I posted on my Facebook mother’s group the other day about my envy of other parents who put their babies down to bed after a cuddle and book, said goodnight and their babies would take care of the rest. For Toby it was an extended period of walking around the room jiggling, or bouncing on the Swiss Ball until he was practically comatose, before gently transferring him to bed. If you’d told me we’d be reporting the same bedtime routine a week later I would have laughed in your face and called you crazy. But here we are. Go little man 🙂
Here’s how the last two nights have panned out:
Night 2
6:35pm: Down for bed – very easily! Bath, feed, book and into bed with only a small peep once I’d left the room. Celebratory wine consumed.
10:50pm: Woke briefly but screaming. Resettled quickly in bed.
1:4oam: Woke crying so we gave him 5 minutes before heading in. I think we may have gone in a little soon, as the crying didn’t really escalate to a distressed level. Neil quickly got Toby down for 10 minutes, but he woke again. Repeated the wait, cuddle, reassurance, goodnight routine another three times, but the Tobester was having huge issues going back to sleep without us holding him. We’ve figured out that unless we get him back to sleep within 20 minutes, we’re looking at at least an hour to calm him down and get him to the point where we can put him in bed and he drifts off. Having said that, we were up for 1 hour 10 minutes – 20 minutes less than the previous night.
6:15am: Up for the day.
The Verdict: Not bad! We understood where we went wrong (went in too early at 1:40am, didn’t get out of the room quickly enough after putting in bed) and took these learnings into the next night.
Night 3
7pm: Down for bed – again remarkably easily. We’d had two Skype calls with grandparents – which always overstimulate Toby – plus guests, so I was quite surprised that he went down without a fuss.
3am: And that ladies and gentlemen, was an eight hour sleep! As we woke to his grizzles, we could hear the Tobester trying so hard to resettle himself. He went silent for 10 minutes and we were convinced he’d done it. Silent congratulations ensued, only to have another small grizzle start up. Again he tried so hard to settle himself and managed to get down for another 5 minutes, but things just weren’t happening for him. We got up after 5 minutes of increased crying and spent another 40 minutes settling him down. An hour awake all up – so further improvement  there.
6:45am: Up for the day.
The Verdict: This was the longest stretch of sleep we’ve had in months. Toby came so very close to resettling himself at 3am and we were sure he had done it. We’re really interested to see what Night 4 will bring!
I’m also happy to report that day sleeps have been better. We are putting him down successfully by having a cuddle and walk, reassurance, kiss, under the sheet and “goodnight, time for sleeps” as we go out the door.  Admittedly it is taking 3-5 trips back into the room to get him down sometimes, but I think that’s just a matter of refining our timing based on his sleepy cues (slow down of movement, yawning). Spending another minute or so cuddling and walking would also help to wind him down from the previous few hours food and play. We’re getting just under 1.5 hours of sleep consistently now for morning and after lunch naps – which is giving me some much needed “me” time to sew and catch up on almost the entire new season of  Mad Men waiting for me on Foxtel IQ. Win.
How Life Has Changed 