The Long & Short of Sleep

More updates on Baby X's sleep.

For the past few nights, I observed a definite improvement in the duration of his night sleep. From about 9pm, Baby X will sleep all the way until about 5 plus in the morning. After that, he'll start to toss about, doing irritating things in the dark, like groping for me, any part of me. Once his hands detect something human, he'll dig his fingernails into my flesh. All these with his eyes still closed. Between efforts of trying to get away from his 'poison fingers', I'll have to ensure that he doesn't fully awake to ask for milk. This morning I managed to do that and keep him asleep till about 7am.

I also noticed that if he's fed at 5 plus, he's able to continue sleeping till about 8.30am or 9am. Otherwise, he'll awake with the first ray of sunlight.

2 things I'm thinking of buying: another kiddie mattress and blackout curtains.

The Art & Science of Sleep

Baby X continued his 'sleeping through' trend for 3 straight nights. This gave me renewed hope that maybe THIS is the day that I've been waiting for. But last night, the 4th night, we suffered a setback. Baby X woke up at about 4.30am and couldn't go back to sleep. Once he sat up, I knew we'd lost the battle. Only a bottle of warm milk can calm Baby X and put him back into the mood for sleep. After the milk, he automatically went back to sleep on his own. No patting needed.

Post-mortem, I wondered if it was my fault that I woke him when I turned him to his side and tried to pat him back to sleep. Would it be better if I had just left him to stick his feet into Hubby's ribs? When baby starts to turn and moves about, sometimes patting him put him back to sleep but sometimes, it woke him instead. It is a real delicate craft - the art of keeping a baby from waking. I'm still experimenting and learning continuously.

Some of the older folks like to simplify things by saying, 'Just give them water. Once they realise it's water, they'll not bother waking up'. Apparantly, this worked on us. But either we were super compliant babies or dumber back then. Cos babies nowadays can tell when you try to cheat them. They either reject the water upright and cry even louder or they drink but wake up again one hour later.

My conclusion is they'll sleep through eventually - definitely by the time they go to high school. Nah..., not so bad, but when they're well-fed during the day and have enough activities to exhaust them by night, I believe they'll sleep. KK slept through shortly after he started walking and now, nothing can wake him up in the middle of the night.

As for Baby X, I'll keep waiting. Not for too long, I hope.

Baby X's Progress Continues

Baby X has upgraded from a 'commando crawl' to an 'animal crawl'. He uses his kneels and palms to move forward rather than his forearms and thighs, cleaning the floor with his stomach previously. Walking-wise, he's still a little nervous and lacks confidence. He can pull himself up effortlessly nowadays and actually stands quite well unassisted - until he REALISES you're NOT holding him. Then self-doubt kicks in and his knees wobbles. Instinctively, he'll want to sit down unless you hold him up.

In the sleep department, Baby X surprised us last night by not waking up for milk through the night. This doesn't mean he didn't wake up though, he still tossed about, dug his head into my chest, sat up with eyes closed and made whimpering sounds. Somehow, I just managed to pat him back to sleep again. Still, that's already a big encouragement for me. Does that mean the end of the tunnel is near? Previous experience has taught me not to hold my hopes too high. As with all performance indicators, I need to see a trend. Let's pray hard for tonight.

Rock Climber KK

KK was promised a rock-climbing outing by his Uncle D this week and Uncle D fulfilled it on Wednesday. Tuesday, KK was already announcing to his classmates "I'm going rock-climbing tomorrow."

So yesterday, we packed the whole family into the car after his class and drove to Yishun SAFRA. At the rock wall, Uncle D strapped KK into his kids-size harness and set up the ropes. KK will be the climber and Uncle D, the belayer. Alas, just as KK touched the wall to start climbing, the rain came in.

Luckily, there was an indoor rock wall (called 'boulder' or something?) which is fully air-conditioned and cushioned wall to wall, abeit a bit dusty. All of us packed inside - baby, maid, pram and all. KK had lots of fun, as if at a playground, climbing and walking on the foam mattresses, several levels up. Even I had to climb a little, to get to the next level, but mostly I was watching a few expert 'spidermans' defy gravity as they scaled from wall to wall.

As for my dear KK, I suspect his favourite moment was when he was suspended in the air (he climbed 1 metre, says he's tired and just let go), swinging on his harness, hanging only because of his reliable belayer, Uncle D.

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Zoo Trip

At the spur of the moment, I decided to join some friends to the zoo and bring KK along. It's been a long time since we last went. I bought along my digital camera, hoping KK will be inspired to take some pictures of the animals. But I ended up taking all the photographs. KK was impatient as we strolled down the path, visiting the otters, orang utans, zebras, tigers and lions. He takes one look at the animals and then wants to move on. ("I'm getting out of here.") Even the polar bear feeding session and the elephant show couldn't captivate him. He had more fun playing with his Doraemon fan.


The only motivation that keeps him walking: Children's World. Over there, he went crazy playing at the playground and the playpool. Here are the video evidence.

Kids at the Pool

I bought Baby X a new swimsuit from KL. Friday evening, we decided to bring the kids to the pool and try out his new swimsuit. Baby X also had a new haircut....check it out!

3 Nights Escapade to KL

For our 8th wedding anniversary this year, Hubby brought me along to KL on his working trip. The main feature of this trip – the kids stay home! With the help of kind and capable Grandmum, it was just the 2 of us as we took Flight SQ106 and checked into Hilton KL Sentral. The room was luxurious enough. ‘Not enough space to put a baby cot though’, I noted. But of course, there’s no need for that.

Without delay, Hubby and I headed for Mid-Valley. For dinner, we discovered a cheap and good Korean restaurant that serves Bulgogi for 2 at a superb price of RM25.90. After dinner, we walked past the cinema and looked at each other. Why not? It’s been long since we watched an uninterrupted movie together. Just like that, we decide, we do it. No chance if the kids were around. That’s still not the end of the night. We met up a friend at 11pm and headed off for drinks at SkyBar on the 33rd floor of Traders Hotel.

The next 2 days, I felt exactly like a kept woman. While waiting for my man to finish work, I lazed around the room, met an ex-colleague for lunch and shopped like crazy around Bukit Bintang. Evenings, we were entertained by tapas at Le Bodega (in Bangsar), Naan Taj Mahal (pizza like naan, complete with cheese and mayonnaise, served together with daal etc) at Restoran Mosin, foot and back massages, Big Apple donuts at The Curve, another movie and a supper of Maggie Goreng. Both nights, we reached back hotel only after 1am – never been out so late since 2002. But reliving our couple days lifestyle was a great feeling.

The last day, we checked out of hotel and I checked into Sembunyi Spa at Cyberview Lodge for a 3 hour pampering session. The package I took is Rosa Canina - consisting of Massage followed by Body Treatment and Facial. They started by inviting me to the Sauna, Steam Bath and Jacuzzi for a dip. Then I was brought to a cozy little room where the massage lady Dian gave me a Traditional Balinese Massage using Rose Geranium oil. Next it was scrub time using black rice, lime peel and milk. For the body mask, algae was applied all over and I was wrapped like a sushi with a hot blanket. No wonder this treatment is called the California Roll.

During the “Renew Me” facial, honey and yoghurt were first used to cleanse my face, followed by a scrub using Chinese Almond, oatmeal and cucumber. After the steam, Dian applied Earth Essence mask on my face. This was followed by a peppermint cold towel to tone and for the moisturizer, it was Herbal Day Balsam with precious herbs. Heavenly! I almost had to pry myself off the massage bed when she told me it was finished.

To all parents out there, don't forget to live life without the kids once in a while.

Standing Tall

Yesterday, (3rd October) Baby X stood on his own 2 feet for a few seconds and even took a few quick steps forward. I witnessed it as I tried to make him stand firm and then slowly let go of my hold. I excitedly alerted grandmum and granddad and quickly tried to take a few photos, but wasn't too successful, partly because I had to make do with KK as the photographer. This is the best shot I had.

Grandmum predicted that Baby X will be walking by his 1st birthday. Looking at the developments, I'm quite confident he will walk earlier than his older brother, who only took his first steps at 14 months old. Baby X has been perfecting his 'crawling to sitting' transformation and now stands up easily as soon as he can grab hold of something to pull himself up. These days, Baby X's appetite is quite good, probably building up those leg muscles.

Just for the record, a sample of Baby X's daily feeds goes like this:

0700hrs - 180ml milk

1000hrs - Porridge

1300hrs - 180ml milk

1700hrs - Porridge

1945hrs - 180ml milk

2100hrs - 120ml milk

0330hrs - 150ml milk

"So Long, Sucker!"

Today marks my first day as a SAHM (Stay At Home Mum) as I bid farewell to my FTJ (Full Time Job). But that's not what the title of this post is referring to....

This phrase came out of KK's mouth one evening at a restaurant. He said it to a friend that we met at the restaurant cheekily. When trying to do the 'corrective education' later on, we realised he had totally no idea what the word 'sucker' meant. He just picked it up from a computer game where the racing car said this when it overtook another player.

"Oh man!" (Said with a slang. Another favourite phrase learnt from the internet or TV - but this one's fine.) Another reason why I'm convinced I need to be around more.

The ending of the Final Chapter was actually rather sweet, not sad as I'd expected. I had no time to feel sad! I spent the whole morning trying to draft out the traditional 'thank you' emails - I had no idea it was so difficult to write such broadcast messages! After a nice farewell lunch, it was back to frantic packing and throwing as I discovered I'd missed out a drawer of stuff, before rushing down to HR to do clearance.

What made it so sweet were the nice words said to me by quite a number of my friends & colleagues, some face to face, some via emails or notes. Funny why such nice things are only said when one is about to leave? But I'm glad to hear them, not for my ego, but to know that I've made some difference to others' lives.

For now, the greatest beneficiary of my staying home must be my maid. When I'm around, Baby X refuses her, so she's retreated to do other less challenging stuff, like cleaning the soft toys.

Ok, time to take a short break before I go pick up KK from school.

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