mummiez & daddiez magazine

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