Being Momma G: Day 21

For the second night in a row, the milk monster slept through the night.

With the exception of waking up for a couple of feeds (at 2.30am and 5.45am), the little man slept from 10.30pm last night all the way through till 8.15am. This in turn allowed me to have that much needed night time sleep and I was feeling a whole lot better in the morning.

There were a lot of wins today - I had time to have breakfast, made myself a coffee in our whiz bang coffee machine, managed to eat lunch before Sean woke for his midday feed, and got plenty of water into my system. Feeling so rejuvenated, I also managed to do a load of laundry, put the laundry on the line, make the bed, go to the toilet, sort through the mail and the bills and receipts etc, write some cheques to pay various doctors, write a few emails and return a phone call! Although these may appear to be small wins, any win during the day when the baby is willing to settle is a huge win at the moment.

I decided today to try out controlled crying, which worked quite well in the morning.

Sean was quite well behaved all day, right up until the 4pm feed just as Jonathan was walking through the door. Taking a tip from Catherine's advice yesterday, I asked Jonathan to try and keep Sean awake for a longer period of time after this feed, in hope that it will wear him out and make him tired enough to sleep through the night for the 3 night in a row. Jonathan valiantly agreed to try to keep Sean awake for an extra 30 minutes.

What I failed to notice was how tired Jonathan was. When Jonathan is tired, he becomes quite impatient and gets frustrated very easily. When Sean failed to settle down straight away after the feed and the extra stimulation, Jonathan's impatience seeped through and in the end, I took over from him and settled the little man myself.

Sean struggled against sleep and fought with all his might, and finally had his nap around 7.15pm. I say "nap" because he was awake again at 8pm, just as I'd heated up my dinner and had just started eating. Thankfully, Jonathan was almost finished with his dinner before Sean woke, so Jonathan changed Sean's nappy before handing Sean to me to feed. Thus began the next chapter in the saga of the Never Ending Crying Baby.

Sean cried from the 8pm feed all the way through to the 11pm feed. And the little man did not feed well. I'm just about to send Jonathan to bed as he's dead on his feet, and will try to settle Sean on my own. Wish me luck.