Baby Update - 37 weeks old

Age:  37 weeks 

Weight: He was weighed 2 days ago at 36+5 and was 7.56 kg (16 lb 10 oz) so he's put on a good amount in the last 4 weeks.  I didn't think he felt like he'd put a lot on so that was a nice surprise.

Health: Things are pretty good at the moment.  His eczema is still bad on his cheeks but it doesn't seem to bother him too much, although he does rub his face a lot.  He's been off his medicine for a while and it doesn't seem to have had much impact.  He seems to have a bit of a struggle going to the toilet so I give him some prunes every couple of days and that seems to help a little.

Feeding: He is really hit and miss with his meals, sometimes he'll wolf down everything and other times he'll throw most of it.  It can be frustrating when he's refusing foods that he liked last week, especially as I don't like leaving him hungry but it's not the end of the world..  He's getting a lot of milk in overnight still so I'm not worried about his weight.  He's finally started drinking water during the day too so he doesn't breastfeed when he's thirsty so much any more.

Sleep: We've had a new routine for the last few days where ALS is sleeping on the sofabed so that OJ has plenty of space to roll around on the mattress next to me and we're not all disturbing each other.  It seemed to help for a day or two but now OJ is desperately trying to crawl and as soon as he stirs he starts rolling onto his front and fidgeting.  He doesn't sleep too badly until around 3 am but then it feels like he's constantly feeding until I give in and get up at 6 - I don't track feeds at this time of night, or even look at the clock, so I don't have an exact idea of how much he's awake as I'm mostly trying to stay asleep.

Routine: He's generally dropped down to 2 naps a day and has at least one long one, sometimes both.  Today he slept for 90 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon.  I try to make sure his last nap leaves him waking no later than 4 or bedtime is impossible.  He has milk around 6 when he wakes in a morning, then breakfast around 7:30, milk and a nap around 9/9:30, lunch around 11:30, milk and another nap around 1:30/2, dinner around 4/4:30 and then milk and bed at 7.  I make sure the TV is off from 6 and we have quiet playtime, read books and have a bath (every other day) to get him in the mood for bed.  Tonight I introduced a snack around 6 as he didn't eat much dinner but I'll play that by ear.  We're also trying to take his dummy off him, other than for sleeping and the car and to be honest it's going quite well - getting it off him for sleeping will be a whole different ball game though!

Likes/dislikes:  He loves bathtime and splashing around.  His favourite toys at the moment are balls, especially ones that rattle.  He loves tickles and riding in the trolley at the supermarket.  His favourite food at the moment is banana!  He doesn't like new people, especially if they're in our house and isn't a fan of loud/sudden noises.

Firsts:  First time helping himself to drink from a beaker.  First real attempt at crawling.

Milestones:  He's pretty much into 6-9 month clothes now, although still fits in some of his 3-6 month ones.  It's hard to tell as he's rarely in clothes with the weather being so hot!  He's really desperately trying to crawl.  He's getting around a lot more by rolling and very nearly crawled yesterday, he goes with his hands but ends up with his legs splayed behind him.  He's finally started taking sips of water and the other day I spotted him grab his beaker (I always leave one lying around) and start drinking by himself.  He's walking really well with his hands held now too.

Things we did: We had a nice chilled out day for ALS' birthday on Friday and his best friend (who's in the Navy) came over to stay for the night.  We then all went out for a meal for my birthday on Saturday.  There was 18 of us in total and about 12 came back to our house afterwards for cake, games and drinks.  It was very "adult" and the only clearing up I had to do on Sunday morning was the plates that we'd eaten cake from!  Grampy came to visit on Sunday and we had a very lazy day.  We had our last swimming session of the term on Monday and on Tuesday we went to get OJ weighed then I had a meeting at work to discuss my return.  Yesterday we went to Once Upon a Rhyme and when we've been at home we've been generally trying to encourage/teach crawling as he's getting so frustrated not being able to get where he wants to go!

Me: I've managed a few more workouts and feel physically a lot better.  However, mentally I'm really struggling with the idea of going back to work.  When I took the job I knew it was quite a commute but OJ was going to be nearby as he would be with my mum.  Obviously that's now not the case and to make it worth me working he needs to not be in childcare for the whole amount of hours I'm at work.  The plan is for him to go to childcare for a few hours in a morning, ALS to have him in the afternoon and then me have him in the evening when ALS goes back to work.  However, this means he'll be in childcare around 30 miles away from where I'm working so if anything happens it's a long way for me to get to him.  I'm also very aware that I'll be spending around 90 minutes a day commuting and it's all just stressing me out.  Hopefully once my hours are confirmed at the end of the week and we've found some childcare that we are happy with I'll chill out a bit because there's no way I can cope like this until November, last night I lay awake worrying and feeling sick until 1 am, which isn't ideal when OJ actually sleeps relatively well until then and then wakes up a lot!  I'm sure once I get into the swing of it I'll be fine but it's so far away I won't be able to function if I don't sort myself out, I keep telling myself it's too far ahead to worry about but my brain won't listen.  We can afford for me to stay at home but I've got to go back to work for at least 3 months or I'll have to give my maternity pay back... I'm not sure but I think that's around £4500 which is just impossible.  Ugh, enough of that, I'll figure something out one way or another.

I've taken far too few photos this week, but there have been a lot of videos (which I don't post on here) so it's not too bad!

36 weeks 1 day - Soy milk soaked Shreddies and prune puree makes for a messy breakfast, straight in the bath after... then another bath after tea contained strawberries and raspberries!

36 weeks 1 day - cheeky banana-eating face in Morrisons cafe.

36 weeks 2 days - OJ bought me some measuring cups for my birthday but he was a little reluctant to part with them!

36 weeks 2 days - exhausted from all the partying and socialising.

36 weeks 2 days - 12 people in our house but it was the neighbour's kids who woke him up!!

36 weeks 6 days - he's wearing his vest ironically!

37 weeks - daddy did breakfast while I got a bit more sleep so they had a living room picnic, I came downstairs just in time for banana!

It may look like the saddest bunch of birthday presents ever but I couldn't be happier with it!

Grampy brought presents for OJ from Costco, we'd seen these awesome bargains ourselves but resisted.  Julia Donaldson books are just wonderful - we've read them all in the last few days and Tyrannosaurus Drip is definitely my favourite!

This is what our living room looks like by bedtime and he's not even crawling yet!  However, 5 minutes is all it takes to clean up.  The blocks used to take forever to put away but I've got the hang of it now haha!