Week 11

6th - 12th March 2005

Caroline's Entry

Evan about to munch on Molly MooMoo (a toy cow!)

Evan has been exercising his new found vocal chords for a little while now but this week he discovered a new trick. He was lying on the change mat after I'd changed his nappy and I was chatting to Emma and suddenly he just let out this loud shout that really made me jump! We both looked at each other and then at him and he just smiled, cutie.

A few weeks ago we had a visit from one of our friends and she had bought us a nice set of baby vests with one for every day of the week. I often see these types of clothes in the shops but they're not that practical it would seem! It seems like a cute idea to dress your baby in a different outfit every day of the week but the reality, for Evan at least, is that we usually need at least two outfits every day because he just pukes so much! One day this week he just kept puking and pooing on his clothes and I think he ended up with something like four outfits in the one day!! I really should buy some shares in a washing powder company or something.

A few weeks ago I talked about tummy time and how he was making progress with his neck muscles. It's very noticeable now and he can hold his head up quite still as he looks forward at us. He can also see much further now and really track us with his eyes. If he is lying down on his mat and we walk around the room he'll be following us with his eyes the whole time and I swear he was watching the TV the other day!

Caroline

Emma's Entry

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This week the long awaited "Baby Massage" class started, it's only on for 4 weeks but it's just another opportunity to get us out of the house for a few hours to see other babies. Doing the little walk to Somerfield on our own is getting a bit boring and I really think it will do Evan good to get out and about more. We've been doing massage with Evan for several weeks now so this class was mainly for the social aspect as well as just making sure I am doing it correctly. The class is run free by the local health visitors, so that's a great bonus especially now that we are being more frugal when it comes to spending. Evan appeared to enjoy the massage class just as I expected but when all the other babies spent the whole class looking up at mummy, Evan spent it looking at the baby girl next to him!

Evan, showing his happy face during bath time

We covered "Sleep and Routines" again in the Mother and Baby group this week and I came away with a new found motivation to have another stab at giving Evan a bedtime routine. We'd recently started putting him in his PJs at around 6.30pm anyway so now I decided to take it a step further. At 7.30pm every night I attempt to take Evan to bed. I give him a feed whilst we are up there in the dark quiet environment helping him to get off to sleep and then quietly leave the room. It seems to be going quite well, one or two nights he just hasn't settled but I think that was because he really wasn't that tired. Instead of just going up to him every 10 minutes I decided to bring him down again and try again later. This has been very successful so now I am getting a bit of time to myself in the evening, which is lovely. I am also having varied success with naps in the day time as well, for these naps he sleeps in his pram downstairs in the lounge with me and he seems to differentiate well between the two types of sleep.

Evan, doing his best impression of Emma with his grumpy face!

We invited our friends over for dinner this week and it was a huge success. Whilst Caroline and I were busy in the kitchen, they tired Evan out for us. Also because we had just started this new routine of putting him to bed at 7.30pm he was particularly tired. I dressed him in his PJs but let him sleep downstairs near us because it's no fun for our friends if he's upstairs asleep. We managed to enjoy the whole meal with Evan asleep in the pram next to the table. We're trying to teach our friends that breastfeeding is no big deal and that they really won't see anything whilst I am feeding in the room. To spare their blushes though, they only had to endure one feed because I had managed to express some milk a day earlier for Caroline to do the evening feed from a bottle.

Evan makes me smile whenever I think about him or even look at him. I wouldn't change him for the world and even now 11 weeks on, I would not change how we handled new motherhood. I have no regrets whatsoever, he has brought something into my life that I have craved for such a long time and he filled the gap perfectly. Our little family is now complete, though I know there is definitely more love and room to squeeze in a little sibling for Evan ;).

A memorable moment that I shared with Caroline this week was the undisturbed cuddles that we enjoyed. Usually Evan cries the moment we curl up together and I sometimes think he has this protective sixth sense over me... "Hands off! She's my mummy". However, he was a little angel this week and we were able to enjoy cuddles and he stayed fast asleep throughout.

Emma