Mommy's Progress in Weaning Juan Or Off the Spring Cot

Juan Or with his 'smelly' towel, sleeping soundly in the spring cot.

Mommy first felt the urgency to wean Juan Or off the spring cot when one day, in the middle of the night, Mommy was awaken by the fretting cries of Juan Or. Still feeling drowsy, Mommy quickly went to check what was up with him. Turned out, Juan Or actually 'fell' out of the hammock and into the surrounding mosquito net! Well, didn't know how Juan Or 'did it', but luckily the mosquito net that envelopes the hammock is there, otherwise Juan Or may have a hard knock on the floor (there were always two pillows laid on the floor directly underneath the hammock as backup)!

So some nights after that, several hours when Juan Or is already soundly asleep - and that's if Mommy is able to wake up in the middle of night without any prompting from Juan Or's frets - Mommy will slowly and gently lift him out of the spring cot and transfer him to sleep together with Mommy on the mattress laid on the floor. Sometimes, Mommy's attempt is successful, sometimes not. When it's not successful, that is when Juan Or started fretting, Mommy has no choice but to put him back into the spring cot to rock again until he stops fretting. By the way, Juan Or really has got a bad temper whenever he is disturbed from sleep.

So far, there was only one successful attempt in getting Juan Or to fall asleep by himself without the spring cot. There was one night when Mommy had already put Juan Or into the spring cot, but he refused to sleep, instead, wanted to come out to play. By then, everyone had already gone to sleep (Mommy's parents-in-law were not in that night), the lights were switched off, Mommy was feeling very sleepy and laid on that same mattress on the floor to watch over him playing. All Mommy remembered was Juan Or finally became tired and laid next to Mommy and fell asleep by himself. Later the next day, Papa (who came downstairs in the wee hours in the morning) told Mommy that he saw Juan Or changed his sleeping position to somewhere out of the mattress (that is on the floor) but near Mommy's head! So Mommy thinks this is a good start to weaning him off from the spring cot.

However, for subsequent nights, despite Mommy's effort to try to do the same like that night (that is let Juan Or tire himself from playing and then plonks himself on the floor to sleep), turned out it is not successful up to today. Few reasons, main reason being Juan Or's Grandpa is still up watching TV till around 12.30am, so lights are still brightly on. Well, if the adult is still not sleeping at that time, how is the child going to learn to sleep too? And then on seeing Juan Or still playing around in the hall till late at night, Grandpa feels compelled to put Juan Or into the spring cot and then rock him to sleep. And there goes Juan Or's continued dependence on the spring cot.....

There was also another night when both Juan Or's Grandparents were not in that night, so Mommy tried the same thing. Yes, Juan Or continued playing around in the dark hall, but eventually he started pointing at the spring cot, indicating that he wanted to sleep there! So Mommy told him no, he should lie down together with Mommy to sleep. But Juan Or kept on pointing at the spring cot, his voice starting to sound fretful. So what was Mommy to do? Mommy had no choice but to put him there and rocked him to sleep. There goes another failure attempt.......