Levi is now sleep trained! Woo hoo!

We've been patting him to sleep but he's getting heavier and I can feel the effect on my neck and lower back. No good. It was also taking longer and longer to pat him to sleep for his naps. So James suggested to try sleep training him. I was planning to wait till after my parents leave to do it because things will change again when they come.

But a few nights ago, I accidentally sleep trained him. I was real tired, even after I fed him, he still didn't fall asleep. Normally at bedtime, he'll fall asleep after feeding and he'll continue sleeping when I put him down. But he didn't this time so I just left him awake and left the room. And he fell asleep on his own, no crying! So I thought I'll try again the next day.

Consecutively for a few naps, he cried for 30 mins (I almost gave up at this point, I'm terrible at this, James kept me to it), next nap 20 mins and next nap 10 mins and then since then, he hardly cries when I put him down and falls asleep on his own! Brilliant!

So the little one now goes down for his naps and bedtime with his sleeping bag, 2 rounds of Jesus Loves Me and I'll say "Nap nap time", big kiss and down he goes.

Yay! No need to pat him to sleep anymore! Now just need to figure why he keeps waking in the night. He's really strange. One night he sleeps for 6 hrs straight and next night he wakes every 2 hrs! Very strange. We'll see how it goes tonight.

UPDATE: Woo hoo! Last night, after putting him to bed at 7pm, he only woke up to fed at 11pm, 2am and then 7.30am! YAY!!!!! Hopefully this continues and soon he'll drop the 2am one and just wake up a bit earlier. That I can deal with. For the first time in 3 months I woke up in the morning feeling like I actually slept in the night. I figured out the problem – when he stirs and cries, I almost immediately go pick him up to feed. He woke up at 4am again crying and this time I left him and he went back to sleep after a few mins and the crying was not too loud. Then he stirred at 6.30am but I just left him and finally I cannot tahan, needed to feed him so at 7.30 when he stirred again, I fed him. Praying that it'll continue like this. It's a bit harder to sleep train when he sleeps in the same room.

Ok this is a real lousy pic but I just wanted to document that Sophie figured out how to swim on her own with arm floats! Yay! It happened when we were in Vanuatu.

It's quite sad that when we got here we had to stop her swim lessons with Aqua Ducks in S'p. Think she would have done well and should be well swimming on her own right now without floats but oh wells, a step at a time.

She loves swimming and we've gotta figure a way to get her swimming more here!

Sorry for the slow down in updates while we've been here. 

James has been teaching since Monday and it's been going well! It's a small class of 5 students and 3 staff. It's been cool to see how God works differently each time. James' been learning how to not teach the same things but to really press in and hear God for the specifics each time. He decided not to email everyone daily like the last time but I'll leave him to do that when he is ready.
 

We accompanied him on the first day to the base but after that, I decided to stay home with the kids instead. I would love to be at the base to hang out and catch up with people but it was just too stressful managing both kids and trying to keep the flies off Levi. It was much easier being at G & A's place. Much cooler with the fan too. But Sophie really enjoys being at the base. I think it's because it's familiar to her. Each time we've been to Vanuatu, we've stayed at the base. This is the first time we are staying off base. She enjoys running around and having the company of the che ches and kor kors.
 

Tomorrow is the last day of the teaching and we'll go to the base again with James.
 

Pls continue to pray with us for open heavens. For the students to experience a breakthrough in their struggles and in their relationship with God. To come to know God as their loving Father and to feel safe enough to completely surrender to Jesus as the Lord of their lives.

We are in Vanuatu. 

We are staying with Geoff and Amanda, the YWAM base directors here. James only starts teaching next Monday so we're adapting into island culture, relaxing and enjoying the company of our dear friends.
 

The kids normally takes a day or two to settle in. Since Tues, Levi's been quite erratic in his feeding and sleeping. He's only starting to feed better and seem more relaxed today. Sophie's happy to have a play mate Leiana (Geoff and Amanda's 4 yr old daughter) and they even slept in the same room the first night. Our days starts real early coz the cocks start crowing real early and the room is not completely blacked out.
 

The beach is opposite the house and mangos keep dropping on the roof from tree next to the house. I'm in heaven. Except my heaven will have no stray dogs.