Our little angel enters her 12th week. Here she is with one of her grandmothers.I would love some tips from other mothers on how you keep your young babies entertained when they won't sleep much during the day, when they've been fed, and when they have very short attention spans. I sing her nursery rhymes, take her out in the buggy, play peekaboo, put her under the activity mat, put her in the bouncy chair, dance in front of her and so on. Is it simply a matter of cycling through all these activities endlessly throughout the day? How do you cope with the monotony of it, or do you not see it as that?
She sleeps so well from 6pm onwards, so it's only the daytime to think about. For the first time, we've resorted to the dummy to calm her when she gets bored but won't sleep during the day (never at night). I would really appreciate some activities advice please; and bear in mind that for 90% of the time I am on my own with her as most of our friends do not have children so are still at work.
9 comments:
I can tell you about what I do with Aashna. So its for about 3-4 sessions that she is awake (I call each time slot that she is awake a session). Each session I do different things with her. For example: The 1st one, I give her 1-2 toys (maybe her firefly n a rattle) tummy time etc, then the 2nd session, I give her only books and 1 toy, then in the 3rd one, some other toys or I take her outside for a walk, listen to music and dance etc. The 4th session is a combination of things. And through all these sessions I am always singing and talking to her. And you are right, it does get monotonous as we follow the same routine each day. But at least we are doing different activities and her responses everyday are different, she always does something new. As babies love routines and need to know what to expect next, we can't escape the monotony. Thats the tragedy new moms like us suffer :) Sorry for the long comment.
oh she is a beauty.seriously how charming she looks.MashaAllah.
about playing option.you have mentioned many things and all are perfectly fine.but what i noticed you didnt mention is that you play YOUR SELF with her.hold her in your lap.tickle her etc.i have a 8 months old and i have been through the same experience recently.what i did was i just played with her.talking with her etc.even if you are reading something or watching tv etc,expalin along the way.babies love mommys voice.
also(since i have two kids)i have noticed that if you are spending a lot of time with the baby,she will be fixated with you.may be it came out wrong.what i meant to say is that a baby should have different set of people around her as it will increase her observation etc.so grand mothers etc can also be a very good source of entertainment.
She is lovely!
I used to carry my infants around in a sling when they were awake. I went about my daily business in the house, yard and out. They were amused by the movement and constant change of scenary. I would hold a running conversation with them about what I was doing, and basically just made them a part of me and everything I did. Every few hours I would put them down for a nap.
What was that about not having a strong enough back to be propped up in the Stroller? No one ever told me that. In a sling perhaps it dosent matter as much. I did prop them up plenty even as very little infants to watch the world go by and they were none the worse for it.
Another Kiran in NYC
Sorry about another comment, but I just remembered one activity that I do with Aashna everyday. I carry her around the house, to each and every room. Talk about the different things in each room, she even loves looking out the window. Her fav room is the kitchen :)
Thank you all for the tips. I realise now that I do all the things you have recommended to me and that I do actually have a wide repetoire of activities already that I run through. What I need to do is stress out less, accept that repetition is necessary for her, and that often the best thing to do with her is absolutely nothing - that is, to simply be in each other's presence. I learned this latter skill from my mother-in-law.
I'm so glad you had your MIL with you. Support and variation of family and friends is a necessity with a new baby.
Anyway, yes, you said it yourself - stress out less and learn to appreciate the safety of routine, but not so much so that when change is needed, say for her next phases of development, you can't adapt. If you know what I mean.
I tried to remember what w did for entertainment and I can't! M is crawling now so all I ever do is run after him and tryng to limit the damage he's doing, haha. I was certainly never as organized as Priyanka. I think I just carried him with me a lot - the sling was really good when I needed some time to do other things (feed myself, for instance). One thing I can think of since you're saying she doesn't sleep much during the day - perhaps you can get her to sleep more often? I had a eureka moment when I was told that he needed a nap every two hours. A lot of the time he was just really tired. Two hours after he wakes up he still goes down for a nap and then so on throughout the day. Worth a try unless you're already doing it.
And yes the back thing is true, you're doing the right thing when not propping her up!
Hi Anja, Yes, that's another thing I learned from my MIL and that is to recognise the signs of the baby's tiredness and put her to nap immediately. She also told me to put her down for a nap immediately after each feed. I'm doing both now and she's napping again much more during the day. It's also meant she's frequently going from 11pm to 7pm without a feed which is great.
Post a Comment