WEIGHT/SIZE

Agh, I have absolutely not a clue! I'm forever writing down take Blue to get weighed and I always forget. There are no concerns whatsoever though; he's an absolute chunk of a boy who devours his food and is breastfed about 100 times a night (more on that later) so he's definitely getting enough! He's just outgrowing his 3-6 month clothes and now quite comfortably fits in 6-9 months.

FOOD

Loves it. We've had a few days since weaning where he's totally uninterested but those are few and far between and I have a feeling those pesky teeth may be the culprit. Most days, he'll happily eat 3 meals and snacks, though he's now refusing to eat anything unless we let him shove his fingers in the bowl and smear his food everywhere. Mr J and I have to take it in turns because the destruction just becomes too much for either of us to bear at one time. I mean, cauliflower cheese, everywhere.

He weirdly hates anything too fruity, especially with apple in (which is in almost all shop-bought baby food) and is definitely one for savoury, rather than sweet. We mostly feed him purée with the occasional finger food as he loves feeding himself. As mentioned above, he's still entirely breastfed; he'll usually feed at 7am, 11am, 2pm and 6pm before bed (and not forgetting, All. Night. Long..

SLEEP

Haha, hahaha, hahahaha, hahahahaha! Nope, he most certainly does not. He was such a fantastic sleeper as a newborn; I mean a wake-once-a-night/4-hour-naps kind of sleeper that I was sure we had a good'un who'd be sleeping through by 3 months. Well, ladies & gentlemen, that is most definitely not what happened. At 4 months, the sleep shit hit the fan, and he's been waking every 2 hours every single night ever since. Pretty much. There was one night where he slept for 7 hours and it was as if the Gods had answered our prayers, but of course they hadn't, because he's never done it again. He'll occasionally do a stretch of 3.5 hours, but rarely, 2 is the magic number it seems, and that's from 7pm-7am too.

I was nursing him to sleep and co-sleeping (when necessary) which I thought may have been the problem, but over the last month, I've changed things so that he goes down for bedtime and naps sans boob, I've worked my ass off to get him to self-settle, but nothing has ever changed, he still wakes every 2 hours. For the first couple of wakes, I tried not nursing him, and I occasionally tell myself I won't feed again before 11pm and 3am, but honestly, when he is hysterically screaming in my face, it's much easier for us all if I give in! Next step is moving Jesse to his own room (we just need to figure out how to move Archie out first) and just hoping that things improve from there.

Saying all this, when I put him down for his morning nap, he does usually sleep for around 2 hours with a shorter afternoon nap, so he does ok during the day. Silver linings & all that.

DEVELOPMENT

Over the last week, the 2-hourly wakings have become worse; he's suddenly not settling back to sleep easily and is wide awake for up to an hour at times and it is truly soul-destroying, but I have a feeling other forces are at play as he is suddenly doing a whole lot more than before. Blue now sits really well; I usually pop a cushion behind him to be on the safe side, but he rarely falls back now, only occasionally falling forward when he's trying to reach out for something which brings me on to.. Movement. He's not crawling yet, but that doesn't stop him getting around; he wriggles and fidgets and falls and pushes and drags his little body anywhere he can get to and today he pulled himself to stand for the very first time!

Other development news includes, being utterly obsessed with his Mama, grabbing anything & everything put in front of his face, trying to feed himself with a spoon, blowing alot of raspberries, being able to pick things up and hold them to his mouth and probably tonnes more I've forgotten about.

THINGS I DON'T WANT TO FORGET

I don't want to forget the adorably cute expression you pull when you're doing a serious face; the way you laugh at the weirdest things and cry at the mundane; the way when I'm literally at my wits end after months of no sleep, you simply smile to make me laugh and forget all about it, even in my deepest depths of exhaustion; the perfect way you can now sit next to your big brother and enjoy each others company; the way you are the happiest and most contented baby, no matter how little sleep you may have and the way you've made my second-time of being a Mother feel completely brand new again.