Sherry's Café: The Fifth Month and a little confession

We travelled to Shenzhen a couple of weeks before Rayray turned 5 months and she was one good baby throughout the flight. Though she didn't nap that morning and had about an hour's lunchtime nap. Our flight was at 2.55pm so she fussed a little but fell asleep quickly in daddy's arms. I was rather nervous travelling with her the first time so I tried feeding her as soon as the plane started to move but she actually finished feeding before the plane took off the ground! So I guess next time I need to be more relaxed! hahaha Having said that, we are off to London in three days and I am very worried about getting baby's jet lag adjusted and how she would feel about being in London!!! I am, on the other hand, can't wait to be back home as it's been 7 months since I left and this must be the longest time in 20 years that I'd left London!

This month, I see a lot of interesting developments in Rayray. She loves the attentions even though she would be quite happy playing on her own for a bit but she enjoys the most when there are people around, talking to her.

Height - 67.5cm

Weight - 9kg

Eating - Breastfed 5 times between 7am - 7pm plus a dream feed at 10.30pm and it now takes around 10 minutes or so for Rayray to feed on one side.

On a separate note, I suffered from another mastitis three weeks ago and I now have had it three times in four months! It was very frustrating and I don't know what I did wrong but looking at the bright side, I now know all the symptoms so I would massage more and get my very own Dr. Rayray to cure it! lol

Sleeping - This is where the confession comes in. We have been using the CLB routine more as a guideline rather than following it closely. And we have been struggling with putting her down at 7pm since she was three months old as she was starting to get more alert. So I have tried everything one can think of and mum steps in to help too. Our 'trick' was to cuddle her walking from room to room or around the flat till Rayray falls asleep.

Rayray was probably too tired to fuss the first few nights when we arrived in China but from the fifth night, she was back to 'her usual self' i.e. taking a good half an hour or an hour to fall asleep. T then discovered that there was actually a whole section in the CLB book on common sleeping problems!!! Everything we had done was WRONG WRONG WRONG! So we decided to try 'Assisting to sleep method' and here is how we progressed:

1st night - I settled her in our bed with light dimmed and her head in the crook of my right arm so I could hold her hands with my left hand. She wriggled a bit in the beginning then started to cry and boy did she CRIED. I had never seen her crying like that, hard, loud and VERY VERY angrily. It broke my heart. I almost gave up ... well, I did..kind of..I picked her up after 5 minutes because I really couldn't stand it. Rayray fell asleep as soon as I picked her up....I think she was too tired from crying..... I felt awful all night ... I felt as if I was torturing my own baby and I dreaded for the second night.

2nd night - She fussed a little but as soon as I closed my eyes, she moaned for a few seconds and fell asleep too so it wasn't as horrific as I expected.

3rd night - It could be fluke or she was tired but she fell asleep when she saw me closing my eyes! I couldn't believe it so the real test is the fourth night when I have to settle her in her cot.

4th night - Rayray seemed very tired but still wanted to play. She giggled and moved around for 20 minutes and fell asleep! Just when I thought Rayray was a model baby she started to cry, again, very very angrily. I bent down to her cot and comforted her as if she was in the crook of my arms and she fell asleep within a second.

5th night - Spent an hour settling her

6th night - Again, Rayray didn't fall asleep after an hour and she held my finger the entire time..

I think Rayray is probably too 'alert' to be re-trained so would take longer to learn self-soothing. But I shall persevere.

It was a heart-ripping week but I knew I had to do it. Rayray is now 5 months old and she really needs to learn how to self sooth and I know it is beneficial to the both of us.

Oh I also 'cheated' by holding one of her hand rather than the recommended both hands. She really doesn't like having both of her hands being restricted from moving....

Development -

Rayray now stares whenever we eat so we have been thinking about introducing solids as she seems to display all the signs according to 'What to Expect the first year'. She is always eyeing our chewing movement, the food and when we put food into our mouth! However, I have decided to wait till she is six months old as the current guideline recommends.
She is one curious bambina! She loves watching us brushing teeth, doing hair and even when I put moisturiser on every morning!
She tries to roll over and loves being on her front

Helllllo there!

Discovered her hands and unlike before, she just put her fingers in her mouth. She now spends a good 30 seconds or so looking at her hands and play with them!