Sleeping thru the nite...

Yoohoo! Yes, as the title puts it - Olivia slept through the night last night in her bed! That was really a great feeling and I'm really proud of her. I came back late from work last night feeling really lousy after a long day and my daughter decides to reward me with her sleeping thru the night! Praise the Lord! I'm really happy with her and hope that this is the start of her "sleeping thru the night" routine. She has had a few false starts but I'm keeping my fingers, toes and ears crossed that this continues.

ha Ha.... Will keep you guys updated on her progress....

Sleeping Habits

I’ve been reading this book called “The No-Cry sleep solution for toddlers and pre-schoolers” by Elizabeth Pantley. Yup, you guessed it, am having some sleeping problems with Olivia. All in all, Olivia’s a rather easy kid to take care off but the only issue that I face with her is her sleeping habits. It’s actually not her fault as babies need to be trained to sleep on their own and their sleeping habits need to be moulded. It is my fault that she sleeps the way she sleeps now. Or rather how she needs to be put to sleep.

Since the day she was born, some of my ideals on how we were going to train her were thrown out of the window. Some for being not practical but some mainly because I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Hubby suggested the cry-to-sleep solution which I protested vehemently to and sometimes even with tears as I didn’t have the heart to let my poor baby cry herself to sleep. It just sounds so cruel! Imagine crying yourself to sleep. However, then I didn’t discover Elizabeth’s book on her “no-cry method”!. Life would have been so much easier if I did! Hubby, being the kind of guy he is, just gave in at the end of the day and let me have my say and my way.

Having been a colicky baby, we used to cuddle and carry her a lot to soothe her especially during the bouts of colic. That carried on till now and it’s a tough habit to break!. Especially at this age, (she’s about 16 months going onto 17 months) when she’s all out for playing, putting her down to sleep for her day-time naps can be quite a battle. Just imagine carrying a kid weighing about 11-12 kgs for about 1 hour and trying to put her to sleep. Now u get what I mean. During the nights, it’s a tad better as she rolls around after drinking her milk and finally settles in a comfortable position to sleep. The downside is that this can take up to about 30 minutes with some form of scolding involved.

She still does wake up in the middle of the night screaming like she’s been having a really terrible nightmare and thus, this week the experiment is to totally cut out the telly for her. No more watching television for this week to see whether this has any effect on her sleeping. Hoping with my fingers crossed and with God’s grace that some good outcome will come out of this. Am also endeavouring to train her to sleep in her bed rather than co-sleeping with us. That would probably mean about a week of interrupted sleep. Sigh… guess I just have to grit my teeth and pull through.

Wish me luck. Will be back with some more updates, hopefully positive ones!

Speaking skills

Our lives have certainly change tremendously with the arrival of Olivia. We no longer enjoy the quietness and privacy in our house... we used to have the house all to ourselves and we couldn't entice our family members to come over... but now... we can't get rid of them! heh... just joking..

She has certainly brought lots of joy and laughter into our lives and definitely a test to my relationship with Elvin as husband and wife. ALso testing our capabilities as better parents.. like Elvin said previously... God gave us 9 months of pregnancy to be less shitty parents.

Now at 16 months plus, Olivia is delighting us everyday with her antics and newfound skills and vocabulary. She surprises us by learning quickly words such as "please", "night night" and such. But she really refuses to call her 2 grandfathers! she can call almost everyone in the family but totally refuses to call the 2 grandads. Both have definitely be waiting patiently, though I think that it's now bordering on impatiently, for her to call them. And when she does, I'm sure it will be such heavenly sounds to their ears!

Her favourite word is "Papa" and she loves to harrass our maid, Janiah, by calling her incessantly without any reason. SHe doesn't call me as much.. but she does when she needs to. She also has some other favourite words, but for certain reasons, I will not publish them here! :P
She does speak gibberish but her baby gibberish is only a few words unlike some of her peers who can rattle off a whole long sentence! What is definite is that she is learning quickly each day.

Thus, we have to be careful of what we say around her because you never know what will pop out of her mouth!

Blog competition?

I was feeling rather pleased with myself having updated my blog in a rather long time. Thus, when I went to check out my sister's blog, I was a bit crestfallen to see that she hadn't updated her blog even though she had a really long break last week! So, when I got home, I asked her why she hadn't updated her blog, to which, Elvin gave me a dirty look (sort of like saying that who are u to say anything since u haven't updated your blog!) but haha... I was prepared as I had already updated my blog yesterday evening. Thus, round one to HM... but that wasn't my point actually... I actuall like reading my sister's blog as she can be quite witty and funny at times.. something I think I lack... but Yen took it the wrong way definitely and declared a blog competition between the 2 of us.... haha...

Anyways, since i'm compelled to write..I'll just blog about the restful break that I had last week. It was really good although I still had to go back to work on Wednesday when most ppl were off. It was a time to catch up on sleep, meeting up with old friends and cooking. Yes, Hwee Mei can cook. I decided to cook some pasta.. was just a tad bored about eating out and eating my mom-in-law's cooking... so I offered to cook. It was quite okay as it turned out. Too bad I don't have any pics to show for it. And 2 days later, Elvin whipped out some home-made pizza... it was really delicious that my dad-in-law commented that he can open a pizza place... to that my hubby replied that we would be out of business real quick as the indgredients itself cost a whopping RM120!! Take-out is definitely cheaper.

We also went Hari Raya visiting to a friend's place in Kota Kemuning. We met this couple when we were attending our ante-natal class in SJMC in 2004 right before Olivia was born. Haven't seen them since till Elvin bumped into the wife at a buka puasa function. It was really good to catch up and to see our two little girls playing with one another. There interactions are really good for the children and it gives us adults a chance to see how our kids react whilst socialising. I just learnt that my little girl can be a real "cili padi".

All in all it was a good break. We finished SEason 1 of Desperate Housewives and is desperate for season 2 already.... Olivia also had the chance to meet some of her friends whom she hasn't seen in a long time.

Well... I have to go... market will be opening anytime soon... and I've run out of things to blog. till later then...

When is No 2 coming?

I've been asked this question so many times... I've lost count already..but I can tell you that if I could have 20 cents for everytime this question was asked, I would be RICH! Maybe I'll just clear the air once and for all... that is if anyone reads my blog and my ramblings.

Well, Elvin's always been enthusiatic about having our 2nd kid and it's been me who's been pushing it back. Why you might ask? WEll, I wasn't sure whether I could cope and I wanted to enjoy Olivia more and spend more time with her before baby No. 2 came along and she had to share our attention (although I do think that there is enough attention to go around since at the moment we're the only source of grandchildren for both sides!).

Anyhow, Elvin wants 4 kids and to be honest, I'm kinda scared of having 4... am trying to bargain for 3 but my dear ol hubby believes in the "middle child syndrome" and vehemently disagrees with me to have 3 children... and it doesn't help when some of my friends (can you believe it - my own friends, who are supposed to be on my side) agree with him on the "middle child syndrome" thingy!! :O

Nonetheless, I do believe that it's about time that we give Olivia another sibling to play with and an addition to the family to delight our parents and extended family. It's amazing that I know so many couples whom have a child Olivia's age and are expecting their second kid or next kid next year and I'm about possibly the odd one out (actually no, there's another friend who is in the same boat as me) who is not preggo! To tell the truth, I do feel a bit pressured to have another one.. but it's all in God's timing I believe. On top of that, I also know quite a few people who are due to be parents soon! It must be a very fertile year...either that or I'm more observant about pregnant women and children in strollers whilst at shopping centres.

Actually, I'm quite looking forward to being a mom again... it really warms my heart to see that my little child has grown - in the case of Olivia, boy, she has really grown by leaps and bounds.. always entertaining us with her cheeky looks and antics.

Maybe that should be my Christmas project.... but as I said.. it's all in God's timing.