No" to Naps! So Sick.

Daidai falls asleep really late each night even though we put him into bed before 10pm.  Sometimes, he's still playing in his crib at midnight!  That makes a very tired Mommy considering I usually get out of bed by 6:15am.

So this weekend, we experimented with skipping the afternoon nap to see if it'll make him sleep earlier.  Unfortunately, Daidai is sick also (puking, coughing, runny nose) so it wasn't a good combo.  He woke up several times each night due to stomach cramps and throwing up but at least he is falling asleep earlier at night.

Update on Wednesday:  We kept at it, no daily naps.  With his cold slowly getting better, Daidai is falling asleep at 10pm.  Yay!  Let's hope this continues.

Playland Day Trip - Napped in Stroller (video)

Both Tweet and I took the day off work today, to take the 3 kids to Playland.  We already knew that the girls will love Playland but not sure about Daidai.  It'll be his first time.  He was already a happy camper walking towards the entrance, dashing around on the side walk.  There was so much to see.

Because of height restrictions, Jas was the only one who could go on the exciting adult rides.  She was just over the 48" limit.  Muimui was able to ride on the smaller kid rides.  And Daidai, well, he could only go on 4 rides:  choo choo train, balloon, tea cup and merry-go-horse.  He liked all of them, except the horse one.  He REALLY didn't like that one.  Don't know why?



The kids bounced from ride to ride, without lining up at all.  It wasn't busy.  Did I mention it was raining?  Our luck.  Of all the days we choose to take time off work, and it rains.  The good thing is even though Playland closed early, at 5pm and we only got there at 1pm, we were all rided out by 5 o'clock.  Daidai konked out in the stroller around 3:15pm and slept until closing time.  That part was great.

Science World Day Trip - Skip Nap

We took the kiddies to Science World today; made use of our family annual pass.  The girls like try all the different things they have there and check out the exhibits.  And Josh, he just runs around and plays in the toddler area.  

Normally we head out in the morning and return home for Josh's afternoon nap.  But since Josh has been fighting naptime, we decided to stay out all afternoon and see what happens when he doesn't nap at all.  It went well I guess.  He was fine up until the drive home around 4pm and then he konked out in the car.  

We let him sleep til 5pm and then had an early dinner.  All 3 kids were tired in the evening and went to bed quietly...not the norm.  So it turned out to be a great day.

23 Months

The young Daidai is now 23 months.  Approaching the terrible 2s, here we come.  It seems we are having difficulties in all areas.  He used to eat and drink rice milk like a pro but just recently, he's decided to not eat and not drink and not sleep anymore.  

During meal times, he will resist sitting in his high chair and push off with his legs. He'd push his food around and drop it onto the ground, or mush it in his hands and proceed to wipe it all over his hair.  (We wash his hair alot these days).  

He won't drink milk out of a bottle anymore or in a cup for that matter.  So we are offering it through a chocolate straw or sippie cup and finding him interesting things to play or stare at while giving him the milk.  It's hit and miss.  

Sleepwise - terrible.  Fighting all the way.  When bedtime comes, he will cry and cry and cry so hard that he'll sometimes puke.  Naps are the same.  He will skip the nap and then fall sleep during dinner.  What's up with that?  Silly boy.  Sigh.  

On the good side - Daidai is jabbering way more lately.  Doesn't make any sense but it's great progress.  Making funny sounds and imitating what we say. 

How Does She Sleep Like That?

Funny Muimui, she was really tired during dinner time.  While everyone else already finished eating and was outside playing, we left Muimui in the kitchen to finish her food.  And this is what we saw when we got back.  She's sleeping in that position!  How does she sleep like that?

Fighting Sleep - Kiddos

Sleep, sleep, sleep.  Why do they always fight sleep?  The kids have it GREAT, but they just don't know it.  Wish I could laze around all day long and just snooze on the couch.  They never want to take their naps.  They never want to go to bed on time.  

Little Josh is fighting all of his day time naps right now so it's exhausting.  I can't do anything during the day, not even eat lunch or go to the bathroom or change clothes to take him out for a walk without him whining out.  (he's at a very clingy stage).  He's up from 7:30am to about 9pm every day with a few 10 minute snoozes throughout the day.  The girls rarely take naps now and bed time is just filled with these: 

"I want water", 

"I'm hungry",

"I have to go pee", 

"I didn't eat vitamins yet",

"I need to read my book",

"I forgot my blanky", 

"my ear is itchy",  

"my eye hurts",

"my toe nail is catching on something"

These are excuses they've used regularly.  By the time they are actually in bed, it's around 11pm. Ugh.  I'm working on it.... sigh.  Here are some pics of the kiddies sleeping:

Sleep Feed Schedule at 8 months

Josh has been sleeping through the night for quite some time now.  I've been writing down his wake times, feed times, sleep times, when and how long, to get a feel of his daily schedule.  It kinda looks like this:

7am - wake

7:15am - 4oz milk

8:45am - 4oz milk

9am - nap (30mins to 1 hour)

10am - wake

11:15am - solids

12:30pm - 7oz milk

1pm - nap (45mins to 1.5 hours)

2:30-ish - wake

4:30pm - 7oz milk

5pm - nap (30mins to 1 hour)

6pm - wake

7pm - solids

7:45pm - bath

8pm - 8oz milk

9pm - sleep

The schedule is never consistent because I never know how long Josh's naps are but we sort of have a routine going. I find that his naps usually add up to about 2.5 hours each day.  So if he has a long nap in the morning and in the afternoon, then the 5pm nap will be short.  If he has a short morning nap and short afternoon nap, then his 5pm nap will be longer.  He is sleeping a good 10 hours each night now... thank goodness.

As for solid foods, he's not eating much at all.  If we can get him to finish 1 tablespoon (15ml) of each oatmeal and fruit/veggie, then we are doing great.  But most days, he'll eat half of what we give him.  I'm not worried though, as he's taking in more than 25oz of breastmilk each day.  I can see him losing his fatty meat now since he's growing taller.  

I've started reading the book Baby Led Weaning and will try to start feeding him finger foods soon.  We'll see how that goes.  

Changed to Level 3 nipples

Josh is teething badly.  So bad that he won't take any milk feeds awake.  EEEK!!!  It doesn't matter how many hours we wait, even if it is 10 hours since his last feed, he still won't drink milk (like first thing in the morning).

It's been a week of this already and now he's starting to fight to sleep feeds!  EEEK!!!  What can we do now?  I decided to move up the nipple size to the next level so the milk flows faster.  Will this help?  Hope so.

What happened? Back to the Newborn Stage

I spoke too soon.  Josh was sleeping, napping and feeding perfectly.  Well, besides his preference to feed before sleeping (rather than eating as soon as he wakes up).  I dunno.  I feel hungry when I wake in the morning but not Joshy.  He can go 10 hours and still refuse to drink his milk.

The bad - now he's not feeding at all, not napping and waking several times at night, like a newborn.  What happened?

"Yummy fingers."








Josh is so fussy and unhappy, very clingy and whiny.  If I put him down, he`d scream until I picked him up.  If I sat down, he`d scream for me to walk around.  It seems he is teething badly.  Poor bb.  I can feel his 2nd tooth on the bottom about to pop out.  Let`s hope this one comes out QUICK and we can have our little angel back again.

Sleeping Through the Night - Finally!

It's happened - several nights now.  Josh is sleeping through the night.  Ever since we've been giving him an 8oz bottle of milk (breast milk) (and if he drinks it all before sleeping), he does sleep a good 9 hours straight.  Yay!  Too bad he still fights the bottle while awake so we  have to wait until he is super drowsy.  But really, can't ask for more at his age.  No complaints.

Feeding Strike and Sleeping Through the Night!

Josh has been sick since Sunday, pretty much throwing up after every feeding.  He's now refusing to feed at all.  Every time we bring the bottle to him, he starts fussing, turning his head away and closing his lips like a big pout.  I don't blame him for not wanting to feed.  How terrible. 

He can go for hours without drinking anything which worries me to heck.  I try to offer the bottle to him every hour but he's too smart for that.  I worry that he will be dehydrated. 

Funnily enough though, he slept through the night last night for the very first time.  11pm-7am!  Too bad I spent the entire night next to his crib, waiting for him to wake up from hunger to feed.  How ironic.  This is a pic of him before he got sick.

Still Sleeping at 2am

Unfortunately Josh is still sleeping extra extra late - tonight at 2:45am.  I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks of this.  Josh seems so tired at night but just won't fall asleep.  Or rather, he can fall asleep but keeps on waking every 45 minutes or so.  Please, please, wish this phase goes by quickly.  (it's so hard to get angry at this sweet face...)

New Sleep Time - 2am!

Why, why, why is he not sleeping?

For the past few nights, Josh has been sleeping extra late.  Really late.  Like 2am late.  From 9pm to 2am are his witching hours it seems.  No matter what we try, he's an unhappy fellow.  Crying, whining, rubbing eyes.  We feed him, burp him, change him, cuddle him, carry him, rock him...

He was sleeping around 11pm for a while which was a huge improvement compared to when he was first born (then was 4am).  But it's back to this again.  I try to keep him up awhile during the day and put him into bed when he shows me the sleepy cues, usually 1 hour and 15 minutes after he wakes. His daily schedule looks kinda like this:

5:30am - 4oz milk and goes back to sleep

9am - wake

9:15am - 4oz milk

10:15am - nap (2 hours)

12:15pm - wake

12:30pm - 4oz milk

1:30pm - nap (2 hours)

3:30pm - wake

3:45pm - 4oz milk

5pm - nap 

After this, it gets tricky.  In the evening, it's all over the place, no schedule.  We haven't had a good night - EVER. Sometimes he takes a 30 minute nap and sometimes he sleeps for 2 hours.  I actually don't know if I should wake him up after an hour, as he becomes Mr. Cranky pants. 

I find that he cluster feeds at night though, drinking 3 x 4oz bottles of breastmilk in 6 hours and he usually intakes around 27oz total each day.  So tiring.  Oh Mr. Josh, please will you sleep better soon?

7 Hours Straight!

Over the past week, Josh has been sleeping better at night - sometimes up to 5 hours straight.  But just last night, he slept from 12:30-7:30am!  7 hours!  We've waiting for this to happen. 

I remember Julia first did a 7-hour sleep when she was 10 weeks old.  Josh is 11 weeks+5 days now so he's not that far behind.  Let's hope this continues. 

Sleep? Only in the corner please.

Yes, I love to sleep... sideways.  My bed is way too big so I have to squeeze into a corner to be comfortable.  Mommy and Daddy always pulls me out when I am fast asleep so that my legs don't get cramped.  See you in the morning!

More Night Wakings...

Ok, so it's been 3 weeks now.  Julia's been waking up every night consistently, screaming her head off.  Piercing scream, like she's scared?  Please get over this phase soon...

Nightmares and Not Sleeping

Julia has been having alot of trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.  When we put her to bed, she always wants the lights to be on.  She'd rather have the bright lights on and covering her head.  This is what she looks like when we check on her...

I think nurses would be scolding me if they saw this photo of her, with the blanket all around her head.  But that is the only way she will fall asleep.  Now, we make sure only her eyes are covered, not her mouth or nose.

She often wakes at night, screaming and crying.  Not sure what is going on but hopefully she'll learn quickly that just because it is dark, we are all still close by.

Muimui - On Nebulizer

Poor Jules wasn't feeling well these past couple of nights.  She's been sleeping extra late and wakes several times at night.  We tried to do some sleep training again.

We left her in bed at 9:30pm and she kept on whining and whining.  After about 45 minutes, she started crying really loudly.  So we go in to check on her.  What did we find?  She barfed all over the crib!  Dang.  Had to lift her out of the smelly mess, plop her into the shower, change all the sheets Frebreeze her room...  so much for sleep training.  That was last night.

For tonight, we let her sleep late as she pleased.  When we put her down, we could hear her raspy throat every time she breathed in.  Muimui kept on saying "hou hou tong tong", meaning her mouth is hurting.  Uh-oh.  Her airways need to be opened up.  Lucky we have the nebulizer and some of Jas' meds from last time so we administered it for her.  Pretty much as soon as she was done, Jules fell asleep right away.  Phewf.

Unfortunately, it looks like we have another child with asthma.  Boo.

Not in Crib but Probably Should Be

A normal Jas moment.  I checked up on Jas after she went to bed and this is what I found.  She was in her bed completely side ways.  Funnily enough, she slept the same way when she was an infant in a crib.  Has she really grown up???

Night Wakings

For whatever reason, Julia woke 4 times last night. She screamed and then went back to sleep as soon as I rub her back. She hasn't done this in a while so hoping it's just a phase.