self feeding

i read that babies around 7-9 mos of age should be encouraged to be feed on her own (that is when they started to grab the spoon when feeding or trying to grab of whatever you're having :P) so i started giving mia her own set of bowl and spoon to play with everytime i feed her.

but something happened last weekend surprised me.

mia ate 3 slices of baguette on her own! (yes, i took off the kulit of course)

i forgot to bring her bubur nasi so we had to buy something for her to eat. La Bodega didnt have anything edible for her so mr husband ran out to find her some mashed potatoes. mia got bored and wanted to get out from the high chair so i gave her a piece of baguette with the kulit off. to my surprise she managed to bite of a small piece and started chewing!! yes, CHEWING!

although i read The Contented Little Baby Book of Weaning (yes, i bought that one too :P) where Gina says babies her age can be given finger food such as a small piece of toast, i took little note of it thinking those are probably applicable to teething babies. i didnt think it was applicable to toothless babies like mine *ignorant* :P

yeah that's her munching her bits of baguette :D

japanese sweet potato

when mia has started solids, i was hoping that she wouldnt be a picky eater. worried that she wouldnt have a liking for vegetables, i made a carrot puree. wasnt her favourite thing in the world (O_o)

so a few friends suggested japanese sweet potatoes. honest to goodness i dont think i know the difference. shameless to say i have never seen nor heard of japanese sweet potato :P

anyways, japanese sweet potatoes are purple in colour as opposed to our normal orange-coloured keledek. i got rather desperate with the veggie thing so i added a bit of spinach. as you can probably imagined - the colour is err..yucky. 

the taste was quite on the contrary! so sweet and yummy!!!! just like the ordinary sweet potatoes but so much sweeter. i kid you not! mia can second to that :P

 so try out the japanese sweet potatoes!

mango tango

eventho mia is already 8 mos, i have never given her anything raw - oh wait. celery sticks do count rite?

anyways, managed to puree some a mango for her on saturday. her first taste of mango :)

it supposed to say - uncooked mango :P didnt know why i bothered to write 'uncooked'. looks like mango pudding to me :)

mia wasnt as eager to eat this as she was with the pear puree but she managed about half of the jar at one go. her tiny tummy seems to be taking it well also. one more fruit type added to her diet!

the new contented little baby book

So i have read the book, quite overwhelmed by the routines and decided not to try it straight away. For one i do not know if it will work for my baby and secondly, i do not know if my mother agrees to go along with it.

Gina Ford's method are basically routines she had laid down for parents to follow, which over time, your baby becomes a contented baby. 

The book started off with preparation for birth - basically your newborn checklist. Then comes her introduction about what Gina calls the 'CLB Routine'. This followed by a chapter explaining about baby's sleep and a chapter explaining the routines further. Since my baby was already 6 mo going 7, i went stright to reading Chapter 6 - where Gina puts in detail the CLB Routine for one whole year. Since Mia just started her solids at 6mo, i find Gina's 6mo menu a bit too advanced for her. Plus, i was kinda struggling to structure her meals.

nevertheless, i summarised the 6 mo routine for my mom to follow, but mom being mom, she makes excuses for not following the routine and felt more comfortable letting mia have things her way. she'll put her to sleep when she sees mia rubbing her eyes no matter what time of the day it was. 

Basically the routine has a couple of rules (this has been laid down by my friend, before i got the book ~ thanks yofe!)

#1 baby starts her day at 7am and should be ready for bed by 7pm

#2 nap times should be short - 1 hour in mid morning and 2 hours MAX in the afternoon

#3 wake her up for last feed at 11pm

#4 perhaps the most important of all - NO NAPS after 5pm

seems easy enough to follow...WRONG! O_o


more updates on the method later :P


 

ground rice

i started giving mia porridge with chicken and carrots when i read that babies her age need a balance of proteins and carbs. i found this article about grinding rice from wholesomebabyfood.com and gave it a try.

i bought like a kg of brown rice from Save More. about RM5.90 per kg i think

in the website they use a coffee grinder, which i dont have, so i resorted to using my mom's juice blender :P

before, then after..tadaaaa

that is usually enough to fill up an avent container

 that is how it looks like up close

and that goes on the shelf for future use :) easy schmesy. and cooks in a jiffy too!

sleepless night o sleepless night

i know a lot of malaysian mommies suffer from sleep deprivation until their babies are about 3 years old (or so i've been told). and some had to endure a couple of years more coz they had a second baby.

i envied moms who are sooooo fortunate to have babies that sleep soundly thru the nite without ANY sleep training. god bless. but my baby is not one of those whose capable of sleeping thru the nite. when she was about  week old, she woke up at 12am and stayed awake until about 4am and this continued until she was a month plus. i was terribly exhausted, and so was my mom who was taking care of me during my confinement. we took turns rocking her - my mom, my husband and myself. and we took turns sleeping during the day. 

so when i started working, i did some research on internet on baby sleep routine simply because i want to know what is the secret to babies sleeping throughout the night. why only a number of babies are capable of doing so? why can't mine?

a lot of my research said, it is normal for babies to wake up during the wee hours in the night. i am not convinced. then i found the magic words - SLEEP TRAINING.

some of the points i picked up from various sites (they say pretty much the same thing) as follows:

#1: develop a bedtime routine - bath time, a quite play, read your baby a story book, sing a lullaby or rock your baby in the same order every night

#2: use a dummy - it can be a pacifier either (to satisfy baby's 'suction needs), a blanket or napkin, a plush toy, baby bolster or a beanie pillow. take your pick. whatever works for your baby.

# cry-it-out method aka the cold turkey - like the word cold turkey: letting your baby cry it out.

the are many books written by paediatrics and midwives on sleep training and both involves either cry-it-out or no cry method. and some involves a combination of both.

not until a couple of weeks back i heard the name - GINA FORD

she's a former maternity nurse, a british, who wrote a couple of books on parenting methods. her book, The Contented Little Baby Book (now called the NEW Contented Little Bay Book) was recommended by friend who has tried the method and claimed that it works. 

so i rushed out to kinokuniya and bought the book, desperate to try her methods with hopes that it will solve my sleepless nights.