Bodmacity

Amy has been looking after my nieces for the week down in Worthing during their school half-term holiday. I have been doing the mammoth commute from Worthing to Staines which means a 5.30am start. Ouch!

Young Jakers has started teething this week and has been rather unsettled. Amy has been frazzled with the extra demands of three young children as well as Jakey but she is doing a fine job. The nieces are lovely but it is added work on top of the demands of a new-ish born!

Jake woke at around 2 am last night with a different type of cry than usual. Instead of the usual constant cry it was a bellow then a few seconds of silence followed by another bellow. Amy requested that I go and see to him as she was exhausted after a long day with the girls. I picked the lamb up and gave him a cuddle before giving him his powders(as recommended by Frones) or as Amy calls them, his ‘salts’. These are in fact nelsons teetha powders, which are completely natural and very effective. As a second line of defence I gave Jake his teething gel. This stage was probably redundant but I was paranoid about Jake’s crying waking the girls in the next room. He still was crying after his powders so I cuddled him which had no effect :-(. I think he had got himself into a state and didn’t know how to calm himself so I popped in his dummy. Actually the instructions for the powders say that they take 10 minutes to have an effect so when we are back home I’ll see if he will calm down himself without the need for the dummy. I stayed with him in his room and stroked his hair until he fell asleep. After maybe ten minutes I popped out the dummy and waited to make sure he was fully asleep before retiring with a Lemsip to bed.

Matters have not been helped by the fact that I have another stinking cold. It has been quite bad with night-time fevers and aching bones. The Lemsip seems to be keeping it at bay. Well that’s all I have to say for now. I hope next week will be more relaxing. 🙂

The lamb is ten weeks old today. It seems like we have always had little Jakey as part of our family. He was a little sweetie tonight. I offered to give Ames the night off so she could have a relaxing evening. When I got home I bathed him. He enjoyed it up to the point when I washed his hair. I don’t know if he was a little chilly but he started crying so I quickly rinsed his dome and then wrapped him in his cuddle towel. After dressing for bed in a new vest and sleepsuit I brought him upstairs and gave him a mighty feed. He devoured pretty much the whole 170ml! I really don’t know where it all went. After this he was pretty much in the land of nod so after gently waking him I took him downstairs to bedfordshire.

He is still sleeping in his moses basket in our bedroom but in the next few days we have decided to move him into his cot in his own room. He was asleep soundly within five minutes of laying him down. During the day Amy took him to meet her ex-work colleagues, at the Tavistock in Belsize Park, so we think that the journey and all the new faces must have tired him out.

I am just off to bed now. It has been a long day. Jake was up at 5am. It was good though to get an extra hour of playtime as he is usually asleep when I go to work. Night night 🙂

The weather over the weekend was absolutely appalling. We took Jakey shopping at Sainburg’s and we made the schoolboy error of forgetting the umbrella. I stayed in the car looking after Jake while Ames did the business. It was really tipping it down so there really wasn’t an option of taking Jakey out of the car.

Jake was a little upset yesterday. I think he was overtired as he didn’t really sleep during the day and had lot’s of plays and interaction. Also because of the weather he didn’t go out for his usual walk to Hilly Fields. We thought that maybe he is gearing up for another poo as he always get’s a little fractious when one is on the way. Another theory we touted is that he is going through another growth spurt as he seems to be feeding for England at the moment :-).

He is really starting to gurgle now and making some lovely sounds. We have been encouraging him by making vowel sounds and getting him to copy our mouth shapes. Yesterday, while batting away at the hanging toys on his playmat, he almost grasped his parrot (which is his favourite). His fingers were outstretched but he couldn’t quite wrap them around the toy. I expect in a week or so he will have it cracked.

Last night he slept all the way through without a feed for the very first time. We put him down at around 7.30pm and after a little nonsense he eventually gave in at 8pm. He was desperately trying to find his thumb to calm himself. We gave him lot’s of head and cheek strokes which calmed him enough for him to get that thumb in the mouth! An hour later I went up to check on him and he was sparko with his little arms outstretched up above his head. Pet!

Jake is nice and healthy according to the doctor so that’s a relief. He was a very good boy yesterday and went to bed after his feed at 7pm. What a little pet! Today Amy took him for his first lot of jabs which included diptheria, polio and meningitus to name a few. Amy said that seeing his little contented face crease up and cry in pain was too much to bear. She burst into tears upon seeing this and was comforted by the doctor. I’m not sure I would have fared any better. Amy phoned earlier from Emmas house and I could hear Jake gurgling away in the background so I think he had recovered a little from the experience.

Tonight Amy is out with Sheena for her first proper night out. Jakey is going to have his Daddy for a night! How exciting!

I have spent two days off work with a stinking cold. Poor Jake is fairing no better and has a hacking cough and a slight wheeze. Last night we decided to take him to the hospital because we were worried about his chest which seemed a little rattly. Jake was given a pre-evaluation pretty quickly after which we were told to wait. The place was heaving and very busy. We were told that the waiting time was one and a half hours. After a couple of hours Amy went up to ask where we were in the queue. We were number seven and had a wait of at least another two hours. Amy had a word with the nurse who carried out the pre-evaluation. She said said that Jake didn’t have a temperature and that his cough didn’t seem too bad. With this news we decided to take Jake home. The atmosphere in the waiting room wasn’t conducive to a calm and well baby, what with all the coughing and spluttering children running around.

Thankfully Jake had a peaceful night last night. Today Ames got a call from the health visitor saying that we should have phoned them and told them that Jake had gone to the hospital, and to do so in the future. Why, I have no idea. It’s not as if they would have come rushing out to help while we were waiting for hours at the stinking hospital! Anyway Jake has gone to the doctors today so I am waiting at work for news. Poor lamb. I am looking forward to going home in twenty minutes to give my son a nice cuddle and, oh at least one thousand kisses!

It’s another Monday morning and rather grey outside. Jake is suffering with a cold and so is his Daddy, although shamefully I must say that he seems to be coping better then I am. The poor little mite keeps waking in the night coughing and spluttering. Notwithstanding his cold, last night, for the first time, he splept for a whopping nine hours. What a lamb! I put him down at 8pm and he was absolutely sparko. This may have had something to do with the fact that we visited the nieces during the day. They were all very excited about seeing their brand new cousin, especially young Ophelia who Jake took an instant liking to. Jake was very well behaved but did start to grizzle a little so Ames gave him a feed and he settled down(after plugging him in of course).

Jake has been making some wonderful sounds and I really think that he is trying to copy our sounds now. If you make an ‘O’ with your mouth he will repond with an ‘O’ and if you make vowel sounds he tries to follow. It is really quite amazing how fast he is growing and it seems that he is learning new things every day. He is yet to really grab and hold objects, instead he still seems to swat things randomly, his bears on his seat for instance. Ames has been placing him on his tummy and his neck muscles are quite strong now. He can lift his head clear off the ground, which I have read is quite advanced for his age.

Also, he has learnt(somewhat haphazardly) how to roll. The other day I heard this shriek of delight and saw that Jake had rolled onto his side. The delight soon turned to dismay and red-facedness as he realised he couldn’t get back onto his back after performing his rolling feat. Of course I gave him a hand and he was happy again.

It was bliss to have the day off yesterday. It does make a difference to have a long weekend. I went with Amy to the drop-in clinic to have Jake weighed. He is piling on the pounds and is now 9 pounds 11 which is just above the weight his should be on his weight chart. Afterwards we popped rounds Emmas. Her son Samuel is a pet! He was suffering with a cold and was a bit fractious and blocked up. Jake seems to have the loudest and most piercing cry especially when he gets going. He usually starts with small bellows then his whole face goes bright red and he opens his mouth. A few seconds later he will let rip, with his little tongue quivering in his mouth. What a lamb!

We decided to make a day of it and went to Bluewater for late night shopping. It was great to be there without the hordes of shoppers and attendant chavoids. We bought some new outfits for Jake for the upcoming summer months and also Ames treated herself. Jake was perfect all the time, just liying there in his pram and sleeping. We popped into Startbucks for some Chai Tea Lattes and Ames spied a lady feeding her daughter. I think this gave her confidence to whop out the boob and give Jake a nice feed. It was a nice atmosphere to do it with the big comfy chairs and the low-key lighting.

I think, for only the second time ever, Jake slept for six hours straight. This morning he was in the most perfect mood. Just playing on his mat making little happy noises while looking at himself in the mirror. I felt quite sad to have to go to work :-(. I wonder if the sleeping marathon last night was a one-off and whether he will be back to the two hour sleeps tonight. Ames seems to think that maybe he is waking not with hunger but wanting to comfort suck. The test would be to pop in the dummy while in the moses basket. I am reluctant to introduce it as he may become dependent on using the dummy to get to sleep. We will have to play it by ear, I suppose a one-off isn’t going to hurt.

Jake is now seven weeks old. I have to say that the last couple of days have been very difficult. Jake has been uncomfortable and crying inconsolably a lot of the time. In addition he has been feeding twice as much as previously. This has led us to believe that the little mite is going through a growth spurt.

I have been helping out with at least one nappy change during the night to lessen the burden on Ames. She been been particularly exhausted, emotionally and physically. It is upsetting to see your baby crying and then exhausting to try and settle him and make him comfortable.

This morning he woke at 5.30am and was grizzling. I decided to get up, change his nap-nap and take him to his chair. He was wide awake and I think just wanted a play. So I complied (of course) and he cheered up :-). Even at three in the morning when I am feeling shattered, his little face beaming up at me never fails to lift my spirits.

I am now at work having just arrived at the office. Ames has just phoned and tells me Jake has only just woken and is in a good mood. He has been asleep for 5 hours and 10 mins. My gosh he must have needed that!

Yesterday we took Jake’s passport photos which were hilarious!! Actually he was very good and lay there very still while I took them. Maybe we won’t use the last one 🙂

The sun is out today and is looks like it will be a cracker. Is this the start of the ‘real’ spring weather I ask myself?

It is 9.47pm and both of us are feeling shattered. At least tomorrow is Friday and it is a long weekend. Hooray! Jake is now having his last feed before going to bed.

He is losing his hair at an alarming rate, but only on the top like an old man or indeed Winston Churchill. It’s strange that he has loads of hair at the back and sides of his head where you would expect it to rub off. I hope the remaining strands on top will remain intact otherwise he will look quite comical and we would be forced to put him in his bonnet until it grows again!

Jake has been making friends. Amy has been very pro-active in getting out and about making contacts from the other couples we met during our parentcraft lessons. Emma and Gary live the other side of Hilly Fields and have a son called Samuel. Esther and Matt live on our road and have a daughter called Tess(Jakes girlfriend). Henrietta and Graeme live near us and have a son called Nathaniel. Jake has been trying to keep Tess a secret so that the other boys don’t try and muscle in 🙂

Tomorrow Jakey will be six weeks old. He is growing so fast it’s unbelievable. We read in our baby book yesterday that he will start to lose his Moro reflex(which I love) and his grasp reflex :-(. We think that he may be a bit coliccy again as he has started to grunt and writhe in his sleep and is generally a little fractious in the evening.

Last night I decided to put him to bed at 8pm. He was quite sleepy so I thought I had a good chance of success. No more than 30 seconds elapsed after carefully placing him in his Moses basket, when he went bright red and started crying rigorously. Now at this point I knew that :

1. He wasn’t hungry
2. He wasn’t dirty
3. He wasn’t windy

This left :

1. Boredom
2. Didn’t want to sleep
3. Feeling over-tired and irritable(I can relate to that one)

So I left him crying, not for long only a minute or so. This was heart-rending but I reasoned that he needs to start being able to comfort and settle himself in these situations. He wasn’t crying because of discomfort or pain. After a minute I picked him up and gave him a nice cuddle. At this point I was considering taking him upstairs to his beloved bouncy chair but I persevered. A short while later I placed him in his basket. He seemed quite happy until he crying started again. This time I stroked his cheek and head. This calmed him a little before again the crying started in earnest. I let him cry for a couple of minutes before returning to stroke and comfort him. This time I didn’t pick him up. Miraculously after a couple of stroke/cry/stroke sessions and half an hour later he was sleeping soundly and as quiet as a lamb. I was impressed!

This morning Jake was grunting loudly and writhing at 5.30am. Amy was exhausted so I got up and picked him up. As soon as I started winding him he let out a hearty burp. As all parents will know there is nothing more satisfying! I changed his nap-nap and popped him in the cot in his room and he settled nicely. We are considering moving him permanently into his own room because he is fast outgrowing his Moses basket and it has started sagging a little. Ideally we would like to place the cot in our room but it will not fit through the door without dismantling it first, also we have precious space in our room as it is!