Sleep tight – A predictable way

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I was well prepared, with knowledge about “Teaching My Child to Sleep Through the Night”, everything would be under control with the most important phrase:

"Babies who sleep well, wake up well-rested, attentive, cheerful, and are best able to cope with and learn from their environment."

And suddenly everything about the knowledge was all gone. My baby girl was crying, and I didn't know why.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.”
— A useless song at midnight

Why is this happening? Time to answer the big question: What exactly is keeping my baby girl from getting a quiet night sleep.

I really wanted to read another book, but I didn’t have enough time, I needed to improve.

I used a few techniques for a night or two, but nothing, my baby girl still isn’t sleeping through the night.

I'll try something else later, but first I needed some sleep.

I prepared for sleep; I took my pillow, same side of my bed and….. voilà!!

That’s was the solution! I've had certain behavior to fall sleep, the same behavior that I have picked up during my life that helps me sleep comfortably. My predictable way.

 

“If you are constantly seeking then sooner or later, you will meet ‘your opportunity.”
— Sunday Adelaja

I have a problem, and that problem is keeping me trying different methods. I’ve had created a pattern of inconsistency.

07 March 2017

The Genius of Routine

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At seven months old, I focused on the basics of basics; the final touch was to coordinate her limbs and figure out how to balance her weight.

It wasn’t easy; It required us approximately 4 hours of practice per day to train and fine-tune her walking skill. Everything was possible with the support of an essential piece of technology: a broomstick.

She walked five steps without any external support. At eight months she walked 10 meters.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
— Winston S. Churchill

With high amounts of regular practice accumulated over the next months of training, she walked 180 meters when she turned one year old.

Adjusting her time walking she got more experienced, and not only walk more, but she also walked better.

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”
— W. H. Auden

20 Oct 2017

A Wake Word To Execute The Command .

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By six months her memory had progressed considerably, she could stand up and use the furniture to use them as support, she could even stand without support for a moment.

Every morning we started with the same phrase: Ok, big girl, today’s the day, let’s walk!

But there was no movement in her legs; she couldn't walk!. I had definitely missed something important. I needed to get back to my books while she kept practicing in her crib.

Days later while I was holding her in my arms, I said Alexa:  play some jazz music. The light ring turned on (Alexa was processing my request), and the music started.

I heard a voice: Ak!

For my surprise my baby girl was saying Alexa in her own words. I remember how fascinating she was trying to imitate me. Then I told her, when I say the word Alexa, you repeat it ok?

Alexa! The blue ring turned on, and she repeated it: Ak! That was funny. I recorded a video and instantly went viral in my mind.

I remembered the core function of Amazon Echo:

“When you want to use Echo, just say the wake word “Alexa” and Echo responds instantly.”
— Amazon

And then suddenly the  idea came out:

She doesn't know how to walk because she doesn't know what she needs to start walking. She just needs to move one leg at a time, a wake word to execute the command "move your leg."

Our new wake word was "Step."

From that moment it took us approximately three weeks of practice to get one step at a time with the wake word.  With each day of walking, she made more steps, traveled farther distances, and falling less.

“The only freedom you truly have is in your mind, so use it.”
— M.T. Dismuke

  16 Sep 2017

High-Quality Work Produced. Part 2

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At five months, she gained control of her upper body, sit up on her own and increased mobility; Now she needed to strengthen the muscles and to learn stand up.

Working as her trainer, I figured that the best activity to build her standing muscles was holding her in front of me so that she could stand up and then down. (while I was smiling, talking, singing and making funny faces).

I began with one set of twenty repetitions during the first week, and then I increased the sets five times during the next week.

“Even a low-class warrior can surpass an elite, with enough hard work.”
— Goku

She gained strength to carry her body weight, healthy ankles, hips, and an increasingly mature sense of balance.

Her crib was the perfect area for practicing. She first began to stand by pulling herself up in her crib. It was the Ideal height and was easy for her to hold onto. I was constantly cheering her up to keep her holding and staying on the railing.

“Motivation can’t take you very far if you don’t have the legs.”
— Lance Armstrong

I gave her plenty of time each day to explore and develop her skills on her own, so she became more interested in hitting the walking milestone.

03 Sep 2017

High-Quality Work Produced. Part 1

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Based on the successful beta test of the social domesticated human interaction, I decided to practice the same principles in her learning to walk. I knew that she needed exercising her little muscles to hold up her head, roll over, sit up and finally walk. So I began to experiment on herself.

Each day, whether was batting at an object, kicking her legs, she was exercising her muscles; I became her trainer.

She was spending the majority of her time on her back and turning her over onto her stomach helped build the muscles in her neck, arms, shoulders, and back.

“Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation.”
— Ann Voskamp

She had five-minute sessions (while I was smiling, talking, singing and making funny faces) looking around, reach and kick. I increased gradually the sessions to 20 minutes each day, finishing with 3 hours at four months every day consolidating her work into intense and uninterrupted sessions, following the law of productivity:

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

In pure numbers, by maximizing her intensity in training, she optimized the results she produced per unit of time spent working. It worked out!

At four months she was standing, alignment her body and building balance.

“No matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens”
— Veronica Roth

  13July 2017

Domesticated human interaction.

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There was a particular problem that I was facing: My baby girl was two months old, and she couldn't concentrate on what I was saying, doing or teaching; in other words, she wasn't domesticated.

My wife was telling me that I should give her time because she was very young and that I will soon come up with an idea and she won't be distracted again.

That was the core of my problem, deficiency of focus on me.

Thinking algorithmically about the problems I was facing, and about the possible solutions, this could help me see how good I was, and understand my failures. My baby girl needed to keep her mind focus on what I was doing, and ignoring all the other sights and textures that surround her to learn new things

“Your environment will eat your goals and plans for breakfast.”
— STEVE PAVLINA, AUTHOR OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR SMART PEOPLE AND BLOGGER AT STEVEPAVLINA.COM

During my years of working and reading, I've noticed that I need two things: A environment (jazz) music and my goal. These steps would be the series of actions to solve my problem.

Every time I played jazz music I needed to train her sight and focus span. I started moving my head side to side very slowly (because I noticed that she was not able to follow the speed pattern) and talking with my mouth open full.

I did these steps for about one month, and now she was naturally sociable, and she could interact by copying me better and learn more.

One night I could see that she tried to copy me when I was singing, but she got continuously frustrated. From that moment I knew that she did not know how to move her lips to talk.

I said Hello (like singing slowly), and then I moved her lower lips again and again. And voilà, she said hello in her words !!

When she received good eye contact, she began to accumulate more information about language watching my facial expression, gestures, and signs. It was the beginning of the social domesticated human interaction.

“Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.”
— DAN ROAM, AUTHOR OF THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN

17 May 2017

I took the shortcut.

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In my adventure bag, as I like to call it, is packed with several items, but there are two that are helping me relieve my stress, satisfie my soul, and brings me back to where my real adventure is found: raising a smart, happy girl.

I learned the two big reasons and the solutions that gave me plenty of time for reading and sleeping.

I took the shortcut.

 

Reason 1:  Gas.  - Solution: Windi® the GASSPASSER.

Reason 2:  Flu.  - Solution: NoseFrida® the SNOTSUCKER.

“Everything evolves. Innovation is requisite. Humans require novelty.”
— Eagleman, David. The Runaway Species: How human creativity remakes the world

22 Apr 2017

My mother in law was Big Data

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During and after the pregnancy, my wife’s adviser was my mother in law, “the most experienced” and “always” she knew almost everything. But why my mother in law advice required such attention?

Well, I assume because she’s seventy-two-year-old, she’s observed more marriages, many that worked and many that didn’t. And over the years, she has cataloged the cures for many diseases, pains, weather, food and how to take care babies.

Doing the math, my mother in law had access to the most significant number of “data” (myths), so my mother in law was kind of Big Data.

I enjoyed these myths during my nighttime reading (they made me laugh), but the big problem was that I don’t believe them, and from that moment I decided to take a big step in defeat those myths.

Where do I start? I thought in the back up of the Big Data: My Mom. I placed a call and asked her about taking care of a newborn. I was anxious for the real knowledge, and this was the short and concise advice:

“Get a nurse”
— Mom

Well, I assumed my mom thought that I was a good for nothing on this topic. I said bye to Mom and please give my best to Dad.

And thus began the greatest challenge of my life.

“Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.”
— Karl R. Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge

12 March 2017