Finn was born at 40+6 – a very calm, positive water birth.
He has always been a very calm, placid, happy baby. He has been exclusively breast fed till we started solids at 5 months (see more below). He started sleeping through the night from 10pm-ish to 6am-ish at 10 weeks old.
At around 3½ months old he started waking again in the night, seemingly teething (screaming in pain, massive increase in dribbling). At 4 months old we hit the 4-month sleep regression with very frequent night wakings, plus his appetite clearly increased and he went back to frequent night feeds (having previously dropped all feeds between 10-ish and 6am-ish).
At 5 months old, my milk supply appeared to have increased and his night wakings were reducing, but still quite frequent. (He always went back to sleep quickly, but we were co-sleeping.) On the advice of a baby nutritionist, we began weaning at 5 months, as he had been showing all the signs since he was just over 4 months (including independent sitting) and we had now given my milk supply time to adjust/increase. He loved solids and took to them straight away.
Again, that seemed to improve his night sleeping, although brief wakings continued every few hours, but 2 issues then arose: 1. He started getting constipated, and was waking with tummy pain in the night, and then 2. He got sick with a bad cold virus, which just threw him off kilter. All of this time he remained a very good day sleeper, and was taking 3 naps a day – 1 hr ish in the morning, 1½ -2 hrs at lunch and 30-45 mins in the afternoon. The morning and evening naps were in the buggy – he would self-settle with the aid of a favourite toy and a dummy, and at lunchtime his nap would be in his crib unless we were out (same sleep associations, plus put in sleeping bag in dark room).
Now, aged 6 months, he is finally over the cold, and eating 3 meals a day as well as regular breast feeds (usually 5 a day – 6-8am depending on wake up time, 11am ish, 2/3pm ish, 7pm ish and 10pm ish), but seems to be struggling with both his daytime naps (2 not quite enough but 3 too many, and he is also now frequently waking after just 1 sleep cycle) and his night time sleep. This may also have been impacted by us spending 2 weeks away from home for Christmas, and all usual routines being thrown out of whack a bit. We recently (3 nights ago) moved him into a bigger cot in his own room, and he seems to like the cot, but every night so far he has ended up co-sleeping with me in the bed in his room from the early hours.
Sleep associations are the dummy, a particular elephant toy which he pulls over his face, a dark environment (either in bed or buggy), a very short cuddle and the words “sleep time Finn”. At night, we have been co-sleeping although I am trying to get him to sleep more and more of the night in his own bed.
He wakes every couple of hours, and is generally easy to resettle with a dummy and a pat, as long as he is in bed with me. If not in bed with me, it can be harder to resettle him (and to be honest I have never tried very hard, as it was easier just to bring him in with me when we were sharing a room). He feeds during the night sometimes, but by no means always, and doesn’t seem to particularly associate it with sleep.
Finn has an egg allergy which we are still figuring out. He also has a 2½ year old big brother who is currently very demanding at bedtime, which makes things particularly tricky.
Re 24 hour diary – you will see it actually covers a 48 hour period, as I felt that more accurately reflected a more typical day (Tuesday) but equally how we are commonly thrown off course by something (in Monday’s case, tummy pain/slight constipation), and how neither option seems to result in a very good night’s sleep!
MONDAY
7.20am wake up
8am breast feed (quite small – due to night snacking?)
8.30am porridge (maybe 7-10 teaspoons worth? Didn’t seem esp. hungry)
9.35am put to bed but wouldn’t settle – at first calm but restless (for say 10 mins), eventually cross and crying even when being held and rocked. Usual pick up put down and nose stroking not working. Eventually brought him out of room for 5 mins around 9.50, at which point he seemed to realise he was, indeed, quite sleepy
9.55am small breast feed (comfort?)
10.05am sleep
10.50am wake up
11am offered feed but rejected
11am change v wet nappy (so must have drunk a reasonable amount at 8 and 10 as last change around 8.15am?)
12pm breast feed (fed well on one side – refused other but possibly because doula/babysitter arrived and he was too distracted?)
12-12.30pm in discomfort wanting to poo (managed smallish nuggety poo only)
12.35pm lunch: 30g chickpea and sweet potato mash with sweetcorn puree (half what I expected but his tummy clearly still sore); 90g prune puree; a few sips of water
1.30pm brought to bed (with babysitter/doula so rocked and soothed for 5-10mins before being put down). 1.40pm asleep.
2.15/20 pm stirs crying. Soothed for 5 mins (had to be picked up but only briefly, otherwise ssshing and putting hand on). 2.20pmish asleep again.
3.05 pm wake
3.10pm breast feed (good, and resulted in huge dirty nappy- mushy/liquidy not hard)
5.25pm dinner- started crying and rubbing his eyes after a few minutes and unusually refused more than a few mouthfuls of food so, once I had assessed I couldn’t snap him out of it and had wiped him down, I put him in his buggy for a (late!) nap at 5.38pm. 2 mins of crying whilst I shhhed and rocked buggy. Fell asleep prob 5.42pm.
6pm – I woke Finn up
6.02pm – half a mango baby brekkie pouch (60g) and 30g of the chickpea/sweet potato mash. Plus sips of water.
7.40pm breast feed.
8pm put to bed. Disastrous evening with toddler acting up and waking Finn, and then me not being able to spend long enough with F to get him sleepy enough to fall asleep before having to leave him to deal with said toddler, leading to crying, followed by me calming him, followed by more crying on repeat. Eventually fell asleep in my arms, put into cot then woke 2 mins later where I was able to soothe him back to sleep whilst leaving him in cot.
9pm sleep
10.30pm wakes for breast feed
11.30pm wakes – resettled with dummy and pat in less than 1 min
TUESDAY
1.35am wakes – wants (and has) full breastfeed. Falls asleep instantly after. Put back in cot – stirs and resettles with help of elephant and dummy.
4.10am wakes – very awake and difficult to resettle. Quite cold in room – poss reason? Or wanted comfort feed? Brought him into bed and soothed him and, when he was still awake, did gentle distraction techniques (wiggling fingers) ‘till he fell back asleep.
7am – woke up. Good breast feed. Results in huge poo.
8.20am – 2.5 tablespoons of oat porridge, 2 raspberries and 1 blackberry (finger food)
9.30am – sleep (in car seat, usual dummy and elephant- he had fallen asleep before I put on snoozeshade)
10.10aishm – wakes up
12.05amish – asleep again (car journey, sleep NOT intentional – nap intended at 1pm after solid lunch at 12.30pm)
1.30pm – wakes up
1.35pm – attempt breast feed – refused (probably because in new, exciting place)
2.15pm – breast feed
3.30pm – most of a hashbrown, 60g ish of carrot, pea and kale puree, 35g of pear puree.
4.25pm – put down for nap (intended for 4.30pm ish but he was suddenly looking super tired – complaining and rubbing eyes). Objected vociferously to being put in buggy (unusual). Made a few failed attempts between 4.25pm and 4.45pm to put him down for nap, because he otherwise looked so ready for a nap and he usually has a 3ish hour awake cycle. Gave up 4.45pm.
5.15pm tried again to get him to nap. This time he was asleep within a couple of minutes with minimal rocking of the buggy (usual sleep aids of elephant and dummy, plus it was dark).
5.30pm woke him up so that night time routine not too thrown off.
6pm – dinner of 1/3-1/2 Weetabix with milk plus half a mango baby brekkie pouch.
6.50pm – bath, followed by story, breast feed. *Unusually husband home from work just after bath time so he was able to take toddler, resulting in calmer bedtime routine for Finn.*
7.20pm – Put down, awake but sleepy.
7.25pmish – checked on him on monitor and he was asleep. No fuss.
10pm – wakes for feed. Back down straight after without fuss.
WEDNESDAY
1/1.30am ish – wakes. V unsettled and has to be brought into bed with me to be calmed down.
3am ish – Wakes again but is very easy to resettle with dummy and pat. (Still in the day bed with me.)
5.20am – Wakes and is very awake and clearly hungry. Feeds very well on 1 side, and has a half feed on other. Can’t be convinced to have any more but is still very awake and 20ish minutes pass of me being grabbed/whacked in the face before he falls back asleep.
7.20am – Finn and I are woken by my husband coming into the room bringing tea. Finn instantly very awake and ready to play. Unsurprisingly doesn’t seem hungry yet.
7.30am – starts crying and indicates he is hungry! Has a good feed off the side he only had a half feed off at 5.20. Refuses any from other side.
