Sleep!

Finally! We have a sleeping monkey!

Things came to a head with the whole sleep thing a couple of weeks ago. The monkey went through a bad bout of teething, and reverted back to an almost newborn sleep cycle. 4, 5 even 6 bouts of waking a night and the only way to get her back down was boob... Not that she actually ate anything. She just sucked until let-down then pulled off. Cheeky monkey!

I was a zombie, the DIY enthusiast as a mess and the little one was quite merrily getting by on about 6 hours a night. Not good for anyone. After a lot of research and "advice", we settled on a mix of controlled crying and the gradual retreat method.

We would put her down awake after her last milk feed at 8.30pm. We let her grizzle, but if she cried hysterically would pick her up, comfort her and put her back down when she settled. The first 2 nights were hell. She woke every 2 hours. We took it in turns sleeping on the sofa so at least one of us could get some rest.

On the 3rd night she slept for 12 hours straight! Not a peep. She has slept every night since! It's only been a week, but I am optimistic. She will be 1 in a few weeks and has been doing great with the solids, so maybe she was just ready anyway. Who knows? All I can say for sure is that I was definitely ready. Fingers crossed she keeps it up!

The Duracell baby!

Good morning?

I was sure that my first "proper" post would be something to do with living in France, as the name of the blog might suggest. Today though, seemed the perfect day to discuss our most pressing parenting issue- sleep deprivation. Not far from 11 months in now and our little critter still doesn't sleep.

Yesterday was a perfect example. The monkey napped for a grand total of 40 minutes during the day. "Yes!" I thought (because I am stupid, and desperate and fall for this one every time), "She WILL sleep tonight! She will be sooo tired!". HA! Sure enough, the little angel was still galloping around like the Duracell bunny on speed at 11PM. We were in bed by 12AM. She woke up at 4AM. 6AM. 7.45AM.

This is about normal for her. She will have the odd night where an 8-hour stretch is achieved and I will proudly exclaim; "Ah, she has turned a corner now! We must continue to do everything exactly as we did it yesterday, because that is clearly the magic formula!". Of course, it never is.

We had a beautiful little routine going for about 2 months around Christmas. Bath and bed by 7PM. I felt rather smug and other parents would tell me how lucky I was. She never slept through, but there was at least an opportunity to go to bed early and recharge before the next service bell rang. 

Any how, the routine was slowly corroded for various reasons and now we must all suffer. Serious attempts have been made to re-establish a routine, but we never quite found the right combination. The monkey also got wise. She is now well aware that a few swift, bellowing screams will bring myself or the DIY enthusiast running to her aid. She always shows her gratitude by giving us a big toothy grin and immediately desisting in her attempts to wake the street. So, that's something, right?

Despite our experience so far, I live in hope. There will come a day where I can throw away the industrial concealer! I will pass a mirror and not look like I have dressed in the dark! I will re-acquire the skills of speaking a coherent sentence and performing simple mental arithmetic! One day, it WILL happen. Knowing my luck, that day will probably be the day I find out number 2 is on the way! Ha!

Au revoir for now!