The soft side of him

Every night, I will wake up Lynn in the middle of the night to go toilet. If not, there is high chance that she will wet the bed. Last night, as usual, I woke up Lynn in the middle of the night. Lynn depends on her mood, sometimes she will make complain when I wake her up. And last night, I woke her up a bit later than usual. And she had wet the bed. So I get
her to go down to change the wet pain. We accidentally woke up Hao, who is a light sleeper. Hao was crying there, hoping me will go pick him up. But I was tired, and hoping that he will stop crying after a while and go back to sleep.

After 5-10 minutes, Hao was still crying there on his crib. Hubby got up, went to pick up the boy. He carried Hao to the window, explained to him that it was late at night and everyone was sleeping. After that, he took him for a tour of the house, telling him that everyone was sleeping. Since Hao had been crying for some time, Hubby thought Hao should be feeling thirsty. He gave him some water to drink, and pat him to sleep. I feel relief seeing Hao stopped crying after being picked up by hubby. I feel so warm seeing hubby went to attend the kids so that I can rest. Well, this is not the first time hubby has done so. But if I were the one pick up Hao, I would just bring him to our bed and nurse him to sleep, so that I can just lie down also. I don't think I will have such patient to take him tour around the house, some more thought of he maybe thirsty and get some water for him. :D

Normally when the kids make noise, if one of us getting out of patience, the other one will come "rescue", take over the role and be nice to the kids to stop them from making fuss. Doing so the kids won't feel being rejected by both of us. And the frustrated papa or mama get to breath some fresh air too. We never talk about this before nor have any discussion on this matter. But when things happen, we will automatic react in this way. Of course, there is occasion where both of us get annoyed and act strict to the kids too.

I feel gratitude that hubby did not leave the responsibilities of the kids solely to me. Without his help, I don't think I can handle between kids and housework during weekend. Not to mention I can have some personal time for myself.

My dear, thank you so much!

Extended breastfeeding

This is my first experience in extended breastfeeding. Lynn was breastfed till she was 10 months old. Though the weaning was initiated by me, I was regretted after that as I missed the bonding moments. Now with Hao, I'm aiming to breastfeed him until he self wean. But I'm not sure how long I can supply without introducing the formula into his meal. My next target is 18 months. Hope to delay formula until he's at older age.

If you ask me any different breastfeeding a toddler compared with breastfeeding a baby? I would say no much, except shorter duration and less frequent. And whether Hao bite me when I nurse him? He did. But not anymore. Just have to teach him not to bite.

What is other family reactions to me still breastfeeding Hao? Well, they are just asking am I still breastfeeding him and that's all. :) And really glad no problem with the people from child care too. The teacher even encourage me when I wean Hao later, switch him to fresh milk instead of formula as fresh milk is better than formula.

I have readjusted his milk time after he has reached 1 years old. Now Hao is on 3 milk servings per day - first time right after he wakes up in the morning, one time in the afternoon around 3pm, and one time right before he goes to bed at night. He will take cereal in the morning tea time around 10am. Then porridge for lunch and dinner. When we are having our dinner, I will give him some of our food too, like rice, soup, fish etc. Whenever we are having food, for sure he will come over and ask for us. He likes cheese and bread, or anything that is soft. Since whenever we are eating, he will get some share too, I seldom need to nurse him outside of the house nowadays.

My favourite position is actually the lying down position. I love to see his facial expression while nursing him. Sometimes after he has stopped, he will look up at me. And when I smile to him, he will either smile back to me, or or give me a big laugh, made me feel so warm and melt my heart. I want to remember this feeling forever. This is the only thing that actually keep me continue nursing him till now, despite still have to express milk during lunch hour. It makes me feel so close to him, makes me feel I'm so important to him. Whenever me and hubby go to pick up the kids, both Lynn and Hao will shout loudly when they see us, as if they are so excited to see us. This is their way of welcoming us. And we are excited to see them too. Nothing is better than seeing a smiling and happy face from your children. :)

Minnie Mouse Sticker Book

To reward Lynn for her great effort on staying dry at night, I have bought this Minnie Mouse Sticker book for her.

Lynn was so happy to get this from me. Within 15 minutes, she filled up the book with her favourite Mickey mouse and friends, and the Winnie Pooh and friends stickers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She even wanted to hold the sticker book to sleep.

I’m glad she likes it so much. Hope this will continue motivate her to stay dry at night. Sometimes if she drinks more water or has her milk right before she sleeps, she tends to wet the bed if I did not manage to wake her up earlier to go to the toilet. Some people asking me won’t I feel stressful because whether Lynn is able to stay dry at night, very much depending on me able to wake her to go toilet before she wets the bed. I think it’s worth it. Since she’s the one requested not to wear diaper anymore, I don’t think I should force her to wear it. She just have to learn and I think this is a good chance. I have started telling her to go toilet before mama wake her up. Would like not to depend on me. At the same time I’m also marking down on the calendar when she stays dry at night, and when she wets her bed. She will get a star if she did not wet the bed for the night. Told her that if she can stay dry for at least 5 days a week, I will buy her a new sheet of sticker to her.

Stay dry at night

Since young, Lynn demonstrates a desire for independence and shows an interest in imitating adult's habits. She started eating by herself at one and half years old. She learn to button and un-button her shirts. She learn to wear shoe herself. She can pull her clothes up and down herself before 2 years old. By two years old, she was fully potty trained during day time. She knows when she needs to go to the toilet. The only time where she still needs to wear diaper, is when she goes to bed at night. Besides the potty train is initiates from us, the rest is she wants to learn them by herself.

Recently, Lynn refuse to wear diaper at night. When we changed diaper for her, she will said she does not want. So I was thinking, is she ready to go diaper less at night? It started one night, hubby let her not wearing diaper to sleep. Surprisingly, she stay dry throughout the night. I was so amazed. The following night, we let her not wearing diaper to sleep too. And she wet the bed that night. So means the night before was just lucky?

She continue to refuse wearing diaper at night. Not too sure what's the reason, whether is wearing diaper making her not comfortable. Anyway, we let her be. And I told her that if she does not want to wear diaper, she has to go to the toilet when mommy wake her up in the middle of the night and she agreed. So starting from that day, I wake her up in the middle of the night to go toilet.

First night when I woke her up to go toilet, guess what? She cried. And after she came out from the toilet, she told me she wanted to wear diaper and insisted on wearing the diaper. Kids! Hahahaha. But the following night, when I get ready her to go to bed, she refused to wear diaper to sleep! Hehehe. So she continues not wearing diaper to sleep, and I continue waking her up every night to go toilet. Each time after she went to the toilet (despite she was making fuss about it), I will praise her. Each morning, if she did not wet the bed, I will praise her too. But even if she wet the bed, I won't scold her but will gently remind her she suppose to go toilet. So now, I don't have much problem getting her to go toilet at night. She will also listen to me, to go toilet right before she goes to bed.

It's almost 2 weeks she does not wear diaper to sleep at night. Sometimes she wet the bed before I woke her up. Sometimes she stays dry until morning without the mid night toilet call. So it depends what time she sleeps and how much water she has taken before going to bed. It also happened once that she woke up herself in the middle of the night to go toilet. I'm not sure if this is consider as successful toilet training? But I'm definitely very happy with her progress. Dare not to say too loud, but I feel easy actually as the initiation is from her.

Lynn - never stop surprise us with her urge to learn new things and trying to be independent. And since the initiation is from her, make the training and learning process become much easier and more effective. And she feels motivated too.

This is what I learn: -
1. Do not force the child to learn. Look for the signs of readiness. We can test if they are ready for it.
2. No one is perfect at first try. If the child cannot do it, don't scold or blame them. Instead, encourage them to continue trying. Learning is a process, is not an overnight thing.
3. If the child shows signs of readiness, we should move on with the child and not holding back just because the child may create mess. No one is born without the need to learn.
4. Praise the child even though it's just a small achievement. Let the child feel motivated and proud of herself.

Now, I'm waiting for the day when I do not need to wake her up in the middle of the night to go toilet. :)

WBW Simultaneous breastfeeding

I was breastfeeding Lynn (she was 9 months old at that time) in a place near Chinatown in Singapore. Oh I miss this so much!

The World Breastfeeding Week is from 1 - 7 August 2009. The Penang mother to mother support group is holding a mass gathering of breastfeeding moms on 1st Aug. Click here for more info. During that event they will be holding a 1-minute Simultaneous Breastfeeding and the number of moms participating nationally will be given to the press in an effort to promote breastfeeding.

Some of us here may not be from Penang. However if you are able to breastfeed at 10.30am in unity with other moms before the event finishes, please send your name, contact number and email contact to Christine at mamalink@streamyx.com by Sat 25th July. Christine from Mamalink will be collecting the details and pass over to Connie (organiser in Penang) as she will be holding a press conference after that. Or if you are from Kajang area, Susuibu will be holding a similar event in Kajang on 9th Aug at Dewan Bandaran MPKJ from 8.30am to 1.30pm

For those of you who are breastfeeding, come let's put our hands together to promote breastfeeding!