Luckily for everyone, Caleb actually likes to push from behind. But it won’t be long though, before he’d be wanting to ride.

Yes, they were still in their jammies. It’s Sunday okay- give us parents a break!

Evening came and it was time to get ready for bed.

Caleb can express his hunger quite audibly / comprehensibly now, by telling us “nan-nan”.

As you can see he’s quite comfortable on the beanbag. Quite a relief for all of us, since we don’t always have to be watching him when he feeds now.

Caitlin, on the other hand, was being rather cheeky about bedtime. Calls to her to go clean her teeth went unanswered.

We found her like this.

Now that’s one way of getting out of doing something. I gotta try that with Hot Mummee one day….

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…..

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!

The flight from Melbourne arrived KL at 5am local time; I booked the overnight one to save a day(light) for when we arrived, but didn’t realise till later that it actually arrived that early.

But in any case, we did “gain” a full day despite my suffering a massive headache due to lack of sleep and/or dehydration.

But it’s good to be back. The daughter was very pleased to see us, and had many catch-up stories to share.

But seeing the son was a more significant event. It seems he has picked up some new skills of “standing up” on his knees, arms up like a “Yay” stance, just because! And much to our dismay he’s also a lot more cry-baby when he is not picked up / carried!

Today (Monday) was (also, just like in Australia) a public holiday. We spent a lot of time with the kids, and it was during this time that these antics of his were evident. It’s funny, when it was just Hot Mummee, Caitlin and I around, he’d whimper at first but soon dies down with only a very inquisitive what-the-heck-are-you-adults-doing look on his face. But as soon as our helper turns up, he starts whimpering “needing” her to pick him up.

So it’s no surprise who’s been spoiling my son.

We will need to break him of this habit; managed so with Caitlin that even though she asks to be carried sometimes, at least she accepts quite readily that we cannot anymore; only when we visit my brother’s house that I do still carry her- they have 2 dogs and one of them is a (albeit friendly) doberman!

More “bad” news is that Caleb has also gotten back into the habit of waking up at nights! Since his flu is over, he’s a lot more alert now!

ARGH!

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.

Oh- sorry, did you call me?

An ongoing struggle…
He doesn’t seem to be breaking the habit…
3 nights in a row, he’s woken twice for feeds, and 3 times just because…
Or was it 4 times? It’s all a blur…

No! It was my turn last night; it’s yours now!
?? You sure?? Sigh.. okay then, I will feed this time….

Cry, so we check for wetness..
Cry, so we check for mosquitoes…
Cry, so I guess then he must be hungry… and that means another hour+ before going back to bed…

His older sister started sleeping right through the night at a very early age; for a while we thought he was starting the same pattern too, but alas…

But- I know I shouldn’t compare; they are different babies, different people…

I know I sound like a broken record; a scratchy, stylus pushed around broken record….

Sigh…

Apparently the company has never had one. In hearing her describe the sections that are to go in, it sounded more like an extended version of a company profile than a business plan; a 12 inch, very extended version, like a greatest hits remixed 5 times with new added sampling and the chorus repeated 13 times and the sonnets rewritten to include previous thrown-out works.

Why am I babbling? Because that’s what this business plan feels like. Hot Mummee has chosen to stay at home these 3 weeks, presumably under the pretext of non-interruption, to fully concentrate on getting this done. In my studies and (only 1 time) experience in writing a business plan, I have never come across the extent at which she is doing this for a business plan. She would be researching and scouring the net, looking for related news and industry and market trends, and would be analysing these and inputting them in her plan. This is in fact how a business plan ought to be written- that they should contain market (development) plans, but the extent she is covering this and other sections are, well; I shall reserve my comments.

Also, she would be drafting the document on her laptop, and using my laptop to access the neighbour’s unsecured wifi; sometimes retyping what she found on my laptop into hers simply because my super-duper computer has a far better wifi hardware/reception than hers- cannot copy-paste. Or she’d be referring to the researched numbers, and graphing them into charts…

Oops, babbling again.

So the downside of this is that this Daddee has had to do most of the overnight Caleb-feeding, because Hot Mummee has been slaving over this document until un-God-ly hours.

Which also means that in my spare time, I have been trying to catch up on my sleep.

And little blogging.

No, I am not complaining….

And I am holding her to her words, when she said to me on some not too long ago squinty-eyed woke me outta my sleep night, “Sorry dear, I will make it up to you when this is all over….”

Heh heh.

In other news (and I guess as a result?) I spotted Caleb sprouting an upper tooth already! But what gets us is this: Both the bottom two teeth are crooked, like they form a “v”, and now the first upper tooth looks like it is also coming out the same way.

Why? With my little knowledge of orthodontics or teeth knowledge, I would think teeth grew crooked because of overcrowding. That these being the first teeth and growing crooked already baffles everyone at home.

Also, the little man is already standing holding himself up on the cot’s railings. It won’t be long now before he is let loose on the walker!

He knocked off around 9:30pm or 10pm, and didn’t wake till about 5:30am-ish.

But that’s good enough for this Daddee and Mummee.

He also feeds less crankily since he’s also had a good rest; but just enough that by the end of 6oz he’s also starting to tire, and did knock off again back to the comfortable bed, full.

But, it’s ONLY been two nights in a row. So let’s hope he keeps this going.

He’s about a week short of 9 months old.

One cries, the other cries out; sometimes one starts the other going.

One would be because he’s sleeping on his arm. Or he is due for a change. Or he is due for his milkies. Or just because. I can’t say it is because he had bad dreams- what would 7 month old babies dream about? Maybe they do dream about whatever they did during that day. In Caleb’s case, it could be Yuck, my toes don’t taste as good as they look, or do they? Lemme try again. My toes don’t taste as good as they look, or do they? Lemme try again…; Daddee’s screen savor seems to catch my eye all the time that I can’t seem to look away; Daddee’s going *peekaboo* making me giggle- I don’t know why I giggle at something so silly; Mummee’s baby talk making absolutely no sense..

But he’s started crying in the middle of the night way before he turned 7 months old.

The other would cry out audible exclamations. Last night it particular, it was “NO NO NO NO NO NO…….” as if to exclaim no that can’t be it isn’t true, or please don’t take it away type of exclamation. The other night she was just crying. For no reason. She looked like she was semi-awake, sobbing with a defiant hint of I don’t want. It took a while to calm her down. Or, she’d wake me with “Daddee, I need to go shee-shee (pee)”- (Daddee is diligent with washing her- the whole works of taking her pj-pants off, carrying her to the tap, toweling her off, etc. But then realised recently that he’s not exactly done an excellent job at it)

I also just realised / remembered something recently. Caitlin likes being comforted by being patted on her chest (less these days since toddlerhood), Caleb- patted on his back. Which also means that both kids slept differently: One on the back, the other on the tummy.

But where’s all this going?

Daddee is still lacking sleep….

Just sharing an old photo of Caitlin, with cleavage that would make Hot Mummee jealous!

You all know how I looooooove feeding Caleb when it’s my turn, during the night / wee hours of the morning; and how I looooooove exacting revenge on his bullying antics to his Daddee!

And you all know how I am resisting comparing my two kids and their respective “achievements”.

But…

Caitlin has been great in that we (okay, mainly mother in law!) have been able to train her to sleep through the night and toilet-training- she didn’t require overnight feeding anymore since around 4-5 months old. And I think she was toilet trained at around 2-3 years… Gotta check with Hot Mummee.

Now that Caleb’s 5 months old, we are also trying to replicate these milestones for him, starting with the feeding, naturally.

We now make 7oz for him (whether he downs it all is another matter!), spacing each feed at about 4 hours. This gap is mostly the time he naturally gets hungry, and less so of us specifically making it a point to feed him at these intervals.

Since there have been a few nights where he’s actually managed to sleep through the whole night without waking (both Hot Mummee and I have been lucky to experience this while it was our turn for the night) we reckon is time to try this out on him.

With the cooperation of mother in law watching the timing during the day, we are looking at timing his last few feeds of the day to be around 5pm, then 8-9pm, and then midnight. It would also help if he doesn’t sleep too much during the day: We don’t purposely deprive him of daytime sleep, just that he himself seems to want to stay up more during the day lately. Hopefully by the time midnight feed comes around, he’d be so exhausted that he’d just sleep right through the night.

The challenges that I can think of now are if he is able to finish the bottle before dozing off. I have shared how frustrating it is trying to feed him when he is tired: He’d wrestle the bottle, whine, turn his head side to side. There have been times when we just give up trying to feed him after he actually dozes off with the teat still in his mouth.

I don’t know how long before this will take effect, or whether we are able to be consistent with the timing. Hopefully we are able to, and to gain back our sanity and some youth from going back to normal sleeping routines! As Caitlin also still sleeps in our room, she too suffers from the interruptions if/when Caleb wakes in the wee hours. She has to wake early too now that she is going to school.

After this of course, we will then tackle the next growing-up-skill of toilet training!