Sending out an SOS

I was. But I'm doing ok now. Largely due to the fact that I found Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall. Prior to this I was going a wwwiiiidddle bit crazy!

It wasn't really my sleep that was suffering more Charlie's. I'm happy to get up to him twice a night to feed - that seems somewhat reasonable for a 13 week old baby I think. But he wasn't sleeping during the day at all. Perhaps for 20 minutes. I'd heard about SOS from friends and various forums but really didn't want to go down the routine track. I'd heard good things about SOS but probably more bad things. Like it involved letting your baby to cry, which I really wasn't keen on doing. I'd tried a few different tactics to make him sleep better but nothing was working and I was going insane because life was a battle between Charlie and I. He would scream and me and me back at him (one of my bad mother moments) I was close to snapping I think. So I bought SOS on Friday in a last ditch effort to Save Our Sanity.

I've been such a hopeless mother that we have had to start on the 4-6 week old routine!

The idea is he wakes up at 7am and I feed him(haha!) and if he wakes up before then I feed him and then put him back to sleep (haha!) he then hangs out with me until 8.15 and he goes back to sleep and then wakes for a feed at 10.15. Then he plays until 11.45 and then sleeps until 1.30 and feeds. Then we play until 3pm and he has another snooze until 4.45 when he has another feed. At 5.45 he has a bath followed by a feed at 6pm and bed by 7pm.

That's the idea! I can't make him do those things, but I'm trying my best and he is getting more sleep than he was! Which means I can do housework and eat lunch!

It's going to be boring, however, each day I'm going to blog what happens so I can look back on days where everything goes wrong (and I'm sure there will be plenty of those!) I can see that it does work, to spur me on through the screaming fits!

6.20am - 6. 40am Feed.
6.40 - 7.00am Play
7.00am - 7.20am Feed
7.45am Sleep
8.50 woke, re-settled with assistance
9.50 woke, nappy change, tried to occupy until 10.15
10.05am - 10.45am Feed
10.45am - 11.45am Play
11.45am - Sleep.
12.25 - resetteled until 1.55 (5 minute intervals)
1.20 - woke from sleep
1.30 - feed
3.00 - 4.10 sleep couldn't resettle got up at 4.20
4.45 feed
6.00 feed
7pm bed
12 midnight feed

Tears of Joy

On the 25th of August 2009 Dean and I welcomed Charlie Michael into our lives. He was born at 6.42pm. Weighing 9lb 6oz (4.225kg) and 57cm long.

He is an angel. I still look at him and wonder how we created someone so perfect. I still hurt from the 20 months of trying and our two losses but he has helped ease some of that pain. I think that's why I stopped blogging - I still had (and still have) pain over the two babies we lost and I felt guilty about that. In a way I guess I still do.

I love being a Mum - I'm not sure I'm any good at it! But I do love it!

Charlie is now smiling and trying his very hardest to roll over. He is every bit of his Daddy - a very serious little man, but that makes him all the more funny!

I'm going to try and blog more now - I regret not blogging my pregnancy, I feel like I've forgotten so much already - which is a shame really.

Here are some pictures of how I looked right before I gave birth and of our special little man.