Being Momma G: Day 61

If there was ever a day when Sean needed to show how unsettled he could really be, today should be the day. And boy, did he show off to his full extent!!!

Today was our all day stay at the Camellia Family Care Cottage with Margot. Margot had paid us 2 visits in the past, both times Sean was on his best behaviour. The first time Margot was at our house, she had some trouble settling Sean. Sean was only 2.5 weeks old at the time and Margot put Sean's unsettledness down to him being a brand new baby and was learning, amongst everything else, how to survive on the outside. Margot assured us that Sean would eventually learn to sleep.

The second time Margot paid us a visit at our house was when Sean was 5.5 weeks old, and on the day of Margot's visit, Sean was fast asleep and did not need any help to settle. Margot offered to stay that afternoon to help settle Sean if he woke up, so that I could go and have a lie down, but Sean was on his best behaviour and I was wide awake, so I declined Margot's offer. During that visit, Margot booked Sean in for an all day stay at the Cottage, and while it seemed so far away then, the days flew by and we found ourselves at the Cottage, ready for some sleep training with Margot.

Sean had had a fairly good night and early morning, waking twice for feeds at 3am and at 6.30am. I got out of bed at 8.15am to get ready for our day out, and we arrived at the Cottage just after 9am. Sean was due to be fed at that time, so I gave Sean his breakfast in the lounge room and the sleep training commenced straight after. Margot spotted the very early signs of Sean's tiredness, so I wrapped the little man up in the Miracle Blanket and Margot and I put him into the cot in the bedroom and walked away. Margot and I went back to the lounge room and had a chat, and Sean seemed happy enough for about 5 minutes. Then he started crying, and Margot waited another 5 minutes before walking into the bedroom to settle Sean.

It was hard going, and it took just over 30 minutes, but after all that effort, Sean finally fell asleep. Margot and I went and got a cup of tea before returning to the lounge room for a chat about things. Margot wanted to know what we had been doing at home, and how Sean and I both were generally. After a while, Margot left me to relax and told me that she would resettle Sean if he woke up. Margot told me to sleep, or stretch out, or read a book, or watch TV - everything to do with Sean was under control.

Sean slept for just over 30 minutes before he woke up crying. Margot tried everything to settle him, to no avail. Then it was time to feed Sean again, so he had some lunch and Margot tried again to settle Sean. It took 40 minutes this time to settle Sean, and as soon as he was asleep, I went to heat up my lunch - leftovers from last night's sweet and sour chicken - and ate it while it was still hot.

I managed to read a few pages of the book I brought - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - before Sean woke again. This time, he managed to sleep for 40 minutes before waking. Margot went to resettle Sean, while I stayed in the lounge room waiting to see if Margot's bag of tricks would work. Sean continued to cry and scream, and eventually, Margot came out to the lounge room, all flustered and frustrated that no matter what she did, Sean was still awake and upset and crying. At this point, I went to join her in the bedroom to see if I could be of any help.

I was of no help. Sean was awake and refused to go back to sleep.

Margot and I spent the next 45 minutes trying to settle the wee man. We rocked the cot, we shushed, we played white noise, we patted, and we did a combination of all of the above. Nothing. Nothing worked. Sean just kept crying and crying and crying.

In desperation, I gave Sean another feed at 2pm, and hoped that he would settle down for a sleep before we headed home. No such luck. Sean was even more resistant to sleep after this feed, and facing defeat, I packed up our things and told Margot we were going home. Margot was quietly confident that Sean would eventually learn to sleep on his own, and today, being the first day, was a bit rough on the little guy. Margot said Sean was a good natured baby and she had every reason to believe we would succeed if we persevered with the sleep training. As an added tool, Margot would be referring us to a Tresillian Family Care Centre in Willoughby, an organisation that provided expert parenting advice to families during the early years.

We thanked Margot and came home, to a Daddy who had missed his baby all day long. Sean had some cuddles with Jonathan while I changed into my "at home" clothes, and got ready to give Sean a proper feed. I told Jonathan that Sean had shown Margot his true colours today, and Jonathan was pleased that Sean gave Margot quite a good show instead of pretending to be a perfect angel and doing all the right things.

After such a long day, Sean was even more unsettled after we came home. After the feed, I tried to get Sean to go to sleep in his bassinet again, with no success. In fact, I wasn't able to get Sean to fall into a deep sleep - I managed to get Sean to close his eyes, and fall into a shallow sleep, but the second I put him in the bassinet, Sean would make this awful high pitched squawk / squeal followed by a sustained and extremely upset crying fit.

As Sean was well beyond overtired, I put him in the Minimonkey sling and carried him around to see if he would fall asleep in the sling. Thankfully, Sean did sleep, and slept for just over 3 hours. In that time, Jonathan cooked dinner for us - chicken kiev in the oven - which we both ate before the little man woke up.

Sean woke at 8.15pm for a feed, and had a bath with Jonathan straight after the feed. Baths usually relaxed the little guy, so that getting to sleep afterwards was always a bit easier than if there had been no bath time. Tonight, though, the bath did not help Sean sleep, and he remained awake all he way through till 10.40pm when I decided to feed Sean again just to shut him up. Sean returned to his unsettled self after the feed, and I was really quite worried by this point, as the little guy had had a total of just under 5 hours of sleep since 8.30am, when he should have had at least twice that much.

At around 11pm, it finally dawned on me that Sean may have been in pain. The high pitched squawk / squeal followed by a sustained and extremely upset crying fit was different from the usual "I'm overtired" or "I'm very hungry" cries. My only idea was to give Sean some Baby Panadol. Thankfully, Sean calmed down after that.

Just in case though, we are going to keep him in our bed with us tonight to monitor his sleep. I'd like to think we would all get some sleep tonight. Let's see if my bright idea works enough to keep the little guy asleep for longer than 30 minute stretches.