The Clan

Well, although we started quite well in the first week or so, things do get tougher afterwards.

Our biggest challenge at the moment is Lina’s lack of sleep. For the last 2 weeks, Matt hasn’t been sleeping that well at nights. He usually wakes up at about 10pm-11pm and then he wouldn’t sleep until 3am-4am. And when he’s not sleeping, he’s crying. And then Jet usually wakes up around 7am-7.30am, so as you can imagine Lina can only sleep for a very short period of time.

I really hope I can of help in this, but it’s quite hard because I can’t feed Matt (Matt is still breast feeding) so it has to be Lina. And when Jet wakes up at 7.30am I couldn’t look after Jet as I have to leave for work so Lina has to wake up and look after him. And for some reason, Lina also is not able to take naps, she just couldn’t sleep. So she’s often very tired and easily irritated.

Jet also been quite handful lately. Although I have no doubt of Jet’s love to Matt, but there is no doubt that he’s craving for more attention lately. He started to scream more and acting up more as well. As mentioned previously he’s also very curious with Matt, so whenever we leave Matt lying somewhere, he would come to Matt. Most of the times he would just want to observe his baby brother, chat to him, basically just showing his interest to Matt, however Jet’s problem is he cannot keep his hands to himself so we couldn’t leave him by himself with Matt (not yet anyway).

On the plus side, Jet is getting used to sleeping off by himself. Before he always asks for companion when he’s trying to sleep, but these couple of days, after reading bible and pray with him, we can just leave him and he would sleep by himself.

I also really thankful for Lina’s family, Lina’s parents and sister have been really2 helpful in helping us. On the weekdays, they would come and keep Jet company while Lina can concentrate on Matt. On the weekends, we can drop off Jet at their place for few hours so we can do things that need to be done. I am not looking forward for their departure on March.

I think things will get better over the time as Matt settles to a  better pattern of sleeping and feeding. Hopefully things will get better sooner than later. Definitely need lots of prayers.

Wow, it’s been a month now!

As Jet would said it. Thanks for helping us.

The first week has been both well and not so well. It’s better than our first week with Jet simply because now we know things better and also Matt is so far easier to handle than Jet, he doesn’t cry as much as Jet did.

However not so well because dealing with 2 children is actually very tough. There are numerous occasions when both children needs our attention. For instance when Matt needed to be fed but Jet wanted to sleep with Lina to accompany him. It can be very frustrating sometimes for Lina especially on period when no one is able to help her with the 2 children.

Luckily Jet is starting to get used to the idea that he won’t be having as much attention from Lina as before and he’s also starting to understand that I will try to fill in the gap that Lina left (as well as he just need to grow up more, like sleeping by himself more and more). Come to think of it, Jet has been really good with Matt, I think he simply loves him. Often when Matt cries and we are somewhere else, Jet would be the first to run to Matt and he will either to calm Matt on his own way or shouted to notify us, we can see his face is worried whenever Matt cries. We still try to teach restrain to Jet as he is quite rough sometimes, we know he didn’t mean to be rough to Matt but it’s just his character, he is quite physical.

Been reading Love Languages for Children. The author states that child’s primary love languages are always changing and you cannot find out until the child is older than 5 years.

However me and Lina think Jet’s primary language is Quality Time (accidentally it is also Lina’s), this evidenced by his often cravings for attention, he doesn’t like to be alone for long.

Would be interested to see whether this will change as he grows, also eager to know what the 2nd child is like, what’s his/her love language..

Wah bener2 bikin kuatir deh nih anak. Dia kan emang beberapa hari belakangan kurang enak badan, pilek, bersin2 dan agak batuk. Tapi udah mendingan, terus hari ini he seemed OK, so kita taruh dia di creche whilst gw dan Lina ke UniChurch Together today.

Pas udah hampir selesai acara (sekitar jam 11:45-an), si Umin nyamperin gw bilangin kalo si Jet sakit. Terus kita buru2 turun ke bawah, terus si Jet keliatan lemes banget dipegangin ama si Alice. Terus Glorya bilangin kalo si Jet sempat kehilangan kesadaran beberapa saat dan dia udah telpon ambulance. He looked so pale and weak. Pas dipangku Lina dia langsung tutup mata dan tidur.

Terus ambulance datang, petugas ambulancenya cek si Jet, terus found out kalo dia panas banget (39 derajat) dan bilang kalo harus dibawa ke rumah sakit sekarang juga. Ya udah akhirnya Lina dan Jet pergi naik ambulance, gw pergi naik mobil.

Dokter di hospital bilang dia mungkin tiba2 mengalami demam mendadak makanya pingsan.

Dia udah pulang rumah sih, suhu badan masih very high (39 derajat), we pray supaya bisa turun soon. Oh, what a day. Pikir2 Jet udah lumayan sering pergi ke Emergency-nya Randwick’s Children’s Hospital. Must continue be praying for him and Lina, as she’s exhausted.

Gara2 Jet sakit, dia jadi rewel banget.. Suka merengek, nangis dan somehow jadi rebelious dan stubborn banget, ga mau pray, ga mau baca bible, he’s not his usual self. Also gara2 dia sakit, kita jadi miss PGF social ke Watson Bay (agak kecewa sih, tapi untung diremind oleh Vic C kalo ministry prioritasnya ke keluarga dulu).

Last night was very tiring for me and Lina, Jet woke up at 11pm and couldn’t sleep until 1am, so we had to take turn in accompanying him (he’s usually quite easy to sleep). Today also rewel2 a bit, but thank God up until now his sleep is quite good, hopefully it will stay like this for the rest of the night.

I took a day off last Friday (25/07) on Jet’s birthday. We went to Sydney Aquarium. Unfortunately Jet wasn’t appreciating the trip as we thought he would, but at least me and Lina were enjoying the aquarium. He was a bit cranky and the rainy weather didn’t make it any easier.

We then went to Sushi Rio at Sussex St for dinner, it was a so so sushi restaurant so wont’ be recommending it.

On Saturday, we picked up the cakes from Eastgarden and took some pictures. We then had lunch at Java.

On Sunday, we had a little celebration with the Sunday school kids and teachers (or carers?).

Happy birthday son! May you grow to know Christ as your Lord and Saviour.l

Jet has learnt these words:

• Nggak mau
• Nggak tau
• Nggak pa pa
• Ya udah

Come to think of it, are we the only parents in Pelita (GKP) that teach and speak Indo to our child? I think those indo phrases are cuter for the baby to say than the English counterpart.

Barusan pulang dari rumah sakit.. Pas Sui ultah lagi.. hm hm. Pas pulang dari kantor, on the bus, I got a phone call from Sui telling me that Jet fell and vomitted twice.

Ceritanya sekitar jam 5.30-an somehow ade masuk kamar gw without anyone knowing (ling dan cece di luar), terus tiba2 ada bunyi DUK terus ade nangis.. Abis itu ade jadi clingy dan lemes pas jam 6.30-an dia muntah..

So akhirnya another visit to the Randwick Children Hospital deh. Ternyata dia ngga pa pa Thank God! Kata dokter vomitting nya most likely karena virus (dia agak demam juga sih) or something else not related to the fall.. but we were told to keep watch on his temperature (of course). After stayed di hospital selama 2 jam-an akhirnya jam 9.30 boleh pulang.. Besok ke GP deh..

Wah cape hari ini.