The Mighty General

Sometimes I feel like a mightly general when I go to bed at night. I sleep on a king-sized bed all alone with my left-hand man (Jeremiah) and right-hand woman (Sofia) on their own mattresses. Daddy sleeps in the room next door so that he gets his eight hours of undisrupted beauty sleep.

Unfortunately, instead of being protected and taken care of by my aides, I am watching over them. At times, I am so torn between them, especially when I am nursing the little boy and the young lady gets awakened by his cries and start chanting,"I don't want Didi ... I don't want Didi ... " ... I can only try my best to console and assure I am still with her and hopefully her sobbings do not escalate and disturb the rest of the family.

The night situation was pretty bad last week when Sofia was down with cough and cold, she could not sleep well with a blocked nose and kept waking up at night. It was a toll on me because Jeremiah was still waking up for feeding and my sleeping hours just got less and less. Fortunately, Jeremiah did not join the band wagon and was still growing very well.

My Sleeping Preferences

After 2.5 months of trial and error, we have more or less understand Jeremiah's prefered style of sleeping during different time of the day.

First, when he is sleepy, he would make it known by crying in short phases with his eyes closed. On good days, he may take a 2-hr nap or rarely, a 3-hr nap during mid-day.

During day time, he likes to sleep in the car seat, or

the day chair. In the afternoons, he may stay awake on bad days or take 15 mins - 30 mins naps now and then.

About 2 weeks ago, Jeremiah started knocking out at 9pm but these days, he chose to knock out at 8pm, which will give me enough time to put Sofia to bed.

This is how he sleeps at night, on the tummy. But he does not sleep through yet, he still goes on a 3-4hr feeding cycle at night. Hopefully this will improve as he grows older and we can do with just one or no night feeding at all.

5-in-1

Most parents are familiar with the terms "5-in-1" or "6-in1", it basically refers to the immunization jabs for babies when they turn 2-month old. I got a "5-in-1" today too! No, it is not a jab but a beautiful watch.

Daddy was invited to be join one of AMEX card some time in Nov last year and upon joining we would be entitled to a FREE beautiful Longines watch. The only condition was that we had to charge a certain amount to the card within the first six months. So we started trying to charge all our expenses to the card, it was not easy, we found out AMEX is not as widely accepted as VISA or Mastercard.

Last month, we checked our statement and after months of hard work, we were really entitled to the free gift!! Daddy went to collect the free gift and presented to me, said,"Mummy, this is a gift for you and it COVERS the following occasions/celebrations:

1. Last year's Christmas present
2. This year's Valentine's Day present
3. Gift for giving birth to Jeremiah
4. This year's birthday present
5. This year's Christmas present

Can you find a man more cheapo than my stingy old man??

My Fair Lady

This is one of the most beautiful dress Sofia has in her wardrobe. My sister bought it for her last Christmas and it was only recently Sofia grew into the lovely dress.

The fabric is nice to touch and the design and cutting is so classic, well, Sofia is supposed to be demure and ladylike when wearing this dress (I told her before putting it on) but you can never trust her promises at this age.

Fortunately Sofia was in a pretty good mood that day and did some fantastic poses:


The above pictures were taken by asking her to sing the mandarin song she learnt in school ...

Wo ai wo de Papa
Wo ai wo de Mama
Wo ai wo de Didi
Wo ai wo de Meimei
Wo ai wo de jia


Sofia was singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and acting like she was going to fall while swaying to the tune ...


Last but not least, trying to get the most ladylike pose from her ...

good ...

TATA!!!

Desperate Housewife

No, I am not a fan of this show, in fact, I have not even watch a single episode. But I find the name so close to my heart now. Yes, I am desperate, extremely DESPERATE ... for Jeremiah to get more sleep.

This baby of mine is a SUPER light sleeper, if I would ever so gently put a blanket over him after he fall into deep asleep, he would still stir. Furthermore he sleeps on his tummy so I am covering his back and he knows! I know putting him on the tummy increase the risk of SID but it was almost my last resort already. He has been sleeping on his back for about 6 weeks and none of his nap lasted more than 15mins continuously due to baby's moro reflex. And patting him does not make him go back to sleep, I need to carry him and rock, then he would fall sleep again. Sometimes rocking does not work so I have to walk round and round the house to lull him to sleep. If that does not work, I dance or waltz with him. This can take 15mins to half an hour and he would wake up barely 15mins after I put him on the bed. HELP!

This fella loves to drink milk. Most babies fall into a 3-hr feeding cycle by the second month. Jeremiah started off with 1.5-hr feeding cycle then 2-hr cycle when he turn 1 month old. No matter day or night, he was just as punctual. The first month was really tough, I barely slept, my mind did not work properly at all. My only reflex that worked was just putting the baby to my breast when he cry. And he loves to sleep and nurse at the same time, perhaps that is the time he catch up on his sleep. I could not nurse and sleep at the same time so many times I was dozing off while nursing. After nursing, burping and changing his diaper, Jeremiah would then be wide awake. Hey, I thought babies would sleep after being fed? Arrrghhhh ...

Swaddling ... I could not bare to swaddle him when we brought him back home. Sofia was being swaddled for one month and I think that helped her to sleep well. But my emotions got the better of me and I did not swaddle Jeremiah. BIG MISTAKE. When I tried to swaddle him at one month old, it was too late, he ended up being angry and even more awake at night. So I tried letting him sleep in all sorts of places, from the bed to the baby recliner to the car seat ... nothing works. When R visited me two weeks ago, she suggested sleeping on the tummy and showed me the way to do it. R even taught me how to burp him on the shoulder and put him on the tummy from there. The first night was bad cos he could not turn his head so I woke up every hour ... to turn his head ... feed ... turn his head ... feed ... turn his head ...feed. It was a LONG night. I persevered. By the fourth night, he could actually turn his head himself and slept two hours straight till the next feeding, phew!

Sleeping on the tummy does work for the night but somehow, he does not sleep much during the day, even on his tummy. I decided to try the hammock over the weekend, it is my LAST resort. It has been two days and he cries real badly when I put him inside, I do not know what else I can do ... can someone please tell me?