Well last night topped off almost two weeks of crappy nights. My daughter, light-of-my-life, angel of sweetness that she is, woke up every TWO HOURS!! But let me go back to the beginning.
A week and a half ago The Captain left for an army training course which was meant to last until today. My sister, God bless her, came to stay with me and the kids last Saturday. She stayed until Friday, which was bliss. I wouldn't have managed the week without her. But, since the very day that The Captain left the kids decided to channel the whole crew of the Bounty, and mutiny. And mutiny they did! They tag-teamed sleep, one would doze off and the other would wake and cry (oh the crying !! I'm sure the neighbours think something heinous is going on), then vice versa. My daughter was the main culprit. Since birth she has been a fairly good sleeper, especially at night. She hasn't woken before midnight (after going to sleep at about 5.30-6.00) for months. Until, of course The Captain left.
My son who has also been a great sleeper these last few months, suddenly wasn't. He needed me in the room to actually fall asleep, which is a hard task when I can hear my daughter crying uncontrollably and my poor sister trying in vain to soothe her.
So after a few crappy day sleeps and even crappier nights I decided to get pro-active. I needed a plan. I went on to Google and searched for baby sleeping techniques. And I quickly realised that the simple wrap and put down method that had worked for my daughter up until now was no longer enough of a sleep routine. As she is almost six months old, she needed something more substantial. And this is what I found.
http://www.babycenter.com.au/podcast/
Lullabies. Why hadn't I thought of that before? Since birth my daughter has always slept with the radio on the oldies station. But, I thought, perhaps Neil Diamond and CCR were no longer doing it for her. So I downloaded this podcast and burned it onto a CD. I grabbed a couple of baby books and put them next to her rocker.
And now I had a sleep time routine. The first time I went in so confident, all prepped up with my plan that it actually worked and my daughter fell asleep on her own (up til then I had been having to feed her to sleep - sometimes a sweet method but most times a tiring, prolonged one that only delivered forty minutes sleep). My sister and I were cheering.
But I'm sure you can see where this is going. After that first initial success, it went downhill again. Now don't get me wrong. My daughter is almost six months old (this Thursday in fact) and at this age I'm not adverse to letting her cry it out til she falls asleep, but after an hour of crying and no signs of abating is my limit (I do go in and check on her during this time - it's not total neglect!!).
That's when I cave and feed her to sleep. Everytime. I'm sorry if this makes me a bad mother, but who wants their child to cry for longer than an hour??? Who wants their child to cry at all? That's the sucker's argument I use on myself whenever I feed her to sleep. I did the exact same thing with my son, and can see I'm heading in the same direction now with my daughter.
Anyway all this extra breast feeding has now left me with a nasty case of mastitis. A very painful don't-even-touch-that case of mastitis. So last night's crappy night has left me in a state of sleep deprivation, pain and something akin to panic only slightly less energetic. I'm not really sure what to try now. My sleep deprivation was realised this morning (just before 6 when I finally got up with my son who was up and in our bed since 5) when I couldn't figure out why the vegemite lid was not fitting on the milk bottle. :)
I've been doing a bit of research online here whilst writing this post and here are some sites that I've come across that have been helpful and may be for you if you're in a similar situation.
Save our Sleep - you need to buy most of Tizzie Hall's articles and pages from this site, but if you're getting desperate approximately $30-$40 doesn't seem like too much of an ask for up to twenty separate articles in the area of your choice. These include 'Cat-napping package,' 'Breast-feeding package,' 'Contented baby package' and many more.
The Wonder Weeks - and I did a quick calculation and of course my daughter is 26 weeks old - another mental development milestone or 'wonder week.'
Baby Centre's Good Sleep Habits - a helpful, age-by-age guide. There are a TON of other articles on this site covering all sorts of questions and issues relating to pregnancy, babies, infants and toddlers, not just sleep-related.
Greece and the Greek Islands - a girl can dream right?
Anyway, The Captain came home early on Sunday which I thought would herald a return to normal sleeping patterns for everyone. Alas, it did not. Although it was great to have him here to tend to our daughter when she called out last night. I'm very grateful. I'm also grateful to my mum and nana who came down on the weekend to do their stint of helping out whilst I was a single parent. And of course to my sister who gave up so much of her holiday time to come and hang out with my crazy family.
Very grateful.
Now that I've gotten all that off my chest, I'm going to plan my trip to Greece.
Oh, some good news before I go. My son seems to be toilet trained. Simple as that :)
I ran out of nappies the other day and decided the time was right. Seems to be too. You go boy!!!
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