Well. It was pretty awful but also pretty short. Just 25 minutes of hysterical crying and then she conked out. I did make sure she was good and tired. It might be harder some nights but I felt pretty relieved anyway as the first night is always going to be hard. No more tough love tonight, we are going to cuddle her to sleep at later wakings as usual and tackle that later. Just bedtime first. The Sleep Lady talked me through it this afternoon to answer all my stupid questions and cover all the ‘what if she does X?’ scenarios. Worth the money for that support, I feel.
While I am looking forward to getting more sleep (and it will enhance my MH!) the main reason for doing it, for me, is to set DD up with good sleep habits where she can settle herself and therefore have less broken sleep, now and in future. For her and all of us. It was the best thing we ever did for DS, literally. Like a lot of kids with ASD he’s not naturally a great sleeper but a very structured bedtime routine and decent sleep ‘rules’ have really helped him get to sleep in the evening and keep a lid on his night wakings. I think he’d be a different kid without it. Onwards with iron resolve.... Also, a lovely local friend who knew I was doing this from tonight (because I’ve had to turn down his drinks party invite for tomorrow night to stay on the job) posted some posh chocolate through my letterbox just now. Now that’s what I call a good friend!
I love the curtains Laska. Love that mid-century vibe. I’d love to go in that direction with our decor. I bought some Ercol dining chairs a couple of years ago as my first step, to ease DH in gradually 
. I also have teal rug and cushions in my sitting room. Bloody love teal. Sofas are a pale truffle brown chenille. It looks lovely normally but is currently covered in a play mat and DS’s magnetic letters, which I’m not allowed to move.
Your bus pass came quickly Cag! I am getting worried that I haven’t sent the next size baby clothes off to you and Cagletini is growing fast... but I can’t print the shipping label without a printer! I’ve chosen one now, next step is to spend an hour or two tediously inputting all the gift voucher codes into the JL website. Might do that now. Will get the stuff off next week one way or another.
Shame about your ‘boss squared’, Meadow. Hopefully the later start will help. Now, I know you don’t want baby things yet but do you want any pregnancy books? I have the ‘what to expect’ Book and the mumsnet one. Probably all the info is on t’interweb but I liked having a read to get me excited. Happy to post them. I also have a brilliant book about a baby’s first six months week by week. Best book I bought and now outgrown by dd. I’ll put that in your box here.
Glad the gadget arrived Love. The post office lady asked me what was in the parcel and the adjacent customer sniggered when I said ‘er, um, er... an ovulation monitor’. With DD gurning in the buggy next to me.
Lonely closing that shop sounds worse than moving house!
Wreck it’s lovely that your sofa made the lady happy. I love giving stuff away, not frugal but very satisfying.
Now, some of you may remember that I put in a complaint to DS’s school about the support they’re providing for him... or rather not providing. After 3 weeks I got an inadequate response, got my fight on and the end result is that they are getting him a 1:1 for the whole day (instead of 4 afternoons per week) and bringing in more SLT support. Halfway through the school year nearly, but better late than never. All already funded by the LA in his EHCP. Which is supposed to be legally binding. The SENCO said ‘but he seems so capable’. I said that just because he isn’t disruptive and can memorise the order of the planets doesn’t mean he is fine. He can count to several hundred in units of 3 or 5 but he can’t answer the question ‘how old are you?’ because of his language processing difficulties. FFS.
Off to get that chocolate.