Sleep news!

After waking only once in the night at roughly 4am for about a week, Isaac has now slept through for the last 4 nights in a row!

HOOOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! This momentous occasion has been duly recorded in his My Baby Book :-D

Ner to HV who said BF babies don't usually ever sleep through until they're weaned. It does mean my boobs are like rocks by 7am! We haven't done anything special - usual routine etc. He seems to have come to this on his own. He's also seemingly reducing the number of daytime naps he takes from about 5 to 3 or 4 depending on what we do during the day. He now usually has at least 1 2 hour nap, but varies which in which nap slot (i.e.: morning, lunch time or afternoon) it falls. I can't tell you how pleased I am that he naps regularly now, and for longer than 10 minutes. I was worried that he would become sleep deprived. The best tactic for parental sanity is to not get used to it, or expect it, because then there isn't any disappointment if he does wake in the night. As it is, it's great that he is sleeping through!

We had planned to move the cot bed into our room this week & "um"ed and "ah"ed about going ahead with the plan since he started to sleep through (didn't want to tempt fate!), but did it anyway a few days ago and are making gradual changes to his sleeping arrangements to complete Operation Transfer. The first change we made was putting his pram thing in the cot to get him used to the different perspective. Next we made stopped tying his pram blanket around him, instead we lay him on top of it (so he can still pull it down over his eyes- cos he likes that) and put him in a sleeping bag. That seems to work successfully, but when I put him to bed I have to "tuck him in" as it were; he's used to me tying the pram blanket, which I obviously don't have to do with the sleeping bag, so instead I straighten his blanket out & give his tummy a little rub & say good night etc before leaving the room. He seems to like this & it replaces the blanket tying quite effectively. The last time we tried him in a sleeping bag it was a  complete disaster so we're very pleased that he's taken to it this time.

The latest change has been that I only put the pram hood up one notch, rather than the two to extend it fully. I'm contemplating making a hood for his cot bed, for two reasons. 1) He's used to it in the pram thing & 2) our room is very big & possibly a bit much for such a small little Wiggler who is still, in the grand scheme of things, not long out of the womb. It would be something like the Ikea bed tent (pictured left) and would, I imagine, make his space a little cosier, plus mute the light from above the door (stupid 70s glass panels).

When the time comes to take him out of the pram thing completely we're going to move the pram blanket with him so that he has something familiar in there with him. I have plans to make a larger version of the blanket if necessary because he loves it so very much it does what he needs  effectively. I think we'll put some stuff around him too, so that he isn't overwhelmed by the amount of space he's got & reduce it in stages. I'm sure he'll be Wiggling around all over the mattress in no time!

Our Little Man is quite amazing. He's leading the way with his sleeping & eating. I thought I wouldn't have a clue, which I didn't really at first, but now I know my son (my son! still sounds strange) more I'm happy to follow his lead. I'm still quite gutted that the co-sleeping didn't work out for us. He does like his own space at night. We do have a little bit of bed time - I bring him in bed with me when he wakes up and he has his morning feed lying down next to me. It's lovely all snuggled up together :-) I'm enjoying that while it lasts because I know it won't be for much longer. I can see why people want more babies, they're kind of addictive and you forget the first 3 months pretty much as soon as they're over!

Anyhoo. That is our big news. I can't stop grinning like the proud Mummy that I am :-D