Sleep... NOT!

I got 5 hours of sleep on Friday night, while Dries got up for Mieka. It did me the world of good. I felt refreshed, after months of getting up at night. Although I also woke up when she cried, I got to stay in bed, and it made all the difference. Dries usually complains that he is not getting sleep, but there is a difference between getting up and just turning and going to sleep again…

Ok, and it’s a week later, and every night has had a sleep story of its own. I am tired. All that keeps me going is saying “this too will pass”, one of the sayings of one of my favourite authors Neale Donald Walsch.
I know I am not doing it “right”, but in the middle of the night you do ANYTHING to get to go back to sleep as quickly as possible. Also, with my previous child I was not allowed to keep her in my arms, and I still feel guilty for the times I had to let her cry. The X was so jealous of my time with her, and now I just think how stupid I have been to allow him get away with his bad behaviour. But you do anything for peace… (But I must admit that she was sleeping from six to six from the age of two months old).
From the beginning I decided I would not let Mieka cry… I give her the breast because it calms her almost immediately, and she goes to sleep while drinking also almost immediately. Dries has his own way of getting to sleep, he sits on an exercise ball with Mieka in his arms until she falls asleep. It works! (Smile, although it is a very strange sight to see a large man jumping up and down on a ball, with a small baby in the arms). But, I am extremely grateful that I have a wonderful husband that helps me. He sometimes just gets up and brings Mieka to me, or tries to calm her himself.
I am reading about the soothers you should be using, such as a teddy or a blanket or a dummy, which baby can use to help them to go to sleep on their own. Up to now I have tried to put a teddy into Mieka’s arms, but she gets even more upset with the whole situation, and just screams louder. Carina, a friend of mine gave me a Tati (Babysense) on Friday, and I am going to try my utmost to get Mieka to sleep with it. A Tati is “self-soothing object, made as part of a sustainable social campaign, from the off cuts of other products, lessening waste”, quoted from the box. I love the fact that “Tati means father in many languages and Tati symbolizes the security Dads provide, which may be lacking for many babies worldwide.”
Mieka was 8 months on Friday, and she is supposed to be sleeping through the night. She wakes us three to four times after she goes to sleep at nine (hopefully), and before we have to get up at five again the next morning. That’s why we are in desperate need of sleep, and now I am holding thumbs that the Tati is going to do the trick…