Totally clueless!?!

Worst night's sleep ever! Ok, maybe not ever, but worst in quite a while. Josiah woke up at 11pm for no real reason and settled back to sleep again reasonably well but decided to talk to himself loudly in the process thus waking up both parents. He woke again at 12:30am wanting to eat. Then he woke again at 4:30am and wouldn't settle so I fed him again. I was so tired I fed him lying down. Apparently he was tired too and fell asleep eating. Due to his unsettled sleep I decided to let him stay asleep in our bed instead of waking him to put him in his own bed. As I rolled away from him to get comfy ready to go back to sleep he decided to sprawl out and take up my entire side of the bed! This left my husband and I just half the bed for the both of us to sleep in. He was not too impressed at having his sleep space invaded at 5am.

We were even less impressed when Josiah woke up again at 6:30am. I tried to resettle him in his own bed but he was having none of it so I caved in and fed him again. Add to all the night waking the fact that I have a stinking cold preventing me from getting to sleep and mastitis making feeding very painful and you'll see it was really not a fun night!

The thing that annoys me most is that just a few weeks ago he was going 6-8 hours between feeds at night - not every night but at least 50% of the time. Why is he now going only 4 hours between feeds?! What am I doing wrong? At first I put it down to a growth spurt but it's been a couple of weeks now.

This parenting thing is hard work and I feel so clueless. It used to be so much more straight forward - let him sleep as long as he wants, feed him as soon as he wakes, change him, put him straight back to bed - simple. Now it's so much more complicated. He wants to be awake so much more and it's a careful balance trying to give him enough sleep but not so much he doesn't sleep at night. I think I know roughly how many feeds he needs and how much sleep but can't seem to work out how to coordinate the two. This week there has been plenty of crying because we've tried to put him to sleep when he wanted to play more. And there has been crying because we've woken him up to feed him while he still really needed sleep. (Kinda his own fault for staying up chatting for 45 mins before going to sleep instead of taking the opportunity to nap). We'd previously got into a nice little routine that worked well but the kid is constantly growing and changing and so are his needs. It's so hard to keep up!

Please somebody tell me this parenting thing gets easier right?!

Favourite moments

Ok, I have a new favourite moment from this week that I wish I had photographic evidence of but alas, all I can do is describe it to you.

We just got back from Carols by Candlelight. We let Josiah stay up late so we could all enjoy it together and enjoy it he did. He loved looking at the candles and chatting to all the people. He had no qualms about grabbing the hand of the person next to him and chewing on their finger despite the fact he'd only just met them.

At one point he was sat on my knee happily bouncing up and down and excitedly chatting to me. As we chatted he giggled and grinned and delighted everyone around him. Then he began staring at my boobs, which is not all that unusual. But then he began puckering his lips, making a face just like a baby chimp, and leaning in towards my boobs. I so wish I could have taken a picture. He looked so hilarious as he mimed sucking on my boobs from about two feet away from them - we were sat crying with laughter!

I know I shouldn't laugh but...

I love getting to spend time together as family, laughing together and making memories. I thought I would share with you one of my favourite moments from this week.

Today we're having a pyjama day to recover from a fun but tiring day at a friends wedding yesterday. We had to nip into town quickly to run a few errands so we were all throwing on some clothes and getting ready to head out. Hubby announced that he was ready as he bounced Josiah on his lap. Moments later, you guessed it, Josiah projectile vomited all down Josh's front. And it wasn't just a little bit!

I am all too familiar with this occurrence but for Josh it was the first time he has ever experienced that warm wet feeling as the sick soaks through your clothing. How did he respond? He jumped up, stripped his clothes off and started dancing around the room pulling disgusted faces. I was rolling around laughing so hard I almost wet myself (no really, my pelvic floor isn't so great since labour so I really almost did pee myself laughing!)

Being a parent really does force you to get over any germophobic tendancies you may have had before as you spend your days getting puked on and wiping dribble and snotty noses! But the funny thing is we wouldn't change it for the world - this must be true love.

Just when you thought it was safe...

One of the most challenging things with parenting is that things are constantly changing so you have to keep on your toes! This week Josiah learned a key new skill. I try to avoid letting him watch TV so if my husband and I want to watch TV while he's awake I put him down on his play mat somewhere that he can't see the TV. The other day he was happily playing while we were curled up watching Grey's Anatomy. Half way through I looked over to the play mat to see how Josiah was doing........and he wasn't there!! The cheeky little monkey had shuffled across the floor on his back and was lying right in front of the TV contentedly staring up at Grey's Anatomy. I picked him up and put him back on the play mat but two minutes later he was back watching TV. So it looks like despite my best efforts we have a little telly addict on our hands. And now I can no longer put him on his playmat, go make a cuppa tea and expect to find him in the same place when I get back. Here's where the fun starts!!

Other news in the Gallagher household this week: Josiah learned how to use his hands properly (to grab things he wants, to move my hands away when I do things he doesn't want and to stroke daddy's beard), hubby got another job interview (hooray!) and I got mastitis (boo!).

Just when I thought we had breastfeeding sorted my boobs go and break again! I've spent the last few days yelling in pain while breastfeeding and digging my nails into the nearest cushion/my leg/hubby's hand. At first I thought I just had a blocked milk duct but last night I woke up all feverish and knew it was time to go to the doctor. So now I'm on antibiotics and wandering around the house with a homemade heat pad (ie packet of boil in the bag rice shoved in hubby's sock) shoved in my bra making me look like I've had some dodgy lopsided boob job. Oh the joys of parenthood!

Sleep at last........well kinda

Sleep has been a frustrating subject the last few weeks as Josiah has seemed to be going less time between feeds at night, not more. Just as I was beginning to wonder if he would ever go more than four hours between feeds a beautiful thing happened. One night, totally out of the blue, he went SEVEN hours between feeds! And then after I fed him and put him back to sleep he went for another 6.5 hours before waking up!! It was bliss.

Of course I foolishly got excited thinking he would do the same thing the next night. But did he? Nope! Woke up every four or five hours. Boo! And the next night he woke every three or four hours - double boo! I thought to myself he's just teasing us. He's saying "look mummy and daddy, I can sleep for ages, I just choose not to cos I enjoy messing with your head mwahhaha" (that's evil laughter in case you didn't know).

Well thankfully he has actually started sleeping that long on a semi regular basis (ie has done it three more times now so I'm counting that as a success). Does that mean I am now getting a long peaceful nights sleep? No. Baby is sleeping. Daddy is sleeping. But I still keep waking up through the night. And then I lie there with a baby snoring on one side of me and my husband snoring on the other side of me trying to get back to sleep.

Another downside to Josiah sleeping so long is that someone forgot to inform my boobs about the change in schedule. By the time Josiah wakes up to feed my boobs feel like they're about to explode. When he starts feeding it comes out so fast the poor kid is spluttering and choking and spitting milk everywhere. And when he decides to pull away to avoid drowning in breast milk the result is high pressure splatter everywhere. The other night I got hit in the eye by my own milk - IN THE EYE!! This is one of the many hazards of breastfeeding that never seems to get covered in antinatal classes. Oh how I would love to lead breastfeeding sessions at antinatal classes and tell people what it's really like - how challenging, at times painful, ultimately rewarding and down right hilarious it really can be.

One final comedy annecdote for you all:
The other day I was talking to my husband and I used the phrase 'let down reflex'. He looked at me quizzically and said "What's a let down reflex? Is than when I ask you for sex and you say you're too tired?"

'Tis the season to be grumpy!

What is worse than going shopping in December? Going shopping in December with a pushchair!!!

It's hard enough to manouvre around shops without hundreds of Christmas shoppers in the way. And everyone seems to be in their own little world completely oblivious to the fact they're about to walk into my child. You know what really irritates me? That people have the cheek to scowl at me as if it's my fault when they walk into us. Oh I'm sorry, is my walking in a straight line interfering with your zig zaggy wandering around looking at the floor and/or texting - how thoughtless of me!?! Grrrrrr.

And what's with the loud music blaring from shops? Do they not understand I have a sleeping child with me and the success of my shopping trip is reliant on him staying that way.

And New Look - really? A DJ in the corner?! Is that really necessary? I don't come to your store to party, I come to shop. Or maybe that's just me and I'm no longer young and trendy enough to shop in your store.

Ok rant over.

Hubby is away for the weekend at an interview so it's just me and the boy. Figured since it's the first day of December we should probably start introducing Josiah to the whole idea of Christmas. In town his eyes lit up when he saw the Christmas lights and watching people ice skating had him transfixed. As well as attempting Christmas shopping, we spent the morning making these....

 

They are officially yummy and there is a strong chance there won't be any left by the time Josh gets home tomorrow!

If you would like to make your own yummy Christmas biscuits then here's what you need to do:

1) Cream together 100g of butter and 100g caster sugar

2) Add an egg yolk and a teaspoon of vanilla essence

3) Stir in 200g plain flour and kneed into a dough

4) Roll the dough out to 5mm thick. Using an 8cm star cutter cut out 24 stars. Then using a 2cm cutter cut the middle out of 12 of them. Put them all in the freezer for 10 mins.

5) Remove from the freezer. Spread jam on the whole stars and sandwich the ones with the middle missing on top.

6) Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 10-15 mins until golden.

7) Sprinkle with icing sugar to make them look a bit more fancy if you like.