Tuesday's Tantrum - 3

I knew it.  Stuck already.  I mean, what have I got to grumble about really?  I have a gorgeous husband, a beauty of a baby boy, a roof over my head, a great bunch of friends, good health and I am sitting by an open fire, with a glass of ginger beer.  Pushing the boat out I know.  What can you do?  I even had a scone earlier.

Ok.  Perhaps I'm going to have to rethink Tuesday's posts in future.  Maybe it should be Tuesday's Tickle?  Maybe I'll just go back to the days rolling into one and not give a hoot about what day it is.  Maybe I'll have a tantrum about not having anything to have a bleeding tantrum about.  Actually I really ought to take a deep breath.  I'm beginning to get palpitations...

...and in fact I have got something to have a tantrum about - my shoulder, it really hurts, from lying stupidly on the bed whilst feeding.  But that's not really a tantrum.  Oh I give up.  I'm going to have a strop instead.  No, I'll write a quick off the cuff poem, that usually works.

Grrr, Brrraaaa Grrrr.
Shouted really loudly.
It's not fair cried the silly little girl inside me
The days are too short
The nights are too long
I can't even remember my favourite song!
This lack of sleep is making me weep
Oi, let me out here in this field of sheep
I'll count them forwards and backwards
And side to side
If it will only make the days seem wide
For wide days could make sense of this
Leading to a life of ignorant bliss
Where silly little girls sleep all day
And when night falls come out to play.


Slightly random, but that feels better, time for bed, good night zzz

Hmm - I had scheduled this tantrum to post automatically last Tuesday and it didn't, or did it, I'm not sure now. I can feel a technology tantrum coming on!

How to get through the day without any sleep

Having a little baby that won't go to sleep at bed time can be hard to cope with, especially if they are not sleeping through and waking up for feeds during the night.  The lack of sleep soon starts to show. You know, forgetting what day it is, using salt for sugar and making gravy with coffee granules, leaving the baby on the bus (did anyone actually do that, I wonder?)

They say you should tank them up during the day so that they don't want to drink at night time, but that has seemed to have the opposite effect and makes the young lad want more during the night, although I realise now that it s a growing spurt and he had his immunisation jabs too, which can leave them out of sorts for a few days. 

We were co-sleeping which was so much easier for the feeding, but we are now introducing a cot, so attempting to soothe him with shushing and patting and lots of love.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, it is still early days and he's sleeping in the cot during the day time naps so we can't complain.  He doesn't scream loads at bedtime, just gets a bit grizzly and doesn't settle.  I've taken to doing some baby massage to relieve the wind, that works and I'm going to start the routine a little earlier because I'm wondering if he just gets overtired. 

I shall start to introduce water during the night-times too so waking up doesn't seem so appealing.  Drinking plenty of water yourself rather than coffee helps to keep the body surviving on 3 hours sleep and trying to eat healthy food that nourishes the body rather than always reaching for the biscuit barrel...

So you can try lots of different things to help the sleep through, but in the meantime my best advice to myself is to sleep when he sleeps!  So simple, easy to do at the beginning but tougher when you start wanting to get on with the household chores.  Having a thoughtful husband who takes him off for a couple of hours on a weekend morning gives valuable catch up sleep time too. 

He's sleeping right now, so what am I doing?! zzz