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Attempt at Weaning

April 27, 2007 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting, Sleep | 2 comments

Lately I have started becoming slightly conscious of attempts to wean Ethan from my breast (I say *slightly* because I think subconsciously I am not even sure myself if I want to wean…but eventually my boy will have to grow up, right?). 

Every evening when we come home from work, Ethan will play with his toys for a moment, before he realizes he misses me, and then he will come over to me and ask for comfort suckling.  Sometimes he will drift off for a short nap before he wakes up and takes his bath.  But sometimes he will just sleep through and miss his bath entirely.  That’s all right too, cos his baby sitter has started giving him a late afternoon bath as well nowadays, because he is so active that he sweats a lot.  Anyway, when he is ready for bed, I will breastfeed him and tuck him in when he is done.  I tell you, he looks so preciously adorable when he is fast asleep… angelic, even…

Previously when he wakes up during the night, or about midnight, I will breastfeed him again, a surefire way to get him back to dreamland.  But a few days ago, when he woke up around 11p.m., I took him into the kitchen and gave him a drink of water.  Ethan can drink from a normal adult cup now and loves doing so, but since I have yet to get him a lighter one he can hold himself, I still need to hold the ceramic cup for him now.  After a few gulps of water, I took him into the room and laid down with him on the bed.  Miraculously he fell asleep immediately!  So he was just thirsty!  And he slept till 4:30a.m. – which is good judging by Ethan’s standards okay? 

Apart from water, I’ve also tried singing and rocking him to sleep sometimes.  In fact most of the time, when he wakes up during the night, it’s not because he is hungry but more so because he feels lonely or perhaps just thirsty.  So there you have it.  My *feeble* attempt at weaning.  May not be much thus far, but it’s a start.

“All the more to eat with, Mommy!”

April 20, 2007 in Ethan, Milestones, Sleep | 1 comment

Yesterday I noticed that Ethan has 2 more teeth.  2 lower molars, to be exact.  The upper molars were supposed to appear first and I’m not sure if they have, but I noticed the lower molars yesterday.  So 10 in total.

Last night at about 3:30 a.m., Pete woke me up from my slumber and asked me to look at what Ethan was doing: standing upright in his cot just looking at me and grinning.  Pete told me this morning that Ethan was already up for quite some time gesturing toward the fan/ceiling.  I immediately brought Ethan to our bed and cuddled him to sleep.  Ethan loves to snuggle with Mommy. 🙂 He let out soft whimpers as he dozed off.  We weren’t sure if he was feeling teething pains.  We pray not 🙁

“I want to play!”

April 19, 2007 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Parenting, Sleep | 1 comment

I don’t know what got into Ethan last night, but it was SO difficult to put him to bed.  After his warm bath at about 9p.m., I breastfed him.  Under normal circumstances, he would be in dreamland in about 15 minutes or less.  Last night, he decided that he still wanted to play.  He hopped down from my lap after he had his milk, then he walked over to his toys and began playing with his colored blocks.  I cajoled him to go to bed, but he refused.  Instead, he chose to walk around the house babbling incoherently, eyes wide awake, mind you!  After some time, I decided to take him into our room and make him sleep there instead (this plan worked before).  But instead of falling asleep on our comfy bed, he preferred to roll around, crawl around and even walk around the room… so much for my plan!  I had to wait for him to tire himself out, I thought.  I even asked Pete to pretend to sleep on the bed with Ethan and I to see if our boy would want to sleep too.  But Ethan was adamant he wanted to play still…. so Pete decided to take him out into the living room, while I did the laundry and some cleaning up.

Finally, we noticed that Ethan had a hint of eyebags which denoted he was ready for bed, but still he was *conversing* with us loudly and excitedly.  I took him into the room anyway, and he fell asleep after 10 minutes! 🙂  It was already past 11:00p.m. then.

Ethan woke up in the middle of the night, but I was not stirred from my sleep at all, until Ethan called “Mommeeee!” clearly.  That got me right out of bed – well, Pete brought Ethan to me la.  Hehe… well, actually I had no recollection of the incident in the middle of the night, except for the “Mommeeee!” part.  Pete, who can wake up at the drop of a pin, was the one who told me what happened.

New Sleep Pattern?

January 25, 2007 in Ethan, Sleep | No comments

For the past 2 nights, Ethan has developed rather peculiar, or rather out of the ordinary sleep patterns. At about 8:00p.m. he would drift off to deep sleep, and not wake up even though we try to wake him up from his slumber.

He usually has his warm bath at about 8:30p.m. and then he would go to bed around 9:00p.m., but yesterday and today, he has had to miss his nightly baths because he would simply sleep through his bath times. In fact last night, I changed him into his pajamas while he was fast asleep!

Could this be the start of a new sleeping pattern?
Will he be able to start sleeping through the night now that he *appears* to be sleeping MORE?

Only time will tell…

Like a Stamp to a Letter

January 11, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Parenting, Sleep | No comments

In the still of the night, there was nary a sound around when suddenly… Ethan: Waaaahhhhhhhh….!!!!
Pete: (happily) I’ll get it! (proceeds to go to Ethan’s cot to cuddle and soothe him)
Ethan: Wawaahhhhhhh….!!! (starts sniffling and sobbing)
Pete: (picks Ethan up) Don’t cry boy, don’t cry….Good boy…
Ethan: (kicks and screams even harder) WaaaaaHhhh!!! Mamamaamamama…….!!!
Pete: Daddy is here, Daddy is here…
Ethan: Mamamamamaaaaa….!!!!! (kicking, screaming, stretching, the works…)
Pete: (frustrated liao) Nah, nah..Mommy is here ….
Me: (taking Ethan in my arms)
Ethan: (immediately making himself cosy in my arms and begins to fall asleep again)
Pete: (sighs) Magic.

Yes, Ethan still CANNOT sleep through the night. SIGH… We have tried countless methods, but still no results. The latest method we tried was the controlled crying method, which was really too heartwrenching for us as parents. This involved letting him cry for longer periods of time as opposed to going to him immediately when he calls. We succeeded for like 5 days or so and then gave up, more so cos we read that Ethan could very well be a baby of very strong and persistent personality and this method does not work well in these cases, according to Dr Sears.

Back when Ethan was but a month old, a good girlfriend of mine told me that soon I would see that Ethan would be sticking to me like a stamp to a letter. Even more so in my case, she continued… because I exclusively breastfeed Ethan.Well that is becoming an apparent reality now as Ethan is now VERY attached to me. He sometimes lets out an urgent cry when he sees me leave the room. And he sometimes also hugs my hand to sleep. Yes… our bond as mother and baby has been strengthened many folds by the beautiful act of breastfeeding. And of course, it is an unwritten fact that babies tend to equate their daddies to playtime and their mommies to nurturing.

But when does this dependence end? I for one, choose to cherish it while it lasts…

Okay Daddy, I give you chance now….

October 26, 2006 in Ethan, Growing Up, Sleep | No comments

Yesterday night when Ethan woke up at 10:30p.m. Pete picked him up and very surprisingly, Ethan was able to fall asleep in his arms! Wait a go, Daddy-o!!!Looks like it won’t be long before Daddy can sign up for night duty eh? Heh heh…

Operation Rock-a-Bye-Baby

October 15, 2006 in Ethan, Sleep | No comments

We are currently at our wits’ end trying to get Ethan to sleep through the night.

Plan A
When he wakes up and cries, we decided that Pete would be the first one to pick him up. Only if he doesn’t quiet down after several minutes, would I go and attend to him.
What Happened
Ethan woke up, cried and Pete carried him from his cot. Ethan kicked and screamed even louder for a good 3-5 minutes. But when Pete passed Ethan to me, he immediately closed his eyes, quietened down and fell asleep. Just like MAGIC.

Plan B
Remove part of the cot bumpers facing our bed, so that he can see his Daddy and Mommy sleeping from his cot (His cot is adjacent to our bed). We even put his favorite soft toys in the cot with him.
What Happened
When he woke up and cried, he immediately rolled over. Although he eventually realized that we were just sleeping nearby, he still kept on waking up frequently. So much for Plan B then.

Plan C
Allow him to sleep with us, as a sign of reassurance and security. Before this, Pete and I were kinda afraid to allow co-sleeping, because we were afraid we would unconsciously roll on top of him. But because we were willing and desperate to try anything now, we thought we would give it a shot.
What Happened
When Ethan woke up at about midnight, we removed his sleeping sack, I breastfed him, he fell asleep and we placed him between us. Guess what? He slept till 5a.m.!

So until we regain our strength and energy lost during the few weeks of sleepless nights, we’ll let him sleep with us.

Bed, Bed, I couldn’t go to Bed…

October 6, 2006 in Ethan, Sleep | No comments

About 2 weeks back, we finally upgraded Ethan’s sleeping area from his Graco crib to his white wooden cot. Back when he was but a week old, his white cot looked much TOO HUGE for him. He was so tiny then. The government nurse who came to visit after he was born even commented “Eh, katil besar, tapi baby kecik aje!”. That was then.We had wanted to move his white wooden cot into our room for a really long time since it was apparent that he was getting a little too heavy for the crib. Unfortunately, we didn’t know how to do it, cos the cot looked too long and large to enter our room the conventional (normal) way. Short of dismantling it and reassembling it in our room, Ethan slept in the Graco crib for the good part of his first 7 months.

Aaahh…but then Pete ingeniously thought of a way where we could move the entire cot as-is into our room: Just flipped it vertically! Voila!! Ethan could now sleep in his cot in our room.

However, since we moved the cot into our room, Ethan appears to be waking up more often than usual. We figured it could be due to him teething, but we closely monitored and could see no sign of any white line on his gums (YET).

I hope this “sleepless” phase will soon pass though … SIGH. I have friends with babies who are able to sleep through at the age of 6 weeks, but on the other end of the spectrum, I also know people whose babies are still waking up off and on at the age of 1.

When I delivered Ethan, I was told that he would start sleeping for longer periods of time when he turned 2 months. So I patiently waited. When he still woke up frequently after 2.5 months, I called my girlfriend and she assured me that her daughter only slept through when she turned 3 months.

Well well… 3 months came and went. Ethan is now EIGHT MONTHS OLD and still waking up several times a night! Sometimes to manja, sometimes hungry and sometimes to (get this!!) PLAY!! We hope he will acquire the *art* of sleeping soon and love it as much as Daddy and Mommy do.

Ethan at his sleeping best (afternoon nap)

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