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Feb 12, 2012

Photo 366 challenge – week 6

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Really, week 6 already? That must mean it’s February, right? My days are in such a muddle now but I am sure that I will start to remember what day of the week, week of the month and month of the year it is soon.

Day 37:

Photo © English Mamma

This is the second time in the past week or so that I’ve spotted this taxi in the city centre. How great is this? He seems to charge the same as most other taxis. The only disadvantage that I can see is that it might not be quite as warm as a modern taxi (he is wearing a woolen hat after all). I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the Citroen DS, so I was pretty excited when I saw this.

Day 38:

Photo © English Mamma

After a long day… although I really, really longed for something a lot little stronger at that point.

Day 39:

Photo © English Mamma

Back at Karolinska hospital for the fifth time in 18 days – this time back to Amningsmottagen – the breastfeeding clinic. I feel as if I know the place pretty well by now.

Day 40:

Photo © English Mamma

Every few days, after I collect Little O from preschool, we head to the Central Station and wave goodbye to the 15.17 train to Gothenburg. I found this train by accident but I like the fact that it has only four carriages: 1st class, 2nd class, a restaurant car and the one nearest to me when I took this photo, which, according to the symbols painted on the outside, is a cocktail and piano bar.

Day 41:

Photo © English Mamma

On Friday, we hit the 2-3 week growth spurt. I took this picture of Baby E finally (!) asleep after a feed. However, he had other ideas and woke up about four minutes after this was taken. Sleep was not the theme of the day…

Day 42:

Photo © English Mamma

Husband found a great new cafe not so far from us and so we decided to check it out on Saturday. Although it was small inside, we found that if we uncoupled the carrycot from the stroller and left the stroller outside, we could sit at the bar stools in the window with Little O on Husband’s lap and Baby E safely sleeping in the carrycot under the counter. The brunch was delicious – and I’m sure that Little O would agree!

Day 43:

Photo © English Mamma

Little O sometimes takes a very casual approach to drinking his bedtime drink!

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The Boy And Me has set up a great linky each week, so head on over there and check out some of the others’ pictures too:
TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

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Feb 10, 2012

Growth spurt alert

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Ha, I should have known that that writing about it would jinx it… So, we went from going four hours between feeds to a night that started with just over three hours between, then two hours and ended in the early hours of the morning with feeding on the hour. Oh yes, it’s growth spurt time.

So far this morning, Baby E has been anywhere between three hours and an hour between feeds and he has now not really slept for about four hours. Ah, yes, the randomness of the growth spurt with all its sleeplessness and fussy behaviour.

The worst thing is that, looking at him, you can see just how tired Baby E is, but he just cannot seem to sleep more than a handful of minutes at a time before he wakes and starts fussing again. He slept for maybe 35 minutes this morning in the stroller while we went to preschool with Little O, so I am going to take him out in the stroller again in a little while an hope that that knocks him out for long enough for him to get some rest.

You can read more about growth spurts on a number of sites – these are ones that I have found most helpful: kellymom, What To Expect and Breastfeeding Problems.

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[I know that it might seem like I am being a bit of a Moaning Minnie at the moment but I have realised that the blog posts from when Little O was this age paint a much rosier picture than was actually the case. At that time, I know that I was tired, emotional and struggling to come to terms with the responsibility of becoming a mother to this fragile little creature but I don't know what happened between feeling this and actually writing my blog. Did I think that it would reveal my life to be less perfect than I wanted to portray it as? I don't know. What I do know this time around is that I want a record of how things really are, warts and all, so that I am not left wondering if I just breezed through these weeks and months without a care.]

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Jun 14, 2010

The wonder weeks

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Photo © English Mamma

So yesterday we had a bit of a difficult day. O woke at his normal early morning feeding time (3am-ish) but then woke again every hour and a half not really wanting to feed but just crying, then screaming. I fed him to calm him down, but he just got more and more agitated.

We finally got him settled down to sleep after around six hours, only for him to wake again about an hour later. I got him to settle down after another feed by taking him out in the pram. That lasted just over an hour before he woke and became wound up again. I got him into the BabyBjörn carrier and after bouncing and walking him around for about 40 mins, he settled down again.

When he woke a couple of hours later, he fed and fed and fed, and when we went to settle him in bed, he cried and cried and cried and then screamed and screamed and screamed… for an hour and a half…

Being new parents, we were beside ourselves. We kept on going in to him to try and settle him by picking him up, rocking him to sleep (breaking many of “the rules” in the baby books), but every time we put him back down, he’d wake again and resume his screaming.

Eventually, I managed to settle him (thanks to Tracy Hogg, the Baby Whisperer) by gently patting and stroking his belly, but what a night…

Then this morning I heard about the Wonder Weeks from a friend with an eight week old. These are weeks in a newborn’s life when their development ramps up a few extra notches. They seem to follow a similar pattern to the growth spurts, which makes sense since growth spurts occur so newborns can develop further.

Well, looking at the symptoms for wonder week five (baby being upset, having problems sleeping, wanting to spend more time close to you and feeding more frequently), it seems that O is heading into this wonder week… [sigh]. Well, at least forewarned is forearmed!

This blog post by Sue Haydon at Bloggin’ About Babies gives some more info about wonder week five and offers some useful tips for how to deal with it. We will follow her advice and see if tonight proves better than last night.

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Jun 9, 2010

Growth spurt

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I had hoped to be on track enough by now to write a proper post, but unfortunately, Baby O wasn’t content with yesterday’s news that he has put on 320g in a week, and has opted to have a growth spurt. Lucky us…

I hope to (finally) resume normal blogging soon. In the mean time, wish me luck with the cluster feeds!

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