As always, the swaddling worked wonders. He stirred at just before midnight and I tried just ewan, which wasn't enough, so popped the dummy in and he went off again. Of course, I then didn't get back to sleep until I got up at 2 and expressed. He then went until 3.30 before a feed and then until 6.30 which is great.
I really want to get rid of this midnight waking, mum reckons most people get rid of the early hours waking, but I like to get up and express then anyway so I don't find it an issue.. For now! I thought I might set my alarm for just before midnight and put ewan on pre-emptively and see if that helps, I don't like relying on the dummy but it's working right now and the most important thing for me is Leo getting enough sleep.
It was also totally dark and no white noise which is progress. I'm always a bit torn with removing the white noise as I think it helps with the self soothing, but it certainly doesn't help with our quality of sleep as I certainly sleep much deeper without it. I would just love to get back to the 6hrs straight sleep that I had prior to the first unswaddle attempt.
Sleep experts reckon it can take up to two weeks to adjust a habit, so we will see if two weeks from now the midnight waking has gone.. Not convinced it will as surely the dummy is a habit in itself at that time! Oh the confusion
The weather has turned cold and frosty, which for me and what I do every day is a preference to rain as it's so much easier to get things done.. By things I mean walking Sammy and keeping Leo asleep for more than an hour on the first snooze.
I am really stiff from boot camp, so I am planning to walk into town later to loosen off, do a little bit of shopping and mooch about until the bus back.. Or maybe even walk back, baby snoozing and will dependant.
Tom is working from home this week too, which is brilliant. It's so nice having him there in the morning for wake up and the occasional cuddle.
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Monday, 23 November 2015
That's more like it
Sunday, 22 November 2015
Freedom funtime
As part of moving him to the new cot, we thought we would unswaddle him at the same time. He's rolling over really well now and all the info says to unswaddle when they are doing this.. Well, be damned with what the specialist say, I want my baby to have restful sleep and I want to sleep too!
He was harder to settle off initially, we put this down to the fact that his snoozing yesterday was pretty rubbish and he missed one entirely. He then woke up, hysterical, at 11pm. This was exactly what he did the last time we unswaddle him and the only way to settle him was to feed him.
Next he started thrashing about at midnight, I used ewan and comforters to settle him off; which took a good half an hour. He then did the same at one, I did the same and then he managed until 3am. I fed him then as he wouldn't comfort back to sleep and I popped him back in his cot before he was fully asleep, so that took a dummy and almost half an hour to settle him again. He stirred again at 5 and I managed to settle him off and I think he managed until 6.30 when I gave in and fed him and then he did another hour after me spending time settling him again.
He doesn't break out of his swaddle, he doesn't show signs of attempting to roll over whilst swaddled either, so I am going to continue. People recommend gradual unswaddling which is probably the approach we will take eventually and I think I want to do it when I can safely use a blanket with him and tuck his arms in with that. I just don't get on with the sleeping bags for him.
My theory is that when he actively pulls covers off his face, then I shall probably get a giant muslin and use that to tuck him in and go from there! Again, I fell foul to the 'everyone says' trap!
Big boy bedtime
Nothing like a good alliteration!
Anyway, we moved the cot into our room yesterday. It's a really old cot that mum bought a new matress for and the fact that it is quite slimline works well in our room... Even if it does have really disturbing decals on it!
We popped him in it just to play about to begin with and he thought the best plan was definitely to get tangled in the bars!
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| Ooh, this looks like fun! |
I wanted it to still be like a side car cot, so we needed to get a little bit inventive with some DIY, something Tom and I are useless at tbf! So, B&Q cut us some MDF to size but we needed something to raise it up. The idea was to use blocks of wood on the corners, however, they can't cut a big piece to little blocks for you as they are too small.. Ah, panic? Tom suggested that we just saw it up when we get home.. I immediately rejected this idea as requiring too much effort, so proceeded to scour the aisles in the place for something that would do the trick, with no interaction, other than a purchase, required. And we found it, a piece of plastic used to connect guttering sections to each other and the wall.. Nice flat top and bottom, good strong plastic and the exact height we needed!
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| It's amazing what laziness can achieve! |
This morning I got roped into a boot camp my mate was doing. I have done boot camps with her before, so was under no illusion it was going to be easy and by crikey, it's killed me. I think I did a million squats, lunges, burpees and tuck jumps.. Everything I actively seek to avoid in my every day fitness campaigns but all the activities I should do to boost my flat booty! I will update on my demise tomorrow, it's not going to be pretty
Friday, 20 November 2015
Final jabs complete
He had his last set of jabs until the 1yr mark yesterday. Again, I hated every second and the poor little man has bruised legs from it.. But they're done.
He escaped the temperature again and slept brilliantly, but he is a little lacking in tolerance today, so I won't be risking swimming and a car journey. His car resilience has been pretty low this week anyway and I just can't hack it tbh, I hate it!
Today is potentially a stay home day, but the weather is so beautiful that it seems a shame. I may walk into Knutsford and meet a couple of the girls for lunch, it just depends on snooze timing for spud.
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Developmental step complete
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| Rolling prep |
Leo has been showing signs of rolling from back to front for a fee weeks, but in the late week he has started to be a little more determined and today he cracked it and it was so lovely to see.
I had left him on his play mat whilst I went and got his clothes and when I came back he was on his side, facing away from me, consequently he didn't know I was there so I sat and observed (and recorded it thankfully!)
I reckon he must have been at it for around 5 mins in total, I got 3 mins of it. He just kept getting stuck on his shoulder, I reckon if he had known I was there he would've just created until I went to assist, but instead, he soldiered on. He finally twigged that he needed to lift his head to free his shoulder up to pull from under him. He probably won't try it again now for weeks, that's what happened with his front to back roll. His little face once he had managed it was a picture, so proud of himself
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
Giggles and grizzles
One of the latest developments is Leo giggling. It's just the cutest thing in the world and makes your heart want to burst! I've never been one for repetition, but when your baby is laughing at something, you will repeat it until the cows come home
We've been doing incredibly well in the car recently and then today we had a mega meltdown. I was on the way back from the chiropractors and he just unleashed. I fed him as he had gone for 2.5 hours but still it continued. I stopped a couple of times but then I just had to get home, poor little man was making his throat sore from screaming, it's heart breaking. I was meant to be going meeting my friend at 2 but I have cancelled as I just can't put him through it again.
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| Poor little puffy eyes |
He sat for ages with me in the car when we got in and just cuddled, still managing his lovely little smiles from time to time.
He only slept for 20mins this morning, he was merrily sleeping when I got to the chiropractic centre and I had to wake him up, I suspect this was half the issue. He is now snoozing in his pram after a massive meltdown when I put him down in it, his sleep is quite light though so I am having to just sit and watch him to catch it if he stirs and keep him snoozing. He needs to sleep well now and feel better.
Party time success
All of the new mummies went out on Saturday night and we had a great time. The boys or grandma's were left in charge and off we trotted. All glammed up and looking stunning, we hit the town! We all coped incredibly well, as did those at home. Sunday was pretty painful though!