Parenting Ee Wern

Our life has changed after our decision of moving to Singapore.

Unlike when Ee Rynn was born, we stayed in apartment and things were in our control. We were able to plan her nap time and her schedule was fixed. We planned our life and movement around Ee Rynn's schedule.

This adventurous journey put my parenting skills at test. Schedules are unpredictable, different country every 3 weeks that lead to different bed and different environment.

Since Ee Wern was a month old, we were in Singapore. I started with no confident of setting up schedule for her as our schedule is not fix. Therefore, I give in and try to fulfilled her needs whenever she cried.

I started to train her to soothe herself to sleep. I know even in different house, sleeping will be the same. So I condition her and prepare the same sets of habits and things for bed time (afternoon and night).

I succeeded and she can sleep on her own pretty well. When we arrived to Singapore on Tues, 29th May 2012, she can soothe herself to sleep in new environment.

I was happy until the real test begin. Singapore is crowded and every where we go, is noisy. Each restaurants are crowded. Unlike in Malaysia, we go everywhere by car. Places we go generally quiet. She sleeps in her stroller easily.

She starts to scream and shout. Her body will jerk and startled at every loud noises around her. I have to sling her on my body at almost every outing. Her weight is 5.75kg (at 4 months) and to carry her around is no joke. My body starts aching especially my leg and waist.

The test now is to help her to learn to soothe herself even in noisy places. I change her sleeping place to a noisy corner in the house. This is at the office room where there are sounds of buses, renovation, people walking and public vehicle. I expose her to sounds of vacuum cleaner too.

I need to be consistent to let her cry to sleep because sometimes I give in to soothe her. I love her so much.

This trip back to Malaysia, she proved that she has the ability to sleep on her own. As we had breakfast this morning, she soothed herself to sleep in her car seat (picture below). All I need to continue I think is to assure her that she can learn to sleep on her own in this new environment, especially during our outing in this crowded Singapore.

Having Ee Wern in my life has challenge me to be flexible in my parenting skills. Approach in my parenting style can be flexible and achieve my objective at the same time. After all, I am dealing with human not robot. LoL