Oh gosh! I haven't been on in two weeks and there's been loads of activity here. Lemmee see...

Firstly, Leesha - I am so glad the surgery went well and Taj is going great. I will take a peek at your handsome little man's pictures once I've finished this post.

The sleep class wasn't too bad, but it mostly covered stuff I'd already read about - some things I'd tried, others I'd dismissed. They didn't push CC or CIO methods at all, which surprised me really. In fact, the mothercraft nurse who took the class did mention Dr Ferber and how he apparently meant for CC to be applied to much older babies than most people try to use it on. She didn't seem before or against, but said that Ferber was (no idea if he's still alive!) a renowned sleep specialist and it's worth reading some of his work just to understand how babies' sleep works.

Amy - Freyja did sleep overnight when she was 3 months (no feeds and no effort from me!), but then she hit the 4 month development point and they all seemed to merge together into one long 2 month nightmare, from which point she's only slept a whole night a couple of times. I've been reading the wonder weeks book (got it from the library!) and apparently this always happens when babies hit development points. Some babies don't get as badly affected though - has Grace had any points when she suddenly stopped sleeping through and how long did they last?

I learnt that we're approaching sleep the right way (with her bedtime routine, recognising her sleepy cues, giving her sleep indicators like her iggle piggle etc), but that I need to review the way I deal with her during the day when she doesn't want to nap.

Normally, I follow her routine, put her down to sleep and leave her. If she cries, I keep reassuring her, but if she's awake after 30 mins I give up and take her out of bed again. Then I open the curtains with her and put her down to play in the living room as if her nap was successful, whilst keeping a close eye for her to show sleep cues again in 30 mins time.

What I should do is the popping in to reassure thing for 45 mins and if this fails, then get down on the floor at the side of her cot and do the patting and shushing thingie that we do at night when she's unsettled or overtired, for 15-20 mins. She should be asleep after this, but if not I should take her out of the cot and allow her to play quietly on the floor of her still darkened room before trying again.

They key is to take her right through the sleep cycle apparently.

For night-time, we should do the same thing, but obviously don't want to be allowing her to play and get more wound up, so if she doesn't go to sleep and is still crying after the hour, we need to start just picking her up, giving her a quick cuddle so she calms down, then popping her back into bed. Not snuggling up with her and allowing her to sleep on us. This is working suprisingly well, especially combined with our new trick of blowing her a big kiss, waving goodbye and saying 'good night Freyja, I'll see you in the morning' in a quiet but firm voice. You feel silly, but what the hell!

I also learnt a bit more about adding patterns to the baby's day and found that the mothercraft nurses recommend the Baby Whisperer EASY method (i.e. baby eats, plays, sleeps and you get time to yourself). I've got the Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems from the library, so will read a bit more about this and see if there are any ideas in there that I can use, without becoming brainwashed into believing I am a bad parent because of my penchant for attachment parenting!

Now that Freyja is established on solids, we should also be trying to encourage her to sleep a longer period at night before waking for boob. The suggestion is that we continue to give her the roll-over feed before midnight (usually between 10-11pm) and then drop the first feed she has, which is currently around 2.30am, give or take 30 mins. She can then have her feed at 6am ish.

To do this, I should be co-opting Alistair's assistance because Freyja is more likely to relax and fall back asleep if there's no booby on offer!

Unfortunately, our plans to do that over his 2 week break at xmas didn't even start as she hit the 28 weeks, 'oh my god my mummy and daddy can put me down in my cot and just leave me here forever!' point. So we had 3 days of hell when it came to bedtime, then she slowly got better and has occasionally been skipping that first feed herself. I've decided to give her a chance to drop it on her own, but we may try to force it if she's still waking in February.

I did get a couple of good nights sleep at the start of December though when she had her needles and was tired as a side-effect. God, that was bliss!

Freyja has been having lumpy food since November and I started giving her stuff like toast at the start of December for her to chew on. She didn't push it back out (did you know that they do that with their tongues to produce saliva? The harder the piece of food the more saliva their little gummy mouths probably need to help them, so Zeke probably wasn't doing it on purpose!), but she didn't always understand that she needed to chew the bits first. We had a couple of coughing fits, but she's got the hang of it now thank goodness cos they're scary. Now she has cubes of cheese, pieces of chicken, veg, rice, pasta and even little sarnies with philadelphia on them!

We still enjoy sweet potato, but her current favourites are salmon (which I mix in with sweet potato or squash, warm it and then add a little milk) and pasta. She mainly eats what we eat now, though a less spiced and less chunky version. She had some of our favourite curry with rice the other day and loved it.

Freyja still has porridge for brekkie with fruit in it (Figs are a fav, but apple and pear are popular too), but I now give her a plate with some cubes of fruit and a piece of toast afterwards so she can help herself. Messy, but cool to watch her concentrating when she tries to pick stuff up and negotiate it to her mouth!

The thing she loves most is choosing which colour of spoon she'll eat with. She squeals with excitement, studies them all carefully and then chooses... green! Almost everytime

We have lots of multi-coloured poo!

Miranda - have you tried blueberries yet? They do interesting things to poo! I mean for Zeke obviously, not you

She drinks loads of water as well as still having her boobie 4 times a day, though 2 of those times she doesn't always eat well, and then often twice at night. Skye, I'd say that Freyja drinks almost a sippy cup of water a day. We offer her little sips throughout the day as well as with meals though. Plus, the cup is usually near her when she's playing and she tries to help herself.

As for sitting up, we're doing really well at that. Freyja insists on sitting to play and stays that way for ages. At first she would occasionally fall over when reaching for something, then she started bouncing in her sitting position and after 2 weeks of that, it seems to have strengthened her legs a lot. Now when you let her take your fingers to pull her into a sitting position, she just pushes herself up into a standing one! At the same time, she started the whole becoming ram-rod straight thing when we try to put her in a sitting position when she doesn't want to (usually when putting her in her buggy). She's also started to rock herself forward from sitting to get onto her tummy when she wants to, has learnt how to roll from her tummy onto her back again and also, in the past couple of days, has been pushing herself up onto her hands and feet and rocking. Oh, and she's been making many more varied noises, laughing more easily and studying things intently. Plus, I swear she grew 6 inches in 2 weeks!

I can't wait for the proper crawling and am so jealous of you Skye. I've been dying for Freyja to be mobile, but she only manages to wriggle herself around or reverse under the sofabed. Not even army crawling like Zeke does. I'll probably regret this when she does though as we're not baby safe at all, what with Alistair never putting anything away (I found a stanley knife on the floor under the dining table today ) and cat food and litter.

And a teeth Miranda! I bet you're glad they're finally coming Freyja still has no sign of any and is looking particularly gummy. I'm actually now fairly sure that all her fussiness has been as a result of development points, rather than blaming it on teething like I thought.

Leesha - from what you've described, it sounds like Taj is at a development point. They have a major one around 26 weeks and another around 32 (anytime between 30 and 35 apparently) when they learn how things fit together. Everything you describe (except the poo and wee!) fits in with what the wonder weeks book says and also what I've personally experienced from Freyja. Best not to try changing anything, but offer extra comfort instead until he gets over it. Could be a couple of weeks or so unfortunately!

As for the poo and wee, I think with both together you might want to just check in with your MCHN or GP.

Now, off to peek at the pics of Taj and marvel at how massive this post is. I think I may have outdone myself!

oooh, almost forgot - I'm in Boronia Miranda. It's an outer suburb, so further out than Box Hill