101 ways to wake a baby

I wrote this back in Thailand as a bit of light-hearted fun when Jacob and I were dealing with multiple naps on the go out and about while trying to get climbing in and a lot of 'what the actual f^ck' moments.

I never posted it but recently changed my mind. So for a bit of a lol and a reminder to never take life too seriously keep reading!

Below is a list of somewhat ridiculous things that Kaia has either slept through or been woken up by during a nap. It's the hilarious reality of what sleeping and naps on the go looks like and a lot of 'oh well if you don't laugh you cry' moments.

It's also another tool in our toolkit that we have had to establish to handle these situations and be OK when it all goes to sh^t, even though you know it's going to completely throw your day (and probably night out).

It's something in a strange sense that I am kind of grateful for? Knowing we got through all those times and we are fine and that we continue to build a strong resilient little girl.

So here we are, 101 (or 20) ways to wake a baby.

1. Whipper snipper – started out of nowhere, less than 5m after she had gone down for her nap at the crag. It was SO loud and inconsistent – at least be loud and constant and act as white noise! She slept through this one – I have no idea how!
   

2. Angle grinder – this was a doozy, we took a day trip to Tonsai by boat and set her up in the perfect little quiet cave for her first nap, away from all other climbers. Not long after she went down a worker decided to cut tin roof sheets. She did not sleep through this one, I felt awful. It was so loud and such a horrible noise, on and off, followed by the dragging around of tin on concrete. This one did ruin our day!
   

3. Thunderstorm – can be nice but can turn bad, especially in South East Asia! She usually sleeps through the rain but sometimes tropical storms come on thick and fast! And the thunder cracking can be very loud (even louder than the Mosque!) she's usually out in the open and if a storm comes out of nowhere, we are kind of f^ckd if her cot gets wet.
   

4. Super Loud Climbers – this one does get to us a bit, it feels like everyone comes out of nowhere, as soon as she goes down for a nap. A lot of people do not care that there's a baby asleep. I get it, it's a public place, but sometimes I do think to myself could you at least try not to have your catch-up directly over her tent. We never say anything or ask people to be quiet, we know that we are taking her to a shared space, but it does get frustrating and sometimes I feel common sense should prevail – there’s only so much the white noise machine can do!
   

5. Climbing Instructor (and students) – it seems right around the 10 am mark that her first sleep falls and everyone arrives at the crag, including groups of students and an instructor. We usually try set her up as far along the wall as we can, or under really hard climbs that hopefully no one wants to do. She has learned to sleep through a fair bit of background noise but yeah the instructors love to yell at people, especially in the name of safety for beginners which is all good, until it wakes the baby up haha.
   

6. Groups setting up on top of us – traveling is one of those things, you can't expect others to have the same morals and ethics as you, and other cultures to act or behave as you do, or how you are used to. We would never move all of our stuff into a small area on top of others where people were already set up, and would always gauge the situation, read the room if you will, and act appropriately. More than once we have been set up in a little spot and a group of people have quite literally moved in and on top of us, started playing music over the top of ours and put their gear on top of ours and all around Kaia's tent. In this situation we usually just pack up and leave, but if shes sleeping we cant, and if shes just about to go down we have to retreat, find a shady tree somewhere and put her down there.
   

7. Strange lady opening her tent - another wtf travel experience, she's just fallen asleep and Jacob and I have jumped back on the wall, her tent is about 10m away. A very strange animated person walks up to her tent and goes to unzip it while shes sleeping! Someone walking past said there's a sleeping baby in there (like what are you doing?) and she responded 'oh I thought there was a doggy in there like how cute'. Yes lady, a silent dog, in a blacked out tent. Jacob quickly came down and I went and stood next to her tent for a bit. People are strange and you just never know. All it takes is someone to open it, grab the baby and run. Stressful.
   

8. Loud buggy – omg there is this one particular bug, it was more prominent on Tonsai than mainland AoNang but we also had it at North Wall and Spirit Mountain. It is SO loud and the sound is SO obnoxious – it nearly always woke her up, incredibly annoying but hilarious because it is literally a bug. Cant do much but laugh at this one.
   

9. Dogs barking – yeah super common, there are a lot of stray dogs around. We are constantly watching and hoping they don’t go near her tent. Anyway, they often bark, she usually sleeps through it though!
   

10. Roosters – this was particularly bad at Chong Phli – another goodie we love to stress about, momentarily, she usually sleeps through 😊 it's funny how instantly anxious you can get over strange sounds when your baby is asleep!
    

11. Cat fights – soooo many cats and the cat fights can be hectic. Moreso for us though, they sound scary haha but she will usually sleep through!
    

12. Team redoing slings – yeah these ones, you really can't be mad at these ones, just good people out there doing good things, redoing and checking the safety of routes. Often requires going to routes you wouldn't anticipate anyone climbing (which is where we try to set her up) and shouting at each other, cue wake a sleeping baby.

Some others that are so bad you have to laugh or you cry that have quite literally woken her up and all you can do is *facepalm*...

13. farting

14. bones in foot cracking

15. opening of wine bottle

16. opening door

17. flushing toilet

18. opening of block of chocolate

19. kicking a toy in the dark

20. trying to hold a sneeze and nearly blowing your brains out in the process.

Honestly the list could go on but I'll leave it there. If there's something ridiculous that's woken your baby, hang in there. Smile that it happened, giggle at the circumstances and know that there's always another nap to play catch up on.

Til next time,

R