MY VIRTUAL CHILD

CAIDEN APOLLO AT 3 MONTHS OLD

1. Caiden is awake about half of the time, sleeping about 6 hours at night and in three 2-hour blocks during the day. When awake, he is sometimes moving about restlessly, and sometimes quiet or calm.

Choose a variety of activities depending on Caiden Apollo's mood and go with the flow.

• By choosing this, I am allowing Caiden to explore new things that suit him the best because he knows what's best for him than I do.

Caiden is able to focus his eyes on you. He spends a lot of time studying your face and the faces of anyone who comes close to him. 

2. Caiden Apollo is occasionally fussy after meals, and on rare occasions has diarrhea. However, most of the time Caiden is relaxed and content after meals. 

When Caiden is fussy, hold him upright to your chest or shoulder and pat gently. Burping is needed (not you -- the baby!)

• Burping after feeding is essential for babies because it helps prevent the milk from coming back up. Another reason why it is important is because it expels the excess air that they swallow.

At 3 months of age, Caiden is showing more intense interest in his surroundings. Caiden smiles at familiar people and toys, is able to laugh at surprising or funny things (such as a little dog), and is developing lots of cute little habits.

3. You notice that Caiden can earn a thing or two so you start working on his baby IQ!

You show Caiden interesting objects such as rattles, mobiles, and stuffed toys and watch how interested he is in looking at them or reaching for them.

• Toys can help a child to explore all the ways that he or she can play with one object. 

Caiden Apollo has suddenly been stricken with bouts of indigestion (accompanied by pitiful crying) and diarrhea over the past week. You have seen the doctor and are treating Caiden Apollo with pedialyte, rice water, etc., and trying to give him extra attention.

4.  Sometimes Caiden Apollo becomes fussy, is difficult to soothe, or has trouble taking a nap. What will you do?

You keep your routine pretty regular (feedings, playtime, nap time), and try to get Caiden to adapt to it gradually.

• This is in order to help Caiden achieve and maintain a regular body schedule. This is also very helpful for him to have a good sleeping pattern so that he will have enough rest.

5. You love to hear Caiden make those little "ooo" sounds.

So you spend a lot of time talking to him to encourage more of those sounds.

• By encouraging Caiden to speak through imitation or baby-talk, I will be sending an important message: what he is feeling and that communication is important among us human beings.

6. If Caiden was being breastfed, will that continue? (If Caiden was not being breastfed, pick option 3)

Yes, along with a breast pump to store breast milk so that your partner or another caregiver could feed him.

• Breastfeeding is advisable to be done until the baby is 9 months old until he or she is 12 months old. There are a lot of benefits when it comes to breast feeding such as reducing your little one's risk of ear infections and childhood cancers, reducing your own risk of breast cancer, your baby having a stronger immune system. 

7. Your partner's job generates enough income to meet your goals of moving out of your apartment in the city, into a safer neighborhood with better schools, and into a better apartment (within a year or so) or into a home that you own (within 5 years or so). After discussion, you decide that:

You will work outside the home part-time to boost the family income, and Caiden will be cared for by you or your partner, limited use of relatives, and use of a state-certified home daycare provider (a highly recommended, nice middle-aged woman who takes care of two other babies in her home full-time), as needed (about once or twice a week). The home daycare provider has a safe, warm, and stimulating home-type environment, and takes care of infants until they are 18 months of age.

• I chose this decision of working part-time because I want to help my husband with the family income, that will be used for our family's expenses in the future (like getting a house, buying essentials, Caiden's education). I also chose to let other people take care of Caiden so that he would be exposed to strangers and not just us (my partner and I). Although they may be strangers to Caiden, they aren't to me since they're mostly my relatives. I also chose this decision because the daycare provider sounds like someone who you can really trust and excels well in her job.

8. Caiden tends to cry when introduced to new people or situations. What will you do?

Introduce him to new situations gradually and monitor his reactions.

• I have observed that Caiden is usually a difficult type of child since he doesn't really warm up to other people that easily. I think that it is better if I introduce him to a new environment or new situations slowly so as to make sure that he won't be too stressed and frustrated if otherwise. I would also monitor his reactions to see how well or how bad he would feel when it comes to meeting other people and through those observations, I would use them to further help him if he has a problem with warming up to other people.

Mary Laurenz J. Barbaton, Ryan Cordova, Edel Rose Rivera

BSPT-2C