Exemplary Baby? I'm Flattered.

Assalam ladies. ^_^

Wah. Seronok kan bila ada orang acknowledge baby kita as baby contoh? hehe. Suami kepada one of my besties who just recently gave birth to a healthy baby girl, panggil Sofia baby contoh. sebabnya...Sofia tidur from 7/8pm to 7am (now. dulu 6pm-6am) the next morning. Ehe. Bukan tak bangun malam untuk menyusu. Time menyusu memang dia akan minta susu. tapi, cara dia minta, nangis sambil mata pejam..lepas menyusu sambung tidur, which literally sleeping jugaklah. hehe. Jadi si suami ni suruh my bestie minta tips from me macamana nak bagi baby tidur 12hours straight macam Sofia.

Tiny hand that holds me when she's asleep

Well. I was just like u, new parents. Takde ilmu macamana nak jaga anak sendiri. But we picked up ilmu from here and there. Masa tempoh berpantang memang agak susah...sebab ye lah. Masih baru jadi ibu. Tak reti lagi macamana nak train lagipun sebab problem in breastfeeding (entry ni), Sofia kerap meragam waktu malam sebab kelaparan and susu badan tak cukup. Okay. I dont wanna dig any deeper into breastfeeding matter. You guys pun dah baca kan my journey in that department. huhu. So selepas kami introduce formula milk kat sofia, husband and I noticed sofia tidur lena. But sebab formula milk...agak susah kena bangun malam and bancuh susu semua...beza sangat dengan breastfeeding where you can relax and feed sambil baring. I dont know about you, but for me, the hardest part is not waking up at night for feeding time, but the process nak tidurkan anak tu yang sometimes sangat challenging. If you successfully tidurkan anak awal..Alhamdulillah. If not, baby meragam...you kepenatan, baby bangun pagi grumpy...and the next day will seems longer than usual. hehe. Believe me when I said it's h*** of a work the next morning. Hehe

So I do some research on baby's sleeping pattern. From the research, baby umur 0-6m kena tidur at least 12hrs at night and 3-5hrs during the day. Undisturbed. This is crucial for the baby's development. From what I see, sofia bila cukup tidur, bangun segar, and dia boleh buat "kerja" dia dengan lancar sekali. Maksud kerja kat sini is....baby punya milestone lah ye. meniarap, merangkak, etc etc. If tidur lewat, bangun lewat, grumpy, semua tak kena. "kerja" dia pun dia tak mahu buat sebab kelesuan tak cukup tidur. Haa...nampak tak how sleeping hours can effect baby's development and milestones? hee. Since then, tak kira la orang kata I paksa anak tidur ke....or apa ke....Sofia kena tidur 12hours straight. If I sebagai ibu tak jaga kebajikan Sofia, anak I sendiri, siapa lagi. kan? :D

Dulu, orang tua ajar tahan anak jangan bagi tidur selagi tak pukul 12tgh malam. Man....that was wrong. Baby bukannya adult. Adult tidur 6jam pun dah okay. Baby lain. Baby tak boleh berjaga sampai lewat malam. Masa tidur lah otak baby bekembang. Time tidur lah baby akan absord every new things yang dia belajar and discover siang tadi. But yeah...semua baby lain. Bagi kes Sofia....if tahan dia tidur...kononnya supaya malam dia tak bangun meragam...lagi lah dia akan tak tidur malam and meragam sampai la ke pukul 2pagi. Esok nya berlarutan grumpy semua tak kena. Siapa yang susah....? I jugak yang susah. orang lain tak kan rasa benda ni. Bila dah jadi mak baru tau. huhu. 

So from my research I found a way to train baby tidur malam dengan mudah. Tak perlu nak dodoi dodoi like we used to. Cara nya macam ni....you have to establish routine. Routine ni pulak jangan yang complicated sangat. Nanti kita susah nak keep up. Sebab routine ni kena buat consistently. If susah and complicated sangat...tak terkejar kita nak buat hari hari..baby pun boleh confuse. Huuu. Contoh routine yang senang...mandi or tukar diapers, or story telling.

I start established Sofia's sleeping routine since she was 2+m closes to 3m bila sofia dah minum formula. Yelahkan...sebelum tu susu badan tak cukup..perut dia angin tidur dia pun tak lena lah. Kita keletihan pujuk dia dengan sakit belakang dengan pantang nak kena jaga lagi. phewww. Susah sangat time tu. heh. Please dont get me wrong. I looove breastfeeding...in fact up til now...Sofia dah almost 9m, I still breastfeeding her walaupun terpaksa campur formula. :) Back to the matter. Routine yang I introduce kat sofia is called wind-down process method. 

First of all, I dimlighted the room. bagi gelap. Then tukar diaper. Bila dah tukar pampers ni, I akan biarkan dia golek-golek atas katil. Kiranya no tickling, no agah², and whatsoever. Tujuannya, nak bagi energy dia cool off sikit. Just lay down dalam bilik separa gelap. Then automatically sofia enters the sleeping mode. How do you know baby's sleepy? dia gosok gosok mata, garu garu telinga and menguap. hehe. Then I akan feed or breastfeed dia pulak sampai dia tidur. But always remember to bring the wind up...burp kan baby. ^_^

As sofia gets older, she became a lot more active than before. Lasak anak daraku sorang ni. hehe. Suka kick blanket out. So we bought Snoozaboo sleeping bag for her (based on my friend's testimony on the sleeping bag). And we had to introduce new routine to go along with the sleeping bag. Alhamdulillah this method also works for her. Sama macam routine first tu, gelapkan bilik. I always gelapkan bilik so that Sofia knows it's already night and she has to sleep. Then, I feed her. At this age, Sofia akan terkebil kebil lepas menyusu. So I change her diaper and put her into sleeping bag. Subhanallah...it worked like magic. I letak je sofia atas katil lepas pakaikan sleeping bag, Tak sampai 5min dia tertidur. :)

Sofia in her sleeping bag

Now, since sofia dah outgrown the sleeping bag, we had come back to the first routine. Tapi kali ni I includekan watching "twinkle twinkle little star" video which I downloaded from youtube. Kira ganti story telling lah tu. hehe. Bila tengok video tu, dia automatically gosok gosok mata nak tidur. kikiki. Feed dia terus tidur. ^_^

Senang kan? Alhamdulillah sangat I jumpa this method. I dont ever believe in keeping a baby up late at night just so the baby tak meragam. For both me and husband, baby kena tidur awal and cukup 12 jam. It's healthy for the baby...and for the parents too. Coz you know. Being a parent, shouldn't stop you from being a lover to your own spouse. hehe. We need the night for us, man. hahaha. You know what I meant. ^_*

Cheeky baby baru bangun tidur :D

I sebenarnya nak bagi tips ni kat my bestie je...but why not share. Right? After all I boleh bagi je link blog I ni kat dia. hihi. These methods work for us and we still practice them up till now. Thanks to that, Sofia's progressing well. hehe. Oh yeah lagi satu...i believe that we have to put the baby to sleep before we ourselves tired and sleepy. Bayangkan la if kita sendiri dah penat. Baby pulak meragam susah nak tidur. Haruuu. Memang benteng kesabaran yang ciput ni nanti meletup. huhu. I buat semua ni pun..satu...sebab I nak jaga kebajikan sofia...dua...sebab nak kembalikan our love life selepas tamatnya tempoh berpantang 100 hari. hehe....tiga..sebab I nak jadi ibu yang terbaik and perfect for sofia. Tak salah kan? :) Untuk our own little family juga. ^_^

Sofia's latest picture :D

So. How you girls put your babies to sleep? Mind share? :D Especially to working moms. How you d oit? ;D I really am curious. *_*

Until next time darls. Tata!

XOXO,
Liyana SCR