Ribbons and lace and everything nice

That’s what little girls are made of.

Thanks Aunty Butterflyrubrics for the little shoes and all the rompers and dresses. When you have a little girl, I’m sure she’ll be the most welldressed kid on the block!

As my pregnant model came *cough* an hour late for her photo shoot, I used Hana as a stand in for some test shots. I was climbing on top of chairs in various positions including on the sofa she was lying on for this shot. She kept on giving me these incredulous, half worried expressions as I took on more and more treachorous positions. Perhaps she was worried the full brunt of my post pregnancy weight would befall her..

Baby potrait photography tips

1. Choose a good time

Choose a time when your baby is in the best mood, some babies are morning babies and some are evening babies. Make sure she’s well fed, changed and well rested

2. Natural light

Early morning and late evenings are the best time. Open up all your windows!

3. Choose neutral backgrounds and colours

Dressing your baby in a plain outfit on plain sheets like on a bed draws your eyes to the baby’s face and expression without busy backgrounds

4. Patience

Lots of it. And caffeine or decaf for breastfeeding mums (which still contains some caffeine but come on we all need to live!)

5. Just keep snapping

Take a gazillion shots, you’ll narrow it down to just a few cos some may be blurry as she keeps fidgeting or has a finger poked into her eye or milk spit everywhere.

6. Love and praise

Lots of smoochies!

Just a peek in to the maternity potrait shot I did for a really good friend. My favourites were the bare belly shots but that has to remain personal! It was loads of fun and I can’t wait to do the potraits for her newborn!

Randomness

Coconut trees, Kerala India

Its that time of year again.. Where I clear out photos from my laptop and put it all in the mess thats my hard disk. So in no particular order.. Here are some photos, all from my “old life”. All my uploads lately have been Hana and more Hana, oh how she’s grown! Anyway I have arranged a sitter this afternoon and I’m looking forward to a photography session with my very pregnant friend. We’re going belly shots and I’m super excited.I have no idea how the shots would turn out but if they’re good you’ll definitely see it here.

I used to scrapbook and recently I just completed one of Hana for H as a really belated birthday present. I think the above scrapbook was done as a 1st year anniversary gift.

Vanilla sauce for a bread pudding, part of a wedding buffet of a friend. H did the photography.

Seletar camp, sunset.

Changi shipping area.

Uluwatu in Bali.

Seletar with H in the front and Husaini’s kid at the back, no more a chubby pre teen, now handsome young man. How they grow!

Seletar airfield.

Changi Beach.

One of my first few food shots, I had a Nikon point and shoot then!

Outdoor picnic

Our ride in Kerala

trekking in Bali

I would love to travel and photograph with Hana soon.

Cloth diapering: A 9 week old

The China diapers fit her now and they’re a pretty good basic diaper. The only thing is the insert isn’t very absorbent as it is a little thin, but it makes for a trim diaper.

Hana managing a half roll from her back to her tummy, I thought she was going to go all the way. 

But it seems like she couldn’t figure out what to do with the arm trapped under her body. It was quite funny watching her try to wriggle the trapped arm out.

The blue mat she’s lying under is her changing pad and I let her go diaper free a few times in the day. After a few months of elimination communication on and off, I’ve managed to catch a grand total of THREE pees. Yup, the first pee was caught at about 7 days old, I think that may have been a coincidence.. The second was when she was 6 weeks old, she peed on cue when I brought her to her little pee basin. (A potty is too small to catch the pee and she’s too small to sit on it so I use a wide open plastic basin) The third was a couple of days ago. Lately its been a little tricky as somehow, Hana thinks that peeing should happen as soon as I open her diaper. What happens is that her diaper is dry in between changes, sometimes for 2-3 hours, so I offer her a pee break. As soon as I unsnap the diaper, she lets it go before I can cue her over the basin. This happens so consistently, almost every single time I undo her diaper that its really not a coincidence. The good thing is that she has control over her bladder and waits to pee only when I open her diaper. The bad news is that I don’t keep that diaper dry to use again as I have no time to hold her over the basin. I guess I should read a little more or try to figure this out in some elimination communication (EC) forum.

 

I’m still pretty amazed at how a little baby can keep herself dry and hold her pee till a pee break. Its given me confidence to keep her diaper free not just when she’s lying on the changing mat but also when I carry her around the house. I put on a pair of pants on her and carry her around for short periods of time. I’ve actually never had an accident. I guess this whole EC thing is a journey and as time passes things get clearer and clearer. Its all about using diapers as a tool and not a necessity! As with all my parenting endeavours, if its not fun or it gets too pressurizing, don’t do it!

3 steps to early literacy

1. Books

Picked up a book on animals from Darul’s bookstore. The text is rhyming and pictures large and colourful, Hana enjoys it.

Some of my other favourites:

Sandra Boynton: All her books I’ve bought have been really fun

Karen Katz: All the books I have are lift the flap, I haven’t really read much as its difficult for me to hold Hana and manouevre the flaps. I think she’ll appreciate it more when she’s bigger.

Eric Carle: The illustrations are beautiful and the text very musical and repetitive. I love all his books!

This book is her bedtime story. I read it to her during her last breastfeed before she sleeps. For all the other books, Hana and I read together flipping the pages as they are short and sweet. This is a super sweet book but rather lengthy for Hana at this age so I read it above her head while she breastfeeds. When she’s older I’m sure she’ll appreciate the pictures and the book more.

2.Poetry and rhyme

There is overwhelming evidence that early learning of nursery rhymes and rhythmic poems, songs, and chants significantly enhances early reading skills and phonemic awareness.  In fact research highlights phonemic awareness as a strong predictor of a child’s reading success.

Warning: Too much poetry and rhyme (I haven’t tried any chanting yet) can make you feel less of an adult. The cure? An occasional pear flatie from Cedele with honey nut ice cream with girlfriends in town. Check this out for their 100% almond cupcake recipe, sounds tempting!

3. Flashcards

I combine flashcards with tummy time.

Tummy time is so important to the motor development of an infant because it allows him to gain head and trunk control. Motor control develops in a cephalocaudal fashion. This means a baby first gains control of his head, then his shoulders, then his abdomen, and so on, all the way to his feet. Developing head control first allows a baby to visually explore his environment. From there, he can then learn to sit up and actually move through his environment. Babies can be placed on their tummies as newborns during supervised, wakeful time.

I’m so tired

I bought a Philips Cucina food processor and made homemade sausages with roast garlicky potatoes and a grilled pepper sauce.

I’m totally exhausted from cooking healthy meals(excluding this meal, we’ve cut red meat out of our diets) and exercising. The diaper rash is also wearing me out as I’ve been solely cloth diapering and I’ve been doing without help at home for the past week. Hana’s diaper rash has disappeared but a new heat rash has appeared along the crease of her neck. Argh!

Cloth diapering: Outside the home!

I bought a dry sack  from The Planet Traveller at Marina Square to store her soiled cloth diapers. Its a cool bag, waterproof and hopefully odourproof too! Its light and can be tucked away in a compact shape into your diaper bag. You can unfold it, fill it with diapers then fold it down to size. You can then hook it onto your bag or pram.

 

I started cloth diapering out of the home out of necessity as currently Hana is getting a rash with disposable dipes. I’m in the midst of searching for the right diaper for her as I can’t live without disposables! I need them at night and they’re just convenient when we go out. I’m currently testing out a few brands and will keep you updated. She’s never had this problem before so I’m a little puzzled.

Strrrrreeeetch

When Hana wakes she does this series of wierd contortions which fall into the category of stretching. She does it with her eyes closed and proceeds to stretching every single small neck muscle with vigorous side to side and craning head movements then proceeds to frantic stretching of her arms with vigorous kicking of her legs and arching of her back. Its like she’s trying to shake and shimmy every muscle awake. Her eyelid muscles are stretched the last with slow fluttering open and close and sometimes they remain closed for awhile, giving me hope that its a false alarm and she’s not going to awake therefore more minutes in bed for me! But slowly and surely two dark eyes stare at me as the morning rays peek thru my blinds. Sometimes I “pretend” to sleep hoping she would follow suit by mimicry (hey babies learn by imitating parents rite?). When she doesn’t seem to follow and starts making soft cooing sounds, I turn my back towards her and roll the other side hoping she would know I REALLY want to sleep. She would then patiently make small scratching motions at my back. As I proceed to ignore this too, she would start fussing and crying. I would then roll back facing her and try to feed her HOPING it would let me catch some shut eye. It doesn’t usually work. In the morning she wants to play before breakfast.

 

Finally I drag myself out, check her diaper for a change and the one thing I’ve  always never been able to figure out is– how does she always manage to get both legs into one leg of her sleepsuit (those long sleeved long legged suits with the feet attached that babies wear as pjs)…?

 

By the way, 6.30 am is the time I’m up everyday! Weekday and weekend!!

Mom and baby exercise!

All these images were from howstuffworks.com

I combine exercise time with diaperfree time. I place her on an adult exercise mat with a prefold lain under her to catch any spills. A lot of times though she remains dry the entire time as she’s had her series of poops and pees in the morning. I usually start with bicycling of her legs as shown above. I sing her this song: The wheels of the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels of the bus go round and round, all day long! I then do several repetitions substituting different vehicles like train, bike, car etc. Rhymes and repetition are great for language development and early literacy! More in another post.

I then bring her arm across her chest and wide open as shown above. I sing her the Barney song sometimes when I do this because it seems apt, at least the great big hug part! This exercise feels like she’s giving herself a great big hug.

I unclasp her grasp to encourage her to open her fingers.

They recommend this for older infants but I’ve been doing this exercise with Hana since the day she was born. It involves holding both of her hands together while she’s lying down then pulling her to a sitting position. Her head will flop backwards as its really floppy (its called the head lag right Aunty Quizas, see I remembered some paediatrics ). As she grew, the head lag became less marked and now she moves her shoulders upwards as I start to pull her up.

I tried this when I saw this exercise but it doesnt work for a younger infant, her face just flops forward and it looks uncomfortable.

Check this out! It has infant massage, baby exercise and mummy exercise guides. I can’t wait to use her as an exercise gadget!

How to make diaper changes quicker at night

Get some leg warmers to wear with your long sleeved romper instead of those sleep suits with rows and rows of buttons up and down the legs! Leg warmers bought at moomoofarm.

Hana in a prefold and Bumwear diaper cover.

Wave “hello everyone!” with both feet.

Wave with your left foot.

Now wave with your right.

Time to nap now.