What’s been happening this month? More sleep deprivation. Not even a touring Keith Richards lives this hard.
Baby Holly is now a full-on roller – front and back. This means the whole wrapping the arms thing has to go, in-line with the SIDS guidelines. The fact she only sleeps a maximum of three hours at a time has made me reluctant to start. But I bit the bullet and began this week.
The outcome? I went straight back to wrapping. If I unwrapped just one arm, she’d spend the whole time pulling her dummy out, then grizzle because she couldn’t put it back in again. After standing by her cot and holding her hand for quite a while, I ended up feeling like someone was stabbing me in the back with a sharp knife and no, Julia Gillard was nowhere in sight. Then Holly looked up and laughed at me. Nice! Little rotter ….
You may be wondering what we did with Princess Ella at the same time. Well, due to the fact she was such a small baby, we somehow got away with wrapping her until she was eight months old. By that time, putting the dummy in and out of her mouth was a cinch.
SOLUTION: No idea. Keep her wrapped, maybe? How did you go about unwrapping your baby for sleep? Any tips or tricks for me?
THIS challenge was designed for fellow mums to assist in getting Baby Holly to become a better sleeper.
And, in turn, help other mums battling with that all-consuming “sleep deprivation”.
This is how things have progressed so far:
Month One: Baby Holly was swaddled, then placed in her basinette and, more often than not, put herself to sleep. Occassionally, we’d have to rock the basinette gently.
Month Two: Things started to go pear shaped. She became fussy at sleep time and woke every 1-2 hours during the night for a feed. Solution: I’d throw her over my shoulder and pace the floor ’til she fell asleep. I’d then gently lay her down in her cot like she was a hand grenade ready to go off at the slightest jiggle. During the night, she would fall asleep feeding. A bedtime routine was also established.
Month Three: Wrapping her became a problem, with her constantly getting her arms out and startling herself awake. Solution: Put a rolled up muslin underneath her, wrap one side up and around her arm and tuck it back underneath her bottom. Do the same with the other side. Then use another muslin to swaddle her as normal.
Month Four: Just prior to this month, she became so heavy to rock to sleep that my arms started to look like a WWE wrestler’s. So we’d lay her down and pat her head or tummy. One afternoon, in sheer frustration after patting for so long my leg had welded into the side of the cot, our li’l girl took a dummy. To this point, her strong gag reflex had prevented her taking a pipe. Now she only wakes twice a night (heaven!) and it takes little effort to get her to fall asleep. Solution: I’ve now been popping in the dummy, patting her head or tum and, just as she’s about to doze off, I pull it out (as per Pantley’s Gentle Removal Technique). If she whines or fusses, I put it back in and repeat. Still letting her feed to sleep in the middle of the night.
Month Four and a Half: There’s nothing quite like looking at the clock in the hope it says 7am, only to find it’s 11.30pm. Urrrggghhh. I’ve decided this “Sleep Challenge’’ should be renamed “The Sleep Challenged’’. Holly will have one three-hour stretch of sleep, then usually one-hour stints after that. Initially, I put it down to teething. Then, I blamed Wonder Week 19, which is the peak of the fussiness associated with their next developmental leap. She fitted the description: trouble sleeping (ah, hello), demanding attention, loss of appetite, moody, less vocal and sucks fingers more than before (tick, tick and tick). Who knows! What I do know is she refuses to fall asleep on her own, won’t take the pacifier, will only go to sleep if I rock or feed her and my eyes are starting to resemble those of rocker Jon English. Solution: Just get through it. Hopefully it is part of the Wonder Week and she’ll come out the other end a genius. Or not. Will keep trying to settle her in the cot and offering the pacifier, but if all else fails, rock, pat, cuddle, feed … whatever. As long as she gets some sleep.
