Rocking the cradle

For the past month or so, we have been having plenty of trouble getting Woki to sleep in his cot in his room. It all started when he got a viral infection due to the change of season. Since he was feeling very poorly, we spoilt him a bit by letting him sleep with us. He got used to that idea very quickly and now it has been quite a challenge for us to get him to sleep on his own!

After struggling to get him to sleep the first 3 months of his life - sometimes up to 2 hours to get him to sleep at night, and daytime naps were almost non-existent - my sleeping routines kicked in. Woki would sleep on average about 2 hours during the day, which is acceptable, and fall asleep at 7pm after drinking a bottle and sleep right through till 7am - sometimes even later! What a blessing! I was quite chuffed with these developments and would often brag about it. Well, this came to kick me in the behind and it all went haywire the moment he turned 9 months.

Woki was diagnosed with asthma at 5 months, which wasnt a surprise since my dad and Monkey's sister both have asthma, and with all the birth saga, it was bound to happen. He had a really good winter, but as I mentioned earlier, as soon as we changed into spring he started to cough a lot and developed a fever. I took him to the doc, who realised that he had a viral infection with a tight chest as his asthma is still not under control. It just never ends for our little Woki.

We managed to avoid another hospital stay (we were back in hospital twice after the ICU saga) but Woki would keep on waking up at night and refusing to go back to sleep. Since I have to get up at 5am every morning, instead of trying to get him to sleep again in his cot, I would pick him up and take him to bed with us. He would then fall asleep almost immediately. I guess I only have myself to blame but being a working mom is hard as it is, and I try to get as much sleep as I can. I have to admit that we love him cuddling in between us though who would think that this little man can take up so much space in our bed???!!! And then there's the occassional hair pulling and punching, lol.

It worsened last week when he refused to sleep at all. As soon as I left his room, he would sit up and start to scream. I tried to leave him to cry it out for a bit (something I really hate, but I was at my wits' end) hoping he would eventually stop and fall asleep, but he only got worse. I regretted it immediately when I entered his room. He was sitting up once again, screaming his heart out with vomit all over his bed. He was so upset that he had thrown up all over himself. I called Monkey and we both felt like crying with Woki. We changed him and his bedclothes immediately and comforted him. That night he slept with us the whole night.

He has improved slightly. The last 2 nights he fell asleep while drinking his bottle, just like he used to in the past. I have being adding a drop of rescue remedy to his bottle - not sure if that's what helping, but at least its going better. The first night he only woke up at 3am. Last night at 12am. Its a challenge, but Im quite confident that eventually he will go back to his old sleep routine. In the meantime, Monkey and I have added a fluffy toy dog to our bed as well, and in a few days' time it should be full of mommy and daddy smells (hopefully nice smells). We will put this in Woki's cot so that he can smell mom and dad close to him. Im hoping that will work as well.

Now I just need to get some uninterrupted sleep!!