The plan...

Jason has intermittently slept at night for 6 hours or so for a little while now, but those nights are few and far between, and the 6 hours always ended around 3.00am, instead of 7.00. So we have developed a plan. Because I am sleepy.

Firstly, we have changed his daily routine. Gone are the four hourly feeds and in are three hourly ones (three main meals, two snacks and a late night bottle). Gone are the naps every 2 to 3 hours, hello are two naps, at 10.30am and again about 2.30 - 3.00pm. After talking with friends (thanks Saff!!) and researching EVERY RELEVANT SITE EVER CREATED IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET I have come up with this new routine starting with breakfast at 7.00am.

There are those of you who will look at this routine and think - well of course - this makes sense - what you were doing just sounds stupid compered to this. I would agree. I could kick myself! In my defence, what I was doing was recommended by Plunket. THEY told me to switch to four hourly feeds months ago. They told me to put him down every 2.5 hours. BASTARDS. Well. thats a bit harsh, but I am wondering if perhaps this is the reason why Jase still doesnt sleep through the night.

So thats what were gonna do - feed him up all day, give him two good naps (no more of this half hour napping nonsense) and see if that can get him through the night. Bed at 7.30 - 8.00pm, bottle at 10.30pm and hope till morning!! Yesterday was the first day, and he loved the additional feeds, and it was the first day since his diet has been focusing on solids that i havent struggled to get the required 600mls of formula in him. yay!

And the second part of the plan...this is a little more painful. We had plannned to start the controlled crying technique last night. Basically this is only an issue at 3.00am - hes fine all the rest of the time. We planned to deny him this feed, and comfort him every 5, 10, 15 and 30 mins till he gave up from either sheer exhaustion (or misery :( and went back to sleep. Chris was going to do all of this, because to Jason I am the bringer of food - and if I denied him it would confuse and upset him even more. All the advice I have read says the father has faster success than the mother with this technique. So, when J woke at 3.00am, we both got up, talked about it, and then I fed him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DONT HAVE THE COURAGE JUST YET!! I know I may just be delaying the inevitable - but I have justified my decision in the following ways.... he was born three weeks aerly, so hes actually really only about 7 months old. Lot's'a'babies still get night time feeds at J's age, and he drinks all thats offered so he must need it. So what I did was give him 100mls instead of 150. Ill do that all this week, and then next week only give 50mls. The theory is that he soon wont bother waking up for a measly 50mls. Ive read of other parents who did this with great success so I am ever hopeful. If it hasnt worked after two or three weeks, then we'll see about the harder line.

And it doesnt really take that long to give him 50mls anyway :)