to bed to feed back asleep. My daughter then slept for another 1.5hr. She woke up when my husband came home from badminton. She knows when her daddy is home.

Tonight, we got her to sleep before she was overtired. Sadly, she only slept for 15mins and then my husband walked her back to sleep. It took a while though and we didn’t let her play this time. My husband got her to cot unsuccessfully so I picked her up to get her back to sleep before moving to cot. Good thing was my husband already got her drowsy so easy for me to walk her back to sleep. This time she only slept for 7mins and I was able to quickly soothed her and back to cot she went. I went to shower and she was still sleeping then. My throat was really dry and itch so I let out a cough,  this startled her and she let out a cry. Then all quiet for a minute and up she went. Could it be my cough that woke her? Maybe. Then it was another battle to get her back to cot. I was soooooo closed, got her legs down and just need to lower her head. I gave up and decided to feed her. Sigh, long gone the days where I can just feed and pop her to bed. I decided to get into the cot with her before putting her down. Well, it worked but I was also stuck. Her legs were on top of mine and I needed to move very slowly to get out. So far she is still sleeping for like 20mins maybe? Please please please keep her sleeping for like 3hrs. I really need the long stretch back.

Sleep training day 28

After the episode of crying and trying to put to cot, my daughter woke up every 2hrs it less after that. She woke up before 8am to start her day. I thought maybe I can squeeze in 3 naps today but it was horrible trying to get her to take her first nap. It took me around an hour and for the first 20 to 25mins or more crying and screaming. Could last night’s traumatised her? However she did take 1hr 38mins of nap but I got her to big bed in the other room since there was drilling outside of our room.

2nd nap she had it at my parents’ but only for 30mins. Tonight we had dinner late so already skipped bath for my daughter (she had one last night so not too dirty lol). By the time she finished her dinner she was already fussing to go to sleep. My husband finished dinner so he walked her to sleep while I finished dinner. I stayed away from our room while she slept but she still woke up not long after then it was another 2hrs of battle trying to get her to sleep. At one point I fed her and moved her to cot, before she protested I patted her and she calmed down (surprised!). I kept patting until I thought it was safe to stop but before I could get one leg off the bed she woke up crying again. I was going to get changed and sleep. After so many nights of bad sleep I am really exhausted and actually a little dizzy. I left her in the cot while laying close to her in our bed hoping it will get her to sleep. It happened few months before that I fell asleep and she fell asleep on her own next to me. She used to be able to fall asleep in our bed with me but that’s long gone. She fussed after a while and I was too tired to do anything. My husband got her while I went to shower. I was happy to find my daughter sleeping in the cot when I get back to the room but just as I was typing this post she woke up again so i had to put away my phone and get her to sleep again. I get nervous putting her to cot now since she got heavier so harder for me to get her back to cot gently. My height is not really helping either needing to bed over the tall side of the cot. I missed the days where I could just put her to cot and she would fall asleep like that.

I am foreseeing a long tiring night so I better get some sleep now to battle on. Good night!

Sleep training day 27

Last night my daughter was up every 2hrs through out and in the morning I was too tired to get up so fed her to keep her in bed. We started our day a bit later around 10am. She only had one nap today because surprisingly my daughter slept for almost 3hrs today so she woke up a bit after 4pm. No time to do a 2nd nap.

We went to my parents tonight for dinner, my daughter fell asleep in the car on the way home although I tried to keep her awake. When I got her out of the car she fell back asleep in my arms but I failed to get her back to cot. I decided to give her a feed and again failed to transit back to cot. Getting my daughter to sleep at night is stressful for me now because I am not confindent to get her back to cot and for her to have a long stretch of sleep. Took me an hour or so without success to move her back to cot and I even waited till she was in a deeper sleep before moving. My husband decided it is time to teach her how to sleep on her own since she knows how to sleep without being hold in the car despite movement and car noise. It was a long process of picking up to sooth and put down when calm (we are doing the pick up and put down approach). My daughter has learnt to cry and scream after being picked up so took longer to sooth her. Then she decided it is up time after we got her back to bed calm. We kept her in cot while we pat and shhh and sang, she just played and talked. We picked her up again when she began to fuss and walked her to being drowsy. During the time I was singing ABC over and over again so she can use that as a cue for sleep. My throat went dried and my brain went numbed. I tried to put her down and she woke up again, of course I gave patting a go before picking her up from screaming. So I walked again and waited till she closed her eyes again. Nope, still screaming. Alright, this time I walked longer and waited a bit before trying to slowly get her to cot. I guess she was very tiring from the ‘training’ and finally let me get her to cot (although I think she just fell asleep and didn’t realise I moved her). Around 20mins later she woke up crying. I went back to usual of walking and then waited a little before moving to cot. I didn’t wait too long though and was able to get her back to cot.

This is cot training all over again. I will need to be persistent and keep this up and not let it regress too much. One day, I am sure one day soon my daughter will learn to sleep on her own.

Sleep training day 26

Last night is a little better because my daughter did one 3hrs and a couple of 2hrs. Today she woke up early at 8am and didn’t want to go back to sleep so I have to get up too. My daughter did well with naps today and for the first two she already fussed to sleep after being up for around 2hrs. First nap she slept for 1.5hrs and 2nd for 54mins. I want her to do a 3rd nap not only because she finished her second nap around 3pm, we need to go out tonight to a gathering. I tried to walk her too early as I was eager to get her to sleep so we can head out early when she finished her nap. She slept passed 7pm so I needed to wake her again. My daughter seems to sense that we need to go out so she sleeps better. This 3rd nap she did 1hr 5mins. That’s the longest naps in total for one day so far.

We got home around 10.30pm and I fed her to sleep. Unfortunately I failed to put her in cot and she woke up totally. I thought instead of picking her up we might try to see if she will sleep by herself. I gave her a dummy to play with and patted her tummy. She wasn’t fussy and I thought she might be able to do it. Nope, she eventually gave up playing with the dummy and started to cry because she wants to sleep but don’t know how. I picked her up and she fell asleep quickly on my shoulder. I had her on me for a while before I put her back to cot. She had such good naps today I wonder if it can help her with longer stretch tonight. Never give up on hoping.

Mango and steamed egg for baby

In terms of feeding today is quite exciting. We fridge some mango and decided to let our daughter tried a little today to cool down from the heat. I think she liked it although she didn’t finish the full proportion that we have prepared for her. Baby can’t eat too much mango at once since they might react to it and have rash on their face. So far, no red dots on my baby’s face. We shouldn’t try two new things at once but in the afternoon my husband made steamed egg (mixed egg with milk, steam in a pot with hot water for 6 mins). We need to be sure the egg is cooked fully since she can’t have raw eggs. We also put in the fridge to cool it off before offering it to her for lunch. The steamed egg wasn’t as smooth as hope so I mashed it up to small lumps before feeding. My daughter seems to like it since she ate all of what I have offered. Yay! We have next two days’ lunch sorted, steamed egg it is.

I also want to try broccoli and baby carrots. For dinner we might start to make her fish congee (congee is like rice porridge and very common for Asian countries to feed to their babies) then slowly introduce blended chicken, beef and lastly pork. To be honest, my daughter started to feed on less on her own during the day. She might even cry when I try to feed her some more due to hot weather but she feeds more attention night to get back to sleep. I know I know she is using me for comfort. Do I really want to deny her this bonding time where it will probably be over in 2 years? It is very little time compare to all the years ahead for my little girl. Anyhoo, I need to get some watermelon soon for the hot weather soon. 

Sleep training day 25

Last night my daughter woke up frequent again. The longest stretch I believe is around 2.5hrs. I have been thinking today, am I really sleep training her? Or just wish one day she will magically be better? Earlier on I did try to set out new routine and earlier start but that fell through the crack because she got angry at night by the time I read her a book.  Also, we tend to be in a cycle of early start and late finish. Then we worked on the nap time that if she is up after 4.30pm, no more nap until bed time.  This seems to have shifted my daughter’s sleep time to before 10pm usually (unlike last night because we went out). This didn’t give me anymore long stretch at night though and we would start our  day around 9am instead of 11am like before we start the training. Schedule wise it is better but sleep wise it is not. With stories I read online, people should have seen result by now instead of the waking up hourly or two hourly. One thing I know I failed on not being able to teach her how to sleep properly. I fed or walk her to sleep instead of her learning how to settle herself. I can’t stand my baby cry and not pick her up especially she will scream now, putting her down to cot while drowsy but awake is very difficult. I feel guilty and wrong for not being able to teach her this skill to sleep. On my spare times, I like to read up on baby sleeps and wonder if I need professional help. Reading on others’ success stories makes professional help very tempting. I don’t know, I guess I will consider when I can’t take this anymore. My daughter might surprise me by learning how to sleep all by herself, although the chance is slime considering her characteristics. She will sure to let you know when she is upset about something and won’t bottled it up nor would it be a soft cry.

Today, she had two naps.  The first one was only 32mins and the second one started off with 35mins and then I fed her back to sleep because I was exhausted and couldn’t get up to look after her for another 4hrs. This gave me an hour more of nap time. I have been using this a lot lately, although not happy about it but this is the only way that will give me more sleep time.

Is there any tips on how to get a baby down drowsy and awake without protest? I would love to get her to learn to sleep by herself so mummy gets more rest.

Ideas for baby food recipe?

We went to the maternal nurse yesterday and my daughter is growing well. She is now 8kg with average height lol so still a little on the heavy side. The maternal nurse we can start my daughter on 3 solid meals a day and by 9 months she should be sitting on high chair having finger food. I don’t see there will be a problem with finger food since I already gave her a spoon to teach her to feed herself. Of course not that she can scoop food off a bowl, I put some food onto the spoon and she will put it into her mouth.  This is how I tricked her into eating some carrot puree mixed with rice cereal. If she doesn’t like certain food she won’t let me feed her and sometimes she will even pull away her own spoon to not have any at all. I need to think of what to make and feed her. In the morning I tried oats with prune (one that comes in a packet) and she doesn’t really like it. She only had a couple of spoon and no more. My daughter will cry if I tried to feed her more of what she doesn’t enjoy. Oh well, I will try again in a couple of weeks. This afternoon I fed her some banana. Since I can’t feed her too much I thought to give her a bit of avocado to try again. My daughter already cry after I fed her the first spoon. Oh well, no avocado for her for a couple or weeks as well. She enjoyed rice cereal but can’t have that every meal. We don’t have apple or pear at home. My friend suggested to fridge the puree before feeding because the weather is so hot and it can cool down their body temperature. She say can be down with banana too so I might give that a go tomorrow. Oh she suggested mango too but only very small amount as baby can react to it. I missed mango so I guess Two spoons for her then two spoons for me hehehe.

For tomorrow I am thinking of doing steamed egg for lunch since it has smooth texture and can let her try egg. I wonder if she is going to like it. I need more ideas!!

Ideas for baby recipe?

We went to the maternal nurse yesterday and my daughter is growing well. She is now 8kg with average height lol so still a little on the heavy side. The maternal nurse we can start my daughter on 3 solid meals a day and by 9 months she should be sitting on high chair having finger food. I don’t see there will be a problem with finger food since I already gave her a spoon to teach her to feed herself. Of course not that she can scoop food off a bowl, I put some food onto the spoon and she will put it into her mouth.  This is how I tricked her into eating some carrot puree mixed with rice cereal. If she doesn’t like certain food she won’t let me feed her and sometimes she will even pull away her own spoon to not have any at all. I need to think of what to make and feed her. In the morning I tried oats with prune (one that comes in a packet) and she doesn’t really like it. She only had a couple of spoon and no more. My daughter will cry if I tried to feed her more of what she doesn’t enjoy. Oh well, I will try again in a couple of weeks. This afternoon I fed her some banana. Since I can’t feed her too much I thought to give her a bit of avocado to try again. My daughter already cry after I fed her the first spoon. Oh well, no avocado for her for a couple or weeks as well. She enjoyed rice cereal but can’t have that every meal. We don’t have apple or pear at home. My friend suggested to fridge the puree before feeding because the weather is so hot and it can cool down their body temperature. She say can be down with banana too so I might give that a go tomorrow. Oh she suggested mango too but only very small amount as baby can react to it. I missed mango so I guess Two spoons for her then two spoons for me hehehe.

For tomorrow I am thinking of doing steamed egg for lunch since it has smooth texture and can let her try egg. I wonder if she is going to like it. I need more ideas!!