Sleep: part two

AS I’VE said before, sleep becomes something of an obsession when you’re a parent. Not just your own sleep (although that is high on your list of priorities), but your baby’s too.

There’s certainly no shortage of advice on babies’ sleeping habits but, typically, we’ve taken very little notice of this, opting for our own ‘make-it-up-as-you-go-along’ approach.

Until a couple of weeks ago, we’d keep Harry downstairs with us (usually asleep) until we went to bed but we’ve now started putting Harry to bed on his own.

On the face of it, this should have helped us to relax more in the evening. In fact, it has had to opposite effect. Both Melissa and I will sit downstairs listening to the monitor intently in case Harry stirs, meaning we can’t even concentrate enough to watch television.

And we race upstairs at the slightest hint of movement to check on him. All in all, it’s pretty stressful.

We are getting used to it – slowly – just in time to start worrying about when is the right time to move him to his own room.

Official guidance seems to suggest putting babies in their own rooms from about six months onwards. If we follow this advice, that gives me another few weeks of decent sleep – before Melissa starts kicking me in the middle of the night to go and check on Harry.