Daily baby routine and mummy duties!

My days are now my nights and vice versa. Over the past 2 weeks, we have more or less set up a routine for baby leia to follow. As emphasized in the Secrets of the baby whisperer, a structured routine helps to bring order and consistency to babies' lives. Babies prefer to follow a routine since like us, they are also creatures of habit.

So my day starts from midnight since I'm the one taking care of the night shift. Gerald started work at hq so he definitely needs sleep at night. It will be terrible for me to let my in laws take the night gift too since they are after all not so young anymore. Thus my mummy duty is to care for baby at night. 

It has been a challenging and trying experience with ups and downs. When the downs hit, they feel a lot worse and get me pretty upset, depressed and disheartened. On good nights, baby can sleep from 11pm to 5am straight. I can catch some sleep too. On other nights, she wakes up three hourly to feed but falls asleep once she gets her milky. On bad nights, when we struggle the most, Leia wakes up every hour and cries -a lot-. And she can't seem to fall asleep unless someone walks and rocks her for a loooong time. I had such a night two days ago and it was terrible. I ended up crying and running to G for rescue at 2am in the morning. Trust me, I felt like such a bad wife when I had to turn to him for help cause he had work the next day. I kept crying and kept thinking I was inadequate and a bad mummy. I couldn't even settle her to sleep. The next day, I suspected I was having post partum depression -.-

I'm trying to hang in there because everyone (family, friends, forums) says it gets better. I'm trying to be mentally and emotionally stronger so that I can cope with such encounters when they hit. 

Mornings feel better because my PILs take over and I get to rest and express milky for leia. I cherish these restful moments! When it comes to the afternoons, I try to feed her whenever I can and she falls asleep most of the time.  My gosh she sleeps a lot! But it's good because babies grow in their sleep. 

Leia only becomes more awake from 7pm onwards since she's really a nocturnal character, even when she was in my belly hehe. G comes home at about 8pm so it's good cause he gets to help too and play with our lil one. I'm so glad he's a proactive daddy who knows how to feed, change her diapers and comfort her to sleep. *super hearts* 

So that's our daily routine for our princess! Can't believe she's growing up so fast. Before I know it, she's gonna be able to sit, crawl and walk! Oh my.