I took Dexter to playgroup yesterday. In fact, my poor son has been dragged to various baby-friendly places this week in a bid to distract me from the knowledge his brother or sister would have been due this week.
The result? He gets a head cold. Yep, my poor little guy has the early onset of man flu.
So last night, we were up every hour, on the hour stroking his head to sooth him back to the Land of Nod. So whilst this mummy was on her 40th hour of no sleep (I’ve been struggling to switch my brain off recently) Dexter started a battle with snot and frequently fell short of his goal to stay asleep.
I know babies struggle to breathe through their mouths if their noses are blocked. This problem is only magnified if they insist, like my son, on sucking their fingers all night. This ultimately led to him dribbling all over his pillow, sputtering, and managing only short 15 minute stretches of sleep at a time.
Tired of stubbing our toes on skirting boards in a sleep-deprived haze, we decided to have him in bed with us. This was to be our first experience of co-sleeping with Dexter since he was 3 months old.
Now, 10 months on, he’s triple the length, and triple the size. Trust me, we might as well have invited another grown-up into our bed!
Unbelievably, my little man moved position every 3 seconds for at least 3 hours. Like a model on amphetamines he was pulling out all the poses non-stop. These included what I now lovingly refer to as the Christ position, the Lotus, the backward Lotus, and the Doggy.
Now, as my 5th consecutive day without make-up draws to a close, I’m a very tired mummy (once again) before Craig even gets home. Today has been characterised by a similar theme to the rest of the week “doing the bare minimum”. So with a house inspection by the letting agency due on Monday, a mountain of washing, and at least an hours worth of tidying due in every room, I’m sat here in a zombie-like state still in my PJ’s at 4.30pm.
So, my question to you all is… do you ever successfully co-sleep with little ones? Can anyone top Dexter on the fidget-stakes? As I’m guessing tonight will be more of the same, I need some tips!!!
Those pics really made me laugh. I sympathise, I really do. When DS1 was little we did everything by the book including sleep training him to sleep in his own room. It was awful hearing his cries and one time he fell asleep on his knees with head up against the cot bars. When DS2 came along we were a little more relaxed. We didn’t want him to wake DS1 by crying in the middle of the night so when he woke we would quickly bring him into us and we would all fall asleep quickly. The problem is that now although the is 3.5 and goes to sleep in his own bed when he wakes in the middle of the night he comes into us on his own, clambers in and takes over the bed. Luckily DS1 has sturdy bunkbeds so I often decamp into his room to sleep on the top bunk if wearing DS2 as a scarf becomes too much! So sorry, I have nothing to offer you in terms of real help just a feeling that you are not on your own. When children are ill they are naturally restless so things should improve when Dex gets better.