Insparenting

If you don’t know what you want to buy for your spouse’ birthday present or gifts for any other occasions, I find out that watches are something that men love. However, not every man likes his watch to be fancy and fashionable. Just take my husband. He will not appreciate something like Bulgari watches that although expensive but is too fashionable.

Among the options is something like Ulysse Nardin. It specialized in mechanical mareine chronometers since 1800s. So, no one will tell that it is fashionable. This type of watch is men’s watch that is of highest quality, functional, and durable. And it doesn’t have much blink and glitter in the design. My husband will love it. How about yours?

Parents who love to read will want their children to also love reading. So, since I and my husband really love reading, we are very serious in our attempt to develop the girls’ reading habits. It is a serious matter, since most children nowadays prefer watching TV and playing games than reading. And in most of our life, most things will need to be learned through reading. If they don’t like reading, where can we go from there? Here are what we do.

First of all, we are collecting books. The girls get to choose the books they are interested in. Our new collection consists of books that just being collected in the last 1 year. The previous collection … all destroyed by last year’s big flood. We also try to maintain the proportion of the book collection into 50% English books and 50% Indonesian books, with some being bi-lingual. Our consideration is that books in our mother tongue are still more important for Shayna, my younger girl; as important the second language is, what’s the point in speaking and reading that language fluently if she cannot do it better with her own language?

The next thing is developing their love and skills in reading. Kayla, the older girl, has to read at least 3 books (2 books in English and 1 book in Indonesian) every night before sleeping, at her own choosing. Shayna … well, actually we don’t require her to read as many books. But, she is keener in reading (and any other learning, actually) than her big sister, and she often ends up read more books than Kayla does. Some of the times we ask them to read books that are beyond their ages and understanding, although still children books of course. Some people say that it will broaden their horizon and understanding.

It seems working quite well.

If you baby is not napping well during her first few months of life, you may want to try to cut back on the time she is awake by 15 minute increments. If she is getting overstimulated, then she will fight sleep and be difficult to get to nap. The way to prevent this is to watch her “sleepy” cues to make sure that you put her down when she is beginning to get sleepy.

Some parents believe that letting their child cry will harm him or her. Fifteen or twenty minutes of crying will not harm your child physically or mentally. Babies will learn to self-soothe and fall asleep by themselves, but only if you let her. It is very important that babies learn to fall asleep by themselves so that they can self-soothe if they awake in the middle of the night. Otherwise, you may have a child that will not sleep through the night for years.

Regular sleep patterns are intermeshed with regular eating patterns, so let us look at the stages of a baby’s life:

Newborn: Your newborn will sleep anywhere from 16 to 20 hours a day, including the naps that he takes between feedings. When your baby has been fed, let him stay awake for a short while and then put him down before he becomes overstimulated.

Two months: At two months and older, your child should be allowed to try to self-soothe during their naptimes and bedtime. Crying is normal when you put your baby down, but it is okay. If he cries for longer than 10-15 minutes, then go in and check on him. Don’t get him up, but pat his bottom or lightly rub his back until he calms down.

3-6 months: At around 3-6 months, your baby will stop taking one of his naps. Usually it is the third nap or late afternoon nap that they do not need as much. He may be a little fussy and may want to take a little nap, but you need to try to keep him up if you want him to go to bed at a decent time and sleep soundly through the night.

16+ months: When your child is between 16-20 months, they usually quit taking the morning nap in favor of a longer nap in the afternoons. Babies this age usually sleep between 10-12 hours a night and take a 2-3 hour afternoon nap.

Ground Rules about Naps

1. You decide when the nap starts and ends, not the baby.

2. When your baby is older than 4 months old, she will wake up crying if she hasn’t slept enough. She might have a dirty diaper, be in a position that is not comfortable, or cold/hot. Fix the problem and encourage her to go back to sleep. Babies that have enough rest wake up happy, talking, and in a good mood.

This coffee table is really fabulous, isn’t it? It has contemporary style, the green color looks great, and the form … well, is perfect. Besides being used as a centerpiece for a living room, this type of coffee tables can be also used for hiding some of the kids’ mess.

What do I mean by that? My girls love drawing and creating something, and they always create mess anywhere. If we get company coming to our house, we can just put most of those mess under this coffee table without looking to obvious. Looking good and very practical. That is why I call it fabulous coffee table.

My brother just got finished renovating his bathroom, and it did look fabulous. He changed some of the bathroom plumbing fixtures (from shower faucets to sink faucets), some of the out of date ceramic stuff, and several accessories. And now his bathroom had this modern contemporary style which looked simple but elegant.

When I looked at my bathroom after getting back from his resident, well, my bathroom looked so shabby compared to his. I might want to also renovate some of the bathroom fixtures that already looked so out of date. Contemporary bathroom sounds like a great idea. The hunting for bathroom stuff begins.

Breastfeeding problems, such as milk production difficulties, are not as common when using the PDF feeding method, but they do occur.  Even if you are well rested, eating healthy, have a pretty routine life, and your baby is growing and getting enough food, you still may experience a milk production issue.  Many things can cause production problems.  Here are just a few.

Some things that can affect your milk supply are:

• What mom eats
• How much mom rests and sleeps
• Her state of mind
• The age of the mom
• How many children you have
• Your desire to breastfeed
• Your nursing capabilities
• Your nursing techniques
• Baby’s latch on abilities

If you choose to breastfeed, it is very important that you take your baby for their check-ups as needed.  If you don’t, how will you know if he is getting enough milk and growing at the correct rate?  There is no way for you to tell that your child is getting enough nutrition for sure without your child being weighed.

During the first week of your baby’s life, your breasts will produce colostrum for them to drink.  Colostrum is rich in antibodies and aids the baby’s immune system.  It also helps him pass his first bowel movement, which is called meconium.  Meconium is black and tarry looking and is in the first few diapers after birth.  Then he begins to transition to a brown substance and after your milk comes in, it becomes a yellow, mustardy stool that is loose and watery.  Bottle-fed baby’s pass firmer, tannish stools than breastfed baby’s.

After 24-48 hours after birth, your baby will start having wet diapers that will increase to two or three a day.

While your baby drinks colostrum and then milk, you should listen for a pattern of “suck, suck, suck, swallow.”  This pattern will be rhythmic and there should be no “clicking” noises.  The “clicking” sound can indicate that your baby is not properly latched on and may not be getting enough milk from you.  If you start to hear this, you need to unlatch him and then reattach him.  If you continue to hear this sound after reattaching him several times, then you may want to consult a lactation consultant or your pediatrician.

After the first week of life, you should see 6-8 wet diapers each day and at least 3 bowel movements a day.  His urine should be clear and he should become more alert with each passing day.  Your baby should also be gaining weight and growing, as this is the surest way to tell that they are getting enough nutrition.  If you have two days in a row that deviates from the above indicators, then you should call your pediatrician immediately.