Bedtime Mayhem!

Last night was a difficult night. We spent nearly an hour and a half trying to get Baba to sleep, and it was very traumatic and very tiring. We were both exhausted by the end of it.

Let me start at the beginning.

Baba used to be great at bedtime, we would give him a bath and his milk, put him in his cot, say goodnight and that was it. Baba would then go to sleep and wouldn’t wake up until the next morning. He had been doing this from about 4/5 months. Perfect!

We knew we were lucky. Then it all went wrong!

Baba was ill!

We had to go back sleeping in his room. His temperature was all over the place, and he was needing medicine throughout the night. He was sick quite a lot at night-time and we didn’t want to leave him. One of us was going up to bed the same time as him, as we were so concerned about leaving him on his own.

In hindsight, it was a bad mistake! But at the time we were worried we had a poorly boy, and I still think we did the right thing as twice in the middle of the night we were rushing into hospital with Baba. If we hadn’t been in his room we may not have realised so quickly that he was so poorly so I would still do it again.

However we are now dealing with the repercussions of doing this with him.

When Baba was better we made his cot into a bed. The first night we laid on the chair bed that is next to his bed to help him sleep. For the first few nights one of us ended up having to sleep next to him on the chair bed, as he kept falling out of bed. We gradually stopped staying in the room with him, but we have not been able to break the fact that we lay on the chair bed next to him until we go to sleep.

We have gradually been standing further and further away from him in the room and been standing with our back to him, waiting for him to go to sleep this way. This has worked over the last few nights. So last night we decided, we would put him to bed and walk out of the room.

Baba was not conforming to this idea. He screamed, we decided to leave him for a bit, and he screamed some more. We went in comforted him, put him back to bed and gave him a kiss and left the room. More screaming.

This carried on for an hour nearly an hour and a half, Baba screaming, us calming him down, us leaving the room, Baba screaming. He was not going to give in. I was not going to give in. I worry about this lack of giving in, on both our parts as this may be a disastrous combination when he is older! Mr L would have given in. I ended up sending him downstairs as he was willing to go and lay down next to Baba to calm him down and get him to sleep. So he was in a strop as I sent him away.

By 10pm I was nearing the end of my tether and was thinking to myself that if he wasn’t asleep by half past I would have to go in and lay with him.

Then a miracle happened, it went quiet. Baba was quiet for a few minutes, and then the sweet sound of his snoring came out of his room. He doesn’t snore that loud I was right by the door!

I went to check on him at 10.15pm and he was fast asleep in his bed, upside down, bottom in the air and head nearly hanging out of the bed. But he was asleep.

I had won the battle. Baba was asleep all by himself in his big boy bed, on his own.

He stayed there until 7.30am!

So now I need to see whether he is going to do the same tonight! I hope that we have at last broken the mould and started him back into a good routine. Wish me luck, I will keep you posted!