Being Momma G: Day 66

What a blur last night was. Mummy crashed around 9pm, while the baby stayed awake. Eventually, Jonathan got him to sleep. I was so exhausted - I felt Jonathan pull the covers over me, and I knew the baby eventually stopped crying, but that was the extent of my involvement at the time.

This is what I can remember - Sean woke just before midnight, I fed him, he woke again around 2am, I fed him, he woke again just before 5am, I fed him. Not sure what happened in between - although I was pretty sure though Jonathan didn't get any sleep - I have a fair idea that he was in and out of bed changing Sean's nappy and settling Sean repeatedly throughout the night.

No matter how many times I say it, I never feel I express how much I love and adore and appreciate my darling Jonathan, the best husband and father in the world. Thanks, darling heart, for looking after us last night.

Sean woke again around 7am, which was far too soon for another feed, and as Jonathan had to get ready to go to work, I took baby into my arms and rocked him to sleep for a bit longer. Finally, at 8.30am, I could no longer deny Sean food, so we got out of bed and fed. Sean had trouble falling asleep afterwards, and only managed just under an hour of sleep. When he woke, I tried for 30 minutes to resettle him with no success, so I left him to cry for 15 minutes while I did a few things before feeding him.

It was just before midday when we had our next feed, and afterwards, Sean and I had a little bit of play time before I put him back to bed. Sean didn't want to be there and whinged for a while before eventually putting himself to sleep. By this point of the day, I was being a bad mummy who left Sean to cry himself to sleep, although in my defence, it was not so much crying as whinging; he wasn't hysterically upset or anything like that.

While Sean was sleeping, I made enquiries with the Qantas Frequent Flyer Programme and Vodafone to change my name (from my maiden name to my married name). All I had to do was email them a copy of my marriage certificate and wait a few days, and my name change request should be complete. I did a little bit of shopping online - bought a book called "Save Our Sleep" by Tizzie Hall from AbeBooks. This was a book that was highly recommended by a number of friends who knew we were having trouble getting Sean to sleep in the first few weeks of Sean's young life, and I had finally got around to looking for the book. Around this time, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 2pm, and I'd not had any food! How time flies when one's exhausted and not paying attention!

Sean woke just before 2.30pm, after sleeping for only an hour again. We were having a bad day.

I decided to feed Sean again. The feed took longer than usual, as the little man was so tired he kept falling asleep. In the end, he did fall completely asleep, so I let him sleep in my lap for as long as he would stay asleep. He really needed to sleep, and I didn't have anything to do nor anywhere to be, so we spent the next 2 hours on the armchair.

When Sean woke just after 5pm, we spent some time sitting together quietly. As reward for allowing him to sleep in my lap, Sean let rip a massive No. 3. When I say massive, I mean massive. Our Poozooka managed to shoot a lot of poo out the back of his nappy. In fact, he managed to get it all the way up to his shoulder blades. To say the least, it was absolutely disgusting. Thankfully, Sean was wearing a baby suit, otherwise, if he'd been in his usual "at home" attire of singlet and nappy, I would have been covered in poo.

After wiping Sean down and putting him in a new baby suit, and rinsing the dirty suit one handed while holding the baby (yay for multitasking), Sean and I had some play time before it was time for another sleep. I popped Sean into the bassinet and walked away, as per the usual practice, and he made a couple of noises before falling asleep on his own.

Jonathan arrived home around 6.30pm, just as I'd put the rice on for our dinner, and we sat and caught up on the day. Just as we were relaxed and ready to cook dinner, the little man woke up, after sleeping for only an hour again. Jonathan and I both took turns to try and resettle Sean, but he was adamant about staying awake, so I went ahead and cooked dinner while Jonathan continued to rock and shush in our bedroom.

By the time dinner was ready (Pork & Vegetables Stir Fry with Chinese BBQ sauce, served with brown rice), it was time for everyone to have a meal. Jonathan and I ate while Sean fed, and after dinner, Jonathan gave Sean a bath while I cleaned up in the kitchen. Sean was still wide awake after bath time, and considering how poorly he had been sleeping throughout the day, I asked Jonathan to make up a bottle of formula as a top up for Sean, hoping that the top up will see Sean sleep until at least 2am before wanting more milk. Never knowing whether Sean would take the formula or not, we nevertheless offered it to him.

Sean sucked it down without fussing.

The three of us enjoyed a little bit of quiet cuddle time on the couch afterwards, Papa Bear, Momma Bear and Baby Bear, just hanging with each other and talking softly. When Sean's arms started to become a little bit jerky, it was time to go to bed, but not before I pretended to be a baby and started jerking my arms and legs around and making squawking noises, just like Sean. This made Jonathan laugh, and the baby giggled at me. Pure magic.

We're all tired, so we are all heading to bed. We hope the formula top up does the trick, and we won't be needing to feed Sean until 2am. Sleep, little man, sleep!