Progress

So, I have been very tired this week. The phrase that came to mind yesterday was 'bitterly tired'. lol I wasn't in a very good mood at the time!

But, after talking with the local community health nurse and a tresillian nurse, and having had an afternoon nap, I tried a new settling technique last night for Hamish and it worked - he slept much better. I only had to get up twice (as opposed to the 3 or 4 times we've been used to lately). And he was a lot more settled throughout the evening instead of constantly waking and crying out, so I was more relaxed and positive after a few hours of quiet.

It's amazing the difference it makes getting 4 hrs solid sleep compared to 3 hrs. Of course, because I was used to being up so often, I spent half the night awake wondering when I'd next have to get up!

The only thing I did differently to bring on this change of behaviour was to start teaching Hamish to go back to sleep without being picked up first. It was actually relatively easy - although it did take an hour at first for him to cooperate - I would leave him for a few minutes and he'd scream the house down, but when I went back in (after say 3 minutes) he'd end up smiling after not too long so I knew he wasn't really too distressed. I left him alone for good when he was lying there blowing the world's biggest raspberries at me.

I still fed him twice overnight, because he's used to it, but it was longer in between feeds than normal so I felt it was a step in the right direction.

Let's see if he can do it again tonight.....