I must say, other mummy's blogs make me feel like its a diary of sorts, sharing with others your story and sometimes your situation is similar to someone else's and could be advice for that other person.
Being pregnant the second time felt harder. The nausea and the fatigue during pregnancy was much worse. I felt like I was juggling between work, being on call, temperamental bosses, a toddler and pregnancy.
Luckily, darling hubby was amazing. He took care of the toddler and did most of the household chores during this time so I could rest whenever I could. My toddler hardly saw me on weekdays and learnt how to say 'ipad' before 'mummy'.
Luckily, my work colleagues were understanding and did some weekend on calls for me.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
On the search of free toddler fun: Springvale homemaker centre
Winter is too cold for outdoor fun, so we had to look for indoor fun for the little rambunctious toddler.
Springvale homemaker centre is about 20 mins from our place. It houses Ikea, Harvey Norman, Babyco, etc. We went initially to get furniture and electrical appliances for the new place.
Ikea was fun in terms of its displays and ideas. The toddler had lots of fun with jumping onto couches, playing in the children ikea section, playing in the ikea cafe playspace in the middle of the cafe. The service in ikea was a nightmare. We had to pick out our own boxes, cart them to another counter for them to be delivered. If you wanted help assembling the furniture, that was another company. Service wasn't seamless. Ah well. That's what you get with Ikea, I suppose.
Harvey Norman price matched my fridge and my washing machine, so I didn't have to make another trip down to The Good Guys. They delivered and installed those for abit extra. I was happy with the service here.
There is an indoor playground for the children to run around in. It's shoes off and no adults. But parents (being of all kinds), still went in to hover around their kids playing. Argh! Unless your child is a crawler or your child has a disability that requires your close supervision, just let them play. Watch in a distance please.
We happened to be there in the school holidays and the toddler managed to have a go at the 'zoo on wheels' section. She quickly got the hang of it and loved the little Panda she was riding on. I think the toy encouraged gross motor coordination. Brilliant invention.
We went back when Jimmy Giggle was there doing a meet and greet session. The queue was too long for a personal photo. The place was extremely crowded on a weekend.
Pluses: big covered carpark, parents room available, great family friendly cafe with Ikea, family friendly car park spots on Ikea's side
Minuses: I wish there was more eating places besides ikea and a cafe, I was also wishing there was a small grocer so I could pick up a loaf of bread along the way, rather than having to stop at another place.
Springvale homemaker centre is about 20 mins from our place. It houses Ikea, Harvey Norman, Babyco, etc. We went initially to get furniture and electrical appliances for the new place.
Ikea was fun in terms of its displays and ideas. The toddler had lots of fun with jumping onto couches, playing in the children ikea section, playing in the ikea cafe playspace in the middle of the cafe. The service in ikea was a nightmare. We had to pick out our own boxes, cart them to another counter for them to be delivered. If you wanted help assembling the furniture, that was another company. Service wasn't seamless. Ah well. That's what you get with Ikea, I suppose.
Harvey Norman price matched my fridge and my washing machine, so I didn't have to make another trip down to The Good Guys. They delivered and installed those for abit extra. I was happy with the service here.
There is an indoor playground for the children to run around in. It's shoes off and no adults. But parents (being of all kinds), still went in to hover around their kids playing. Argh! Unless your child is a crawler or your child has a disability that requires your close supervision, just let them play. Watch in a distance please.
We happened to be there in the school holidays and the toddler managed to have a go at the 'zoo on wheels' section. She quickly got the hang of it and loved the little Panda she was riding on. I think the toy encouraged gross motor coordination. Brilliant invention.
We went back when Jimmy Giggle was there doing a meet and greet session. The queue was too long for a personal photo. The place was extremely crowded on a weekend.
Pluses: big covered carpark, parents room available, great family friendly cafe with Ikea, family friendly car park spots on Ikea's side
Minuses: I wish there was more eating places besides ikea and a cafe, I was also wishing there was a small grocer so I could pick up a loaf of bread along the way, rather than having to stop at another place.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Little Steps Program by City of Monash
I thought I should make a blog about our sleeping journey, although I must say it is pretty common, the troubles we are having.
Newborn, high maintenance baby, needing to be rocked or nursed to sleep, would not be put down in the cot, asleep or awake or drowsy, sleeps on parents' chest or lap, wakes up when you stop rocking, finally falls asleep and wakes up when she hears a noise and starts looking around being very distracted. On top of that, a toddler that barges in every time the baby sleeps, waking the baby up.
The deadline, going back to work at 5months post baby, so would need a routine and to be able to put baby down asleep, so 1 adult could care for 2 kids- a toddler and a 5month old, and cook.
So, at 3months, a musical mobile went up in the cot, baby C was enjoying time awake in the cot. We put her as often as possible on the floor and in the rocking chair, so she enjoys time apart.
Our eat-play-sleep routine became eat-play-eat to sleep routine. And then sleeping on the lap. And if I so much as sneezed, the baby woke up! Gosh, that's not refreshing sleep at all.
After reading a tweddle book (borrowed from the library), I had some quiet time before a nap, put her down, set my timer when I started my 'comforting' to her crying, but never seemed to get her any quieter in 15 mins anyway, so picked her up. I couldn't bear another 15 mins of heart wrenching crying, so toughed it out to 5mins the next few times with no avail. Maybe she's not developmentally ready, I thought, so gave up.
Picked up Elizabeth Pantley's book and thought I would at least use some techniques here. Repeatedly detach the nursing baby! Don't wait till the nipple falls out of their mouth. Try to create more than 1 sleep association. Put baby down!
Read divinity domestic blog about her Masada experience, and realised a dark room and a snug tucked in blanket was essential, so started to implement that too.
So the baby sleeps in her under-used cot for a grand total of 4 times x 15-20 mins after all this.
Come our 4month maternal child health nurse wellness visit, and our dear nurse broaches on the topic of sleep. At this point I was thinking or dreaming about Masada and whether I should give it a try. Our dear nurse makes a referral to Little Steps program and that afternoon I get a phone call from Natasha to say that they had a late cancellation, and they could have us in that Wednesday. Godsend!
There are 3 rooms, with 3 families and 2 nurses. They take turns getting to know the babies and families and showing us how to settle the babies down to sleep.
The things I learnt were:
-that the tired cues happen so early on and subtly and I had always missed them. My baby C was tugging her clothes and gazing away, mixed in with being engaged and smiling. No wonder the term 'tired cues' not 'tired signs'. By the time the cues are there all the time, they become tired signs and she is already too tired. The more tired she is, the harder it is for her to settle, the longer she was going to have to cry it out.
-settling was not about 1patting technique for 5mins. It is a variety of techniques used to see which one calmed her down. I don't have to pat her to sleep, I'm only patting her to calm down, and then I let her find her own way into sleep.
-being very firm about sleep. Sending the message that 'it's time for sleep' and persisting at it for a while.
It was very helpful to see a skilled nurse do the steps and see that baby C (and all the other babies) managed to settle and sleep in the cot. It gave me confidence that baby C was ready to learn this self soothing steps. I was now equipped with the knowledge and short experience of being able to help baby C in this learning.
Day 1 at home yielded all the day sleeps in the cot, we managed a second sleep cycle with minimal patting, then we managed a sleep with no patting (she did it all on her own), and a long sleep of 4hours (she has never slept independently for 4hours before, ever).
Today is day 2, and I'm hoping things would go a similar way. :)
Newborn, high maintenance baby, needing to be rocked or nursed to sleep, would not be put down in the cot, asleep or awake or drowsy, sleeps on parents' chest or lap, wakes up when you stop rocking, finally falls asleep and wakes up when she hears a noise and starts looking around being very distracted. On top of that, a toddler that barges in every time the baby sleeps, waking the baby up.
The deadline, going back to work at 5months post baby, so would need a routine and to be able to put baby down asleep, so 1 adult could care for 2 kids- a toddler and a 5month old, and cook.
So, at 3months, a musical mobile went up in the cot, baby C was enjoying time awake in the cot. We put her as often as possible on the floor and in the rocking chair, so she enjoys time apart.
Our eat-play-sleep routine became eat-play-eat to sleep routine. And then sleeping on the lap. And if I so much as sneezed, the baby woke up! Gosh, that's not refreshing sleep at all.
After reading a tweddle book (borrowed from the library), I had some quiet time before a nap, put her down, set my timer when I started my 'comforting' to her crying, but never seemed to get her any quieter in 15 mins anyway, so picked her up. I couldn't bear another 15 mins of heart wrenching crying, so toughed it out to 5mins the next few times with no avail. Maybe she's not developmentally ready, I thought, so gave up.
Picked up Elizabeth Pantley's book and thought I would at least use some techniques here. Repeatedly detach the nursing baby! Don't wait till the nipple falls out of their mouth. Try to create more than 1 sleep association. Put baby down!
Read divinity domestic blog about her Masada experience, and realised a dark room and a snug tucked in blanket was essential, so started to implement that too.
So the baby sleeps in her under-used cot for a grand total of 4 times x 15-20 mins after all this.
Come our 4month maternal child health nurse wellness visit, and our dear nurse broaches on the topic of sleep. At this point I was thinking or dreaming about Masada and whether I should give it a try. Our dear nurse makes a referral to Little Steps program and that afternoon I get a phone call from Natasha to say that they had a late cancellation, and they could have us in that Wednesday. Godsend!
There are 3 rooms, with 3 families and 2 nurses. They take turns getting to know the babies and families and showing us how to settle the babies down to sleep.
The things I learnt were:
-that the tired cues happen so early on and subtly and I had always missed them. My baby C was tugging her clothes and gazing away, mixed in with being engaged and smiling. No wonder the term 'tired cues' not 'tired signs'. By the time the cues are there all the time, they become tired signs and she is already too tired. The more tired she is, the harder it is for her to settle, the longer she was going to have to cry it out.
-settling was not about 1patting technique for 5mins. It is a variety of techniques used to see which one calmed her down. I don't have to pat her to sleep, I'm only patting her to calm down, and then I let her find her own way into sleep.
-being very firm about sleep. Sending the message that 'it's time for sleep' and persisting at it for a while.
It was very helpful to see a skilled nurse do the steps and see that baby C (and all the other babies) managed to settle and sleep in the cot. It gave me confidence that baby C was ready to learn this self soothing steps. I was now equipped with the knowledge and short experience of being able to help baby C in this learning.
Day 1 at home yielded all the day sleeps in the cot, we managed a second sleep cycle with minimal patting, then we managed a sleep with no patting (she did it all on her own), and a long sleep of 4hours (she has never slept independently for 4hours before, ever).
Today is day 2, and I'm hoping things would go a similar way. :)
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Return to work
Well, did week 1 of full time work at a new hospital after a year off.
Sure I had gone back to do some locum work before this. But the shifts were in the same hospital, people were friendly and generally very happy to see me back at work and caught up with details wrt baby and parenthood. And likewise, I was very happy to catch up about their lives.
So new hospital where people don't know you, aren't very friendly (big city behavior), and nothing really works and don't really care if it works. So the whole experience hasn't been too positive yet.
I go in wanting to work hard but get told to work harder.
I go in wanting to be friendly but get told that I have to be firm about these referrals.
I go in wanting to be not grumpy but am surrounded by grumpy people anyway.
I go in wanting to be organised but am faced with a dysfunctional not organised system anyway.
The expectations from the bosses, the team and myself are higher. So what else to do but to try to meet them. To embrace the challenges and to improve myself and hopefully the unit/ team as much as possible.
Sure I had gone back to do some locum work before this. But the shifts were in the same hospital, people were friendly and generally very happy to see me back at work and caught up with details wrt baby and parenthood. And likewise, I was very happy to catch up about their lives.
So new hospital where people don't know you, aren't very friendly (big city behavior), and nothing really works and don't really care if it works. So the whole experience hasn't been too positive yet.
I go in wanting to work hard but get told to work harder.
I go in wanting to be friendly but get told that I have to be firm about these referrals.
I go in wanting to be not grumpy but am surrounded by grumpy people anyway.
I go in wanting to be organised but am faced with a dysfunctional not organised system anyway.
The expectations from the bosses, the team and myself are higher. So what else to do but to try to meet them. To embrace the challenges and to improve myself and hopefully the unit/ team as much as possible.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Infant air travel part 2
Baby R wasn't very happy on the flight and was finding it hard to fall asleep when she was tired. Maybe it was the unfamiliar environment, the loud plane.
She continued to cry until I finally gave her a bottle of milk, then realised that maybe she was finding it hard to settle because she had only half of her feed before takeoff and needed a good volume of milk in her tummy to settle. I tried as hard as I could to keep her to her feed play sleep routine on the plane. She only allowed herself to be put down on the bassinet once for 20 mins and was carried by me the whole time otherwise. Partway she did let one of the air stewardess to carry and the mum sitting next to me to carry so I could use the toilet and wolf down my meal. Thank you to the flight attendants on singapore airlines for being so attentive to me and my baby.
Lessons learnt?
Be thick- skinned and ask for help
Bring extra bottles because baby might not nurse on the boobs. I'll try the pacifier next time too, except I'm not sure if she'll take it.
Have your bag next to you for easy access of feeds, toys, nappies
Apologise and thank people around you profusely.
Bring alot of patience and energy together with you on the flight!
What was your first experience with flying with your infant?
She continued to cry until I finally gave her a bottle of milk, then realised that maybe she was finding it hard to settle because she had only half of her feed before takeoff and needed a good volume of milk in her tummy to settle. I tried as hard as I could to keep her to her feed play sleep routine on the plane. She only allowed herself to be put down on the bassinet once for 20 mins and was carried by me the whole time otherwise. Partway she did let one of the air stewardess to carry and the mum sitting next to me to carry so I could use the toilet and wolf down my meal. Thank you to the flight attendants on singapore airlines for being so attentive to me and my baby.
Lessons learnt?
Be thick- skinned and ask for help
Bring extra bottles because baby might not nurse on the boobs. I'll try the pacifier next time too, except I'm not sure if she'll take it.
Have your bag next to you for easy access of feeds, toys, nappies
Apologise and thank people around you profusely.
Bring alot of patience and energy together with you on the flight!
What was your first experience with flying with your infant?
Infant air travel -part1
So I bravely decided to bring baby R onto the plane to make a trip to singapore at 5& 1/2 months. On my own. I thought I had read up on every tip possible to prepare myself. Still the ride was unpleasant.
We got to the airport in a taxi without a carseat which was somewhat scary. This was the first time we had travelled without a carseat. I had decided to use the baby bjorn.
I had already done Internet checkin so had the benefit of a shorter queue. I had also packed very lightly, so only had 1checkin luggage (about 10kg), and a hand carry (about 7kg). Went to clear customs (the queue was short) and I got spotted by the customs officer and was allowed to 'jump' queue.
Because it was about time for a feed, I gave baby R one boob to nurse, thinking to give her the other boob at take off to nurse from to relieve air pressure on the ears. There was a parents room near the departure lounge. (2star). Going to the toilet was difficult with the baby bjorn. We hang around the departure lounge and got spotted by an airport officer to go to the waiting lounge for early boarding with the other passengers needing wheelchair assistance and other families with infants. The other family with infant had a pram that the airport staff packed away prior to boarding. The husband of that family offered to carry my bag, but I was managing ok.
When we got on, we got given an infant belt to attach to the adult seat belt. I had requested a bassinet so we couldn't put our bags under our seat at the beginning. Baby R was very tired at this point because I kept disrupting her attempts to sleep . She played on my lap while waiting for the other passengers to board. She became quite inconsolable upon takeoff and won't latch on the boobs to nurse. She ended up crying at the top of her lungs and sucking her fingers to help with ear pressure (I hope it helped, anyway). There was an Asian man who sat beside me who was probably very uncomfortable when I flashed my boobs and so changed seats with his wife after takeoff. I was so glad of that because the wife was so helpful throughout the flight.
We got to the airport in a taxi without a carseat which was somewhat scary. This was the first time we had travelled without a carseat. I had decided to use the baby bjorn.
I had already done Internet checkin so had the benefit of a shorter queue. I had also packed very lightly, so only had 1checkin luggage (about 10kg), and a hand carry (about 7kg). Went to clear customs (the queue was short) and I got spotted by the customs officer and was allowed to 'jump' queue.
Because it was about time for a feed, I gave baby R one boob to nurse, thinking to give her the other boob at take off to nurse from to relieve air pressure on the ears. There was a parents room near the departure lounge. (2star). Going to the toilet was difficult with the baby bjorn. We hang around the departure lounge and got spotted by an airport officer to go to the waiting lounge for early boarding with the other passengers needing wheelchair assistance and other families with infants. The other family with infant had a pram that the airport staff packed away prior to boarding. The husband of that family offered to carry my bag, but I was managing ok.
When we got on, we got given an infant belt to attach to the adult seat belt. I had requested a bassinet so we couldn't put our bags under our seat at the beginning. Baby R was very tired at this point because I kept disrupting her attempts to sleep . She played on my lap while waiting for the other passengers to board. She became quite inconsolable upon takeoff and won't latch on the boobs to nurse. She ended up crying at the top of her lungs and sucking her fingers to help with ear pressure (I hope it helped, anyway). There was an Asian man who sat beside me who was probably very uncomfortable when I flashed my boobs and so changed seats with his wife after takeoff. I was so glad of that because the wife was so helpful throughout the flight.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Happy 3rd month, Baby RT!
3rd month is when she is officially an infant and no longer a newborn. End of 4th trimester. Had to go out shopping for larger sized clothes and pack away the smaller newborn clothes.
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