Baby Update - 44 week update

Age:  44 weeks

Weight: It will be a while before he's weighed again.

Health: We've had a tough week with him being full of cold but he's finally starting to get back to his normal self, although I'm not convinced he's not teething AGAIN.  We're at the doctors tomorrow to discuss his reflux but I've been giving him a dose of Gaviscon before bed and it seems to have helped.  It doesn't bother him too much during the day other than the occasional bout of hiccups.  

Feeding: He's been eating really well, trying new foods and things that he'd previously refused and is even eating meat well now.  I was kind of hoping he wouldn't really enjoy meat so I didn't have to cook it haha!  He still likes plenty of milk before sleep (both naps and bedtime) but he rarely wants it during the day otherwise.

Sleep: With the cold he's had some really unsettled sleep, often waking up after half an hour of lying down and being too congested to sleep.  We've also had a few nights where he's been awake for a couple of hours in the very early hours.  Last night he slept 6pm-6:15am (obviously with a few wake ups for milk) after 1.5 sachets of Gaviscon so tonight I've given him the full dose of 2 sachets.  It was probably coincidence though!  He's struggled to nap because of the congestion so he's had lots of pushchair or sofa naps.  Today we managed 2 naps in bed and he went down easily both times, with the 2, 3, 4 method.  However, his second nap was only 45 minutes and he was awake earlier than I'd like so he was tired too early tonight.  I managed to drag him out until just before 6 and he woke up after half an hour but went back down.  He wakes up EVERY night 30-45 minutes after going to bed before, sometimes, sleeping longer stretches.  It's always that first sleep cycle that's an issue, which is the same with naps too, but less so if I'm there to shush him when he first stirs.  I'm not sure whether to just see if it improves or try and stay with him until he's woken up and settled again in the hope that he gets used to staying asleep longer.

Routine: Pffft.

Likes/dislikes:  He loves crawling off and being chased.  He also really likes watching us vacuum or mow the lawn!  He isn't a fan of new people at the moment, particularly men.  He's rather addicted to the TV and his dummy, both of which we started cutting out until he got poorly so will have to start again!

Firsts:  First proper cold.   

Milestones:  He's 10 months old now and it's 2 years since he was conceived!  He has started clapping this week and now claps at EVERYTHING.  He's starting to get better at "lift-the-flap" books and can open the flaps in all directions now, rather than just the ones that are like turning a page.  He's very confident cruising around and tries to climb anything he can get his leg up to.

Things we did: As we've both been full of cold we haven't done much of anything this week.  Yesterday my dad came to visit for the afternoon and today I had another meeting with the Princes Trust which OJ joined me at.  The highlight of the week was definitely spending Monday afternoon visiting show homes that we definitely can't afford... it's one of my favourite pastimes.  It also motivated us to get our house in order so we've done a lot of cleaning, clearing and de-cluttering!

Me: I've had a cold for almost a week and it has now turned into a cough.  I do a lot of walking at the moment but, other than that, I can't remember the last time I did any exercise - it was before I had the last cold which was about 6 weeks ago!  I'm working hard on my business plan and contacting companies, it's just time consuming waiting for them to get back to me before I can apply for the next one.

43 weeks 1 day - poorly boy having mummy snuggles in the morning.

43 weeks 1 day - sofa nap for my little snuffly babe.

43 weeks 1 day - refusing to sleep but very excited to be ripping up bits of toilet roll!

43 weeks 2 days - watching daddy mowing the lawn.

43 weeks 3 days - "helping" mummy with the washing!

44 weeks - 10 month growth photo which took 2 separate sets of photos, moving to the floor before he lunged off the sofa and a biscuity bribe to sit still!  I've posted some of my favourite outtakes below because they're just too cute.

He looks like he's backing away from a monster!

Throwing the ball to doggy!

Having a little chew on doggy.

The start of a series of 3, nothing untoward until you blink...

... and he gets closer.  Blink again...

...and this happens!  It's like something out of a horror movie but a super cute one.

"Haven't you finished taking photos yet?"

"Seriously... get a move on!"

Just look at that face <3

43 weeks 4 days - yet another sofa nap, lots of nap photos this week!

43 weeks 5 days - napping outside in the fresh air.

43 weeks 6 days - normally he hates nappy changes and won't lie still but an episode of Billy & Bambam had him entranced, because he was tired, so he stayed there for a good few minutes after I was done.

43 weeks 6 days - had to go for a walk to get him to sleep so that I could cut his nails before he took someone's eye out!

44 weeks - enjoying a nice walk and looking like a bit of a thug haha!