Another month just flashed past!

Happy 4 months old to my baby boy!!

Looking back, I must say I really enjoyed this month with Laurent.

He has become (even) more chatty so he is always keeping me entertained. He has also achieved 2 milestones this month – sleeping through the night and flipping on to his tummy for the first time.

A fellow mummy friend recently tagged me with this link on Facebook. It wasn’t too long ago when I was at that stage too. Memories of those multiple diaper/ onesie change and lunch turned cold sitting on the table till dinner time are still fresh in my mind!

But my days are now more enjoyable and passing extremely fast because we have settled into a routine. Since some mummies have been asking me about my daily routine with Laurent, here’s a look at what a typical day is like for us.

As the little one grows, the daily routine will change, but this was what worked for us since Laurent was almost 3 months till now. I guess when he starts on solid, I’ll be getting a lot more busy with all the food prep and cleaning!

Feeding

Laurent has been on a 4-hourly feeding schedule since he was about 2 months. He had been drinking 120ml every feed till he was about 3 months. He could finish his milk fast  (within 10 mins), but haven’t been asking for more since his last increase. We changed his Dr Brown teat to size 2 and just as we expected, he started to request for more milk. The flow was probably too slow with the smaller teat so he found it tiring to drink.

We increased his feed to 150ml since he was 3 months and just about a week since the increase in volume, he was able to drop his night feed and slept through till the morning. Which is a huge deal to me because being able to get a full 8 (or even 6) hour sleep is a luxury since the arrival of the little one.

But these few days, he had been fussing after his feed and even woke up ard 3am for the past 2 nights so we increased his feed to 180ml when he turned 4 months. Hopefully with fuller feeds throughout the day he will be sleeping well again!

Work Out

I’ve never been a really sporty person, but prior to the pregnancy, I’ve been dancing, going for gym classes and jogging on the treadmill occasionally. During the later part of my pregnancy, I started to feel rather listless from the lack of exercise so I did some prenatal yoga at  home every morning with some Youtube videos. Doing that made me feel fresh in the morning and more positive throughout the day, so I checked out some postnatal yoga classes to attend after my delivery.

While I still fantasise about attending mummy & baby yoga sessions with Laurent, I found it much easier to commit to a work out regime at home. All I needed was a yoga mat and Youtube videos! I was initially worried about having to attend to Laurent half-way through my workout if he gets bored or needs my attention. But interestingly, he actually found me rather entertaining when I exercise! He would be especially excited when I do things like jumping jacks and will even wave his arms and legs around as if he is imitating me 😐

Working out in the morning is great because regardless whether it is a 10 minutes session or a 30 minutes one, it helps me to start the day feeling fresh and positive. I feel less lethargic throughout the day and with an active baby in tow, I definitely see a need to build up some strength to keep up with my energiser bunny!

Cleaning

I still haven’t mastered the skill to take care of a baby and keep my house really neat and clean. But with whatever little time I have on hand, I will try to do the basic tidying and cleaning. I used to leave the toilets for Wayne to clean, but after watching some Youtube videos (yes, again), I became so inspired that I’ve even taken on the toilet duties!

The thing about cleaning with limited time on hand is really to stay focus. So I try to make sure that if I’m mopping that day, I don’t get carried away and start to tidy the study room when I’m there.

And to make chores less boring, I’ll listen to audiobooks. Audiobooks are especially great when ironing because they make time pass a lot faster!

Play Time

Play time with the little one is extremely important because that’s the time you bond with each other, help your baby to develop, catch those amazing milestones and collect pieces of precious memories made up of silly smiles, crazy laughter and excited giggles.

Laurent loves having people talk to him so I’ll read out my daily devotions to him when I do my quiet time. Instead of having to think about what to say to him everyday, I use the alphabet to guide our daily topic (e.g. I’ll tell him A is for apple and starts describing to him about apples). Wayne always laugh when I do that because I’ll end up saying very random things. But hey, not easy to find endless things to say to a baby ok.

Someone also gave us a colourful set of Eric Carle’s book so I’ll put him on my lap and ‘read’ the books together with him. He usually loses interest by the time I reach the third little book.

He doesn’t like to lie down for too long so I’ll bring him around the house and point out things to him (door, kitchen, pots, etc). And if the weather is lovely, I’ll walk around the pool with him and sit by the pool to enjoy the breeze and the greenery.

He has also recently mastered The Flip, so I’ll let him spend some time practising that and do tummy time when he manages to flip over.

ME TIME

I have to put this in caps because ME TIME is just so rare and precious when the little one comes along. I still rarely have proper ME TIME nowadays because most of the time when Laurent is sleeping, I’ll be pumping/ washing/ doing or folding laundry/ making online payment for one thing or another, etc, etc.

I used to spend these precious pockets of time TRYING (mummies will know, we always try, but a decent nap seldom happen) to catch some sleep. But since Laurent has been sleeping through the night, I’ve been less weary in the afternoons. So instead of mindlessly watching reruns on food channels, I’ll try to “stay connected with the world out there” by reading some news, magazines and podcasts.

I’m dying to bake but my mixer is still stowed away in the storeroom, so maybe when we move over to our new place I’ll start doing that again!

What I really want to say here is, ME TIME is a very important component of the daily routine. We may not always have the luxury of ME TIME, but I think it’s extremely important for mummies to still take care of ourselves, do things that we love and stay connected with the “outside world”, which we can easily overlook when we are only focusing on the baby and the house.

So that was a peek at what a typical day is like for Laurent and me during my maternity leave. A routine is useful for both mummy and baby but it definitely takes some time to build one and not everyday is the same.

Some days he refuses to sleep much. Some days we just want to laze in bed for cuddles. Some days we don’t feel like doing anything but veg out while watching Baby TV. It’s ok, they will still be enjoyable all the same 🙂

For my next post, I’ll probably share some of the Youtube videos I’m using for my exercise routine, cleaning inspiration and getting Laurent to fall asleep in less than 5 minutes 😉