Sleep Separation day 1

I did his normal routine of bath time, reading a book, a hug and telling him goodnight. I also made a bottle of warm water for him to drink for if he needs to drink after crying and screaming.

8:50 into bed, drinking his bottle.

8:57 crying begins. He kept crawling up on his cot peering to see me and he also sat back down trying to reach me through the cot. He kept rubbing his feet on his mattress whilst crying.

9:17 He went for his bottle of water and then continues crying. He tries in between this time to lay down the mattress twice.

9:20 He stopped crying and just sits there looking around and lays down couple of times on his bed in either side of his cot. Tries to lay down and drink his bottle but fails a couple of times but eventually he figures it out. He just lays on the cot looking around and lifting his feet in the air.

9:30 He stands up one more time and accidentally drops his bottle on the floor, so he gets back down into his cot and lays down on his front, but he didn't feel comfortable so he adjust his duvet slightly and lays back down. Eventually he closes his eyes.

9:35 fast asleep.

I sat close enough next to the cot but not close enough for him to touch me, which almost happened. Man, I wonder how long this would take and how fast he would know. Or would he not like me so much tomorrow.

Put baby to sleep on their own.

Everytime my nephew was tired, all we did was use the Rocking Bouncer chair until he was 6months then he did not like the bouncer after 6months old. So we had to carry him, rocking him to sleep.

When he was about 4months, I introduced a bedtime routine but I stopped due to my sister getting home at 1am and my nephew would have had enough sleep from 7pm, as he wanted to play with his mother when she gets home. There was no sleeping arrangements of where he took his nap.

Now, he is 10months we thought it was time for him to Sleep on his own. About 2weeks ago, I introduced a routine of his day which he has stuck to it perfectly.

0800 Baby wakes up.
0830 Baby breakfast.
1200 Nap time.
1300 Wake baby up from nap time.
1330 Baby lunch (Only because we eat at that time for lunch too).
1530 Nap time.
1730 Wake baby up from nap time.
1800 Baby dinner.
1945 Baby snack of fruit.
2030 Bath time, story time, then bedtime.
2230 Make baby feed for him to drink whilst he's asleep in cot.

Bed time would be about 9pm.

We still rock him to sleep but at the same room as his cot is at.

I am going to introduce him to sleep on his own this following Tuesday beginning with his bedtime. Then the following day, for his nap time as well as bedtime.

Since we have been rocking him to sleep, we decided to make my nephew less distressful during sleeping time, we shall stay in the room next to his cot and gradually move closer to the door away from his cot. It's going to be tiring for me, as I am the only one at home looking after him whilst his parents are at work, bah.

I will keep posting on how each day is and how it went of sleeping on his own.

Hi Hi

Do you know who says that? It's the piplings on Waybuloo on CBeebies that says that. My nephew has just recently reached his 6month and loves watching this show. He is always smiling at this show and does not take his eyes off it at once; well only when he see the cheebies, he is not that interested in it. I think he only prefers the piplings and not the cheebies at all lol! Well only updating abit since he is watching it now whilst I go make a cup of tea :)
Ciao

Sucking on toes

Lately, my nephew has started to suck on his toes once he has a hold of them. Everytime he gets a nappy change, he would use that as an opportunity to go suck on his toes. Just today, he decided to lick all over his feet; the feet part where it can reach his tongue to.

Nappy Routine

Before every feed time, I always change his nappy. Whilst a bottle is warming up the formula, I go and change my nephew and when I come back for the fomula it usually perfect warmth. Sometimes I do change my nephew after a while after his feed depending if he cries to be changed. As I would not feel great with dirty nappy on me either.

There is a good guide with pictures of how this family changes their child's nappy click here. Only difference that I do compared to them is we use cotton wool with clean water to wipe his bottom not baby wipes. Also we use Sudocrem for his bottom and anywhere that is red when he is about to sleep.

Rolley Polley

My nephew rolled over by himself for the first time yesterday! I taped it but it is not for non-relatives to see :P It was so good to see him roll over for the first time! So clever, I am hoping to teach him sign language to tell us what he wants/needs as sometimes it is difficult to know what he wants to do. I shall follow what this lady wrote which is ever so good and her child is so intelligent!

Comment to give me advice to teach to my nephew if you want.


Massage the baby daily, very good for babies. A health visitor recently came to our house to check up on my nephew and my sister, and ask us if we massaged him as he looks glossy cheeks. :3 My doing for the massaging my nephew's cheeks. I did not read up that it is good for the baby to massage them. I just wants to massage his adorable cute cheeks and every time I do it he just loves it with a big smile.

Looking after a baby

It is not as easy as it looks.

Next week, I am babysitting everyday for my sister as she is going to 100% own one of my dad's shop. It is going to be tough like hell. I know as I am already babysitting on certain days for almost a whole day and it takes a toll on the guardian/parent(s) looking after the child.

It is unpredictable what a baby need at certain times. Sometimes it is okay, since you know that the child might have not eaten in certain hours so it would be feeding time but other than that hard to know what the problem is.

I think the MAIN points which a baby might need is:
Feed
Sleep
Changing Nappy
Burping/Wind
Comfort/Playtime

There are probably more but my brain is not functioning 100% at the moment, but those points are about correct.

ALWAYS note down what time the baby eats! Luckily at home, we have a white board nailed on our door that we recently bought before my sister had her child. I would recommend anyone to buy some sort of whiteboard, as you can rub off the times about how much and time the baby feeds at.

Sometimes a baby wants to sit/lay on their own, we have a baby bouncer and my nephew likes to sometimes sit in there and not be picked up constantly.

If a baby cries and you have done most of the points, most likely to be WIND. It is hard to check for WIND as it sometimes takes a while for the child to be winded down. Sometimes it takes a good half an hour for them to burp. (NOTE! My nephew does not cry for over half an hour to be burped).

BE CAREFUL about breast feeding, as for a temporary babysitter, it is hard for my nephew to settle down for sleep at night without my sister's nipples now. For some reason, my nephew does not like his dummy.

I'll talk more about baby stuff about my nephew another time. Ciao!

Traditional Rules are crap!

Okay, not all traditions are crap, but some chinese traditions are very stupid based on reality of today life.

We were told for the first month given birth:

After given birth you are not allowed to take a shower or bath in just water.
(So you would be soaked with sweat and blood after birth after birth and stink very bad?).

Only allowed to bath in ginger water.
(Okay, to that belief).

Not allowed to wash hair during the first 2 weeks after given birth.
(Must have very greasy hairs for those who followed that rule).

Only wash hair in ginger water
(Eew).

Not allowed to go out of the house
(Okay, to that belief for the first weeks but not for a whole month! Must feel very isolated).

Drink chicken rice wine soup and red date and nothing else
(boring drinks to do all day long).

Eat only ginger fried rice and eggs soaked in something black coloured.
(boring foods to eat it every day).

Wear socks and plenty of clothes as might get cold
(Okay with this rule apart from what if it is boiling hot at summer's peak weather? Which my sister had to suffer with).

There are probably many more rules but I forgot.

It was pretty awful time to go through during this first month. My sister became depressed with all the rules and stuck in the house with my mum badgering on about rules, rules and yes, more rules. My grandma kept coming every day to make a fresh dose of chicken rice wine soup and red date drink for her; which made my sister life miserable as she had to drink it all each day. Sometimes the drink would be just too much for her to drink it all up within one day. Whilst she was depressed moment I had to look after my nephew as she was going to a phase of not wanting the baby and how it was ruining her life. The moment lasted for only a few days as I told my sister to get everything planned on what she wanted to do after this first month was over. I think she just wanted to say it out to someone, so I am glad I was there to help her through this first month of hell of hers.

If I was going to have a child, I would move away from my home town so I do not have to do all the full traditional issues which I did not think would benefit me at all in the future. So no-one would be there just breathing down my neck 24/7 about rules.

I would not tell you which rules my sister did not keep.