You're hirrarious mummy

Over the last week or so, Leo has started showing genuine amusement in things that I do and it's just the cutest thing. There is the start of a full on belly laugh in the making and I basically spend a fair amount of time trying to get him to do it. So far, peekaboo works sometimes, blowing raspberries on his neck and jigging him about and pretending he's falling down work pretty well too. It's my latest obsession tbf!

Tom had Leo yesterday as he wanted me to have a break. He thought I could go to a spa and chill, what I really craved was a day shopping! Not the most relaxing thing to do but it's a piece of normality that having a baby makes quite tricky. I found it utterly exhausting and I missed him so much as there were babies everywhere; but it was a lovely break and the boys had fun as always.

It got to about 16:30 last night and Leo was tired but we missed his queues. Tom went to see if he could get him to snooze and he ended up quite frantic, wouldn't take the bottle or any of our normal tricks, bearing in mind we are trying to get out of the feed to sleep habit. In the end, after 50 unsettled minutes (not all frantic of course) we gave in and I fed him. He was a very unhappy little man and it broke my heart, I felt so awful.

Getting him to settle himself off to sleep was a little harder in the evening too as I guess he was so tired. It took a bit if teamwork, I would pick him up a cuddle whilst Tom got him to take the dummy  otherwise he would just get so upset that he wouldn't take it. It took 3 attempts and then he settled. He is now at over 5hrs first stint and I am having to express as I am on catch-up from the day anyway! I expected him to wake before now, typical really bless him

Daddy snoozing

Self soothing success

So team Burgin rocked last night! I had originally planned to face the self sooth (not cry it out) journey at the weekend, but Tom announced we were starting it last night.

Luckily we have a really good routine in place at night anyway, we just needed to make a couple of adjustments. The main issue with our night routine was feeding to sleep. It means that I am quite tied to that responsibility, which in itself wasn't the main motivation as I would just cope and work around that as it's not forever. The main worry was we would struggle when he was no longer breastfeeding.

We just switched his last feed to after his bath and introduced a bedtime story with Daddy. Whilst reading I watched for sleepy signs and when he rubbed his eyes, we put him in his swaddle sack and Tom carried on reading.

Half way through this the tesco order arrived so I just switched on elephant, it has star projections and lullaby music, and left him in his cot with his comforter. Watching him, I decided he needed his arms free to aid his self soothing. He was fairly calm to begin with then started to cry, when he got quite upset I picked him out, cuddled for a few seconds then put him back in.

The cries this time were far less dramatic and I sat down behind the cot. He watched his elephant and had a few minor false starts but all in all he was asleep about 20 mins after we started.

He woke at 11.30 for a feed, earlier than normal but still 4hrs from the time of his previous feed. Again, I put him back in his cot before he was fully asleep and he wasn't hugely impressed. I switched on elephant but he was still quite unhappy so Tom suggested the dummy. When he eventually took it, he went off in seconds.

He started fidgeting at 2.30 and I popped his dummy in when he was threatening to wake, asleep and dummy spat out in seconds.

Another feed at 4.30 and no need for elephant this time, just dummy and straight off.

Whilst each time was a little more disruptive for me than normal, I feel we have made a massive leap. I know each night will be different, but it has boosted our confidence. As always, our little lion man was just so easy and compliant to the whole process. What a little hero.

It's daddy time today as Tom wanted me to have some me time, so I am off shopping whilst they do baby sign and baby things!

Phew

After a couple of false starts last night, little man went off to sleep at 8.30. We always used to have a red light on all night and fairly loud white noise, but we had stepped it down over the last week or so and he had been fine so we assumed he still was. However, because he was struggling to settle last night we switched it back in and he settled straight away.

He woke at 12.30 and then started to stir at 2.30 but I left him to it and after about 10 mins of thrashing around on and off, he settled again until 4.30. He then slept until 7.30 which is unheard of! He must have been so tired as he didn't sleep properly in the day either.

In fact, yesterday he was in quite a strange mood. He wasn't his normal smiley self and was generally quite reserved. I know if you read about the developmental leaps, this can happen but it doesn't stop a mother worrying, especially when he has a new little noise he has started making which makes me think he sounds unhappy.. Mum doesn't reckon he is though and he is just adding to his vocabulary.

I'm sat waiting for my breast clinic appointment now and have realised I have forgotten my breast pump.. I'm hoping they won't take the 3 hours they say they can as he hasn't fed since 7.30 this morning! They will be fit to bust in another 3 hours!

Let the sleep regression commence

Or hopefully it's just a one off! I've never had such a bad night with him. We did 4 hours then waking ever hour after midnight, even managed a 15 min stint at one point!

There is a common sleep regression at 4 months stage and it sounds very similar to this, I just hope if it is, it doesn't last very long! I was just beginning to dare to brave not going to bed the minute he does and grasping a bit of evening back to myself. Clearly I can't risk that just yet!

To add insult to injury, he did 8 hours then 4 the night before! I suppose if he swaps nightly then it won't be too bad, if he does it every night I will be a zombie! Just as I'm getting myself back into fitness and eating well too.. Ah well, this time too shall pass and if it does turn out to be regression, I shall use this opportunity to address the fact that I feed him to sleep. We will get his cot down this weekend and set up all of his sensory things so that we can start to teach him how to self settle, no crying it out though. It will be distraction and watching his queues very closely to make sure we put him into bed at the right time. If we really struggle, there is a lady whose book I bought Cheshire Baby Whisperer  and if reading this doesn't help, she does offer home visits and is very reasonable. I know a girl who has used her and has great success now with the sleep routine

Modern life is tricky

The problem with mobile phones is they're too good. They are now so capable of taking up all our time that sometimes we forget to leave them alone.

When I say we, I mean me. Obviously. It's much easier to sit and look at puppies doing stupid stuff that it is to get off my ass and help out. So from today whenever I'm at home I'm no longer using my phone unless it's totally necessary.

I want to be able to connect with Sarah and Leo constantly, and whilst I'm at work this means I get messages and photos and videos of what they are up to, and it makes me feel included even if I'm not there. But when I'm at home, I have that available constantly and I want to use that time as best I can. This doesn't mean I'm going to be follow them around constantly, although that's actually what I do mostly anyway because I love them both so much, but it means I can concentrate on making things work, doing the washing,  helping make the house liveable for Sarah and Leo whilst I'm away.

I've never felt so happy and loved and content, and I want my family to always feel the same. I know that's not always going to be possible but the more I can do to help the better I'll feel and hopefully the better the family will run.

Ever changing signals

I think this is an area that I find myself lacking in, I forget to check that the signals Leo is giving me are continuing to be the same. Mum just said to me the other day that he is probably bored now rather than hungry so frequently and if he can be distracted easily then do that and see if I can get him to go longer and feed longer when he feeds.

I have done this for a few days now and it's been working brilliantly. Each feed is for about 10 mins on each side and he goes about 3 hours. He is also much more content through the day, not that he is ever much less than content, but he's definitely more peaceful than he was.

I went into work this morning to conduct an interview and Tom came along to take Leo for a walk whilst I did this. He slept all the way to Manchester, woke for a feed and a quick cuddle from the girls in the office,  had another snooze whilst Tom walked him, came to me whilst I had a meeting with one of the engineers, fed and then slept all the way home. Good babying

Once we got home, he had some baby  play time by himself for about half an hour and then a walk to the park with the sun setting, which was lovely. He was awake for most of the walk and was watching the shadows on his pram, then nodded off as I got home. He will be well over 3 hours once he has woken up so has done brilliantly again.

Now that he is that bit older, he is so capable of entertaining himself for short periods, it's lovely to watch. I got all tearful watching him today because it's such an amazing thing to witness, this little sponge absorbing and learning from every single thing he comes across. I just wish I could see things how he does so I can fully grasp each moment.

Workout weekend

Spin yesterday morning again and circuits down at the local park with Tom, Leo and Sammy this morning. I felt fairly weak in spin, I think mainly as I wasn't 100% last week, but I felt pretty good today.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well my body has taken to being back in exercise. The spin session on a Saturday morning is nice as I also get to run a few errands in town afterwards, I get the me feeling back again. I don't feel the need to rush anymore either as I know Tom has it all in hand as long as I leave him armed with milk.

He's a great dad, I'm so proud of how much effort he puts into it and just how at ease he is with Leo. It's so fantastic to witness and truly melts my heart. I didn't doubt for a second that he wouldn't be hands on as he is such a loving person, but neither of us had any comprehension of how much we would enjoy being parents.

Halloween for real this time

Some of our friends hosted a little Halloween party on Saturday. It started at 4.30 so we all knew the were in unknown baby territory at this point. We all have babies around the same age so know what the final hours of the day hold in store, and being our of routine makes for fun times with babies.

They all handled it pretty well, Leo started to get tired just before 8 so we left then, he was very upset in the car and I was worried he wouldn't settle into bed when we got home. I had had two drinks so couldn't feed him to comfort him, but he dropped off quite quickly with me just rocking him and slept well through the night too.

My sister had a lovely little plaque made for us for our wedding day, so I ordered one to commemorate Leo joining our family. They both hang on the door to or end of the house, absolutely love them

We had a lovely lunch with my sister and her family today, mum is getting used to her new oven so we were pretty spoilt with how much we had. I am so full I can barely move, even now and it's 8pm.

Leo had a first experience in his bouncer and zonked out on my knee!