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My son Jamal is 13 months old. Since Jamal was<br />
born his sleeping pattern has been absolutely<br />
diabolical leaving me totally exhausted. I felt I had<br />
tried every trick in the book but nothing was<br />
working.<br />
Jamal would eventually fall asleep at roughly 1am<br />
every night/early morning. I would still have to<br />
wake up at 6.30am to wake up my 2 other children<br />
A mother’s diary...<br />
A bedtime routine<br />
for school.<br />
I would wake up Jamal at 7.30am to<br />
get him ready. Surprise, surprise he<br />
would end up sleeping the whole of<br />
the journey and then for the majority<br />
of the day too!<br />
I should have woken him up during<br />
the day really in a bid for a better<br />
night‘s sleep however as I worked<br />
form home this was the only<br />
opportunity I had to get any work<br />
done. The bills still need to be paid at<br />
the end of the month.<br />
As the 2013 New Year was<br />
approaching I kept telling myself I<br />
will get Jamal into a normal bedtime<br />
routine. I had tried everything except<br />
for changing my way of thinking.<br />
Changing my negative thoughts of<br />
feeling overwhelmed to ―I can do<br />
this!‖ I knew if I kept telling myself I<br />
could do this in advance it was<br />
mentally preparing me.<br />
Week 1:<br />
The first night was tough for both of<br />
us especially Jamal as he usually had<br />
the run of the house until 1am every<br />
night/morning, but not anymore.<br />
Every night from 8.30pm I bathed<br />
Jamal, put his pyjamas on and gave<br />
him some warm milk and kept<br />
repeating myself to him ―you are<br />
going to go to sleep like a good boy<br />
for mummy honey‖ with a comforting<br />
smile on my face.<br />
We would stay in the bedroom with<br />
the door a jar and the light off. I would then start to<br />
pace the room singing his favourite nursery rhyme,<br />
Twinkle, Twinkle little Star. I knew I could have<br />
been making a rod for my own back with the pacing<br />
up and down but I just could not leave him<br />
screaming in his cot. I know that works for some but<br />
this was not how I wanted it.<br />
Finally after half an hour Jamal fell asleep. I carried