Monday, October 22, 2007

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.

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