Friday, February 22, 2008

Catching up

I haven't had much time to write here this week. So here's a mish-mash of what's been going on.

Hayley went out to her physiotherapy appointment on Wednesday, leaving me to feed Lucy, then bath Oliver and and put him to bed. As she left she seemed resigned to the fact that Lucy would refuse to eat, she would demand her bottle early and that I wouldn't get Oliver to bed on time. You should have seen her face when she returned at 7.30pm to find Lucy fed (eating ALL her dinner), Oliver bathed and already in bed, Lucy's bottle un-drunk, and me and the little lady (in her Baby Bjorn carrier) happily pottering around the kitchen cleaning up and making a pot of tea. Priceless. But in truth, mostly this success wasn't down to me. It was down to Oliver being such a good boy for me.

The majority of people seem to think Lucy looks like her Mummy these days. I've always thought so. This week she has added another attribute from Hayley: she wrinkles her nose when she smiles a big smile. It's not easy to catch on camera, but as soon as I do, I'll report back.

Yesterday she ate plenty of food and drank 4 bottles. She started to get grizzly and want her last bottle at 8 o'clock last night, that's a couple of hours earlier than her most common bedtime. So Hayley took the plunge, took her upstairs, fed her and put her down. She was asleep in her cot by 8.20pm!

Hayley and I were both quite shattered, so we went to bed too! Unfortunately the phone rang after half an hour and woke Lucy, but after drinking the last of her milk she went back down. She then slept right through (with her usual 4am wriggling) until 7.15am. Fantastic.

If only Oliver's sleep was as reliable and peaceful. His nocturnal shouting has become intolerable. Countless times we have gone in to see him only to find there is nothing wrong with him. I've tried to talk to him and tell him that he should give Julien a cuddle and go to sleep. I've tried to explain to him that he's not being a good boy when he shouts for no reason. (The boy who cried wolf doesn't register.) I've tried all sorts frankly.

This week after several nights being woken hourly and going into him only to find him fine and settled/settling down back to sleep, I have started to turn down his monitor at some point in the night so that my sleep isn't completely broken. If I do wake in the night I check on him. At least that way perhaps I am breaking the cycle of him knowing that I will respond at any time and for no reason, but I can still check that he is OK. Even with the monitor off I can hear him through the door.

This morning I went in to get him up when I heard him shouting. I found him banging the side of his cot angrily because he wanted to get up and Daddy hadn't come in as soon as he wanted. It's not like he is left for long. We get him up at 7am every day, a few minutes after he stirs. I guess it's all part of the terrible twos.

But it's far from being all bad news. Some days the little man is a little angel. And he is always nice to Lucy. This morning he pushed her around in her rocket-ship walker and then he rode around on his trike calling "Come on Lucy", encouraging her to follow him in her spaceship.

We also had another breakthrough with Oliver yesterday. He decided he wanted to wear "big boy pants" and no nappy. So he was "nappiless" all afternoon. He had a couple of accidents, but he did stay dry for over 2 hours before they happened. It's not ideal weather to start potty training and he isn't asking for the potty when he needs it, but at least a few more of the signs that he is ready are starting to appear.

Later today we are off to see Barney at the Charter Theatre in Preston. I'm not sure what Lucy will make of it, but as Oliver loves his Barney DVDs, I'm hopeful that he is going to love it.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's nice to hear that everything is fine with you. You seem like a wonderful family:) Good luck with Oliver's potty training.

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