We’re almost at the 2 year mark now.  Aidan’s been sleeping in his own room (off and on) since he was 9 months old.  We switched him to a big boy bed about 3 months ago.  After he got over the initial fear of a “new thing”, he discovered it was pretty cool that he could simply swing his legs off the side of the bed and walk over to our room and sneak into bed with us (SIGH).  We’re still working on that one, being torn between wanting to cuddle with him and enforcing the my room/your room line.

What I have discovered though, over the last 3 nights is that our bedtime routine was becoming a hindrance.  It came as a surprise because bedtime routines are generally supposed to help kids settle down for the night.  The story or music, the hug/kiss routine, the tuck in bed with the bear, were all supposed to be part of the plan.  Where we struggled was when we’d sit in Aidan’s room till he fell asleep playing some soothing music.  Our presence was meant to be reassuring to him.  What ensued was 40 minutes of him tossing and turning, playing with his bear, tugging at his blanket, and all sorts of other means of procrastination to avoid the inevitable….sleep!

3 nights ago, I left the room, trying to multi-task – putting Aidan to sleep while still winding down and cleaning up the kitchen.  A couple of times he called out to me to ensure I was still around.  I’d respond, but still go about my routine.  2 calls to confirm my presence and then silence.  When I did go in to check on him, he was out like a light.

Same thing last night.  It was like a revelation from up above.  Tonight’s night 3.  He’s having a bit of trouble tonight, perhaps because of the exuberant fireworks thanks to the enthusiastic Diwali (festival of lights) celebrants.  Still it’s fairly quiet and I’m enjoying the extra 30 minutes I now have to myself!

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I have to say, since my last post, I’ve been getting about 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. What a blessing! Especially consdering we’ve been traveling since last month and have gone through 4 time zones (India, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Dallas). The little one has adapted wonderfully and gotten used to day and night across the globe, no problem.

Rich’s advice of calorie shifting was great. That coupled with my mom’s advice of 6-10-2-6-10 nursing cinched the deal. Basically, not just did work with the little one to shift their feeding times to days, I also nursed him at 4 hour intervals starting at 6am with the last feeding being at 10pm.

This has worked wonders! In between nursings, Aidan gets his fill of solids so I know he’s got a belly full.

Ah, a full night’s sleep. No replacement for that!

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I was determined last night to try out the advice from Rich’s article on reducing night-time feeds.  At 10:30pm sharp, Aidan had his last feed for the night and went to sleep without a fuss.  At 1:17am, the l’ll guy woke up.  I sent the hubby in for a quick diaper change and a reassuring pat.  Aaah, back to sleep.  3:54am, awake again.  Another diaper change, and time for some nursing (usually Aidan wakes up for a feed at around 2:30am).  Quick feeding, and back to sleep.  7:04am, awake once again (sigh), another feeding and diaper change.  Aidan’s in the mood to play, so he hangs out on our bed between the hubby and me, explores around, sees us asleep and curls up near my knees and passes out.

9:14am, Aidan’s still asleep.  Ah, finally.  He actually slept in (wow, this rarely happens)

We’ll be trying this again tonight to see if we can prolong the first night time feed to a decent hour

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Much has happened since my last update.  We are now moved to our own place which allows us to have our room back and Aidan a room of his own.  He adapted to that change without any problems which was wonderful.

Not long before the move, Aidan learned to stand and hold on to things.  For a while, I was overjoyed, until the night, when he refused to sleep and promptly stood up in his bed, looked at us and bawled.  SIGH!  So much for the joy.

We’re past that now.  Our solution?  Ask him to sit down in his bed and if he resists, gently ungrip his hands from the sides, sit him down and thank him.  Then talk, sing and soothe him to lay down, and encourage and appreciate him as he complies.  These simple steps have helped even on the toughest nights to get him to lay down and go to sleep.

Not long after we moved, Aidan started getting panicky.  Every time we left the room, especially me, he would erupt in serious tears.  Some late night research showed that he’s at the ripe age of 9 months when babies go through separation anxiety.  OH GRIEF!  We’re working through that phase as well and things are much much better now.  Something that we’ve realized is that if we leave Aidan alone, it’s best to have some background music going to occupy him so that he doesn’t panic and he’s got something to pay attention to, especially since his toys just don’t make the grade (he doesn’t much care for toys).  Lots of reassurance helps as well.

Our latest sources of entertainment are watching Aidan point and identify people, him counting, learning his abc’s (he’s still on a), enjoying the swings and slides at the park and crawling full force.  Our latest challenge, learning how to get him to sleep through the night and make him independent of nursing to go sleep.

Wish me luck!

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Bonjour or “Hello”

My name is Ruth and Richard has very kindly asked me to join the Lullaby Babies blog.  I am mother to a, mostly, charming four month old baby girl called Izzy.  We live in the French Alps with her dad and his parents though we hope to move into our own place in a few months.

We moved here  a month ago from Gran Canaria, but that’s a whole other story, so life has had lots of change recently.  I was worried that all the moving and new places and people would upset the baby and disrupt her sleeping at night, but we have been very lucky that she has adapted well.

There are a few things that she finds confusing, just a month ago I would pop a babygrow on her and she would be ready for the day, no fuss no bother.  Now the babygrow is just the start; there is a tee shirt, leggings, socks and jumper so I have to use all my best tricks to keep her entertained on the changing table in the morning as she gets layered up for the day.

Though I think it is all my extra layers at feeding time she finds most frustrating.  I can see her thinking; “I didn’t order a mouthful of wooly jumper with my milk!”

I hope you will enjoy sharing my view of motherhood, I’m not expert, just a beginner that is enjoying learning with her baby.

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We have continued using J’s bedtime routine with the inclusion of putting her into her cot awake.  Half expecting the same as the night before, however this time it took her 10 minutes to settle.  It is nice to be able to have the evening to ourselves and not having to rush up when she cries.

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We have followed instructions to the letter, and J’s bedtime routine has only changed in the fact that we don’t put her in the cot asleep.  This resulted in her having a hissy fit and crying, so we followed the technique and went in after 10 mins, didn’t pick her up and said ‘shh shh’ continuously whilst rubbing her.  We do have the problem that she likes to stand up in her cot so we were concerned that it was going to be a pain.  After 35mins the crying tappered off and by 40 minutes it had gone very quiet.

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All was quiet last night and I went to bed feeling upbeat about starting the Technique.  Surprisingly J slept till 3.45am to which I was woken with screams.  I didn’t go in straight away but when I did she was standing upright in her cot, dummy out and wailing like I’d neglected her for hours.  I quietly went over and without taking her out the cot I swooped her back to lying down.  (not sure if you are allowed to do this as it might be classed as picking up).

For 2 minutes I repeatidly said ‘Shhh Shhh’ and rubbed her belly as that is her usual cue when going to bed to go to sleep.  She went quiet but still eyes wide open.  After what i thought was 2 mins (not easy to count when your tired) I left her.  As soon as I took my hand off her she started crying again. 

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After months and months of being woken up every night (10 months to be precise), I’ve decided to do The Ferber Method starting tonight.  I just want to sleep and I know its going to be hard but I need to do something otherwise I’ll be ending up walking down the aisle with black bags under my eyes.

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