Monday, December 13, 2004

Night Fright

Parenthood is tough. You're on call round-the-clock cos your baby isn't on any kind of fixed routine during the first few months. If you think feeding the kid or changing him is big task, wait till you do it in the middle of the night, half awake. It gets even worse when baby refuses to go back to sleep.

Couple of weeks, Mae decided she would wean Jesse off his night feeds. "It'll be over in three days," Mae proclaimed with confidence. I inquired where she had obtained such a definite timeline. "My mother said so." I had been married long enough to know exactly when to shut up, so I did. Heh! My mother-in-law, bless her, has a knack for... erm... precision timing. Trust Baby to throw a spanner in the works.

As you can imagine it was torture, for all of us. Jesse woke up every night around 2am - 3am expecting his regular fix of milk. Instead, Mae gave him only water. Poor little guy cried bloody murder. Mae had to cajole him back to sleep for about 2 hours before he finally relented. And me, I cried myself to sleep hearing my firstborn's suffering.

Hhhahaaha... okay, so it wasn't quite like that. But Mae knew I couldn't do what she did. "You're too soft!" she said. "We'll be feeding him nights till he's three!" And so I let Mae do the dirty work. I'm happy being the good guy in our "Good-Cop-Bad-Cop" routine.

It's been over a week. After much tears, sweat and a whole load of prayers, Baby's finally gotten the hang of it. Much to our relief. So, it's on to the next challenge whatever that may be.

13 comments:

  1. clap clap clap to mae... !!! good job!!!!
    jesse will survive!!!! and you know what? even if it takes two-four weeks to wean (i.e muchos muchos crying) him off night feeds...it will mean nice long sleep for both of you after that, no matter what!!!!!!!
    Hang in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    p.s. spot on about the bun! ;-)

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  2. "We'll be feeding him nights till her's three!"
    Her ?? wow when did jesse become a girl ?? lol
    its nice to hear that s/he is now wean.. permanently ? or do you folks give into his wailing ? =)
    well i think the next challenge for you is giving him solid food when mae can't produce/is lazy to give the lactose anymore.
    but knowing you folks i know you people can do it.
    *walks around aimlessly...*
    ps-currently in my office and working till midnight

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  3. Hey there, Mom! Jesse's been a good boy for the last couple of days. He's also in a better mood when he's up in the mornings. Hopefully he'll keep at it. :)
    Leo: Ok, wise guy, I changed it! :P

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  4. Hi James,
    I hope you don't mind my saying this. (You can always delete :) ) but why oh why do you want to wean your 3 month old from night feeds? Babies feed at night for a reason; becos their tummies are still small, they need nourishment every few hours unlike us adults.
    Poor baby. I feel for baby so I cannot tahan must comment. I've got more to say but I better shut up. Its none of my business.
    Cheers. Don't be mad.

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  5. mumsgather, i share the same sentiment as u. they tend to stop for milk when they reach a certain point in their baby life. i had wanted to do the same but my mom who is caring for my boiboi put her foot down. anyway, my boiboi stopped waking up for milk when he reaches about 7 months plus.

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  6. Poor fella, off night feeds so soon? To compensate for his childhood deprivation, he may demonstrate certain cravings later in life, like, needing regular night feeds of roti prata, masala tosai, tehtarik at 2 am. :lol:

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  7. Poor baby. Should not wean him too soon.. agreed with Fly. Hehe.. Mine is 10 months old and she only need her feed near 12 a.m then sleeps again till morning.. It's fine with us since we are starting to sleep anyway. Besides, poor little baby is thirsty after a very very long sleep (my baby sleeps at 7.30 every nite.. ).

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  8. Amir still wakes up for his night feed at 2am. the next time would be at 5 or 6am. its because he inherits his father habit - makan sikit, tp banyak kali. hehehe. at the age of 3mths, man, he woke up so many times, every 2hrs IIRC.
    Jesse is still young. give him a break :) plus, he's a boy. boys tend to eat more than girls..

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  9. :D :D LOL
    im not being a wise guy, just being very sarcastic about a typo error which gives Jesse a sudden gender-bendering, haha.

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  10. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......!!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. No Mumsgather, I don't mind you saying it. :) But rest assured we're not torturing Jesse. He wakes at 12am, 3am, 5am and 7am. With the Pediatrician's consent, we're skipping the 3am feed. Besides, he only takes 1-2 ounces during that time, so I don't think he's missing much. We'd really just like him to start adopting a more normal routine as quickly as possible.
    BabeKL, Jesse tends to wake up for his 1-2 ounce snack and then gets into a lot of trouble going back to bed. Weaning him has also helped him put himself to bed, so it's not all bad, y'know! :)
    Don't worry Fly, daddy will be there to rid him of all his dependencies. :lol: Imagine he's 20 years old and hanging out with his buddies. Then daddy leads him back by his ear and feeds him water!! Hahahha!!
    7:30? Lucky you, Nana!! :) Ours is intent on being our chaperone till 10!
    Ok, Hazel, I'll go easy on him. :)
    *piak* Leo.
    Kev, you better not be cheering about "gender-bendering". Or else... :lol:

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  12. no wonder la... aiyoh so many times in one nite!!!! my boiboi used to wake up only once hehehe :p he's 2 years now and every now and then he'll wake up either at around 2am or 4am. he'll usually ask me to give him milk otherwise he'll just ask to bring him outside to watch a bit of telly.

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  13. I share the same sentiments as babe_kl and mumsgather. My MIL also wanted me to give Emily only water when she wakes up at night (she wakes up twice, at 1-2 am and 4-5 am) to encourage her to sleep through the night. But you know little babies have little tummies so they get hungry quickly. Perhaps you can give him a bit more during his last feed which is close to bed time so that he can sleep longer. I do that with Emily. She usually has her last feed at about 8.30 pm and I usually put her to bed at around 9 or 9.30 pm. I will try to make her drink more and she can usually sleep till about 2 am before waking up again.

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