At Last! Dummy FREE!!!!!

First of all, I'd like to thank those that responded to my last post via Facebook. It was really interesting to think about some of the things that were brought up such as parenting styles and sleep training. In no way at all am I judging anyone on the way they choose to parent their babies and children. I think everyone has their own styles for their own children. Us included. It may not be the easiest way, but everyday is a learning day. Sleep training for us is necessary. I want our babies to be able to self settle. I don't advocate any special methods, but we have had some help from different bits of literature. For us, I let baby cry but I also will go in check on him and reassure him that we are there. We're on day 3 and it's going well...less and less everyday.

Now, we have reason to celebrate! NO more dummies for S!!! Yesterday, it disappeared and we still haven't found it. She seemed to accept that it's gone and we can't find it. She also knows that A's soothers are his and not for her bedtime. We aren't really giving it to A for the nighttime bedtime, but if he wakes too early, I will offer it to him.

We've also decided to mix a bit of spoon-feeding with the baby-led weaning style and it seems to be working as he's eating a bit more. Thanks for reading everyone!

SLEEPTRAINING begins:(

Alright so I know that teaching your baby how to sleep is an essential skill, but the process is utterly painful. I have to admit that I've been dreading this the second time around. S is amazing at putting herself to sleep now and I'm so glad we did it...but baby A seems to be a bit more needy so I really didn't want to do it. But he's almost 8 months old and I think it's time...so tonight we started. We did his routine of bottle, book, sleeping bag, sleepy song, cuddle and then sleepy time words. After the first couple minutes of crying, I went in and tried to give him his soother. He took it but as soon as he realized I wasn't staying, he started to cry again. Tried patting him and that wasn't working...he quieted down a bit so I left again. Waited five minutes and he still kept crying. Bending oner the crib SUCKS...he's on the lower setting now as he's decided to start pulling himself up to standing. This is the worst for trying to help him settle. After 15min of crying, I decided that I needed to just let him cry it out a bit so I took a shower. At the end of my shower, he finally fell asleep. From start to finish, it took just over 30min which I guess isn't too bad.

On a happier note, solids have been going well and bottle-feeding is MUCH better. Unfortunately, I need to pump twice a day and then top up with formula...but YAY!!! I really thought we wouldn't get to this day but now we're doing 2 bottles a day which is EXCELLENT. So very happy about that.

Yikes! Where did October go?

It's been much too long since my last post but it's been a pretty crazy month and a bit. I have to share the most disgusting poo incident to date yet! S went down for her nap as usual and about an hour into it, I heard her cry a bit, but sometimes she will go back to sleep. She stopped and there was silence, but about 15 minutes later, there was more crying so I thought ok, it's time for her to get up...opened the door and an all too familiar odor whiffed out the door. I took a look and there she was, standing, one hand holding her diaper and the other, a handful of poo! Ugh! So gross. I quickly scooped her up and proceeded to clean her up. Luckily, it didn't get anywhere else. Lesson learned, no more sleeping in only her diaper.

Halloween came and went. Poor S, came down with a virus that had her suffer a fever on and off for 4 days so she couldn't really celebrate Halloween this year. So I dressed up and Baby A in their costumes for pictures. Mommy and daddy, mainly mommy has enjoyed the halloween candy purchased for the festivities. Yum! Now, baby A has caught S's virus and ended up with roseola, a rash that sometimes breaks out onto the skin after the fever has broken. This totally freaked me out as S never had it so after 2 visits to 2 separate doctors, we were told that baby A is now recovering! Yay! Crossing my fingers that he will sleep tonight!

The Adventures of Starting Solids with Baby A!

Well, it's been awhile since my last post but lots has been going on! We started solids on Sunday with some banana and avocado! We decided to try a different approach this time around instead of pureeing and giving rice cereal with S. She is a pretty good eater, but she won't eat whole pieces of fruit. I bought the book called, Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley, just to get some guidance on how to begin. I'm actually not quite finished it yet, but have read the most important parts to start the fun.

This post continues now about a week later and so far so good. We haven't been strict with it but we've been trying a variety of foods, like ripe pear, rice, steamed carrots, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, string beans and even some pasta with a bit of bolognese sauce. He also loves his rice rusks. We've also tried to introduce a regular bottle of milk, but that hasn't been so successful...any tips out there? We didn't have an issue with S as she got the bottle in the hospital and I also went back to work when she was 4 months old so she didn't have such a problem.
There's also the issue of baby a beginning to teeth, sitting up, and commando crawling...so much all at once!

Happy Belated Mid-Autumn Festival!

It's been about a week since my last post so it's time to check in. Yesterday was a beautiful day and we took advantage. It was also mid-Autumn festival day and I partook in some mooncake! Yummy but super fattening! Hitting the gym next month! I told myself I would give myself 6 months and then it would be time to fit in some exercise. We also signed up for the Unicef 3K family run so no too much pressure. I'm breastfeeding so I was worried to start too much cardio which could affect my supply and since we're exclusively breastfeeding, I didn't want to chance that until we start introducing solids.

So, to celebrate the stat holiday, we met with some friends at Middle Island for a bbq. It was a bit of a journey to get there but it was well worth it. S and A were awesome! We couldn't have asked for better babies! The weather was amazing the food was fantastic. S missed her nap and managed to last quite a few hours with running around outside. She didn't really meltdown until we got into the taxi to go home and then she passed out. All in all, a great day!

Mechanically Reclaimed Meat...WTF?

Ok, so someone sent me a link to this video today from Jamie Oliver's food revolution. He does this experiment in the UK which was successful and then in the US where it failed miserably...what is it, you ask me? Well, he shows them where chicken nuggets come from and I've known that it's pretty suspicious stuff, but now I really don't want to be ignorant anymore and eat them...basically, they take all of the chicken leftovers (bone, cartilage, skin) and grind it all up and coat it with flavour enhancers (all those E numbers), bread crumbs, salt, etc and then deep fry them for you...mmmm...NOT! That is what mechanically reclaimed meat or mechanically texturized meat. The links are to the videos on youtube. The first one is in the UK and the second one is in the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSoiDtdi9s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9B7im8aQjo&feature=related

It really does make a difference that we know where our food comes from. More and more I really want me and my family to eat better and more knowledgeably so I will continue my efforts to feed my family food that is less and less processed and made from scratch. I know it's not always easy, but as usual, we just need to try our best!

It's all about positivity!

So today we had a great little moment between big sis and little bro. As I was in the kitchen, all I could hear were Baby A's giggles and S's jumping up and down, throwing down a wet cloth onto the floor. S was making her little brother laugh! It was really cute and I really wish I could have got it on video! S is still teething, but we had much brighter moments today and I tried my best to use some of the suggestions from Positive Discipline: The First Three Years. This includes encouraging autonomy and trying to get toddlers involved instead of doing everything for them. For example, I let her drink from a normal cup and instead of getting upset when she spilled, including her in the cleanup.



I finished reading this book on the weekend and I highly recommend it if you have kids 0-3. It was recommended to me by a very dear friend when I asked her for some help with disciplining S. It covers everything from sleeping, eating, discipline and development so that you can understand where your kids are at in their development. It's easy to expect so much from our children that we forget sometimes they just aren't ready for certain situations. I've also learned a lot about myself in the process and I know I'll continue making mistakes, but the emphasis is on that we can all learn from them. I also have to keep reminding myself that I have to watch how I behave as we are their greatest models at this stage and we need to model the behaviour we expect from our little ones. So I'm gonna try my best and hopefully little S follows suit :)

Sleep is Overrated...NOT!

I've been trying to convince myself that S is not sleeping well recently because she's getting her last painful incisor in...last night, at midnight she wouldn't stop crying so I went in to see if she was ok. She had her arm stuck in between her cot bars...poor thing. So, instead of letting her cry it out again, I tried to comfort her and let her sleep with me and baby A. Hubby has taken over the couch to catch up on some missed zzzz's due to A's inappropriate timing for conversation the last few nights. Anyways, S took a few hours to finally crash out and sleep before the day started all over again today. S and A took turns crying through the night which meant mama did not get the few hours she needs to get through the day happily. I think it is her teeth since her cheeks were super rosy and her gums looked pretty sore where the tooth is coming in. So I thought since she had a crappy sleep, she would definitely need a nap...unfortunately, she would not go to sleep and she cried for over 30min. When I went in to see her, the room smelled like poo...yes, poo again! So this further confirmed my suspicion of teething as it was a pretty soft one...ew! I checked her gums so I tried some Teetha and that helped for a few minutes and then I gave her some baby ibuprofen.

With the teething, S is also super whiny. Thank goodness for my helper. She took her out for a walk so that maybe I could catch a couple zzzz's but then baby A started. He slept for about 30min! ugh! Just as I was falling asleep, he wakes up! So we got up again, played for a bit and every time I would put him down, he would cry! I really was starting to lose it. I kept reminding myself that the day is going to be over soon and he will go to sleep.

Now it's 8pm and both are sleeping, albeit a little whine from S. On the dummy front, she seems to use it for the beginning of her sleep but then she's ok. When she came to my bed last night she didn't look for it or ask for it...so I'm hoping there's some progress there. Signing off now as I finally can go chill on the couch til I pass out and go to bed.

My Favourite Mommy Gear Part 1

I decided to start compiling some of my must-have favourite mommy gear that I rarely leave home without! A few of my friends have been either getting preggars or just had their babies and they often ask me what is needed when you're going to have a baby. So here goes...

1. The Ergobaby Carrier



When we had S, we tried all different carriers. We started out with the Baby Buddha Carrier which is sort of like a pouch/sling which is quite easy to use and comfortable when S was quite small. Then we got the Pikkolo carrier which was great for me, but not so comfortable for my husband. So we moved onto the Sleepywrap which was great for both of us and because it's one big piece of fabric, you don't need different sizes; however, that got harder to wear as S got bigger and heavier which brought us finally to the Ergobaby carrier. By the way, the Sleepywrap is great from newborn up and I used it with baby A until HK summer arrived and it got too hot to wear. With the Ergo, we chose the sport carrier as the material is a bit lighter. We got black since it was the only colour but now they carry it in blue and red! The ergo is super comfortable for me, hubby, and baby. It's recommended to use from 4 months up but if you want to use it from newborn, you just need to purchase the insert. Don't forget to get the sucking pads too so that you can just wash those and not the carrier everytime you use it. We also now have the Ergo original as it has a nice big pocket on the front so you can have pacifiers and keys handy if you don't want to carry a big bag for little errands.

2. Miracle Blanket



I wish we knew about this one before S was born, but when we did find out about it, it was GREAT! The first week or 2, the regular swaddling blankets were fine, like the Grobag swaddle, and the Aden and Anais blankets. However, these little babies get very strong and can get those little arms out and wake themselves up! The Miracle blanket makes it almost impossible for that to happen. There are 2 extra little flaps where you can secure their little arms in and then wrap the 2 other flaps around them so they can sleep a little longer. S is now only using her Grobag sleeping bags at night now to prevent climbing out of the cot as one of the main reason. We now are trying to transition baby A into the sleeping bag. First keeping one arm out of the swaddle and also using the Halo sleepsack once in awhile to see how he sleeps with arms out.

3. Lansinoh Lanolin ointment



If you are breastfeeding, this is an essential product to have and bring some along with you to the hospital before baby arrives. With S, I had a much more challenging time breastfeeding and this stuff was a huge lifesaver. Even though baby A had an easier time, I still use this stuff EVERY day!

4. Medela Freestyle Breast pump



If you're planning to go back to work and still breastfeed, then you're probably going to be looking to buy a breast pump. You can also rent them, but I knew that I would be having more than one baby so I wanted to purchase one. I was definitely not going to do manual pumping so electric was the only way to go. The freestyle had the smallest pump machine and it also gives the option of double pumping if needed. I also found it could easily fit into my bag and it wasn't as noisy as some pumps that I have seen. The set also gave me the storage bag with an ice pack for easy transport.

5. Muslins



I needed all kinds of sizes of muslins. The Aden and Anais ones are beautiful and soft and are versatile in that you can use them as a swaddle, a nursing cover, a shade for baby while they're in the pram or carseat. But you will also need some smaller ones like these which are good for spit ups and reflux-y babies like mine are.

To be continued as both babies wake from their naps...

Who Said I Needed Sleep?

Oh my goodness, I think I could scream from fatigue. Maybe cry, is more like it. I'm so tired today. My daughter, who I will refer to as S from now on, cried for 20 min before finally falling to sleep. My new baby, who I will call A started out pretty good. He was asleep by 645pm and then I fed him around midnight which seemed to delay his waking til about 430am but then of course, he didn't want to go back to sleep! He fussed, he chatted, he cried, wouldn't take his pacifier and wouldn't nurse! Ugh! Finally around 6am, he nursed a bit and then finally fell asleep. Hallelujah! Only thing is, the rest of the house wakes up around 630 and of course, A wants to join in on the action. Being as tired as he was, he was tired by 745am and screaming bloody murder to go to sleep. He slept for 2 hours and I forced him to wake up at 10. Of course, I wanted to nap, but it's just not meant to be. Maybe when he's ready for his next nap, I can go down with him and S will be tired too...

Weekend without Daddy

Luckily in Hong Kong, we are able to have a helper live with us. She's been amazing especially since number 2 arrived. Trying to juggle a newborn and 1 and 1/2 year old is quite difficult. So having a helper is great especially if hubby needs to go away for the weekend for work.

Hubby left us yesterday for Taiwan so we don't get our usual full English brekkie made by him :) So today, we made cottage cheese pancakes. Yummy! My daughter enjoys them, especially being able to dip them in a little river of maple syrup. I enjoy them just as much as she does. Also, today, after a painless bedtime last night, she slept in! Sleeping in for her is getting up after 630am! Yay!

Naptime was a bit weird though today--she cried for about 10min and then complete silence...for about 40min and then I hear a "mommy, mommy". I open the door and everything was thrown onto the floor--all her toys and an empty box of baby wipes...all of the wipes!!! Her bed was soaked from all the wipes! Ugh! Not even sure if she slept a wink. Which brings us to the, thank goodness for helpers! She's took my daughter out for a couple hours now to burn some of her energy so that hopefully tonight is just as painless as yesterday and now I can spend some quiet time with my little bub.

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies (Annabel Karmel)

YUMMMMMMYYY is all I can say about these delicious cookies I made yesterday with my daughter. I decided to try some baking yesterday with my little one. She wasn't as excited to help me out this time, but I made them anyway :) Super easy and surprisingly, all the ingredients could be found at our nearby grocery store. The recipe makes 20 or so cookies, depending on how big you roll your cookie dough balls.

150g (5 1/4 oz) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
25g (1oz) ground almonds
150g (5 1/4 oz) soft brown sugar
50g (2oz) porridge oats (I used quick cooking oats)
50g (2oz) dried cranberries
40g (1 1/2 oz) white chocolate (I broke up a Lindt chocolate bar and used 60g)
150g (5 1/4 oz) butter
1 large egg yolk or 2 small egg yolks

Step 1 Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas5

Step 2 Sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the ground almonds, brown sugar, porridge oats, cranberries and white chocolate chunks.

Step 3 Melt the butter butter in a small pan (I just put in microwave and stirred a couple times for about 20sec each time). Stir this into the dry ingredients together with the egg yolk. Mix well, then using your hands, form into walnut-sized balls and arrange on 2 large non-stick baking sheets (In HK, we only have a table top oven, so I used 2 pieces of baking paper and put on the tray, swapping the paper each time). Gently press them down to flatten slightly (whoops, I didn't do this), leaving space between them for the biscuits to spread. Bake in the oven for 12 min, then remove and allow to cool on a wire rack. Just watch them and as we could have taken ours out even sooner so they would stay chewier longer! Enjoy!

I found this book, My Kitchen table series, Annabel Karmel 100 Family Meals at Dymocks or also available on the Amazon website as the kindle edition.

This brings me to a couple of my favourite baby, kids of all ages recipe sites:
Weelicious
Wholesome Baby Food recipes

Day 2

Bedtime was relatively painless last night...yippee!!!  Today hasn't been too bad either except for the meltdown at lunchtime when I wouldn't allow her to play in the kitchen while my helper was preparing lunch.  Kitchens here in HK are just too small for safe exploration in the kitchen area while cooking.  Anyways, after we negotiated having lunch in the bumbo chair...she allowed me to feed her lunch and get her ready for bed.  However, upon entering her bedroom, she started to realize what was going on...and started to cry.  Luckily, she only cried for 5min and settled into sleep.  She also was ok with the clipped soother.  I think we won't clip it more for at least another week.  Hopefully her nap is a bit longer than yesterday (45min).  She has soccer tots this afternoon so I want her to be well rested before that. 

"New Dummy" day 1

So it's naptime and we've clipped the dummy.  She looked at it and gave it back to me with this puzzled look on her face.  I said, this is yours, and gave her the other one that is also clipped.  She's NOT happy at all.  It's 1230 and the crying begins...

1237 and there seems to be silence...phew!  Will see how things go tonight...

Meltdowns and timeout

So now we are entering the "terrible twos"....and we need to think about discipline and trying to dodge these horrible tantrums and meltdowns.  My husband and I think a lot of it comes down to frustration at not being able to communicate exactly what she needs or wants.  So, we've been using the Signing Times videos which are excellent--she's picked up a few signs and also even some words.




We also started reading a book recommended to me by a very good friend called, Positive Discipline. So far so good.  It really helps you understand where your toddler is coming from and what her developmental stage is and what we can expect.  We had been using time out when she hit her baby brother or one of us and it seemed like she understood, but maybe she didn't really understand the reasoning for her her time out.  In the book, they explain that time out shouldn't be used for punishment and how it is explained, it does make sense.  We've started to use time out as just that... some time out from whatever might be bothering her so sometimes I sit with her and sometimes she just sits in her chair in her room with some books.

It can be very tough though with meltdowns....still working on that and need to keep reading to find out how to deal with that....

Midnight Poos and Diaper rashes

So we're in day 6 and we have given in...well, sort of anyway.

We had screaming at midnight and when she wouldn't settle on her own, I went in to investigate what all the fuss was about...well, it was a midnight poo and a major diaper rash from her poo.  Poor thing!  I think this was due to the 4 incisors that have started to poke through her sore gums.  So after changing her diaper, I tried to put her down, but as usual, she is fighting it with everything she's got.  I lay down on a little mattress next to her and try to pretend to sleep, but every time I think she's fallen asleep, I move and she sits up and starts to cry again.  Eventually, after about an hour of this, I call on daddy to help out as I know my younger baby will be up for his feed at any moment.

After doing some research on the internet for weaning the dummy, we decided to give it back to her and then go about the weaning off of it a little differently.  At naptime, after screaming for 10-15 min, we gave her old dummy intact and then tonight we will try poking a hole in her dummy and see how she will react with her "new" and "damaged" dummy.

Tossing the Dummy

Soothers, pacifiers, dummies, binkies...many names for the prop we as parents choose to help soothe our little ones.  For newborns, it is used to help satisfy that need to suck and to help settle them.  Some babies get attached to their thumbs and some get attached to the pacifier.  For us, our little girl didn't really need a soother to go to sleep in the beginning.  It wasn't until she turned 1 and we went overseas that she or maybe it was us, became dependent on it for soothing her to go to sleep.

Now that she is turning 20 months, we decided to try and take it away from her.  We are on day 5 now and it seems she is still crying herself to sleep...the longest has been 30min and then waking in the night crying/whining for her soother.  I feel like the bad mom every night when I let her cry and scream until she falls asleep.  Yesterday I started to second guess myself and thought maybe I should have waited for her to get rid of it herself?  Then I tried to remind myself that it will get harder if we wait longer.  Argghhhh...today, she fought her nap, but only cried 10min before falling asleep.  Hopefully, tonight will be better, crossing fingers....

Introduction

I've decided to start a blog because I thought it would be a good way to journal my adventures of parenthood.  It might also help me regain some of the brain cells that I feel that I've lost after becoming a mom for the first and second time.  I'm now a proud mother of an adorable 20 month old little girl and a cherubic 4 month old little boy.  I'm a 35 year old Canadian Chinese woman living in Hong Kong and on an indefinite maternity leave.