Sleep training

We have our evenings back! As you can tell, so far so good it's working. We have a few tears at bedtime, but he normally settles after a few minutes then Alex and I can have a few hours to ourselves.

Fingers crossed it carries on!

The great poo explosion of 2010

Well, poor Dylan has been have a few issues with poo recently... either a lack or an excess of it! From Sunday through to the early hours of Wednesday morning (his 1am feed with Daddy to be precise), we have been poo-less. We didn't have one poo-y nappy from Sunday morning. By Tuesday, poor Dyl was in agony, straining away to little avail, except to let off some truly impressive farts (sorry Dylan, one day you'll kill me for publishing such graphic details of you downstairs-trouser activity!) Anyway, after a couple of doses of sugar water, we finally cracked it and, during his 1 am feed, Al found his hand becoming extremely moist. In the dim light of the bedroom Al prayed for an excessive, nappy-busting wee. Alas, it was not to be and Dylan's vest and sleepsuit were as much browny-yellow as their true colour.

It took the pair of us over an hour to get him sorted. This involved actually cutting off his vest, as there would have been no way of getting it over his head without coating his bonce in freshly squeeze poo. His sleepsuit swiftly followed it into the bin as it was far too grim and little-liked to deem worth saving! We then tried showering him down. The poo remained, so we had to sponge him down, then hose him off... a Johnson's Baby commercial it was not!

Anyway, much relieved the constipation was over, we went to be. It's now Thursday night and we've seen no more poo since, so once again it looks like our little darling is blocked up. Great. I've got a couple of dose of Lactulose (a laxative) down him. It can take up to two days to work, so I'm fully expecting a 1am repeat tomorrow night.

Who said being parents was glamorous...?

Sleep training - night one is over!

Last night was Dylan' s first night out of the moses basket and in his cot; and night one of sleep training. As Dylan has recently turned into an exceptional night owl, particularly favouring clubbers hours (i.e. midnight to 2am), we decided last night, at the health visitor's advice, to try sleep training. The plan was to start at 7pm, bath him and put him to bed. Sounds simple, but he often doesn't want to go to bed! So we had to tuck him in, put the baby monitor on and leave him... and wait for the invariable crying. Which of course he obliged with. We were told to leave him to cry for 10 minutes then go back, soothe him and leave him again. The theory is that he'll eventually learn to settle himself and learn what bedtime is. Al and I poured ourselves a glass of wine each and braced ourselves for a long night...

We drank the wine, went back to the first cry, we drank a sip more... and he settled. He was awake, but settled. And he stayed settled. And he settled pretty much straight away after each night feed... `ok, who abducted my son and replaced him with an angel!? Who knows how he'll be tonight, but if nothing else, night one gave us a) a break and b) hope!