Rock-A-Bye-Baby....

From my previous post you know by now that I breastfeed and carry my babies to sleep.

Toddler has graduated from being breastfed, to being carried to sleep and now at 3 years old she is an independant sleeper. Everynight after I breastfeed baby to sleep, I would chit-chat in whispering tones with toddler about books she has read, people whom we've met, places we've been, cartoons she has watched etc and she simply loves it.

On one of the nights last week, the moon was very full and round and lovely. We drew the curtains from our bedroom back so we could look at the moon while we slept. We chit chatted about the moon and sang moon songs. It was really fun for me too.

After our chit-chat, I would usually give her a kiss and a hug then tell her "Wait for mummy, mummy has to go to the toilet/have a drink" and leave the room (to watch Mr MG's favourite kungfu movie with him). By the time I get back she would be sound asleep. Once she even chased me out of the room. After I finished feeding baby, she told me "Mummy go out to the toilet." I very sleepily told her that I had gone to the toilet to which she thought awhile before retorting "Go out and switch off the computer!"

She still likes to be cuddled to sleep. She would pull my arm so that it was around her waist while we chit-chat and say "Mummy hug hug." However, sometimes when she is very sleepy, she would push my hand away and say "Its ok mummy. Goodnite kiss already." because my heavy arm makes it difficult for her to fall asleep!

Baby is still being breastfed to sleep but now at 1 year old, he is beggining to show signs of falling asleep independantly. Sometimes after a breastfeed, he would roll all over the bed, sit up and flip back several times, stare at the ceiling, raise his little hands to study them etc. I let him do his thing while I chit-chat softly with toddler (while making sure he doesn't hit his head against the wall when he flips back suddenly) and after a while when I peep at him, he would have fallen asleep, quite suddenly. Moments ago, he looked so awake and all of a sudden he's asleep. Its very amusing to watch.

I think we all need to remember that bedtime is really a rather nice time of the day to unwind and relax with the babies instead of getting worked up about why they are having such a difficult time falling asleep, being so needy etc.