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July 1, 2009

Time Management – Having a baby & working from home.

Filed under: Having a baby in Spain, Uncategorized — Tags: , , — admin @ 1:53 pm

I have always thought of myself as being a pretty realistic person, so when I made the decision to be a work from home Mom I really thought that I knew what I was letting myself in for.

Don’t get me wrong I KNEW it wasn’t going to be easy but I was convinced that with my organisational skills I would manage.

So where have I gone wrong? for the first month or so Charlie slept in-between every feed. How fantastic BUT with him feeding every three hours day and night and us new parents still trying to get to grips with having a newborn and the inevitable sleep deprivation, his sleep time was better spent catching up on washing, eating, sterlizing, sleeping, cleaning etc.

It’s ok, I thought, as he gets older we will know what we are doing and have a routine, yeah right!!. By the time Charlie was 2 or 3 months old and all the visitors had gone home we started to emerge from the haze, he started sleeping longer between feeds during the night and the sleep deprivation started to pass.

Now all we needed to master was getting out of the house before the day was over. I couldn’t believe it the first time we decided to leave the village and go out for the day. At this point Charlie was still feeding every three hours so after his feed we started to get ready, packed the changing bag, and faffed about with the car seat again – I really do believe that car seats should carry a warning sign ‘ Not to be used by anyone without a university degree’.

By the time we were convinced we had everything ready it was time for his next feed. Total time it took to get out of the house – 3 hours. I am pleased to say that after a few attempts we got it sussed and now I can get out of the house in 15 minutes.

My new objective was to fit in all of Charlie’s hospital, Doctors & Physio appointments around general day to day life.

Now I seem to have gone off track a little here but basically the point I am trying to make is that I seem to have spent the last six months on the cusp of getting into a routine where I can manage being a Mom with working from home, only to find that something else comes up that I need to master.

Oh well, maybe I wasn’t as well organised as I once thought, better step it up a gear.

May 29, 2009

Just for fun – A baby´s perspective on ¨sleep training¨

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 4:40 pm

OK, here’s my situation. My Mummy has had me for almost 6 months. The first few months were great–I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened.

Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only
getting worse. I’ve talked to other babies, and it seems like it’s
pretty common after Mummies have had us for around 6 months.

Here’s the thing: these Mummies don’t really need to sleep. It’s
just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep–they just don’t need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:

Night 1–cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it’s hard.
It’s hard to see your Mummy upset over your crying. Just keep
reminding yourself, it’s for her own good.

Night 2–cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3–every hour.

Most Mummies will start to respond more quickly after about 3
nights. Some Mummies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mummies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don’t give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!

If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she
will expect it every night. I KNOW IT’S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change.

If you have an especially alert Mummy, you can stop crying for
about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mummy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it. Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it.

BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with.
*My sleep sack tickled my foot.
*I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
*My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
*I burped, and it tasted like pears (I hadn’t eaten pears since
lunch – what’s up with that?)
*The dog said “woof” (I should know. My Mummy reminds me of this
about 20 times a day. LOL.)
*Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed
on the monitor in the other room.
*Too hot, too cold, just right–doesn’t matter! Keep crying!!

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am.

You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mummies’ internal clocks.

P.S. Don’t let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long
you suck on them, NO milk will come out! Trust me.

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