More talk of sleep

E has no concept of sleeping in.  He woke up at 6am very angry.  He did not want to be lying down – he wanted to sit up, problem being that I didn’t.  Eventually after a bit of a play and a chat with his parents, he fell asleep and woke up at 8:30.  Now that is some serious fantastic behaviour.

After his “lunch-time” feed we lay E down on his playmat and he gurgled and cooed appreciatively.  He was really wide awake and seemed happy to have the opportunity to play.  When he lies around like that I can forget all the sleepless nights and all the feeding traumas.  He is just so perfect and I can’t believe he is our baby – it has been a long time coming but worth every minute.  

This morning there was a program on TV and there was a child, nothing like E, who was born at 26 weeks and it made me think all over again about those terrible days in the beginning.  Every time I look at E’s photograph album I also think about it and it makes me cry both with joy that he is so well now and with relief.  I also feel such immense sadness for what he had to go through to get here.  I just want him to be happy and to be grateful that he made such a fight to keep on living. 

After his 7pm feed we gave him a warm bath and put him to bed.  It seems like we are going to go through a cycle of one good night and one bad night.  I am quite happy that I am faced with the good one for tonight.  Yeah right.   He was a bit of a terror from 2am onwards.  It was not that he did not feed or that he was particularly impossible but he just could not settle and seemed unable to fall asleep.  I do get really tired sitting up with him and trying to keep him calm and happy but from all that I read and hear of my friends babies I think that we have got a gold star!!!  He does scream and he does certainly perform and require a lot of attention but he does not cry consistently all the time and most of the time, even if it takes a little effort, we can make him happy. 

I ended up walking around with Ethan in the baby pouch at 5:30 am and he loved that.  Pity he realised as soon as I tried to lie down.  I put him in his cot to look at his fancy new mobile and he seemed to enjoy that too.  He gurgled and followed the movement of the mobile for a while - like maybe 6 whole seconds.