Well what do you know. The medium miracle was followed by the long-awaited major miracle within a week.

Last weekend Eric was unwell so I was in charge of Ingrid and never got my long catch-up nap, which I had been looking forward to. Then Tuesday and Wednesday (yesterday) Ingrid woke me at 5 and then again at 6. So I started yesterday rather tired.

So tired that when it was time for Ingrid’s first nap I tried putting her to sleep in the bed, hoping that I could get at least a quick nap. The previous attempts have been utter failures and I have given up after 20 minutes of screaming. This time took her to the bedroom, lay her down on her side and rocked her through 15 minutes of intermittent crying. By the end of it she was deep asleep, and a few minutes later so was I. Wonderful.

Much encouraged by this success I tried it again today (having been woken at 6 again, and feeling rather under the weather due to some sort of bug I’ve caught) and to my great surprise it worked again! We both slept for over an hour, which is more than she’s ever managed in the pram. Pure bliss.

Laying her on the side appears to be the key. When she wakes early from her night sleep (early = before 10pm when I give her a last feed) I always find that she has slipped onto her back. I’m not sure if that happens before she wakes (and causes her waking) or after (because she starts kicking and squirming). In order to get her back to sleep I need to shift her back into a side-lying position and then rock her until she calms enough to realise that she can use her hands for sucking, and not just for angry waving and hitting. After that it only takes a few minutes for her to fall asleep.

It’s not a foolproof method and doesn’t work every time, or I wouldn’t have gotten up after 45 minutes of crying this morning. But it’s far better than what we had before. I can’t help wishing that I’d realised this earlier… but I’m really happy it works so often now!