The Marine Wife and Mum
  • Blog
  • ME
  • CONTACT

Week 31 postpartum: Wind. Naps - oh naps. Cot party.

5/12/2018

15 Comments

 
You know you must look pretty rough when a mum at a baby class laughs hysterically, with a hint of fear, when she says her baby has slept through the night since six week's old and she doesn’t know what she’d be like if she didn’t – and you reply: “You'd look like me.” So as you can probably tell – we haven’t had major sleep breakthroughs. On the plus side I’ve walked 30 miles this week – so could pretty much eat a whole pack of custard creams every day and not feel guilty. And Rafe, although he has been having raves in his cot at 2am – he’s learnt a new skill where he presses his lips together like a fish and makes a smacking sound. So those few minutes of cuteness overload and joy outweighs the fact I probably caused a woman to have loose bladder control from laughing so much at my tired face.
Picture
We are still very much in the 30 minute nap club – and I can only can get him to sleep in the pram. I did try just letting him fall asleep in my arms and that did work after galloping up and down to rock him to sleep for half an hour but he woke up after 25 minutes and I couldn’t get him back to sleep, even though he was still tired. Another mum suggested that maybe 30 minutes is all Rafe needs and I think on some days, you can see that all he wanted and needed was a little catnap but more often than not – when he wakes up he is still so tired and is wrecked by bedtime. Or maybe I need to watch his tired cues more closely as he may be able to stretch longer than two hours between naps now. Arghh. I never thought I’d write so much about fucking naps!!! I remember reading a book when I was pregnant and it had a lovely little pie chart, detailing when baby would be awake and when baby would be asleep throughout the day. One hour in the morning, two hours over lunch – and I’d be thinking, ooh how lovely. I’ll be able to have a nap myself (when does that ever happen!), do some cleaning, a work-out, have a hot cuppa (the dream). There was no pie chart about walking 30 miles a week to get your baby to sleep – and some days he only has ten minutes. I don’t mind the exercise but I also wouldn’t mind just being able to actually sit down during the day. But hey ho. Quite a few people have suggested bringing the pram in the house so might try that. Sometimes I feel like I have tried everything from self-settling techniques, white noise, in the pram, cuddling to sleep but nothing seems to work. And I sometimes think I must be doing something wrong. I did read on a Facebook group, other mum's saying their little one's were serial cat nappers and one day they just started to sleep longer. So I live in hope. I’m also going to take people’s advice and try not to stress so much about his sleep and hopefully it will just happen naturally. I’m sure Rafe can probably sense I’m not overly relaxed when trying to get him to sleep so will try and be less Faye and more Zen like. Namaste.
Picture
His sleep through the night has been a bit of a disaster this week as still has a bit of a cough, is teething (but no tooth has popped up yet – come on fucking tooth!) and he has been so windy the last week or so. Really trapped wind and he proper cries when he lets out some big pumps. Has anyone found since introducing solids that their baby is extra pumpy? He just doesn’t seem to be able to do long stretches anymore and I’m having to settle him again before I go to bed and through the night. Also can take up to three hours to get him back to sleep - wind and he wants a cuddle. I tried the pick up put down method people have been recommending last night and was as bit of a test but he did eventually settle. Just not through the night but will persevere. But he’s just feeding once in the night now so boobies have a little break.
Picture
Rafe still flat out hates tummy time and is still not rolling over. Even though he’s done it numerous times before! Although never back to front. I think he may be a bum shuffler rather than a crawler. Does anyone else’s baby hate tummy time and is not rolling over? I do worry that he’s stopped rolling over but at the same time – he’s sitting up on his own now really well and he is little chatterbox. As I said before, he loves smacking his lips together and copies you when you do it. He’s also learnt he can grab the side of the cot and pull himself along. So it can be a bit of a party cot at night - which is very cute - but I kind of also want sleep too.
Picture
Husband’s away for a couple of weeks so it’s so hard for him being away from Rafe – I think he’s most probably relieved to be away from me though. Jokes....We are in the process of getting a mortgage and also viewing houses so it’s a bit stressful trying to sort things out without him here. Especially as I may need to make the decision on my own if I see a house I love. But he fully trusts my judgement – as I would do his....🙈 But it’s exciting – just obviously not the most chilled out person right now. If I ever am!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and remember you’re all fucking fabulous!

Faye x
15 Comments
Kat
5/13/2018 02:50:10 am

My little girl was born one day after Rafe and every week I can totally relate to your blogs! I too used to try and get my little girl to sleep after set times everyday and literally became nap obsessed. And it didn’t work, it stressed me out! So I stopped. And I let my girl sleep when she wants. Some days she has little cat naps and other days she sleeps for hours! I am still feeding her myself and I find the only way to get her to sleep is to feed her. I then put her in her cot drowsy but awake and she’s happy. Also when my girl was mastering sitting up, she stopped rolling over and would cry if she ended up on her tummy! Now she’s more confident sitting up she has gone back to rolling everywhere!! Xx

Reply
Nicole
5/13/2018 06:02:29 am

Hi Faye

My son is 33 weeks old and I can totally relate to this post! You are not alone but I found this link - https://community.babycenter.com/post/a51116617/sample_sleep_schedules_faq - to sleep awake times by age really helped me to work how long my son could handle being awake for before he needed to be put down for a nap in his cot or driven/pushed around in the pram. I’ve found that he can go 2.5 hours before his first nap 2.5/2.75 hours before his second and 2.75/3 hours before bedtime. If I stick to these approx times then he much easier to put down and has 1x 1.5 hour nap and 1x 1 hour nap or 2x30 min and 1x 1.5 hour nap. If he wakes too early after his second nap and hasn’t slept for 2.5 hours in total that day then I try to put him down for one last 30 min nap late afternoon or after 2.5 hours of awake time. I know all babies are different but I have found that this seems to work for him in the day and on a good day he will sleep much better at night. I hope you find this useful or someone else who reads your blog will find it as helpful as I have. P.s. my son also has 2am parties in his crib for 1-2 hours some nights but I think it’s a developmental phase as he’s rolling all over now and trying to crawl x

Reply
Mrs Cullum
5/13/2018 12:24:51 pm

Your post gives me so much hope. My LB (17 weeks) is a serial cat napped & ive tried it all tonget him to go longer. We succeed if he’s out in his pram or next to me. I was sure I was doing something wrong. Glad to know I’m not the only one.

Reply
Faye Copp
5/14/2018 11:49:05 am

I know I just need to chill out more - but so hard not to become nap obsessed! I did breastfeed him to nap but haven't done than in a while and just been out in pram as seems to be the only thing to get him to sleep. Although when I boobie feed in the night that tends to get himself to sleep. Do you just let your little one just fall asleep when tired or do you watch cues and then feed to sleep? xx

Reply
Kat
5/14/2018 02:22:25 pm

I do watch out for cues but my little girl can go from having heaps of energy to being an emotional over tired wreck very quickly! When I think she’s ready for a nap we go up to her room and have a routine very similar to night time so she knows it’s time for sleep. I then feed her and pop her in her cot once she unlatches from me. We do this at nighttime as well. I know lots of people say don’t feed to sleep but my girl finds it so relaxing and it really is the easiest way to get a baby to sleep xx :-)

Reply
Faye Copp
5/15/2018 11:38:32 am

Thank you! I fed him to sleep today and he went in his cot so will see how he gets on. Fingers crossed for sleep and not having to walk 8 miles a day! xx

Reply
Faye Copp
5/14/2018 11:50:55 am

THANK YOU!! This is incredibly useful. And so glad I'm not the only one enjoying cot parties at 2am!!! xx

Reply
Faye Copp
5/14/2018 11:56:52 am

You are definitely not alone. It's so reassuring for me too to know I'm not the only one with a serial catnapper. I have been assured that they do grow out of it eventually - fingers crossed. Good luck!! xx

Reply
Hayley
5/14/2018 12:58:48 pm

My little one is 6 weeks and refuses to nap! 😞 she might fall asleep on me whilst feeding but will wake within 15 mins guaranteed and screams bloody murder if shes put down anywhere resulting in me being very skilled at one handed activities and an extremely fussy and cranky overtired baby , I have to feed her to sleep and sneak her into her bed, which can take forever & if she wakes I start all over again you & your eye bags are definitely not alone!!

Reply
Charlotte
5/15/2018 12:26:50 am

Oh naps!

My daughter (7 months today) rarely does more than 30 mins unless on me.

She goes down in her cot really easily for the first nap about 2.5 hours after she wakes up. In fact yesterday we had a breakthrough - for a week instead of just rocking her in her sleep bag and putting her down asleep (precarious) I tried lying her in the cot in her bag first with Ewan playing to fiddle with and reading her a couple of stories to get her nice and sleepy before rocking. But yesterday she started sucking her thumb while I was reading so instead of picking her up to rock her I just sat back and read my kindle for a bit and she went to sleep ON HER OWN!

Now she only slept for 30 mins still and it may never happen again but I was pretty chuffed!!

Afternoon naps are another matter - she’s wise to my game and overtired from morning activities maybe but she snaps awake and cries whenever put down in her cot whether asleep from rocking or feeding, and the story thing just makes her cry.

I was getting so frustrated and stressed out last week (and so was she) I decided to let her nap on me for afternoon nap like we used to when she was younger and she’ll easily get 2 hours. Hello very quiet Netflix!

Reply
Fay
5/15/2018 01:28:04 am

31 weeks along and this blog is still my exact life. William woke up 5 times last night and that's only counting the times where I had actually managed to fall back to sleep in between. There were several times when I literally got into bed and stright back out. Why has he stopped sleeping longer than 3 hours max at night? He too has forgotten how to self settle. I go back to work in June (only for one hour a day!) But I honestly thought that I would have a baby sleeping for at least most of the night by the time I was back at work. The trouble is, he turns onto his front and then uses the cot to pull along and then when he gets to the top of the cot, cries. It's endless... You are doing amazing, can't believe you have the time to write these every week but thank you for doing so.

Reply
Faye Copp
5/15/2018 11:41:04 am

Ahh that's amazing! Hope she went to sleep on her own the past few days. So glad it's not just me stressing out about naps. Good luck! Hope you crack the afternoon nap too! Xx

Reply
Faye Copp
5/15/2018 11:45:38 am

Sounds like you're doing amazing too. It's relentless some nights isn't it? It's awful when you climb into bed and you hold your breath thinking they've gone down but nope - back up again! I'm thinking this must be some phase or sleep type regression (shudder) as so many people have contacted me and said their babies at this age have also stopped self settling and up more. But it does pass and get better Ive been told. Hope you get some sleep tonight. xx p.s I write the blog during the night feeds to keep me awake!!

Reply
Steph T
5/16/2018 02:29:51 am

Hi Faye
I love reading your blog it’s sometimes like I’m reading my own diary. My little one just turned 6 months and up until a month ago would only only sleep on me or pram/Car. I thought omg how can I rock him to sleep as he gets older he’s too bloody heavy! Then one day I was like right going to put him down as I do in the middle of the night when I know he’s fed and clean and sing to him. Just layed next to him, did that for the first two weeks. Then started laying and not looking or speaking to him. Then yesterday complete break through I put him down and walked out! I honestly nearly fainted when he settled for his nap! But max at the moment is 45 mins so even with self settling still catnapping so think sometimes that’s all they want? Out loud I wasn’t stressing about naps trying to be cool about it, but in my head the neurotic mother was counting the minutes. I aim to put him down about 2.5 max 3 hours after his last nap and he’s usually ready by then. I draw the curtains too so he knows it’s sleep time! He’s also a 2 am raver! But getting quicker at it! I’m naughty and put him on the boob to settle him quicker! Because you know sleep is a luxury these days!

Reply
Faye Copp
5/17/2018 02:17:23 am

I may have to try the singing to sleep method! Hope you've had more success this week. And sometimes the boob is the only way to get him to sleep so I'm with you there!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one googling and being slightly neurotic about naps. I have been trying to be more Zen like this week and we've had some successes but no major breakthroughs. I think you read these books and advice on the internet and you instantly think something might be wrong but like you said - sometimes they might not on my need 30/45 mins. I live in hope that the naps will just naturally get longer...good luck!! xx

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Royal Marine Wife. Mum to Rafe.

    Disclaimer: I swear. 

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • ME
  • CONTACT