Happy Mother's Day

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there!

 

Happy Mother's Day to all from the two of us!

 

It’s my first. I’m rather giddy with delight that I’m celebrating Mother’s Day. It’s surreal. The past 8 months have been fun, hectic, exciting and challenging. I’ve such newfound respect for mothers and all the work they do.

One … Two … Three

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

Ready, Get, Set.... Go

Off she goes. Ayanna has begun crawling. A little wobbly on her hand and feet but she’s definitely moving forward. The first crawl was just several steps forward and at a rather slow pace. Two days on, and she’s moving faster and is much steadier.

She began by first lunging forward, followed by creeping, which is pushing herself around on her belly. All these variations of the crawl strengthen the muscles that will soon enable her to walk.

 

Watch how strong I am mummy!

 

Babies tend to start crawling soon after they’ve mastered sitting without support. At this stage babies can hold their heads up to look around and their arms, leg and back muscles are strong enough to keep them from falling on the floor when they get up on their hands and knees.

 

Ayanna has gotten the boost she needs to go mobile. She’s slowly getting proficient at her crawling and has even learnt to move from a crawl position to a sitting position. Then there’s the ‘cross-crawling’ to master, which is the ability to move one arm and the opposite leg together when moving forward. After all the crawling variations are mastered, the only thing between Ayanna and complete mobility is learning to walk.

 

 

It’s begun…

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

It was only inevitable that Ayanna would master this skill. Two Fridays ago Ayanna sat up unsupported, after weeks hard at practice lifting her bottom and balancing herself with her arms. Her first two attempts lasted several seconds before she fell back and thumped her head on the carpet. Ouch! Two weeks on; Ayanna is a ‘sitting’ veteran.

 

The sitting veteran of two weeks

 

Sitting marks the beginning of the crawling stage. Ayanna can now get on all fours. She rocks back and forth before pushing off with her knees but only to move backwards. This is one variation of this progression.

 

As she hasn’t mastered the forward crawl, Ayanna tends to roll across the floor to reach a toy or to get to mummy. Now that she’s enjoying her new sitting position, Ayanna seems rather reluctant to crawl or move. She sits for long periods attentively playing with her toys.

 

Loving every moment of her new position

 

Experts urge parents to encourage their little ones to crawl by placing toys just beyond baby’s reach. That’s what we’re doing right now. As for sitting, we encouraged Ayanna to sit in her Bumbo seat, which we’re certain, provided her with the confidence in the position plus it strengthens her back. Constantly seating her down and encouraging her to do so, in spite of her unsteadiness, promoted a positive learning experience.

It’s about time girl…

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

After a couple of months babbling dada -dada, Ayanna has finally said those magic words – MAMA MAMA. Yes.. yes I know there’s no reason to get overly excited; Ayanna says these indiscriminately, with no meaning attached to what’s being said. Nevertheless, it’s great to hear them out loud – so well articulated and with such love attached J.

 

Ayanna is busy practicing her ‘m’ sounds. She’s added baba –baba to her list as well. She’s vocalizing and attempting to imitate sounds she hears around her. She started with dada as it’s the easiest consonant to pronounce. All these are part of Ayanna’s journey in developing her linguistic skills. Hers began at birth with the first words heard.

 

Soon Ayanna will begin to understand the names of other people and objects she sees daily. In a few months time, she may begin to follow simple commands such as ‘wave bye-bye’ or ‘give me a kiss’.

 

It is important to encourage receptive and spoken language development every day in many ways. Try:

 

-         Slowing things down: help baby pick out words by speaking slowly, clearly and simply.

 

-         Focus on single words: emphasize individual words and simple phrases commonly used. Pause to give baby plenty of time to decipher the words before moving on to something else.

 

-         Downplay pronouns: stick to using ‘mummy’, ‘daddy’ and baby’s name instead of I, me or you.

 

-         Emphasize imitation: respond and imitate baby by saying baba, dada or mama. This will teach baby to imitate your words without prompting.

 

-         Talk it up: talk to your baby about everything as you go about your day together.

 

-         Build a repertoire of songs and rhymes: baby loves the repetition and she learns from it.

 

-         Use books: simple rhyme books with vivid pictures get your baby’s attention.

 

-         Wait for a response: baby will often have a response to what you say.

 

Turning eight ...

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

 

Ayanna’s 8 months and 2 weeks now. It’s beginning to be very exciting for all of us.

 

She’s been busy attempting to sit and crawl. She’s babbling non-stop.

 

She’s exploring objects and toys by shaking them, banging them together, dropping them and throwing them and of course, gumming them. She seems to enjoy seeing things fall and get picked up and then get thrown down again. Apparently when this happens, it’s merely because babies find the activity interesting and want to see it again and again.

 

The Royal Wave...

 

 

I think she may be imitating a good-bye gesture; flapping her hands vigorously. She’s making new sounds with her hands and mouth. Ayanna cheekily squints and winks when smiling at someone. She seems to know what makes us laugh and keeps at it.

 

See! I made you laugh...

 

It’s getting harder to keep tab ... all these new traits and developments.

 

 

 

The past week…

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It’s been a week of sorts for Ayanna. She turned eight months last week and has been busy displaying some remarkable, exciting new traits. More on that later.

 

The downside; Ayanna’s been furiously battling yet another cold. It seems like a never-ending cycle of common colds. With babies not having had the chance to build up immunities against the many different cold viruses, there are at least a few or more run-ins with the infamous runny, stuffy nose. After all, there are more than 100 different viruses known to cause colds.

 

Her nasal congestion makes breathing and subsequently eating, nursing and sleeping difficult. In small children, colds can linger longer. There’s no known cure for colds. Symptoms, however, can be treated.

 

We use saline drops to soften hardened mucus before extracting it using a nasal aspirator. It brings Ayanna much needed comfort right away. Making sure she is well hydrated is just as important as it helps to replace lost fluid through mouth breathing and runny nose. Letting her sleep with her head elevated helps to ease breathing through the night.

 

It’s during these times that Ayanna needs mummy round the clock, leaving me with little time for anything else. I hope my little princess recovers soon.

A strange reaction

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

 

Lately, Ayanna has turned to expressing her displeasure in a certain peculiar way. It’s rather strange but she tends to pull at her ear or hair when she’s getting sleepy and cranky or she’s had enough to eat. It’s her last method of expression when others have gone unnoticed.

 

At first, I was a little troubled. After researching this, I’ve come to understand that it’s perfectly normal for babies to do so. According to experts, the occasional hair pulling or stroking is another way that a baby or a young child releases tension. It’s a way in which baby tends to comfort herself during times of stress, especially when she’s overtired or cranky. This can linger into childhood without any ill effect.

 

Now that I’m aware of this, as soon as Ayanna shows signs of getting sleepy, I comfort her; I cradle her or simply give her something her little fingers can get busy with.

Separation anxiety

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Ayanna’s nearing her eighth month. She has been displaying shyness and reluctance to be carried by strangers or even relatives she’s not seen for sometime. What a switch from the once friendly baby who didn’t mind being squeezed, touched and kissed. These days she has no qualms about expressing her displeasure.

 

This new thing can very well be separation anxiety; a perfectly normal development stage for babies. Babies experience anxiety at the prospect of being separated from their parent. It can be frustrating for both babies and parents.

 

Babies can show signs of separation anxiety as easily as 6 or 7 months but experts say it intensifies between 12 and 18 months.

 

Though the above are mild examples, the real anxiety sets in when baby is left with a caretaker when mummy or daddy leaves. Ayanna has always been left with her grandma and so, thankfully, has always adjusted more easily to mummy’s absence. I’ve always made it a point to say goodbye, kiss and hug her before leaving. It seems to do the trick. This way leaving isn’t made into such a big deal and baby is reassured that mummy will be home again soon.

 

There are times when Ayanna tends to cry at night after I’ve put her to bed. I pick her up and cradle her for a short time and put her back down. Babies also experience separation anxiety at night.

 

How do you handle your baby’s separation anxiety?

 

 

The sippy cup lesson

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

Teaching Ayanna to drink from the sippy cup is no easy feat. Well, I make it sound as if I’ve been tireless trying for months. Nope … I just started; it’s barely been a day.

 

I admit I’m a little impatient. I want to see results. Why? Cause if she can drink from the sippy cup, then there’s an alternative to mummy. This way mummy can break away for a bit … to relax, unwind.

 

It’s not that I’m complaining. I love every minute with my daughter. But I could use some time away without having to consistently worry if baby’s having enough to drink. The prospect of it excites me.

 

It was a fun, full-of-laughter affair for Ayanna. She held the bottle with her tiny hands, giggled incessantly and chewed on its soft, chewable spout. It made a fine new toy.

 

Experts urge parents not to worry if baby doesn’t master the sippy cup properly for a while.

 

We’ve got a long way to go.

 

How did you help your breastfeeding baby to transition to a sippy cup?

 

Introduction of new foods

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah Post(s) by this blogger

 

At this stage, we’ve introduced a combination of foods to Ayanna. There’s carrots and spinach which she loves, papaya and banana, apples and carrots, bananas and pears, broccoli and cauliflower. So far Ayanna has shown no signs of aversion towards any of the foods we have given her.

 

It wasn’t part of the plan to feed her poultry just yet. There have been conflicting views on when to feed poultry. Some friends have advised us to do so only in the ninth month. While authors of baby books have encouraged to begin earlier, by 7 months.

 

The experts advise on giving babies pureed meats between 7 to 10 months. Meats/ poultry offers babies new texture and taste. Mixing your baby’s favourite vegetable into pureed slightly warmed meat will help baby adapt to the new flavour.

 

Ayanna weighed about 6.4kg during her last visit to the doc; not much of an increase from previous visits. She was born 2.32kg; she’s a low-weight baby. So, our doc has asked us to take things up a notch … by introducing poultry to Ayanna’s menu. Chicken/ meat is dense and chock-full of protein. Therefore it tends to be more filling than other foods. Ayanna has had chicken (skinless) twice now (once a week). We mix it with carrots and she seems to like it.

 

Next on the list, some fish perhaps?