Someone at work gave me some very useful advice about babies: 'Never get used to anything, good or bad.' I'm planning on not getting used to this patch of Aidan not sleeping well. And Erin and I have spent this weekend wondering how to change this blip in his sleeping. Unfortunately we deal with things very differently. Very differently. It might be a male/female thing but it's definitely a Jay and Erin thing.
She's been reading every book there is on sleep, devouring Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby book. Then, not content herself, dipping into Baby Whisperer, then Baby Calming and No Cry Sleep Solution. Happiest Baby On The Block is on order.
I, on the the other hand, have not. I've read everything other than baby books, seemingly distancing myself from it all but actually worrying myself silly about how to deal with it - without saying anything to Erin - leading her to believe I didn't care.
Probably not the best way to deal with things.
Obviously, this led to everything coming to a head, having a stand-up row, calming down a bit and rationally talking things over.
After talking it through we've come to the following conclusion:
- His lack of daytime sleep has led to him feeding inconsistently.
- He sleeps well during the night after his bath and bedtime routine. Let's keep doing that the way we do.
- He has a little golden hour of smiles and fun between 7 and 8am. That could be turned into golden hours throughout the day if he sleeps better.
- This week Erin's going to stay in more - not fair for her but necessary for him - and get him in a routine.
- We're going to try a few tricks to get him to sleep through his light sleeping cycle.
- If this doesn't work we're going to try a crying and hushing technique - Gina Ford - during the weekend, when we can work as a team.
Having said this, he's a fun fella and smiling a lot when he's had a good daytime nap. This is why we want him to have nicer, longer kips.
Happy Mother's Day (The english one)
2 comments:
I've lost track - how old is Aidan now? He may be having a growth spurt, which means his routine will shift a bit. Isabel had one at around 4 months and was a nightmare until we rejigged her routine.
As they get older, they do sleep less - you may find that there's one nap in particular that he wakes grumpy from, and it may be that he's trying to drop it, so he goes from, say, three naps to two longer ones.
Also, is he finishing his feeds? If he is, then he might be waking because he's hungry (especially if he's going through a growth spurt). Try an extra oz at each feed and see if he takes it.
(Don't worry about what it says on the milk box, as long as the baby's weight isn't going up too fast, you can give him more than it says if he's hungry).
Also, if he's having phases of light sleeping, you might want to try leaving a radio tuned to Radio 4, very, very quietly, in his room, so it's just a background hum of voices. This worked an absolute miracle with Isabel and stopped her waking up at every noise. God bless Radio 4, that's what I say!
Thanks for this sally. It's very useful. Anything is really at the moment.
He's not finishing his feeds, and wakes up grumpy and yawning after all his daytime sleeps. We know a long nap does him well, giving us goofy smiles usually. Erin got one of those today and the fan we've put on for white noise seems to be working.
We'll bear the growth spurt in mind from now on, especially in a month's time.
Radio 4? So that's what it's useful for. I always wondered. I'm a Five Live man myself.
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