Officially 3 months old

Yesterday Kien turned 3 months old. I am hoping this is a turning point in his eating and sleeping habits, but I am not holding my breath! He did however manage to consume 870 mls of milk, some of which was formula to entice him to drink more. These days he struggles to get close to 800 mls per day. He just doesn't like to eat and sleep very much obviously.

This picture was taken last Wednesday at the Plunket family clinic. I went there to get help with his sleeping, and guess what...they couldn't get him to sleep for any longer than I can. So they resigned to the fact he must be one of those babies that don't sleep much :-/ Kien really enjoyed being there though. They called him "the charmer" because every time they tried to make him sleep he smiled and giggled at them. They eventually gave in and let him play under the baby gym. He loved that thing; he was kicking and bopping it with his fists, giggling with delight. They were really surprised he was able to do that, and told me it was very early for him to have developed those skills. Jef was very proud when I told him this :-D

Today the Plunket nurse came for the 3 month visit. He was weighed and measured. Kien has finally cracked the 5 kg mark...he is 5.15kg, and 61cm in length. Yes, still long and lean. She has recommended we start him on solids at 4 months since he is struggling with the milk and putting on weight. I am actually quite excited about introducing solids; its a whole new adventure.

12 weeks old today

Wow, Kien is now 12 weeks old! Yesterday I put him into his first non disposable nappy. I have been waiting for him to fit them, and now he does. Doesn't it look so cool?

He has for the first time started grasping at things that you wave around in front of him. He concentrates really hard and then moves his hands to the object. We captured one of his first attempts.

Friends and influences

We had a wonderful day yesterday. Justine is over from Brisbane and came to hang out for a few hours with her beautiful kids Jessica and Sarah. Sarah is 3 weeks older than Kien and Jessica is three. We got all three of them to do tummy time together. Sarah was only interested in munching on her hand.



Something remarkable happened yesterday. I was busy expressing and Kien was making his tired sounds. So Justine wrapped him up, put the pacifier in his mouth, put him in his cot, patted his chest for a couple of minutes and then left the room while he was wide awake. I went in to check on him 5 minutes later and he was fast asleep. Wow! I am so proud of him, and proud of myself. I have taught my son how to sleep. But it took for someone else to show me he was able to fall asleep on his own without me hovering all over him.

Kien is 11 weeks old today. I can't believe how fast the time has gone, but then again I say that every week :-)

Centre of attention

Kien has tummy time for a couple of minutes every few hours. He can now lift his head up so high, as demonstrated yesterday in this pic.

It has been 3 weeks since we started sleep training and I feel like it has consumed me! Kien sleeps very well at night (only waking up for his feeds and goes straight back to sleep), but during the day it is an entirely different story. His naps are brief; that is if I can actually get him down for a nap. My days completely revolve around his sleep routine, and I spend most of that time in the bedroom with the curtains closed, listening to white noise and patting his back. If this isn't a labour of love I don't know what is!

His naps are slowly (and I mean very slowly) getting better. Today for one of his naps he actually transitioned himself through to the next sleep cycle. This is only the second time he has done this since we have been sleep training, and the first time was right at the beginning. Lets see how he goes this week - this is the glimmer of hope I have been waiting for.

I purchased the miracle wrap on Sunday (a swaddling blanket that resembles a straight jacket) since Kien can Houdini his way out of any swaddle I put him in. It has been a miracle indeed - two nights in a row now he has slept for 4 hours straight, from 11pm to 3am. It is such a luxury for me to be able to sleep for 4 hours solid.

On Sunday Kien was the centre of attention when the family came around for a visit.

Chatterbox

Kien loves to talk! Whenever I read him a story he tries to imitate me. After one of his naps I recorded this clip.