Posting this a few days early this month as we have a busy weekend ahead. Fingers crossed that England can bowl the Aussies out in under 10 overs and we’ll then get to see England win the Ashes for free!!!
But, that’s tomorrow’s entertainment and this is what’s happened in the last month:
Movement: I’ve noticed two new movement things this month. Spinning and lying down on his back and then doing a sit up – he does it really slowly and often says “back” whilst he’s going it. It’s quite funny, unless it’s at bed time and he’s doing it again and again and again!
Teeth: A molar has broken through! Another one is very close too. So that’s 13 down and 7 to go!
Eating: His appetite is still growing! He is obsessed with dipping things (usually into hummus, mayo or yogurt). He is doing a lot better at eating independently now too – he can eat his cereal on his own if he really wants to. I’m being braver now and he has his bowl or plate on his “(t)ray” and most of the time he doesn’t tip it up now. He made me laugh the other morning when I wasn’t helping him eat quickly enough though. He’d been saying “more” but I was busy and when I looked at him he was frantically signing “more” too.
Sleeping: This is going to be a LONG section this month. Feel free to skip it!
As I’ve alluded for many months, A has not been what anyone would call a “good” sleeper. I don’t know if I’ve ever actually set out what that means in reality or if I’ve skirted around the edges so as to avoid further demoralisation! So, let me set the record straight. Until about 2 weeks ago, our pattern of wake ups would be something like this: Sleep 8-11ish (sometimes 10.30, sometimes 11.30, if we were really lucky 12pm!), coming into our bed with us at that first wake up and then pretty much waking every 2 hours after that and feeding back to sleep. That means me being contorted into an uncomfortable position, A spinning himself into a horizontal position so Mr.J gets kicked in the face and, if I could manage to unlatch without waking A up, me scooting down the bed to sleep underneath A as he only left me with a few inches of bed. Seriously, I’ve had the pillow half resting on the bedside cabinet to prevent me from poking myself in the face on the corner of it!
We’ve tried a few things to improve the situation but to no avail. Admittedly we probably didn’t do them for long enough but it’s really really difficult to do that when you’re exhausted. Change needs energy that we’ve never had.
Sleep deprivation is obviously not a great thing. We’ve managed to be functional in life and at work but in the last few weeks in particular I’ve found it really really tough. I haven’t been playing hockey (or any sports) and I’ve not done much socialising for a while either; it’s so hard to try and have a conversation with someone when you’re exhausted and all you can think about is how tired and depressed you are and how many poo-ey nappies you’ve changed that day. It’s a hard cycle to break too but I reached an all time low a couple of weeks ago; I fell asleep in the afternoon looking after A (and felt awful) and I was very tearful all the time and just felt as though I couldn’t do it any more. I realised where I was and I forced myself to be more proactive. I arranged to see some friends and I dragged my lazy ass to hockey. I totally took advantage of Aunty C and had an early evening nap when she came for tea on a Friday night and as soon as A went to bed, I went to bed too! That night, A slept 8-3am! Sadly, Mr.J woke me up at about midnight drunkenly searching for his pyjamas but I still felt mush more rested.
I had a good chat with Mr.J and he agreed to try and settle A in his cot at the first wake up the next night. He slept 8-1, Mr.J settled him in under 15 minutes (a record!) back in his cot and he slept til 6ish after that. Since then, we’ve had a pretty consistent pattern of two longer stints, with Mr.J settling him in his cot most of the time. The difference is unbelievable and although we’ve encouraged it by seeing if he would settle without “boo-boo”, it only happened when he was ready and willing. As a result of Mr.J settling him, I’m not feeding him any more and it’s all happened pretty naturally. I was really ready to stop feeding and had tried to tell him that “boobies are broken” a few times but he’d just scream and say “fix it!” and scream and scream until I gave up but it seems he’s finally ready to stop.
I just really hope that by putting this out there that I haven’t jinxed it. Last time we had a good week, he got chicken pox too weeks later so I’m really hoping this change is more long term and isn’t proceeding a big illness.
Play: The Brio train set that Grandma and Grandad J brought over last week has been a huge hit, with both A and Mr.J. He’s quick to ask for help but he can put the track back together if he really wants to. We did some colour sorting on a whim this month – I did a lot of the sorting and A did a lot of throwing!
He’s been enjoying jigsaws lots too; he has one with vehicles and one with animals which he can do incredibly quickly already and then another with the alphabet. I can’t believe how many of the letters/pieces he has memorised. He consistently picks up t,m,h and k and knows that they’re for “tie”,”moon”,”house” and “key” and where they go. He’s not always great at fitting the shape in the hole though.
He’s very keen to go on walks. There are some pigs in a house near the TransPennine Trail so he often asks to walk to the pigs. We rarely get that far as he gets WAY too distracted along the way and Mr.J is worried they will disappear soon and reappear elsewhere as bacon….
He’s still loving the bath (especially after Grandma and Grandad taught him to drop the boat from a great height and soak everyone!) and the lawnmower:
We also had a fantastic time at the playground today:
Communication: Chatter, chatter, chatter! He’s adding more and more words to his vocabulary more quickly now. We’re definitely into the territory where we need to be really careful what we say as he is repeating some words straight away :S We read “We’re going on a bear hunt” and he started saying:
as soon as we’d read it.
The other major change is that he’s starting to use words together. He’s probably been doing that for a little while with “fix it” and “get it” but he’s now saying “come back” , “more X”, “Mimi make tea” (I’m hoping that’s a description and not an order but it’s hard to tell!), “sit down”, “wipe up”.
Bonus personality category month: He’s very outgoing and happy. He says “ba bye” to people when we leave places and is usually happy to babble away wherever we are. He’s very sweet, asking for lots of “cuggles” and cuddling his bears and teddies lots. Today at the park he wanted to cuddle one of the other little boys and asked to hold another ones hand – the latter was much more outgoing and happy to oblige so they toddled around holding hands looking very cute. Baby G came to play a couple of weeks ago and was often doing the 😮 surprised “where” face and whenever we mention Baby G, A does an impression of him! He’s still quite helpful and helps to tidy up but the OCD-trait is still going strong as we’re still told to “wipe” or “shut” or “away”. At nursery, he walks in on his own now instead of being passed over and on Thursday this week he literally did not look back or say good bye!!
All things JenkinSunts! 