Right now Meera is still taking her naps in the afternoon. After a few days of not napping I could see it taking it's toll on her. So I decided to tweak her nap times a little. I realised that I needed to get her down for nap bout 3.30pm and only let her sleep for about 1.5 hours. Otherwise it gets hard to sleep at night. So now she's back to taking naps again. There's the occasional missed naps but overall it's working out. Of course on weekends if we get home late then sometimes she can't seem to wind down for her naps but its just once in a while.
I've come to realise that Meera is forgetting a few things which she use to know. Like some of her alphabet phonetic sounds. Need to start going through all this with her on a regular basis so she doesn't forget!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Is this the end of her naps?!
For the past 2 weeks, naps have been pretty much out the window. Looking back I realise that Meera only takes a nap like once in every 3-4 days. Most days she's fine without it but I can tell she needs to go down a bit earlier at night. I have dreaded this milestone for the past year since it's the only time of the day that I can do stuff freely. A lot of books seems to indicate that kids generally stop napping around age 4 so I guess it's about time. For now, I still put her to bed and tell her that she needs to rest even if she can't sleep. So far she's willing to just stay in her bed until I ring the bell so at least she gets some down time.
37,38,39 Months!
Phew!!! I have been very lax in posting lately. Ever since we've been back to Malaysia things have been hectic. Honestly don't know where the time has gone but 3 months have passed since I have updated anything on Meera!
We're currently living in an apartment (until our house is ready). So most of our stuff is still in storage (along with the majority of Meera's toys). Fortunately she is able to occupy herself with the few toys that we do have (the toys she got for her birthday also helps).
Right now her schedule is something like this:
8.30 am : Wake up. Most times I have to wake her up.
9.00 am: Pee, brush teeth (trying to teach her to do this on her own),change, drink milk and have breakfast (recently started giving her oats and banana).
10.00 am: Most days we go out but on the days when there's time she'll watch a bit of cartoon and we do a bit of tot school (I need to go out less and be more consistent with this)
12.30pm: Lunch. (which is usually outside)
3.00 pm: Nap (if we're out it can be as late as 4.30pm)
6.00pm: Wake up (is she gets up earlier I give her a little snack)
7.00pm: Dinner (she eats herself so it takes a while for her to finish
8.00 pm: Bath. We usually have some fruit after this.
9.30pm: Get ready for bed. Drink milk, story, brush teeth then bed
10.00 pm: Bed (this is the time we put her down but most often she only falls asleep closer to 11pm
I realise that she sleeps a lot later here. Which is convenient since we sometimes have late dinners or we're out shopping. Once she starts school I'll need to adjust this though.
Sometime after her third birthday I realised all her baby teeth have made an appearance. So no more teething issues to worry about.
We're currently living in an apartment (until our house is ready). So most of our stuff is still in storage (along with the majority of Meera's toys). Fortunately she is able to occupy herself with the few toys that we do have (the toys she got for her birthday also helps).
Right now her schedule is something like this:
8.30 am : Wake up. Most times I have to wake her up.
9.00 am: Pee, brush teeth (trying to teach her to do this on her own),change, drink milk and have breakfast (recently started giving her oats and banana).
10.00 am: Most days we go out but on the days when there's time she'll watch a bit of cartoon and we do a bit of tot school (I need to go out less and be more consistent with this)
12.30pm: Lunch. (which is usually outside)
3.00 pm: Nap (if we're out it can be as late as 4.30pm)
6.00pm: Wake up (is she gets up earlier I give her a little snack)
7.00pm: Dinner (she eats herself so it takes a while for her to finish
8.00 pm: Bath. We usually have some fruit after this.
9.30pm: Get ready for bed. Drink milk, story, brush teeth then bed
10.00 pm: Bed (this is the time we put her down but most often she only falls asleep closer to 11pm
I realise that she sleeps a lot later here. Which is convenient since we sometimes have late dinners or we're out shopping. Once she starts school I'll need to adjust this though.
Sometime after her third birthday I realised all her baby teeth have made an appearance. So no more teething issues to worry about.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Phonetics Lightbulb Moment
This morning as I was helping Meera get ready, she started talking bout letters and posed this question, "What letter belongs to lotion?" Initially I didn't quite get what she was saying so I asked her back (I always do this to see how she responds to give me an idea of what she's talking about so). So when I asked her the same thing she said, "is it s?" I realised she was trying to figure out the starting alphabet for the word lotion! So I helped her a bit and she figured out it was 'L'!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Meera: Preschool Assessment
I found this to assess how much she has been absorbing from our tot school lessons (and daily teachings). She did surprisingly well.
Based on the assessment she could do the following:
- use scissors to cut a straight line. She has been quite adept with scissors since I have let her practice since young
- counts 1:1 up to 12
-counts to 12 (without missing any numbers)
-can find the print on different pages of a book
- can identify the colors: red,yellow, blue,orange, green, black, white, purple,pink, brown
- can say her full name
-recognizes all the alphabets (big and small - she sometimes confuses b/d and g/q)
- can identify the shape: circle, rectangle, star,triangle, oval, heart, square, diamond
-can identify numbers 1-9 (10 is 1 and 0 to her
-her pencil grip still needs work (I should have taken a picture. She holds the pencil with all 5 fingers but positioning it quite well)
Based on the assessment she could do the following:
- use scissors to cut a straight line. She has been quite adept with scissors since I have let her practice since young
- counts 1:1 up to 12
-counts to 12 (without missing any numbers)
-can find the print on different pages of a book
- can identify the colors: red,yellow, blue,orange, green, black, white, purple,pink, brown
- can say her full name
-recognizes all the alphabets (big and small - she sometimes confuses b/d and g/q)
- can identify the shape: circle, rectangle, star,triangle, oval, heart, square, diamond
-can identify numbers 1-9 (10 is 1 and 0 to her
-her pencil grip still needs work (I should have taken a picture. She holds the pencil with all 5 fingers but positioning it quite well)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Turning 3!
The past 2 months have gone by so quickly and I am scrambling to update this post. During this time we packed up our home in Melbourne and moved back to Malaysia. Meera seemed to adapt quite well to all the changes that occurred during this time.
Going against everything I had read, Meera started sleeping in a regular bed at this time. More out of necessity than anything else. We had to pack up her toddler bed and send it as part of our sea shipment. So there was no way she was going to sleep in her KinderKot for the next few months. So we decided she'd just have to sleep in a regular bed. We got a separate room for her in the hotel and she slept there with no major ISSUES. It helped that our first night there she was so exhausted from the whole day's activities. We spent 5 nights in that hotel before moving to the hotel in KL for another 30 nights. As usual it took her a few days to get accustomed to the new surroundings but other that that she slept fine. She did have a bit of jet lag though so there was a week of getting used to sleeping in (she was waking up around 6 am!)
We celebrated her birthday in the hotel (nothing big).
Her vocabulary continues to expand. During our interim stay at Westin I took her for 'Playtime' at Mothercare and I could see that she really enjoys this kind of activity. She was very keen to sing and take part in the activities organised.
I've noticed that she's now a bit more reserved in her hugging and kissing. Before this she was willing to bestow anyone with hugs and kisses but lately it seems she's less keen. Maybe its cos there are so many visitors over here and she's been asked to do it a lot more often? She's still quite outgoing and friendly. None of that shyness issues with her.
On the eating front, It seems like she's eating a lot less now. Not sure if its the change in food or simply her appetite is lessening. I was a bit worried initially but decided to just let it be for now. We 're not exactly eating healthily at the moment anyway.
My parents got her an I Pad for her birthday and it is her favourite toy right now...no surprise there! I'm hoping that it can be an educational tool for her but right now she seems more interested in the games.
Going against everything I had read, Meera started sleeping in a regular bed at this time. More out of necessity than anything else. We had to pack up her toddler bed and send it as part of our sea shipment. So there was no way she was going to sleep in her KinderKot for the next few months. So we decided she'd just have to sleep in a regular bed. We got a separate room for her in the hotel and she slept there with no major ISSUES. It helped that our first night there she was so exhausted from the whole day's activities. We spent 5 nights in that hotel before moving to the hotel in KL for another 30 nights. As usual it took her a few days to get accustomed to the new surroundings but other that that she slept fine. She did have a bit of jet lag though so there was a week of getting used to sleeping in (she was waking up around 6 am!)
We celebrated her birthday in the hotel (nothing big).
Her vocabulary continues to expand. During our interim stay at Westin I took her for 'Playtime' at Mothercare and I could see that she really enjoys this kind of activity. She was very keen to sing and take part in the activities organised.
I've noticed that she's now a bit more reserved in her hugging and kissing. Before this she was willing to bestow anyone with hugs and kisses but lately it seems she's less keen. Maybe its cos there are so many visitors over here and she's been asked to do it a lot more often? She's still quite outgoing and friendly. None of that shyness issues with her.
On the eating front, It seems like she's eating a lot less now. Not sure if its the change in food or simply her appetite is lessening. I was a bit worried initially but decided to just let it be for now. We 're not exactly eating healthily at the moment anyway.
My parents got her an I Pad for her birthday and it is her favourite toy right now...no surprise there! I'm hoping that it can be an educational tool for her but right now she seems more interested in the games.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Sigh...
So today we went to see the doctor. And he confirmed the ultrasound report as 4 weeks and 2 days. He didn't want to sound negative but it seems likely that the pregnancy is not viable. He suggested doing the HCG test to see what the levels are like. At this stage it should double every 2 days so I'm suppose to do another test on Friday. Even if the results are no good it still doesn't help much. I have to basically wait it out or do a D&C. He says that normally a non-viable pregnancy self terminates around 8-10 weeks. Judging by my calculations I am around 6-7 weeks so it's still a long way to go.
Friday, January 27, 2012
4 weeks and 3 days
Today, I went for the ultrasound to get a clearer picture of how many weeks I'm at. Unfortunately I left the office in a less clearer state.
Initially the technician, Maria said she would try to do an abdominal scan to check but being so early in the pregnancy I may need to do a trans-vaginal one to get a clearer picture. True enough the abdominal one showed nothing. So we proceeded with the vaginal one. It was not as uncomfortable as I had imagined. Actually hardly any discomfort at all. But when she finally pin pointed the sac, it appeared to be very small. And after taking all the measurements she told us it was 4 weeks and 3 days! Huh?!
That simply doesn't add up. I kinda questioned her about it. Cos, 2 weeks ago I took the UPT and it was already positive so that should put me at at least 4 weeks. So how can I still be only 4 weeks along? That means the baby was only conceived 2 weeks ago? She didn't have any answers for me but she just said we can check again after 3 weeks and to see what my doctor says. Somehow it didn't sound very convincing.
I got home and of course immediately starting googling for more info. And what I found out made me feel less than happy. From what I can gather a lot of times if the sac measures small it's a sign of it not growing well and will usually result in miscarriage. Of course there were also a lot of people who calculate based on their LMP (last menstrual period) so that's why they calculate wrongly. But I already take that into account. I took the UPT on 13/1/2012 which was positive so that would put me at 3 weeks at least! so I should be at least 5 weeks along. Sigh....I am so confused
The doctor's appointment is next Wednesday so we'll see what he says.
I still don't have any nausea. Prior to the scan I as secretly hoping that maybe this time around I
won't have to face it but now it looks like it's just too early. But it doesn't explain all the indigestion I've been having for the past 4 weeks?!
Initially the technician, Maria said she would try to do an abdominal scan to check but being so early in the pregnancy I may need to do a trans-vaginal one to get a clearer picture. True enough the abdominal one showed nothing. So we proceeded with the vaginal one. It was not as uncomfortable as I had imagined. Actually hardly any discomfort at all. But when she finally pin pointed the sac, it appeared to be very small. And after taking all the measurements she told us it was 4 weeks and 3 days! Huh?!
That simply doesn't add up. I kinda questioned her about it. Cos, 2 weeks ago I took the UPT and it was already positive so that should put me at at least 4 weeks. So how can I still be only 4 weeks along? That means the baby was only conceived 2 weeks ago? She didn't have any answers for me but she just said we can check again after 3 weeks and to see what my doctor says. Somehow it didn't sound very convincing.
I got home and of course immediately starting googling for more info. And what I found out made me feel less than happy. From what I can gather a lot of times if the sac measures small it's a sign of it not growing well and will usually result in miscarriage. Of course there were also a lot of people who calculate based on their LMP (last menstrual period) so that's why they calculate wrongly. But I already take that into account. I took the UPT on 13/1/2012 which was positive so that would put me at 3 weeks at least! so I should be at least 5 weeks along. Sigh....I am so confused
The doctor's appointment is next Wednesday so we'll see what he says.
I still don't have any nausea. Prior to the scan I as secretly hoping that maybe this time around I
won't have to face it but now it looks like it's just too early. But it doesn't explain all the indigestion I've been having for the past 4 weeks?!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
34 months
17/1/2012- For the past 3-4 days Meera has not been sleeping well. Last Thursday she woke from her nap crying. And most nights she will usually wake up crying 1 -2 times. Last time all we had to do was go down and tuck her in and she'd go back to sleep. But this round she takes a long time to settle and when we leave her she starts crying again. I don't know what is going on???
The other night she was up from 4 a.m. till 7 a.m refusing to sleep. Last night we put her to bed at 9.45 pm and she kept calling to us. She will usually have some reason or other: water, spider, pee etc. And it all seems like she's just trying to get us to come see her. Finally Jing sang to her until she fell asleep. And today I had to do the same for nap time. Part of me feels so frustrated since we spent so long teaching her to sleep by herself. It seems like we're moving backwards now. But at the same time I'm at my wits end how to get her to sleep!
After a few days of this we have slowly gone back to normal. It took a lot of singing and reassuring her. I'm still not sure what brought this on but we came to the conclusion that scolding her wasn't getting us anywhere. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. So now we are going for the soft approach. It's a lengthier bedtime ritual but at least there's no crying and screaming (on both sides). Bedtime now includes a song and a bit of chit-chat before she can say goodnight. And for some reason I need to reassure her that I will come back to see her after I bathe/pee/do whatever. Once she tells me goodnight I can leave here there to sleep on her own. She's still waking up around 3, 4 am but we just go down reassure her and she goes back to sleep.
I also noticed that she's got both of her bottom molars already. Not sure when this happened but maybe that's why she's having trouble sleeping the past few months. The top ones are all that are left now. So that's gonna bring about another bout of drama.
She's started taking a real interest in writing now. She can almost write her name. R seems to be hard for her but she's slowly getting there.
A few firsts this month:
First 'professional' haircut. I was quite nervous but she sat really still the whole time. Which was all of 10 minutes. For $13.95 it was not exactly great but better that a home cut.
First cinema experience: We went to watch Happy Feet 2. She did quite well. Got a bit upset when the krill was being chased by the whale (?). As usual she does not like it when bad things happen. She was crying quite a bit so Jing took her outside for a couple of minutes. It was almost 1.5 hours and she managed alot better than I expected. The popcorn and Penguin plush helped. Not to mention the fact that the penguins name was Erik!
We also celebrated Chinese New Year but it was a relatively uneventful one this year. It was just the 3 of us so nothing fancy.
The other night she was up from 4 a.m. till 7 a.m refusing to sleep. Last night we put her to bed at 9.45 pm and she kept calling to us. She will usually have some reason or other: water, spider, pee etc. And it all seems like she's just trying to get us to come see her. Finally Jing sang to her until she fell asleep. And today I had to do the same for nap time. Part of me feels so frustrated since we spent so long teaching her to sleep by herself. It seems like we're moving backwards now. But at the same time I'm at my wits end how to get her to sleep!
After a few days of this we have slowly gone back to normal. It took a lot of singing and reassuring her. I'm still not sure what brought this on but we came to the conclusion that scolding her wasn't getting us anywhere. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. So now we are going for the soft approach. It's a lengthier bedtime ritual but at least there's no crying and screaming (on both sides). Bedtime now includes a song and a bit of chit-chat before she can say goodnight. And for some reason I need to reassure her that I will come back to see her after I bathe/pee/do whatever. Once she tells me goodnight I can leave here there to sleep on her own. She's still waking up around 3, 4 am but we just go down reassure her and she goes back to sleep.
I also noticed that she's got both of her bottom molars already. Not sure when this happened but maybe that's why she's having trouble sleeping the past few months. The top ones are all that are left now. So that's gonna bring about another bout of drama.
She's started taking a real interest in writing now. She can almost write her name. R seems to be hard for her but she's slowly getting there.
A few firsts this month:
First 'professional' haircut. I was quite nervous but she sat really still the whole time. Which was all of 10 minutes. For $13.95 it was not exactly great but better that a home cut.
First cinema experience: We went to watch Happy Feet 2. She did quite well. Got a bit upset when the krill was being chased by the whale (?). As usual she does not like it when bad things happen. She was crying quite a bit so Jing took her outside for a couple of minutes. It was almost 1.5 hours and she managed alot better than I expected. The popcorn and Penguin plush helped. Not to mention the fact that the penguins name was Erik!
We also celebrated Chinese New Year but it was a relatively uneventful one this year. It was just the 3 of us so nothing fancy.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Positive?
So yesterday, I had an appointment with Dr. Timothy Foo to confirm the pregnancy. I took a urine test this time and it was a very faint positive so he said I was probably like 4-5 weeks along. But he suggested I get an ultrasound so they can have a more precise date. So right now although I am pregnant I still feel like I need to see the ultra sound to truly believe it.
So far the only symptoms I have are still indigestion and breast tenderness. Maybe a bit tired but that could be because Meera's sleeping has been a bit off.
So far the only symptoms I have are still indigestion and breast tenderness. Maybe a bit tired but that could be because Meera's sleeping has been a bit off.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Positive!
Took another UPT today and this time....2 lines! As I was waiting for the 3 minutes I saw the control line appear and a small wave of disappointment set it. But after a few minutes the 2nd line appeared (faint but definitely there).
I took a test last week but it was negative so I guess I tested too early. Based on my records I must have conceived around December 26th. Strangely enough I seemed to have some symptoms quite early. Either I'm super observant or just a coincidence? The only reason I took the test last week was cos 3 days prior to that I noticed I was having a lot of heartburn and indigestion after my meals ( and the only time I suffered that was during the later part of my first pregnancy.) I don't remember it being an early symptom of my first pregnancy though. Nevertheless it did make me wonder. Then this week I started getting really tender breasts but seeing as I how that usually happens before my period comes I figured I was definitely not pregnant. But it seemed to be more sensitive than normal and I was starting to feel like it was swelling or something. Are they getting bigger?? I swear it feels like it. Other than that no other symptoms. No tiredness and no puking (for now at least)
Oh but yesterday Meera was being quite naughty and I actually started crying at one point. Hormonal, much?
I took a test last week but it was negative so I guess I tested too early. Based on my records I must have conceived around December 26th. Strangely enough I seemed to have some symptoms quite early. Either I'm super observant or just a coincidence? The only reason I took the test last week was cos 3 days prior to that I noticed I was having a lot of heartburn and indigestion after my meals ( and the only time I suffered that was during the later part of my first pregnancy.) I don't remember it being an early symptom of my first pregnancy though. Nevertheless it did make me wonder. Then this week I started getting really tender breasts but seeing as I how that usually happens before my period comes I figured I was definitely not pregnant. But it seemed to be more sensitive than normal and I was starting to feel like it was swelling or something. Are they getting bigger?? I swear it feels like it. Other than that no other symptoms. No tiredness and no puking (for now at least)
Oh but yesterday Meera was being quite naughty and I actually started crying at one point. Hormonal, much?
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