The Eberhard Family

Today, not too sure exactly why, she decided after a short sleep after the 10am and supposedly 2pm feed, she wanted some company.

That’s fine, we could do that. But then, she decided she wants to cry… about 2 hours after the previous feed.

Then the crying will go on for a good 20-40 mins…. with some breaks in between.

I’m beginning to wonder, perhaps she didn’t quite have enough to eat but she refuses to eat more… and a bit later, feels a bit hungry but not quite all that hungry yet? Who knows…

Why would babies sleep while feeding when eating is part of survival? Doesn’t make a lot of sense but oh well….

*sigh*

Sally

We’ve started to notice that little Emma won’t always be happy to go back to sleep in her own cot after feed.

Sometimes she will sleep for a bit, then wanted to sit around where mum and dad are… then she will eventually be happier and will sleep. Most of the time, you don’t really need to pay too much attention to her, she will be happy as long as she’s around people.

I guess slowly she would want to be playing a bit more… and I guess that’s when we call in more visitors to help entertain her from time to time.

Sally

Wednesay night, we had a good night, as the little one finally is sort of back to the normal 4 hourly feed and has a gap for 6 hours. (well sort of 5 hour sleep for us if you count from start of the feed).

But last night, seems like every now and then, her feeding pattern still goes a bit funny. She woke up after 3.5 hours I think… fed her a bottle and then another hour later, she cried once. I was like no no no, I need my sleep. So she wasn’t too bad, that was just a grizzle. But still very sleepy…

Oh well, we will see how it goes today.

Sally

Little Emma is starting to experience the delay in response time from the mum today. If she grizzles like she does normally and a few more cries, she gets some attention.

This morning, mum was too sleepy so she took her time to attend to Emma. There was some cries, then pauses, then more cries and pauses then more cries…. by the time mum got there, it was actually quiet. But no, as soon as she sees mum… *cry*!

What does this tell you?

Well other times, it’d be these loud angry cry for a few minutes before something happens.

She’s going to experience more later. Because her eating pattern after the injection has totally been thrown off and became rather weird. So after the lunch time feed, she refuses to drink anything from the bottle after sleeping a lot on the boobs. Guess what? She’s going to find the next feed a long time to come. And crying might not work anymore! Hopefully this means she will start eating properly when she is being fed. Mum hopes anyway.

Well, 7 weeks on, and we are still waiting for that golden moment – the baby smiles at you! Yes, not just any random smiles but at you.

She’s definitely smiling a lot more, some very big one almost look like laughs. But not smiling at us yet. And they all say, when the babies do smile at you, you’ll feel that all these hard work and hassle is worth it.

I will tell you what I think when we get one

Sally

After 7 weeks of looking after this little one, I’ve slowly come to a realisation and conclusion… I’m not much of a baby person.

I probably knew it all along but not really know it. I’ve always like kids and love watching them. But my affection for babies aren’t as strong. I’m not sure if it was because we’ve never had a baby amongst the cousins (as our ages are very close to one another) or that we never had pets before… I just don’t know what to do with little things. Especially ones that don’t really give you much feedback.

For once, I’ve finally understood why the hubby used to say, he wishes that the babies come out 3 years old. Already can talk, walk, toilet trained and all. I think I work better with kids at that stage, too.

I think I can do most of the housework well, even be very efficient to get the kids ready for school and get them out of the house etc, pack lunches and prepare dinner etc etc.

Babies… apart from feed, cry, change, burp and you kind of have to learn to just talk to them and make up stories of what they might be saying… so you can keep yourself entertained while doing the very similar repetitive tasks with the baby. Sometimes, you think you’ve done everything, but they are still crying, which is a bit hard to understand.

I guess it may be that they use “crying” as a way of communication, which somehow makes you feel that all you get is “complaints” and “unhappy” feedback. Because we associate crying mainly when more negative than positive. So it doesn’t really fill you with much confidence and delight I guess.

Overall, although babies are cute and all, I don’t really think I’m a big baby person. So I guess in a few more months, years.. it’d be better

I think it’s good to understand yourself a bit more. I don’t think I’ve realised how much I like my freedom as well… until I don’t have it anymore!

Sally

Last Wednesday morning, Emma had her 6 week injections. Then the rest of the day she was a bit more sleepy and slept more.

Things started to get a bit more restless from Thursday. Even her eating pattern is a bit off. Thursday afternoon / early evening, she was fed around 5-ish. Then within 3 hours, she was hungry again and wanted another feed. Normally she lasts for 4 hours from the start of the feed.

Friday evening was worse, 4pm feed, then 6pm she was given a bottle of formula. before 8pm, hungry again and a bottle of 70ml breast milk was given, then eventually she was happy and went to bed and slept for a few more hours before needing to be feed again.

Saturday and Sunday, she has been rather restless and harder to settle. Needed to be held to sleep a lot more, leaving two very tired parents.
We started giving her pamol from Sunday evening, thinking the injection might be why she’s unsettled. (Even though the dad was convinced that it was the switching to S26 formula from Thursday early evening. So Saturday, we got more Karicare ones) – but later found out, well it’s probably not the formula.

Today, she’s been on 2-2.5 hourly feed after the 4:30 am feed. Until dad came home and that feed she had some formula top up. (was too sleepy to drink the top up in other feeds).

Still quite a bit harder to settle… we wonder if she’s also going through some growth sprut?? Or it is a combination of injection + growing?
Really hope that it will be gone soon. We gave her some pamol tonight anyway.

Fingers crossed…. coz I’m really missing my sleep now

Sally

My cousin and his wife (Meg) treated me to a full body massage this afternoon. So Meg came to pick me up and she also booked herself in as well.

I must say, I really needed this. It was the first time I’m away from the baby for a few hours, without taking her out or worrying about rushing back. During the session, I slowly drifted away and I hope I didn’t snore…

Now I can feel my back and shoulders all sore… usually happens after a good massage. Hmm….

I can really get used to this but yeah can’t really afford to get use to it But once a while, it is a rather nice treat!

Sally