Sleep is such a vexed issue at the moment. Little E has been varying between barely sleeping at all during the day to sleeping every 90 minutes or so as per her previous pattern. Yesterday I wore both of us out trying to persuade her to have a sleep in the morning, then got incredibly depressed and frustrated about not being able to figure out what she wants/needs and wound up at Mum's in tears. Today E barely slept during the morning (about 15 minutes in the pram at mothers' group) but then passed out driving home, stayed asleep in the car seat whilst at home for another 30 minutes, woke up to eat, fell asleep again, allowed me to put her in her cot and stayed there for the next two hours. I even managed a nap!
A good thing too, because nights are really crummy at the moment. E is still in her own room, and still waking repeatedly - I'm not sure if the two are related. She is insisting on eating at the 3.00/3.30 wake-up.
We started her on rice cereal on Saturday and that, at least, is going quite well. She appears to enjoy it, especially chewing the spoon after finishing a mouthful. As will be clear from above ,it isn't making her sleep any longer at night, but perhaps is stretching out the day-time feeds.
We persevere!
2 comments:
Glad the solids are going well, but bummer about the sleep!
There is a theory that around this age babies start to learn about cause-and-effect, so "I cry and I get fed/dummy/patted/cuddled". Whether this is true and how you should respond is more controversial!
If you are a believer in misery-likes-company (or group therapy) check the responses to my recent FB post on the topic. Or take it from me: you are not alone! :) hope it improves!! Baby sleep is a rollercoaster, where the high parts are high tiredness- I think you start at a very high point and there are lots of up and downs before you reach baseline again!
Hi - thanks - last day or two have been ok - we have avoided night feeds and whether because of the wonders of rice cereal or some other magic, day time feeds are 3 to 4 hourly instead of 2 to 2.5 hourly. She is also consenting to take the odd day time nap, albeit never when I expect. I thought your stalkbook poll was very interesting! Not many of the babies at our mothers' group have started solids (partly because E is amongst the oldest, partly because of the Health Dept's "wait 'til 6 months" mantra) so I don't have much to compare her to here. I did get Robin Barker out of the library and I quite like her.
Post a Comment