Warning: This post will be very dull; I’m writing this more for myself than anyone else so that I can remember what happened with sleep should we ever contemplate having another baby. Not as a warning or a deterrent, but just so that if we do do it again and I’m feeling exhausted and knackered, I’ll know that I’ve been there and got through it!!
In short, A does not sleep through the night, but that’s fine. Really. Yes, we’re knackered but we’re coping and I’m fortunate enough that I don’t have to go to work so I can rest in the day. I do feel bad that Mr.J is a light sleeper so he is disturbed in the night and he does have to go to work so that’s not great. But, we’re trying to manage things to maximise sleep for everyone and that’s why we’re co-sleeping and A’s cot is joined up to our bed so I have easy access for night time settling.
Since the wonderful 4 month sleep regression we’ve never had any great nights where A has slept through. A week or so ago we started to have some better evenings, with 2-3 hour blocks before the first wake up after A randomly decided that sleeping on his tummy was the best way to sleep. We thought we might have turned a corner but it seems that after A was poorly and/or because some more teeth may be on the move we’ve taken a step back and we’re now back to regular evening and night time wake ups.
Whilst I’m not denying that it would be lovely if he did sleep through, he’ll get there when he is ready and although he wakes up frequently (sometimes hourly or more frequently, yawn) he is very very quick to settle so the disturbance to my (our) sleep is minimal. It does mean we’re probably not getting a nice full, deep sleep cycle as much as we’d like (need) though so don’t ask me to do any complicated tasks! I’m sure I’ll have a different mindset on all this as I get closer to returning to work but for now we’re managing and with the exception of some aches for me from contorting myself into odd positions to feed in the night, co-sleeping is making our lives a lot easier!
We did try putting A in his own room but it just didn’t work for us; we lack any kind of successful putting down technique and/or A is very sensitive to the movement from vertical to horizontal and stirs before you’ve moved him 10 degrees off vertical let alone 90! So that means holding him in your arms for a good 15-20 minutes until he is in a deeper sleep before trying to put him down and believe me that sounds easier than it is since he now weighs over 18lb. It also meant that there was barely any time between getting him back down and him waking up again when he had more frequent wake ups so I spent a lot of the night sat in a chair not getting any sleep!
I do have a poo sandwich to share though.
Bread: It’s taken until 7.5 months but it seems that we’re finally getting somewhere with naps though as they’re now not happening on me most of the time and we’ve had a few naps that have lasted a couple of hours! I haven’t really made the most of those naps yet as I’m too cynical to think that any nap will last more than 20 minutes but now that it does seem to be settling down I am going to try and be more productive, even if that just means getting a few more jobs around the house done so me and Mr.J aren’t spending evenings and weekends keeping on top of things. Last week I did manage to watch Oblivion and We’re The Millers though 😉
Filling: A does still wake up when he stops moving if he has fallen asleep in the pram or the car though which does mean I am now trying to structure our day to make sure he can nap in his cot but…
Bread: On a few occasions recently Mr.J has been able to settle A when he’s woken in the evening and he even managed to get him to go to sleep for a nap. That may sound trivial but to me that’s a huge achievement. I absolutely love A and being a Mum and I’m very very very happy to be here for whatever he needs but I do worry and sometimes don’t go to things (such as WI and WI Committee, sorry SHWI-folks) because I am the only one who can settle A and get him to sleep so hopefully this means I can make it to a few more events which happen at bedtime-time!
All things JenkinSunts! 
I totally understand! Poppy’s night time sleep sounds very similar, and we tried moving her into he own room but it didn’t work for us, and she is very dependent on me during the evenings and night….it is hard but we are coping too and they will grow out of it eventually!! Hang in there! You are not alone!
Hello! Sounds like N (apart from the napping on Mummy part) he started to nap for longer periods and then a few weeks later he slept through – let’s hope A does the same! He will get there in his own time, in the meantime keep up the good work!!! x