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Diary Of A New Mum -
Week 27

Eating and Sleeping

Long ago I grasped the idea that a baby’s feeding and sleep are inextricably linked. Hunger will wake a young baby from even the deepest sleep, and a full tummy sends her off again happily. A regular pattern of feeding is one of the first steps towards a regular pattern of sleeping – Jessica-Ann and I got this nailed a while ago. Which makes it all the more disconcerting when it suddenly starts to go wrong…

This week, Jess has taken to waking at least twice in the night – once at around 2.45am, then again at 5.00am. Her waking has nothing to do with hunger, though. She doesn’t cry for food or for attention, she just grumbles and sings and shrieks and laughs – all very cute, but impossible to sleep through! (I’m reaching for the ear-plugs again.)

I found myself wondering what would have happened if we hadn’t been successful in structuring her feeds and sleep so early on. If we were still feeding in the night, for example, or if weaning wasn’t well established, would we be interpreting those middle of the night cries as hunger? And feeding her just to get her back off to sleep…

Jessica-Ann was lucky in that she learned how to send herself to sleep when she was around six weeks old. Now when she wakes up in the night she doesn’t panic or need help to go back off, she manages it herself (eventually). But what if she couldn’t? Those cues babies learn in the early days are ones they will have for a long time. Being rocked, cuddled, stroked, sang to or fed to sleep is all very well and good when baby is knackered and so is Mom and Dad. But are we really doing them any favors in the longer term?

I say no. Although this week I’ve had my own sleep disturbed most nights by the happy chirping of my precious daughter, I know that I am lucky indeed that she drops back off with no intervention from her sleepy parents. Or am I lucky? Was it luck that made Jess the great little sleeper she is now, or was it the endless naps, time after time after time, when I put her down and then waited, crouched outside her door with my fists in my mouth, for her to stop crying and get her much-needed rest?

The routine helped. Knowing she was definitely only tired, not hungry or lonely or wet or anything else at all, helped. I’m glad we did the hard work when her cries were only the mewing of tired soul, not the angry screams of a thwarted six-month-old who has found her voice and is going to use it. How much harder would it be to teach Jessica-Ann how to go to sleep on her own now? I dread to think!

Also this week: Weaning is going from strength to strength. Jess has now tasted chicken, pasta, cottage pie, and all sorts of vegetable combinations, and we’ve yet to find much she doesn’t like. Except for the green beans I lovingly pureed and pressed through a sieve, but the least said about that the better…

You might also be interested in our Baby Sleep section.


Diary of a New Mum - Week 28 Latest!
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In which we discover separation anxiety and become attached at the hip!

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