19/8 made decision to top up each feed with formula and let go the pressure on myself to exclusively breastfeed. It turned out to be a great day for me mentally. No longer was I stressing about whether baby had enough to eat.. or feeling guilty about needing to top up with formula. What a huge weight off my shoulders.. Violet seems happier and settles easier since adding 50ml after each feed. Nap time although still needs assisting with rocking/nursing is more predictable and baby gets enough rest instead of waking after 20/30mins crying.
After speaking with Kim made me realize it was mostly social pressures that pushed me to keep trying to continue breastfed only approach, when the most important thing is that Violet is properly fed. If milk supply is not there why was I so intent on the three of us struggling through it?
Happy to keep breastfeeding as much as I can until it no longer works for us - baby will still take breast first :) atleast she is getting some breast milk vs none!
20/8: took a morning stroll to Woolworths together, beautiful sunny day. Baby slept in the pram.
Ian and Liyen visited today. one beautiful nap in bassinet while they were here and then one long nap in bed while we rested as a family in bed - Simon had knee pain and the chills so we took it easy in the afternoon
21/8: Rosemay came to visit, brought us homemade lactation cookies and also noodles for lunch!
naps were hard today, we tried to see if leaving her to cry would help at all.. no it didn't! Given it was only ten minutes but that was more than we could bear.
Started to put in sleep association with being swaddled and taken to violets bedroom, dark with dim nightlight then patting and shushing to sleep well before end of wake windows
Worked for the last two naps of the day, and then worked at bedtime and to put her back to sleep after first night feed, instead of resorting to boob to put to sleep at bedtime!
This is good as I did not want to be the only person who could boob her to sleep for naps and bedtime! We will keep trying to build good routines around sleep.
Starting to put her down for naps well before she shows signs of over tiredness is so important.
22/8 Mikayla was born last night! Wanted her to be called Poppy so taikor agreed we could call her Mikah-poppy Yong
Had 8 week CAFHS appt with Trish, Violet has gained a good amount of weight, she now weighs 4.03kg! Given we are only giving her 35-40ml top ups, she must be getting a good amount from the boob so all hope is not lost with continuing BF, even though 80% of the time she seems to be flailing and latching on and off!
Violet managed to nap while we were at cafhs and then all car ride home. Second nap going strong right now.
To start trying to put her in cot for the first nap of the day soon and to support her to sleep in the cot. For now keeping with contact naps to keep continuity.
28/8: took violet on a pram walk this arvo thinking she might drift off to sleep with all the movement .. we were wrong haha.. the whole 1.5 hr walk she did not sleep a wink!
Although on the flip side she didn't cry much either.
Unfortunately couldn't get timing right so by the time we needed to go to ah ye and ah ma's place for dinner, baby hadn't had very long naps today.
Dinner was a bit stressful.. after being told to put baby down instead of wearing her at the dinner table (we do this to allow us time to eat instead of having to settle baby when she does wake). We brought over the bassinet to try and put her down in. Putting down is not the difficult part but the staying asleep part is, ofcourse we already knew this and told grandparents this, but they insisted we "give it a go".....
Sure enough after about fifteen minutes baby wakes up crying and intensity ramps up pretty quickly.. inconsolable and had to boob and feed her even though it wasn't really time to feed.
We were quite annoyed as it took us putting violet through unnecessary stress for the grand parents to understand that we can't just put her down just yet. The time will come but at this stage she naps best at home or by contact.
The rest of the night baby was super difficult to settle and even in carrier was in light sleep only. Poor Violet.
Next time we will be doing things our way.
Dinner next week for father's day, simons family want to eat out at a restaurant.. will be tricky having baby with us.. will see how this goes.
29/8: Baby weighing 4.3 just a week after cafhs weighed her! Are we feeding too much? But we take the bottle away early and she fusses! Have started giving 60ml every feed as she continues to unlatch after not much time at all on breast. Will just see how the next few weeks go.
Have been expressing more after feeds to try and empty breasts (when there is someone to hold her).
Last night had our first 4 hour stretch of sleep, with all sleeps on bed and none in our arms.
Usually by early morning she is fussy and won't sleep unless held, but this morning was amazing. Bed at 9:30, woke at 2am, 5:30am and then 8:45am. Perfection. Each time patted and shushed to sleep by dad or mum, asleep in less than ten minutes.
Could it be mostly because she is full on formula? Although even still, 60ml is way less than other babies her age are taking in. If we go by the formula tin she should be having double that.. oh well. Im not complaining. The goals for better feeding and sleeping are continuing to be met!
First nap of the day successfully in her cot, yesterday was 40 minutes, today 50 minutes.. we will see how tmr goes!
Keeping it at first nap of the day at this stage as it gets harder as the day progresses. Tried to put her down just now at 2pm and she woke as soon as I popped her down - contact nap it is.
Just want her to get more rest :)
30/8:
Cuddled for the last stretch of sleep last night, felt nice :) woke a little more last night, 11pm, 2am, 6:30 and then up for the day at 10am.
Not sure whether we need to be waking up earlier for the day?
Just put violet down for nap in her cot this morning for the first nap of the day. 25 minutes. Haha.. contact nap with porpor for the rest of the nap.
3/9: getting ticklish!
4/9:First night spent entirely in bassinet instead of Co sleeping - slept for 2-3 hr stretches.
Simon getting really good at night feeds and settling while I pump after breastfeeding
6/9: weighs 4.75kg at the doctor's - 55cm long. Jumped from 5th to 25th percentile!! Growing very well :)
Still doing well at night in bassinet! Fingers crossed.
13/9: 5kg!
14/9: first night sleeping 6.5hrs straight in her bassinet!!! We can hardly believe haha
Have done a bath before bed for the last four nights as bedtime routine and limiting her late arvo naps to short 30-45 min naps.
Last nap from 6:30-7pm, awake, feed, bath 7:30, quiet play and feed 8:10, asleep by 8;20ish - 1hr15 last wake window
17/9: had a great day - baby napped on bed for three naps, last nap contact as I wanted to have a little snuggle :)
Needed to be supported through to next sleep cycle but wasnt difficult to settle her.
Last nap finished at 7pm,fed, bathed at 7:30, last feed at 8pm Put down at 8:10pm for bed - went straight to sleep without any fuss.
18/9: rolled onto her left side!
20/9: 12 wks old. rolled onto her belly!!!
23/9: accidentally rolled belly to back?? Haha cried when she did maybe out of shock
26/9: bought a tummy time mirror and v loves looking at herself in it :) when on tummy and using mirror, usually she will sway to one side, head gets imbalanced then she will end up rolling from belly to back. We are getting there!
Past two nights has only been waking once during the night for feed
4/10: last night v slept from 8:30-6:30.. bloody amazing!!
17/10: slept through the night from 9pm-8am last night
And today for her first nap, was rocking v to sleep as usual - tried arms out sleep sack - she was protesting a little and I felt like the sleep sack she was in might have been uncomfortable so put her down on the bed to get the old sleep sack ready..
She rolled herself over and stopped protesting. Little squawks here and there so I patted her bum until she stopped moving and fell asleep!!!
Our baby is evolving.. first time I haven't had to rock her to sleep for a nap. I'm in awe of her ..
18/10: haven't had to rock her to sleep at all since yesterday, naps are very short so sure gets cranky in the evening but very proud of little one! Put her down awake and she just rolls over and falls asleep. Sometimes needs some bum pats but otherwise pretty independent!! Sucks on her thumbs to soothe. I wonder if this means that we won't really notice a 4 month sleep regression as she has pretty much learned to self settle
19/10: another night where v slept through the night, I had to wake up to pump because boobies were engorged!
Sleep still going well, still settling mostly herself :)
28/10: today put violet down for her first nap after 1.5 hr wake window, patted bum three times and shushed once then left the room.
Violet managed to self settle for her nap which is excellent. Past week we have been needing to pat on bum and shush until asleep.
Gave her some space when she woke from her first sleep cycle, she woke up fully and looked around for a while, grizzled and moved around for a few minutes and went back to sleep! She kept waking up every few minutes and fussing, then resettling back to sleep. She's now been sleeping for 1.5 hours (including time spent resettling though), and I'm so proud. Hoping she has started to learn how to resettle and can do this more consistently!
We have been cat napping every nap every day for the last week so she has been quite cranky come evening. Hopefully this will help her avoid being over tired!
30/10: put her down for all naps and left room straight away, violet managed to put herself to sleep all three times !! First two naps were 2 hours long!! She resettled herself easily for the first nap, second nap she did fuss abit before sleeping again. 1.5hr wake windows and 2hr before bed
She slept through the night as well.
2/11: she's learnt to connect sleep cycles without crying today!! I'm so amazed. Woke up, moved around and went back to sleep.
6/11: moved baby into her own room for night sleeps for the first time tonight .. we will see how we go!
7/11: 4 mth vaccines done today. She's such a trooper. Obviously cried when she got jabbed but stopped so quickly after a quick cuddle by dad :)
8/11: super drowsy this morning and almost fell asleep in the swing which never ever happens!! Took her out and popped her down for her morning nap early.
Slept 1hr45 for the first nap then short naps all day after.
Caught up with mother's group today, was so good to see everyone.
Seems like violet is the only one being put down in cot to sleep independently, other babies need to be rocked/patted/nursed to sleep. Pretty proud of my baby girl.
Violet also seems much more advanced in her physical development - baby taught herself how to army crawl across the mat a few days ago!! She's the only one moving around at 4 months!! Other babies her age are just starting to show signs of rolling, let alone crawling! Crazy town.
*Things to add to baby book - crawling, mother's group catch up, independent sleep
*funny things she does - smile at herself in mirror, calm down to happy song, cry when she knows nap time is coming
*sucks on thumb when tired and wants to nap
*Yell when she is frustrated
*laugh when tickled
*vomits more, chunky and curdled
*likes to sleep right up against the right side of the bassinet
*getting much better at car rides
*poking out her tongue, blowing spit bubbles
*squealing
*learned how to high pitch scream!
*roll around when changing nappies
*frustrated when on her tummy for too long and starts to grunt
*Noticing the cats!
28/11:
5 months old - sitting much stronger, able to hold herself better, still supporter but no longer folding on herself
Wanting to be supported to stand more often, will extend legs and lock them to try and stand!
Wake windows have finally lengthened a couple days ago to 2 hours - was fighting her naps until I realised why! Baby wasn't tired enough for her sleeps! Once lengthened to 2 hours, easily had >hr naps for the first two naps of the day. Usually 1hr30 (capped), and 2 hrs for lunch nap (a little fussing in between).
Tomorrow will be going in to work for a whole day for training.. mum and dad will be looking after her all day. I'm sure they will be fine but ofcourse a little nervous and sad to spend the whole day away from my baby. Mum and dad not good at hearing violet fuss during naps and will pick her up prematurely without giving her the opportunity to lengthen the nap. Have spoken to them about it so hopefully will get some decent length naps tomorrow.
30/11: we have been down to three naps a day for the past 4 days 😍 grandparents did so well with violet yesterday, she slept for decent lengths for her naps!
8/12: off to melbourne tomorrow morning, we will be leaving at 4am in the hopes that violet will sleep for the first few hours! 8hour car trip..see how that goes.. might be more like 11 -12 hours depending!
Lots to pack for just a four day trip! Qiu will be joining us too :)
15/12: violet started to sit unsupported for a minute before falling to the side!
Also she is starting to grab her feet when on her back now 😍 cute!
Has been sucking on her bottom lip for the last few days.. cutest face ever!! Blowing raspberries too. My little baby ❤️
17/12: tried her first solid food today at Chris and Sonia's. Watermelon!! She seemed to like it😍
19/2: officially started on solids.
Doing a new food every day for five days of the week, one meal a day
First meal was avocado
She seems to love the experience of touching all the food, playing and tasting :)
Baby led weaning is definitely suited to violet as she's so curious and wants abit of everything!
1/1: making duck faces
Can sit unsupported for a good few minutes now
4/1: started doing a dream feed at 11pm, and working on letting her self settle when wakes up during the night/early morning.
Woke at 3am, cried on and off but not continuous for 30 mins. Started timer and was to go in after 3 mins of continuous crying but she kept pausing and trying to resettle every minute or so. After 30 mins she cried for 3 mins, Simon went to pat and shush her for around 30 seconds the. Left the room. Next planned check in was 5 mins of crying but she managed to settle herself to sleep before 5mins.
Slept until 5:30am when she woke up again, let her re settle herself, she didn't get to 3 mins of crying so we let her do her thing. Fell back to sleep and we woke her at 7am.
Definitely hard to hear her cry for even a couple mins, it feels so long.
5/1: dream feed at 11pm, woke around 2:30, settled herself after maybe 20 mins of on and off fussing.
Woke at 6:30am, left her to fuss and grizzle until 7am
6/1: dream feed 11pm, woke around 4am, grizzled for 10-15 seconds before going back to sleep. Slept through the night otherwise! No early wakes.
First sign of her first tooth!!! 😍
6 mths vaccinations tmr
7/1: woke at 3am, took 45 mins of on and off crying to sleep, crying never lasted more than 3 minutes until last few minutes, Simon went in to pat and shush, baby fell to sleep and slept til 7am
6 mths vaccine today, did so well as usual :)
Went to baby bunting and picked up a comforter for her, to introduce to her at night. Bought 2 in case one needs to be washed/becomes lost or discontinued.. she's a Tiger, we named her Jolie after Angelina Jolie who is the voice of the tiger from kungfu panda haha
*Squealing
*Crawling fast, put her hand in the cats food
*Holding onto her feet
*rolling back, belly, back, belly on the bed
8/1: dream feed 11pm, slept through til 7am with no wakes!
10/1: figured out how to go from on all fours to sitting upright!! My clever girl..
12/2: easily sits up from crawl position and then back down again. As if she's been doing it all her life !!
19/01:6m3w babbling like crazy! Consistently pulling herself up to standing using low blocks/furniture (coffee table bottom shelf, toy bucket at Kim/Gary's
Sleeping through the night for the last 10 days, if wake around 4am will let out a cry for a few seconds and then go back to sleep.
Eating so well, swallowing a good portion of food.
Have been offering small sips of water with tiny open cup for the last three days, initially super confused as to what it was for - just chewed on the rim for abit, but yesterday and today has sipped water and swallowed the water well! Baby girl learns so fast.
21/01: first plosive sound - ba ba !! Made this noise when we greeted her in the morning
Pulling up to stand straight with activity cube !
24/01: started to put hands together as if clapping!
Pulling up to stand and cruising along different level boxes :)
25/1: definitely clapping!
31/01: 7w3d crawling on all fours
Standing supported only one hand!
6/2: Has been playing on her knees for the last week or so
Bababababa all day long :)
13/2: walked her first steps with the walker!
Not sure when but noticed that she has stopped soothing herself with thumb!! Usually she does this for every sleep and when she is tired but she has completely stopped just out of the blue. Crazy!
Have also noticed that she can fall asleep on her back, not needing to roll over to her tummy anymore. This just happened all of a sudden too. Now noticing a lot of sleep on her back.
20/2: 7m3w - crawling all over the house! Loves the robovac, chews on her books
22/2: will start bopping up and down while standing next to windowsill and music is playing 😂
26/2: waves bye bye
12/3: had viral infection lasting maybe a week
Spotty rash all over
Temp high for two nights
Very tired, napping out on the couch and falling asleep everywhere
Vomited once after a bottle, stomach must have been so upset
Needed lots of cuddles
Not many smiles throughout
When she got better and started to smile again we realized how much we missed it so much !!
reaches out to be picked up
Comes when name is called
Downward dog pose here and there
Wake windows have extended to 3 hours and did two naps today 2 hrs and 1.5 hrs long!
Definitely transitioning from 3 down to 2 naps now
13/3: two naps again - 9:30-11:15, 2:30-3:50 then bedtime at 7
Loves her tiger, at night when she's managed to roll away from tiger she will find tiger again and snuggle back to sleep. It's so. Freaking. Cute.
19/3: has been on three meals a day for the last week or so - really loves her solids. Really likes banana and mozzarella
Also the past week has been paying a lot of attention to the touch and feel books - actually reached out to feel the textures and play with flaps and move book pages - previously had no interest in touching the different textures but now she really notices them and plays
28/3: 9m old, first full day of childcare today. She did so well. Mostly happy and loved playing with all the toys and interacting with other babies..
Was able to self settle in the cot for a long nap at lunch, and a cat nap in the arvo.
Has been standing and then letting go, both hands free for a second or two every so often! Testing the waters of independent standing
Loves bouncing up and down while standing supported.
Enjoys being thrown up and down in the air by dad
Upper right central on its way out for the past week or so :P
2/4: Says "Wah Wah"
Scrunches nose to smile copying mum or dad
Little bit more clingy these days
Throws her head back when holding her to look upside down
Very curious with mum and dads food/drink
Moved to try and see Uncle Ian when he moved out of sight!
20/4: takes objects out of empty tissue box
24/4: got up from single leg kneel without support for the first time today. Did it twice!!
30/4: points at things
Figured out how to open cupboard doors
