Cranky sleeping baby

Not posted for a while and there's a reason for that...a cranky (non)sleeping baby.

He's been waking me every hour at night and taking hours to fall asleep during the daytime, preceded by screaming fits. I've been told that breastfed co-sleeping babies do tend to feed more, but seven times a night at five months old?? I don't think so.

Anyway, I bought a sleep book (the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley) and carefully plotted my sleep logs to see what was going on - in the daytime, his pre-bedtime routine and his night time awakenings and feedings. We've worked out that he was going to bed too late and not getting enough sleep (day or night). His early "I'm tired" cues are lifts in social engagement - he gets silly, playful, over giggly, starts blowing raspberries in the face of anyone who'll have them. We put him to bed at 8.15pm the first night we tried an earlier night, then 7.45pm the next night and finally he was asleep by 7.30pm last night. In the daytime I focus on having a peaceful afternoon and trying to ensure he gets a good series of naps - usually in the car driving to and from places, when we go for a nice walk or just in the sling. My priority, in the daytime, is to ensure he falls asleep and gets good sleep, so that come evening, he won't be overtired.

We also realised that our evenings were not as relaxed as they ought to be to get a baby sleepy - too much loud chat, too much activity, and a super bright light in the bathroom perfectly in time for bedtime. So we've decided to be more peaceful in the evenings (no monster-daddy or aeroplanes and no Skype chat with family) and we use a dimmer light once he's upstairs - which conveniently has a fan attached to it, so it produces gentle white noise at the same time.

Last night my (currently deeply adored) husband decided I should sleep on the side of the bed away from our baby and he would sleep next to the three-sided cot, as the other instruction we've decided to use is to "pretend to be asleep" when the boy mutters or begins to wake up. The boy has got used to being nursed to sleep and fights me if I try to get him to sleep any other way - understandably, as this is what he's always been given. Who'd chose to lie on his own in a cot (even with mama next to him) if he could be snuggled up against a nice big warm boob? Sometimes, all he would do at night (once positioned on my feeding cushion with me sitting up in bed) would be to snuggle up to my boob and promptly fall asleep...waking the second I moved in any way.

So, my lovely man took on the night shift. When baby boy stirred he left him, if he stirred more, he'd shhh the boy (but then get bored and fall asleep), and if he really kicked off (which in the big scheme of things wasn't a real kick off, but a cry of protestation and indignation, and probably irritation), he'd hand him over to mama for a feed. Down from seven feeds, we had three last night, with only a half hour of wakefulness down from 1.5 hours; and the boy is still sleeping. He's now had 11 hours sleep, which is what he ought to have...though he missed an hour nap last night, so I'm hoping he'll sleep longer.

I am overjoyed and delighted and slept better last night than I have in weeks...and my horrid cold is much improved from last night...and this clearly works. I might have to enlist the man's help another few nights to get the boy used to this new routine and pattern of night time activity.

Finally, to aid sleep time in the car, I bought a couple of white noise CDs. I've only listed to one so far (the BabyCalm CD) and it was fairly miraculous in how it calmed him. It's staying in the car. No more Craig David for my husband. The CD is a loud heartbeat track over an oscillating white noise track, a bit like waves on a beach. I could almost fall asleep to it myself.

There are always solutions to every problem, of that I am convinced, and I'm currently finding it for this one. Please keep all your fingers and toes crossed for me!