4th Ear infection.

Because learning to crawl, perfecting rolling over, trying to pull himself up, 9 months sleep regression AND teething wasn't enough. There's no hope of a good night of sleep, is there?

another week

My little guys playing peekaboo early in the morning so
mummy can have breakfast with some strong coffee. 

another week has passed and I never made it to the computer to post all the stuff I thought about whilst feeding Harry for the 1000th time on the last 7 sleepless nights.
It seems lill guy is going through the 8 month sleep regression. I wouldn't call it a regression as such as he was actually a very good little sleeper as a newborn. All I know is that every night he wakes up and cries and cries. I say wake up,well he isn't asleep but isn't awake either. He just cries and I rock him , I hug him, I feed him and as soon as I put him down it all starts again. It goes like that for an hours or two and then I finally manage to get him down for a couple of hours. Last night that happened twice, TWICE!!! Luckily I went to bed early as on the previous night I only slept for 2 hours. I was up at 10:30 and finally manged to make it into bed by midnight then at 1:30 he started the second shift and that went until 3:30. Thankfully after that he was down until 6:15am so I actually got some rest after all.
Tonight daddy is relegated to the front room and as the night shift starts I'll bring Harry to my bed and make sure I get some proper sleep, at least that's the plan!! (I have been bringing him to our bed on and off at some point of the night for the past week, usually when i can no longer stay awake but we only have a double bed so that isn't a very comfortable situation and not all that safe either I don't think)
So I guess I am now forgiven for disappearing from the blogosphere for the past couple of weeks.

Flashback Friday - The time when I used to sleep

at 2 months he used to wake up full of smiles, he still does that but some mornings
I need to put myself together to smile back

So life with a baby is full of surprises and the biggest one for me is the fact that I've grown up surrounded by babies - being away I have lost count but I have over 15 nieces and nephews, not counting my parent's 4 gray grandchildren - and still there were things I never took notice of or thought about. One of those things is how your day's main topic becomes SLEEP.
I talk to one of the local mums almost daily and all out conversations seem to start with an update on how night went.
There is one mum at the children center who never talks sleep, of course her little girl sleeps through the night so instead she usually tells us about her nights in with the other half, romantic dinners, bottles of wine and active social life. Oh yes! There is life beyond sleep deprivation, hooray!
I miss the first few months when lill guy used to sleep 12 hours a night with the one feed and I used to wake up refreshed and ready to enjoy every moment with him.
Last night he fed at 11:30pm and 3am, he then woke up 5:30 this morning but after winging a bit stayed happily in his cot until I came in for the first feed of the day so I actually got a lie in, until 6am - SMILE!!.
These days i call that a good night. Early in the morning my breasts were so full, it felt like it used I to on the first few months. He has been feeding every 2 to 2:30 hours during the day and waking up at least every 3 hours during the night so I guess my body as well as my brain was taken by surprise by the "good night's sleep".
There are days when I sit in the front room early in the morning - often after a horrible night - and I daydream about having a proper lie in, like the ones we used to have on the weekends the get up for a junky breakfast and a pajama day. One day - i repeat to myself like a mantra - one day. For now it would be enough to get me over the moon if he just went back to be the good little sleeper that he once was.

This post is linked to Flashback Friday,  click on the link below to find out more!

and so it continues

Just as I thought;  after a whole month fighting Harry's cold, ear infection and diarrhea our poor little boy  is now teething.

The diarrhea started with the first antibiotics treatment and lasted until yesterday (week and a half after finishing the second treatment) and it was breaking my heart as most nights would include a full change of clothing as well as sleeping bag and bed sheets, after poor little guy has filled up his nappy with a runny number 2. The sight of his baboon like little behind was reason enough to lead me to tears.

Just my luck! When I thought we would start to get some sort of normality at night times, lill guy went all ratty and nervous and last night woke up every hour from midnight until 4am when, it seems, he gave up sleeping all together. Main problem was; he wouldn't t sleep but wouldn't wake up either so after a bit of a feed all we had was a screaming baby and a daddy whose alarm clock was about to go off at 5am.

We ended up the three of us in our bed, daddy enjoying his final half an hour of sleep, baby enjoy mummy's cuddles and eventually having a kip and mummy laying in bed in the most uncomfortable position ever and freezing her behind because all she could through over her was a thin fleeced blanket.

Finally at 6am, after being up and down every time Harry woke up and wouldn't stop crying - probably because he never slept in my bed before and didn't understand where he was - we both managed to sleep for an hour as this time he fed to sleep laying in bed so I could get myself comfortable enough to catch some shut eye.

So now my dilemma is, do i give him Calpol for the night and risk the diarrhea coming back or do I try to make do with bonjela  I'll leave this one for daddy to decide as i don't wanna kick myself for whatever happens lol

Result so far is that baby is tired and moody, mummy is moody and comfort eating - as well as really unlucky as the house if full of Christmas treats left overs - and daddy has another early morning tomorrow so won't be much help...oh well, I can always come here and moan about it.

One more sleep till Santa! Already?

If you thought I went on holiday and abandoned the blog I wouldn't blame you. I hardly posted anything this month, not even Harry's 6 months milestones. Never stopped by to tell you I started working (just a few hours a week from home but that's something already). Even my Flashback Fridays and Silent Sundays were forgotten in a few occasions.

What if I tell you that the first cold I told you about became an ear infection that is still going on? Today Harry finishes his second bottle of antibiotics and I can only hope his body has responded to the medication this time around. Would you forgive me then?

I've been ill as well but my main problem at the moment really are the sleepless nights. Lill guy no longer manage long sleeps and at some nights that means I'm up every hour. I do hope with all my heart that really is just because of his ear and all the medication he is taking at the moment.

no more playing on the floor until his ears are better so playing mat
on sofa bed instead

Of course I have no illusions and something tells me he won't go back to being that amazing lill sleeper he used to be AND I can tell that once he is better his bloody tooth that had been bothering him for months will finally decide to cut through, just you watch it!

The result of that - apart from grumpy baby who's fed up with being in pain and grumpy mum who an only daydream with a night's sleep - is that most of my Christmas traditions were left to the one side this year. No Winter Wonderland, no cute little Santa's helper outfit for Harry - by the time I managed to go to the shops they were all gone, all I could find was a rather cheep looking baby's 1st Christmas hat but of course I got that one lol.

Our presents were finally wrapped this weekend - luckily I always get our pressies online around October/November otherwise I would've had to face the masses this weekend.

In fact I almost cancelled Christmas, really. That happened when on Thursday I was finally out to get the final bits I needed for the big day and the other half calls to say he had the vomiting bug. Seriously??? I felt like sitting right down and cry, everything going so wrong. On the top of it all I lost a very dear member of my brazilian family just last Sunday and i know their Christmas won't be the best this year.

Thankfully the bug was just a stomach one and after a few days of little food and lots of rest today he is back at work. In terms of my family back home we are all searching for solace on the fact that my dear sister on law - who was more like a sister to me as she knew me since I was a baby - is now gone but my parent's 3rd granchild was born as aunt W was being buried and now her very own grandson is due within a few days. So now Christmas is back on track.

My poor boys on cozy sofa bed.

With everything that happened I decided to change my food shopping - I do that online as well so last minute changes are no problem - I decided to cheat big time and got everything ready to cook. This year I am only cooking a few bits from scratch rather then the whole roast dinner as I usually do.
Also have most foods ready for the family on Boxing Day - to be honest since Christmas to me is being with the family I'm more excited about the 26th than the 25th December this year.


Finally feels like it's Christmas and right now I can't wait to see Harry opening his presents.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Good sleeper gone bad...heeeeeeeellllllp

so up to a couple of months ago life was good and I didn't know. Evening was like this:
Daddy would get home from work and play with little guy until 6:30
6:30 massage and bath
7pm feed and bedtime.
3am night feed
7am wake wake

I remember complaining about it a couple of times and wondering how life would be whenever he started to sleep through the night. These days I think the gods were disappointed with me not understanding I had gold and decided to give me a hard time.

evening routine these days?
Daddy comes home from work to moody baby and mumy - often with a headache as well as a bad back - and plays with little guy until he starts screaming because only mum will do.
6:30 whatever much of a massage we can manage before he starts to kick off + bath or just a wash down on days when my back is just too achy for me to hold him in the tub
7pm seat down with now screaming baby for a feed then down to bed - not always that straight forward
10 and/or 11 and/or 12 and/or 1am and/or 2am and or 3am and/or 4am and/or 5am night feed
6am wake wake to a grumpy mummy who wish she her lovely good sleeper would return from wherever he is at the moment.

take last night as an example, he woke up at 11pm  - just as I got into bed after being silly enough to watch telly for a bit longer than i should have. Daddy always tries to comfort him and calm him down, if nothing helps then mum gets up to feed him to sleep. 11:30 I was off to bed until 2am when he kicked off again. This time as it wasn't even 3 hours since he fed, I rocked him to sleep. 3:30am night feed. 4:30am - only 1 hour after feed - he was wide awake smiling and giggling as if it was morning, mummy already panicking rocks him to sleep. Baby was just too full of beans and it took me forever to get him down AND of course he woke up as soon as I tried putting him to bed. By 5am I gave up and fed him to sleep once again.  by 5:30 I was back in bed only to be woken up at 5:50. This time he was doing his happy screaming so I left him to it but it wont lasts for a little while until it turns until an angry scream. By now baby is fed and changed and just there isn't anything else I can do. I very well tried to switch off the monitor and let him cry but my hormones since to overwrite my brain and that sort of thing just doesn't work for me. For a little bit I let him cry then daddy - who luckily booked the day off for today - went to his aid. No much can be done so he brings baby over to our bed. For about 20 minutes I was able to lay there while baby played until he kicked off and once again I rocked him to sleep.

Now here we are, me with a massive cup of coffee - the only one of the day as god forbid baby has any more caffeine than that - and little guy is playing happily like a baby who had a lovely night's sleep. How?????

Just for the record, I've tried giving him a bottle to see if that helps him settling for longer, he just won't take it at all.

If you've been there please I beg of you, leave me some advice, any ideas, anything!  If you are there, do share your story. We might find solace on each other's misery. But be ware, this is a rant post and THAT'S MOTHERHOOD FOR YOU or GET USED TO IT YOU WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN just won't cut it so if that is your comment then sod off  don't bother.