Selective hearing

The last few weeks have been tough.  I have just started working again and Ella has not been sleeping well at night which means that I had been walking around in an absolute haze because I am exhausted.  I don't even work full time so I hate to think how other mothers are feeling out there who have it harder than I do.

Ella has been screaming so much when we put her to bed each night and it doesn't seem to matter what we do, she just doesn't want to go down.  She is fed, her nappy is changed, she's not hot or cold, she just doesn't seem to know what she wants.  It could be her teeth but teething rings and a bit of Panadol don't seem to do anything either.  She's just as frustrated as we are no doubt.  She used to basically sleep all through the night as well but now she wakes several times and it can sometimes take an hour or more to get her settled again after a feed.  I am sure I jinxed myself some time ago by telling people what a great sleeper she was and now it's come back to bite me on the bum.  

During her first few months she suffered from terrible wind pains even though we burped her vigorously after each feed.  We bought some great natural drops which really helped her but  I don't like relying on giving her things like that all the time though even if it is 'natural'.  I want to know what is causing the problem, not just mask it with a quick fix.  She eventually seemed to grow out of the colic stage which was great but Tim is convinced that she is suffering from colic again and this is what is disrupting her sleep.  He bought another bottle of the herbal remedy the other day and gave it to her before bed the other night.

Fast forward to the morning...Tim jumps out of bed at 6.45am goes into her room and gets her up.  I had no idea what he was doing.  He never gets her in the morning when she stirs.  This is left up to me more often than not.  I could hear him praising her for sleeping all night!  He changed her and brought her into the bed and commented on how he hadn't heard her all night and woke up all worried that something was wrong which is why he bolted out of bed to make sure she was ok.  That colic stuff really works - you could tell he was proud of himself for solving the problem of the sleepless baby.

I burst out laughing.  Surely he wasn't serious.  There's nothing demure about our Ella.  She is big and boisterous and I'm sure the neighbours two doors down had heard her scream all those times during the night, but Tim hadn't heard a thing and he sleeps in the room next to her!  Perhaps the colic remedy would be better off being put in his ears to help clean them out!!

He was very sheepish after that, and before he left for work he thanked me for looking after Ella so well because he realised how tired I was after a night of up and downs.  It was nice to get a pat on the back.

While I was making dinner tonight, Ella was sitting in her high chair banging her toys away merrily and then there was silence...  I had to laugh when I looked over and saw what she had picked up and was reading...

Perhaps now that she's read the book she'll now know how to sleep through the night!  One can only dream.