Big brother Jealousy!

It's been 10 days since baby Br is home. He's grown 10 ounces heavier than his birth weight and is a healthy pink baby with no signs of jaundice at all, unlike his older brother, who was severely jaundiced at birth. This is definitely a piece of good news for us since we were worried that the baby may be like Ry who is colicky and jaundiced in the first month. Everything is going pretty well with the new baby except that he's wide awake at night, keeping me up almost every 1.5 - 2 hr and refuse to go to sleep from 10 pm to 1 am, like last night. The pediatrician says that it is because the baby still couldn't differentiate between night and day. And I guess it's the same timing the baby is keeping when he's in my tummy by which he usually starts his kicking and movement after 10 pm every night when I was enjoying a late night show with daddy.

Attempt to catch a picture of Brendan smiling away.

As for Ry, things weren't so good for him. After spending almost a week with the baby and realizing that the baby isn't going away, i guess jealousy starts kicking in. He's been whiny, needy and attention seeking. My mother-in-law has made 2 new pillows filled with 豆芽壳, the outer shells of dried bean sprouts (P/s: dunno what is the real translation in English, can anybody enlighten me?) for for Ry and Br but Ry kept taking Br's for his own use and refuse to share any of his pillows. So now, Ry has 5 pillows and we had to secretly put one away for Br. Also, Ry would want me to carry him, hug him or play with him whenever I'm breastfeeding Br or carrying Br. If I told him to wait till I finished with Br, he would promptly plop himself on the floor and start knocking his head against the floor to coerce us .

Worse still, for the past week, Ry has been waking up in the middle of the nights crying and kept snuggling into our bed which the the baby is sleeping in his sleeper between me and daddy. Thus, keeping the daddy awake since his cot was beside K. So last night, we decided to have a new sleep arrangement such that Ry is sleeping between us and we put the baby and his sleeper onto Ry's cot beside me. However, around 2 am last night, Ry woke up and saw the baby in his cot and started wailing away as he refused to have the baby there. Ry kept crying for almost 2 hours and by then, our temper has flared since both of us had not been sleeping well for the past nights plus I just went to bed only half an hour ago after carrying Br for 3 hours when he refused to sleep. K almost resorted to punish Ry to his naughty corner when my mum came out to interfere. I have no choice but to get out of the bed and try to pacify Ry. Fortunately, he quieted down as he realised that K was really angry with him and later went back to bed after I soothed him to sleep. So, the two of us only went to bed at almost 4 am and by then, Br was almost up for him his next feeding, meaning that I get to sleep only at 430 am.

Before Br's birth, K and I had already agreed not to scold or punish Ry for at least the first 2 weeks when baby is home. However, we find that it is really hard for us to keep our temper and patience in check. I have on numerous occasions raised my voice at Ry especially when he refused to wait for his turn and kept tugging at me when I was carrying or feeding the baby. I guessed we just have to learn to cope with two young kids and as my mum says, they are really too close in age and Ry has been too comfortable with the both of us and it is difficult for him to start sharing his attention with the younger sibling. Hopefully, as days go by, Ry will be better in his behaviour.

Picture of Ry with the birthday present from our good friend in Abu Dhabi.

Ry loves to sit in Br's car seat / bouncer.