Babywise, Parker & Daily Life

From day one, Brendan has been a Babywise baby. 

For those who have never heard about the book by Gary Ezzo, it is basically a book on how to schedule your baby's day. In a nutshell, each feeding session is followed by a "waketime", before putting your baby down for a nap. According to the book, trying to follow their schedule will have most babies sleeping through the night by eight weeks of age. 

Of course results will vary baby to baby since each one is an individual.

I remember telling C while I was pregnant that I was planning to have my baby sleep through the night by eight weeks of age. She told me to be realistic because hers was not able to sleep through the night till much later.

However, I'm very happy to say that Brendan has been a relatively easy baby. From the very first day till now, I've been concentrating on getting him to have a full feed each time as well as quality sleep. I am glad that my efforts have paid off because he is now (at seven weeks), capable of sleeping from 11pm till 5:30am each night. 

Of course, some nights are exceptions, but I don't mind if he gets up an extra time in the middle of the night for a feeding because it is usually short (about 5-10 minutes) and probably due to a growth spurt. 

And how do I know if he is going through a growth spurt? It's pretty obvious to me by now. There will be one or two days/nights of increased feeding sessions and fussiness. Thereafter, I will observe very sudden changes in either his physicality (gaining weight) or mental abilities (social smiling, increased awareness of his surroundings).

If you're wondering, yes, I am fully and totally breastfeeding him. And I do get letdowns in the middle of the night. Still, my milk supply has not diminished and Brendan is still getting fatter by the day!

Last night, we went to Parker Korean Restaurant along Upper Thomson Road so I could satisfy my irrational Korean food craving. I had never eaten there before, but it was one of the closer restaurants to us.

My breastfeeding apron is a lifesaver when we go out.

I should have taken a hint when we saw that the entire place was empty at dinnertime. The appetisers were soggy and my bibimbap was barely tolerable (didn't even bother to take a photo). 

One thing positive about the place though- the staff are honest people. I had left my phone on the table as we were leaving, but they kept it for me until we returned to retrieve it.

One of my favorite sights these days is my dear baby's milk-drunk face. It's just the cutest thing in the world to me!

Brendan's diaper literally exploded today. I had never seen such an insane poo from him before.

In the afternoon, I like to take him downstairs for a stroll. He'll usually fall asleep by the end of it though.

Pregnant & Reading

This has been the most exciting year so far! I got married, turned 25, and now I'm expecting. Talk about major life changes.

My first trimester was tiring. I felt sleepy and nauseous all throughout the day. They really should have just called it "all day sickness" instead of morning sickness. 

This is me at 17 weeks.

My belly really started showing sometime around 15 weeks actually. That was also about the time I stopped being able to wear even my largest pair of shorts. Luckily I had already ordered maternity shorts and pants from ASOS a month ago. They came in really handy when I needed them.

Some of the bodily changes that I've been experiencing recently is a little bit of weight gain in the other areas of my body. Though I think that's probably due more to my switch from a very active lifestyle to a somewhat sedentary one. I haven't been skating or playing DDR or running at all. My exercise during the day usually just consists of walking or jogging after a bus. I really miss skating though. I feel gross when I don't have a good sweat everyday.

I've also been more gassy than usual. Passing farts almost all the time now. The bad news is, they're mostly stinky ones :P (sorry everybody)

This is me last week, at 18 weeks. 

Last Wednesday was the first time I felt my little one moving for sure! At first I thought it was just gas, but the movements were too deliberate. I've been feeling him move frequently during the day now, especially after meals. Must be the noise from my digestive system that's waking him up.

Then today, I could actually feel him move from the outside when I put my hand on my belly. He gave it a good shove and it was weird/cool/wonderful all at the same time!

In preparation for what's to come, Ms Pang recommended that I read this book, Baby Wise. I'm halfway through it at the moment, but I find it to be extremely useful in giving concrete tips on how to schedule sleeping and feeding times. I also love that the writers of this book have Christian backgrounds (I bought this at SKS, a Christian bookstore in Singapore).

I've been hearing from many different mothers and mothers-to-be on what they think is best for newborns. I've also had my own experience with caring for babies to look back upon. All in all, I'm very happy with what I'm discovering in this book. I agree with its principles and it makes for a pleasant read altogether. And of course, I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested :)

Another book that I'm reading is Sacred Marriage and this was recommended by Kim who is also reading it now with her husband. Because their relationship is such a good example to me, I thought, I'd better read what they're reading too! So since i was gonna pick up Baby Wise from SKS, I got this too.

The funny thing about Christian books is that, they ultimately all lead back to the same thing, or in this case, person.

With a title like Sacred Marriage, you'd probably expect the content to be quite different from books that are written for singles right? But what I've found is that whether you're talking about marriage, or struggling with addiction, or trying to build a church, or striving to be a holy single, the ultimate purpose of all of these experiences are still one and the same; that is, to become holy, or more like God.

Sacred Marriage purports that marriages can be like a refining fire, one that is intense and at times painful, but is necessary to mold us into a people set apart for Him.

I'm also halfway through this book right now and I'm sharing what I read with Jerry as I go along.

And that's all the updates I have for now.