Ben is one cute baby, if I don't say so myself. He's very interactive, always smiling at you, which can often be quite a cheeky smile. He's making more and more talking noises. When I sing to him before his sleep, he loves it. He smiles and even "sings" along with me. I feel like he often does things to get my attention and he seems to really love it when he gets attention from people. At the moment, he seems to be a very happy and content baby.
Sleeping
Generally, Benjamin is a really settled sleeper. Most of the time he'll go sleep by himself without much of a cry, usually just a grizzle. If he's really unsettled (he has been having one period of being unsettled each day), he won't go to sleep unless I feed or rock him, but this doesn't happen too much.
He's still waking through the night - about 1 - 3 times. He's been pretty inconsistent at the moment, so I never know how often he'll wake and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I was waking him up around 10 - 10.30pm to give him the late evening feed in order to see if he'll then only wake once in the night. But, he still woke up twice during the night. So, I'm thinking of ditching it and just letting him wake up on his own. I would love it if he would consistently only wake once during that night - that would be a dream! On a positive note, he will often sleep in until 7 - 7.30am (and sometimes even later), which is great and slightly makes up for the night-waking :-)
I'm still wrapping Benjamin. I stopped wrapping him about a month ago, but he seemed to cry more and be more unsettled when going to sleep, so I started wrapping him again. He seems to like being wrapped and it's a good sleep cue for him.
Ben's been having about 4 naps a day. He'll often only nap for 45 - 60 mins, but over the last couple of days, he has had two 2 hour naps. He sleeps really well in the pram and car, which is great because we're often out most days. If I know that we're going out around his nap time, I'll put him to sleep in the car capsule before we go out so that I don't wake him up. The car capsule is fantastic! Today was the first day I've tried him on 3 naps (dropping the late afternoon nap). He was awake for over 2 hours this evening before going to bed and he has coped well with it so far. He's gone to bed really well tonight.
Wake time
Over the last few weeks Ben's wake time has been around an hour, maybe a little more. Over the last couple of days I've been stretching him out to see if he'll cope with being awake for longer as he seemed to be ready and wanting to go longer. Today his wake time has been 1 1/2 hours and that's gone well. He's been happy for most of the time and he lets us know when he's tired and wants to sleep. He's gone to sleep well after his wake time, so I'll take that as a good sign that he can manage the longer wake time.
Benjamin has started to grab hold of and play with his toys now. He often will grab a toy or blanket and put it in his mouth. Come to think of it, he often has things in his mouth - fingers, toys, etc., - whatever he can find.
Tummy Time
Benjamin is really good with being on his tummy. He can stay on his tummy for long periods of time. He often lifts up his bottom and bends his knees, looking like he's trying to get up on his knees. He moves around a lot on his tummy, but no sign of wanting to roll over as yet. I did notice that he's managing to move onto his side from time to time, though.
Feeding
Benjamin is a quick feeder, just like his brother. He'll often only feed for 5 - 10 mins at a time, and sometimes only on one side. He's very clear when he doesn't want any more. He throws his head back, away from me, and lifts his hands up to his head with a very cross look on his face, like what I'm trying to do is very offensive to him! As I mentioned previously, Ben has often wanted to feed every 2 - 2 1/2 hours, until recently. I think he's finally moving to a 3 hour routine now. Over the last few days when I've tried to feed him sooner than 3 hours, he's hardly had any milk or he refuses to have any. Today, most of his feeds have been 3 - 3 1/2 hours apart, with the afternoon and dinner feed being about 2 - 2 1/2 hours. This has been so much more manageable for me. I hope he'll continue this pattern.
Routine
So, Ben's not really been much of a routine baby. BUT yesterday and today have felt like he may be heading in that direction. So, today went something like this...
7.00am - Wake & breakfast feed
8.30am - Nap
10.15am - Wake & morning feed
11.40am - Nap
1.50pm - Wake & lunch feed
3.30pm - Nap
4.30pm - Wake & afternoon feed
6.30pm - Dinner feed
6.45pm - Bed
