Our Sleep Training Journey

If you follow me on Instagram you would have been on Florence’s Sleep Training Journey with us. Sleep Training is the process of supporting your baby to fall asleep, and to stay asleep throughout the night. The process may include implementing a sleep routine, settling down before bedtime, or helping your baby to self-settle back to sleep once they have woken up. In Florence’s case, I needed to help her to settle back down once she has awoken.

Ever since Florence turned 6 weeks old she has been in a Bedtime Routine and it worked very well for all of us. Florence is always placed into her cot calm, but awake. She is able to fall asleep by herself and we are very lucky for that! 

Her last bottle is at 6.45pm, just before bedtime. Before Sleep Training she was then waking up for a bottle at 11pm, 3am, and 6am which was very exhausting!

I had read about Sleep Training beforehand but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Florence is still only little and I thought that she was waking because she needed the milk, not because she wanted it. She has only ever drunk as much as she needs, and if she’s full then she’ll stop and drop back to sleep. After more research I found that babies may also wake through habit rather than hunger, and this certainly seemed to be the case for Florence. Chris and I could use Florence as an alarm clock, she would wake up at 11.00pm on the dot and we would look at each other as to say “it must be 11pm!” She done this every.single.night. And then again at 3am, and then again at 6am.

Once I had realised that she was possibly waking at night through habit I took a look at what she was eating during the day. Was she getting enough? Is that why she’s waking? It turns out that she was getting plenty of food per day, in the form of milk and solid meals. The recommended amount of milk for a baby who is over 6 months and fully established on solid food is between 500ml and 600ml – or approximately 18oz – 21oz. Florence was drinking anywhere between 25oz and 30oz of formula milk within a 24 hour period. Not to mention she was on three well balanced solid meals a day, plus fruit in between and Pudding after Dinner! I think that we can all agree that she eats well!

I had tried to settle her back to sleep a couple of times when she was a little younger but I cracked after about 5 minutes of trying and gave her a bottle. This time I knew that I needed stronger for all of our sakes. Chris has just started Working again, and I am starting back at University in September. We all needed to be able to sleep.

I decided to try again on a Thursday night. It got to 11pm again and she woke up right on que. I lifted her up out of her cot and put her close to my chest. I shh’d her, sung to her, rocked her, held her. She quickly calmed down but she was crying. I carried on what I was doing until she stopped completely. When she did stop I lowered her back into her cot, holding her hand and stroking her forehead, all while carrying on shh’ing and singing. As soon as I put her down she started back up again. So I lifted her back out and repeated what I had just done. I probably done this four or five times but she cried every time I put her back down. I then started to doubt myself and thought that perhaps I was wrong, perhaps she was hungry, perhaps she needed her bottle. But then I thought about what I had read, and what I had previously worked out about her food intake. We started again. I lifted her out, she cuddled, we sung nursery rhymes, we rocked. It just wasn’t working, she wouldn’t settle back down. This is when I turned her Disco Ball on behind the curtain so that it wasn’t too bright. I thought that it might distract her away from her wanting the bottle, and it worked. She calmed down, she rolled into her sleeping position, she popped her thumb back into her mouth, and she laid quietly while the Disco Ball turned. I kissed her goodnight and I left her Bedroom. She was then quiet for about 10 minutes which is when the crying started again. When she started this time I didn’t take her out of her cot. I sat on the floor beside her and I stroked her head while she calmed down and started watching the Disco Ball again. When she was quiet for a good amount of time I kissed her goodnight again and left. This time she was quiet for about 20 minutes and I felt that it was safe to go to bed, and it was. She fell back to sleep by herself, without the bottle, and she slept until 5am! It may have taken an hour but it was worth it. I did give her a bottle at 5am because I didn’t want to take both feeds away from her in one go. 

On the second night of Sleep Training Florence didn’t wake as usual at 11pm. She slept through until 4am when I gave her a bottle.

On the third night she did wake at 11pm. We repeated what we had done on Thursday night but this time it only took Florence 30 minutes to fall back to sleep without the bottle. She then slept through until 6am.

On the fourth night she slept from 7.00pm – 7.00am and has been doing so since for a little over three weeks. 

Of course, I am aware that this sleep pattern may not last forever. There may be times where she wakes because she’s teething, or poorly, or is going through a growth spurt, and if this does happen then we will repeat what we have tried previously. But for now, this method has worked for us. Florence now gets plenty of sleep and she wakes up in such a wonderful mood which is lovely to see.

There are other methods that you can try to help your baby to sleep through, such as:

• Make the day time very social and lively, and bedtime calm and dark. This way babies can learn to differentiate and understand when it is time to sleep. 
• Implement a Bedtime Routine so your baby learns that it is Nighttime. 
• Offer your baby a security object such as a Muslin or Comforter. 
• Play White Noise. We have an App called “SleepySounds” and it plays a variety of sounds such as Lullabies, White Noise, and Nature Sounds. You are able to set the length of time you wish the sound to play for which is great. We used to play White Noise all the time when Florence was younger.
• Offer Water instead of Milk as they’ll soon get bored and stop waking. This method helped Florence once or twice. 
• Ensure that you baby gets regular naps throughout the day so they don’t become overtired and irritated at Bedtime.

If you are currently Sleep Training then I wish you the best of luck. It can be tough, exhausting, and deflating but with persistence you’ll both get there! 

Weaning Diaries // Week 12

Florence rode in a Trolley for the first time!

This week I tried to offer Florence some more interesting things for lunch. I feel like my lunches are lacking so I am trying harder to provide more varied meals for her. Florence had her first taste of an Omelette which went down very well! She had previously tried scrambled egg and hated it, that could be because I completely blitz it and it would have bounced off of the walls if you threw it hard enough...! We also tried Cheese on Toast and Scrambled Egg (again!). The last time she tried Scrambled Egg was five weeks ago during Week 7, so a fair while ago. This time I was brave and I didn't cook it for quite as long, but I did make sure that the egg was thoroughly cooked through. She seemed to enjoy it a little more this time around which is good news.

While shopping at Tesco, I found this great little packets of fruit which are currently on offer, 3 packs for £2.50. I managed to pick up some Melon, Pineapple, Watermelon, and Mango fingers. I usually buy whole fruits as they tend to work out cheaper, but they also get wasted a lot of the time. Especially Watermelon and Pineapples, they're so big and we never manage to eat a whole one. So I think these little packets of prepared fruit are perfect for Florence. They are large chunks so she can hold them easily, and they are also ripe and soft so are ready to eat as soon as you get them home. I always seem to buy fruit that isn't ripe and then by the time I remember to cut it up it's turned.

Here is Florence's food diary for Week 12 - 

Week 12	Breakfast – 9.00am	Lunch – 1.00pm	Dinner – 4.00pm	Bedtime – 7.00pm
Monday	Bottle Ready Brek with Apple and Peach Fruit Pot	Bottle Bread Sticks, New Potatoes, and Tomatoes	Bottle One Pot Chicken Apple and Vanilla Fruit Pot	Bottle
Tuesday	Bottle Weetabix with Apple and Mashed Mango Fruit Pot	Bottle Omelette with Cheese and Sweetcorn	Bottle  Cod Fillet with Cheese Sauce and Vegetables	Bottle
Wednesday	Bottle Yoghurt with Apple and Cherry Fruit Pot	Bottle Cheese Sandwich, Ham, Organix Carrot Puffs Mango Fingers	Bottle Pasta Stars with Tomato and Mascarpone Sauce Rest of Yoghurt	Bottle
Thursday	Bottle Weetabix with Apple and Blueberry Fruit Pot	Bottle Ricecakes with Houmous and Tomatoes Watermelon Fingers	Bottle Sweet Potato and Lamb Casserole Apple with Raspberry Pieces Fruit Pot	Bottle
Friday	Bottle Crumpet with Butter Melon Fingers	Bottle Cheese on Toast with Tomatoes Strawberries	Bottle Beef Bolognese Apple and Banana Fruit Pot	Bottle
Saturday	Bottle Readybrek with Apple and Strawberry Fruit Pot	Bottle Scrambled Egg on Pitta Bread Pineapple	Bottle Vegetables in a Cheesy Sauce Plum, Pear and Blackcurrant Fruit Pouch	Bottle
Sunday	Bottle Yoghurt with Pear, Banana, and Kiwi Fruit Pouch	Bottle Breadsticks, Ham, Cheese, Cucumber, and Tomatoes	Bottle Salmon with Carrots and Tomatoes Mango, Banana, and Lime Fruit Pouch	Bottle

Our Gender Reveal

Sunday marked one year since Chris and I found out that we were expecting a little girl!

As soon as we found out we were pregnant we wanted to know the gender of our baby, probably because we are just as impatient as each other! I’m also a bit of an organised control freak and I wanted to know the gender so that the Nursery, Clothes etc would be perfectly ready and waiting for their arrival. 

We booked a Private Gender Scan at our local Clinic in Essex. The scan cost £69 and can be carried out from 16 Weeks Gestation. We managed to book an appointment for when I was 17+3 Weeks.

From the moment I conceived I was convinced that I was carrying a boy, as was everyone else. I was looking at “boy” Nursery décor, clothing, and picking out “boy” names. This was the case right up to the morning of our scan where I woke up, turned to Chris, and said “it’s a girl!” 

I was so nervous (it doesn’t help that my car had just failed it’s MOT an hour before hand and was going to cost £700 to fix!) I felt sick, I blocked everyone out, I couldn’t sit still, and I was scared. We had had so many scans previous to this one but for some reason I still feared the worst. 

We were called into the scanning room and I was asked to lay down. I’m not sure whether the sonographer could sense I was worried but the usual small talk of work and university commenced. “And there’s the heart beat.” Those four words were all I was interested in at our scans, after that nothing else mattered to me. Our baby was alive and healthy, everything else followed after.

Before they searched for baby’s gender, the Sonographer performed a Fetal Wellbeing Check. We were shown all the different body parts and functions of our baby which was really lovely. She also checked the position of baby, and I think that it was the one and only time that Florence was in the correct positon! I also think that it was the only time that Florence was in a suitable position to be scanned because the Sonographer was able to identify her Gender in seconds.

“It’s a girl!”

I cried, Chris cried. We were both so, so happy. 

After the scan had finished we were asked to wait back in the waiting room. We started discussing names and I showed Chris a note on my phone that said “Florence Estella” and he absolutely loved it. I was thrilled because it was a name that I wanted ever since I was a little girl. 

We were given three black and white scan photos that were presented in a little “Your Baby’s Photograph” book, and a full report of the scan which included the baby’s measurements, position, Amniotic fluid levels, the placenta position, and confirmation of the gender.

I came out of the scan feeling completely different about my pregnancy. I felt this newfound love and bond that I hadn’t felt before. I was yet to feel Florence move and sometimes I even questioned whether the pregnancy was real, or whether I was dreaming. It was real, there really is a little baby growing in my tummy, and it was a GIRL!

The day of the scan was also on my Father’s Birthday, and we were having a big Family BBQ that lunch time. It was the perfect time to announce the Gender but we hadn’t thought of any ideas to do so, but we knew we wanted to make it special. 

We drove to a nearby town and walked around the shops for some inspiration. We kept seeing these big Birthday boxes and thought that it might be nice to release balloons or something similar, but we couldn’t find any plain boxes. We then went to a Party Shop where they sold lots of Baby Shower pieces. I found these tiny plastic pink dummys and I thought that we could put them in a balloon, but Chris said they’d be too heavy. He then found these little pink pram sequins which were far better suited. The shop sold a pack of pink and blue balloons which question marks on them, we thought that these were perfect. Originally, we had asked the Shop Assistant whether she could put the sequins inside the pink and blue balloons, but she couldn’t with those types and suggested we use a heavier black balloon instead. Perfect! 

When we got back to my Parent’s house we set up the balloons and then asked both of our Mother’s to come over. We gave them a pin each and asked them the pop the Black balloon after a count of three. We explained that when the balloon is popped it’ll release sequins. If the sequins are blue we are having a boy, and if they are pink then we are having a girl.

Here is our gender reveal video, enjoy!