Dainty little Sarah, who rarely goes beyond a whimper, shattered all family decibel records which prompted swift action from us to close all windows for fear of neighbours knocking at our doors. You see, the mummy had gone out for some last minute CNY shopping, and had left the boy AND the girl in the good hands of the daddy.
All was well, for a full 15 minutes after mummy left, with daddy getting the boy into bed, giving him his milk and praying with him, while the girl lay on her rocker, quietly planning her tekan plan.
And then she launched her plan.
Slowly escalating her cries, we were quick to react to the initial onslaught by whipping out the arsenal (milk), warming it, and giving it to her. That have us 15 minutes of respite.
After the feed, she launched the 2nd attack, building up on her 1st decibel level by 20%. This time, it was countered with the burping position, but to no avail. Her attack continued even after she burped. Changing tactics, amidst fear of possible stomachache, ruyiyou (soothing oil) was applied on her. That seemed to calm her down for about 10 minutes, and our camp was happy to note that it must just have been discomfort at the tummy and the onslaught had been promptly quashed. However, she came back even stronger, clearly buoyed by the short rest she had and broke the standing famiLEE decibel records held by her older brother.
By now, our helper and I were pulling out all the rabbits out of the hat. Cross-cradle, stomach-to-stomach, one-handed, rocking, upright-backfacing, upright-frontfacing. We have also come to the conclusion that it was neither a case of wanting milk nor discomfort, but a natural longing for her biggest love... Mummy. And so, with that realisation, we even tried putting her on mummy's pillow, hoping the mere smell of her love will soothe her, but to no avail.
Needless to say, with she getting all the attention, her brother decided to get into the act too, by wanting to go wee-wee, by weeping too (saying that he was afraid mei-mei's stomachache will be too painful for her, sweet boy), asking for mummy etc. I had to exercise extreme calmness and patience, amidst the all-time-high decibel levels, to address these one by one. Sometimes, I can't even hear the boy even if I'm just standing next to his bed, with the girl fully exercising her lungs in my arms.
Well, that went on for about 2 hours before I finally stumbled on a position which she seemed satisfied with, which is carrying her upright, stomach to my chest, chin on my shoulders AND (check this out) my face must be touching her face. She settled down for about 5 minutes, just as mummy came back (hallelujah!). It was then that we realised that mummy always carries her in that same position soothing her and putting her to sleep at nights. (See, that's what you miss when you need to go back to reservist for 2 weeks).
I thank God that He had built up a rather deep patience reservoir within me over the past few years and opportunities like this to bond with Sarah. We've clearly understood each other much better after last night and while I have learnt new ways to handle her, she too would know that if mummy is not around, settling for daddy isn't that bad after all, even though it might be a more bony ride.
Just to round up the post, here's a latest pic of Sarah for you to try to imagine her pulling out her stunts.
