Niam was born 6lb 8 oz in March 2020 by a natural birth. With Amanda’s help, I managed to exclusively breastfeed him until he was 6 months old. Unfortunately, my milk supply reduced and I ended up putting Niam on the bottle from then. He was on Hipp Organic formula, which suited him best. At age 1, I moved him onto a mix or oat milk and whole milk. Due to his eczema and glue ear (diagnosed by an ENT consultant), I was advised not to give him too much dairy so he was on 2 bottles a day with 50/50 oat milk and whole milk.
Niam has been diagnosed with multiple allergies – egg (both baked, cooked and raw), cashews and pistachios. I try and incorporate nut butters where possible in his diet, but as he is at nursery most of the time, I do not do this as much as I would like. We are in the process of getting a referral to an allergy specialist to work on reducing his sensitivity to these allergens (especially egg).
From 6 months to September 2021 (age 18 months), Niam was fantastic at self-settling. We would put him in his cot in the evening at 7pm, say goodnight, close the door and he would be asleep within 10 minutes. We noticed that all the problems with separation started once we returned from our holiday to Greece in September 2021 where Niam’s cot was in our room.
When leaving his room, he would scream and just shout ‘hand, hand’. He would also keep throwing his dummy/comforter out of his cot and as he struggles to sleep without them, he would know we would go back in.
We were reluctant to have him in our bed, so we ended up sitting next to him holding his hand until he fell asleep. This was taking anywhere between 40 mins to 1.5 hours. We tried moving our chair by the door after a few nights but he would keep screaming and throwing his dummy out and became hysterical that he could not hold our hand.
After several weeks, we resorted to bringing him into our bed to sleep as it was more comfortable for us to lie in bed than sitting on a chair in his room for so long. Every night now when he is in his pyjamas, he says “mummy bed” to make sure he does not have to go to his cot. After 6 months of co-sleeping and feeling like we do not have an evening anymore, this is taking a real toll on us.
Niam moves around a lot when he sleeps and now that we co-sleep, we all have poor quality sleep. We often find that Niam is still extremely cranky when he wakes up after sleeping 7:30pm-6am and seems tired. He struggles to play by himself and always insists we are with him. We tried quiet time in his room/cot when he was younger but he would scream until we went in.
Niam attends nursery full-time from 8am-6pm. Naps at the weekends are usually in the car or in our bed. He requires me to hold his hand whenever he sleeps, even for naps.
Niam is generally a very active boy, who is currently trying to see how far he can push us. His speech is coming on extremely well and his nursery says he understands most things. He is currently going through what I believe are the terrible twos (tantrums, testing boundaries etc). He does not like playing alone and always insists one of us is with him at the weekend. He is also very, very stubborn and it can be difficult to stand my ground with him at times.
We recently got a puppy (now 5 months old) so we ensure Niam gets a lot of fresh air at the weekend.
6-6:45 – wake up. Some days this can be earlier (usually no earlier than 5:30am). No chance of getting him back to sleep once he is up. When he wakes, he is not interested in quiet time and demands to go downstairs or watch videos on our phone
Note: Niam attends nursery full-time from 8am-6pm Monday to Friday, so we try and follow the same routine at home with the exception of tea time timings.
8am –dropped off to nursery (attends full-time Monday to Friday). At the weekends, we usually have breakfast between 7:30-8am. Breakfast at home is usually 2 Weetabix with bananas followed by fruit and yoghurt. At nursery, he usually has 2 bowls of Rice Krispies or Weetabix
8:30-10am – playtime. Usually spends time outdoors at both nursery/home and plays with toys/watches some tv at home.
10am – mid morning snack. This is usually some fruit or raisins/crackers
11:30am – lunch. Niam eats very well at nursery and most days will finish his lunch. They usually provide meals such as cottage pie, fish pie, pasta bakes, roast dinner, lasagne, rice dishes. The nursery says he eats well without much encouragement. However, at home he is more fussy. I often have to distract him with books (and more recently, videos on my phone or the tv) to get him to eat. When I tell him it’s time to eat, he is more interested in running away to play and becomes rigid when I put him in his highchair. Some days he is eager to sit down but more often than not, he is not keen.
12:15pm – Naptime. At nursery, he is usually woken up by 2pm (which I have asked them to do). At home at the weekends, he generally sleeps an hour at most. He has stopped napping/sleeping in his cot. If he is put in his cot, he will scream and I have to lie on the floor holding his hand. It takes 2-3 attempts to leave as he can wake up as I try and make my exit. This was causing me to have pain down my side, so I gave up with this and ended up just letting him sleep in our bed so I could be comfortable. He requires his dummy and comforter to fall asleep. The dummy usually falls out soon after so he sleeps most of the time without one in his mouth.
1:15-2pm – Wake up from nap
2-3:45pm – Playing or outside. At the weekends, usually doing an activity in the afternoon. Usually has a snack at home during this time. Does not have a snack between lunch and tea on nursery days.
3:45pm – Tea at nursery. This is usually beans on toast, soup and bread, pitta pizzas, cheese scones.
5pm – Tea at home. At the weekends, he usually has tea later. We give him more substantial meals such as pasta, cottage pie, roast dinner, lentils and rice.
6pm – Back from nursery. Usually has a light snack like some fruit or veggie straws or piece of toast. Usually more interested in playing with his toys for a few minutes before going upstairs. Previously tried magic porridge (and losing the milk bottle) around 13/14 months, however he refused it after about 2 weeks and sometimes did not eat after nursery.
6:15pm – Taken upstairs (same time on nursery days and weekends). Has a bottle of warm milk (220ml) lying on the bed as I get things ready.
6:25pm – Bath time.
The rest of the evening – all activities take place in our bedroom. Niam does not go to his room.
6:35pm – Into pyjamas (no sleeping bag when in our room due to duvet but when we’ve managed the odd night with him in his room, he wears a sleeping bag), teeth brushed. Occasional video call with grandparents.
6:45pm –Running around, jumping on our bed and playing hide and seek.
6:55pm – Read 1-2 stories. Always requests ‘Dear Zoo’ and one other story.
7:05pm – lights out. He asks for his dummy and ‘blankie’ (comforter) and then puts his head on his pillow in our bed. I usually lie in our bed with him and this can take up to 1 hour for him to fall asleep. He is now trying to find an excuse not to sleep and will ask to watch videos or to play more hide and seek or will sing songs at the top of his lungs. He insists on holding my hand whilst he goes to sleep.
He usually sleeps through the night but perhaps once every 2 weeks, he may wake up once in the middle of the night for a short while. He does not need milk to settle but has to hold my hand to fall back asleep. If he wakes up after 5am, it is impossible for me to get him to sleep.
