Next week I’m going back to school. Whilst I’d love it to be the school that I work at, and be returning to the job that I love, unfortunately it is a different kind of school. I shouldn’t say unfortunately, as it is a positive thing. We are going to Masada Hospital to get some help for our little man. Namely to help him sleep and feed better. It’s been a long time coming and after nine months, we are pretty desperate for help. The road to this point has felt like and endless one, as we’ve hit so many cross roads and gone off the beaten track. It took me a while to actually bite the bullet and fill in the forms and apply to get some help. Probably too long in hindsight. 
Like all Mums, I just wanted to ‘fix’ him myself and after already having a child, I felt that I should be able to. I wanted to put into place all of things that I learned to do, and also what ‘not’ to do. You see, we learnt our lesson with Ella. We rocked her to sleep, let her sleep in our bed. Did everything to create terrible sleep habits. However this hasn’t been the case with Hudson. They say that all children are different, and I can only say that our two are like chalk and cheese. We were determined to develop good habits from the start, and have always tried to put him down awake etc. etc. but sometimes, children just have a mind of their own. With prematurity and low birth weight naturally comes feeding issues, and in turn sleep problems. It’s been a vicious cycle with our little man, and as you know, we have tried everything to help him.
Nine months later, he is a mix of happy and angry. He is crawling, has four teeth, pulls himself up, smiles and laughs and has met all of his milestones with gusto. Days are, for the most part, really good and he sleeps and plays well. He has taken solids well and generally takes most foods. However when it comes to sleeping at night, it is a different story. He still wakes through the night, and its a regular occurrence that this can be every hour. We’ve stopped feeding him at night (after a 10pm dream feed), and give him water to ensure he is hydrated. Some nights are better than others, but for the most part, it’s still a real struggle. We simply need sleep. We know we’ve tried everything and now we need to turn to the experts to help him get over this hurdle.
I’m open to anything and hope that I can work with the team next week as we spend five nights and six days, resetting his clock. Whilst Masada is not a ‘sleep school’ per se, they offer an individualised program to help parents with children who suffer from sleep and feeding issues, unsettledness, reflux and other problems that come with little ones. My hopes for the week are that we come home with a baby who sleeps through the night, and feeds a little better during the day. (When I say through the night, I’d be happy with 5+ hours). I’m hoping to share my experiences throughout the week, and with my ‘down time’ I’ll be blogging and writing about how we are going. Hopefully to help me look back and see how far we’ve come, and also to help other Mums who may be experiencing the same thing. The Countdown is on! 
