So much for 'No Tears'

In a previous post I was very impressed that Sumayah coped so well with her first 3 days of school. Then it was weekend and my folks visited the monday, so I kept her out of school till the thursday. I'm not sure if this is what caused the change, but suddenly the thursday she put up a huge performance that she didn't want to go to school. According the the teacher she cried for a whole hour after I left! The next day was slightly better, she apparently only cried 5 mins after I left. I put this down to the fact that she wanted to be with the grandparents and was hoping today would be better. Alas it wasn't so! She was very enthusiastic about going to school in the morning saying that she would be a good girl and not cry, all the way up to the classroom door in fact. But the minute we stepped into the classroom and she saw another little boy crying, she started to crumble. She started crying saying she wanted to go home and wrapping herself around my neck. There have been times, especially after weekends when she would cry when I left for work and it never bothered me then, perhaps because I knew she was happy and well taken care of at home with her beloved Abegail. But I guess because the school is new to me too, it makes it really hard to leave her like that and trust that we have made the right choice in sending her to school so young. Bilaal started school at the same age and I recall we also had a tearful start, but that just feels like ages ago. We've been so used to a kid who is always excited to go to school, even sometimes asking if he can go to holiday school, that I need to remind myself that Sumayah's reaction is perfectly normal. I just hope that with the normal day to day routine of life settling in this week that the school drop-off will become better. Of course one hurdle overcome usually marks the start of the next in the world of parenthood...for us that next hurdle is Potty Training!

no more excuses!

I always used sumayah as an excuse for not going to gym. But no more! This morning Yaasier suggested we all go to gym and just try her out at the childcare. So off we went and I was fully prepared to start 5 minutes of my workout only to be called out to console a crying child. But what do you know, while signing them in, Sumayah waltzed into the play area when she saw the other kids there and I didn't even have to sneak off! I just waved at her and said I'd be back soon and off I went. For about 15 minutes I kept expecting someone to call me, but I soon realised I had nothing to worry about.
Though I should give credit where credit is due. I don't think we would've tried this and I would even say part of the reason she was fine is because of this tuesday past. Yaasier was graduating after a long and stressful year of studying and assignments and I desperately wanted to be there. So our very dear friends, nay, rather I should call them family agreed to look after the kids. And this despite having a toddler of her own and being in her third trimester. And Sumayah had a marvelous time! Sure just about the time we were returning she started getting crabby, but that was to be expected. So thanks again to the Joulays, u are awesome friends! And here's to many more family visits to the gym.

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Sore Loser

Bilaal has a very competitive spirit, I guess he gets it from both his parents. But one thing I cannot stand is that he is such a sore loser. I have been trying to foster in him a sense of good sportmanship, but to no avail thus far. Now I hear you saying, ag but all kids are like that. True, but not to the levels Bilaal takes it. I am just afraid that if we don't nip this behaviour in the bud early he is going to grow up to be be one of the John McEnroe's of the world. That he is going to be that boy that gets excluded from team games because he saps the fun out of it with his sore loser behaviour.

What starts off as a fun game of snakes and ladders or ludo or momopoly, hardly a game you play for recognition or achievement, just some silly fun... and it ends up being a game of tantrums or tears or aurguing and nobody having any fun. So what will happen if it's real competition like a sport?

SO with the Bafana vs France game I saw an opportunity for some life lessons to be imparted! I described to him how Bafana had a very slim chance of getting through to the next round, even if they won the match and how the whole country was disappointed. I asked him how he would feel if he was one of the team and of course he said he would be very angry. So I explained to him that the players probably feel the same, yet they are going to go out onto the field and play the best game they can and still put all their hearts into it. I explained that even though they let us down, we still need to show our support, because that's what true support is... sticking with your team even during the bad times. Then I Bafana to the French team. I explained to him how poorly the French behaved after they failed to win their previous matches, that they had taken out their frustrations on each other and how disgraced the French nation are by their team.

Then I asked Bilaal, now do you want to be like the Bafana players who still have the pride and support of their country, or do you want to be like the French team who everybody is talking badly about and whose own countrymen are ashamed of them. And of course he said he wanted to be like Bafana. Fortunately the game yielded a win from Bafana and the French coach played into my little life lesson by displaying true unsportsman like behaviour by refusing to shake out coache's hand! I said to Bilaal again, 'you see, Bafana did their best and won the match. And even though this is the end of the competition for them, at least they can say they can be proud that they left the competition with dignity.'

So now everytime Bilaal starts trying to cheat in a game or throws a tantrum when you go up a ladder and land far ahead of him, I can remind him again that he wants to be a Bafana not a French!

Can this be Measles!

On Friday Bilaal complained that he wasn't feeling well, soon followed by a fever and the sniffles. My initial thought was, "sick, again!". I assumed it was the flu because he's main symptoms were that of blocked nose and fever so we didn't go to the doctor. I gave hims meds for the fever, but it coming back, until finally yesterday morning the fever broke and I thought... 'aaah finally now he will start getting better.' Luckily I phoned the doctor and made a tentative appointment for today in case he didn't improve, and whaddaya know, last night he broke out in a crazy, itchy, welty rash on his chest, arms and groin and redness on his cheeks too. It must have been itching like crazy because he was scratching himself open and moaning in his sleep. Luckily I had some Advantan Milk the dr prescribed for Sumayah when she was about 3 months old. It's a cortico-steroid for littlies and it worked wonders. So I googled the symptoms of measles and it seems to match and with the measles outbreak in Gauteng with immunization roll-out this week, it looks very likely. It supposedly starts with the sniffles or a cough and mild fever which lasts about 3 to 4 days. When the fever breaks, the rash appears. Apparently if it is measles it is infectious for the 4 days before the rash appears and then for 24 hours after the rash disappears. There is no pharmacological treatment for measles, only rest, good nutrition and plenty of fluids. But I guess i can only summise that it indeed what it is until I see the doctor later. This morning the rash is completely gone, but he still has the sinus problems. All I can do now is wait and see.

Sleep Training Night 2 & 3

I haven't had time... correction... I've been lazy to update my blog regarding the whole sleep training debacle, but here goes. Night 2 went pretty well. We broke the rules slightly in the beginning, because she's just so warm and cuddly so the closeness and affection is often for our own benefit too! So anyway she fell asleep lying on Yaasier's chest, but of course not long after he put her in the cot she woke up crying. Surprisingly I was very calm and relaxed about the whole thing. I don't know if the previous night just gave me confidence that it could be done? So anyway, I picked her up for hardly even a minute just to comfort her then put her back down drowsy but awake. She fussed a little, but I kept my hand on her and susshed a little and hey presto! lala land! I can't remember what time this was, but the next time she cried was about 1.30am. She may not have lasted as long as the previous night, but it didn't require much to get her to sleep again... just a light pat and a sush and in minutes she was sleeping again. She woke again at about 4am with the same results, till finally when she woke at about 7am, I fed her.

Night 3 was a real success in my eyes. I discovered that she finds comfort playing with the label on the corner of her comforter. So when I put her in her cot at bedtime, again drowsy but awake, I placed the label in her hand. She gave this adorable little droopy-eyed smile and slept! She did wake at about 10.30pm, but I think she was just getting a bit cold because I forgot to put the balnket on her once she was asleep. Once I covered her lightly she dozed off again all the way till about 4.30am. Once or twice she creid in her sleep, but then slept on. I'm taking it as a good sign that she is in fact learning to self-soothe during the night. She was a bit restless when she woke at 4.30am and when it was appraoching 5am I figured I may as well feed her, which is what I did. She fell asleep again at 5.30am and only woke again at 8am this morning. It may not seem all that wonderful to those who enjoy a full night's sleep, but for this sleep deprived momma it was bliss!

Tonight when I put her in her cot very much awake she was happily playing with the label again. I think I should get her one of those taglet blankets. After about 10 minutes she became restless. I sat with her susshing her until she fell asleep. Although it took about 40 minutes for her to fall asleep, miraculously there was very little crying. During that time I had been in and out of the room a few times and she only cried out a few times toward the end when the tiredness was becoming too much for her to handle. Now we shall see how the rest of the night pans out.

However, I am very much anticipating another bout of teething in the horizon, so let's hope the sleep training can be sorted before then!

Sleep Glorious Sleep... May I have some more Please?

Wow! A whole 5 hours sleep for me! After I logged off last night and went to bed at a about 10.30pm, i was fully expecting Sumayah to wake again at the dreaded midnight witching hour... but she didn't! I was so exhausted with the whole sleep training episode that I was fast asleep in no time! From eventually falling asleep at about 9.20pm, Sumayah actually sleep right through till 3.30am! So I stuck to my guns, only picking her up for a minute to settle her and put her immediately back into her cot. She fussed a little, cried a little, tossed and turned a little and after about 20 minutes she fell asleep again and sleep all the way through till 6.45am. When she woke she didn't cry, just moaned a little, so I brought her to the bed for a feed. This morning she was so pleasant, not at all clingy or upset over last night's experience so I have consoled myself that I have not emotionally damaged her in any way. This morning for her nap I wasn't as strict with the method, but still encouraged her to fall asleep on her own, and this time it only took 30 minutes as opposed to the hour from last night. So let's see how tonight pans out!

Sleep Training Day 1

Finally last night I had it and decided that tonight would be the night that sleep training will commence. usually Sumayah would sleep until the infamous witching hour at midnight and wake every 30 to 60 minutes only needing a pat to fall back to sleep. So basically I haven't been sleeping much! Fellow blogger Margot was my inspiration for my sleep training adventure. I used to read her blog greedily when she documented her experience so I was mentally prepared for the horrors of sleep training and was ready to take it on tonight! Of course I still made sure I picked up a copy of the baby-sleep-bible of our time...i.e. Baby Sense and read it thoroughly a few times. So according to this book if you follow the sleep training method it should take 2 to 4 days for baby to learn to fall asleep independently and sleep through the night. It also said that if you stay with your baby comforting her, but not picking her up it could take up to 20 minutes of crying before falling asleep. So let's go through the stages up to that point.
Stage 1: put her down drowsy, but awake. The room is dark and Sumayah is looking up at me bright-eyed the minute I put her in the cot. She just thinks we playing a game; until I try walking away that is! So I leave her to moan a little, but this soon turns into full on crying. I wait 2 minutes, pick her up to comfort her and put her back in her cot still drowsy, but awake.
Stage 2: she cries the minute I put her down, only this time I resist a whole 5 minutes! yay me!
Stage 3: crying and more crying, stretch it to 10 minutes
Stage 4: At around 12 minutes she possets, I pick her up and immediately she stops crying and her eyes droop, clearly she is exhausted from the crying, but as expected from this strong-willed little girl, the second I so much as lean over into the cot she cries. But I resist her another 5 minutes till I hear her posset again! All this crying is causing reflux. I pick her up, clean her arm and the blanket swiftly and immediately put her back in the cot. I am determined that this would be the 20 minute stretch that will end in sleep.
Stage 5: she's tossing and turing, still crying, but her cries are becoming less passionate. I'm watching the clock it's been 18 minutes now... Finally she just stops crying and is sleeping! I hang around in astonishement, 2 minutes later a last attempt at crying, but then she sleeps, and sleeps... 20 minutes exactly! I love you Baby Sense!

So now the plan is that everytime she wakes in the night I will follow the same sequence. The thing is this whole experience just makes me think of a line in a movie I watched ages ago. It was one of those shark atttack movies and Shakeel O'Neil's character says: "When you hold a hot pan, a second can feel like an hour, but when you're holding a hot woman, an hour can feel like a second..." Well when you are listening to your baby cry for 20 minutes, it feels like a century!

Stay tuned for an update on the rest of the night and sleep training day 2 coming soon on a blog near you!

What a calamity!

So maybe the title of this post is exaggerating the situation a little, but it certainly felt like a calamity at the time. On saturday I had the not-so-brilliant idea that we should all go to the gym together so Yaasier could do his workout, Bilaal and I could have a lekker swim, and Sumayah... well Sumayah was to be left at the childcare. Now bear in mind the last time I took her she was only about 3 months old and alhtough they only care for babies from 6 months they made an exception on that day because I didn't know. She was of course perfeclty fine because she had not yet developed the I-want-nobody-but-mommy syndrome yet. Well at 6 months old she most certainly has, so of course little miss mommy veskrik just screamed her little lungs out at the childcare. I was in the pool with Bilaal when they apparently called me a few times over the loudspeaker, but I didn't hear a thing. Yaasier went to get her and called me, so Bilaal and I hurriedly got out of the pool, got dressed and we all went home... after a whole 30 minutes at the gym! Needless to say none of us were very impressed with the whole situation. Well I guess we won't be trying that again in a hurry!

Eina! Injections!

Sumayah is going for her second shots this morning, shame, even though she was actually very brave last time, I still feel so nervous on injection morning. One would thing having been through it all with Bilaal it would be old hat for me, but it's not. I think the whole idea of my little beautiful angel being punctured with that long needle is more of an ordeal for me than for her. She didn't even cry that much the last time. Wish us luck!