Leila Rose Petal

Leila’s refusal to sleep much through the day is becoming a real issue for me. Yesterday I’m sure she slept for no more than half an hour at a time and in between she was grouchy and grumbly. If I held her she would go to sleep, but once I put her in her bed she’d wake up.

I’ve tried using the Hugabub but it’s not really working for me. It takes me quite a while to put it on and get it adjusted right and that time seems to telescope when Leila is screaming. Once she’s in it she’s generally fine, but she doesn’t seem to like the process of putting her in. I could be hurting her somehow but I don’t think so and, in any case, I don’t feel inclined to keep doing something that obviously upsets her.

We’ve been trying to follow a routine based on the ones in the Contented Little Baby Book, but it always goes pear-shaped at some point and that’s incredibly frustrating so I’m letting go of it for the moment. Today I’m just going to go with the flow and see where that takes us. It’s just Leila & I and we don’t have much on so it’s a good day to try it.

I’m also keeping a diary of when she wakes, feeds & sleeps through the day to see just how long she’s actually sleeping for. I’ve been concerned that she’s not getting enough sleep during the day and that, eventually, we’ll have general sleep issues. Thus far, even if the days are bad, the nights have been really good. It wouldn’t take much, though, for the nights to go wrong too and that would be Not Good.

All of this is not to say that things are going badly. In general it’s all fine. Leila is a different baby to Finn though and it’s just taking me a while to find the rhythm that works for her and I. It’s all just a matter of trying different approaches and tweaking details until we hit the smoothest one for us.