Another 2 month has gone by and its time for an update! Last 2 months, there has been a few milestones for Asher. There has also been changes in the household! My mother is law has left New Zealand, I’m back to work part time and we’ve move houses!
OK, still nothing much in the weigh-loss department. Sooooo boring! ZZZZzzzzzzz… I have grown more muscles though. He must be around 7kg and I can hold him with one arm while preparing formula in a bottle for him in another – no problems. As for little Asher, he hasn’t been weight in the last 3 weeks but the last time we checked he was 6.4kg. I do wish he would put on a little bit more meat….
I’m back to work part time! 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Asher usually wakes up at around 5:30 or 6am for a feed. I put him down for a nap or play at 7am, get changed for work and I leave the house at 8am (commute to work is only 10 minutes). While I’m at work, Ben looks after him and feed him once. I head straight back home to take over for the rest of the day. It’s actually not as hard as I thought it would be, and I really quite enjoy coming back to work for part time.
Sleeping like an angel
He’s got a good bedtime routine – bath, feed, story time then sleep. For the first few times we started this routine, it was really easy for him to fall asleep. For the last 2 weeks, he has been really difficult to put to sleep. He would enjoy bath time, have his feed (he can fall asleep feeding), then a short story if he is not that sleepy, then I put him down. He would get irritated after 10 minutes of putting him down if he does not get to sleep. He will cry and wriggle around, scratch his face, pull his dummy out, etc. It can literally take an hour to settle him down to sleep!
However, once he does get settled, he can sleep a good 8-9 hours a night (that is about 10 hours between feed) but he would sometimes cry or wake up at around 3am or 4am. Sometimes he’d wake up once, sometimes more. He’d be crying with his eyes closed and usually eating his hands. I will give him his dummy and pat him back to sleep. This procedure can take anywhere between 5 to 30 minutes. We have recently successfully weaned him from swaddling. Previously, he can’t sleep well if he is not swaddled and I thought that was a bit of a problem now that summer is here and he is learning to roll over. So I swaddled one arm for a few nights and then tried no swaddling at all and he is trying to get used to it.
Farex Rice Cereal mixed with Nurture baby formula
I am still breastfeeding, then top up with formula. I do feel that my supply has dropped because I don’t pump at work and I don’t pump at night. He is currently taking around 100-150ml formula after breastfeeding. He will usually take less during the day and 150ml for his feed before bed. He was quite interested in what we were eating so just last week we started giving him a few spoonfuls of rice cereal mixed with water or formula. The first few spoons were a little difficult as he didn’t know how to swallow, but he got there at the end and he loves it!
Baby Asher is his high chair
Oh, one thing we got that he really like and really made our lives easier is a High-low chair. He loves sitting up and being able to see what we were doing. He would sit and watch me make my food, wash the dishes, hang the laundry, etc. He loves watching TV sitting on this chair as well!
There is one issue we have noticed just these 2 days. He is getting aware of strangers (by strangers I mean not mum or dad) holding him. He would cry within 5 minutes being held by his aunties and grandparents. I’m not just talking about gentle crying, I’m talking about full-blown, frowning, red faced, big tears type of crying. I had to cuddle him back and soothe him to stop him from crying. He’s done this for at least 3 times with different people. I hope it won’t be a big issue when my mother in law comes back to look after him.
Next year, I will start working full time when my mother in law comes back from Hong Kong. I do have a couple of concerns, but I’m not going to stress much about it and take it as it comes. All that matters is the healthy of my baby! I’ll have another update next year!
