Baby Update - 48 weeks old

Age:  48 weeks

Weight: He won't be weighed now until just before his birthday.

Health: His ranitidine has been increased to the maximum dose as they'd put him back on a lower dose than before.  He's still having some issues with his teeth but he now has all 4 premolars at least partly through, that's THIRTEEN teeth.  I've never known a baby so young have so many teeth.  He's been really miserable for a few days but seems to have chirped up again a little in the last couple so hopefully the worst is over although he's screaming a LOT at night and I'm not sure if that's teeth, reflux, something else bugging him or just general tiredness and fighting sleep.  His face had cleared up nicely but has really flared up again over the last couple of days too.  

Feeding: He's been off his food on and off for a few weeks and I'm blaming the teeth.  I'm just offering milk and and when he wants it and continuing to offer 3 meals a day with a variety of foods.  I am trying to stop him feeding so often at night as we had a few nights were he was feeding constantly and not really sleeping so I try not to offer milk unless it's been 2 or 3 hours minimum since he last had it.  If he's really upset or restless I'll let him have some but we're just playing it by ear. 

Sleep: We had a few days last week where he was just feeding constantly almost all night and I was getting no sleep so we implemented the above plan.  We're also trying to be stricter with screen time during the day and not bring him downstairs at night if he won't sleep (unless it's the middle of the night and he's wide awake and has been for a while).  The last 4 nights have been horrible trying to get him to sleep (last night he fell asleep feeding straight away but then woke 30 minutes later to battle).  He'll feed then roam around for a bit before settling and trying to sleep.  He then almost falls asleep but jerks away or sits up and cries.  This eventually escalates into screaming as he gets tireder and tireder and it's taken up to 90 minutes to get him to sleep.  We've switched to Ambesol liquid for his teeth and are giving him the maximum dose of ranitidine, although we've run out of Gaviscon so maybe that's not helping.  I've been offering Calprofen after about 20 minutes of screaming in case its his teeth and he usually sleeps about 20-30 minutes after that but it could just be coincidence.  Tomorrow I think I'll try Calprofen at bedtime and see if we still have the screaming.

Routine: Maybe when I'm back at work and he's at nursery?  We can dream.

Likes/dislikes:  He likes playing with his medicine syringes for some reason and loves empty pop bottles - who needs toys??  He loves stir fry and it's the only meal he's really enjoyed this week - except for his breakfast, he often demolishes bowl after bowl of Cheerios!  He absolutely detests being restrained for nappy changes, clothes changes, drying after the bath or any other reason.  He has tantrums now if he's taken away from something he wants, told no or if people don't share their food with him.

Firsts:  He's taken a couple of very wobbly steps into mine and Ant's arms this week... mostly just falling into us but it's a start.   First real "daddy day" while I was poorly last Friday, all I did was give him milk and daddy did everything else.  

Milestones:  He's getting much better at standing unassisted and now controls himself back to sitting without having to hold on to anything.  He's gotten really vocal in the last couple of days and is back to shouting "mamamama" constantly.  He's not using any words in context or saying anything but "mama" but he is making lots of sounds.  

Things we did: On Friday I had a stomach bug.  OJ and I went to the park in the morning and I just made it home in time to throw my guts up.  Fortunately he'd fallen asleep on the way home and stayed asleep until daddy got home to take over.  They had a chilled day together and I spent the day in bed.  On Saturday ALS had a kickboxing seminar in Long Eaton so OJ and I went to West Park (although he was grumpy the whole time) and on Sunday we went swimming for a catch up as we couldn't go on Monday and then picked up our new car.  On Monday I had my CT scan (I had to go to a separate waiting room and leave OJ with Nana and Grandpapa, he was super tired and I could hear him screaming which broke my heart.  However they took him to the play area and he was having a whale of a time by the time I was done).  We've had a few chilled out days since then to try and recover from all the sleep deprivation.

Me: I ended up down at 49.5 kg after a nasty sickness bug on Friday and I had my CT scan on Monday.  Yesterday the GP rang to let me know the results were normal and I have a telephone appointment with her tomorrow to discuss where we go from here.  I'm absolutely exhausted and haven't really had chance to recover from being ill.  ALS is amazing and does as much as he can but obviously he has to work.  With OJ's sleep being so bad I'm starting to feel like a rubbish mum again, I know I'm not really but I just wish I knew what was keeping him awake at night.  I expected random screaming fits as a newborn (although we had none) but I thought that sort of thing would be getting better rather than worse at this age.  I've managed to remain pretty calm and deal with the screaming and lack of sleep but it's still horrible not being able to help your baby sleep when he's clearly exhausted.  He's getting a lot more cuddly which is nice though.

We also picked up our new car at the weekend and I LOVE it.  I've never driven anything other than my car successful in 10 years but this one is an automatic and was so easy to adapt to, I can't wait to take it for a proper drive at the weekend.

47 weeks 1 day - cheesy grin on the way to the park!

47 weeks 1 day - enjoying a go on the swings.

47 weeks 1 day - just wanted to crawl around on the park.

47 weeks 1 day - tired out from his trip to the park and looking precious while we waited for daddy to come home to take over.

47 weeks 1 day - fast asleep in bed after his impromptu day with daddy.

47 weeks 2 days - fast asleep while mummy waits to go to the park.

47 weeks 2 days - having a little snack on the grass to try and keep him happy.

47 weeks 2 days - having another little snack on a bench after refusing his pushchair... look at mummy's silly hair.

47 weeks 4 days - when I have toast in a morning OJ likes to steal my crusts, I hate eating crusts so it works nicely for me!

47 weeks 4 days - after our first 90 minute bedtime battle of the week.

47 weeks 5 days - feeling super refreshed after we had an almost 3 hour nap together the other morning, I woke up expecting us to have been asleep for maybe 2 hours maximum and was amazed when I looked at the clock.  He never sleeps so long without waking!

47 weeks 5 days - 11 month growth photo, amazingly this only took a minute to get as he happily sat and posed for once instead of trying to run away!

47 weeks 5 days - "Oh man... are you guys taking photos again?"

47 weeks 5 days - look at that cute little face... also note the bump on his forehead, we aren't sure where it came from but he bangs his head against everything when he's tired so we think it's just a culmination.

47 weeks 5 days - sometimes I wonder why I ever bother tidying up but whatever keeps him happy!

47 weeks 6 days - shovelling stir fry and frozen fruit dots into his face.

48 weeks - he woke up from his nap and just wanted to snuggle up to my face so we took some selfies, he looked surprised.

48 weeks - post-nap snuggles with a super sleepy boy.  I love that he likes snuggles nowadays.