Life

Dropping daytime naps at 17 months??? Nooooooo!

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Monkey has been worrying me slightly this week. For a while now we have had an awesome routine, where we are busy all morning and then he naps really well in the afternoon. (And I can get some jobs done, or blog or rest etc.) The amount of time he sleeps can fluctuate quite a bit, but apart from the odd occasion where he only sleeps for 40 mins, he generally sleeps for a good hour and a half at the very least, and most of the time it’s more like 2 and a half hours! Which is amazing. He always sleeps really well overnight too, generally from 7.15 to about 6.30/7am. Sometimes he is still randomly awake (and happy) in his cot at like 8pm, but not often and he usually sorts himself out.

Anyway, it started at the weekend, and on Saturday afternoon he went to bed (seemingly tired) at around 1.45 ish, which is pretty normal, but then didn’t actually go to sleep until nearly 2.40. He was perfectly happy, chattering and giggling so I didn’t worry and he did sleep in the end, it just meant we had to wake him up at 4.30 so it didn’t mess up night time. Anyway then on Sunday, he went for his nap, but DIDN’T SLEEP AT ALL!! Me no likey! He was perfectly happy the whole time, and we kept hoping he would go off to sleep, so he was up there for nearly 2 hours! I guess he was resting at the least but the worrying thing for me was that he was happy the whole time and happy all evening, in other words, he can cope without a daytime nap, WHAT???!!!!

Ok, so I know I am lucky with the routine we have had. It wasn’t always so easy, we did the Ferber progressive wait when he was three months old and it changed our lives, he became a brilliant sleeper. I know it isn’t for everyone and for a long time we didn’t want to try it, but it absolutely worked for us. Anyway, I also know that at some point he isn’t going to need to nap during the day any more and I will have to cope with him being awake all day. But, I have really been hoping that it won’t be for some time yet. I was hoping that in 6 months to a year, when he is happier playing more independently, and using his imagination at playtime, and basically not needing my input or help as much, then I will be able to cope with the no more daytime naps. But 17-18 months seems so early!! I also in the back of my mind thought that no more naps, may coincide with playgroup or something 1 or 2 afternoons a week, but we will see.

All week has been up and down but it has pretty much taken him ages to get to sleep everyday, although Monday and Tuesday he did sleep. Yesterday however, he did it again! No sleep! Just chatting and happy in his cot for about 2 hours. We both got a rest obviously and who knows maybe he did doze a bit, but it’s concerning me a lot. We had had quite an easy day though as his grandparents came round and we were nattering and chatting a lot. So maybe he just wasn’t tired enough?

I took to my good friend Google and searched various forums online and found other mums in the same situation. Some whose children dropped their naps at around this age and never slept in the day again (Yipes!) others where it was just a phase and they carried on putting them down and they just started napping in the day again. (Please please please)

I have decided I am not going to let him drop his naps without a fight, this may seem selfish, but seriously how can he go from a 2 1/2 hour sleep to 0?? No way. So today I have been on a mission to tire him out! We have been out at the shops without the buggy. Interesting and I got laughed at by a passer by when I was trying out a ‘look, don’t touch’ method, but otherwise it was fine and we had fun.

Then after lunch we went for a walk to a local play park. Normally we go in the buggy and it takes about 10 mins to get there. At Monkey speed it took us 40 minutes! Was fun though, and we had a short play at the park then I wanted to come home before he got too tired. I failed in this though as his poor little legs were far too tired for the journey home! I don’t blame him because my legs are tired too! I managed to get him to walk about half way but then had to carry him the rest, and boy is he heavy now!! We came in and started to play a little but he was getting very easily frustrated, which is a clear sign of tiredness with him.

So up he went to bed and after just a couple of minutes chattering he is fast asleep! Phew! So clearly I need to tire him out more to keep this nap, we shall see how it goes. When did your little ones drop daytime naps? How did you cope?

 

 

Remembering why I want to be a SAHM… for now

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After my ever so slightly gloomy post from the weekend I thought I would check in and say that I am feeling much better again. My negative head is back in it’s box! I am in a really lucky position to be a stay at home mum and I know that, but I guess we all wonder what we are doing with our lives sometimes. Being a stay at home mum is what I want to be right now, but I guess it isn’t what I want forever. I know that once the little ones are older that I will want to do something or go back to work, of some kind or another! But I would like this to fit around my family life. We want to have another baby in the next year or two so I am going to be at home for a while longer but I am also starting to think about what I would like to do with my life after this.

For me, being a stay at home mum is really important. I like being the one to raise my child and teach him about the world.I am in a really lucky position in that I am able to do this as we can afford to live on my husbands salary. I understand though that this isn’t a choice for everyone, and that for some people, even if they didn’t have to go back to work, that they would want to. As ever I am not judging anyone else’s decisions, just thinking about what is right for me and my family.

After feeling so down I also had a chat with my mum about things, as she was a stay at home mum when I was little so it’s nice to chat from her perspective. She went back to work when we were at school. It’s quite a long time ago now but she says she remembers looking at us as adults and feeling so proud and confident because as she quite rightly says, “I did that.” And, well, my mum can be quite soppy and she said that if ever she has a down day she thinks of my brothers and I and feels really proud of us, and herself for the way we have all turned out, which is just lovely really! I hope I can look at my grown up children one day and feel the same way, and be proud of the way that I raised my children, because that is what it is all about.

As a stay at home parent you don’t get achievements in the form of pay rises, promotions, certificates etc, it’s difficult to mark successes. But at the weekend, when my little boy showed us that when asked, he can point to his nose, his ears, his tummy, his head, his mouth and his toes, I was so proud! It’s nice to see that he is learning what I am teaching, to prove to myself that I am doing a good job.

While I very much enjoy my time spent day to day with my little monkey, it also nice to be able to use my brain a bit more sometimes too. I do some accounts work for my husband’s business, I blog, bake and crochet but I know that one day, I will want something more for me. I’m also very lucky that I am in a position where I can really think about what I want to do. It’s quite strange and it’s not like we are loaded or anything, but we have been managing pretty well money-wise right now. When it does come time to go back to work I can try to do something that I really want, rather than doing whatever I can to get a job. So anyway, I need to think about what this is and I kind of feel pressure to be successful, but I think it’s more the pressure I put on myself, maybe I am more ambitious than I thought!

In the meantime though, I am a bit refocussed on making the most of the time with Monkey and enjoying being a stay at home mum.

 

 

My negative head has taken over this morning…

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I had a really lovely week this week. We are all well again after being poorly and it has just been nice and relaxed and Monkey and I have had a lot of fun. But, for some reason, I have woken up this morning with my negative head on. Does anyone else ever get this? When I have my negative head on it is like all of the niggles that usually live in the back of my mind, come flying to the front and seem insurmountable. The happy mundane routine of life at the moment suddenly seems stifling and I feel like I want to escape….. but to where or what, I don’t know.

I am alternating between stomping round the house, shouting at objects, (such as my phone because it won’t do what I want) and sitting crying and thinking about all the negatives in life. I should point out at this point that Monkey is out with Daddy for an hour or so, so he isn’t witnessing any of this! I am generally a positive and happy person. I try to look at the positives in life, so this is all quite out of character for me, but it does happen sometimes, and as this blog is about my life as a stay at home mum, I feel I need to share the lows as well as the highs. I am not using this blog to try and make myself out to be the perfect mum, far from it! I also find that it is quite cathartic to get it all out of my head by writing it down.

I made the decision to be a stay at home mum. It was my decision and mine alone, with the support of my husband. I have written a lot about this decision in the past so won’t go into detail here, but most of the time I love watching Monkey grow and develop and I feel I have made the right choice. But on days like today, when my negative head has taken over, I am back to doubting all of this again. I wonder if I am using being a stay at home mum to hide from the pressure of having to do something in my life or to be successful. I wonder if being a stay at home mum is enough for me or if I should be doing something else. I feel like a failure which also feels crazy because I chose to do it and I try very hard to do a good job. I don’t feel like I am failing at being a mummy, I’m not a domestic goddess or anything but I don’t feel like I am failing at that specifically either. I just feel like I am failing in general, maybe because there is no evidence of success or achievement? I don’t know if this rings any bells with anyone or if it just makes no sense at all from the outside.

So I start to wonder if I can do something else, I mean I crochet and I blog but I wonder if there is something else I can do to give myself more of a feeling of achievement. I used to love photography and drawing, and I wonder about writing a story or something, but then the negative head hits back at these attempts to find a positive solutions, and tells me I am not creative enough or talented enough to be successful so why bother. So I wonder if I should go back to work but then I do a full circle and think about the Monkey and I do know that I don’t want to leave him to go to work. I could work from home, but do what? And find the time where? Then the negative head tells me I am lazy and unmotivated… maybe I am.

My negative head usually doesn’t stick around for long, and sharing these thoughts on here already seems to be diminishing it’s hold over me. Hubby and Monkey are back and chomping on the flapjacks fresh from the oven and I feel myself coming back. But I know it will take over again one day to cast shadows and doubt over my purposefully happy and mundane life. For now though I am going to sign off and try and enjoy this sunny Sunday with my family.

Aaah back to normality and some muddy autumnal fun

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Much as I love my husband and loved him being at home last week, it was nice to get back to normal this week. Last week didn’t exactly go as planned, and with us both feeling so poorly we were shut up inside the house more than we would normally be, so by Sunday we were getting on each others nerves a bit (especially with a healthy dose of PMT added to the mix!). I think if we had been able to get out and do all the things we planned last week it would have been different, but as it was, by Monday morning it was nice to get back to normal.

Monday is normally a Nanny day (and Grandpops if his shift pattern allows) and we went for a lovely autumnal trip to a local play area, which was great fun. Mummy and Nanny were having lots of fun kicking up leaves, though Monkey didn’t really see the fun in that as much as we did! hehe

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Tuesdays was tumbletots, which he loves, and then just some general playtime and a trip to the shops. Wednesday we were supposed to meet some friends at a soft play place, however one of my friends little girl has chicken pox! She is a year older than Monkey and we did consider a chicken pox party so he could get it out of the way, but I am sooo not ready for him to have it yet. My other friend’s little ones are also poorly and they were off to the doctors so we had to come up with another plan.

It was a bit grey and gloomy but not too horrible out so we made an impromptu trip out to a local country park to have a run around, and bumped into Grandma and Granddad! Which was a lovely surprise! We had lots of playtime with them, a nice cup of tea in the cafe when it got a bit cold, and some running around in the mud. After deciding to sit down in a big muddy puddle Monkey was very muddy by the end of it but lots of fun was had so that’s all that matters.

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Thursday another friend and I took our little ones to a soft play centre we hadn’t tried before, and although Monkey was nervous and clingy to start with (as he can be in new places) we had a really love time. Monkey warmed up and started playing by himself so my friend and I got to have some good mummy chats which was very much needed for both us, so it was really lovely. Her little ones really enjoyed it too .

Friday is a day with the grandparents which is always lovely and a really nice way to end the week. Nice to all be well and happy and just generally, back to normal! 🙂

A wonderful day at the aquarium… followed by a less than wonderful week

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Last week was hubby’s birthday so he took the whole week off! We had been looking forward to it for ages. We had lots of nice, simple things planned to spend time with family, and for hubby to spend some time with Monkey, and me of course :). We thought about going away somewhere but with it being half term everywhere was quite expensive, and this time of year can be difficult to predict with the weather, so we decided to just take day trips from home.

The first day we had planned was to go to the Sea Life centre in Hunstanton, which is the nearest one to us, just over an hour away. My parents (Nanny and Grandpops) were really excited to come too. Our plans very nearly got scuppered by the ‘Big Storm’ on the sunday but thankfully by Monday morning it was nowhere near us or the journey so we headed off. It was certainly a wet and windy day but it was also such a lovely day!

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Monkey loved every minute and was so good. He loved the fish and the rays and the Seals. It was really nice to get out and do something different, you know?

 

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It was such a great day, but unfortunately the week went rapidly downhill from there… that night we were shattered so went to bed at about 9, but unfortunately just an hour or so later I was up, and that was it, for the rest of the night I had the worst sickness and diarrhoea of my life. I knew some friends had had a bug recently and I guess I got it! It was so awful, and lasted most of the week :(. Hubby got it too, though thankfully not quite as badly… I got food poisoning years ago when I was travelling in Peru and honestly my tummy has not been the same since. Anyway no further details needed, we were so grateful that Monkey didn’t get ill too!

But needless to say, our plans for the week were very much scuppered! I spent most of the week asleep and Hubby wasn’t right either so we had to call on the grandparents to help keep the Monkey busy and look after us. We are so lucky to have our family close by for emergencies.

We are all much better now thankfully and happy to get back to normal. It wasn’t exactly the week we had planned but Hubby at least managed to have a lot of fun with Monkey and we did manage to get out a bit by the weekend. I am just so pleased we made it to the Sea Life centre on Monday, so the week wasn’t a total washout!

 

A busy old week and bringing the fun back to bathtime.

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Phewwww it has been a busy old time the last week or so, hence the lack of posts! Things will hopefully be calming down a bit again now thankfully!

So, what have we been up to? Well, last weekend I went to visit some friends in London fro a proper girls night out! I love my Monkey and Hubby and I love being a stay at home mum, but sometimes it’s nice to get back to being me again, do you know what I mean? Anyway was just lovely to have a good girly catch up with them.

The downside to last weekend (aside from the hangover) was that Monkey came down with a bug or something. We realised he had a temperature just as I was about to leave, and although of course it made me hesitate, I knew he was fine in Daddy’s capable hands. He did get really poorly though bless him, and while I was on the train home the next day I was getting updates of sobbing and sweating and couldn’t wait to get home and help out.

So he was poorly for a few days, and hate to say we don’t really know what was wrong, just high temperatures and really unhappy and not at all his usual self. Could be his last big teeth starting to come through? Isn’t that what all parents think when there is an unexplained illness, oh it must be teething! He he anyway no idea but he’s been up and down all week and threw up all over me Thursday, seems better over the weekend though, fingers crossed anyway!

We’ve also had the delivery of one of our new sofas this week, which is very exciting! Though it also meant a lot of work as we needed to shift furniture around (and therefore empty out a unit, thoroughly clean everywhere) to get the old sofa into the conservatory etc. etc. To complicate things even more I had invited my friends and the kiddies round on Thursday, and obviously wanted the house to be nice and clean and tidy for that!

The sofa came and looks fab but Thursday with a house full was a bit chaotic. A few of the little ones had been under the weather recently and weren’t quite themselves, so there was quite a bit of crying and whining and fighting with the toddlers, and crying babies! Phew! Was lovely to see my friends as always and nice to catch up but it was pretty mental for a while! I don’t know how nursery staff cope with all of that going on! I love being a stay at home mum but I couldn’t do it as a full time job with lots of other people’s kiddies, I would go insane!!

What else has been going on…. oh yes, bath time! Monkey has always loved bath time. He has always had so much fun in there. We have video after video of him chuckling in the bath and having a whale of a time. But lately, he hates it. No idea why, he will stand next to the bath and play with the water happily, but put him in and he screams! Play at his usual favourites, distract him, even get a smile, but stop and he remembers where he is and he starts wailing again. So weird!! I am sure it is just a phase and maybe he would get over it naturally but we thought we should try and make it a bit more fun for him again.

I vaguely remembered seeing a whole bath toy display at a local garden centre and thought I had seen some sort of bath crayons or something. Monkey loves drawing so I hoped that would work. We got the crayons but also got some little boats, just to make a change. Anyway Day 1 of the bath crayons and he did so well! As soon as he saw the crayons he was straight in there and had a really long and happy bathy with his Daddy. So, yay!

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The only slight problem is that it has stained the grout a bit, it does warn you on the packet so it’s a decision you have to make, and well, we can live it. I will maybe try and bleach it off or something but it’s not coming off with regular bathroom cleaner. Ah well!!

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The rough with the smooth… and good samaritans

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We had a pretty miserable day yesterday and Monkey was not happy no matter what we seemed to do. We had so much whining (which I am afraid to say really grates my nerves) and it all built up to a huge battle of wills at lunchtime. He has been getting fussier and fussier with food again over the last few weeks, I won’t go into too much detail here I have written about mealtime battles before and am writing a longer blog about dealing with food issues so it is all in one place, rather than boring you all with endless blogs about the same thing!

But anyway, yesterday lunchtime was a screaming, wailing nightmare with him refusing to eat his falafel, which I know he loves. We ended up taking him out just to get out of the house, hoping for a change of scene to help. Eventually, after realising he really wasn’t going to get anything else, he took a tiny bite out of the tupperware pot I had transferred it to, and then scoffed the lot because oh yes I really like this. Grrrr Why we had to have half an hour of screaming before this I do not know.

He was really fussy all afternoon after his nap too, though we were definitely being stricter with his food intake yesterday, and he scoffed all of his dinner (yay) but then by bathtime and bedtime he was a real misery guts again. By the time he was in bed both hubby and I had had enough.

This morning he woke up much happier and actually coped pretty well as I carted him around various shops. Unfortunately I had a disaster as I lost my purse this morning, it was in my coat pocket and all I can think is that when I was putting Monkey in the car to come home it must have fallen out as when I got home I could not find it anywhere. I was devastated at the thought of having to go through all of the hassle of cancelling cards and getting a new driving licence etc. So after his snack we dashed back to the last place I knew I had it and checked with the shops and with the security guard who patrols the car park, nothing, I was gutted.

We came home again as my parents were coming round, opened the front door and ouila! My purse was staring up at me! Some lovely lovely good samaritan found it, saw my address on my driving licence and brought it back for me! I was amazed and just couldn’t believe it! She had put her name and number on a little piece of paper so after I had calmed down from the stress of it I gave her a call and thanked her profusely.

The funny thing is that it was like a turning point in my day. After yesterday, and with the miserable weather and with the purse drama I had been feeling so low. But pretty soon after we go home my parents arrived and from then on we have had the loveliest day! Monkey was on top form and back to his old self again, having so much fun with his Nanny and Grandpops it really warms my heart. He then ate his lunch with no fuss whatsoever (yay!) and went out for a play with his grandparents as it stopped raining for a little while. This meant that I got a load of jobs done in the house which made me feel better. I think there is really something in the whole, tidy house, tidy mind thing.

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Anyway then home for a bit more of a play and then down for his nap. He was lovely all afternoon and we popped over to his other grandparents house for a brief visit to return a collection of things we had at our house (including Granny’s umbrella, which she must have been missing!). He had a lovely lovely play with them and then he came home for tea and he ate so well! He still spat a few things out and was a bit silly (he has recently discovered sticking his tongue out and one of his favourite things today has been blowing raspberries), but on the whole he ate really well and and tried everything.

We had a lovely bathtime and he was so cute reading stories with his daddy both before and after and well I had to write this blog post because honestly I could not feel more different to how I did yesterday. There are always ups and downs in life, and especially I am finding, as a parent, but the stark contrast of today and yesterday really hit me. Be thankful for the good days and just get through the bad days as they won’t all be that hard!

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Phew! The end of Jury Duty and back to Normality

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I am freeeee! No more Jury Duty and thank goodness for that. I have to say  that I wasn’t looking forward to Jury Duty but hoped that it would be better than I feared. But nope, it was awful. I got put on a really horrible and difficult case on day 1 and spent over a week listening to all of the horrible details and then being locked in a room deliberating with the rest of the Jury.

I obviously can’t go into any details, it wasn’t the worst case imaginable as no children were involved, but it was pretty nasty and just awful. So yeah, not enjoyable in the slightest.

The positive outcome of the week though, was that Monkey did so well being looked after by the various grandparents and Daddy. All of our preparation paid off as it just went so smoothly from day 1! We had thought that by the end of the week it may be starting to take it’s toll, especially as he had a cold, but he had a really lovely time with hubby’s parents on Thursday and Friday. Monday was my last day of Jury Duty and even though he was with daddy he did have a slightly grumpy day. Whatever the reason for that though I am just so relieved to getting back to normal!

This morning was tumbletots, and then we met some friends at a local park and made some plans for the rest of the week. He’s now asleep so I have done some baking (just flapjacks) and other bits and am now blogging. Ahhhh so happy to be back to my mundane, normal, happy little life! I am so lucky to be able to spend my days having fun with my Monkey and baking and looking after the house. While part of me did enjoy using my brain for something more demanding, I think the horrible subject matter just pushed me back to my happier normal existence of being a stay at home mum. While I know that any job I had would not be that horrible, the whole experience has really not made me want to change things and go back to work, not yet at least.

The good thing about it though, or things, was that Daddy really enjoyed spending time with Monkey and I think that both sets of grandparents are now more confident about looking after Monkey without me there. I am not saying I am going to ask them to do it all the time or anything, but if they wanted to take him out for a couple of hours now and then, we all know that he would love it and that we he shouldn’t miss me too much 🙂 which is really nice as I really want him to grow up being close to his grandparents. We are lucky to all live so close and I really want to make the most of it. We lived miles away from my grandparents growing up, and while we saw my Mum’s parents pretty regularly, my Dad’s mum lives in Oz so I have only ever met her once. I would really like Monkey to have a really close relationship with his grandparents, and I think we are off to a great start!

Preparing for Jury Duty and getting ready to leave my Monkey :(

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Over the summer I received a summons for Jury Duty. Straight away I was torn between being interested in the whole process and what it would be like, and the fact that it meant leaving Monkey in someone else’s care while I did it. After all, I made the decision to be at home looking after him full time, so the thought of leaving him to do Jury Duty brought back all those worries. The biggest problem in arranging the childcare is that you have no way of knowing how long or what hours you will be needed. It’s a two week period but they aren’t any more specific than that.

They do give you money towards childcare, so we considered nursery or childminders, but we thought that both of those options would be difficult because we’d have to get him ready with sessions beforehand, and because it is so unknown what hours I would actually be there, we thought a more flexible approach would be better. We agreed with the grandparents that my parents would do a couple of days, Hubby’s parents a couple of days and then Hubby wanted to take a few days off to help. Having spoken to other people who have done Jury Duty, some have only had to be there for a few days in all, others for half days some days, so we need them to be quite flexible.

I think it’s fair to say we were all a little nervous about how it would actually go. He has been quite a mummy’s boy and we have struggled with separation anxiety quite a lot. The last time my parents looked after him was on my birthday and he screamed the place down. The last time Hubby’s parents looked after him he seemed to really withdraw into himself and was so clingy with me for ages afterwards. He was quite wary with both sets of grandparents for a while too which was really hard for all of us. I mean, he still liked them, but he seemed a bit scared they were going to take him away or that I was going to leave him.

We deferred the Jury Duty until September so we could fit around my parents holiday, and a good time for Hubby to be able to leave work at the drop of a hat if necessary. This also meant that we had time to work on Monkey’s relationships with his grandparents. I decided that it was worth them playing with him at our house, where he is obviously the most comfortable, and then after lunch them taking him to the play park for some fun, because he loves it there!

The first times with each set of grandparents surpassed all of our expectations and he had so much fun. There was a tiny bit of looking for me or being a bit upset when he realised I wasn’t there, but they were able to distract him into having fun. As the weeks have gone on his relationships with them have improved so much. In this way it’s been great as it’s prompted us to make the effort and it’s been so much better for all of us. I have been loving it too as for a couple of hours every week I get to clean the house or do my own thing while he is out with the grandparents! Brilliant! He loves them all so much now too and really knows them that it is wonderful to see.

I mean, obviously he is that couple of months older too which really does make all the difference.

So that was the preparation, but the prospect of doing it was still daunting. An hour here or there is of course massively different to the whole day, for a couple of weeks. Plus I knew I was going to miss him! Being a stay at home mum is hard work sometimes but I do love it and it’s not like I want to change it. I would still rather be at home with him than out at work, but I have to do this, I can’t get out of it so I just have to do everything I can to prepare for it.

I’m obviously nervous of the thing itself too, because it is a huge responsibility, it’s people’s lives after all, and deciding whether they are innocent or guilty. Like wow, my days are going from playtime and baking and postman pat, to crime and law and seriousness. Crazy!

There’s not really anyway I can prepare myself for that as it’s a whole new world really, so all I can do is concentrate on preparing Monkey and the grandparents. Making sure they know his routine and that his little world stays as familiar and happy as possible. I just have to hope that it’s a nice easy case or that I don’t actually get called onto a panel so I don’t have to be away from him too much. Fingers crossed!

Nap issues, Granny Blanket update and general business!

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I haven’t had a chance to write as much or as often lately as our routine is a little all over the place. Over the summer our routine was lovely, we spent so much time outdoors and playing then we would be home by 2pm for Monkey to have a 2-3 hour nap! Lovely! Then dinner when daddy came home at 6 and bed by around 7.15. Lately though our routine is all over the place.

I am clinging desperately to that routine, and, ok I don’t expect him to sleep quite that long every day, he is getting older so I’m sure he needs a bit less sleep but it’s just so random at the moment. There have been a few days where he hasn’t gone down for a nap til 3.30 or even 4pm! Which has freaked me out. We’ve tried to put him down but he’s just refusing to sleep. Then other days by about 1.15/1.30 he is exhausted and miserable. Today I missed the early signs and he was just wailing so I put him down at about 1.40, but then he was alternating between happy and miserable and didn’t go to sleep till gone 2 and was awake again just over an hour later. This was better than yesterday though where he ended up crying himself to sleep and only slept for half an hour. The worst thing is that he is waking up pretty miserable too and is just wailing for ages when he wakes up, but can’t seem to get back to sleep either.

Thankfully night time hasn’t been affected and he still goes down pretty easily and gets a good 12 hours sleep at night. I just don’t understand what he needs. Every now and then we have a good couple of days and I think we’re getting back on track, and then he goes all over the place again. I just have no idea. He is dribbling like crazy at the moment so it could be big teeth coming through (he has most of his teeth now, just missing 1 canine and the molars I think) but then I would have thought night time may have been affected too?

Oh I dunno, anyway the result is that I have a lot less time to get jobs done and do things for me so the blog has suffered ever so slightly! (So house the housework tbh, but I am trying!)

I am doing reeeeeeally well with my blanket though, last night I sewed on the last square! So it is nearly finished! Woohoo! I just need to do the border now and I bought some gorgeous wool from my mum’s shop so I just need to remember how to crochet again and get cracking on that. It will definitely be good to finish it!

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As it’s September the baby classes Monkey and I go to have started back again, but as you usually have to pay upfront, the bills have come in too. I am sticking with the tumbletots as I think it’s really helping his coordination and as the weather is bound to get worse over the next few months its a good opportunity for running around and climbing etc. as we may not be able to get to play areas as often or they’ll be a bit slippery. The music class however still has a big question mark over it. It started today and we didn’t go, we went to a cheaper class at a local children’s centre instead. The old class was great but £4.50 a lesson. The tumbletots is £5.50 a lesson so together it really adds up.

The class we went to today was only 50p! But, in truth, it just wasn’t that great. I don’t think it helped that there we were crammed into quite a small space. I was also confused as it was advertised as being for 12 months plus, however most of the babies were definitely under 1! So Monkey was one of the oldest and it seemed a bit more geared towards the younger babies which was a shame. Next week we are going to try a messy play session at another children’s centre, again at only 50p, to see if he gets much out of it. I want him to enjoy it and maybe learn things but it would also be great of we could cut costs a tiny bit!!

The spanner in the works is that I start Jury Duty on the 30th Sept. Yikes. We have been planning for ages, Monkey has been spending loads of extra time with grandparents so he is used to being looked after by them. I just really hope that his routine has settled down by then. Hubby is going to make sure he is available at all times during those 2 weeks so he can be on call to help the grandparents as much as possible, and he has a couple of days where he will be looking after Monkey. It will just be such an abrupt change for him after being looked after by me nearly every day!! Anyway we will just have to hope that I either don’t get called on a case, or if I do, that it is only a short and simple case so I don’t have to be gone the full 2 weeks or longer! We shall have to wait and see I guess!

I know this is a really fragmented blog but my thoughts are a bit all over the place at the moment! Life certainly isn’t dull!