Reflections of Week 33

This week started out well, but has gradually gone down hill. Over the last couple of days, I have noticed a change in Jack. He's started to have really short naps in the day and he has been more unsettled. I feel like we were in sunshine and now we're heading into some dark clouds.

On a positive note, he has been blowing raspberries quite a bit this week and his "talking" has increased. It's really nice to listen to his babbles.

Sleeping
His sleeping has been going well. But, the last two nights he has cried quite a bit before going to bed (which he hadn't been doing at all previously). Tonight he took over half an hour to settle down. Dave and I went in to settled him a few times before he settled and went to sleep.

Jack's been rolling on to his tummy again in his cot. A few times, he's fallen asleep on his tummy. On night, he'd fallen asleep with his head on his hands. He looked adorable. Sometimes he gets upset about being in his tummy, but he won't roll on to his back (even though I know he can). Not sure what's going on there...

As I said earlier, Jack's been having pretty bad naps over the last few days. He had a great 2 1/2 hour nap on Wednesday, but since then, they've been around 30 - 40 mins. His naps are usually this long if we're out, but they've been like this at home as well. I know for sure that he's not getting enough sleep as he's rubbing his eyes a lot and he's not as happy. He won;t go back to sleep once he's awake, so I'm not really sure what to do about it, if I can do anything at all.

Jack's had a few days this week where he's dropped his third nap. This has been working really well. But, once he starting having really short naps, he's needed the third nap.

Illness
Jack's got ANOTHER runny nose. :-(

Wake Time
Not much has changed here. I'm trying to give him more tummy time to encourage his crawling. Some days he doesn't mind being on his tummy, other days he doesn't really like it. I was told today that if babies are encouraged to sit before they can crawl, it inhibits their crawling. So, don't I feel great? I've stunted Jack's development. Anything else?....

Solids
...Ah, that's right, I've also made Jack constipated :-( I was researching what food causes constipation in babies and it turns out that it was all the food that I was giving Jack. Food like apple sauce, bananas, rice, toast, potatoes, lots of dairy, carrots. It's also caused by a lack of fluid. Jack doesn't drink much water. It's really hard to get him to drink much, but we're working on it. We ended up giving him some coloxyl as it wasn't sorting itself out. I think this has been effecting his sleep and mood as well. He's not completely sorted yet, but it's improving.

So, I've changed his diet a little bit. I've cooked up a lot of vegetable and fruit 'mashes' (I put the mashes in ice-cube trays, froze them and then put the frozen cubes into snap-lock bags. This makes it really easy to get food for Jack). I've tried to use fibre-friendly foods - peaches, apricots, prunes, broccoli, peas, etc. Jack's been eating his solids really well. He has about 3-4 meals a day. He eats a lot a dinner, but not as much for breakfast.

Discipline
This is continuing to be "interesting". This week the battle has been over Jack's hat. Jack has learnt how to take off his hat. A part of me thinks, "Yay!! Jack has learnt to take his hat off! Good boy, Jackie!", and the other part thinks, "Noooo!! Jack has learnt to take his hat of!! That's so annoying!." The encounter usually involves Jack taking his hat off and me putting it back on and saying, "No. Leave your hat on, Jack." Jack then tries to take it off again while I hold my hand down on his head, preventing him from taking it off. Jack then cries. I turn my back and Jack takes his hat off....and so it goes on...My friends from bible study tell me this is just a phase. I certainly hope so.

Swimming
I thought I'd give an update on how Jack's going with his swimming lessons. Jack has been going pretty well. Most of the time, he just floats around and stares at all the people and interesting things going on. He doesn't really 'love' it, but I think he enjoys it to some extent. He's not cried since his first couple of lessons, which has been an improvement. When the instructor puts him under the water, he doesn't seem to mind and he closes his mouth, so that's good. I don't think that I'll do it next term, though. I don't think he's getting enough out of it at the moment to justify going. I'd rather just go by myself (or with some friends) and let him play in the water, as I think I can do the same things that we do in the lesson at this stage.

Routine
Things have been pretty much the same, except a some days Jack has dropped his third nap and some days he's had pretty short naps.

Here's what a typical day looks like:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00am - Nap
10.00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
12.00pm - Nap
1.30pm - Wake, feed, solids, play
3.30pm - Nap
4.30/5.00pm - Wake, feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

Some days, I keep him awake until 9.30/10.00am if I'm going out to a friend's place or mothers group. If this happens, the routine looks more like this:

7:30am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.30am-10.00 - Nap
11.00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
1.00pm - Nap
2.00-3.00pm - Wake, feed, solids, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed

The times vary each day, but I do try to make sure that we eat dinner at 6pm and he's in bed by 7pm. I think the bedtime routine is pretty important so I stick to that as much as I can.