It's always touch and go...

There are days that little Andrew would sleep through the night and there days he will wake up a couple of times. Sometimes he needs milk, sometimes he just want extra attention.

On good nights that he sleeps through, once his buddy (i.e. pacifier/soother) fell off he will not need it back. On some nights, he will need his buddy to sooth himself back to sleep and will not require any patting or milk. Some nights will require extra patting. Worse case scenario is when he refused to go back to sleep after giving him his buddy and lotsa patting, and he will starts crying for milk.

Obviously my favourite nights are the nights he would sleep like an angel until the next morning.

I'm trying a new routine. Because I realised lately if he has his last meal (baby porridge) even as late as 8pm, he will wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes he needs milk to go back to sleep. So today I'm letting him have his porridge as his second last meal of the day, then give him his bubble bath and play a bit before giving him his last bottle of the day.

I'm trying to see if he will sleep through his way. Because I wonder if he wakes is really due to hunger or is it something else, like teething that could wake a baby or keep the baby up all night.

Separate room

Since the day Andrew returned from the hospital, he has never sleep separate from daddy and mummy. I am not sure if I want that day to come.

Well, I'm worried! What if I can't hear him cry? What if he fell off the bed? What if he wiggles and got trapped in between the bars of his crib? So many what ifs.

Or maybe I have detachment issue! I just want to e close to my baby. Sooner or later, eventually one day, he will not want to sleep with me anymore, right?

I know it's for the best of the parents to sleep separate from their babies/children. But what if it's not the best for the babies/children?

Afternoon Nap

Little Andrew has no problem sleeping through the night BUT he has problem napping these days.

He used to nap after his morning bath for about an hour or more but he doesn't do that anymore. In fact, his nap time is all over the place and it's mostly not more than half an hour. What can I do in that short time? Wash his bottle. If I'm lucky, I can run downstairs and throw the laundry into the washing machine. There is not much time and only the essentials can be done.

Taking care of the baby in the day is no joke especially if he is not keen in self-entertaining for too long.

Little Andrew allows very short time of self-entertaining. So again, I can only do the essential stuff.

Oh and napping means I've got to stay near him when he naps. And he needs heavy patting, sometimes he wants to be carried. And of course this will require his beloved buddy - the pacifier. If I leave his side, he will wake up. If his buddy dropped, he will wake up. If I stop the patting, he will wake up.

Such is the drawback of having to sleep through the night.

Sleeping through the night

I'm glad that little Andrew is back to sleeping through the night. He now sleeps by 9pm-ish and wakes up for a feed between 5am-7am and will head back to bed for another 2-3 hours before I give him a morning bath.

I'm so happy that little Andrew is able to sleep through the night already. I've heard from friends that their babies don't sleep through the night until they are 10 months old or even 1 year old!!

Did I really train him to sleep through the night? Nope not really. I didn't let the sun shines into the room during the day, nor did I purposely put up noises for the day to teach him the difference between day and night. I think the baby's job is to grow an not stress about day time or night time.

The only thing I did was letting baby wear short rompers during the day and long sleepsuits during the night. Other than that, the curtains were drawn 24 hours and even I sleep all the time! I need to sleep during my confinement so I didn't care if it was day or night, I sleep as much as I can. And I let the baby be and sleep whenever he wants.

Once his stomach and body clock is ready, he will miss one feed at night by the time little Andrew is 1.5 months. And by the time he is 2 moths old, he sleeps through the night occasionally. By the third months, he is already sleeping through the night!

Lucky me? Or maybe because baby is formula fed kept him full for longer time and he is more regulated by it. I admire all mommies out there who breastfeed and had to wake up every 2 hours to breastfeed for the longest period.

What happen to sleeping through the night?

It has been 3 nights that little Andrew waking up between 2am - 3am for milk. What happen to sleeping through the night? I would love to sleep uninterrupted again baby.

Lately even after his milk, he sometimes cried. This makes me wonder if he is really hungry or he is just making a fuss. At times he would just go quiet after giving him his pacifier - which signify he wanna go back to sleep. Sometimes he would need a bit more coaching to calm down. And of course there are times he is satisfied after the milk.

If he is always kicking a fuss after milk, I would think he is ready for solids but he isn't doing it all the time. So makes me wonder if I should give him more milk? But he sometimes spit out quite a bit so that's why I'm hesitant in giving him more milk. As it is, little Andrew is drinking 150ml. I doubt he can drink more than that. Will have to monitor a couple of days more and see how it goes.

Little Andrew will be four months next week. I will check with the doctor to see if I can try some solid food with him :)

Back to his bed

We have successfully return back to sleeping in his own crib! Yes!! What a huge success.

One night about a week ago, I decided little Andrew is taking up too much space in our bed. Before he fell into deep asleep, I tried putting him on his crib. To my surprise, he didn't resist much. He gave out a few grunt and fell back asleep! I thought to myself, "SUCCESS!!!"

I am glad I let him sleep with us because he needed lots of TLC and "immediate" reaction to every cry when he was sick. I think it helps him to feel secure and less fussy. In fact he had trouble falling asleep at that time so we let him sleep with us in our bed. And that allowed him to sleep longer hence speedier recovery!

I knew eventually we had to let him go back to his crib. And I am glad he didn't make a big fuss when the time came :)

Sleeping with the baby

Ever since Andrew fell sick, coughing, he never really return to his bed. He is now permanently sleeping with us. I certainly hope he will eventually sleep in his crib - but I really doubt that is gonna happen anytime soon.

When we put him to his crib, even though we were so sure he is in deep sleep, he would instantly wake up the moment we put him down! It's as if there is a special perimeter sensor embedded somewhere alarming him whenever we move him from our bed to his crib.

And I think we both hate to see little Andrew cries. So we just let him be. Hi daddy will always say put him to his crib, let him be and cry it out. Well you see, the thing is I can't bear to see him cry. So is his softy daddy. This is also why he always end up sleeping in our bed. (And yes he is now sleeping in our bed) Attachment issue? Maybe.

I know co-sleeping in dangerous and needs to be extra careful. He refused to be "walled up" against us. He wants to touch us, even with the tip of his finger, when he sleeps. I guess he just want the assurance that we are there for him.

I am not sure if he will ever go back to his crib but slowly I will attempt. A friend of mine has an older toddler, he will not sleep in his own room but definitely not allowed on her bed. So he now sleeps with his parents, on the floor in a separate mattress.

The thing is Andrew might just hate to crib because it's more confine or even perhaps claustrophobic. I guess we have to continue trying putting him in his crib or get him a separate mattress. I have many friends who still co-sleep with their children, even if they are 10! I'm not sure if we will want that.

Well, I guess we just have to figure this out as our baby grow. He might want his crib tomorrow right? Hopeful.

There is no sleep

When a child is sick, is it always the mother that has the sleepless nights and days?

To be fair, the hubs got to go work so obviously the mom had to take the graveyard shift AND the daylight shift. Oh and that means 24 hours!!

Little Andrew had fever since yesterday morning. And after visiting the doctor, it is confirmed that Little Andrew has bacterial infection and had to go in antibiotic because his fever wouldn't go away after 2 dose of paracetamol.

Now after 1 more paracetamol and 2 ibuprofen, the fever seems to be under control. Little one was not interested with milk and was sleeping mostly before that. But now after his 3am meds, seems to be normal again because he cries loudly (his usual self) for milk ;) I am glad that he is asking for milk, otherwise I would have been worried.

Sleeping on tummy

In the UK and USA, I read so many times not to let the baby sleep on their tummy because it could cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and I have been putting it back to let little Andrew sleeping on his tummy for the same reason.

I tried some tummy time with him on my chest and he seems alright about it. But he can't lift his own head for very long just yet, maybe for a couple of seconds. And for this I refused to let him sleep on his tummy.

Lately he has improved on his neck strength so I tried letting him sleep on his tummy. He seems alright with it and during his first time sleeping on his tummy, he slept for slightly more than 3 hours! But all on one side of the neck which I am not too happy about worrying that he might get a neck pain after he woke up!

Today again I let him sleep on his tummy, to see if he will enjoy it and if he can turn his head which he did!!! I am very pleased that he turned his head by himself in the bed while sleeping on his tummy.

So far he slept on his tummy during he day when I can watch over him. I'm not sure just yet if I want to let him do it overnight when I'm sleeping too. I will have to continue to "test water" and see how it goes.

Thunder and baby

We live in a tropical country and it rains almost every other day. But depending on the severity, it might be a thunder storm or just a cooling drizzle.

For the first time since little Andrew's birth, it was a thunderstorm 2 days ago (12/12). When Andrew was still in my tummy, he didn't enjoy raining, let alone the thunder! And for the first time, his first thunder was really really really loud! I was having my dinner and it struck. I waited for a few seconds to see if he cried, oh yes he did and very loud too. So I threw everything and came to coo him. Poor baby was so frighten by the thunder.

I'm not sure what has gotten into Andrew since then that he has been acting up. I am no longer sure if it's just poo problem or scared by the thunder or it's the BCG scar on his arm. I hope he will pass the cranky phase and be a happy baby soon.

What's up with the sleeping pattern

I wonder when will the day of Little Andrew sleeping through the night ever come? He used to wake up every 3 hours for feed but lately I had to feed him every 2 hours. I have increased him milk intake from 60ml to about 80ml now and yet he still needs to be fed every 2 hours.

In fact last night (2nd time so far), Andrew would not go to sleep at all after his 3.30am feed. He was sleeping in my arms after the feed but woke up and started crying the moment I put him back to his crib. It was like that the whole night until the next feed. I hope he will be back to his angelic self tonight.

This is how sleeplessness feels like

I finally got a taste of sleeplessness today. Last night was only 2 hours of sleep and for the rest of the day I didn't get to take any nap at all.

He was so well behaved in his feeding last night but this morning he is cranky again. Everyone has been telling me to teach him to differentiate day from night by having lights on in the room during the day. I know this is good advice but I personally think its too early to do too many trainings at a night. And this is probably the root to my sleeplessness.

What I will do from now on is introducing to him: there will only be a feed every 3 hours. Even if he started to make noises or cries, I will try to wait for the feed at 3-hour mark.

When hubby is around, I will let him make the formula while I try my best to let him suck- which until now hasn't been successful. I know I have milk because both my breast are tender and sore. But there is just no way in getting them out no matter how I try - baby sucking, manual squeeze and breast pump.

His feedings are still irregular in terms of timing and amount. I need to get the rhythm right until I work on other stressful training. Otherwise, I'm just chewing more than I can bite.

Lullaby Song

Little Andrew was crying up a storm just now refusing to sleep. Normally I would avoid giving into his crying if he was just teasing, but today was exceptionally long and loud. I checked his diapers but was empty. I left him alone again but he started crying again.

So I finally gave in. I picked him up and gave him a cuddle and starting singing "Jesus Loves Me" a Sunday School song I have known all my life. He then stopped crying.

Oh I spoke too soon... he started crying again before the end of the blog. So next... we thought is it that we forgot his baby oil??? So far so good... Fingers crossed.