Reflections of Weeks 34-38

Jack is a real delight. I love him so much and I really enjoy spending my days with him. A lot has happened in these last few weeks, but the most exciting thing of all is that Jack started to crawl!! He's babbling more and more. He now says, "babba", "mumma", "dadda" and "gurggle". He seems to babble in a conversational sort of way, which is very cute.

Crawling
Jack's been crawling for 2 weeks now. At the beginning of April he was able to get up on his knees and rock back and forth, but he didn't really know what to do with his hands. He was also pushing himself backwards, getting further and further away from what he wanted. After a week of getting up on his knees, he started to move his hands. He'd take a few steps at first, then he'd do more and more each day. Now he can crawl from one end of the house to the other. When he's hungry he'll crawl to me and follow me around. The other night when Dave came home from work Jack was really excited to see him. Dave went to have a shower and Jack crawled to the bathroom and sat outside the door. It's interesting to see that he's now made the connection that he can move to get to what he wants. He has pulled himself up once.

So far (holding my breath!), Jack hasn't been too adventurous with his crawling. He's not been too interested in getting in to things. He just discovered the bookshelf, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

The only problem we've been having is that he's been putting anything and everything in his mouth. Whatever he finds on the floor/ground, he'll put in his mouth. I got a big surprise the other day when I retrieved a brown, furry caterpillar from his mouth. It gave me such a shock that I flung it across the room. I suspected that he had something in his mouth, but I didn't think for one minute it would be a caterpillar! He was in the lounge room, so that was the last thing I was expected to pull out of his mouth.


Sleeping
Jack's sleeping has been going really well, once we got over that rough patch. He's generally been sleeping solidly at night. Before daylight savings changed he was sleeping to 7am, but now I'm lucky if he sleeps to 6.30am. I leave him in his cot until 7am. I'm hoping that he'll gradually get back to 7am. Occasionally he's been waking up and crying at night. I've had to go in and settle him a few times. Sometimes he's woken up because he's sick, other times I'm not sure why, but he gets pretty upset.

Jack's down to 2 naps now. In the morning he'll sleep for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours and in the afternoon he'll sleep for 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours. Every now and then his naps are short, but usually they're a pretty good length.

Waketime
Nothing really has changed here. He's usually awake for 2 hours, although he can handle being awake for 2 1/2 hours, depending on what happens. When he's ready for a nap, he'll snuggle his head on to my chest, under my chin, and suck his thumb.

Solids
Jack's eating has been going so well. He'll pretty much eat anything. He has definitely made the connection between hunger and food. Not long after his breastfeed he's ready for some solids. He's having four regular meals a day. From about 3pm to dinner time he seems to want to eat more. He gets really whingey between his last feed and dinner. It gets really hectic when I'm trying to make dinner and he's crawling over to me wanting food. Sometimes I put him in his high chair with a finger food so that I can get some space to get dinner finished. It's not too bad when Dave's home to entertain him, but it gets quite tricky when I'm on my own.

I suspect that he's less breast milk now. His feeds are shorter and he doesn't seem to be having as much. I'm going to try to drop a feed soon. I think I'll start to offer him solids before his feeds soon, too.

Discilpine
This has been tricky! We've been trying to teach Jack 'no'. A couple of weeks ago, this was proving to be futile (as seen when he was eating our basil plant). He just didn't understand. But, over the last couple of days, he has been listening at times when we've said 'no' to him. If he's going to touch something we don't want him to touch we say, 'Jack, no'. He stops. But then he'll go for it again :-) We'll say, 'Jack, no' again and he'll stop. But he'll try to touch it again. This usually goes on for a bit, until he gets bored and moves on to something else. I try to give him some positive reinforcement when he does listen and stops what he's doing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I am surprised that it has worked at all.

Babysitting
Over the last few weeks, Jack's been getting looked after more often. It seems much easier to do this now. On Friday afternoon I had to go to a funeral and on Saturday afternoon I played netball. Noelene (Dave's mum), came over while Jack was asleep to look after him for both days. When he woke up Noelene just gave him solids (I'm not bothering with the bottle as he's never been interested in it and rarely drinks much, so I don't see the point). Then Jack and Noelene had a lovely time playing, reading, or going for a walk, until I got home. When I got home I gave Jack a breast feed. I'm so glad that he has been really good for other people - he really is a happy and content baby, a real answer to prayer.

Routine
Nothing much has changed with his routine. I'm trying to make his feed times more consistent so that they're at the same time each day. He's better at waiting for a feed now. He doesn't seem to need a feed straight after he's woken up.

Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
1.00pm - Nap
2.30pm /3.00pm - Wake, feed, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed