Wednesday 15th August 2012 - Day 3

Well i've finally managed to get back on and update on the progress of new sleep routine. Yesterday was so hectic, I managed to make my boyfriend his tea, bath the baby, feed him, get him to sleep, eat my own tea and go food shopping all in 3 hours. Then got back just after 9, washed bottles and got half and hour relax time before bed. My son slep brilliantly until 5am when he awoke and couldn't settle himself again, so I was up again dummy, blanket, ssh ssh ssh for twenty minutes until he dozed off only to wake up at 6 for his bottle. Oh and I forgot to mention we took him to be weighed, the little munchkin now weighs 14 lb 6oz from 8lb 5oz at birth.
So today, the weather was looking up; I had planned to take him to his first baby group but then the skies opened and we decided to have a lazy day practicing rolling over :-) well Rhys did. Hes not quite there but no doubt I will find him on his front in the next couple of days.
He had better, longer naps today too. I think he has trouble shutting himself off, he gets so excited and overactive. Nap times can become extremly frustrating for us both. On a brighter note bedtime was much better. He had a little wind down play, a lovely bath, bottle and was asleep with no fuss at all by 6.45pm. Time to put my feet up with a brew and might have a cheeky read of Fifty Shades, don't know what I will do without Mr Grey when i've finished this last book :-(
Happy mummy signing out! x

Monday 13th August 2012 - Day 1

My son has been overtired for a couple days so today I made sure he got plenty of nap time. He managed 3 hours overall which is better than what he was having. I made sure he has had plenty of stimulation and play time too. So when it came to bed time i've set out a firm routine that we are going to follow every evening from now on;
1) 5.00pm - 6.00pm - Wind down play, play with toys in living room, no stimulation from mum or dad, tv on low, curtains closed.
2) 6.00pm - Bath time, warm bath followed by a massage in bedroom, night light on.
3) 6.30pm - Last bottle of the day, in bedroom with night light on, whilst mummy reads stories quietly. Wind and read some more stories.
4) 7.00pm - Sleep time, music on, baby in cot, night light off, leave to sooth self to sleep as much as possible.

How did the 1st night go? Up until step 4 it went brilliantly, then came sleep time. He went down quietly the 1st time but kept spitting his dummy out and loosing his comforter, so I tried to leave him for 2 minutes to soothe himself, but didnt work. So put his dummy back in without him noticing me, gave him his comforter and again the dummy comes out and he looses his comforter. And again I leave him for 4 minutes this time, without success. 15 minutes in and he starts crying so again I try the self sooth technique, at 7.30pm this time I go over so im out of view, give him his comforter and dummy and stroke his head a few times and walk away and he drifts off to sleep. I feel a slight victory tonight but we still have a long way to go. I will see how he goes over the night. Tired Mummy signing out for the night!

Bad Sleep Assosiations

I read recently that babys lean sleep assosiations (a cue that tells the baby that its time to sleep) some are good and some are bad. For example listening to soothing music, having a night light or a comforter are good sleep assosiations. Being rocked to sleep, cuddling mum or dad and using a dummy could be classed as bad. I figured out why my son had started waking again in the night. He had or should I say, I had created a bad sleep association for him. He was now used to me rocking him and soothing him to sleep so every night I am spending an hour to two hours trying to get him to sleep; put dummy in, rock baby till quiet and eyes are droopy, put baby in cot, ssh ssh ssh, stroke nose, put dummy back in, give comforter, walk away, go back put dummy in, ssh ssh ssh, stroke nose, pick up, rock to sleep, put baby in cot again! And every night he's waking between sleep transitions so again im putting dummy in, ssh ssh ssh, stroking nose again and again and again. Im tired, my sons overtired and we are stuck in a really bad routine!
So reading up on the internet (god its a wondeful tool when used properly), i've come to the conclusion of the sleep associations and starting from today Monday 13th August I will begin to get our life back on track.

Where Do I Begin?

Well.... what can I tell you? Im a 1st time mum, my son is now 16 weeks old. I would like to state that whoever said 'the first few weeks of being a parent is the easiest', was wrong! Ah, ive experienced so much in these 16 weeks, so has my son, more than what a new baby should. I had set out to breastfeed but by the 3rd day I was sore to the point of tears and my son wasnt getting fed, shortly after we were made aware that he could be tongue tied. Why hadn't any of the midwives or paedeatric nurses seen this? We waited and waited for a referall but it never came.. By the 5th day I had no choice but to put him onto bottles. Things were looking up. The first 4 weeks seemed easy looking back; the nightime feeds never seemed to get me tired and down, baby would sleep anywhere at anytime and for long amounts of time. Me and his dad were living at my grandparents until we found a place to live, god that was stressfull more than being a new mum. Finally at 5 weeks we moved into a ground floor flat 7 minutes up the road from my family. And of course you can guess that my son was slightly unsettled at first, not to mention that he developed Reflux around this time; thus the start of the long and stressfull journey. We couldn't lie him down within an hour after his bottles, he was sick so much I was afraid he wasnt getting enough milk. So we got settled in and started our own little routine; then he began to seem unsettled and extremly sensitive, he would cry for hours and was unable to settle on his own and began to sleep on me. Our heath visitor said it was probably Colic and it was unsolvable really. Then one night he woke up for his 4am feed, I went to pick him up and he was scorching hot! I stripped him down to his vest, put on the fan and checked his temperature. He was 38.3 degrees c. So we took him to accident and emergency; he had contracted a urine infection. Over the 5 days he was in hospital he experienced the most unsettling stuff; he had fluid taken form his spine, blood taken and given antibiotics through a needle in his hand 6 times a day. We were so releived when we could finally come home, and we soon settled into a routine again. He had started going to sleep on his own and sleeping through the night. Then came the night we put him in his cot for the first time, he seemed to be unfazed by his new sleeping place but of course id started to rock him in my arms to settle him to sleep. At first I hadn't even noticed I was doing it but by the time I had it was too late. He started waking up every 3 hours in the night again even though hes not hungry and we couldn't understand why. And this is where I am now!