It is like babies can read clocks sometimes! Even if Zeke goes to bed later than normal, or is up longer overnight, he still wants to get up at 8am on the dot!

We have the putting Zeke down to play computer thing here too... sometimes I want to kick DP! He's wonderful with Zeke, and plays awesome games, and Zeke obviously adores him, but he kinda expects that after that he can do whatever he wants and Zeke will keep himself busy.

Actually Zeke is playing on the floor behind me atm, and I've already stopped typing twice to join in!

There isn't enough faith in a mother's instinct anymore IMHO, but there are also a lot of mums who aren't really aware of this instinct either, and look for advice rather than listening to their hearts or heads.

A change in her poo is quite normal now that she's on solids, and from what I've heard leaving out the cereal is quite a good idea. Apparently it can cause constipation in infants, even though it's recommended to help adults with constipation! If she really seems to have trouble a few sips of warm water (from a cup, bottle or spoon as you prefer) can help too, used to do the trick with Zeke! A gentle clockwise massage on the tummy after a warm bath is another great favourite here too.

We'd always planned I'd be a SAHM, at least until the youngest was at kinder, and even though Zeke came along unexpectedly and we aren't thinking of having anymore for a while, both Ryan & I believe it's best for Zeke to have one of us at home. When Zeke is no longer BFing, if Ryan happens to be out of work, we may change places and I might work, but right now we're happy with our arrangement. Not to mention I couldn't bear to think of the mess the house would end up in if Ryan was in charge!

Money can be a bit tight some weeks, and great others, Ryan's base wage is ok, but he often gets a lot of overtime, which is where we get the big money from. We usually make do though, there are lots of things I can do to save $ and because we go to Ryan's mums house once a week for dinner, that makes a big difference! Our rent is a bit high for what we have, but the scary thing is the landlord could actually ask for around $40-50 more per week!

Ryan's mum is great with Zeke, we actually have very similar ideas about parenting, she raised her kids the way I want to raise Zeke, and she's happy to change what she did in order to do something the way we want it to be done. My mum is a bit more tricky... not sure why exactly, I just think she's not used to me telling her what to do!

I tend to hover and get a bit nervous when my older rellies hold Zeke too, they're a bit frail as well, and even though they sit down Zeke is getting to the stage where he lurches around and leans to look at everything, and he's getting pretty strong, so I'm always a bit worried he might jump clean out of their arms one day!

I do kind of find it nice to see Zeke being held by someone else though, he is a really sociable boy, and it's great to see how much he enjoys talking to and meeting new people... but he does have ways he prefers to be held, and I really try to step back, especially with other people who already have kids... they do know what they're doing after all, and I don't want to come over as being paranoid. Mum's rellies would probably think it meant I wasn't coping well or something... they're not sure I can cope because I'm not married! (Like that would make a difference!)

And Ryan is sadly, genuinely allergic to most cats, he gets really bad hayfever and asthma. He gets pretty miserable at my mum's place. She used to have 5 cats, only 2 now, but they're long haired and shed just about all year round.

Anyway, it's time for Zeke's dinner so I'd better go!