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Friday, February 26, 2010

Someone stole my baby

….. and replaced her with an angel!
The clinic on Wednesday was good….. the time at home putting it all into practice has been awesome. For two days and two nights I have had a baby who sleeps for three hours at a time at night and 2+ hours at a time during the day! In her bassinet!!!
We still had the crazy screaming inconsolable baby from 6pm – 9pm last night (not continuous screaming, more in waves). But from what I understand about these things, that time of night is commonly crazy for little bubs. Hey, if that’s what I gotta put up with then it’s ALL GOOD, BABY!
So,  how did it all happen? The nurses taught me to teach Pebble how to sleep. The steps are:
  • TIGHTLY wrap the baby in a large wrap (as big as a cot sheet!)
  • put the baby in the cot when they are calm (or bassinet)
  • create a ‘seatbelt’ of fabric by folding up another wrap/bassinette sheet/cot sheet so that it is about 10cm wide and long enough to tuck under each side of the mattress. Tuck it under one side of the mattress, pull over bub’s middle, and tuck under the other side of the mattress so that bub’s weight is holding it down.
  • tuck in any other blankets if you need them (not so much in the warm weather)
  • if bub is distracted by your face, use another wrap to block her view of you (I peg a wrap to the bassinette handles while rocking, then move it while she’s sleeping just in case it accidentally falls over her face).
  • now ROCK! like there’s not tomorrow. It’s pretty important that the bed have wheels for this part. A jerky movement is good.
  • as bub starts to drift off to sleep slow down the rocking until you’re completely stopped.
  • if bub wakes up, start with big rocking again, and slowly withdraw the rocking as she sleeps. Keep returning and trying to resettle every time she wakes.
Easy, right? Well, kind of.
The first time we did this at the clinic Pebble SCREAMED! She screamed longer and harder than she ever had before, so much that it brought me to tears. It may have been only a few minutes, no more than five, of this intense screaming, but …… I just can’t describe the feeling that it gave me. It has horrifying.
Just as I was at breaking point, and ready to pick her up and give her a cuddle, her cries got a little quieter and a peaceful look came over her face. Over the next 20 mins, her eyes got smaller and smaller until they were completely closed. Sure, I had to go back to resettle her twice, and when she woke after an hour and a half I promptly picked her up for cuddles. But she slept! Away from me!
The second sleep time at the clinic, Pebble settled much more quickly, with no big screaming at all. Just a little cry, then the same peaceful look, and she was off. Again, some resettling was needed, but that time she slept so long I had to wake her up so we could go home!
That night I got 7 hours of sleep (4 + 3 + 1) and she got even more (I got up to shower and have breakfast). During the day she had two 2.5 hour naps. Last night she had two three hour sleeps and a two hour sleep, and has been sleeping for 2.5 hours so far today.
I think we’re lucky that it worked so quickly for us. I imagined coming home to at least a week of screaming nights, but Pebble seems so relieved that her mummy has finally learned to help her sleep properly. She is feeding so much better too, I think because she finally has the energy to suck properly for a longer time.
Here is my sleeping angel amongst my arsenal of sleep weapons (I still use ‘Wooshy’ the bear that makes womb sounds, and a CD of baby lullabies).
P1100800
Hopefully this pattern continues…….. hope I didn’t jinx it by putting it all out there! LOL I’m a little bit superstitious sometimes……

3 comments:

  1. That's wonderful Kylie! I hope your Little Miss keeps responding well to the new techniques. Yay for you getting some sleep! :)

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  2. Well done to Mummy and Charlotte. Things are always so much easier when both of you get to sleep for longer periods. xxx

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  3. Wow,

    Reading your post brought back so many memories of when Ryan was little. All the struggles, the mountains of 'sure fire' advice from well-meaning people which rarely if ever worked, but ultimately how things sorted themselves out.

    Hope the little one's sleep patterns keep improving, and remember to keep taking lots of pictures and video - all those cliches about growing up so fast are cliches for a reason!

    Mark.

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