Aisya is now 8 weeks young now. I've started training her in the car seat about 3 weeks back, when we had to go to the immigration for her first passport. When she's asleep, she's okay. But when she's awake, it really depends on her mood.
I've been reading a lot on the net about training your baby in the car seat. The first few times, I sat next to her. Initially, she was amazed with the moving light outside the car, and then when she tries to move her body and realized that she's strapped, she starts making fussy noises. Then I had to pull her out.
The next attempt, I talked to her loudly, "Aisya....mummy here..mummy here," and then looked at her eyes, and then she keeps quiet. But not for long. Most of the time, I end up feeding her in the car while someone else drives.
Just last week, we planned to bring Aisya back to Mr's hometown, Klang. Mr however had his weekend classes. So I decided to try driving the car alone with her from Shah Alam to Klang. I was lucky, as this time, she was asleep. All I did was turned on the white-noise apps in my iPhone and placed it next to her all the way..and alhamdulillah, arrived Klang peacefully.
Just last week, we planned to bring Aisya back to Mr's hometown, Klang. Mr however had his weekend classes. So I decided to try driving the car alone with her from Shah Alam to Klang. I was lucky, as this time, she was asleep. All I did was turned on the white-noise apps in my iPhone and placed it next to her all the way..and alhamdulillah, arrived Klang peacefully.
The next day, I tried again. This time driving from Subang to Mines for Mr's Birthday Lunch. I fed her fully and changed her diapers and as she was slightly drugged from the milk, I put on the whitenoise apps and so her eyes went shut right away. Alhamdulillah, we arrived Mr's office peacefully. However, on the way back, I was not that lucky. She cried hysterically at this really long red light and I had to stop over and calmed her down - this included feeding her and changing her diapers. Then, back to the white noise apps all the way back to Subang. What was supposed to be a 20mins drive turned out to be a 45 minutes drive.
Today, the situation was slightly different. Aisya's awake in the car seat. This time around, it's a longer journey. Just 10 minutes on the road, the whitenoise apps didn't work anymore and she started complaining and crying. I stopped the car and calmed her down. Drove back and she started crying again 5 minutes later. You can imagine how stressful I was in the car trying to figure out a way to calm her down. And then I started singing 'Zikrullah' - a melody I usually sing to her to sleep - and she was quiet! - and so I sang the song repeatedly for the next 20 minutes or so - penat ok!
On the way back home, Zikrullah only worked for 20 minutes - and then you know what works? Beatles' The Yellow Submarine! She magically went back to sleep! LOL
This whole try-and-error with my baby is challenging but also quite fun discovering what works with her. Like you've just learned something new about her.
My personal tips on car seat training:
My personal tips on car seat training:
- Before putting your baby in the car seat, make sure that your baby is full fed and with fresh new nappy.
- Download whitenoise application in your phone. It keeps your baby calm. Or download some whitenoise mp3 and burn them in a CD.
- Put some colorful or black and white images around her to keep her entertained. Or some musical mobile.
- Sing to her, or put on some music with songs that she's familiar with. As for me, I used to hum the Zikrullah after my solat during my pregnancy, just to get my baby familiar with the melody. As for The Beatles, yes - one of my favs ;)
- Make sure that you're willing to sacrifice a bit of your time, and stop to calm her down.
That is all that I can share as for now. Let's see what else works with her in the car seat.....
