Sighh....

It honestly feels like I'm never going to get a full nights sleep! I've started going to bed around the same time Baby Bear is, just to get a few extra hours in! He's been good a handful of nights lately, and although it is improving... I really miss the days of maternity leave, when although I was huge, had heartburn and a bladder the size of a brussel sprout, I went to bed at around ten, woke up maybe once of twice to pee or guzzle down some Gaviscon, and woke up around nine. Maybe a sneaky nap around two in the afternoon...

I try to be in bed around 8pm now, although sometimes I wait until ten pm for his dreamfeed. A good night for us is two or three wakings after this feed. The worst have been twenty minute sleeps between cuddles, putting the dummy back in and patting his back. o

I've restarted the Gina Ford routine but I've had a few really busy days and getting good naps in has been a nightmare! And bad naps during the day = lots of waking in the night. But I'm going to continue following it, as the days I have he's pretty much slept through the night, and I go back to work soon. Work + broken sleep = zombie mummy bear.

Daddy bear is getting very grumpy with the lack of sleep (although he sleeps through half the night wakings anyway!!) but continues to tell me it's not me. I've had many a morning, sat sobbing in bed because he has hardly slept and I don't know what I'm doing wrong :(

He's now on three meals a day, which consists of

Banana porridge - it's an Organix one which stinks and comes up really thick so you have to make it runny as it goes stodgy within minutes.

Some kind of root veg mash, and a cube of apple or pear puree for dessert

Hipp nighttime porridge, sometimes with a bit of fruit puree mixed in.

I still give him his bottles first, he takes a good 7oz of milk four times a day, and since introducing breakfast he only takes 3-4 oz during the night rather than a full bottle. I still want milk to be his main source of food.

Hoping and praying things get better before I go back to work
xxx

Oh little Bear, why won't you sleep?

So, I accepted I was going to be tired. I knew being a mummy was going to be hard. But my little bubba, who was sleeping relatively well, has changed his mind, and now has decided it's much more fun to stay awake.

I attempted to follow Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby Routine, but it wasn't for me. I'm a very active person and I found the routine very restricting as Little Bear was supposed to sleep in his room, in the dark, at set nap times. I can't stay in all day, it's not practical and drove me insane. I also found that keeping him awake for set amount of times just made him very cranky. So I started following his lead. If he wants to sleep, I let him sleep. But I make sure that when he is awake, I play with him, talk to him and keep him stimulated. For the last few days he's been cluster-feeding, and I'm putting it down to a growth spurt, as I can't settle him with a dummy, cooled boiled water or a cuddle, he wants food every 60-90 mins.

And don't get me started on night times. He fights sleep for a long time, spitting out his dummy and waking after about five minutes, so it's a cycle of put fummy back in, hold his hands, and usually he'll settle. If not, a quick cuddle will quieten him. Put him down. He wakes within 15 mins and cries. Back in, dummy in, drifts off, leave the room, he wakes up. It doesn't matter if I'm in my bed next to his Moses Basket, he's just not staying asleep.

I'm putting it down to insufficient naps during the day, he's fighting them too which means I struggle to get anything done! Over the past few days I've tried swaddling, sleeping bags, keeping him warm, keeping him cool, a bottle of formula, putting a sheet under the head of his mattress so he's not flat, and now I'm at a loss!

Today, my experiment is letting him nap in his bouncy chair in front of me instead of putting him in his room. I figure he's only dinky and needs to know I'm close, as he is fast asleep has stirred once or twice, spotted me and gone back to sleep. He's quite happy to sleep in my arms, or in a chair or in the pram, but this doesn't help my night times - I appear to be running on some kind of freaky back-up energy for now but I'm very tired.

Let's see if what they say is true - that sleep breeds sleep and his better daytime naps mean better sleep at night - I shall update soon!!

Eagerly awaiting a better night's sleep
xxx