Sleeping better

Little Andrew slept later than usual last night because we were caught in a terrible traffic jam on our way back from dinner. He was already quite sleepy on the way and as soon as we got back, we showered and had his bottle then lights off. But it was already almost 11pm when he dozed off. I thought he might wake up the next day at 7am again!

Luckily for the rain maybe, he slept until 9am!!! Hooray!!! Surprisingly he was quite sleepy again after his morning milk. But I kept him awake until lunch. We had early lunch and little Andrew was too tired to finish his lunch already. So we napped at 12pm and up by 2pm. Great timing actually.

So by 8pm, he is already wearing off and after his shower and last bottle, he is already in half dreaming state. Took him about 10 minutes from lights off to zzzz.

Let's hope he keeps his sleep routine!

Sleep... again...

Little Andrew's sleeping pattern has been all over the place! He used to go to bed and wakes up quite on schedule but lately it's going crazy again!!!

There are nights, he would wake up at 3am and won't go back to sleep with or without milk. Sometimes giving him milk works. Otherwise he would be rolling, bouncing, making noises, shouting, disturbing daddy but mostly mummy coz daddy is dead asleep! And he could go on and on and on for 2 hours!

Then there were times he would wake up only at 7am! The difference is he sometimes will not go back to sleep even after 2 hours. In the end it's shower and breakfast downstairs. Then he will have some playtime and followed by lunch by noon. Sometimes he couldn't even make it to lunch and is already sleepy. And we will have trouble during lunch! He will eat little because of his sleepiness leading to crankiness! And then there are times he will
still chow down his lunch and proceed with his nap after that.

There were occasions when he woke up at 7am and return to sleep at about 8am and sleep till 11am! And then he will shower and have a heavy lunch! On these occasions, there will be no afternoon nap!!! Oh deary my! I would be super exhausted but he still has enough energy to last till the night!

So the sleep patterns really is crazy lately. I am not sure if I should blame it on teething. I thought I could feel hardening of the gum but I can't see for sure. So I'm not blaming it solely on teething If it is then he will probably have a full set of teeth before turning 2!!!! This is crazy. I'm hoping if we can get it over and done with, we can avoid the terrible 2 stage! Dream on!!

Learn and play

Haven't been updating for a while... Little Andrew is getting so big now! And he certainly has learn quite a few tricks! I tried to let him learn through play and not just for the sole purpose of play- play.

He can insert the beads into the chopstick with ease but still gotta learn the trick to keep all 4 inside :) I didn't show him so I shall let him learn and discover himself.

I use the same beads to do "match the same shape/colour" with little Andrew. He seems to know what I want him to do. He managed to pick the same shape and colour when I asked him to pick from the lots.

He knows his shapes puzzle all too well already so I'm keeping that aside and will rotate back to shapes on and off. He has a match the animal puzzle but he wasn't able to match that earlier on. Will try it again soon to see if he gets it already.

Lately, little Andrew is very interested with Lego! It took sometime for him to get the hang of it but he is now an expert already. Though he is still just "building", I hope one day when he talks he will tell me what is it that he is building.

And then the sorting cups!!!! He has been playing with it for a while already but he could only managed at most 4 out of 10. But one day after I return from work, he could do it all already. Daddy said he showed him how to do it in the afternoon and he got it already! I did it with him before but he didn't get it. It's like he suddenly grew up!!

Drawings! I bought him a set of triangular crayons and he is not very interested in drawing though. He will probably enjoy it later out of the blue again!

Sleep

Sleep is something that is so uncertain for little Andrew. He can sometimes sleep through the nights. So I really have no idea why sometimes he can't! And if he doesn't, it is always at around 3am that he will stir and wake up. And lately, he will only go back to sleep after 2 hours of rolling, walking, fussing, chewing, bouncing, mumbling... It's the same if I gave him milk immediately or 2 hours later. Gotta work this out why is he waking up...

His nap time is quite fixed, by 1pm he will most likely need his nap. Sometimes it's 1 hour and most of the time is 2 hours. And occasionally it's 3 hours of nap. As much as possible, little Andrew should not nap beyond 4pm, 3pm is best. This is so he can sleep early at night. Most of the time, he will not require any patting or humming and he can fall asleep by himself.

At night, if he is super duper exhausted, he can sleep by 8.30pm. Otherwise it's 9.30pm. Anything beyond 10pm is very rare which is good because he will tend to wake up by 8ish and occasionally 9ish (whether it's sleep though the night or after his stunt sessions at 3am).

Most nights, little Andrew will still need patting and lullaby to help him fall asleep.But lately I am shortening the duration of patting and humming. If he doesn't fall asleep after a while of patting and humming then I will let him be and he will have his usual stunts of rolling, standing up, walk about, and the thing I wish he would stop doing, biting and chewing the pillows!!!!! Once he had enough, he will find his spot, usually my arm, and fall asleep.

Until now, we are still co-sleeping. I am not sure when will he be moving to his own room. For now I'm enjoying it - even if this means less space on the bed or getting kicked in the face! I am thinking maybe after he is toilet train or is able to TALK!!!!

18 teeth and counting

Baby, your teeth is growing way too fast! I'm so scared that they will rot before you turn 6 when your permanent teeth grows! We are 4 years away from that!

Little Andrew must be feeling so frustrated with the itchy gum that he is chewing EVERY TIME before he sleeps. The pillows and the blanket is smelling of his saliva which actually makes them all smelling like little Andrew! Haha!

We've got to break this chewing habit!

WIP: Self-feeding

At 20mo, we are still a long way from fully self-feeding cleanly but it's nonetheless good progress!

Last jab

Little Andrew had his last jab and it won't be until 4yo that he will take any more! Hooray!

The doctor did warn us as usual for fever and little Andrew seems ok.

We had to struggle the last few times we visited the clinic. Even just to take his weight seems to trigger off the scream machine. So we have been giving him some training at home with the scale and the thermometer.

He still can't stand still on the scale but at least he stood on it for just a split second! And the thermometer!! Oh boy. there was no way getting that thing into his ears. So daddy been letting him trying out out ear buds, and we started taking temperature at home with the handheld machine. He was ok after a few times. So at the clinic, he was a champ when I told the nurse to let me "poke" the machine into his ears. Easy peasy ;)

The hearing teat is another matter all together. He allowed the ear bud to be inserted but the moment the nurse switched on the machine, the scream followed soon after. So it's still a no go. Boo hoo!