So it turns out I’ve been putting the Bugaboo rain cover on upside down all this time. I always wondered why the peekaboo flap was over the top of the canopy…
Nights 2 & 3 of sleep training the Tobester were a mixed bag, but we’re definitely seeing some progress with the self-settling.
We had a fairly quiet Sunday so we could stick to his eat/sleep routines as closely as possible. After self-settling at 6:25am (yes!), Toby was up for the day at 7:40am. This is almost unheard of for our early bird; who is always the first to kick off the dawn chorus. We had breakfast, a big play and then attempted to play the naptime card about 9:30am. Thirty minutes later he was down, only to be up 30 minutes later! We tried to resettle but he wasn’t having a bar of it, so we gave up and went shopping.
A few hours later we arrived home to find he was asleep in the backseat. Loathe to stay in the car reading the Internet for up to an hour we drove straight out of the carpark and off for a tiki-tour. We managed to keep him asleep for his full 45 minute nap. Another 30 minutes at 4pm and we had a fairly good base to start the night from. The Lamari Parenting article did say that day sleeps could suffer under sleep training so we’ve been prepared for the shorter sleep cycles… and subsequent grumpy baby.
Unfortunately our bedtime routine didn’t quite go to plan. The Tobester threw up his bedtime milk feed all over me, then his dinner all over Neil, me, himself, the sofa and the floor. His Exorcist-esque vomit impressed us both, but left us with a very upset and exhausted baby. And a tonne of washing.
Night 2: How it Panned Out
7pm: Down for bed
10:15pm: Cries briefly but self-settles
12:50am: Wakes & cries so I give him a feed to make up for his expulsion of dinner.
4:15am: Wakes and starts sucking my shoulder so we feed & he’s out like a light 10 minutes later.
7:30am: Wakes for the day! Another sleep-in for mum and dad.
The Verdict: Getting better. We’re seeing some definite signs of self-settling. It’s also getting easier to listen to him crying as we’re paying attention to the pitch and sound as per the Lamari Parenting article.
On Day three we got a good 1.5 hour morning sleep out of Toby, followed by another 30 minute sleep in the pram while we were out. He ate really well all day and our bedtime routine was Exorcist-spew free.
Night 3: How it Panned Out
7pm: Down for bed
10:30pm: Toby obviously hears me say I’m off to bed because we hear a token squawk, but nothing more.
2:30am: Wakes for the first time!! Unfortunately hubby has already been in twice to check he’s still breathing. We feed and he’s back off to sleep. This is the best single stretch of sleep he’s had since before Christmas.
6:20am: Wakes for the day.
The Verdict: We don’t want to celebrate just yet, but things are definitely looking up for the Tobester (and us). He is self-settling several times a night, so we think he’s finally getting it. Hopefully the 7 1/2 hour sleep stretch isn’t a 0ne-off.
A new parent moaning about lack of sleep? Really? I know, I know… sleep deprivation is one of the major clauses you agree to when signing the 20-year mortgage on your child. It’s right there in the PDS between “Intimate knowledge & discussion of baby excretions” and “Giving up the majority of your social life.” But we’ve been living with this for almost 8 months and quite frankly, Mama needs some sleep.
Don’t get me wrong, we did have it good for a while. The Tobester was going down at 7:30pm, waking once for a feed between 2am and 4am, then snoozing till 6:30am. But come Christmas something changed, and the sleepy train now stops at [what seems like] every station. On a good night Toby will now wake at 11:30pm, 2ish and is up for the day at 6am. On a bad night we can be up hourly from 10pm, then spend the hour between 2-3am trying to resettle, up again at 5 and awake for the day at 6am.
Armed with the promise of more than 3 hours sleep in a row (in a row!), I’ve begun preparations for the battle of wills that will be sleep training our baby. I’ve called NSW sleep guru’s Tresillian; spoken to friends who have been to sleep school, or had baby whisperers to visit. I’ve bought parenting magazines, read countless articles online, asked on forums… and now we’re ready to put it all into practice this long weekend. I fear the emphasis will be on looooong weekend….
The Arsenal:
Wish us luck!
Have you tried to sleep train your baby? What tricks did you use?
I like to think of myself as a fairly decent cook. My true passion is baking, but I love nothing more than choosing recipe from my obscene collection of cookbooks and spending an afternoon in the kitchen. But now we’ve got the Tobester, afternoon cooking sessions require Daddy on hand to run distraction so I can concentrate on the directions. This is because my first and only solo cooking attempt resulted in a “quiche” that was in a too-shallow dish, made with the wrong pastry and lacking sufficient egg for the filling. Lucky it was tasty because it looked a mess!
When it comes to cooking for the Tobester my skills – and passion – are sorely lacking. It should be easy though, right? I mean, just purée some [insert vegetable or fruit here] and away you go. Want something more adventurous? Copy the ingredients on a ready-made pouch. Voilà – gourmet cooking for baby.
Taking our meals and puréeing them isn’t really an option at the moment because we use too much spice and seasoning. So to avoid spending my entire day cooking and feeding the little man I had to get a bit creative. This method isn’t exactly “cooking”, but as a time-saver it’s working a treat in our house.
STEP 1: Build a stockpile of frozen purée cubes
STEP 2: Cook your protein & carbs
STEP 3: “Cook” your lazy baby food
The ratios for my meals aren’t based on any sort of science – I just have 2 parts protein, 4 parts carbs and 12 parts vegetable per batch. This makes 3 containers of food for the little man. When the freezer starts to run low on baby food I just pull out the number of vege cubes I need and defrost, add carbs & protein and stir. EASY AS!
I’ve included a couple of popular meal combos below:
The Quinoa One
4 tbsp cooked quinoa
6 tbsp (or 3 ice cubes) puréed sweet potato
6 tbsp (or 3 ice cubes) puréed peas
2 tbsp cooked meat – I use lamb mince
– Mix all ingredients in a bowl and divide into 3-4 containers depending on how much your bambino is eating. Refrigerate or freeze.
The Pasta One
4 tbsp cooked pasta
6 tbsp (or 3 ice cubes) puréed courgette
6 tbsp (or 3 ice cubes) puréed peas
2 tbsp cooked chicken
– Mix all ingredients in a bowl and divide into containers.
The Vege One
6 tbsp (or 3 ice cubes) puréed courgette
6 tbsp (or 3 ice cubes) puréed pumpkin
6 tbsp (or 3 ice cubes) puréed peas
– Mix all ingredients in a bowl and divide into containers.
How do you cook your baby food? I’d love to hear your recipes and time-saving tips!
I stumbled across a spreadsheet this morning of “Must Buys for Goodlet” – our shopping To Do list of what we thought we needed for a new baby. It’s funny to look back on what you “think” you need, versus what you actually get the most use out of.
Muslin Wraps
I bought way more of these than we actually needed, and completely the wrong type for what we needed them for. All of the wraps we bought were way too small (about 1m sq) and didn’t have enough fabric to wrap Ol’ Houdini tightly enough to prevent him from wriggling his arms free. Thank goodness for the “already parents” who bought us packs of large wraps (Living Textiles wraps were awesome) for the early days, and Love to Swaddle zip up suits for when he got bigger. I can’t speak highly enough about the Love to Swaddle suits – SO easy to put on & change a nappy without having to unwrap & rewrap. And all those small wraps? They found new lives as pram shade cloths, light blankets and bandana bibs.
VERDICT: Good Buys: Large wraps & zip up suits | Goodbyes: Wraps 1m sq and under
Baby Rocker/Swing Goodbye (for us)
Your baby will either love, or hate the baby rocker – and Toby was definitely in the hater camp. He hated the music, he hated the swing, he just wasn’t into it at all. Which was a shame because it was WAY easier to put him in the rocker in the bathroom while I was showering, than it was to wheel the pram in there. Thankfully ours was borrowed, so no money wasted there. If you can, do the same and get a secondhand one off eBay or Gumtree if your babe is in the lover camp.
Fun Fact: Some babies will poo without fail on these things. I know mothers who call them their “Poo Seat”. True story.
VERDICT: Goodbye (for us)
Scratch Mittens
We had about 3 pairs – most of which came in gift packs from relatives. The most use they got was when Toby hit 4 months and started to squeeze and scratch the crap out of my chest when feeding. Hang onto a pair for this fun period.
VERDICT: Goodbye
Baby Wedge
Oh, what a waste of money this was! Thank goodness I only paid about $10 for it on a group buying site otherwise I’d have been really annoyed. When Toby started rolling in his cot, we thought, “Hey, the wedge will put an end to that!”. Wrong – he rolled over it and onto his belly within 5 minutes.
VERDICT: Goodbye
Baby Carrier
For us, a baby carrier has been a must. But I wish we’d waited until Toby had arrived and done a bit more research before we bought. I’ll start with our Goodbyes. We got a secondhand Baby Bjorn from eBay. It was fantastic in the early days, but only really until the 3 month mark. Once Toby hit 4.5-5kg I found the weight distribution was just all wrong, and it started to kill my shoulders and upper back. Back into the box it went. We were given a Mini Monkey sling as a gift and, oh how I wished Toby would like it. But it wasn’t to be. Every time we tried to get him into it he’d scream, so the Monkey was banished to its box as well. The hero in our baby carrying experience has been the Manduca. Similar to the popular Ergo in design, the Manduca carries the babies weight across your waist, minimising the strain on your shoulders and upper back. The baby sits with its legs either side of your body, which is great if like Toby, your baby likes to kick its legs constantly while you’re walking.
VERDICT: Good Buy: Manduca | Goodbyes: Baby Bjorn and Mini Monkey sling
Cloth Nappies
We bought a dozen cloth nappies (Bambooty & Itti Bitti) at a pregnancy expo with the aim of using them for a few changes a day to save on the amount of disposables we were using. We used our first one when Toby was 5 weeks old and by 8 weeks, we were in cloth full-time. Once you’re set up (about 18 nappies for one baby), and have the fit sorted, they really are just as convenient as disposables. We picked most of our stash up during sales, and got a bulk lot of secondhand (but in great condition) nappies on eBay. If you want to give them a go, I highly recommend jumping onto a Facebook Buy, Sell, Swap page (here, here or here) and giving a few brands a try. They’re all a little different, as is every baby shape, so it will probably take a few purchases before you find one that works well. Cloth nappies aren’t for everyone, but we’ve definitely found they make our lives easier, Toby’s bum cuter, and our impact on the environment smaller.
A word of warning however, buying cloth can become quite addictive thanks to limited edition prints and the desire to start matching nappies to outfits and occasions…
VERDICT: Good Buy
What are your baby Good Buys and Goodbyes?
Wait till he sneezes and hoover all the snot up.
File this little gem under “words I never thought would go in a sentence together”, and “I can’t believe I’m actually going to do this when he wakes up”.
The Tobester has his first cold and after a sleepless night with my replacement child Darth, I’m learning there are still a few disgusting things to tick off on my “new parent, new life” list. Like at 4am when after an unsuccessful attempt at feeding, I thought. “Oooh the snot sucker”. It was all downhill from there really. My poor snorting, wailing child was placed on the change table to have a wand stuck up his nose and I sucked the attached hose. As you do. It worked, but ugh – gross.
It’s now mid-afternoon and so far I’ve hoovered about 3.7 litres of snot from Darth and the river shows no sign of slowing. He screams when having his nose wiped so I’m now also one of those parents whose child has a lovely white crust of snot below their nose. There is dried snot on my arm, t-shirt, the sofa cushions and probably another half-dozen places I’m yet to notice.
Fun Fact: Snot flies a surprisingly long way when powered by a baby sneeze, so following the dispensed advice (thanks to Sam from my DIG) I’ve been poised, snot sucker at the ready, to hoover it up. I can confirm it is an effective method of maximising snot removal, however little Darth is hating every second of it. His tomato-red, scrunched up face emits a scream usually reserved for tantrums, and a solitary tear (gets me every time) hovers on his lower eyelid as a reminder of what a mean parent I am. Thankfully a swiftly administered Mummy cuddle quells the cries and I can sneakily mop up that darned tear.
Darth – bless him – is still smiling despite the crusty nose, hacking cough and ocean of saliva. What a trooper! I’ve also been able to fit in a nice, long (baby sleep inducing) walk and not once but TWO coffee stops. Crazy times indeed.
Hubby visited the chemist this afternoon and reports there are no magic potions to hasten the departure of Darth’s cold. I don’t know why I hoped for an “easy” way out of this… but I had hoped either the pharmacist of internet would throw up some ingenious way to clear up this cold within a matter of hours. Because baby colds are different to adult colds. Duh Kate.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s another sneeze to hoover up. And hopefully the chance to get a few hours of sleep banked now Daddy is home. Wish us luck!
You can check out our snot sucker here. Our DIG went in on a Co-Op and got a great group discount – it’s the best $10 I ever spent (this week)!
Four days ago I turned 34. Not a big birthday, but it was my first with the bambino and as you’d expect, it was quite different to previous years.
Toby’s selfless gift was to spend as much time as possible with me post-midnight. This meant single sleep cycles until he eventually got up at 6am. Thanks dude.
My wonderful husband’s gift was a SEWING MACHINE! I was super-excited to see it had arrived while I was at my post-natal training session (yes, how good was I to go on my birthday). The enormous package was placed on the dining table to be ceremoniously unwrapped with much glee and paper ripping. And there it waited. And waited. And waited… until well after midday when I finally had a space in Toby’s feed/play/settle schedule to open it.
There was glee! There was paper ripping! There was a small child and rabbit both clambering to eat the wrapping paper! Alas there was not much playing to be had beyond pulling the machine out of the box and setting it on the table. Sad really, but not as sad as the fact that since Friday (it’s now Tuesday), it has sat in the same state. The machine is out of its box. It has not been plugged in. It has not been played with at all. Woe!
My birthday afternoon was marked by a coffee and cake date with another FTM (First Time Mum) survivor. Coffee & cake is what FTM’s do best and what better place to indulge an insatiable sweet tooth than a cafe DEDICATED to cake and coffee? Kurtosh has just opened up in Crows Nest and it is likely to be my dietary downfall. The cake – white and dark mousse with a berry coulis and white chocolate base – was amazeballs. We chatted, the boys flirted with younger, prettier women than their mums (ha!), and we managed to get through the entire catch-up without baby X putting his newly hatched fangs into Toby’s foot during their mutual toe-sucking session.
Because I hadn’t eaten enough during the day, the husband had another surprise up his sleeve in the form of a babysitter (my sister) and dinner out. Dinner! Out! We managed to get the little man bathed, changed and fed without him getting wind of our intended plans and making us horrendously late for our 8pm booking.
We ended up at our go-to spot in Circular Quay for what was to be three courses of fabulous food. Entrée’s of salmon trio (him) and beet salad (me); mains of lamb (him) and Mediterranean mille-feuille (me); and desserts of strawberry pannacotta (him) and apple caramel custard (me) had us stuffed to the brim with happy grins. In previous years my birthday dinner has also involved drinking (at least) half of an amazing bottle of wine, dessert wine and a sneaky cocktail or two. This year I found myself two glasses down feeling like my brain had floated out my ears and was hovering just above my head. Breastfeeding, you make me a cheap date.
My day of birth celebration was rounded off by one final Toby gift – getting to sleep until 1:30am! Thank you darling. Now with a bit of luck tomorrow will be the day I actually get to play with my new toy.
How Life Has Changed 