Cheer me Up!

While sleep training Elric, we just needed to keep ourselves occupied with things to do.
Kaye and I even cried at one point because we couldn't bear the pain of him cry for such a long time.

So here is Kaye's artwork. :)

Elric with Mr. Bee!

Elric and his new chair!

Sleep Training Baby Elric

As some of you may know, we have been sleep training (re-training) Elric for the last 6 days. 

It has been heart wrenching. Remember my previous post saying that Elric managed to sleep through 8 hours? We were overjoyed. But when Elric started teething, we relaxed on his sleep pattern and picked him up from the bed trying to figure out why he cried. 

Before Elric was born, we were told that hearing other babies cry is different from hearing your own baby cry. 

I couldn't appreciate that sentence but now I totally do! The former is irritating but the later is heart breaking. :( 

Since Saturday, Kaye was insistent on re-training Elric because his inability to sleep is taking a toil on both of us. So yes. She started it and she pull it through. 

Day 1: We put him to bed at 10:30pm. He cried for 2hours before he finally slept. Kaye and I did not enter the room until 45min interval. :( Poor Elric almost went nutz I think. He was so so so angry when he saw us. He couldn't even control his cry anymore. 

Day 2: We put Elric on bed at 10:30pm. He sleep almost instantly and woke up at 11:00pm. Cried for 2 hours.

Day 3: Kaye decided to use the soft approach. We put him down at 10:30pm and she went in to pat him for 1-2min after 15min of crying. She went in for 2nd visit after 20min of crying. 3rd visit after another 25mins of crying and so on. He finally sleep at near 1AM. 

Day 4: Kaye did the same.... He slept at 12:45AM

Day 5: Same thing... I almost couldnt take it and wanted to go pick him up to cuddle and hug him. Kaye insisted not to. He slept at 12:50AM

Day 6: Elric slept through from 10:30PM to 7:30AM this morning. 

Either he is toooooo tired, or the training is successful! We will have to continue to observe the next 3 nights. If all 3 days are good, we can announce the SUCCESS of our hard work!!

Why do we sleep train him?

1. Because if your baby don't sleep, neither will you.

It's been tedious when Elric can't sleep. We sometimes had to stay awake till 3-4AM just to ensure he is well. 

2. It is a form of discipline. 

Discipline from birth? Yes! From birth. Why not? 

By discipline, i dont mean physical discipline. Babies don't know what is good for them but we as parents do. We know that he need to have a structural timetable to his meals and nap and night sleep, so we have to teach them to follow it. 

If you cant discipline your kids when they are babies, what makes you think you are discipline them when they are older? 

3. For health reasons. 

Have you seen kids with eye bags and dark circles? It's a pain to see that. And it shows that the child have not been sleeping well. Children who do not sleep well, dont learn well either because they are too tired and grouchy.

4. Will my child think that I dont love him/her?
I can tell you with certainly that Elric is happier and able to spend quality time with us when he sleeps well. Looking at all his photos, I guess you can agree with me.

So yes. I am letting him cry for a good reason, and I am sticking by it. 

A short-term pain and better than a long-term one. 

Elric do you agree? 

heee... agree...

Elric on his new chair!

Now I know why God made us this way, that we can't remember anything from birth till about 3 years old. Cause if we do... we might hate our parents. :P 

See? Elric is still a happy baby in the day! 

Avent Philip Combined Steamer and Blender: Making Sweet Potato Puree

Have you ever purchased gadgets thinking that they are very useful because the sales person who demonstrated made it look so good? These gadgets all ended up as white elephants because they are not as user friendly as you thought they were at the point of purchase. You finally decide that the conventional methods are way easier and more productive. In the end, you either throw the gadget away or chuck it aside to collect dust. 

That is a familiar scenario to me! :P hahaha... You can imagine how many weird gadgets I have in my house. Products like magic mop, salad mixer and many more!

So I have learnt that one thing you need to do is to think through the entire using process before purchasing the product.

I bought this Avent Philips steamer/blender. I can tell you it is one product that I LOVE and I am pretty sure you will too! Step by step, I'm going to go through how I make the puree for my son. :D

 
Okie..

Step 1: Wash and Peel your ingredients. In my case, I have sweet potatoes and apples. (Blended separately)

Apple rinsed with water

To prevent colour change (oxidation) of the apple, we usually use salt to soak the peeled apple. But for baby, salt may not be a good choice. So you can choose to add a few drops of lemon juice.

Peeled the apple

Step 2: Cut the apple or sweet potatoes into cubes (about 2-3cm). Main thing is to speed up the blending process. :) 

Sweet Potatoes peeled

Okie... I have chopped them up and placed into the jar of the Avent Steamer/Blender.


Here is something really nice about the product which I like... A LOT...

Step 3: Add in water into this compartment for steaming. But how do you know how much water to put? How do you know how long to steam? Here is how IDIOT PROVE IT IS!

The product comes with a recipe book that tells you how long to cook for each ingredient. For apple, 5min and for sweet potatoes 15min.

It also has a measuring cup...

that tells you the amount of water to add according to the time you need to steam. Not sure if you can see this clearly.

Hope you can see...

200ml for 20min
150ml for 15min
100ml for 10min

It's that simple!  :D


Step 4: Fix the container with the wider base downwards to steamer. You will see a nob which you can turn either to the left or to the right. For steaming, it's left.

Easy right? on the left you see the icon of steam and the right shows the icon of the blade.

So I added 150ml of water for the sweet potatoes and steamed it.
Another sweet feature about this product is that it stops automatically when the water runs dry! Therefore you don't have to worry about over cooking or to watch the fire like you do if traditional steamer.

Step 5: When time is up, simply turn it up side down and blend!

Tadaaaa..... I turned and hold the nob for 10 secs, 2 times and my sweet potato is ready to serve!


You can make extra and freeze the rest of the puree in ice trays.
In my case, I use this breast milk container which I bought previously to keep Kaye's breast milk. :D 30ml per stick.

After the puree are frozen, just keep them in air tight containers or zip lock bags.

Yippeee!!! You are almost done!!!!!


So what else do you need to do???

























WASH LAH!









So what are the items that you need to wash?

1. Cuting board
2. Knife
3. Bowl (for soaking the apple)
4. Measurig cup (just rinsing)
5. The jar of the Avent Steamer/Blender
6. Spatula or spoon you use to scoop up the puree!

There you are! DONE!

Weeeeeee!!! SO Simple right???

If Alp can cook... So can you!! hahahahahahaha...

If this post has convinced you of getting the Avent Steamer/Blender, I hope you will like it as much as I do!

Cheers!

Baby Food

As I mentioned in my previous post, Elric has started on solid food.
It's no longer just milk and milk bottle. I have to cook, mash, blend and wash!
It has been more tedious than I could imagine.

I searched online for recipes of baby puree.
Thank God I found this Nicko Baby Food Channel that provides many great recipes!
Nicko Baby Food

Apple and Pear Puree

Pumpkin and Corn Puree!



He made the preparations look so simple! ^^


Better still, Kaye found this product...



Philips - Combined Steamer and Blender SCF870/21 - Food preparation and storage - Preparing for feeding - Mother and child care


The Avent Philips Steamer and Blender!!!!
It's a brilliant product and ALL new parents MUST BUY!!! MUST MUST MUST!

It made the preparation process even simplier than I have expected! :D
Basically, all I needed to do was to wash and cut the vegetable or fruit, put them into the steamer/blender to steam. Turn it around after steaming and it allows you to blend the ingredients!
No mashing, no need a separate steamer and blender, all are done within 1 machine!!! Less washing to do!!! COOL isn't it?? :D

I will make the puree and get Kaye to take pictures for you too see! :D
I have tried making apple puree, pumkin puree and carrot puree.
Next in line will be sweet potato and banana. I shall do it soon!

Cheers!

Photo post

Oh yes... I am sorry.
I have been delinquent in my postings.
It's been a tough 1 month taking care of Elric. Things are not as simple as the initial 6 months. It was just heating up the milk, feed and play and sleep.

Elric has started solid food! :D
So cooking and cleaning are required as well. He is also learning to crawl, so we have to pay extra attention to him whenever he is out of his cot bed.

Has it been extremely tiring for both Kaye and myself. :S

But Elric has his ways to cheers us up!

We love his SMILE!

It is simply fulfilling to know that your child is growing up happy and healthy under your care. Isn't it so?

Thank You PaPa and MaMa!

Our Little Angel!

SMILEXXXXX... ^_^