Time flying!

As the ticker says, it is 18 days until we leave for Thailand, wow!! I'm not exactly sure where the time is going but in the midst of all of our preparations, we have had some sleeping trouble with JBB. We had always been pretty lucky with JBB, he has tended to be a good sleeper, sleeping through the night from about 12 weeks and apart from a few nights here or there when he was sick or teething, he continued on that way until a couple of months ago.

I don't know how it happened but two months sped by without me really realizing what was going on. I know that's probably hard to believe but it is actually true. There have been a couple of contributing factors, he has been sick and teething on and off but on Wednesday night, I realized that it had been two months of getting up with him anywhere from 2-5am. Over that time we have done almost everything wrong, fed him in the middle of the night, brought him into our bed, rocked him back to sleep etc. Honestly, it is tough not to do those things when you are absolutely and utterly bone tired.

On Wednesday night, I got it into my sleep addled mind that we would give controlled crying a try (stupidly, I had done no research and decided on the spur of the moment, der!!). So I proceeded to let the poor darling cry, going into his room at longer and longer intervals. This did not work and he ended up crying for nearly 2 hours. I'm horrified with myself and feel terrible about how poor JBB must have felt. In desperation, I sent an SOS out to all of my girlfriends with babies asking for advice and they all contributed their thoughts. The 2 things I have realized is that firstly, he could be cold (thinking about my poor gorgeous little boy crying for all that time because he was cold makes me feel physically Ill and secondly, that we had not been as rigid with his routine over the past few months which has probably created some anxiety for him.

Last night, we reinstituted his bedtime routine and we allowed him to go to bed and settle himself, which he did with barely a protest and we left the heater on overnight because it has been quite cold. He slept from 7am to 5am which is pretty good. I am also changing his routine a bit during he day to see if that will also help, so far so good. We are going to focus on a nice familiar routine over the next couple of weeks and we will keep it going whilst in Thailand so we can give JBB that level of familiarity and comfort.

It hasn't escaped my notice that in my zeal to be as prepared and organized as possible for Thailand, I have let some of the fundamentals slip, no more, I tell you, I want JBB to be back to feeling safe and secure and all of us to be a bit more well rested. It is back to the routines now!!

Barely time to scratch myself + a quick view of JBB (be quick - it won't last!!)

Hi All,

I am sorry that I haven't been commenting - I have got a lot of catching up on blogs to do but I have barely had time to scratch myself just recently. Yesterday I had to ask my Mum to come around for an hour or so, so that I could have a shower!! Our little bundle of joy has been running me ragged. I have had a bit of trouble breastfeeding and today I attended a full day workshop at the hospital with a lactation consultant and now have a bit more confidence back. I lost my confidence when JBB lost weight - I will still be nervous until he gets weighed again next Monday but for the moment, I am going to try to trust that all is okay.

It is very intense, this parenting game. Intense but wonderful. It has been pretty hard with JourneyMan going back to work so quickly and trying to recover from the ceasarean. Much of the time I feel alone and that I need to cope on my own, that part is quite tough - though JourneyMan has been really good with helping out with a feed over night, I really need his help around the house a bit more. That being said - my time with JBB is absolutely wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for the world - I was watching when he learned to blurt, I have learnt how to calm him, I saw when he first smiled, he has fallen asleep on my chest. I am providing him love, comfort and nutrition - honestly, I am the luckiest person in the world.

One thing I will tell you that has moved me greatly when we were in the hospital. JourneyMan and I were marvelling over this perfect little boy who has come in to our lives and JourneyMan said to me 'thank you for all of the work that you did to find out about Thailand, if you hadn't of done all of that research and work, we wouldn't have JBB'. This brought tears to my eyes - it was absolutely wonderful to know that JourneyMan appreciated that I hadn't given up, that I had researched, planned and actioned our Thailand plan - it meant the world to me to hear those words.

Here is a little pic of our JBB - check it out because I don't think that I will keep it up on the blog for long!!