Hazy times

It's been a while since my last blog... and that one was a short and quick one. Why? It's been a bit hazy in my head lately. The Sleep Deprivation caught up and took over.

A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook asking my mummy/daddy friends if they had 10 month olds that were sleeping about as well as a 2 month old. I thought the whole sleepless thing was supposed to end much earlier than this.... was I doing something wrong? To my relief I had messages and conversations with mummies of other 9-10 month olds who say they are having the same situation. Boy was I relieved. There wasn't something wrong, it's just how it is.

So through all the discussions with other mums, and some reading, we're putting it down to teething and random big developmental changes.... so I'm feeling better about my mummy skills, but that still doesn't give me a solution, or any sleep.

So I tried a few things:

• making sure she was eating as much solids through the day as possible
• setting more regular times for her day sleeps
• not feeding after midnight
• feeding ....

Still nothing..... aaahhhhhhhh

Finally I submitted to experience. I can read and research as much as possible, but I have very limited experience with this whole mummying thing. I needed to call in the pro... and give her license to give advice. NARNA HELP! I told my mum that I had run out of all my own solutions, I'm dead tired and I just need someone who I trust, who knows what they are doing and who I trust has Ella's wellbeing at heart... as well as mine... just to tell me what to do. If you know me, that was a pretty big step.

Result - new process. No feeds after bedtime until 4am. First night was great. A little crying here and there, but generally a good night. It's like she had heard our conversation and went with the program. Next few nights, much crying. But slowly less and less crying and now 10 days later we've had very little crying in the last few night. In fact I've heard her grizzle a couple of times but then settle herself back to sleep. YAY!!

So I'm feeling half human again.

Mum's advice was that Ella had had 9-10 months of being responded to, but developmentally it was now time to start enforcing some boundaries for both our sakes. Our gorgeous monkey has her mum, and her dad's, strong will and has been starting to exert it. Yay for strong willed little people... bodes well for her long term resilience... but she needs the security of some boundaries from her parents.

Now all I have to do is teach her that No means No :) But that's another very long Blog :)