![\"blog-slumber\"](\"https:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/blogslumber.jpg\" "\\"blog-slumber\\"")
My sleep pattern is largely determined by Hannah since the day she arrived.<\/p>\n My sleep pattern is largely determined by Hannah since the day she arrived.<\/p>\n
In the first month, I was extremely sleep-deprived. Hannah required breast-feeding round the clock, every 2-3 hours, every feed lasting an hour. Take away meal times and shower, the remaining time was hardly sufficient to make up for proper rest. In addition, the presence of a new person (i.e. the confinement lady) around the house kept me awake as I did worry about how she did things. Besides giving her some orientation, I wanted to keep an eye on things to be on the safe side. In fact, she almost burned down our kitchen if I hadn’t check on the burnt plasticky smell.<\/p>\n
For those occasions when I breastfed Hannah in the middle of the night, I mused about millions of mothers out there doing the exact same thing. Indeed, it was quite a realisation to me that there exists a special group of people who stayed up at night to breastfeed their babies!<\/p>\n
Motherhood, I used to imagine, was something that should be sweet and dandy. Well, I certainly didn’t feel that way when I was zombified. There were times when Hannah cried for milk and I didn’t feel like getting up from my bed to feed her. I was very tired. I just laid in bed hoping and praying that she would stop crying and fall asleep again. My prayers were mostly unanswered. These were days that I simply went through out of sheer will.<\/p>\n
One night somewhere in the fifth week, Hannah decided to sleep through the night. Thank God indeed. I started to rest better since then. Another thanksgiving: she doesn’t really fuss when I put her to bed after her last feed of the day. Hannah seems to know that it is bed time. She might be still alert but she won’t squeak. She would normally ‘wiggle’ in bed for a while and then fall asleep. This is often the best time of the day. Perhaps the routine of giving her a body wipe, changing into pyjamas and bringing down the mosquito net over her bed helped to settle her down. These days, she can sleep up to 11 hours. Her average is around 8 hours.<\/p>\n
My current challenge is her nap times. They have been inconsistent throughout the day. On good days, she would nap 1-2 hours after every feed. On bad days, she can wake up after 5 minutes of nap and bawl uncontrollably. She can really get onto my nerves. Still trying various ways and means to handle her poor napping in the day. Babies at her age should sleep about 15 hours a day.<\/p>\n
In any case, Yang kept reminding me to be grateful that Hannah sleeps through the night. And yes, whenever I see her face as she sleeps soundly, I’m thankful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My sleep pattern is largely determined by Hannah since the day she arrived. In the first month, I was extremely sleep-deprived. Hannah required breast-feeding round the clock, every 2-3 hours, every feed lasting an hour. Take away meal times and<\/p>\n