Ruatfeli has been acting up lately.
She sleeps through the whole day, and only wakes up to feed. Even if you shake her, she goes on sleeping. My dad asked me if she ever opens her eyes. But come 11 pm, she's wide awake and starts to take an interest in the world. By the time we lie down to sleep, she starts her whimpers. So I nurse her, she falls asleep. I lay her down on the bed, she blinks twice and let's loose a loud cry. The surprising thing about her is that, for such a tiny body, she has the vocals of a heavymetal singer. No one can ignore that cry. So I pick her up, hold her till she falls asleep, lay her down and the whole scenario replays. By 3 am, nothing is amusing anymore, and when she finally seems to tire of the game, she sleeps, and so do I.
This had been happening for the last three nights, so I was feeling pretty tired. I browsed the internet for information and realised it's a worldwide problem. In Japan, they even have a name for nighttime crying - 'yonaki'. Knowing that Ruatfeli had yonaki didn't really make it better but I did read the tips and suggestions. The best point was ' Your baby is not trying to manipulate you, it has no idea what it's doing to you'. I really was starting to wonder if she was doing it on purpose.
H has somehow been relegated to parent number 2, mainly because, you know, I have the milk supply, and also because H has to go to work while I can stay at home and wake up late. So I try let him sleep through Ruatfeli's performances. He's brilliant with kids, he's a favourite uncle to all nieces and nephews, I just never thought he'd know what to do with a screaming infant.
Well, last night, I was dead tired, it was 2 am, I had tried nursing the baby, tried burping it, checked her nappy, rubbed her tummy, but Ruatfeli continued her orchestra. Finally, H picked her up, and I told him I was going to nap for a minute and immediately dozzed off. The next thing I knew, he was laying her down to sleep. The next morning, I woke up refreshed at 7 am. We had slept through the entire night!! This was incredible because we usually have feeds at 1 or 2 intervals throughout the night. I asked H how he did it, he just shrugged and said nothing much.
Guess who's going to put the baby to sleep tonight? :)
7 comments:
Oh great, guess who's a lucky girl! You sure know how to pick 'em :P Jokes aside, hope the yonaki's a passing phase and Ruatfeli grows out of it before her dad goes out of his mind
Haha..yeah, being able to placate babies shud be the number one qualifier for all dads. It's really weird the way she wakes up as soon as we lie down. They say babies are too young to be calculating but she sure seems to be thinking sometimes.
Nice post. Brought back memories of sleepless nights, hoping your partner wakes up and does something about the incessant crying as you pretend to sleep, bleary-eyed mornings....repeating to yourself that 'this too shall pass'. In fact, they do pass, and sooner than you imagine. Now they're all grown up and will soon be leaving us to make their own future, leaving us with just the memories...
Hello John, thanks for visiting. You sound like a veteran on parenting, I like the 'pretend to sleep' part :) If only babies sleep as soundly at night as they do in the daytime.
Right now I can hardly imagine Ruatfeli walking, much less leave home, but God willing, I guess it will happen one day :P
Rawn haw hun chuan Ruatfeli chu alo lian deuh tawh anga...ka hmu chak tawh hle mai, tih te hi ka rawn thai lang ve zeuh ange !
I rawn haw hun chuan a sawp nawk nawk theih tawh ang chu. Tunah chuan a nghawng a la tun lova dim deuh a la ngai. A pa pawhin a la tir ngam lo.
The Horse Whisperer was such a great book, so intense and so moving. You're very lucky to have another kind of whisperer in your clutches.
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