Yes a sleeping beauty she is not. Of all my worries and woes and trials and tribulations as a (still newbie) parent, I believe the biggest hurdle (well other than taking care of her when she’s sick) so far in taking care of her has been in putting her to sleep. And no, it doesn’t really get any better with time. Really.

The only way I know of putting her to sleep is either by carrying her in the sling or by breastfeeding her to sleep. At night and on weekends when we’re home, the latter is the only way she will sleep. The sling thing is for when we’re out (yes she will absolutely NOT sleep in the stroller, no matter how fast or slow u push it).

Now, even though it sounds easy just lying down on my side and waiting for her to fall asleep, it is by no means easy. Not at all. Nowadays, the shortest period she will fall asleep is half an hour. The longest? Up to 2 hours, no joke. This has done no good to my back, lying motionless for that period of time (of course on many many occasions mommy fell asleep before she does). And it doesn’t help that this girl reaalllyyy does fight sleep, or as the Malays call it, lawan mata. Really really. She won’t just lie down still to sleep, even getting her to stay lying down is a battle on its own. She will roll over and get up at every opportunity she gets. And even putting my legs on her won’t stop her. The unbelievable thing is, the moment sleep comes and her eyes close, THAT’S the exact moment that she chooses to roll over and get up. Just so she will lose the sleep and get her big wide eyes all open again. She will sit up and then mommy has to start the whole process all over again with her wide awake. I think she does this for entertainment, just to irk her parents.

And changing her bedtime doesn’t help. She will do the above if I put her to sleep before she rubs her eyes and look tired. And what will happen if I put her to sleep only after she shows the signs??? She will cryyyyy and cryyyy and refuse to be breastfed, held or carried or anything else. She will just roll over, sit up and cryyyyy the pitiful-lest cry ever. The worst Ayra u can ever see is an over-the-limit-tired-and-sleepy Ayra. Almost nothing can get her to stop crying, much less go to sleep on her own. Last night it took me an hour and a half to pacify her to sleep past her bedtime, even though she cries with her eyes closed out of sleepiness. Sheesh…. how she loathes sleep. (This is really weird if u ask me, both her parents are sooo loving sleep hehehe)

The only solution we have is taught by the maid. We swaddle her like a newborn baby. Lately, I give her 3 chances to sleep without us tying her up. After the 3rd time she rolls over n gets up, swaddled it is that night hahaha. Thing is, she’s used to being swaddled during the day when she naps with the maid (yeah the maid has her own ’special powers’ to get Ayra to sleep and no I don’t have the same powers and it cannot be learnt by a mother who the child knows has milk in her breasts) and so she doesn’t really mind. She doesn’t protest as she’s being bound tightly and mommy and daddy is happy she can’t roll over and get up once she’s tied. But yeah her head’s still free and she does the pulling-the-nipple-in-the-other-direction trick a few times too many. At least this way she sleeps faster, though I still prefer she sleeps without being bound. It does look a tad bit uncomfy to me.

I am still a bit worried about her sleeping patterns as well. She sleeps at abt 10-11pm every night, wakes up an average of 3 times per night for snacks and wakes up at 7-ish on weekdays. That makes less than 9 hours. She naps about 1.5 hours in the morning and less than an hour in the evening or sometimes not at all. That means she’s only getting 10.5-12 hours sleep when the books says she should be getting 13 3/4 hours sleep in a day. Doesn’t help that she is an extremely light sleeper and will wake at any sounds, even when someone opens the door.

Any advice out there on how else do I put Ayra to sleep and on her sleeping patterns??

But as a note, sleeping problems aside, I must say I am truly grateful and thankful that she is an easy baby to take care of in other terms. She eats and drinks well, she behaves well in public (save for the occasional voice tests), she is easily entertained, she haven’t destroyed that many household items and she is just a fun-loving, lovable, adorable, happy little baby. Alhamdulillah….

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