27 weeks Baby #1 becoming much more vocal, imitating sounds and actions. Is very happy and smiles a lot. But he has had another spell of hating bed-time. For several nights on the run we have taken turns in sitting with him until he goes off to sleep.
At 28 weeks he cut a 3rd tooth, a molar at the top. We took Baby #1 on holiday, first of all to his uncle's in Amersham and then to London to stay with grandparents. He was very good all the time we were away. Routine: wakes between 6 and 7 am Cereal and bottle of cow's milk for breakfast
Lunch at 12 Robinson's packet food (mixed with boiled water) eats about half a packet
Bottle of rose-hip syrup (diluted)
Tea 4pm Rusk to chew on /yoghurt, egg or cereal, bottle of milk
Bath about 5.30
Bed at 6pm full bottle of milk
I noted that baby #1 could sit up perfectly without any support. He sits in his car seat well and enjoys travelling in it.
He still has a sleep after breakfast (about 30-45 mins) and another nap of about 30 mins after lunch.
The crunch came at 30 weeks when, after several weeks of comparative calm, his sleeping pattern went hay-wire. He was hardly sleeping during the day and actively objected when put down for a sleep. It co-incided with his 4th tooth coming through. "Bed-time is fraught. He screams and becomes really upset when we try to put him to bed. But, as soon as we bring him downstairs. he is smiling and wants to play."
At the same stage (26 weeks), Baby #2 "settles well at 6pm when she's put to bed but, after about an hour, she is awake again and is laughing and playful until 10-11 pm. She does then sleep all night till about 7am so I suppose I should be grateful. She eats 3 meals a day plus a bottle at bed-time. She can roll over and is quite mobile. It doesn't take her long to roll right across the room. This still takes me by surprise!"
29 weeks After a run of 4 - 5 nights of dreadful evenings where she was crying and fretful till 9-10pm, I found she had cut two teeth at once!! No wonder she was upset!
30 weeks Baby #2 has 'been driving us wild for about 2 weeks now. She has very restless evenings when she usually ends up being brought downstairs and is finally lulled to sleep about 10pm. She then often wakes once or twice in the night and by 5-6am she decides she's had enough sleep and it's time to get up. We had got used to this routine but, for a week or more, she has been crying a lot during the day. She is at the "Mummy only" stage so every time I disappear from view she screams. Because I have inevitably been giving baby #2 lots of attention, toddler brother is reacting by being very aggressive towards his baby sister. Today he's been throwing his toy cars at her and he's been hanging on to my legs and whining. It must be very frustrating for him as baby#2 is more mobile and interrupts his play. He likes to line up all his toy cars and she rolls across and messes them up! Also he must be losing sleep because baby #2 is crying at night.
In desperation I took baby#2 to the clinic. The Health Visitor says she must be "one of those babies"- the ones who don't need much sleep, are "difficult to rear" but are "usually very intelligent and extrovert in character". I wrote in my diary that it will be interesting to see if her forecast is correct!
I am advised to take baby to see the G.P. for a check-up. I suspect he'll find nothing wrong and just advocate dosing baby with Phenergan.
Phenergan...............advertised as an anti-histamine with sedative effects. The elixir was prescribed by doctors as a sleep aid. But actually it was not recommended for under 2s.
I look back and wonder why I resorted to sedating both children. There was really nothing wrong with either. It was just my obsession with bed-time at 6pm when if they'd had a meal with us and gone to bed later I could have saved myself a lot of anguish.
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