Moses Basket Case

After several weeks of successful co-sleeping, it all went a bit pear-shaped. Francis became increasingly unhappy with the arrangement and ended up more unsettled than he had ever been in his moses basket. He was fussing at feeds, refusing to feed, screaming for ages and his reflux seemed worse than ever. Feeds were lasting forever and I was finding it increasingly difficult to settle him. Nights turned into an absolute nightmare which left me completely exhausted and I suspect Francis found it a bit knackering too. Something had to be done. So, four nights ago we started putting him to bed in his moses basket.

I suppose I should mention at this point that we started giving him a dummy a couple of weeks ago. I really didn't want to, but Francis was having trouble getting himself to sleep and had started sucking his thumb for comfort. It pains me to say it, but the dummy has helped immensely. Francis will let me put him down for naps during the day now, which gives me a bit of a breather. We only give him the dummy to help him settle and he usually spits it out once he's asleep, so I don't think we need to worry about him having a dummy addiction. And, so far, I've not noticed any effect on his breastfeeding. The infant feeding team at the hospital had warned me against giving him a dummy and I have read cases of babies developing nipple confusion which completely ruined their ability to breastfeed. Luckily, nipple confusion seems to have passed Francis by.

Thanks to the dummy, we have been able to settle Francis in his basket at bedtime. It wasn't easy at first - I spent much of the first night with my arm dangling over the side of the bed holding the dummy in his mouth - but I've noticed an improvement already. On Saturday night he refused to have the dummy and got off to sleep on his own, so hopefully the dummy is only a temporary measure. He's also been settling much quicker after feeds. He's still a three-hourly feeder, but feeds are much shorter now so not as draining on me in the middle of the night.

I'm hoping that this is the start of things getting a bit easier for me. I've definitely been getting a little extra sleep these past few nights and haven't been as tired during the day, though I do still use the mornings to catch up on the sleep I've missed. Once Francis goes longer between feeds I might actually start to feel like a human being in the morning!

Lisa xxx