The Answer!!!

After 10 days of being super sleep-deprived, I was not exactly the most pleasant person and mummy in the house. Felt so overwhelmed as really didn't know what had gotten into my dear Krisa. She had been so good for the last two years in terms of just putting her to sleep, prayer time and lights out without making a fuss and she would just settle and sleep on her own to sleep till the next morning.

On the 9th night of sleepless night, Dan was still so patient and did his best to settle Krisa when she awoke. The settling was torturous as it was one hour of trying to figure out what she wanted. She would tell us she was itchy, wanted to drink water, wanted powder, put her blanker properly....and all which we did was not good enough as she would repeat the whole list 5 min later. This could take up to an hour and we resorted to threatening to put her back in her old room as she would wake up Jedi in the wee hours and he had school the next morning. She also wouldn't settle and putting her to sleep for naps and at night became a real phobia for me.

I really thank God for my hubby. For being a godly man. He reminded me that we were relying on our own wisdom in handling the situation and not the Lord's and that we needed to be united and not let anger and frustration get the better in dealing with the situation. My parents' also gave me much emotional support and reminded me that they would pray for me too and even asked me to consider taking a break in Perth with them for awhile so they could help with the kids.

So on Wed night, after praying with Dan and praying with the kids at abt 8 plus at night, I decided to do something different. I told Dan to leave the room while I snuggled with Krisa and placed my hand on her chest and began to pat her lightly. All her fussing stopped immediately and she slept in 2 min!!!! When she awoke in the middle of the night, I did it again and she went back to sleep till abt 7 in the morning.

No more screaming, no more fussing, no more crying and no more taking more than an hour to settle her. All it took was some TLC from me and from Dan and she settled into sweet slumber. All she wanted was that but I guess she couldn't express it. And as for me I had forgotten in my parenting journey that every child is different. Jedi didn't need that and has always been happy to settle to sleep on his own without this. I guess Krisa being a girl is more 'teh' and wants that TLC and physical touch to feel the assurance of being loved by us.

Love conquers all.

Sleepless in Sing

Had a really tough week last week as Krisa suddenly didn't want to go down for her afternoon naps. She would take one hour to settle and it was super frustrating for me as her afternoon nap was the time I would settle my cooking for dinner and also spend time with Jedi doing his reading and writing. What's worse is that it would be another battle at night to get her to sleep at her usual bedtime at 8pm and she would take another one hour to settle leaving especially me (as Dan is sooooooo much more patient than me) with super frazzled nerves and about to explode with livid anger!! To top it off she would wake at 12am, 2.30am and 5.30am....which means two very sleep deprived parents. For me, I NEED sleep or else I'm the Grinch!

I tried to reduce her nap by half but still with the same ordeal in the middle of the night. So by Fri, I decided to just cut it off all together. Worked but she would again wake at 2am and be super hard to settle. So I mentally went through my development checklist:

1. teething - NO
2. sick - NO

So what was it???????

Finally after much prayer and words of my wisdom from my dear hubby, I realised what the prob was. Firstly, I think she wants out of her cot. Secondly, the weather has been getting real hot and Krisa sleeps in the room near the corridor. I have a next door neighbour keeping a Golden Retriever illegally that LURVES to bark and bark and the family members LURVE to have conversations outside Krisa's window!!! So I have been keeping all the windows shut with just the fan on. No air con as the kids kept having chronic cough in the past. So poor Krisa has been melting the past week in a stuffed up room!

One of the final transitions for Krisa was to shift her out of her cot and to sleep with Jedi together in his room. Over the past few months it has been an uphill task weaning her off the pacifier, the bottle and the toilet training which she was surprisingly real fast. So I decided that it was time to take that leap of faith and not procrastinate this final step which I have been dreading with fears of her walking around in the middle of the night as she was no longer in her cot and then playing in the middle of the night. Dan was a dear in setting up the room and installing a wall fan and buying the bed rail for the lower bunk of Jedi's bed. Even bought a new hi-fi as the old one was spoilt to play their night time music. Jedi has been very welcoming surprisingly and looks forward to having her sleep with him. We asked him what he would do should Krisa cry at night and he said he would settle her with some water and go down to the lower bunk to pat her. He is definitely more patient than me! Perhaps its a guy thing.

Yesterday was the first night which went smoothly except for Krisa waking at 4 am asking to poop and to go out of the room. Told her that she would be packed back in the cot in the 'hot room' if she still insisted to not sleep after pooping. Suprisingly she went back to sleep till 7am in the morning.

Tonight is the second night and I'm still feeling anxious what's in store in the middle of tonight. Praying hard that she won't wake and if she does it would be easy to settle her back....feel like I'm taking an exam and waiting for the results....sounds crazy I know but I think I love my sleep too much!! sighz.... Transitions are not easy especially for me who hates change. But that's what parenthood is all about I guess....

Secret Admirer?

Jedi looks forward to the goodie packs he gets from school birthday celebrations which aref full of sweets and snacks! Amongst all the goodies, his favourite and most prized item is the LOLLIPOP!

So we were surprised when he asked us to put his ONLY one that he had in his goodie pack from school in his bag. He said he wanted to give it to someone.

The next day, he told us that he had given it to a girl and looked kind of shy about it as well. His only indignant feedback about the reciever of his gift was that

"She didn't even say thank you!"

Never knew little crushes can start so young? He's only three and a half! But it was sweet of him.

CNY 2009!

Had 2 reunion dinners on Dan's side and at my grandma's side with my bro, relatives and cousins. Felt wonderful to eat together with loved ones and catch up with one another. Wish my parents could have been there too though! My grandma's helper, replicated my mum's signature lemon chicken so it was comfort food indeed!

Here is Krisa smiling with my handsome brudder....Jono!!!

And another one with Jedi giving his cheekiest face. Giving my bro a taste of handling two kids on his own! Wahahahaha!

First day of new year is always spent at Dan's office. The kids were totally in awe at the lion dance in spite of being deafened by the "dong dong chiang"!

Then its back to Dan's parents' place for a nice home-cooked lunch cum dinner!

Second day was at my grand-aunts' and uncles' place for another round of home-cooked food! super yummy!! Krisa met up with her cousin whose mummy happened to be my primary school classmate in MGS! They began kissing away to the delight of the relatives although the mummies were concerned about gender orientation! Then we continued our eating escapade at my aunt's (dad sis) place for another round again!

All in all it was one of our most hectic new year visits ever! But the food and company were worth it. So were the kiddies ang pows! shhhhhhhhhh!