[Anaïs Cassaignau]

Thanks a lot, Emma – heaps of useful things to digest in there. Pleased to say that things already seem to be going into the right direction (e.g. 1 nap per day in the bassinet?! What a massive win) and also his cold has subsided. Will report again in more detail in a few days once I’ve had a chance to test some of this out!

Anaïs

[Anaïs Cassaignau]

Hi Emma,

Thanks so much for picking this up – it’s so much nicer to troubleshoot with your help! And no worries, happy to answer any questions. I’m afraid it’s another long post though.

1. You mentioned he has a consistent wake-up time and bedtime. Can you let me know what time he wakes in the morning? I’m just trying to work out the possible timing of his first nap of the day. —— bathtime [6:45-7.30] sleep [starting to converge to 7:50-8:30] wake [6:45am-7:30 am]. Mostly the earlier side of these windows.
2. Does he use a pacifier at all? —— not properly but I use it to help the transition from feed to bed/sleeping sack to minimise crying – he sort of suckles on it a bit but mostly spits it out. This is consistent behaviour with other times when I try the pacifier. He is very upset already at the point of putting him into the sleeping sack. I feel the pacifier helps him maybe a teeny bit then.
3. You mentioned when you’ve tried the settling pyramid, the best you can go down to is “hold, shush and sway lightly” to get him asleep. I just wanted to clarify – is he lying in the cot or bassinet when you’re holding, shushing and swaying him lightly, or are you holding him in your arms? —— That’s “hold, shush and sway lightly” in my / my partner’s arms. Last night my partner “gave up” and let him fall asleep like that before transferring him, rather than having him awake putting himself to sleep in the cot. The night before I was a teeny bit more successful and he put himself to sleep in the cot while still protesting, straight after I put him down from my arms, so maybe he fell asleep more from sheer exhaustion rather than being calm in the cot. During the daytime naps we are not able to put him down awake at all – it’s straight away a screaming match. Only at the first nap can we eventually put him down asleep without him waking straight away (again after like 30-40mins), and at any other naptime he wakes instantly and screams his head off so we eventually give up.
4. Is he wearing a sleep sack for daytime naps when you’re lying him in the bassinet or cot? —— I’ve only tried the bassinet for daytime naps and I took him out of the sleep sack for that because the sack feels too bulky, constrained and hot for the smaller bassinet.
5. Are his arms out in the sleep sack or is it more of a swaddle? —— it’s a proper sleep sack with arms out; we’ve never swaddled and it now feels like it might not be worth changing that for such a short while. Having said that I realise that having him sleep in the wrap during the day is effectively a swaddle…
6. Is the bassinet in his usual sleep space or in another room? If it’s in another room, is it cool, dark and quiet? —— In his usual sleeping space so yes dark cool quiet. Hoping to be able to sometimes move the bassinet once he is asleep if I want to leave the house, and pop it on the stroller, but then I’d additionally have motion on my side to help him stay asleep?! Here’s hoping.

As an additional complication at the moment, I am keeping an eye on his weight because he recently weighed a little lighter than what my health visitor would like to see. Complicated also because I’m currently transitioning out of nipple shields, plus maybe my supply isn’t quite enough, trying to figure all this out at the minute. I’m hopeful that this sorts itself soon but we may need to switch to combo feeding if not. And he has a mild cold now and trouble pooping, so the night settling was worse during the last two nights. So it’s all going on and might make things harder, but I still think it makes sense to keep trying with the new sleep routine because I think we’ll never have the “perfect “ time to get him into it…but I thought I’d mention this anyway. He has generally been less settled and more cranky, possibly because of the combination of all these things.

Thanks again for all your help! We are v motivated to help him get better sleep in a more relaxed way.

Anaïs