Being There To Listen

I must admit that on most days, by the time bedtime rolls round, I am eager to pack the kids off to sleep. Already my kids sleep way later than they should -- so late that I'm embarrassed to tell you what time that is! So by the time they get in bed after the reading is done, I'm usually in a hurry for them to just go to sleep already. It's lights out, prayers, and no more talking, thank you very much. I get annoyed when they roll around, ask for water again, and try to prattle on about something.

Then recently, while sorting through my iPhoto library, I stumbled across something I had just about forgotten. It was a recording of a conversation I had with Noey when he was 2, nearly 3 years old. It was actually a video, but there was no picture as it was pitch dark: I had recorded it while chatting with him after lights out at bedtime. And, my goodness, it was the cutest thing. I had forgotten his baby voice, and how he used to refer to himself in third person all the time. I burst out laughing at the sound of his voice gleefully telling me that "Noey wants to beat Lincoln because he is a naughty boy". It was in fact one of the night chats that I used to enjoy so much with him in times past.

It made me stop and wonder how that slowly evolved into today's hurry-hurry-be-quiet routine. Was I missing out on something valuable by not allowing my kids to talk to me at night?

I know I have to make some changes, I must. Before they stop talking to me altogether. I would loathe the day when I would miss out on silly conversations like this:

Me: Noey, did you know that when I was younger I thought I would name my son Ethan?

Noey: Why?

Me: Because I liked the name Ethan! Though not so much now.

Noey: Did you think you of naming Meimei Weethan?

Me: Weethan?

Noey: Yes, because she needs to go to the toilet all the time!

My son. He's growing up to be quite the comedian. And I want him to be having such funny conversations with me as he does just that.

The End of Co-Sleeping

2014 is turning out to be a milestone year. And this is probably the biggest thing to happen this year, thus far:

Ladies and gentlemen, my kids are FINALLY SLEEPING IN THEIR OWN BEDS!!

So yes, now you know our rather embarrassing little secret, which is that right up to the start of this year, we were still co-sleeping with our kids. Actually, scratch that. I was co-sleeping with the kids while my husband gratefully escaped onto the mattress on the floor that was meant for Noey. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't too fussed about the sleeping arrangements. But after being trapped between wriggly children while putting them to sleep and being squeezed out my lovely king-sized bed once too often, I had had enough. And after listening to my complaints numerous times, the husband also agreed that it was best if we settled the kids into their own room. 

We bit the bullet, cleared out one of our rooms, hauled ourselves down to Ikea during the year-end sale, and forced ourselves to decide on two beds and mattresses for the kids. Then we brought the kids down on a separate occasion to choose their own sheets.

Of course, me being me, the whole process wasn't without its little hiccups. Like how I had grandly waved off the need to pay $30 for the assembly of the beds, only to open the boxes and find that the first step required me to screw in 22 screws to attach metal tracks to the wood. Yup, that's 22 screws for one bed. I pressed on anyway because I'm stubborn like that, and wow, was my hand aching after I was done!

I was pretty proud of the fact that I managed to assemble the bed all on my own! But I got the husband to build the second one, which he did… after buying a power drill to help with the screws. Hah.

The kids were very enthusiastic about the whole process, and when we were done, they were very excited about their new bedroom. But of course, the test was whether they'd sleep in their beds. Noey, my older but more clingy child was immediately alarmed about the move but we managed to appease him by assuring him that Mummy would in the same room for a while, though I would not be sleeping with them. On the first night, they managed to settle and while Noey did wake and need me to put him back to sleep, Meips slept well. And they've been sleeping in their own beds since. "Wow, this is like staying in a hotel!" sighed Noey, a couple of days after moving in.

It's not been painless, naturally. The good news is that they have not awakened in the middle of the night and wandered across the corridor to our room as we thought they might have. The bad news is that they yell for me instead. And I have to hurry over or the noise would wake the other child and both would need me to put them back to sleep. So I've since resurrected my baby monitor and uninterrupted sleep remains elusive. But thankfully they ease back to sleep quickly and it's not happened more than once a night. I'm optimistic it'll get better. It will, right?

In the meantime, I'm finally going to break out the nice mattress pad from my sister and BIL, and lovely sheets that I've been hoarding to celebrate!

In a Galaxy Far Far Away...

One fell asleep clutching his self-constructed A-wing, and the other with her "Storm-per-per" beside her.

This is my Lego Star Wars family!  

Sleeping Like a Baby

Definitely one of the highlights of my trip:



Naomi, sleeping through the night, in her own cot bed.

She isn't really a bad sleeper, but in recent months, she's developed the bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night and asking to be transferred to my bed in my room. She'd reuse to settle until I bring her over, whereupon she would simply make herself comfortable and put herself to sleep. It's terribly annoying.

She pulled the same stunt the first night we were there, but thereafter, she was out from 8pm at night and continued sleeping all the way till 6am the next morning, two nights in a row. 6am was a bit early for me, but I took it in my stride in return for the continuous stretch of sleep afforded to me. That was certainly God's grace at work as I was nursing a bad cold and needed the rest.

After those two nights, I had half a mind to buy that Pack 'n' Play and bring it back with me! I have also since been experimenting with letting Naomi sleep on a pillow. I thought it worked the first night we came back, but I think the real reason was that she was too flat out tired. The day after that, she was back at her usual waking ways.  Ah well.

Back when I was struggling with sleep issues with Noey, I read book after book, trying to figure out when he was supposed to be sleeping through the night and what I should be doing to help him achieve that. Nothing really worked. I came to accept that I had a son who needed to hold my elbow to sleep and who needed me to sleep next to him. He's much better now and does not wake in the middle of the night, but yes, he's still in my bed. With Naomi, I'm a lot less fussed. At least after waking up at night, she drops back to sleep without any assistance most of the time, after I move her to my bed. I no longer wonder if this is "normal", whatever that means. I've come to accept this as a phase of life.

Eventually I'll reclaim my bed and have good sleep. Maybe in a couple of years?

Where are my Sleepy Vibes??

Always, always be careful what you wish for.

Ever since he was born, I have been the one who puts Noey to sleep every night. When I'm home, I put him down for naps too. When he was younger, this frequently involved nursing. Whipping out the boob was a sure fire way of getting him to sleep. When we stopped, this progressed to the elbow grabbing, leg stroking, etc. But it always had to be Mummy, and I'll admit it -- I resented it at times. Those times when I was wide awake but chained to the bed pretending to sleep while waiting for Noey to fall asleep. Those times when Noey just couldn't fall asleep and would clamber all over me for more than an hour finding a good spot. It was worse when I was heavily pregnant. Lying down hurt, but still I had to do it. It didn't help that DD would be off surfing the net while I was trapped in bed!

So when Naomi came along, I had hoped she would be -- and needed her to be -- more flexible.

Fast-forward to today.

I am not the one who puts Naomi to sleep. It wasn't a conscious decision. While I very much wanted to be the one to put her to sleep, The fact that I have to bathe, feed and put Noey to sleep means that very often, I have to pass Naomi on to my helper, and sometimes DD, and they put her to sleep when necessary.

So she doesn't need me to sleep. Which is great. Except that...

I now CAN'T put her to sleep!

I am successfully maybe 50% of the time. When a nursing period coincides with her sleepy period, or when she's just so tired out she collapses in my arms, or when, magically, she manages to settle in a comfortable position and nod off without being disturbed by Noey.

Yesterday, I struggled for more than an hour trying to put her to sleep. She nodded off twice but roused herself both times when Noey squealed with laughter outside. I tried carrying her this way and that but she wriggled and squirmed. I put her in her cot and tried to pat her, but she wouldn't settle, choosing instead to stand up and bite the rail. All the pick ups and put downs didn't work. She also didn't want to nurse after a while. I walked out in frustration a few times before I threw in the towel and got my helper to go put her to sleep. My helper -- who's been with us less than 3 weeks -- managed to put Naomi to sleep eventually. Needless to say, my Mummy pride was severely injured.

Thankfully, Naomi took pity on me today and kindly drifted off contently in my arms come bedtime. If she didn't cooperate, I must admit I would have been more than a little depressed.

Funny how what you wish for isn't always, well, what you want!

Night Time Chats

Putting Noey to sleep every night is not something I look forward to. In fact, it is something I positively dread on some nights. I don't know why he finds it so hard to go to sleep. Then again, every time I say that DD will look at me meaningfully and my "sleep-is-a-waste-of-time" genes feel guilty.

I appreciate him being asleep when finally he knocks off, but the process of getting him there is frequently long and arduous. There are the complaints -- the many repeated "I'm not tired!" and "I don't want to sleep!" protests. There are the excuses -- he needs to drink water, he needs to pee, he needs to poop, he needs to read another book, he needs to check on Mei-Mei. There are the delaying tactics -- when he reaches the end of the book and he refuses to let me read the words but instead keeps asking me questions about the pictures so that the story wouldn't come to an end, when he refuses to let us clean his teeth and when he refuses to settle down for prayers because he knows it's lights off thereafter.

When we finally settle into bed for the sleeping part, he would clamber all over me, or insist on holding my elbow, (or elbows, when he's being particularly unreasonable) or squeeze himself right next to me such that the both of us are occupying a tiny strip of the large king-sized bed. (Yes, I still have to sleep with him every night. Ironically it's Naomi who is sleeping in her own room all on her own. For now at least, till she catches on.) He'll be there, flipping to and fro, occasionally yakking away while I play dumb and try not to answer him while praying that he would just fall asleep soon.

The ironic thing is that, in between the painful bits like cleaning his teeth, forcing him to sit still for prayer, dragging him into bed and the enforced bed rest and feeling up, Noey is actually his most entertaining and engaging self at this time. He makes the funniest statements, for one.

"I need to go outside and do a few things, and then I'll come back," he said the other day, importantly, while trying to get out of bed. "I need to do some work on the computer!" he protested when I (unsurprisingly) didn't let him go.

This is also when he opens up the most about his day in school and what he did and learnt.

Some days I hear about his interactions with his classmates, like how "Noey tried to kiss Charis, and she said 'Noah! Don't do that!'". Or how "Noey makes a funny sound and Samuel will laugh!". Or "Today, Noey fight with Lincoln/Derrius/Samuel". (Oh dear.)

Some days he starts spouting the Chinese he's been learning in school. "足球 is football and 保龄球 is bowling ball and 篮球 is basketball!" he would declare. One day he told me that "一 is like that," drawing a horizontal line in the air. "And 二!" he'd carry on, drawing 2 lines in the air. "三!" Three lines in the air. "And四!" Four lines in the air! Haha.

Earlier this week, he suddenly sat up and showed me the actions to his song item for the year-end concert. I think his class will be performing a dance to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" from the looks of it. It was really cute, especially since he's not one who would usually copy actions to a song.

Just earlier this week while I was chatting with Noey in bed, DD walked in, smiled and said, "You love it, right? Spending this time with him?" And I realised that for all the grief I feel about putting him to sleep, I do. I do love these moments of one-on-one time when I get to know what he's doing when he's away from me in school, and the thoughts that run through his head.

Now I just have to remember that every time I'm feeling angsty about putting him to sleep.

Why U No Sleep??

I think that if I ever had to go it alone on my own as a SAHM without my helper, none of my kids would nap.

We are at that phase (at least, I hope it is a phase!) where Noey would choose not to nap if it was up to him, and Naomi just doesn't want to be put down. She would snap awake as soon as she touches the rocker/bed/swing. It's terribly annoying.

I had one of those days last week when Noey didn't nap at all. I wouldn't be as grieved about it if I could claim back the 1.5 hours I spent in the room trying to put him to sleep. That and the stress I went through of hearing Naomi scream her head off outside the whole time.

It has always been difficult to get Noey to sleep and to get him to stay asleep thereafter. He still needs me to lie down next to him while he strokes my elbow, my leg, clambers all over me, and generally squishes himself against me as much as possible. It drives me absolutely insane. Especially when it carries on for more than an hour. I know I should have "trained" him out of it. Believe me, we tried. But between his persistence and my desperation for him to just sleep already, we haven't made much progress. We've carried on with what works and at least that gets him to nap for 1.5 to 2 hours a day everyday, and to sleep at a decent time at night.

Until now.

Noey's saving grace has always been his schedule. At least I could count on him going to sleep at certain times. Could, being operative these days. The problem now is that his school hours have screwed up his schedule somewhat. I've been very happy with his transition to school thus far, except for this nap problem. School knocks off at 2.30pm, and at this point, he is tired. Unfortunately, the car ride is too short for him to fall asleep. And once he gets home, he's re-energized and I have to drag him to sleep, kicking and screaming.

Naomi also complicates matters by not having a fixed afternoon nap or feed schedule, and generally not being too good a napper altogether. (Her night-time sleep is awesome though, so I really shouldn't complain.) It's just that the need to squeeze in her feeds and put her to sleep is very difficult when I also have to be the one to put Noey to sleep.

So far, I've tried:

1) Putting him to sleep immediately once we get home. I get him to wash his face and hands, change his clothes and it's off to bed. Problem: There is a lot of protesting and he takes ages to fall asleep. Also because he takes a while to fall asleep anyway, it is too late to give him a snack when he wakes up as it is too close to dinner time.

2) Letting him have a snack before packing him off to sleep. Problem: He's not the fastest eater, and sometimes, he's so happy playing with his toys in the meantime, it's still some work dragging him off to sleep. And if I miss the magic window and try to put him to sleep too late, he doesn't sleep at all.

3) Taking a long drive in the hope that he'll fall asleep before we get home. Problem: He refuses to take that last pee in school so I have to bring him home or somewhere else to pee first. It also still has to be a pretty long drive!

4) Bringing him out somewhere for tea and run some errands before heading back, and thereby letting him fall asleep in the car. This is what I've taken to doing most recently, and it is proving to be the most effective, fun and productive for everyone. The one thing I do feel guilty about is having to leave Naomi at home with someone for the period we're out. Bringing her too is more than a bit tricky, especially if they both fall asleep.

In all cases, I need someone else to hold Naomi for a while. I've tried putting them both to sleep at the same time, something I've only been successful at maybe 2-3 times this entire month. Noey gets too excited when Naomi is around and would keep trying to paw her, talk to her, squeeze himself next to her such that neither would get to sleep. Or Naomi would simply not be interested in sleeping and start making so much noise to be carried that Noey wouldn't sleep either.

Argh.

Them taking turns to nap results in me having no time to do anything, including take a nap myself, so I've been crashing out pretty early every night. Thank God my helper is back and order has been restored in the house! Noey's schedule and Naomi's too are now a work in progress. Two kids is certainly at least twice the work. Luckily for them (and for me) it's also double the cuteness.

Now, let's just shut those big eyes, shall we?

Do we really have to sleep?

Mama's Magic Elbow

Short of being nursed to sleep -- something which has always proven to be supremely effective, I think most kids need some kind of prop to help them soothe themselves to sleep. Most commonly this would either be the pacifier or the thumb. Some also have some kind of security blanket or soft toy that they must have all the time or which they need to hug to sleep.

Noey is somewhat different.

He took to the pacifier early on but around the 8th month or so, he decided that he wanted nothing to do with it. Which wasn't a bad thing. I was actually quite happy that I could avoid having to actively wean him off it. The downside was that he relied heavily on nursing to get to sleep. That and MY ELBOW.

Yes, you heard me right. How feeling up my elbow can be comforting I really cannot imagine!

He always used to make a grab for my elbow while I was nursing him and would stroke my arm and my elbow repeatedly for comfort. Now that he has stopped nursing, the elbow has been called into full time duty. "Elbow! Elbow!" he would sometimes call pitifully as he settles down in bed. Mostly I just shove it to him without him asking cos I know it would help him to settle quickly.

It is not a long term solution however. There are days when he would want to pull my elbow in a direction where it can't possibly go because, you know, my arm is attached to my shoulder which is, in turn, attached to ME. That would result in protests and a realignment of sleeping positions would be necessary. Then there are the days when he takes forever to fall asleep and the stroking just drives me crazy, because I just can't take the repeated pawing. And of course, when he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and needs an elbow, I wake up too. And can't get back to sleep. Arrrgh. Maybe I just need my own elbow to stroke!

Now I'm scratching my head wondering how to get him off my elbow and onto something more portable. We got him a soft toy dog (which he picked out himself and christened "Rwaa-Rwaa") which he absolutely loves, but while he would hug it in bed, it hasn't worked to replace Mama's elbow. The only other thing he seems equally fond of is my leg (which he frequently rolls down to and strokes too) but that wouldn't do me any good would it? I do want to get him into his own bed soon so I need to resolve this since Mama and her elbow sure ain't going to be fitting into Noey's kid's bed with Noey!

One of those many quirks that make Noey Noey!

What do your kids use to soothe them to sleep?

The Return of the Boob (to Me)

Probably the last time I fed Noey in public, in Hong Kong Disney in Dec 09. I was hardly feeding him when we were out of the house by then.

On 16 March, I breastfed Noey for the very last time. He was 17 months and 2 weeks old. (It was supposed to be 15 March but I caved the next day!)

It's been a long journey and I must confess, I'm not sorry to see it end. Except on the days when it takes FOREVER to get Noey to sleep and I think back on how he used to suckle and drift off into oblivion. Breastfeeding wasn't difficult for me once I'd gotten the hang of nursing lying down. He could drift off to sleep while I get a rest and sometimes drop off to sleep myself as well. I think back on that fondly now as we undergo endless minutes of singing as Noey rolls all over the bed and all over me before he finally settles!

Seriously though, I'm not sorry I breastfed Noey, and when I have another child, I would do it all over again, daunting as it might seem to think about. For one thing, it certainly saved me a lot of money in formula. For another, Noey has been extremely healthy. But for the one time that he came down with flu last August, he's not come down with a fever that was not vaccination related and has only had the odd sniffle or two over the last nearly 18 months. I'd like to think the breastmilk went some way in keeping him well!

When I think back, I marvel at the fact that we managed to keep it going for so long. Not that Noey wasn't a good feeder -- he was a good feeder from the word go. It was the teeny weeny fact that he just doesn't like milk.

Who would have thought right, that a baby wouldn't like milk??

Things moved along swimmingly on the feeding front till he was around 4 months old. I think it was around that time that the milk strikes started. I would be holding him and practically jamming his face into the boob and he would be craning his little neck in the opposite direction, turning left and right, looking everywhere but at the boob where I wanted him to go. It was tiring and and stressful, espeically when the milk was his sole source of nutrition. The pressure eased up somewhat when he started on solids, but as milk was still regarded as his primary source of nutrition, we faced a new challenge when I went back to work -- the boy wouldn't take the bottle. While he would grudgingly take some milk when he got hungry (which was like, a mere once a day), he would mostly wait for me to get home and drink his fill at night, and sometimes in the middle of the night as well. He only wanted his milk straight from the source and wasn't too keen on the expressed stuff.

I tried transitioning him to formula instead, and surprise surprise, he didn't like formula. He'd take it in his rice cereal but not on its own. Since I had ample supply I didn't push it and figured that I'd just continue feeding him morning and night (leaving his caregivers to wrestle/cajole a bottle down his throat in the afternoon), and wait till he turned 1 to transition him straight to fresh milk instead. Except that, of course, he didn't like fresh milk either! I tried everything: different formulas, different brands of fresh milk -- Pura, Meiji, Farmhouse, Magnolia, even HL cos I thought he might like the vanilla taste (he didn't), soy milk unsweetened and lightly sweetened, all dished out in a variety of bottles, straw cups, cups, served cold or warm. Didn't work.

In the end, under the instructions of his Paed -- who confirmed that some babies just didn't like milk too much -- I gave him chocolate milk.

Now that, he liked. I have a video of him drinking chocolate milk for the first time during our Hong Kong trip in Dec and he was giggling randomly, positively drunk on the stuff. But even though it was approved, I couldn't in good conscience give him chocolate milk for every feed so what I've done is to dilute it with regular fresh milk in a 1:4 ratio and that's what he takes now, 3 times a day, between 120-150ml per time. It's a paltry amount, I know, but together with his regular serving of yoghurt in the morning, it just about meets the minimum requirements for his age.

At least he's drinking it!

"No more!" Noey's favourite moment.

Admittedly though, most of the time, the feeding sessions look more like this:

It's been getting better.

Anyway, I decided that the breastfeeding really had to stop. I think my supply was already barely there, and Noey was only feeding for comfort, not for sustanance. We had also fallen into the bad habit of offering him the boob whenever he needed to sleep because it was so much easier for everyone involved.

It was hard in the initial week. I couldn't put him to sleep alone and needed DD in the room with me to distract Noey from the fact that Mama was refusing him the boob. DD would sing and it would calm Noey down enough for him to try to settle down to sleep, usually only after much rolling and stroking of our arms and elbows, and sometimes my leg. He's very odd, this boy. In the first couple of days, he would wake up at the usual 4-5am time and require some middle-of-the-night singing in order to go back to sleep. But after 2 nights, he didn't need the singing and after a couple more days, he finally stopped waking up and is FINALLY sleeping through the night AND not breastfeeding. Hooray!

Now I have to find a way to get ME to sleep through the night. Sadly I'm the one waking up. And also figure out how to kick Noey out of our bed without screwing everything up!

One step at a time...

Adventures in Sleep Training #2

Asleep in an old 3-6 month onesie that Daddy put him in which, well, as you can see, is way too small!

I don't want to jinx it, but since my first sleep training post, things have been coming along nicely.

That first week or so was tough, especially when he would awaken at 2-3am and start howling. I needed DD there with me just to make sure that I didn't cave in and just feed him so that all of us could get some sleep. It was also harder to settle him at that time since, having previously been fed regularly at short intervals, the bub seemed genuinely hungry at that time and would keep throwing himself face-first into my chest, shoulder, arm, etc. and trying desperately to suckle. It was not fun trying to sleep with slobber all over! I love my son, by eewww...

After that I hit on the idea of just picking him up for a dream feed around midnight before I turn in for the night and whaddya know? The 2-3am disappeared and we're now only left with the 5am wake-up call. So yes (drumroll...) he's finally sleeping through the night!! From 8.30/9pm to 5am at least. Hurray!

Next up will be to tackle the 5am session and that I think will be a tough nut to crack since he's woken up for a feed at around 5am since FOREVER. Even when he was 2-3 months old and managing a 5-hour stretch (and fooling me into thinking he was a good sleeper), 5am was the time he would cry for a feed. I guess I wouldn't mind waking up at 5am just to pop him a feed and head straight back to sleep till 7am except that it will be reaffirming a bad habit. I've been trying to stretch it to 6am before I feed him to lengthen the interval but lately this has been backfiring and the writhing and crying has resulted in him becoming fully awake by the time I feed him. Ack! So after the feed he's up and about and on the go for the day at 6am but I feel like dying from all that wrestling and rolling around with him earlier. It's also messed with his nap schedule quite a bit and he fits in 3 shorter naps instead of 2 longer ones. Hmmm.

So yes, this is still a work in progress! More updates in a bit.

Adventures in Sleep Training #1

Noey and his curtain eyelashes

He looks so peaceful asleep that I wonder why he doesn't just STAY ASLEEP.

So. We've started with the sleep training.

I've really dragged my feet on this one. I keep fooling myself thinking that he'll just magically start sleeping through the night once he has enough space to roll around or he starts on solids or when he's eating his solids well... Well, he's now doing all three of the aforesaid and nope, still not sleeping through the night. And then I think, oh, maybe he's teething, and maybe it's uncomfortable, and maybe I should waiting till his finishes teething... until DD pointed out that he could be teething for months and I might just never get started. Then I met Yuling who inspired me with her positive sleep-training experience and the longing for uninterrupted sleep became too great. I decided to take the plunge.

The first step I've decided to make is to wean him off the night feeding. I nurse him back to sleep each time he wakes because he now completely rejects the pacifier (which is not a bad thing altogether) and it is the quickest way to get him back to sleep in the middle of the night. 5-10 mins and I can pop back into bed. Also, given that he's on-off milk quite a bit plus hardly drinks any of it on the days I'm at work, it makes me feel better supplementing his milk with night feeds. But since he's been feeding better in the day and he's really a good weight these days -- by our rough estimate he's about 9kg -- I guess it's as good a time as any to stop with the night feeds.

Noey's pattern: He goes to sleep at 9pm, then stirs about 9.45-10pm. Sometimes he'll wake up, sometimes he won't. Occasionally he'll repeat this at around 10.30-11pm, though this is less frequent. He then continues sleeping till about 12.45-1.30am -- he'll definitely wake at this time. After he goes down, he'll wake anywhere between 2.45-4am, sometimes once, sometimes twice. Twice is a bad bad night. Timings are a little fuzzy here cos I'm usually too sleepy (and blind) to check the clock. After this he'll mostly last till 6.30-7am in the morning and will awaken for the day shortly after that. Gee, it really does look bad when I put it all down like that doesn't it? To be fair, he usually wakes up about 3 times in total in a combination of the above. Still, it's enough to wear me out, and I don't even need much sleep to begin with.

So, Day One -- The Beginning: He wakes at 12 plus and keeps crying and reaching for me. I refuse to feed him and instead pick him up and put him down repeatedly each time he sits up/tries to stand. After doing this about 15 times (as instructed by Yuling), I leave the room for 15 mins and DD remains to just be sure that Noey does throw himself off the bed. In the first 5 mins, Noey cries angrily and keeps crawling towards the door where he saw me leave. He yells at DD whom he doesn't want to put him to sleep. The next 5 mins, he cries sadly, and still attempts crawling towards the door though not as much as before. In the last 5 or so mins, he continues to cry, but occasionally pauses to lay his head down on the bed/pillow before crying again. I re-enter the room and he quietens down immediately. I pick him up and tell him to "sleep sleep Noey" and lay him down and lie down near him. He puts a hand on me for a long time then rolls over and puts himself to sleep. Wow. After he goes to sleep it is nearly 2am and he continues sleeping till around 6am. He wakes and I nurse him (figured 1 major crying session per night was the most I could handle!). He wakes up his normal self at around 7am.

Day Two -- The Continuation: We go out for dinner so I miss his first waking. Oops. My helper tells me he woke and she rocked him back to sleep. He wakes at 12 plus and looks for me but doesn't cry this time. Instead he starts squirming and rolling on the mattress as if trying to find a comfortable spot. He looks for me though and after ascertaining that I'm there, he continues squirming around. (He also scratches the furniture around and waves his hands in the air and makes cute babbling sounds which would have entertained us a great deal if we were not hoping that he'll fall asleep.) It take ages before I complete 15 put downs because he doesn't really try to sit up/stand. But I duly leave the room anyway and the howling starts up but not as angrily as on the first day. I decide to come back after 10 mins and he immediately stops crying. I lay him down and again lay beside him. He obediently lies down beside me and mumbles to himself while laying a hand on me. He falls asleep in that position. I somehow eventually groggily bring myself back to bed some time later. He wakes at 5 plus (I think) and I nurse him. He wakes up at 7 plus.

At this point, I was feeling encouraged -- we seemed on-route to a sleep solution, at least on the weaning bit!

Then Day Three -- The Backslide: Not by Noey, but by Mummy. Noey wakes at 10 plus and after just a couple of put downs and pats, he's back to sleep. YAY! I am wiped out from the day so I go to sleep too. And then when he subsequently wakes up? (I don't know what time -- see prior statement about being wiped out.) I feed him. Repeatedly each time he wakes (Again, refer to prior statement about being wiped out.) GROAN.

I woke up in the morning still tired and dismayed by my lack of willpower, and hoped fervently that I hadn't destroyed the good work of the previous days.

We are now at Day Four. I wouldn't want to speak too soon but things are looking optimistic! He woke at 9 plus and fell back asleep after some crying with his hand on DD. Woke again at 10 plus, cried, and fell asleep after some pats with his hand on my face. He woke up just a while ago at about 1.10am, cried a bit, sat up twice before faceplanting himself back on the bed AND FELL ASLEEP himself. Mama here is so proud (and relieved). Praying that he will continue this promising trend.

Whew, after talking about all that sleep I think it's time for me to get some myself!

Till the next episode (and I'm hoping this will be a short series!)

Random Thoughts at 6.5 Months

Some random updates to interrupt this blog hiatus:

We took Noah in for his 6-month check-up on Wednesday evening. His stats for this month (for my own record):

Height -- 71cm (90th percentile)
Weight -- 8.276 kg (75th percentile)

So despite the milk-strikes, the bub's been growing well, and also on track with his milestones, which I am thankful for. He does appear to have sensitive skin however, and the redness on his face and at the back of his neck is likely to be mild eczema. Oh dear. Our Paed says he'll probably outgrow it and it's unlikely to be a problem but we do have to watch out for it and what he eats. I've been happily mixing up his meals which he has been gobbling down so I guess it's time to scale back a bit on introducing different foods to him till we've figured out what triggers a reaction.

What, no food for me Mummy?

Being more easily distracted now, he was happily playing with Daddy and didn't even flinch when his vax shot was administered. Not that he wasn't aware of it. After the shot he turned to stare at his thigh for a short while, as if he was wondering what happened, before turning back to play with Daddy and Elmo. Since I've chosen to delay his pneumoccocal shots till after his 1st birthday, we will not be visiting the Paed till he's a year old. Wow. She laughing told Noey to walk into her office for the next check-up and I dare say he will! This boy just can't wait to walk.

*****

We are inching our way to finding THE sleep solution for Noey which hopefully does not involve him sleeping in our bed but would probably involve a measure of sleep training. After watching him sleep and traverse the span of our king-sized mattress in the process, we realised that he could be waking up because he was running out of space to turn in his cot. To counter that, we set up for him his own mini "queen-sized" mattress comprising 2 of his mattresses joined and wedged together, giving him the space to roll to his heart's content and things have actually improved. He still does wake, but he can now go a good 6 hours before waking up, and that's a big improvement. Let's see how far we can take this before we need to do something else.

In our bed, where he, alas, sleeps best
*****

I've got blocked ducts again. OW. Every time this happens (which thankfully has not been very often), I think MAYBE it's time to stop with the breastfeeding. But then since I can breastfeed him, shouldn't I just continue to give him what's best for him? Hmmmm.

*****

I'm somewhat out of sorts today. It's partly lack of sleep and having to tend to a whinier Noey for most of yesterday, after he developed a fever after his vax shot. I'm listless, restless and feeling under-appreciated. Maybe it's the pain from the blocked ducts talking. Whatever the case, I NEED A HOLIDAY.

*****

Speaking of holidays, anyone got any good recommendations for a nearby destination with baby? I thought it would be perfect to get one of those holiday-home-type villas in Bali which comes with it's own chef and car, but DD is less enamoured of the idea. He just doesn't think there's much to see or do in Bali. So we're back to doing research and the search continues...

More updates in a bit!