Sleep struggles, photos

We are very badly struggling with Robert's sleep lately. We barely get 6 hours sleep a night, and those 6 hours are broken into 2 or 3 blocks where he wakes and needs resettling. I went and reread a passage in the No Cry sleep solution, on the different phases for helping a baby resettle in his cot, so we started with phase 1 last night, that is breastfeeding him until sleepy, taking him off and rocking him IN his cot until asleep. Only both Jonathan and I find it hard to get down into that position, so mostly what we do is I breastfeed him til sleepy, then put him in his cot and rock his back or pat his back until he's asleep. He now pretty much always sleeps on his front, or sometimes on his side, but never on his back anymore. Once he started rolling he settled himself on his front and although he couldn't roll back onto his back at first we left him on his front because he was more than capable of lifting his head, and his arms.

Last night went okay. He woke up a few times, but I think it was less than the night before. And after a bellyfull of milk was always drowsy enough to go to sleep quickly in his cot. At 6am I realised I must have fallen asleep with him, so I got up and put him in his cot, and ooops! Big mistake, he woke up and I should have let him sleep! Since 6am is around the time he usually won't go back to sleep! Anyhow, I got up and rocked him, for about 10 or 15 minutes, then tried him on the breast, but he started fidgetting, then got up and rocked again, he burped, rocked some more, then tried him again on the breast and he fell asleep! And didn't wake up til 8.20! Wooohooo! His head was all clammy and sweaty from laying on my arm though.

But I do feel a bit more lively today. Yesterday I was soooo sleep deprived I was crying with Robert crawling around on the floor while Jonathan was upstairs catching a few zzzs. (he'd let me have an hour or so just before) Luckily Robert got tired soon after, and we had a massive long nap together.

Anyway it's something we have to persevere at but hopefully before long we will be able to night wean him and get him resettling himself so we can have a huuuuuge long sleep each night!! We have managed to clear out the spare room enough to get his cotbed in there, although it needs more sorting out. But once his cotbed is up in there, we can move the bookcases into our bedroom, and then hopefully sort out the rest. We are aiming to get the cotbed up in his own room this Friday. THIS FRIDAY!!! I can't wait, I really hope it'll help the sleep situation! Although I will probably miss him being right there for a while, and maybe wake up in a sweat wondering where he is, etc! I used to do that when we spent best part of the night co-sleeping, if he'd been put down in his cot again in the middle of the night, I'd wake up in a panic and wonder where he was, if he'd fallen out of bed or something!

Anyway onto the TTC (for lack of a better acronym) thing... I am hoping that moving him into his own room and starting to night-wean him will bring about my period ;) We have now done the deed 3 or 4 times without protection, so it is entirely possible I may be pregnant, although very unlikely because I am still period-less. But I am really really looking forward to being pregnant again! And find myself wondering will it be a boy or a girl? Wondering when I will conceive, and what time of the year it will be born. I have a feeling it will be a summer baby, perhaps July or August next year. Which will be a conception of October/November this year. For some reason I am feeling phantom kicks a lot lately, wondering if it is my desire to be pregnant which is causing it!

Right, well it's photo time! We bought Robert a ball-pool come paddling pool a few weeks ago. It's quite a cute thing, and he LOVES it, clambers into it, tries to get the balls in his mouth, it's quite funny watching him!





It even comes with inflatable rings to go around the posts holding up a little canopy thing to act as a sunshade if you use it as a paddling pool. Which Robert loves pulling off and putting in his mouth!

We took it into the garden for him to splash about in on Friday I think it was. He loved it and spent AGES in there! We left a few of the balls in as well for him to play with, and added some bowls, jugs, yoghurt pots etc for him to play with in there too.













So so cute if I do say so myself!

On Saturday we went to Emberton Country Park, which is about half an hour's drive from us. It was lovely! We got there for around midday, and it was fairly quiet. We parked under a tree, and set up the picnic blanket (a mahooooosive one, that could probably easily fit 6-8 adults sitting and food), and we had a lovely afternoon lazing about! It got busier fairly quickly, with a huge group setting up camp not far from us with a barbecue or two going, tonnes of deckchairs, an inflatable goal post and other stuff! But it was still fairly peaceful. After our lunch was spotted by several wasps, we decided to pack up and go for a walk, and let Robert go on the swings which he really enjoyed :)





And a little go on a rocking chicken...



And the roundabout...



which made me feel a little queasy especially when I looked down at the floor! I don't think Robert enjoyed the roundabout as much as the other two.

He is doing SO well at everything really, apart from sleep I suppose ;)

He absolutely loves his food, I decided to make more of a concerted effort to give him some veg and not just fruit, bread, other easily prepared stuff that's a bit samey. So I gave him some carrot and cauliflower, and he loved it :) He particularly seemed to enjoy the cauliflower, as he went back for more and more before starting the carrot!





He is also becoming more and more daring with regards to standing, cruising, etc. He is cruising with ease now, and even enjoys walking things along the floor, for example the upturned laundry basket, and his push along trolley which we've altered to make the handle bar sit above the trolley rather than bending over the floor (and therefore tippable), and he will now scoot it along the floor with glee! He is now beginning to practise standing alone, which he has done for 8-9 seconds now before plomping down onto his bottom, or grabbing hold of whatever he let go of. We have some video footage of him standing in his ball pool, with his head against the canopy thing, and using simply his head against that he's remained balanced otherwise on his own for more than 30 seconds! It is so scary to think my almost 9 month old is so close to walking! He's growing up so quickly! It seems like absolute ages ago that my now-not-so-little boy was unable to roll or move on his own at all! And to know he's grown at least 20 centimeters since he was born seems crazy! I totally can't remember him being tiny!

Right, well to finish off, here are some photos of Robert laughing. :)





Baby laughs are the most precious thing in the whole world :)