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Matthew – 3rd Month
Note: Matt wasn’t in anyway harmed when this picture taken. As doctor suggested we continue to put him on his tummy so that hopefully he can lift his head and strengthen his neck.. Well it hasn’t worked well so far, we think is because (Lina’s quote): "Man, his head is massive!". But anyway his neck is getting stronger, his head doesn’t rock violently as before.
Lina doesn’t like this picture, but I do, so it’s up on this blog 🙂
Thank you Guama dan Guakong
Guama dan Guakong telah 3 bulan menemani papa, mama, koko dan ade Matthew.
We are really grateful for all the help and companionship they have provided. After the birth of Matthew, they come over on every days that I am at work to help Lina looks after the boys. Guakong helped a lot by playing with Koko Jet, fixing electrical stuffs, cleaning and organizing the garage (he’s done amazing job with it – he’s an organizing genius) etc2. Guama helped a lot by cooking healthy and yummy food for us. Well, they have done a lot for us, more than I can remember.. suffice to say..
They will be missed and we are looking forward to see them again.
Prayer answered?
We have been praying for Jet as his behavior was worsened a lot. But he’s actually better now. Praise God!
I am continue to amaze at Jet’s linguistic skills, he’s now picking up Ambonese really well.
Isep Jempol
I just saw Matt ngisep jempol only for few seconds though.. Mungkin dia lagi bereskperimen.. Si Jet paling demen ngisep jempol, kalo ngga ngisep jempol ngga bisa tidur dia ..
Tantrum
Jeremiah has thrown his worst tantrum yet. He didn’t want to sleep by himself, he cried and screamed.
I have never delivered this level of punishment before and yet it didn’t seem to work on him today. I felt sad and disappointed. I am sad as Jet’s behaviour seems to deteriorate (despite our prayers for his characters). I am disappointed as I have given in to my anger and not using my head more.
It seems that it’s not Matthew that requires control crying. Lina suggested that if he’s making problems tomorrow we should try to ignore him as our negative attention seems to fuel his negative behaviour.
I think we need to pray more for this boy, where has the old Jet gone?
Having said this, I need to remind myself that Jet is still a lovely boy though, he’s still happy, clever and articulate boy. And I thank God for that.
Matthew – 2nd month
We went to FOCUS Grad Camp 09, this is Matt’s first camp, hopefully more to follow. The camp was marked with extreme heat, I think it was around 40-ish degree on the hottest. Matt was coping with the extreme heat quite well, thank God (although me and Lina weren’t).
Matt has grown a lot too, his height and weight are nearly topping the growth chart. Lina also mentioned Jet’s 5 months old clothes don’t fit Matt anymore.
Apart from his habit of sleeping during the day and waking up at night, I really enjoy him.
More interactions with Matt
Over the last few weeks, it appears that Matt has an increased awareness of people and faces.
For instance, whenever I walk around the room, his eyes would follow. And also, the best part is, he’s now able to smile and more recently laughing audibly whenever someone is looking at him face to face.
Grandma and grandpa have also been able to have some sort of conversation with Matt.
This is a little joy worthy of thanking God for, especially as we are still really struggling with accommodating both Jet and Matt in our life.
After a month
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.