Saturday 4th September 1999
We had a major breakthrough last night! Since Tuesday I started putting you in your cot during the day and at night for you to sleep (I had stopped doing that since you had your meningitis scare and the virus). You cry for about 5 minutes (or should I say scream) and then sleep. The night before last, I put you to sleep in the cot at around 9:30 at night and you slept for about two hours and then woke up, so I took you to bed and breast fed you (bad habit!), after a couple of minutes you were gone again and only woke up the next morning! This was amazing as in the previous nights you had been waking up at around 4 in the morning wanting to play and staying up for about an hour, driving me mad. Then for a couple of nights you were waking up but as soon as I stuck you to my breast you were asleep again. Last night a bit of a miracle happened… Your dad was working late, so we were on our own until 10pm. At about quarter to 10 I put you in the cot, you screamed for about 2 minutes and slept! R. got home five minutes later, and I finally had a chance to eat something. We relaxed for a while and at about 11:30 I thought I better brush my teeth and get ready for bed as you would probably wake up at any minute now. But time went by and no crying. I didn’t want to go and check on you as you wake up when I do that.
So we watched a bit of telly (a program about life in Ibiza), finally went to bed, and it was nearly 1 in the morning. When we walked in the room I just checked you were breathing (I couldn’t believe you hadn’t woken up!) and we went to sleep. It was great having the bed to ourselves. I was tossing and turning though, as there was ‘something’ missing, at least I could get into all imaginable sleeping positions I haven’t been able to in nearly a year (first because of my pregnant belly, and then always sleeping with you). I finally slept. I woke up at 6 in the morning (I think you usually wake me up at that time for breast) and you were still asleep in your cot! So I went back to sleep. About an hour later you woke up, R. took you out and I feed you and you went back to sleep and finally we got up at 8:30. It was the best night’s sleep I’ve had for so long. And it would be so nice if it was like this every night!
R. is working again today, doing workshops for the first year students at the university who are looking for accommodation in London. He should be back in a couple of hours. You are asleep now and I’m going to get some lunch now. We had a great morning, because you had such uninterrupted sleep you’ve been in a great mood. We even went to the garden, and I enclosed a big area for you to play in while I trimmed some plants (the garden is overgrown again).