My son slept through the night at twelve weeks and at four months, he stopped. For a while, I was an undercover parent, ashamed to admit my baby had regressed.
All of a sudden my son would need resettling every one to two hours. I obsessed over what I had done (or not done). Was his bedtime too early/too late? Not enough sleeps at home? Too hot/cold at night? Hungry? Nappy change? Immunisations? Growth spurt? Developmental leap? I thought I had happily left my anxiety issues at the door when my son reached twelve weeks. Each night is such a gamble and I find myself wondering how many hours of sleep I will get. I’ll be lying in my bed, eyes wide open and stress levels increasing, when I hear him start to shuffle in his cot. It’s hard though, as my husband sleeps right through (love you) and as his cries start to escalate, trying to restrain myself from bursting into his bedroom to pick him up, and actually give him the opportunity to self-settle.
Another contributing factor to his poor sleep was that he was often really itchy and was breaking out in rashes from head to toe. We ended up taking him to an allergy specialist (based on recommendation by Dorothy Waide- check out my endorsement), after getting pretty desperate. He was diagnosed with eczema and blood tested for the five main food allergies; egg, wheat, dairy, peanut and shellfish. Results came back highlighting a really high IgE allergy rating and an allergy to wheat, which after my history with allergies and eczema, I was surprised he wasn’t allergic to more. So after a course antihistamines, steroid creams and eliminating wheat from the diet, his skin is much better. Now he's reached the six month milestone and with a whole lot of trouble shooting and bum patting, he's starting to self settle. Fingers crossed this is the light at the end of the tunnel. His personality is starting to really show which makes it all worthwhile and is unbelievably cute (biased parent). But as soon as you get one thing sorted, something else pops up to throw everything off. Trying to roll with it, especially now I know everyone else's babies are also waking LOL.
Meanwhile, I’ve found some pretty cool things to help manage his eczema and my anxiety levels.
Plunket PEPE groups and family centres - Life saver! For that extra support.
Bamboo Bubby –Incredibly soft organic cotton sleeping bags for babies with eczema with ingenious adjustable arms! Check out my endorsement on their Facebook page.
ScratchMeNot mittens - my son can play and explore with hands out and if he's especially itchy I can just flip the mittens to enclose his hands. Comes in many colours!
Don’t Puke on your dad – a day in the life of a new father by Toby Morris – Witty illustrations with a kiwi context for daddies (and mummies). Relatable, easy to digest and most importantly, makes you laugh. (Thanks for lending Thinza x)
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