co-sleeping

Little man N at 4 months old

- Stacey 3 Comments
So here it is. N is now 4 months old. A third of a year. I said it last month – I will probably say it every month. Time. Slow. Down. Please.
It’s amazing to see how he is growing each month, and about now he is developing his own little personality. He is becoming so cheeky already. When he is going to sleep – or more like we’re trying to get him to sleep – he will eventually nod off but this is just a tease. A couple of minutes later he will open his eyes, look up at you, and give the cheekiest little grin! You can’t help but smile back at him though. Little monkey.
He has had his 16 week vaccinations. This time he only had the one in each leg, and not the oral one. I think he has been worse with them each time, unlike his brother who seemed to get better. Though he hasn’t seemed as bad afterwards. At least that’s it now until he turns one!
He isn’t sleeping as long in the day now. His naps range from 30 – 90 minutes long and then he’s awake for 2-3 hours in between. Though recently he’s sometimes been awake for as long as 4.5 hours! He is still (mostly) sleeping through the night. He goes down between 7-8 pm and generally wakes up between 5-6 am, has his bottle, a kick & a chatter, then goes back to sleep. He will wake in the night on the odd occasion but we can’t really complain. If he does then he usually comes in with us. since he has been sleeping through, he hasn’t spent as much time in our bed – I miss it!
He is constantly trying to sit himself up. I mentioned in his 3 month update that he would pull himself up if we held his hands – he is so much better at that now and so happy with himself when he does it. But now, he also tries to sit himself up from laying down. His little head and legs come up off the floor with a few grunts!
He has started rolling, which I wasn’t expecting as he just did it one day out of the blue without even trying. He managed to roll front to back, but he still hasn’t mastered back to front. It will come with time though, his brother didn’t even roll for the first time until 5 months!
Family Friday

A to Z of Family – C is for Co-sleeping

- Stacey 1 Comment

Co-sleeping is something which we have done a lot of over the past 2 (and a bit) years. Before J arrived I had never really thought about it – I’d seen it mentioned – but it was not really something that I had decided I would do beforehand. After all, we had his Moses basket and his cot ready, and he would be sleeping in there when we brought him home from hospital.

As it goes, I started co-sleeping pretty much straight away without even thinking about it. It started in the hospital – accidentally! Our first night in I had been awake for over 30 hours and I was absolutely shattered. I didn’t mean to do it, but I was giving him a cuddle in bed to try and settle him, and the next thing I knew I had woken up with him still in the bed! Luckily it was before a midwife came in, can you imagine?!

When we came home from hospital it kind of just carried on. Hubby & I were both constantly tired, and J was a greedy little soul so he was awake an awful lot through the night. We usually just ended up falling asleep with him on our chest. I grew to absolutely love those night time sleepy cuddles, and didn’t want to stop them. Plus it was much quicker & easier than trying to get him to settle in his own bed! At this point I did a lot more research on safe co-sleeping and decided it was something I wanted to continue with.

J slept in our bed almost every night until he was around 23 months old, when we decided he really needed to be sleeping in his own bed all night before the new baby arrived. It was a little tough at first after co-sleeping for so long but we got there in the end and he spends 99% of the time in his own bed now.

With N we decided from the off that we would co-sleep, and we did so on our very first night. He is a much easier baby to settle to sleep (most of the time) so he does tend to go down in his own bed, but he usually ends up in with us at some point during the night, and I just love waking up next to his little face.

When all 4 of us are in the same bed, well, let’s just say it’s a tight squeeze, especially with the random positions toddlers lay in!

Little man N at 3 months old

- Stacey 4 Comments

I can’t believe N is 3 months old already. That’s a quarter of a year! No, I refuse to believe it. Time must slow down now! 


N is gaining weight steadily now and heading along the 75th centile – he was on the 25th when he was born! When he turned 3 months he was around the 15 lb mark, so he has more than doubled his birth weight and is a proper chunk now, just like his brother was! He’s in his his brothers 3-6 months clothes now and even some of those are getting small for him!

He obviously loves his milk, and now has 8oz at a time, every 3-4 hours still – any less and he screams blue murder! But then because he’s so greedy, he brings half of it back up, usually all down my chest… lovely!

He has also had his second lot of vaccinations. I think these ones went worse than the first ones, he just wouldn’t stop crying and wouldn’t even have his bottle to calm him down, poor little fella. Only one more lot to go now until he turns 1, thank goodness!

I mentioned in his last update that he was co-sleeping a lot. We haven’t done as much since then, I think that’s mainly because he has started sleeping through the night! He goes down with J around 7 pm and then goes until 4.30 am, but usually goes back to sleep after his bottle. If he does wake in the middle of the night for a feed he usually goes straight back down without a fuss, I guess he’s what they’d call a “good baby” (I hate that!). Sometimes though if whoever had fed him is too tired to even get back out of bed, he’ll snuggle in with us, which I am glad of really as I’ve mentioned before, I do love co-sleeping.

The poor wee soul has started teething already, he has had a lot of hand chewing going on, and is very dribbly. We have an amber anklet on the way and are currently reviewing some teething gel so hopefully we’ll be able to take away the pain a bit, it’s awful seeing him like he is at such a young age.

We are getting proper chuckles from him now, and he’s a chatty boy! He loves to talk to himself in the mirror on his play mat. He loves us bouncing him from knee to knee and gives us some proper chesty laughs, it is oh so cute. He also loves us blowing raspberries on his belly and cheeks. I forgot how cute the “doing funny things to make them chuckle” baby stage is!

He is getting a strong boy now and will sit himself up if he is laid down and we hold his hands. He’s not so keen on tummy time (his brother never really was either so took what felt an age to roll over) but when he has it, he loves to hold his head up to have a good look around. Which leads me to say he hates being laid down now, he much prefers sitting up as he is so nosy!



Family Friday

Little man N at 2 months old

- Stacey 6 Comments

2 months old! Just where has the time gone?!


N had his first visit to baby group at one month old, though he slept the whole time whilst his brother played! He was in the sling though which explains it, he could sleep forever in there. 

He also had his first visit to the doctors! For a few days he had a white tongue, at first I thought it was just deposited milk but after trying to remove it, it wouldn’t come off. It turned out he had a case of thrush, poor baby. We got some medication and it cleared up pretty quickly, within a couple of days. 


We had our first proper smile from him around 5.5 weeks. A truly magical moment; I’m loving all these early life first moments again! 

N has now been in his cot since he was around 6 weeks old (a lot earlier than we moved J into his). He just wouldn’t settle in his Moses basket and we thought as he loves to co-sleep he may prefer the cot – he was growing out of his basket already anyway! He also loves to sleep on his front. He stays asleep much longer and is much happier. He still co-sleeps at some point nearly every night though!


He ‘celebrated’ his first Easter by being dressed up! 


As well as his first GP visit, he also had his first visit to A&E – don’t worry, it was only the out of hours doctor! He had been suffering with very runny poops for a few days – literally every nappy was just like poopy water (sorry!) and he had started to seem a bit under the weather in himself, not drinking much. We rang NHS Direct who sent us up to the hospital just to get him checked over as the emergency doctor was worried about dehydration. Everything seemed OK though and we just had to take a poop sample to the GP – typically his poop went back to normal the next day!


Another day and another visit to the GP for his vaccinations.


I think N has much more sensitive skin than his brother, as he also came down with a bad case of nappy rash around the same time as the thrush. It was absolutely red raw. Sudocrem wasn’t really doing anything so we tried Metanium. That cleared it up quite a lot but it was still lingering. In the end we got a prescription for some cream from the GP and it has pretty much done the job now, but the poor little man had to suffer with it for a while.


I mentioned briefly in his 1 month update that we had his first coo. We are getting a lot more now, and even some attempted giggles!

Little man N at 1 month old

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So it’s time for the first of little man N’s monthly updates (a little lot later than planned…)! I can honestly say that time is going much quicker this time – probably because I’m constantly on the go!


We managed to get him registered the week after he was born – so he is officially NWJG! I’d forgotten how lovely it was to make them all official.


N was breastfed for the first four weeks – he also had some formula during this time meaning he became a proper little chunk. He only lost 4 oz in his first 5 days.  At his 10 day check he had gained that back plus another 6 oz. I was very proud of this considering our feeding problems as in this time he only had breast milk. He weighed 10 lbs at one month old – his birth weight was 7lb 6oz.


He is a hungry little man just like his brother was. He has been doing the ‘norm’ for a baby of this age though feeding every 2 hours, sometimes less. 


Also just like his brother, he is not a huge fan of sleeping in his own bed. He did sleep in his Moses basket on his first night and then as we were in hospital on nights 2 & 3 he slept in the cot there, but since then he has co-slept pretty much every night since. He’s just a baby that loves snuggles. 


We had our first go at baby-wearing at 2 weeks old and he very much liked it. I started much earlier this time than I did with J as by the time I got around to it with him, he hated it and would just scream when I wrapped him. 


He seems to be doing things sooner than his brother did as we had his first coo out of him at 3 weeks old! Lots of windy smiles too, but oh so cute. Roll on the first proper smile!