I have mentioned about his shifty eyes, looking at Daddee funny with an attitude, when he was only 6 months old.

Now he doesn’t look at me when I tell him off.

He’d sometimes take forever to finish his bottle of milk. 3/4 through and he’d stop, get off the sofa, wanders around for whatever / whoever. He’d look for HM, his jie-jie, or just because. He’d walk to walls and slap it. He’d come over and put his head on your lap and then rubs his face (nose) on it too, hands free.

Sometimes he’d stop the milk with “nn-more” accompanied by the “finished” hand gesture, as if you’d believe that the 3/4 bottle is empty; and proceed to get off the sofa.

Just because he can walk. At 17 months he is walking around, screaming demanding for stuff, stuff his jie-jie has just because she is holding it, screaming because his jie-jien snatches it back, screaming just because he has a voice. He’d also mumble. Sometimes imitating words he’d immediately heard uttered by the adults around him, sometimes it’s his own words that he’d used before, like that dah-den that seems to me to describe anything and everything in his universe.

I’d go over, carry him back to the sofa, sit him down and get down to his eye level, grunting “Finish your naan-naan!”

He’d look past me. At the tv behind me, at the wall behind me, at the shelf behind me. Just not at me. He’d move his head slightly, but it’s usually just the use of his eyes, no need wasting energy moving the head. No, don’t make eye-contact with Daddee, let’s drive him crazy a bit more. Ignore the bugger.

* Now I know what my mum went through, getting me to sit down and finish whatever it was I was supposed to do! And Caleb is not even 2 yet!

I was gonna say “It has begun”.. but you know it had already begun even before he turned 1! Ugh!

Only a few days after that last post on how Caleb is starting to sleep through the night, he started (again) to not be so.

Why does he wake? Just because.

Just because I made a little noise.
Just because Caitlin needs to go pee.
Just because I shifted in my bed.
Just because he shifted in his bed.
Just because.

And he wails. Lucky for me HM is the one who wakes to sooth him back to sleep, with some effort too mind you.

So in that time, I am woken, Caitlin is woken. (HM’s work hours are a little flexible in that she doesn’t have to be in the office very early).

And we both suffer from lack of sleep the next day. I can cope with this with drug laced beverages, but feedback from Teacher Rachel is that Caitlin either dozes off in class, or is moody and thus teary I-wanna-go-home.

Thus, we (mainly I) have to decide for both of us what to trade-off in order to bring forward bedtime.

Sigh…..

Heh heh. Related to this incident

For those who found this page thinking I have some clever tip on how to stop my baby(ies) from waking at nights, you kinda found the right place.

I say kinda because Caitlin, our first one, more or less “just decided” to sleep through the night when she was probably around 4 months old. Yes she was (and in lots of way, is) an easy baby. Our second one, Caleb, however, was already in his 13th month and still woke wanting milk; much to Hot Mummee and my dismay.

About a month ago, Caleb was down with a pretty bad fever and flu. The point here isn’t the flu but the lethargy that came with it. I recall there was a one particular day where he was seriously dead-tired. So worn was he that that night was the first in a long time where he just slept all the way through. I won’t even be surprised if he didn’t even shift in his sleep; though he’d likely have otherwise he’d have a serious dead arm (read somewhere that human brain automatically gets the body to move/shift in sleep, so as to, well, shift and re-orientate the body around).

Glad to say that since that night, he’s not woken anymore, almost. I say almost because he would still wake waaa waaaaaa but HM and I (more so HM while I pretend to still be asleep) would quickly lull him back to sleep before he gets too awake and starts making demands.

However now he does wake and make serious demands earlier in the morning than before. When we were feeding him at 3am-ish, by the morning when it was time to bring the whole posse to Grandma’s (and Caitlin off to school) the little man would still be asleep. These days he wakes around the same time as Caitlin, which is at around sunrise, 6:30-7:00.

So what’s the tip to making babies sleep through the night? Get them sick with flu!

Otherwise, try what we were planning on trying initially: To feed his last feed for the night later than before.

I reckon I can start getting good sleep now and wake early for work outs. Yay for Daddee! Cos it’s around the same time Caleb starts waking anyway, and HM can be the one handling him! YAY DADDEE!

“Caleb, Caleb….

1..
2..
3…
4…
5…
6…
7…
8…
9……… ?”

“taaaaaaannnnnnn!”

Caleb turned 1 in Jan ‘09.

Today he did these….

And then, for the first time(s?) in his life, he stood!

The following pic was actually not the first time he managed to stand. That first time that he did manage to stand, we broke into cheers and applause that frightened him, and literally made him weak at the knees!

But it wasn’t long before he managed again!

Well done, son! Heh heh!

So, soon he will be a walking babbling little boy for the rest of us to chase!

DAh-DAH-DAH duh duh duh…nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn na-na-na….

Generally, do babies start walking first, or start talking first? I can’t remember this for Caitlin; I do remember that she started walking when she was still in her nappies with an external anti-wet shorts, similar to the ones Caleb is wearing above!

It’s hard not to compare your kids when you have more than one.

Especially with Caitlin already not needing overnight feeds early in her life / early in our new parenting roles; I think it was even around 6 months that she started sleeping through the night. The other things would also be when she started walking, and when she was toilet trained.

Little Man Caleb still wakes (with a wail, no less) in the middle of the night, with each parent pretending not to hear it waiting for the other to get outta bed, or dreading that it is our turn to feed….

So us parents, and to an extent Caitlin (yes she still sleeps with us due to space constraints) are usually panda-eyed, dozing off at work and in school…. where opportunities for sleep is cherished and which means a trade-off for any other (nocturnal??) activities… such as regular exercise – a topic which deserves a whole different series of posts.

HM (Hot Mummee or of late, Her Majesty!) suggested recently that when Caleb does wake and cries, to lull him back to sleep quickly, before he “fully” wakes wide-eyed.

This is, of course, depended on him being “more tired / tired enough” than his actual (presumed reason for waking) hunger. We OH SO SINCERELY hope that this will work, and work enough times for him to get used to not feeding at nights, eventually leading to him getting used to not waking anymore.

We have tried this two nights in a row, with my turn being only last night / this morning.

He woke wa-waa-WAAAA and HM was almost-violently shaking my leg. I got up, mumbled something, and picked him up to immediately cuddle him. In the dark I could see (through my squinty lack of sleep eyes) that his eyes weren’t squinty. The little terror was looking around.

Assuming my usual stance, I was bouncing and swaying him (think golf-swing hip-movements) for quite a while. I almost gave up seeing as he was wriggling a little; a sign that he really isn’t all that sleepy. And I was actually working up a sweat already.

Lucky for me (him?) that he did eventually knock off. Put him back in the cot and he started stirring and actually propped himself looking up. Fearing the worst (!) I managed to pat him back to sleep though- did this a few times.

This morning I got out of the shower to find HM feeding him. She had prepared his milk already, presumably he was wa-waa-ing when I was in the shower. She remarked that his cot is a little wet with pee….

So what’s the take-away with this exercise?

That this may actually work, but at the same time we have to decide whether to check and change his diapers, risking fully-waking him in the process of washing / changing him.

Hope this is a workable tip shared here.

And.. a… ONE!

And.. a.. TWO!

And.. a.. Hey I am up!

And…OOPS!

Happy First Birthday, Caleb!

Soon you will be walking, and running, and we’d be chasing…..!

Oh cool! Mummee and Daddee are bringing me out shopping! Jie-jie’s been bugging them all weekend and now they are actually going to bring us out!

Good thing jie-jie’s managed to finish her home… home… that thing she does when she sits at that adult table… So now we are free to go out!

I am out I am out!

Hey look! Other people!

Hey look! More other people!

And more and more and more! They just keep coming down that moving stairs!

Oh, I gotta rest my neck; and let the adults fuss over my drooling for a while….

That is usually the question parents ask the detective, in cops & robbers shows on TV, when they speak about the mishaps regarding their kids.

I never knew the implications until I now that I have my own kids. The writers of these shows know what they are talking about- about how parents feel about kids, and about how child-less folks not knowing what it feels like when mishaps befall (other people’s) children.

I saw this article on The Star this morning. It saddens me that people can do this to children; and in this case, presumably by someone who’s not had kids of their own.

What I had wanted to share in this post, mainly, is that I was reminded by Dr Pixie recently not to throw kids up in the air during play- you know, throw them up, and catch them by the armpits when they are falling.

She said that in playing like this, there is a chance of busting a vein or vessel in the head.

Presumably the same thing this abused child suffered “….. (sic) had suffered bleeding in the head probably due to a violent shake”…..

Sigh…

.
Just wanna share the joy of a friend whom have just had a new baby.

Congratulations Kathy and Tung, on their baby boy Ivan!

Since Kathy is soon coming to the end of her confinement; and as she has also already declared, she will want to be going out soon! I had only just left her a message about how when we (even only recently) need to go out, we had to pack the pram, bottles, diapers, milk, wipes, fresh clothes in case they puke, blankets, and a guaranteed source of clean hot water.

Then there will be the complaints of sleepless nights of being (more like forced) awake to feed the little human, the stench of their poop (at least it was for me!), the being grounded simply because we are now parents, (but) the joy of being with them and interacting with them.

But, soon when they are a little older they will be easier to handle. Like with Caleb, his grandparents will bring along the pushchair when they do their grocery rounds, bring them to the park with Caitlin after her school hours, or to the local kopitiam whilst waiting for school to finish.

Enjoy the journey guys!

.
So you know Caleb fell off the bed. That was last Friday.

Yesterday I got a call from Hot Mummee, telling me that Caleb’s fallen again. This time it was because the bouncy hammock spring snapped. Snapped! Can you believe it?

Luckily this happened with Grandma around. Being a manual bouncer, I guess she was bouncing it when it snapped- she was there to react fast enough to break his fall; though only able to catch his body while his head still struck the ground. Her other hand was catching the falling bottom half of the spring and hammock-hook.

But still….

I can only imagine he struck his head probably at the same spot as Friday’s incident. Flustered, that evening Hot Mummee and I took him to the nearby paediatric clinic to have him looked at. Again luckily, the short term signs are that he is okay. Long term signs, however, are still the same as the previous post’s. This Dr however also added: To look out for any bulging on the top of his head.

Babies are born with a soft spot at the top of their heads. Without going into too much detail, this spot is the gap between the skull plates, that will eventually fuse together when the baby reaches 1 year old.

This Dr says to occasionally touch to see if this spot is still sunken in and soft-ish. An otherwise hard and/or bulging spot would mean that there is pressure built up inside the head, which is bad news cos it’s likely to mean internal bleeding.

So my little man has had a pretty tough few days.

To top it all off, Caleb himself has contracted a flu / fever combo. Think he got it over the weekend, ie, after the Friday fall. We don’t think these are related (stress?) but it doesn’t help.

So yesterday was a pretty stressful day for everyone, and for the past few nights, we’ve been having sleepless nights being woken every 30 minutes or so of his coughing (have you ever heard a 5-6 month old cough like an old man?) followed by strong crying due to that discomfort, followed by twists and turns, rolling over and tugging at the much needed mosquito netting that is protecting him from the pests, followed by Daddee or Mummee holding him to rock him back to sleep, followed by the whole cycle again….

So he’s coming up to 6 months old already. He can prop himself up temporarily and hold his head up, looking for whatever caught his eye earlier, or looking for something to look at.

He’s only been able to roll from his back to his front.

Or so we thought.

Last Friday night, at 7pm, we were in a rush to pack our stuff readying for a dinner appointment and the weekend away at my parents’. We left Caleb in the middle of the double bed in our spare bedroom, as usual, surrounding him with pillows to “box” him in. This was done many times before, when we need to change him and while fetching the talcum powder, new diapers, etc.

Caitlin was also “busy”, walking around acting like she was also looking for stuff to pack. In our haste, we left Caleb in the room whilst we walked out to put/fetch more things, in different directions.

I am usually conscious of where people (and most things) are in the apartment at most times. It’s just my secret wish to be like Jason Bourne- to be aware of potential hazards now that we have potentially hazardous-to-self kids. So I knew where Caitlin kinda was, and I also knew Caleb was on the bed.

But I didn’t prepare for nor think about his growing abilities.

Just as I paced outside the bedroom door either with something in my hand or looking for something else, I heard a thud. I already knew what it was- there was no one else in there but Caleb.

As I almost-ran already expecting to find Caleb on the floor, he was already on his back, looking up looking very stunned, and started bawling one of the loudest bawls. I knew the thud was his left hand hitting an empty cardboard box beside the bed. Slowly swiftly I picked him up, knowing the “damage” was his head but checked his left hand first for abrasions / paper cuts. Nothing. Then I gently touched his head and the swelling had started, which quickly later became a ring-bruise.

I can only imagine that he somehow rolled on top of the pillow, and rolled off the edge of the knee-height bed face first, and turned on the way down to land on his back / the back of his head, hitting his hand on the box, ending up the way I found him.

As soon as Caitlin found out, she quickly realised the extent of the accident, and started exclaiming “Why did baby fall down why did baby fall down!?” with each sentence the tears welling in her eyes. I was walking around as I comforted Caleb. Caitlin was following me around making these exclamations, demanding answers to how her little brother got hurt, herself crying quite badly at the end.

Caleb cried for a long time. Even though he was conscious and fidgeting during the cry / from the fright, I was still very scared. Even though it wasn’t a concussion (at least I thought at the time) I had heard of internal damage from such a fall.

I started watching him for signs of nausea. I had heard this was what to look out for. After quickly speaking to Dr Pixie, she sternly corrected me that nausea would already be too late. Instead, we should watch to see if he behaves out of the ordinary: If he’s too noisy, too quiet, too fidgety, too calm; anything that’s not his usual behaviour.

That’s what we did in the following hours. And somewhat gladly, he behaved predictably, albeit slightly teary from the presumably sore bump.

For peace of mind, we visited Dr Pixie the following morning. He was his usual self- responding to my tongue-clucking, looking around at his surroundings wherever he went. Since it was already over 12 hours since the fall, and going by his body language, Dr Pixie gave her assurance that he’s fine.

Dr Pixie then followed up with a call. Since he had hit the back of his head where the brain processes visual signals, asked that we do an eye test on Caleb, by alternately covering his eyes and getting him to track a movement (eg, moving the finger).

He was able to.

Did I feel like shit? Yes.

Did I “fail” in ensuring safety for my kids, even a simple one like this? Yes.

Could I have acted differently? Yes. I could have called Hot Mummee, and Dr Pixie a lot earlier, to learn what to look out for.

We were lucky. Very lucky.