…over six weeks to be precise. I’m talking about Tabitha’s sleeping – or lack of – during the night. A couple of months back I was one of those smug mothers who could boast that her baby, for the majority of the time, slept through most of the night. But then, something happened and it all went wrong. There was a cold, and then another cold, then the introduction of solids, and then some teething. One thing after another to blame her constant waking on, and always with the thought that, once the cold, or tummy ache, or teething was over, things would go back to how they were. But they haven’t: Tabitha is still waking up throughout the night, sometimes as often as every 1-2 hours, and I think it’s finally time to admit that she, through no fault of her own, has gotten into bad sleeping habits. I know I’m to blame for this, and so I need to take action to get her sleeping back on track.
Firstly, Tabitha has forgotten (or maybe she never really knew) how to put herself to sleep without help: rocking, having her dummy put back in, having a sip of water or having some comfort milk. Over the past few weeks I’ve used her various ailments as an excuse to rock her to sleep, or feed her to sleep; basically pandering to her every cry, reacting to every whimper. But now, inevitably she expects it. Whereas before if she stirred in the night, I could get away with just putting her dummy back in, or at worst, giving her a sip of water; now every time she wakes up she cries and cries until she gets milk and/or rocked. The dummy and a sip of water rarely works anymore. I’m not sure how I’m going to resolve this, as in the middle of the night, when she is screaming so loudly that the whole building has most certainly woken up, the simplest and easiest thing is to shove a bottle of milk in her mouth and/or rock her.
I think I’m going to have to start by addressing her day time sleeping. For the past few weeks I haven’t even attempted to get Tabitha to sleep in her cot during the day as I was getting so stressed out with the whole process. At the moment she only ever naps in her pram after being walked around the living room, or the streets, for a substantial amount of time. She usually always wakes up after her first sleep cycle (40 mins), unless the pram is in motion. I’m going to have to persevere with the cot, I can’t put it off any longer. Again, I’m not sure how I’m going to tackle this, as every time I put her in her cot she rolls over onto her tummy, but I just need to be patient I suppose. Urgh even the thought of it stresses me out. Wish me luck!
Life with Peachy & Polp 