Hi My name is Keryn, I live in Melbourne Australia, and have a wonderful little boy called Oliver, I am loving being mum, but am tired with bags under eyes at the moment and would dearly like some advise, I have often watched Tracey and today brought " Secrets of TBW and TBW solves all your problems" and have basically read both, and am hoping that i can fix the following..
Oliver is now 23 weeks old, has always been an alert and happy bubby.. hitting all the goals ect, and today rolled a week ago today but has never been one to sleep much durring the day, maybe only an hour at a time, (I know know he needs longer and I think i can achieve that in the day with PUPD Yet to start.)but nighttime has been fantastic since about 4-6 weeks old. Had a good routine, starting from about 4pm as Oli liked to cluster feed, so we fed, play, fed, wash ( I can't bathe oli every night due to excema and not wanting to turn him into a complete skin flake), massage, change, feed, small play/cuddle read, last feed prob 5-10 mins... and bed at 6pm, often not waking till midnight then extending out to 3 am....
3 weeks ago, i got a cold and unfortuantly Oliver caught it too, so we had a full day of almost hourly feeds, ( OMG something like 12 wet nappies), Gp said this is proberbly what got rid of the cold quickly, and it didn't progress to his chest which i was pleased with, that week his sleep changed to waking at 930pm and then 2 am, and often 4 am, but i was able to subdue the 4 am feed, by taking him to bed with me and resettling ( i am not good at 4 am even when i am on night shift), this worked, (I know that caused a prop, and it didn't happen every night)and we lost the 4 am wake, and then him waking finally at 6. (he is exclusivly BF and there is plenty there,)
a few days after this, bowel habit changed and he didn't have BM for 4 days that rectified itself and returned to once or twice a day..( my mum came from nz) We still had the same routiene, OLI SLEEP WENT TO S**T, he would still go to bed at 6pm and fall asleep with his music ect, but would wake every 20 min, screaming and yelling tears down face, so we did all the things, I did the check list... wind/colic (tryed beaur colic relief with mild effect) , teeth, noted to be rubbing ear, but no discharge.. Nothing, so once able to be resettled then screaming for breast, so we were feeding 2 hourly, day and night!!! so thought growth spurt.....the day settled more over the week we even attempted solids ( as recomended by peaditrician) with minimal help. On Friday i went to GP to rule out any medical stuff, as i thought that if it was a growth spurt well it should start settling down, so GP said, no ear infection or chest infection, nothing medical that he could think of, so suggested that we increase the solids in the evening to see if that would satisfy him,
That was over a week ago, with not much help, Oliver was a big boy at birth being 9lb6 and gained weight at an enomous rate was 7.1kg at 8 weeks, so i was ok re starting the solids, After reading Traceys books today, it seems since the cold and possible growth spurt, Oli has become dependant on me to get him to sleep, although almost every night if i do the settling routine right and cluster feed, he will go to sleep by himself, i do the cues, close blind lye him in his cot, do up his sleeping bag, talking about sleep and teddy bears, put on his music and give him his dummy( has never asked for it, spits it out when finished and doestn' scream for it, and often will fall asleep with out it) tell him night night give him a kiss on cheek and leave, if anything i have to pop back in in 10 mins kiss check and leave and he sleeps, even tonight we had this then bang 45 mins later awake, no eyees open just screaming... was able to resettle with adapted pupd, as Oli is big i can't physically keep him up and down without him thrashing my head, so did comforting in cot, and 2 pu/pd,
I have even changed his room around slighly so that there is no cold breeze on his cot when door is ajar, and he sleeps in a sleeping bag as he is an avid no blanket boy
I am hoping i have started doign the right thing, Oli has had refux, and we use medication if he has been partucally bad his bed is raised so was just hoping for any ideas
sorry this turned into an eppic, but thought background was needed....
Keryn ( the mum with the big suitcases under eyes and a dh that works night shift!!)
