3rd Year Goals

Sharing a seat with her sister

Feeding her sister

Unbeknownst to her, we had set out some goals for our toddler's third year. In fact, they were things that we were hoping would be accomplished by her third birthday.

Firstly, we were hoping she would stop drinking from her bottle. This was one goal that she readily accomplished on her own. One morning, when she was around 2 1/2 years old, she refused to drink milk from her bottle. I thought that perhaps she was coming down with something...In fact, she had suddenly decided that she had outgrown her baby bottle!

Secondly, and probably most importantly, we were hoping she would sleep through the night. For several months now, unless she is sick, she wakes up only once. Usually anytime between 3 and 6 in the morning. Thankfully, she goes right back to sleep, and wakes up for good anytime between 7 and 8.

Thirdly, we were hoping she would be potty trained. She had shown some interest at around 18 months, then lost interest for another year. For about six months now, she has consistently been using either the potty or the toilet over 95% of the time. Occasionally she will have accidents during the night, but this is usually after we have forgotten to have her empty her bladder before bed. And occasionally she would refuse to use the potty. One day not too long ago, our stubborn daughter retained her urine for 8 hours until finally relenting!

The other day, I realized to what extent she understood the concept of potty training. She was playing with her dolls. She placed one on a play potty, and told her: "I have a very special surprise for you. But first you have to do a pee in the potty."

Lastly, we were hoping that our toddler would give up her pacifier. This, I think, will prove to be the hardest goal to accomplish. Just prior to turing three, we told our daughter that when she turned three, she would not be able to use her soother, as she would be a big girl. She seemed to understand, exclaiming "I am not three" even after she had turned three. We attempted to remove her pacifier shortly after her birthday. She managed to fall asleep that night, but then woke up countless times, and would simply not go back to sleep. She was so loud that she woke her sister up. Finally, exhausted, we relented, and gave her the dreaded soother. The next morning, I would discover that she had her first ear infection...so perhaps not the best time for the experiment. We are planning on experimenting again very soon, or perhaps even going cold turkey...Then just today, something very interesting occurred. She had been playing with her Mickey Mouse Application on her iPad. She then brought me her soother, saying," I don't need a soother, Mickey Mouse does not have one." So perhaps there is hope after all...

Switching Roles

Ever since her gastro-intestinal virus a few months ago, our baby had been waking up frequently at night, and nursing to her heart's content. At first, I did not mind as she had lost almost 1kg. Then she doubled her weight...But joking aside, I was starting to get very tired. During our recent trip to Cambridge, her nighttime wake-ups became even more frequent, to the tune of every 1-2 hours! A few days after our return, when she showed no sign of letting up her frequent middle-of-the-night nursing sessions, I decided that something needed to be done...

I came up with the idea of switching roles with my husband. He had been putting our toddler to sleep for quite some time, and going to her during her infrequent wake-ups. But curiously, he slept through all of our baby's wake-ups, even though she sleeps in our room...

So this last week was an experiment of sorts...My husband put our baby to sleep with a bottle, and offered her the next bottle around 12 hours later. When she woke up in the middle of the night, he would rock her back to sleep. She protested only slightly the first night (a few seconds), but seemed to realize very quickly that he had no milk on his person. She looked over at me a few times, but quickly fell asleep. The following night, and every night thereafter, her wake-ups became less frequent, and shorter in duration.

Last night was day 7 of the experiment, and she slept 10 hours in a row! For the very first time in her young life...Why had we not done this earlier? Why had we not tried this with our first child, instead of waiting until she did it on her own at age 2!?

My husband keeps reminding me that it was only one night, but I remain hopeful...

Mealtime with Froggy and Monkey

Chocolate cake frosting

The Bottle Battle

Our toddler insisted on putting them on her little sister!

When our first baby was three weeks old, I introduced the bottle to her. It contained pumped breast milk, and she devoured it. Thereafter, every evening, I would give my breasts a break while my husband fed her a bottle of pumped milk.

I returned to work part-time when she was four months old, and whichever family member was watching her had no difficulty feeding her in my absence. In fact, she enjoyed bottled milk so much that now, more than 10 months after I weaned her, she insists on a bottle of (thankfully cow's) milk to fall asleep.

Things went a little differently with our second baby. She was so calm, and did not suck my breasts to excess, so I found no reason to hand her over for a daily bottle-feeding session. On the few occasions that someone else tried to bottle feed her while I ran some errands, things did not go that well. However, I was gone briefly, and left only after an extended nursing session, so I was not overly concerned.

By mid April, we decided to clamp down. We would try to bottle-feed her daily as to prepare for my return to part-time work in June. Things did not go very smoothly. We had experimented with four different bottles until we realized that it had little to do with the brand of bottle. Our little one simply wanted a warm breast, not a cold plastic nipple, and she knew if she complained enough, she would get it!

I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't be very productive at work; I imagined my husband bringing our starving baby to my workplace for feeding sessions every three hours! However, after much persistence on our part, we finally had some success this past week. Our baby would only accept bottled milk from her father, and on condition that I was out of the house. Additionally, the milk had to be on the warm side. While she has yet to drink an entire bottle, she came close on two occasions this week. Much to my relief! 

Playing with her sunglasses!

3 Months Old

Turned 3 months old on May 11th
Weighs 7.06 kg (over 15 pounds)
Measures 63 cm in length
Wears 6-9 month clothing
Smiles a lot
Rarely cries
Doesn't require a pacifier
Slept 7 hours in a row two nights ago for the first time!
Her mother returns to work 2 days per week in one month...
Now if she would only drink from a bottle, she would be the perfect baby!

10 Things

Jumping with Joy

As Baby # 2's arrival rapidly approaches, I can't help but think back to my wish list. At least 10 things that I had hoped would be accomplished before her arrival. All involving Baby #1. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Potty Training. Shortly after she turned 18 months, we purchased a potty. Initially, she was very intrigued. Within the first week, she had 7 successful trips to the potty. How easy is potty training? we thought to ourselves. Then all of a sudden, she lost interest. Since then, she enjoys sitting on her potty, but refuses to lower her pants. We do have a plan though. We purchased some cloth training underwear, and some Smarties as rewards. She doesn't think too much of her training pants, but ran to her potty today with great speed when she realized she would be rewarded with Smarties. She was only partially successful in filling her potty, but there is certainly hope...

2. Sleep in her own bed. She slept with us for the first 5 or 6 months of her life. We then tried to transition her to her own crib. With partial success. However, when she turned 18 months, she climbed out of her crib, and so we converted her crib to a toddler bed. Now when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she simply makes her way to our bed, jumps up between the two of us, where she spends the remainder of the night. We tried returning her to her bed on a few occasions, but the effort it took to get her back to sleep alone seemed too great compared to just all falling asleep in the same bed. If we are lucky, she joins us at 4AM. When we are unlucky, she joins us at midnight.

3. Sleep through the night. She has slept through the night on a dozen or so occasions. But perhaps because of the ease with which she can get out of her bed and into ours encourages her to not sleep through the night?

4. Fall asleep on her own. When she is exhausted, and the situation is right (e.g. a smooth car ride), she might fall asleep on he own, but for the time being we still rock her to sleep. However, since she has given up her afternoon naps, she falls asleep with great ease in the evening, and very quickly. Just not on her own. But at least we get a few hours to ourselves before we too retire for the night.

5. Stop drinking formula, and start drinking cow's milk. I breastfed her until she was 15 months, and then transitioned her to a soy-based formula as we thought she was allergic to dairy at the time. After allergy testing at 18 months of age, we discovered that dairy was no longer a problem. However we simply stuck with the same formula because we knew she liked it. Over the last 2 months, we have tried on several occasions to replace some of the formula in her bottle with homogenized cow's milk. She did not seem to notice the change. However, her bowel movements became looser, and I feared lactose intolerance. In hindsight it may have been a coincidence, as she simultaneously had a cold virus (which, depending on the strain, can sometimes also lead to looser bowel movements). Currently, we are attempting for the third time to replace part of her formula, and so far so good.

6. Stop drinking from a bottle. We have her down to 4 bottles/24 hours. One at bedtime; one around 6AM when she wakes up. The two other bottles are during the day; one right before nap time, and the other when she wakes up from her nap. However, now that she does not always nap, I have tried placing the milk in a Sippy cup instead. She drinks it, but not nearly as much. Her appetite generally varies quite a bit, but if there is one things that we can count on, it is for her to drink all 4 bottles. I am hoping that one day soon, she will simply refuse to drink from a bottle, just as she refused my breast milk when she turned 16 months.


7. Give up her pacifier. We try using it only for bedtime, and during long car rides, but truth be told, we have not tried very hard to get rid of the soother. With all the other things to accomplish, we thought we would leave this to last. We will probably draw the line though at 2.5years...mostly because anytime I am out and about and see a 3 year old with a pacifier, I cringe.

8. Hold conversations. While her vocabulary has expanded significantly since my post on speech, we are still not holding conversations. She has now added Cookie, Papa, Kaka, Peepee, Happy, Yucky and Up to her short list. But it is difficult to explain to her the importance of using a potty, or staying in her bed when the conversations are unilateral. I truly believe this last point will facilitate many of the other items on my wish list, but it is the one that we will have to be most patient with.

I can no longer think of the other two items...or perhaps there were simply 8, and "10 Things" just sounded like a better title. One thing is certain, the arrival of Baby # 2 will create some significant change. She may well regress on a few items, but it may be the impetus for positive change on other items. For starters, the four of us will simply not fit in the same bed...