Being Momma G: Day 67

The sleep training might just be working!

After all the Hills went to bed last night at 10pm, the littlest Hill woke up just before 2am for a feed. We had a very successful feed; considering I'd had almost 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I was awake enough to make sure the little guy had a proper meal instead of snacking his way into our bed. At the half way mark, Jonathan got up to change Sean's nappy, and after the second boob was drained, we had great success in transferring Sean back into the bassinet, where he stayed until 5.30am.

Another good feed, and another successful transfer back to the bassinet, and both Jonathan and I managed to get a little bit more sleep before Jonathan got out of bed and ready for work. Sean continued to sleep until the bright sunlight streamed through the bathroom and into the bedroom just before 8am, which was too early for another feed. I brought Sean into the bed and we had some cuddles until just before 9am, when Sean's rumbling tummy told me it was time to get out of bed and feed our hungry little bear.

Sean was pretty tired throughout the feed, so it didn't surprise me at all that he went back into the bassinet without fussing too much. I spent perhaps 5 minutes helping to settle him, but once settled, Sean slept until 12.15pm, just as I was heating up my lunch in the microwave!

While Sean was sleeping, I ticked off a few things on my To Do list - shower, laundry, make the bed, return emails, play on Facebook, and finalise arrangements for our darling friend Adrian to stay with us this weekend. Adrian is my long time friend who lives in London, who paid regular visits to Australia to see his family in Adelaide and to stop by Sydney for work and leisure purposes. Adrian often stayed with me at St Leonards on his previous visits, and paid Jonathan and I the biggest compliment by flying to Sydney for a whirlwind visit to attend our wedding last year. Adrian was in Sydney this week for a work conference, and was staying in Sydney until Sunday, so we are going to be hosting him on Saturday night. Hope he likes my cooking!

With my lunch ready in the microwave, I fed Sean first before having some play time with the little man, who gave me so many smiles and was at his adorable best. As he became a bit more quiet and tired, I quickly got changed out of my "at home" clothes and into something more presentable for our trip to Mothers Group later today. Sean continued to do well with the sleep training, putting himself to sleep within 5 minutes of being wrapped and put into his bassinet. Go Sean Go!

Over lunch, which was now at eating temperature, I returned a call I received from Tresillian Family Care Centre, to activate our referral by Margot at the Camellia Family Care Cottage. Unfortunately, Tresillian and I seem to be playing telephone tag, so I left another message for them to contact me. I hope we will make voice contact soon!

As close to 2pm as possible, I got Sean from his bassinet and tried to put him into the car capsule without waking him. Sean woke up anyway, but seemed to be happy enough to be awake. We drove down to the West Ryde ECHC for the information session on solids, when to introduce solids to our babies and what kinds of foods we should be introducing and what to avoid, etc. I was pleased to see Saw Bee was running the session. There was a lot of information, and there were a lot of handouts for us to take home as well, which would be helpful when we are ready to introduce Sean to solids.

The usual suspects were all there, having agreed last week to attend the session. We all stayed and chatted afterwards, with most of us needing to feed our little ones, including me. Plans were made for us to meet up again next week, at West Ryde Library to either have a coffee or to visit the park. I am looking forward to staying in touch with everyone and seeing each other on a regular basis.

Sean might have been tired, but he was in a good mood, so we went to Woolworths afterwards and bought a few things. Sean smiled and happily sat in the pram for the entire shopping trip, and only started whinging when we arrived back at the car to come home.

After changing out of the soiled baby suit, and with a fresh nappy, Sean and I had a tiny bit of play time on our bed before I wrapped him up to see if he would be receptive to a nap. Again, I put him in the bassinet and walked away, and Sean fell asleep all by himself within 5 minutes. Good man!!! I was in awe of Sean today, having done so well with his sleep training. He napped for 45 minutes (one whole sleep cycle) before waking up for a feed.

We were feeding when Jonathan came home from work, and Jonathan and Sean had some Daddy and Baby cuddles afterwards. Jonathan had missed our little baby bear today, so he got some extra cuddles before we tried to put Sean back to bed for another sleep. However, Sean was very unsettled and had a lot of trouble going to sleep, and staying asleep once he dozed off.

Jonathan persevered with the settling while I cooked dinner. Sean eventually drifted off to sleep, but was awake again half an hour later, just as we were finishing dinner. Jonathan went to try and resettle Sean, but as Sean was now wide awake, he emerged from the bedroom and had some play time with Jonathan.

Sean had a rather poor feed, fidgeting the whole time. After 30 minutes, I had had enough of his squealing and handed him over to Jonathan for bath time.

I watched over Jonathan's shoulder as Sean enjoyed his bath. Our little man was almost too big for the bath; he can almost touch his head to one end of the bath if he put his foot on the other end and push off a little. I remember when he was just a teeny weeny thing in that great big bath.

As with last night, we decided to give Sean a top up of formula after the bath. We made up 90mL of formula and Sean drank it all. And wouldn't you know it, the little man went straight off to sleep by himself after the bottle.

Jonathan and I are going to have an early night again, thankful that the little guy has had such a good day today. Well done, little man, keep at it!