11 & 12 Weeks...

Its a twelve week miracle…I'm on time, Max is twelve weeks today!

12 Weeks Today

These last two weeks have been so much fun, I feel like the little dude has made a huge jump in his development and his little personality is really starting to shine through.

Watching the Tour De France

Max is such a cheeky smiley baby who can easily be distracted from crying with a silly noise or face.  He has some pretty awesome faces himself…my favourite is the one sided eyebrow raise!

The Many Faces Of Max

He's started to become a little shy around new faces…unless you are a pretty blonde, in which case you will be showered with smiles.  Such a flirt already!

So Smiley!

We're still loosely following the EASY routine.  In terms of the activity element it's much more interactive now as Max needs more entertaining.  He loves his play mat and can now intentionally hit the hanging toys rather than waving his arms around and hitting whatever was in his path!

It Takes A Lot Of Concentration To Catch An Octopus!

We're also making progress with sleeping (unfortunately not sleeping through the night yet!).  We swapped Max's crib for a cot and he is sleeping much better…no more whacking his hands against the side and waking himself up!  He's also managed to fall asleep without being held a few times in the last couple of weeks.  This development is kind of bittersweet for me as I know he needs to be able to self settle and its a big part of him being able to sleep better, but it also feels like the first of many steps away from me.

Sweet Dreams

We love you more and more everyday Max

9 & 10 Weeks...

I am so behind on weeks 9 and 10 as we are officially nearly into week 12.  From week 12 I think I am going to drop down to updating once a month.  So what has the little dude been up to in 9th and 10th weeks?

9 Weeks

10 Weeks

It was a busy few weeks which involved lots of new discoveries…the main one being his hands!  Many hours of fun are now being had sucking on those chubby little hands and desperately trying to suck his thumb.

We had a couple of nights where he dropped his last feed (11/12ish) which was absolute bliss unfortunately this break through coincided with his first lot of jabs so we were back to feeding every 3 hours after that…fingers crossed we'll get that longer chunk of sleep again soon as it really did make a huge difference to how I was feeling and functioning through the day.

Big sunglasses for me to hide the bags under my eyes…little sunglasses for the dude!

We also started attending a free baby massage class in one of our local children's centers.  The first class was a bit of a disaster and we only managed about 10 minutes of massage, but we managed the full session at the next class so I think it was just a case of getting used to it.  We are incredibly lucky to have such amazing, and free, resources where we live and David the teacher is great at putting all the Mums and babies at ease especially when the babies start to get a bit ratty!

We also celebrated Mr O's first Fathers Day!  The little dude 'made' Mr O and my Dad cards…he also bought Mr O a Starbuck's voucher to help him get through those long days at work when he hasn't had much sleep!

Happy Fathers Day Daddy and Grandad

We love you more and more everyday Max

7 & 8 Weeks...

2 Months Today!

7 Weeks

8 Weeks

The last two weeks have been a lot of fun, Max is so interactive now when he's awake…we get so many smiles and even a few giggles while being changed - I have to be honest though this makes me slightly nervous as it as if he is plotting his next 'pee attack'!  He really does seem to love his changing mat and wriggles so much with excitement (after he's been changed, before he is not happy at all, that boy does not like a wet nappy!)

Sleep-wise there is no real change.  I am expressing in the morning so Mr O can do the last feed of the day (11/12ish).  After this feed Max goes down into his crib until about 3ish.  When I feed him again and he tends to sleep on me after this, naughty I know and I am planning on working hard at getting back into his crib after this feed.  He'll then sleep though until about 6.30/7.  I'm hoping that he'll drop the 3 o'clock feed sooner rather than later, but for now this routine seems to be working for us.  Whilst of the subject of sleep I have to say I love the little snores and smiles that seem to happen once he's into a really deep sleep.

4am Smiles!

During the day we don't have much of a routine, but we are trying to follow The Baby Whisperers EASY routine.  Basically feed (Eat), play/change (Activity) and Sleep.  The beauty of this 'routine' is that it is pretty flexible in terms of timings.  On a 'normal' day Max will go for about 3 hours between feeds, but if he gets hungrier earlier or sleeps for longer its no biggie as it is the steps you're following rather that a clock.

In Conversation With An Underwater Dinosaur!

Max has a bath most evenings at 7 when Mr O gets in from work while I try and do a quick tidy up and get dinner going.  Max loves the bath, but is not a big fan of getting out…cold and wet is not a good combination!  We started a baby massage class at our local children's centre and I am hoping to add this into the bathtime/bedtime routine soon.  We had Max weighed at the class as they have a health visitor present and he is now 5.3kg!  He's starting to get that chubby baby look with wrinkles around his knees and ankles…love it!

 Baby wrinkles

We had some great news from the doctor that we could stop the baby gaviscon we were giving Max 6 times a day.  We're still giving ranitidine 3 times a day and this seems to be keeping Max's reflux under control…hooray, its so nice to have out happy little man back.  Fingers crossed he will grow out of the reflux soon.

We love you more and more everyday Max

6 Weeks...

We're only a day late!!

This week has been a lot of fun…I feel like we're finding our groove.  Its also been filled with lots of good news for close friends…new babies, engagements and pregnancies.  So exciting!

This week has been filled with so many smiles, they are such genuine smiles that can light up a room and make every hour of missed sleep worth it.

We're slowly getting Max's reflux under control, he is currently on infant gaviscon which we are giving him six times a day in the middle of feeds.  It's a bit of a pain to administer, but once we ditched the syringe and swapped to a dropper we're doing much better…although Max is not impressed by his meal being interrupted half way through!  We've also been prescribed ranitidine which we are going to start him on this weekend.

Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend and all of my siblings came to see us at one point or another…on Saturday we headed into Fulham with my brother and sister-in-law where we tried out a sushi place Mr O had found.  Having not had sushi for about 10 months I found myself really craving it last week and the tiny Don2 tucked around the back of Fulham Broadway certainly fit the bill.

Sunday morning started with cuddles for Max from my sister before we were 'kicked' out of the flat by Mr O so that he could give it a really good clean.  There are worse things to be banished for!  So we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went for a walk and then headed to the park.

On our walk I was really taken by this gate, I'm not sure what it is about it…the colour, the weathered look or the contrast with the sky, but something about it made me stop and smile.  One day when I have a house I would like my side gate to be mint green and I hope it will make me stop and smile everyday…

With a smile on our faces and we headed back to our lovely spotless flat (Thanks Mr O) just in time for my other brother to head over for dinner.

We had planned a picnic in Virginia Water on Monday, but the rain had other ideas so we quickly changed the plans to a wet walk followed by dinner at The Wheatsheaf Pub next door.

I don't think any of us had realised just quite how hard it was raining!

I mentioned in my last post that I feel like we are slowly getting ourselves into a little routine, we've ben building on that this week.  Max is still going for about 3 hours between feeds and this week we have added in a regular bath time to try and start a bedtime routine.  Mr O baths Max at 7 when he gets in from work, while I cook dinner and attempt to tidy away the debris of the day.  After his bath Max falls asleep in his bouncer until his next feed at around 9ish.  After this I tend to head to bed while Mr O and Max hang out.

At first Max wasn't too sure about the bath, but he seems to really enjoy it now…although he is not a fan of getting out, he hates the cold, so we need to wrap him up in a towel quick!

One major achievement this week was getting Max to sleep in his crib!  He is still not managing the whole night in there, but he is going down in there and goes back in there after his first feed of the night, but we are still struggling to get him to settle after his second feed.  I think this may have something to do with his reflux…fingers crossed we'll see some improvement when we start the ratinidine.

Enough with all the pictures Mum!!

We love you more and more everyday Max ...

4 & 5 Weeks...

Gosh, I am really behind and time is flying by…I kinda want to press pause and make sure that I am savouring every second and not getting swept up in the day to day.

Its been a tough few weeks here, Max has been diagnosed with reflux which has thrown our little family unit through a loop.  We're giving him infant gaviscon 6 times a day and it does seem to be helping a bit…fingers crossed we keep seeing improvements as it is heartbreaking seeing the little man in so much pain.

On a more positive note weeks 4 and 5 have been great fun...

Despite a worry over Max's weight due to the reflux he is gaining nicely and is now at 4.5kg (9lb 14oz) We've been incredibly lucky that he's a great feeder and with the help of the Baby Feed app we're starting to notice a pattern to his feeds.  He's currently feeding every three hours like clockwork.  I thought we were a bit all over the place, but seeing it in black and white showed there was a pattern…hooray!

The little man's hair is getting lighter and his eyelashes darker and longer…man, am I jealous of those eyelashes!

Max rewarded us for all our sleepless nights with a gorgeous smile on Sunday (18th May) and miraculously I managed to catch it on camera…

…how gorgeous!!

We love you more and more everyday Max...

3 Weeks

3 weeks today and I think he is getting even more gorgeous!

Mr O went back to work this week so Max and I have been flying solo, its exhausting, but I feel like we are slowly finding our groove.  Max has had a lot of wind this past week which makes him pretty uncomfortable, it breaks my heart to see him in pain.  We've started him on infacol which seems to be helping a bit, fingers crossed it will keep getting better.

Its been another busy week with 30th Birthday celebrations for my brother and Max's first bath!

Its was lovely to have the whole family together this weekend and Max did amazingly well being passed around as everyone wanted a hold.  His outfit for lunch on Sunday was a particular hit (you can buy similar here)…I on the other hand need to reconnect with my 

We love you more and more everyday Max…

2 Weeks...

Just a week behind on this one!  Time really does fly when you are having fun!

Week 2 was a pretty busy week for us with lots of visitors and trips out and about.  Max had his final midwife appointment this week and he is doing so well in the weight department the midwife couldn't quite believe how much weight he had put on and weighed him twice to double check!

We also headed down to the Register Office to register Max…he's now an official person!

Max is such a good baby, he only ever cries if we don't read his signs quickly enough when he is hungry or needing a change.  He loves to sleep with his hands up by his head and when he's being cuddled he really snuggles down so much so that I can see exactly how he was before he made his appearance in the big wide world.

We love you more and more everyday Max…

We Had A Baby...

As you probably guessed from the radio silence we had our baby!  Max arrived into the world in quite dramatic style last Thursday weighing in at 7lbs.  At some point I will piece together the whole birth story, but for now here are a few pictures of our gorgeous boy on his one week birthday.

I grew you! (Day 4)

I am so blessed (Day 2)

Home time! (Day 5)

Whilst its only been a week I feel like I have known you forever (1 Week)

We love you so much already Max!