Reflections of Week 30

This week has been hard. We've all been sick and that has made life pretty exhausting. Jack has seemed like more work this week. He has been crying a lot more and I have felt very drained.

Sleeping
Jack's sleeping has generally been good. He has woken up a few times in the night, but he usually goes back to sleep. The other night he woke up crying (unusual). I suspected he was hungry and that he wouldn't go back to sleep (well, not for long, anyway), so I decided to feed him. His last feed the previous night was 5pm. I'm not sure if that feed was too early (I've fed him before at that time and he has slept fine) and that was why he woke up.

Other the last few days, I has been crying before going to sleep for both his naps and bed time. I'm not really sure why he has started to cry (the possibilities are endless). He has been crying for about 30 - 45 minutes and I have been finding this very draining. I was starting to not wrap his arms when I put him down. This was working well for a couple of days, but then he started crying so I started to wrap him again. I don't think not wrapping him has anything to do with his crying as he still cried this morning, and he was wrapped, but I'm trying to eliminate possibilities. I suspect that his nose is blocked and congested, which may be upsetting him as he tries to go to sleep. Who knows?

Illness
As you can see, Jack is still sick. He sneezed and then there was this huge snot bubble. I couldn't resist taking a photo :-)

He's been sick for a few weeks now. I thought he was getting over it, but then he got a runny nose, which runs and runs and runs...Every time I wipe his nose, he cries. He hates me doing it, but if I don't wipe it, he rubs his hands in it and then the snot gets EVERYWHERE! I think he may be getting better now. Today, his nose doesn't seem so bad.

Wake Time
Jack is still up for 2 hours. This has been going well. He is quite content when he's sitting up. He plays for ages on his mat, sitting up, with his toys surrounding him. He rarely falls over now. Maybe once per play time.

I put him on his tummy to encourage him to crawl, but he gets pretty sick of it after a short time. Sometimes, I put him on his hands and knees, but he doesn't really know what to do and eventually slides back down onto his tummy. He really has no interest in crawling at the moment - something that I'm sure I should be happy about, as most seasoned mothers tell me :-).

Solids
Well, things have pretty OK for solids. He doesn't really eat all that much and I have to accept when he's had enough and stop pestering him to eat more. He's been more fussy and whingy these last few days. Today he's been crying a lot when we sit down to eat. I'm assuming it's because he's sick, but I really don't know. I'm at the point of giving up as I'm getting sick of listening to him crying.

On a positive note, he has been eating a good range of food, though. He's tried Korma and he enjoys eating rice. Pumpkin is still very much one of his top foods. We were at a cafe when Jack saw some mixed lettuce on my plate and made a lunge for it. He seemed quite determined to try some, so I let him. He was quite happy sucking away on it, until he couldn't get it out of his mouth, then he wasn't too happy.

The draw back with this solid eating stuff is how it all comes out at the other end - or, doesn't come out. Poor Jacky Boy has been constipated :-( He's been straining quite a bit and been very unsettled. Finally, it all came out Yesterday. Unfortunately, most of it came out in the bath. I won't go into details. Let's just say a lot of bleach was used and I'm still trying to get the image out of my head. The joys of being a parent....

Routine
Generally, I'm feeding Jack 4 times a day. There has been some days where I've given him an extra feed before bed if his late afternoon feed was too early. I'm still trying to work out when I should give him his last feed...He has been pretty consistent with his morning wake up. Over the last few days, he has been waking up pretty close to 7am, which is great.