Sleep Training Part 2

It has been a week of sleep training and I must say that our perseverance have PAID OFF WELL!!

The past 1 week has been a roller coaster but for the past 2 days, he managed it really well. As I was on MC today (still fighting the flu bug), I witnessed the success of our 'hardening of heart and refusing to throw in the white flag'.

Now, he has minimal difficulty sleeping in the room on his own and our last conversation usually goes like this...

Me: Goodnight Jah Jah...
E: Good night Mummy
Me: Love you Jah Jah
E: Love you Mummy  
Me: Sleep tight Jah Jah and see you tomorrow
E: See you tomorrow Mummy... muackzz ... and mummy will check on me later
Me: Yes Jah Jah... Papa and mummy are just outside kk. Love you!  ;)

We have also incorporated the family kiss and hug in his sleeping routine which he looks forward to and I think it gives him an added assurance that we all love each other.

This evening, we rewarded him for his efforts and success by giving him 3 little cars and needless to say, they are ZZZzzzing with him tonight.

So thankful as I now have some me-time, which is why I even have the time to blog.

To all parents who are still contemplating if you should sleep train your child... I know its a tough choice to make ... just wanna encourage you to hang in there and know that it is for the better of your child as he/she learns independence and also for your own personal and couple well-being. 

Happy FATHER"S DAY 2014!!!

That's my forever young hubby!! Happy Father's Day dearie!!

Happy Father's Day to all! It has been 2.5 years of us journeying in this privilege life phase called PARENTHOOD and this privilege sure does not come easy. Nonetheless, I am so thankful for being able to have Mok as my 'partner-in-crime'. We have definitely come a long way and each time I look at E, I am just so thankful to Him for blessing us with such a lovely little boy. Next year, we will be having 2 kiddos with us and though I am not sure how life would be like with 2, I'm sure we will both figure it out together and lets do it well! YAY!! 

Thanks dearie for all the sacrifices and hard labour that you have made for the family. WE LOVE U PAPA!! 

Our FATHER"S DAY gift to PAPA!! 

 

A personalized mug!! Love the pictures chosen here (by me of course) as all of them truly capture the fun and adventure that PAPA never fail to bring to the family ;) The 2nd picture was taken in Perth just this March, love it! 

My 2 darlings looking cool and suave at cousin Krystle's wedding dinner @ Grand Shanghai

Also got mugs for our parents as parents' / grandparents' day gifts to them. Thanks to PhotoJaanic whom aided to expedite the orders so I could get all the mugs in time for Sun-father's day. Got them on SAT evening... can imagine how glad and relieved I was when I received the parcel! ;)

Glad mum's big blown up pict turned out so well! Love our family picture on the right too.. ;) 

Not difficult to tell which mug belongs to whom. I think my parents love the gifts ... Thank you daddy and mummy for the never-ending love that you pour forth upon us. U GUYS ARE THE BEST AND COOLEST!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Also made the mugs for my in-laws... think my MIL will go all GAGA over the mug. Hers has a sweet pink background and FIL has one in red (which I love!).  Have wrapped both up so not able to take a picture of it.

Oh yah.. I was feeling generous and made 1 for E's Godpa Dennis too as we are so thankful to him for always doting and looking out for E. His has a black background.

Godma Wendy will get her gift next year cos she is away this year ;(

HAPPY PARENTS' DAY to all parents out there! It is definitely not a easy role to be in but its nonetheless still the greatest privileged role to be in. ;) Keep sowing great values into your kiddos!

Sleep Training @ 29 Months

I am currently sitting outside E's room.. today is Day 3 of sleep training and I decided to document this process down since I have nothing else much to do while bumming outside his room any case. 

Brief history: E has been able to sleep on his own since before he was 1 years old as we had sleep training part 1 when he was about 9 months old. It was about 2-3 days of cry it out and tadaa, he was able to sleep by his own in the cot. We really appreciated it as it gave us more time to attend to after-work affairs and E is able to sleep through the night much better as he learnt the art of self-soothe back to lala-land. 

However, things changed when he started to prefer sleeping on the bed instead of the cot and we soon gave in too as he was growing slightly too tall for the cot and would tend to hit his head against the railing in the middle of the night. 

Since transferring to bed at slightly past 2 years old, E's sleeping pattern has became a mild nightmare for all of us as he would walk out to look for us whenever his sleep is disrupted. Things worsened after our family trip to Perth as he was sleeping with Mok and I all the time in Perth and when he came back,  he was having a series of whizzing cough and he had serious separation anxiety after I had to stay away from home due to Dad's contraction of Shingles! NIGHTMARE TO THE MAX!! Weirdly, E also started to sleep later after he was back from Perth... gone is my 830pm sharp kiddo.. he sleeps ard 9ish to sometimes 10ish! 

For the past few months, we have been taking turns to sleep with him on his bed and it has tired all of us out... plus we realize that he has been having increasingly disrupted sleep which is not good for him. THUS, Mok and I felt that enough is enough and that sleep training part 2 is essential as we shudder to think how it would be like once number 2 is out. Lotsa discussion and prayer was done before we decided that a week after Mok's reservist was the best time to commence the training. 

Since Sunday, we started prepping him about sleeping on his own and how it is time for him to do so as babies sleep in cot and only big boys are qualified to sleep 'self-self' on the bed. We also used examples of kids whom we know have been sleeping independently on their own to motivate him. He seemed to take it well though he would also end with wanting us to zzz with him. 

D Day came on Wed and Mok volunteered to train him as I was and still am down with flu. We prepped the grandparents and good thing they were out that evening as I believe the whole block could have heard his WAILS! 

Mok shared that E was practically fighting with Mok to get out of the room as he wanted me... Eventually after many tries, Mok decided to sit in his room with Mok at the door and E managed to sleep by himself on the bed, knowing that Papa is watching from afar. Kudos to Mok for his patience as we did not want him to have a phobia of sleeping and wanted E to feel proud of sleeping alone.

Day 2, I had a idea that we could assure him that we are near him and to leave the door slightly ajar and we will be just outside the room. He cried initially but stopped after Mok had a heart-heart chat with him and with lotsa reassuarance. It kinda work except that E kept walking out to have short chats with Papa. And alas, he decided to poo at 10pm! After cleaning him up, I took over and told him to stay in bed and ZZZzzz while both Papa and Mama would be outside. And it worked!! Partial success too! 

Day 3: Nap time training. Zero cries when I told him that I would be outside the room. He initially tried to negotiate for me to ZZzz with him but after a while, told me himself that Mummy would be outside. Came out to chat with me a couple of times, had some requests and after some stern warning... I think he is asleep ALREADY! Took about 40 minutes of non-crying training! HURRAY!!!! 

Sleep training definitely not over yet but I must say it has been going on pretty well. Thank God for the wisdom and strategies as we minimize the pain for all of us. 

We also decided to reward him with a small gift once Sleep Training has been completed! Wish us luck!! 

   

End result after 40 minutes of 'peaceful' sleep training... zero cries today! I'm proud of you E!

PERTH!!

What's a holiday without cool shades ;) 

We had a family trip to Perth from 21st March to 29th March 2014, together with my parents. We decided on Australia as we felt that it was one of the more child-friendly alternative as compared to HK or Taiwan and thought that we would add in a farm-stay just for our dear kiddo. 

We were deciding between Gold Coast, Tasmania and Perth... would have loved to go for Tasmania actually but SQ was having a promo for flight to Perth so we decided to bite it. 

Perth is much quieter as compared to Melbourne which we have been to twice and of which we totally adore. Its definitely good for family trips just that alot of time is really wasted on the road as travelling from one destination to another usually takes at least 2 hours. The most anti-climax part of the trip for me was that me and E fell sick almost immediately once we touch down. I was super down for the 1st few days of the trip and quite lethargic for the remaining half...argghhhh! 

Here goes the photo-diarrhea:p (Can't really remember the sequence due to the fact that I was not well then so its just a whole lot of pics and stuff not according to days)

Starting off with traditional chinese brekkie at Changi Airport! 

We are ready for the family adventure! E actually fell off the high-chair as he stood up without any of us noticing! Thank God there wasn't any bump.. he still remembers it till today ;( 

His 1st flight with a seat of his own! Cost us a bomb though ... haha.. traveling b4 2 is a must for a parents!! 

Still looking fresh as we await take-off!! 

E went all-wild with the video system till it got almost irritating. He would request for switch of channels and he did not nap a wink till the plane started to land!! *ROAR!! No rest and movie for me ... boowoo... 

Perth.. here we come!!

King's Park and Botanical Garden.. spot my parents and E in his stroller.. 

;)

The grass and lawn were so nice to run in... perfect bonding day for papa and E! Would have been perfect with it was Melbourne's cool weather though.. 

Sand play at the children's playground within the Park's vicnity. Did not stay long though as the noon sun was getting increasingly uncomfortable though E was totally oblivious to the heat! 

Just adore this pic of E & me!! 

Taking a stroll @ Sebel, Swan Valley where we had our the 1 week accommodation stay! 

E found some treasure!! 

An even greater treasure that he found parked in the vicinity!

E climbed all the way up..... 

UP....... 

ALL the way to this awesome view! 

Bought a couple of Chugginton Train books at super discounted price over there and they even have stickers for the kiddo! To date, still his favorite series of books. 

Love this father-son pic. Dolphin Watch Cruise Boat @ Mandura... well, we did spot like 1 or  2 dolphin's ...tail... Zzzzz 

Self-entertainment as there were no dolphins in sight... saw tons of huge and beautiful houses though.... quite a chill place to retire;) 

To E's delight, he was allowed to wear the captain's hat and take control of the boat for a couple of seconds! He loved it so much that he was given another chance towards the end of the cruise. This made his day!! 

Had to settle for the toy one after we were chased off the cruise ship... He was glued to this fixture even though there were slides and swings and other cool stuff in the playground. LOL! 

Visit to the Fremantle Prison... very detailed though we felt that the Melbourne one was much more dramatic. Good to visit though as I was really surprised by the state of the prison...

Weekend Market @ Freemantle... the chef at work ;)   

The Pinnacles 

Just us!

1of the nicest fish and chips that we had over there... think its at the small town when we visited Pinnacles... much better than the overly rated fish and chips place at Fremantle!  

@ the WildLife Park... E wasn't too keen with most of the animals except for the Koala. He stayed at the enclosure for more than 15 minutes and was even willing to pet them! 

As seen in his expression... 'Not too interested'... but could be because he was awoken prematurely from his nap as we felt that he was missing out too much! *apparently not for him! 

E was glued to this cute yummy looking mini beetle the whole time we were at the nougat shop.  It was tough trying to stop him from getting in and driving off! 

The Farm Stay at Harvey Hills! 

We had to do all the feeding as E was just not too keen to touch the animals. He enjoyed throwing the feed to the chickens and ducks though and thats about it. 

We managed to catch the once a year Harvey Hills Carnival which was a huge thing for the quiet town! After all the hype about it, we concluded that it was like a huge western pasar malam...

 Caught some cool motorbike stunt acts though...and found a really nice lemonade drink as captured in the picture. Managed to buy 2 cartons of the drink back on the last day there! 

HIghlight of the Farmstay for Junior Mok! THE TRACTOR RIDE!

Managed to sit on it on both days that we were there.. thanks to papa who was willing to go through the bumpy ride just for his little one!

Sitting like towkay as we go grocery shopping... 

The view from our farm stay chalet! Think we got the chalet with the best view! 

Cool driver gotta ride a cool car! 

Beautiful Stirling's cottage restaurant at Harvey Hills just before we left for Singapore... The nicest tortilla beef chips ever! 

Thanks Dear for sourcing out all the good places... the best guide and planner ever! 

We love HOLIDAY TRIPS!! 

Rare picture of all of us!! 

LOL! This sums up our flight back to Singapore where dear E refuses to sleep once again!!