Category: my regular updates

Baby W turned 5 months old on Friday and as always, it feels like time is running away with us!

Since our last update we’ve had our first family holiday to Center Parcs – you can see some of the photos above but I’ll blog about it properly this week.

While we were there we put W into his own room (in his moses basket) and so when we came home we moved him into his nursery and cot bed… 2 nights in and none of us have slept much but no going back now!

He’s had a bit of a cold which he’s still fighting off poor thing – lots of coughing and a snotty nose 😦 And we think is next teeth are close to coming through…. so he’s been a bit more grouchy and less smiley than the last 2 updates 😦

Milestones

I think in his last update I said how much he loves kicking, now he also loves hitting – not in a bad way but just trying to reach and feel for stuff

Talking of reaching… the biggest change in the last fortnight is he’s started reaching his arms out when he wants to be picked up/comforted – very cute!

Purchases

Well the big one in the last fortnight is we bought a Fisherprice jumperoo – we just set it up 2 days ago and although he’s a weeny bit small for it, he absolutely loves it – I had a feeling he would with those active legs of his! I think this will keep him entertained for hours 🙂

He’s still wearing mostly 0-3 month clothes (!) but he did grow out of all his 0-3 sleepsuits so I enjoyed buying some new ones from Next and Mothercare with some vouchers we had (see in the photo montage above!) – I love Next sleepsuits – they might be a bit more expensive than other brands but they wash really well and they are so pretty!

Oh and despite saying I wouldn’t buy any 3-6 month clothes as we already had enough… I couldn’t resist the cool/dude/cool dude tops in the photo – they were in the Mothercare sale – down from £9 to £5 🙂

Sleep

Zzzzzzzzzz as already alluded to – still not great! Generally he wakes every 2 hours on average, worse than he was a month or so ago – it could be his cold, or teething or it could be sleep regression? I’ve started reading the ‘no cry sleep solution’ book and am starting a few of the tips today like trying to get him to nap longer in the day and lengthening the pre-bed routine.

I also forgot to mention in the purchases bit that I bought Ewan the dream sheep yesterday and am wondering whether to invest in a sleep poddle pod type thing – I’ll try anything!!

What else we’ve been up to

Well the week before our hols it felt like we were just getting ready for hols! We did go and visit my family for a day which was lovely but other than that we had a quiet week. Yesterday I went into town for a mooch round the shops with my sis which was a nice break!

That’s it for now folks –  read the last update here and follow me on Twitter or Bloglovin so you never miss another update 🙂

One thing I’ve learnt as a new mum is that every day is different, as is every night… you never know what to expect! So in the last update, I’d had my toughest time yet as baby W cut his first two teeth…. now the last 2 weeks, that seems like a distant memory as the pain has gone and been replaced by his smiles and laughs!

4 months old – loves

He turned 4 months last week – unbelievable! He loves smiling, loves being made to laugh, loves kicking away in his bouncer, still loves munching on his hand, comforter, Sophie the giraffe and anything else he can get his hands on (painful when he tries to munch our fingers now that he has teeth!!), he loves being carried by his dad in the BabyBjorn, he loves bathtime and loves looking at books and pictures, oh and faces and real people!

What we’ve been up to

We’ve had a few visitors, and fewer classes due to the summer hols. It’s been great to have the sun back, makes life so much easier as we can go for walks and use the garden as an extra room. We’ve had some really lovely family days out like visiting beautiful beaches Southerndown and Ogmore; and a fantastic food festival at our local outdoor museum, St Fagans. My sister and I also took W to Cardiff Bay to see all the warships that were in town for the NATO conference – and we saw Prince Charles! One to tell him when he’s older!

What I’ve been up to

I’ve had not one, but two, spa treatments – I will blog about them this week. I was supposed to be sorting out childcare but still not sorted anything yet #eek

Sleep

Still a distant memory! About a month ago, before he started teething, he was only waking up once at about 2-3am. Then teething messed that up, and now I believe we’re in ‘4 month sleep regression’ as he’s taken to waking up hungry at least 3 times -about 11pm, 1am and 4am. He settles ok after these feeds, helped by me whispering ‘twinkle twinkle….’ to him – the things you try!

Purchases

I exchanged a ‘duplicate’ present from Next last week, for some groovy sleepsuits which you might be able to see in the photo montage. They’re size 3-6 months old and they’re the only thing we’re lacking at the moment not that he’s in 3-6 months yet, still 0-3 months! One thing that’s changed in his wardrobe since the last update is that he’s now wearing bibs every day as he dribbles a lot more now (and also likes munching on them!)

Also bought a Bumbo chair which I then changed for the Mamas and Papas ‘snug chair – blog to follow!

And also bought the ‘no cry sleep solution’ book – wish me luck!

 

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Just a quick update – I’m still fighting off a cold/chest infection that I’ve now had for 3 weeks… Leaves no energy for a luxury like blogging!

Baby W

After hitting a big milestone in the last update (rolling over, which he hasn’t done since!) he hit another one this week… He laughed for the first time! 

I didn’t even see it as I was bouncing him, facing forward in the relaxation part of our yoga class. Our teacher was bouncing another baby and was pulling faces… And he just couldn’t stop giggling! It was the cutest sound 🙂

Things he loves

Faces– he’s well into people’s faces at the moment and smiles a lot especially when funny faces are pulled!

playgym mirror – likewise, he likes checking out his own face 🙂 

owl on his bouncer – loves chatting to the owl that lives on his fisherprice bouncer!

comforter – he’s still obsessed with his comforter and munches on it… A lot!

Keeping busy – I’ve learnt through the baby massage classes that he gets bored pretty easily of being in the same place/position for too long! 

Routine

In my last update we were just starting our bath, bottle, bed routine. Our aim was to calm him down as he was quite often grouchy in the evenings/nights; and also we were hoping to get him to sleep through a bit longer.

It’s worked well so far, he’s asleep by 7, we dreamfeed him about 11, then he still wakes up for at least 2 nightfeeds but most of the time he’s chilled about it and goes back down easily.

It’s lovely having our evenings back, being able to watch TV in peace or have a bath, all in the knowledge that he’s more chilled because of it! 

It is tough for daddy though who sees him a lot less during the week now. Oh, and it’s also very tough at times trying to keep him awake from 4 to 6 so that our routine works! 

Next week will be interesting as daddy has the week off and we’re hoping to go away for a few nights, I think routine will be out the window while we’re having dinner etc… We’ll see what happens then!

He has roughly 3 daytime naps, about half hour each time – mad to think that a few weeks ago most of his days were spent sleeping! It’s absolutely lovely spending all day with him awake, chatting to him, playing with him, pulling funny faces at him but it means a lot less ‘me’ time in the day and I’ve learnt to do everything so much quicker – no faffing about! A half hour nap means a choice between a shower, laundry, dishes, catching up with messages, blogging etc etc…

Feeding

You’ll know that I’ve been lucky enough to breastfeed without problem…. Until now…

My milk supply has slowed down a lot, I think due to this ongoing cold. It’s not too bad when he’s on the breast, but we’re trying to express for the evening feeds so that his dad can feed him, and I had a work keeping in touch day this week where supplies were perilously low. I’ve been trying to keep hydrated and eating plenty of oats (good for milk production apparently) but in the end we got some Aptamil to help us out and to make sure we always have some milk here for him.

He’s had it a couple of times now and took to it fine. I had mixed feelings… After breastfeeding exclusively for 3 months I was keen to try and hit 6 months… But ultimately it was about him, not me, I feel like this will keep him happy while my body fights this infection and gets back to normal! 

Purchases and presents

No time for pics but I have bought Sophie the giraffe and baby nail scissors for W. (have not been very successful in cutting his fingernails with my nail scissors!) 

He was given a HUGE bag of 3-6 month clothes from my friend Carys so we won’t need to buy anything else in that size which is fab and has probably saved us a fortune – so grateful!

For me, I treated myself to a scarf covered in cats from a local gift shop, and coral shoes from Dune – expensive but I HAD to have them! (to be fair I don’t think I’ve bought new shoes for at least a year now!!)

 

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Another busy 2 weeks has passed…… eeek!

Baby W

In terms of development, W doesn’t seem hugely different from the last update – lots of smiles, grabbing and generally being more awake. We did have a big milestone the day after his 12 week birthday – he rolled over from front to back!

Sleep (or lack thereof)

He’s still very content 99% of the time. Sleep is still a distant fantasy for me! As the last few weeks have been so hot, he’s usually been getting his main 3 hour sleep but then been waking up every hour. Then for a couple of nights last week, he wouldn’t settle back down in his basket after his nightfeeds which is unusual for him… again, might be down to the heat and he is starting to get too big for it! One night we had to leave him in his bouncer for a few hours instead so we could all get some sleep!

Looking at the Wonder Weeks app, he is currently in a developmental leap which could explain those funny few nights, he’s calmed down a bit since (and as I write, the weather has cooled down…. hooray!)

We are finally starting a bedtime routine for him today, to see if this helps him sleep through (I’ll keep you posted!)

Me?

I’ve had a stinking cold for a week now – no fun at all with a little one to keep entertained and happy. So, so lucky that we have family nearby to help out!

So what have we been up to over the last 2 weeks?

Sunday – had a lovely family day out at the Cardiff food and drink festival and a trip into the city centre (W slept through most of it)

Monday – went to our first baby massage class (W started ok, then cried for a feed, then cried for a poo and then wouldn’t settle!)

Tuesday – yoga class (W slept through it)

Wednesday – went to Jellybabies mother and baby group where my friend helps out so great to catch up with her, and met a mum with a 6month old.

There was a free taster of a sign and sing class… W slept through it (are you seeing a theme developing here!?)

Thursday – work were having an afternoon out in the park so I took W down to say hello… he slept all the way through

Friday – took him for a long walk to the nearby village of Llandaff and its cathedral while the cleaner was here (he slept for most of the way through)

Saturday – a friend came to visit with her 2 little ones and we all went to St Fagans outdoor museum nearby – great fun with her little 2 (W slept for most of it!)

Sunday – a couple of hours in Roath Park with friends and their infants, including a friend who was back from Canada for a couple of weeks

Monday and Tuesday – mummy had a stinking cold so gave W to his nanna for a few hours both days!

Wednesday – family funeral – thankfully W slept through the service. The men were wearing pink shirts (breast cancer) so I enjoyed putting W in a pink giraffe print babygro! (the least girly one I could find!)

Thursday – auntie Shell popped over for cwtches, then we went for an afternoon tea with an Indian twist at Chaiholics, Cardiff with his auntie Sioned followed by a long walk around Roath Park, lovely day! If you’re in Cardiff, I highly recommend a trip to Chaiholics – I thought it was ace!

Friday – we popped into town to see some work colleagues that we hadn’t seen yet

Saturday – daddy’s birthday! We went to our usual Swimkidz swimming lesson and daddy got to go underwater with W to see what he looked like which was cool to watch – apparently he scrunches his face up 🙂 We spent the afternoon picnicking and chilling in Roath Park – perfect birthday for daddy!

The weather has been scorching, and as you can see I’ve mentioned a few parks etc – this weather (and being on maternity leave!) has made me fall in love with my city Cardiff again! I’ll post about it separately at some point but I just love all the free parks and green space 🙂

As I said, glad it’s cooling down a bit now and I’ll keep you posted on the sleep situation!

Purchases and presents

As well as those babygros earlier, I bought a couple of t-shirts in the Tesco sale, his auntie Clare bought him a cool checked shirt from Next and also a very special present – ‘baby’s first year’ book based on baby favourite ‘guess how much I love you’ – we’ll have fun filling that in!

I was also given my push present – a Pandora ‘baby boy’ charm for my bracelet.

And we also given some knitted goodies from my family – my mum, nan and auntie knitted these for him….

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Last week was busy. Daddy was going away for work for a few nights so we decided that baby W and me would go and stay with my parents for 3 nights…

Sunday – spent the morning emptying my boot and packing the car (who knew I had so much space in my boot when all the random junk is taken out?!), hit the road about lunchtime and travelled across half of Wales to get to my childhood home in Mid Wales, calling with my auntie then my nan on the way – lovely to see them as always and they absolutely loved seeing how much W had grown but it was a tiring day!

Monday – after yesterday’s marathon drive and visiting session, W and I had a nice relaxed day watching Tour de France while my parents were both out. W had a long afternoon nap (3-4 hours) which was funny to see as he has long naps when we go out in the day (sleeps very well in the pram/car) but didn’t know he was capable of them indoors too!

Tuesday – we all went to nearby beautiful, Georgian Aberaeron and had a delicious lunch in ‘Hive on the Quay’ before a short walk around the town where we lost one of W’s shoes (I’ll come back to that later). We caught up with a friend and W fell asleep about 8pm in my dad’s arms which was a lovely treat as he’s normally a bit grouchy around that time in the evenings!

Wednesday – caught up with another friend before heading home to Cardiff, daddy arrived home shortly afterwards so we were reunited and had survived our 3 nights apart and W’s first overnight stay away from home!

Thursday – as it was ‘strike day’ W and I went for a big family lunch with his nan, great auntie, auntie and cousins – lots of cwtches and behaved like a dream in the pub before his long afternoon nap, and nice and chilled again in the evening 🙂

Friday – this momma went for a girly lunch an hour away in Swansea to celebrate the start of a friend’s hen weekend. We had a lovely lunch in the Grape and Olive (I treated myself to scallops then lobster!) and it was great to dress up a bit and be something other than a mummy after a busy few days with W! Daddy was out Friday night and I’m not sure if W was missing him or annoyed with me for going out in the day but he was back to his usual grouchy-ness and didn’t go to sleep til 11pm! I actually used a dummy for the first time to calm him down which did help a bit – haven’t needed to use it since 🙂

Saturday – As Daddy had gone out the night before, I took W for his usual Swimkidz swimming lesson and I spent a lovely half hour with him in doing so, however when it came to it I couldn’t dunk him underwater like his daddy does! And then…. chill!

The missing shoe

So we lost one of W’s first shoes in Aberaeron. It was funny – I posted it in a local Facebook group a couple of days later and it had been spotted by 3 people on a windowsill but by the next day it had disappeared again so it really is lost now… I’m not a particularly emotional or sentimental person but losing the shoe did make me feel a bit of both…. his first shoe…. gone….. I guess it got me thinking about how quickly he is growing, how many of his little first things we will lose along the way as he kicks them off and throws them… how he will never wear that shoe again! It got me thinking about what items we’ll keep and what we won’t… these shoes we definitely would have kept…. they were so cute…. and his FIRST shoes!

*Sighs* So to cheer myself up I’ve bought him exactly the same pair, in the White Company sale (£12) but the only size they had left is 6-9 months… and turns out they’re slippers not shoes! Obviously it won’t be the same as if we’d have found his first shoe, but at least I will think of every time he wears his new slippers 🙂

In other news…. W continues to get cuter by the week with his smiles, coos and chats. He’s now grabbing toys in his playgym. He loves….. smiling and chatting to the owl in his bouncer….. being held so that he can see what’s going on…. still loves his teddy/comforter… trips out so he can nap…..

So over this last week he’s definitely been more chilled in the evenings, despite last week’s update suggesting I might need to use some medicine, there was no need this week! The nights are still tough – he is still waking up every 1hr 30 – 2 hours although it has been absolutely boiling in our room! On the plus side, I essentially ‘dream feed’ him through the night, he doesn’t wake up properly so no tears or screams! (I do this so well that at 5am the other morning by OH (sleeping next to me) said ‘wow has he slept through?!’ and I was like ‘no, we’ve been up 3 times already!’ It would be nice to get some more sleep though – any ideas?!! Oh, he also did his first proper ‘up the back’ poo – I was actually secretly proud (!)… not so much so when he did it for the second time a day or two later 🙂

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Our little baby W turned 9 weeks on Saturday and as usual we’ve had a fab, busy few weeks: W’s development

• At his 8week weigh-in, his first for over a month he weighed in at a whopping 11lb 14 oz…. He’s jumped from the 25th percentile to the 75th! The doctor checked his reflexes etc and everything’s good… We were all chuffed with his weight!
• Last week he had his first jabs, the nurses were fab… One on each side while I held him and they were very quick and soothing! He cried for a minute or so then slept for hours!
• We started using his jungle play gym for the first time last week…. It’s fab seeing him looking up and around at all the various toys, and he’s sort of trying to grab stuff

• Talking of grabbing, he has a teddy/comforter that he now loves to bits… So cute how he holds on to it while sleeping, feeding, playing and trying to use it to cover his face when he’s tired!
• We’ve started chatting! When he coos, we coo back at him and it turns into little chats… Again, so cute!!
• Sleep? Generally he sleeps for 3 hours between about 12 and 3am, then wakes up every couple of hours, but only for short feeds (about 10 mins) so hoping this means he’s getting closer to sleeping through… And he always has a big feed about 10-11pm. A couple of times he’s slept for 4 hours so I think we’re getting there slowly…. Not entirely sure if he’s hungry in the early hours as the feeds are quite short or whether he just wants comfort so not sure if a dummy would get him back to sleep just as easily?
• Every evening he has a grouchy hour or two when he cries whether he’s feeding or not… The health visitor suggested I might be a bit dehydrated and he’s crying when feeding as he’s not getting what he needs…. I’ve tried drinking more but doesn’t seem to have made a huge difference. His wind is at its worst this time of day too so I’m tempted to try something like infacol but haven’t succumbed to it yet. Any tips anyone?!

What else we’ve been up to…

• We went to our first mother and baby yoga group last week and loved it… My back’s been in bits for weeks so enjoyed the stretches, which we did over our babies so tickling them on the way up/down… Much fun! We did some moves on our little ones… I was mortified as I don’t the know the words to any of the nursery rhymes they use! The other 4 mums there were lovely and it’s in a perfect location (beautiful insole court, Cardiff) so I will definitely go back 🙂

• He still goes to Swimkidz every Saturday morning and on his 9week birthday he was let go underwater twice... Eek! He’s very calm in the water which is a great start!
• Lots more trips out… Shopping with mummy and aunty in the local designer outlet (cr*p celeb spot: Daniella Westbrook!), family day out to Margam park for the first time (lovely, defo will go back!), a coffee with mummy’s boss, his nanna’s retirement drinks in a busy pub on a Friday after-work… And he slept through all of these!!

Purchases

• New clothes for me from Oasis (post to follow!)
• A haul for W from a NCT nearly new sale (post to follow!)
• 100 thank you cards from Vistaprint!

 

Apologies it’s been a while since my last update… it’s been busy!  Baby W – turned 7 weeks old on Saturday… lots more ‘first’s’ since I last blogged…

First smiles – the last week or so he’s been smiling, cooing and trying out new noises a lot… much fun and very very cute!,

First 4 hour sleep – about a week ago he slept for a full 4 hours in the night.. ‘hallelujah’ I thought… ‘we must be getting close to sleeping through…’ Alas, the next night he woke up for a feed ever hour!

Just the last few days he’s been awake a lot more in the daytime, so hopefully we’ll see some longer night-time sleeps soon. We’re lucky in that once he’s had his night-time feeds he goes back to sleep pretty well. I should add that in the day too, his feeds have become a lot shorter and more frequent (perhaps increased thirst due to the hot weather?)… can’t work out if this is easier than longer feeds – they both have their pros and cons!

He’s become grouchier in the evenings, a lot more wind and tears… this seems pretty normal I think but we’re seeing the health visitor this week so I’ll ask about things like infacol just in case…

First Father’s Day – a special day for his daddy! We didn’t actually do much, as daddy’s been out for a few beers the day before and W was going though a grouchy few days but we did spoil him with a Moonpig card, his fave chocolates, personalised hankies (don’t ask!), the World Cup sticker album…. and a BabyBjorn carrier which he’d been fancying for a while 🙂

First expressed-bottle feed – a week ago, he took his first bottle from his daddy. I will blog about it separately in more detail but it was a very proud, bittersweet moment – so proud to see him taking the bottle without a problem… so nice to see him being fed by his dad…. but also slightly sad as I guess it’s already the beginning of the end of his beautiful relationship with my breasts!

First night out for mummy – so with all that expressed breast milk, on his 7-week birthday this momma went out to a big work’s party (Olly Murs being the headline act) and drank a few too many Cosmo’s…. I wasn’t planning on getting quite so tipsy but I got totally over-excited by seeing so many of my colleagues, it was a great night! We had no idea how long the milk would last but it took him right through the night feeds and to an 8am feed… so by the time I needed to feed him the cocktails were long gone from my system, and my boobs were very full and sore! Obviously I missed the little one (and the night feeds as I was in the spare room!) but it was really nice to have a decent break away from him although I’m sure I talked about him all night 🙂

First pelvic floor class – this has to be one of the most surreal moments of my life but due to the ‘perineal trauma’ from my labour, I was invited to a pelvic floor workshop in the hospital… cue a handful of us sitting in a hot room for an hour being shown diagrams and demonstrations of our muscles ‘down there’ and how to heal them… I learnt a couple of new things but overall it was very random!

The rest of the fortnight…

• met friends and colleagues for lunch/coffees (which has involved more unplanned feeding in public, due to his aforementioned increased thirst!)
• washing machine died – every new mum’s worst nightmare 😉
• car exhaust died
• carried on with baby W’s swimming lessons
• mummy went clothes shopping (blog post to follow!)

Overall, as he’s getting busier I’m finding myself with less spare time which is fine… but trying to balance chilling out at home with getting out and about, and staying busy… I hope for us to start some classes next week, so that might help give us a bit more routine to work around….

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