Things That Go Waaaaaaahhhh in the Night

Francis has really got the hang of rolling and can now circumnavigate the living room with surprising speed. I can't take my eyes off him for a second or he'll be chewing on my slippers or rolling dangerously close to the fireplace. Although this keeps me on my toes, it isn't really a problem. However, on Friday night we had our first bad night in months and it was all down to Francis's new skill.

Before I went to bed I popped in his room to check on him as the previous two mornings we'd found him lying in his front. As expected, he was lying on his front, but he was squashed up against the bars of the cot with his face pressed into the mattress. How he was managing to breathe I have no idea. I wasn't happy leaving him like this so I rolled him onto his back, but he was having none of it and rolled straight back again. Sensing I was fighting a losing battle, I left him on his front, but moved him to the middle of the cot and made sure his head was turned to the side.

I wasn't happy leaving him on his front and it took me ages to fall asleep as I lay in bed listening to his breathing over the monitor. The next thing I knew I was woken by Francis sounding a bit upset. I checked the clock - it was 3:45am. I knew Francis wouldn't be hungry and from the sound he was making I gathered he had probably rolled again and was uncomfortable.

I went into his room and as I'd suspected he was squashed up against the side of the cot again. I popped him back in the middle and thus began a 1 1/2 hour battle to get him back to sleep. He started crying so I gave him his dummy. He didn't want it and cried even more. So I picked him up which did calm him down, but he just screamed again whenever I put him down. So I started pacing the room with him and managed to get him off to sleep a couple of times, but for some reason he wouldn't stay settled. As I knew he was definitely teething I tried some teething gel, which stopped him crying for all of five minutes before he was off again. This time, even picking him up didn't work and I had no idea how to calm him down as he was screaming and flailing about in my arms.

I was at a complete loss and starting to feel quite upset myself - I'd been with Francis for about an hour. Luckily Graeme appeared at this point and took over. We decided to try Francis with some paracetamol just in case he was having some teething pain - it would be so much easier if Francis could just tell us what was wrong! By now I was shattered so, after I'd given Francis his paracetamol, I went to bed and left Graeme to try to settle him. Much to my relief (and annoyance) Graeme was able to get Francis off to sleep within 10 minutes or so; it was now about 5:30am. Thankfully, Francis stayed asleep. Well, until his 7am feed anyway.

The following day I felt the effects of my disturbed night. I was shattered and by early evening was struggling so had a nap. Francis also seemed a bit worse for wear. We went Christmas shopping and Francis slept the whole time we were out, which he has never done before. I really hope his unsettled night was a one-off and that I'm not in for a long stretch of sleep deprivation - I barely managed to get though the last one with my sanity intact!

Lisa xxx