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How interesting…

Yet another post about sleep training.

Lauralynn’s resistance to sleep training is definitely stronger than 3 months ago. So in order to want re-train her, we can no longer dream of seeing the results in 3 days. This time it has taken us more than 2 weeks, not the mention the times where it was being interrupted. Just as I was about to succumb to the fact that I can never sleep train her ever again, and that the only was to be her human pacifier, we saw some progress in the past few nights.

The nights of ignoring her when she wakes up at 2am finally showed results. Initially we realized that she did not wake up for 2 consecutive nights. Either that or we managed to sieve that out of our system and slept through it despite having the baby monitor right next to us. I thought we were just lucky and they were just those nights when she was soooo tired out she just slept through. Last night we heard her stir. She was making those irritated noises, like when her eczema is really bad and she scratches like a dog trying to ease himself of fleas. Having said that, she smells like Buddy (Li Ann’s dog who also has eczema) when it gets really bad.

So we waited. Within 5 minutes it was silence all over again. Just to make sure we didn’t want to take the risk of tip-toeing into the room to see her staring back at us, then start bawling. No. Can. Do. So when I finally remembered that I needed to check on her, it was 15 minutes later. When I crept in, she was asleep. Seemed like it has worked out fine for us. She has somehow managed to go back to sleep on her own.

That is some progress and is VERY encouraging for me. Now that’s left is bedtime when she still needs us to comfort her to sleep. Another week? Gosh. Sleep training is really a PITA!

It has been a great day for us (for me at least)! Last night I suggested going to East Coast Park for a nice morning walk and a hearty Macdonald’s breakfast, seeing how Lauralynn wakes up at 7am everyday. However, she woke up only at 8am close to 9am. After Francis gave her morning milk, they came to wake me up at 10am. Seeing that it was too hot to be there, we decided on Tampines Mall instead. After breakfast we walked around, and I finally decided to get my shoes since hubby offered to pay. Instead of buying one pair, I bought 2 pair and managed to get a membership which entitles me to a 10% and a 30-40% discount on my birthday month! HOT DOG!

Lauralynn was a very good girl today. She was really quiet in her stroller that we got worried that she might not be feeling well. But I guess the surroundings really kept her occupied all the while, and she soon fell asleep. So we decided to grab lunch while she’s asleep before heading home.

It didn’t take too long before my parents came to pick her up. Mum wanted to play with her, and we sure didn’t want to say no! So a nice peaceful afternoon. HOT DOG! (The weather was indeed terribly hot!)

An empty fish tank!
My lone surviving Molly always roams near the surface of the tank.

For dinner we headed back to Tampines Mall (again!) because we forgot about going to Singtel. Anyway Halley was working today so we didn’t have to spend too much time there! HOT DOG! We finally left around 9.15pm to pick Lauralynn up from my parents’ place. She was already fast asleep when we got there (duh!) and my mum wanted to tell us to leave her there for the night. But well, we brought her home.

And of course, to show our loots from Singtel…

If you can’t decide on which color to buy, just get both!

It’s my birthday present this year. Hubby seems to have something planned on my birthday and he isn’t giving me any hint about it. All I know is that I can’t buy a cake and that we’re going to somewhere to eat. And yes, we’re gonna use my 1-for-1 birthday voucher at Seoul Garden too!

HOT DOG!

Hot dog! (Hot dog)
Hot dog!

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog
Now we got ears, it's time for cheers

Hot dog, hot dog, the problem's solved
Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog

Grab my boots and a sandwich
Let's start a parade
Get the coconut drum kit
For Daisy to play

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog
We're taking off, we're dancing now
Hot dog, leapfrog, and holy cow
Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog
It's a brand new day
Whatcha waiting for?
Get up, stretch out, stomp on the floor

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog
Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog
We're splitting the scene
We're full of beans

So long for now from Mickey Mouse (That's me!)
And the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

After 2-3 weeks of dealing with a sick baby, I find myself having to do sleep training all over again. It isn’t any better now that she’s older and will put up a resistance to it. She refuses to sleep unless someone is there to pat her to sleep/cuddle her, this which I had to do when she was down with the cold to comfort her and help her drift to sleep with a stuffed nose.

Initially she only wanted me to put her to sleep, but since I’ve also decided to fight this battle the only person left in the house who (i) is willing to do it, and (ii) cannot put up with the hour-long crying session aka my husband has been doing it.

She has also been waking up in the middle of the night, between 2am-3am looking for us. Again, my husband has been the one waking up to tend to her as he cannot sleep through the night with the baby monitor activated by her cries. I was all for the let’s ignore her and go back to sleep, but daddy couldn’t let it go.

So *finally* I’ve decided that enough is enough and that this cannot go on. In order to protect our sanity and sleep, I have to step-up and do this all over again. Yes, that means playing the “bad guy,” unfortunately for me, for Lauralynn and for my husband.

So tonight I have to be the one waking up and to my horror, she was so excited to see me! Excited as in she wanted to play with me! I have no idea what her father has reinforced in her the past nights, and I think I might get high blood pressure if I find out. Daddy made a bottle of milk but daddy’s girl doesn’t want to hold it and has no interest to do so because she thinks it’s fun to wake both her parents up. My girl has now reached another milestone of discovering cause-and-effect. Right.

So here I am, sitting here embracing the consequences of our actions while Daddy is happily dreaming. My daughter is rolling around and talking to her bears. A little while later she might *attempt* to call for us and finally realize, something is different tonight.

I actually wanted to also write about my frustrations towards other people who should not have a say in how I mother my child, which might be idea with this state of mind I’m in right now. But with the length of this entry, I shall do it another time.

Someone please buy me this for my birthday!

Decided to ask my parents to babysit Lauralynn for a few hours today as I felt that I needed a break after having to deal with a sick baby & deadlines for the past week. Spent the afternoon with hubby & we headed to Tampines One for a nice dinner followed by ice-cream + milkshake (yes in this cold weather!). We managed to find a nice hair accessory for Lauralynn to wear for my sister’s wedding, and couldn’t resist to buy her a onesie which said, “Will Work for Milk,” and the back of it reads, “milk… milk… please…”

It was a great dinner with hubby. We spent an hour at the restaurant and just talked. Had a lot of fun too.

“Mwahahaha, I have both an ice-cream AND a milkshake!”

It’s rare to get a photo of him smiling like that. Usually he gives a weak smile, or a very fake-looking one. Not sure if his eyes were open though, they’re so tiny sometimes I think he’s staring at me even though his eyes are closed!

I feel ready to face the world again. Well, actually this break has made me rejuvenate and I’m a happy mummy again! Wonder what to do with Lauralynn tomorrow…

Follow-up at the National Skin Centre (NSC) and did an allergy test. Turns out Lauralynn is most likely allergic to egg. Initially I thought she was allergic to seafood so I avoided my favourite fried oysters and omelette. Turns out she’s allergic to the egg not the oysters! Anyway this means that I have to *try* to avoid a lot of food. I think it is going to be hard to avoid EVERYTHING that has egg in it, cause we never know what’s added into outside food. But I should try to avoid food that I know have eggs in them.

Met up with my Sister for supper. I wonder when we’ll be able to meet up again, without our husbands (and children). It was nice meeting her up (at the expense of getting fat together), and it was nice to know we are still our usual selves. I don’t know how to describe it, but I will definitely miss these times once she’s married. I don’t know how much things will change, but I will MOST definitely miss her when she leaves for the States.

I am praying hard that Lauralynn’s eczema will recover soon. It’s really not a long-term solution to keep her tied up all the time. There is only so much time I can do with her, and there are times when I really have to keep her hands down so she doesn’t scratch herself and bleed when my back is turned away. Sigh.

This week is the unofficial beginning of life as a really full-time stay at home mother. I’ve still a dissertation to complete by next month, but it’s not as rush, and I don’t have to go to school as often. No more exams & assignments! Wheee!

I’m definitely not welcoming this with arms wide open, because I no longer have an excuse to slack from my daughter (eg: “dear I need to study can you entertain her?” or “I’m really tired cause I need to do assignment”). But that’s not really the main reason. I kind of have no more goal to work towards, except for the contribution of my daughter’s development. I’m quite sure I’m going to turn her into a subject, just like Jean Piaget did to his children.

Hubby is quite pleased that he can now focus on his new career without having to stay home to babysit. He wants me to take up real estate courses so that I can be helpful to him, and he eventually hopes that I can join him as he thinks it’s a great idea that husband and wife are in the same line, sharing the business.

He is trying to get me to do his admin duties, which to my dismay, involves cold calling. I hate to do cold calling, even when I was an admin girl a couple of years back I’d try to avoid doing it as much as I could. But I guess I can *try* to be helpful to my husband. After all a successful man needs the support of a successful woman right?

I do hope to clear my education loan asap, so that’s sort of a motivation for me to help him. I am trying to get my school to teach foundation modules on a part-time basis. This way I get a good source of income, and can still spend a considerable amount of time with Lauralynn. Babysitting should not be much of a problem as my dad can help out, and I will only be working a few hours a week. I am hoping that my lecturer could put in a good word for me though. Also, I could clock in some teaching hours which might prove to be helpful in future.

It’s still take one step at a time!

& so I was convinced by Sissie to take up the trial at Contours Express. They are a women only gym and claim to be able to produce results based on their 29 minutes circuit training. So I went for the first day without Sissie, who was nursing a tooth/gum/mouth-ache. There they took my height & weight, and gave me a body fat analysis. After all these analyses and explanations, we moved on to the actual training. It is really training. Gosh. I felt that I was pushing myself to the limits, not something I was looking forward to during an exercise programme.

I guess Sissie was right about the gym designed to be a “quick fix” for busy working women. But to do that thrice a week, I doubt I’d be able to persist. Give me my running shoes I’d rather start again from 1km until I hit 10km. Give me my tennis racket I’d rather start from bottom again.

I just hope Lauralynn’s face gets better soon so that I bring her along during my running sessions.