Sleepy times...

The daily and night;y routine is starting to get a little easier, except when Mikey gets a little upset and won't settle! Monday night was one such episode as we ended up resorting to Calpol which finally got him to relax and go to sleep! I can honestly say that is is a wonderful invention and I can now see why so many friends with children swear by it! I'm never having a house without it from now on! After all the poor little thing can't tell me when something is hurting other than by screaming blue murder for 2-3 hours!

I have a feeling that Mikey has had a sort of bug this week as since Monday he has spent hours and hours each day fast asleep...more often than not whilst laid on me so just call me a cot from now on! But I guess I am reassuring or smell/sound safe to him so I'm not complaining, plus it gives me a valid excuse for cuddles! Not that I really need any excuse to be honest - plus the Dr told me to keep cuddling as it helps negate post natal depression!

We had a health visitor here on Monday - not our usual one as she is on the grandparent version of paternity leave as her daughter has had a little boy as well! Mikey got weighed again and has now reached 11lbs 3oz - and is staying on the centile line he started on (well slightly above it now) so 'they' are pleased with how he is doing - maybe we are getting things right at the moment... miracles have been known to happen after all!

Mikey is getting a little more talkative at the moment - it is wonderful to see him telling Andy all about his day when he gets home from Work. They lay on the floor together and Mikey tells him everything he's done (usually this is sleep!) and Andy listens really carefully. Father Son bonding is wonderful to witness....

Exploring times...

Firstly I am sorry for any errors, but I am currently under a sleeping baby and my headache won't allow me to move him and his father has vanished!!!

Today we were intending to meet the mad cyclists at the pub in Brook, but Dave called earlier to say due to the forecast downpour there was a change of location! Thankfully he had a postcode and I managed to get the Sat Nav to work out a route!!! This was rather miraculous as I've never done that before!!!

Stage 1 was to load my car up.... small people do not travel lightly and I usually forget something! I strapped Michael into his chair and stuffed the nappy bag into the back of my car before wrapping the seatbelt round the baby!! I reactivated the voice on Brenda and set off...to be honest I had no idea where I was going, but I went anyway!!

Amazingly I didn't take any wrong turnings and arrived at the pub as the screaming started, but once we had transferred to the pushchair silence reined again!! We were first to arrive so I went to sample their OJ and perch on a stool awaiting team Styles! Once they arrived we move to the table and thanks to Dave we got the pushchair down the steps and 'parked' at the end of the table. The menu was on boards all around the room and was prett varied! I stuck to a burger and chips, Tina sampled the scampi, Kat demolished a large (massive) prawn cocktail, 2 others have the steak and ale pie whilst Dave opted for a baked marrow stuffed with pork and apricot! The food was fantastic, my burger was rather large and home made and decidedly tasty - and for £6.50 well worth the price! The dessert menu looked very tempting, but I was far too stuffed so passed this time , but I'm sure we'll be back there as the food really was that good!

I was impressed that someone didn't want feeding until I had eaten, once he had drained his bottle he retired to the other side of the table for a cuddle/snuggle with Tina (I know who to call for babysitting!!!)

6 August

Got a real bargin today! Facebook has a local buy, sell, swap site and yesterday I was a travel cot on it... we got it for £10.00 and Andy picked it up this morning! We've had it open and it looks great - perfect condition and just what we need once someone gets more mobile!

This week has been better - we seem to have grasped the sleeping at night concept on one night we even slept for 7 hours!! Feeding has improved as well... hopefully we have really turned a corner and things will start to get easier/more simple!!

Next week is my last week for  while having my Mum at the end of a phone, they are all off on a cruise in the Ned next week. I'm really going to miss them and to be honest feel a bit abandoned. I won't have Walderslade as an escape route until nearly the end of August... I'm also going to miss my daily chat with Mum, it's so nice to talk to an adult as Mikey isn't that vocal most of the time.

25 July...

A view of the feet for Tina!!

This being a Mum is far harder than I expected - and I was tol some horror stories whilst I was pregnant! Michael is still of the opinion that sleep should happen during the day and the night is for keeping Mum and Dad wide awake instead.

I can now see why the  CIA and other security services use sleep deprivation as a form of torture... I can report from my personal experience that it works! Andy (bless him) took care of Michael last night and I got 6 hours of sleep. It was fantastic but not enough... I still feel quite a way from being human again and having felt tired during my pregnancy I can now confirm that was not really tired! I could honestly now sleep for at least 24 hours, possibly more, if it was allowable/possible.

I'm not really moaning too much - I love him to bits and when he smiles at me it all seems to feel worth it... If only he would sleep at night it would be fantastic and I'm sure I would feel that I'm coping better than I do right now. At the moment I feel like a total failure and I'm sure there is something important that I'm not doing, my while life and being revolve around a small person who has managed to find the perfect pitch to scream at and create a 'wonderful' headache for me! I have been meaning to wash my hair for the last 3 days...it hasn't happened yet though and really needs to happen very soon...

Setting a Routine!?!?!?

We actually had a pretty good night last night! No idea why - possibly the number of people Michael met yesterday wore him out!! It's looking as though we will ned to be out every day meeting people so he can sleep! And we can then sleep as well...should reduce the number of times I snap at people and hopefully seriously reduce the number of times I burst into tears for no real reason!

This week has had lots of firsts for Michael. He's been driven around by me for the first time  - we made it to Nanny & Grandad on Tuesday perfectly safe but with a car packed full of stuff!! On Wednesday we made it into Ashford and had the pushchair in my car for the first time...both back seats down but we made it! The only problems we had were when we got back to the car and 2 other idiots had parked too close - I couldn't open the boot or get the push chair round the back of the car or open the passenger door to get Michael in... County Square need some parent and child spaces so people realise what they're doing.

Thursday was a quieter day - really grey, depressing and windy so the pair of us hibernated! I had no intention of getting us both wet and miserable! But I did end up feeling rather trapped stuck in the house...maybe I should work out how to use the rain cover this weekend! I'm just not sure if it will go over the car seat or if I'll have to wait until he graduates to the push chair proper!!

3 weeks and lack of sleep

Well we've reached 3 weeks old... and if Michael doesn't start sleeping soon he may not make 4!!! (Only joking, honest!)

Michael did manage to let us have some sleep a week ago - but since then he's been impossible to wind and has been awake pretty much all night due to it. Yesterday I decided I'd had enough and having googled the problem decided that Infacol may help us out! So a quick trip to Tescos just before it closed and £2.69 later I had a magic bottle... Michael's face was a picture for the first dose, it was the first time he had tasted anything other than milk! I think he's getting used to it now, but does tend to screw his nose up after each dose, but on last nights showing it works so he'll just have to get used to it!

We had another visit from the Health Visitor today, she is really lovely and very supportive of me. Michael has out some more weight on and adding more may be easier now we've hopefully sorted the wind problem (at least reduced it!) But she is more worried about me than him right now. She is very worried about Post natal depression and the fact I'm just feeling very stressed and pressured right now. I'm also still very, very tearful so she is back next Monday to check me and talk through what support etc can be offered to me to help me cope with a baby and the way I seem to be feeling more and more. She is also following in Andy's footsteps with the constant nagging about eating - it may be a little easier now it's got cooler, rather than feeling as though I can't be bothered to eat I might even get round to it!

2 weeks old...

Techically Michael should now be with us as he was due on 4th July! I have no problem with him being 2 weeks old now, at least our birthdays are seperated a little more than it originally appeared they would be!

I have been discargd by the midwife tem today, but I am allowed to still phone them in a panic up until Michael is 28 days old - after that I have to phone the Health Visitor as the midwives have no expertise re babies over 4 weeks old!!! Crazy or what!

The midwife I saw this morning gave me quite a talking to - I have to start being nice to myself as I'm at risk of running myself right into the ound and I'm increasing my risk of post natal depression. I'm already feeling that I'm failing Michael as I don't know how to stop him screaming at 3am and I have been told to stop thinking like that and that I'm still learning...and it can take several months for summer babies to learn that night time is for sleeping simply beause there isn't a long period of darkness over night!

But during daylight we have a very contented and laid back baby, not much phases him and this afternoonn he happily filled nappy after nappy! All I've done today is feed him and change him! He's had several major naps but I didn't manage to do the same...Oh I've also burst into tears for no reason on several occassions - stupid hormones have so much to answer for!