Baby Asher’s tummy time
Time flies when you are happy and when you are busy doesn’t it? It’s been 2 months since my little boy Asher was born and we have been through hurdles with our bundle of joy! I’ll have to admit that parenthood is not easy and not the most enjoyable job in the world with breastfeeding in the wee hours of the night and baby waking up at 6am wanting to play and refusing to go back to sleep. It brings my energy level down and makes me cranky sometimes.. but when the reward is seeing little Asher sound asleep like a little angel, big smiles during play time and cooing out loud, all tiredness and frustrations fade and it always bring a big grin on my face! I love my little boy and I love being a mom.
For me, with 2/3 of my maternity leave already gone, I have managed to lose most of the weight gain during pregnancy (I gained about 9kg with my baby born at 3kg). Some of my muscles have been replaced by fat (especially the buttocks and tummy area sadly..), but I am sure I have gained some muscles in my arms from cuddling my 5.5kg baby! I can’t wait to bring Asher to baby yoga and get back into some exercise by taking him out for walks (if weather permits).
For little Asher’s vaccination, since the last update, baby Asher has had his first set of shots at our family doctor. He had a good cry with one shot on each thigh. I couldn’t look at the shot being done and I was almost in tears when I heard him scream and cry! :< He will be due for another set of shots when he is 3 months old. Fingers crossed he will be OK.
Progress in speech. He started cooing, smiling and baby talking a lot, especially while he is getting his nappies changed! He will smile when I smile at him and when I talk to him which is sooooo very sweet! His smile is just the cutest thing in the world.
Physical progress. We try to give him heaps of tummy time as it is crucial for him to practice his neck muscles to hold his held up and still. He also kicks a lot when he plays which trains his leg muscles and he has so much fun pushing himself around by kicking. He is now aware of his hands and will pull things with them, but he has yet become aware of his feets. I’m sure sooner or later we will see hand and feet sucking haha!
With sleeping and feeding, Asher is following quite a good schedule – typically 4 hours between feeds, sometimes up to 6 hours. He loves a bit of play time after feeding during the day. After his late afternoon bath at around 6pm, he is then fed and then goes to sleep until around midnight. After the midnight feed, he will wake up again at around 6am for another feed. After the early morning feed he will sleep for about an hour then wake up wanting to cuddle and play. For me, I get a good 3-4 hrs of sleep after dinner before the midnight feed and another good 3-4 hrs of sleep before the early morning feed. But even though I get around 6-8 hours of sleep each day, interrupted sleep can make you quite tired. I am quite looking forward to the time when Asher can sleep for a good 6-7 hours so I can get more than 4 hours of sleep. :>
I am currently breastfeeding and formula-feeding. I will offer both breasts, then if he is still hungry, I will offer him 50ml of formula. The initial 2-3 weeks when Asher was born, my milk supply was pretty low, hence we opt to offer formula as top ups to make sure Asher is gaining weight. Currently I am still drinking breastfeeding tea to help with milk supply. I have repurchased the Red Seal Black Adder tea and have bought Ready Set Raspberry tea from T2. My milk supply is not always abundant and sometimes it almost feels like I have empty breasts! However, as my body gets the rhythm of how much Asher needs, it produces the right amount and my breasts won’t be engorged so much. It will be filled with milk, but not to the point that it will create too much. Another thing that will affect milk supply is getting sick. I had a bit of a cold 2 weeks ago and my milk supply has gone straight down because my body is focusing on getting me better, thus not creating any milk. Therefore it is important to take care of myself otherwise Asher won’t have enough milk to drink.
My gestational diabetes. I have also been to Labtest to do another sugar test to see if my sugar levels have gone down. Ever since carrying little Asher, I have been craving really badly for sweets and even still after giving birth. My sugar level is still high 8 weeks after giving birth so my GP has advised me to reduce my sugar intakes significantly and redo the test in 4 months time. Then we will see if I will be diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Oh my gosh.. fingers crossed not!! If I do have diabetes, I might need to be on insulin again or be on metformin (pill) and it will be higher risk if I want another baby :< :<
Happy Asher smiling at mummy
If you haven’t already, check out my previous “Pregnancy, giving birth and 1 month update”.
Alright, until next time!
