Even though little things always change, it feels a bit like we’re into a daily routine now – in so far as I’ve got more used to being responsible for two little kiddies… We still do our walk to and around the park in the mornings and Conrad falls asleep and has a morning nap then, though more often recently, that nap has only lasted for an hour to an hour and a half, and when we get back home, Conrad is wide awake and nearing his next feed. Jessica likes staying nearby when I feed Conrad on the sofa, enjoys watching him, pointing out his nose, eyes (she’s more careful with these now, tends to point at a bit of a distance…) and ears, and being tickled by his feet when he kicks. There’s definitely more mutual interest than big sister jealousy going on nowadays.
Was just going to say that Conrad generally has no problems going to sleep for his day naps, but we’ve just had a tricky afternoon, when Conrad’s not wanted to settle for a nap until 3pm, with some crying in-between… He cheered up when I put him on the nappy changing mat, so I took the opportunity to give him a bath and change his nappy and clothes. After a while tiredness took over again and he started to cry, so I carried him through to the carry cot in the living room and tucked him in. He didn’t really like that, so I disappeared out in the garden for a couple of minutes, to give him time to settle – sometimes letting him settle by himself means up to five minutes worth of crying, and it’s hard for me to listen to it without wanting to comfort him, but otherwise he’d never get used to settling on his own. It took him less than 5 minutes to fall asleep.
Speaking of settling, Conrad’s still having night-time feeds and I don’t know whether that’s normal or not. Last night, he was still awake after his going-to-bed feed, so – a bit apprehensively, not knowing whether he’d kick around a lot and end up throwing up on himself and all over the bedlinen – I put him to bed wide awake. It took him over an hour to fall asleep, but he didn’t crank or cry, just made little noises in the dark, and I went to check on him a couple of times so he’d know he hadn’t been abandoned. I was really relieved when he managed to fall asleep by himself in the cot. Once during the night he stirred and cried briefly, but then drifted off to sleep not to wake up again until two hours later. His first feed when waking in the night was after 5 hours; the following one after 4 hours. So at least it’s not every 2-3 hours…! I’m guessing I need to let him settle for the night on his own, to give him practice in not needing a feed to drop off, but I dread having to change soaked bedlinen at 7 or 8pm…
Gabriella