December 30th, 2007 | Babies, Parenting, Personal | 3 Comments
When my baby Clarisse was 2 months old, one of my friend said I’m going to spoil my baby for attending to her whenever she cries during the night. She said I should just leave my baby on the bed and let her cry herself to sleep. Similar to what her sister does in the US, that is to train babies to sleep on their own. This way, the baby will learn to “self-soothe” and will not develop sleep associations that require someone else to put him to sleep. They even have a name for it - The Ferber Method, after Richard Ferber, America’s best-known expert on infant sleep. Also commonly known as the dreaded ‘Cry It Out’.
Well, two nights ago, we went out for a drink with her and again she brought it up, “still waking up and tend to your baby’s whims and fancies?”. She couldn’t resist another round of parenting lecture.
Click Here To Continue Reading
December 28th, 2007 | Babies, Parenting, Personal | No comments
For the past few days, we’re seeing steady improvement the way baby Clarisse balances herself while sitting on her own. She could manage to sit up straight, playing with toys in her hands for well over a couple of minutes on a stretch easily.
While she’s out with us dining out, baby Clarisse can now sit steadily in baby chairs without any padded support for her back. With her hands grasping the handle, it provides her with more than adequate support to keep her balance.
Click Here To Continue Reading
December 27th, 2007 | Babies, Parenting, Toys | No comments
Don’t you dread when your baby starts to show displeasure when an object is taken away from them? My baby Clarisse, 7 months old, is showing signs of entering this phase now, I’m afraid.
3 days ago, baby Clarisse grabbed hold of a soft toy in Tesco, played with it for a while and when we tried to take it away from her, she cried. It happened again today, when the waiter took away the menu she had her hands on, baby Clarisse threw a mild tantrum. And lately, whenever it’s time to get out of the bathtub, which happens to be her favourite time of the day, baby Clarisse would frown and cry.
Click Here To Continue Reading
December 25th, 2007 | Personal | 1 Comment
My husband and I had lunch at a restaurant today. Baby Clarisse was 15 minutes well into her nap when I ordered from the menu. She was sleeping in her baby sling when all of sudden a little boy started to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. That boy was a couple of tables away from us. My husband and I turned to look who’s singing. What we didn’t expect was baby Clarisse to wake up, open her eyes and eagerly look towards the direction of where the sound was coming from. She got distracted by the sound of her favourite song, that is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Even while she’s asleep! Talk about being distractible. LOL!
December 24th, 2007 | Babies, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
A few days of practise and guess what! My baby Clarisse is able to sit all by herself without any support for 1 whole minute!
Last night, after I came back from my mother’s house, I gave my baby Clarisse a quick bath and put her in the crib. I placed her in a sitting position, my hands beside her ready to catch her fall. To my surprise, she sat wobbly on her own, balancing herself for about one minute. My husband and I were delighted and amused to see her progress. We could see she’s struggling to balance herself, ultimately loosing and falling sideways. But it was a huge improvement compared to before we started to spend more time helping her practise sitting on her own.
Click Here To Continue Reading
December 24th, 2007 | Personal | No comments
Reminiscing the events of 2007, the highlight of course is the birth of my baby girl, Clarisse, I am extremely thankful and happy to say this has been the best year of my life so far. My family and I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and a wonderful year ahead.
Merry Christmas!
December 23rd, 2007 | Babies, Parenting | 1 Comment
Technology in digital compact cameras have come a long way. More and more features are being put into digital compact cameras but whether it’s useful or not, the manufacturers doesn’t really care as long as it looks good on marketing brochures.
The most important consideration when buying something is figuring how you’re going to use it. Buying a digital compact camera to shoot baby photos? Bear in mind, most babies won’t hold still and say cheese long enough for you to lock focus, compose and shoot. To make matters worst, you won’t be able to use the flash or you’d risk hurting their eyes so you you’ll be constantly dealing with slow shutter speed, and ultimately blurry photographs.
The main problem with slow shutter speed is unwanted movements. Both yours and your baby. You’ll find it challenging to keep your hands steady and your baby still while the photo is being taken.
Click Here To Continue Reading
December 22nd, 2007 | Babies, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
Should my 7-month-old baby be able to sit up independently? Sitting up is a 7-month milestone, but some babies do it better than others. I don’t know if Clarisse, born 2 weeks ahead of schedule, can be considered premature. Premature babies may often lag in milestones compared to other on-term babies of the same age. I wonder if there’s anything I can do to help her sit up on her own faster. Having underestimated the importance of tummy time, which I should have started a lot earlier, I wouldn’t want to make the same mistake here. So I did some searching …
Click Here To Continue Reading
December 21st, 2007 | Personal | No comments
Tonight marks the first time we took our baby Clarisse on a night outing. I have never brought my baby out at night because I fear that might interrupt her bed time routine and cause some difficulties trying to get her to bed later than usual. I heard from my sister that if a baby routine is mixed up then the baby might stray from her usual routine.
My baby Clarisse is 6 months and 3 weeks now, her usual routine sees her go to bed between 7pm to 8pm since she was 4 months old. She will wake up few times at night just for feedings and then goes back to sleep. I get some time to myself after she sleeps. Two of my sisters came back for a visit so I thought we’d all go out for dinner, with Clarisse along.
Click Here To Continue Reading
December 19th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting | 2 Comments
As much as I stand by not introducing pacifiers to my baby, I have absolutely no qualms about parents who do so as long as parents are aware of hygiene and safety practices that goes along with pacifier use.
First of all, before you buy pacifiers, head over to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (http://www.cpsc.gov) website and make sure it is not a recalled product. Go with a major brand with an established product safety record.
Ensure the pacifier is clean:
- Soak pacifiers in boiling water or sterilizers regularly.
- When a pacifier meets the floor, give it a good proper washing. I’ve seen mothers who pick pacifiers up from the floor, put it their mouth, clean it with their saliva and tougue and putting it back into their baby’s mouth. Gross ;P
- Bring extra pacifiers along if your baby tends to drop it everywhere.
Click Here To Continue Reading
