Conrad’s blog

Conrad’s sister is nearing 2 years old now, and we had a joint kids’ birthday party for her and two of the other mums’ kids on Saturday (14 February) afternoon. Conrad seemed to be enjoying himself too, having had a decent morning nap and then, as usual, being thoroughly entertained by everything going on around him. The party was at Donyngs gym in Redhill, where they have a hall with a big soft play area for kids, which can be hired out for parties. The party hire included an hour in the soft play area and then one hour in a party room, where one can have food, drinks, cake, etc. While the toddlers were running around in the hall, Conrad was carried around by his Daddy, while Mummy was trying to take some photos before she’d have to rush off to prepare the room where we would be eating. Conrad managed a short stint in the ballpit too and really enjoyed it – unfortunately at that point I had to run off to lay the tables, so I didn’t manage to take many photos and Conrad had to be whisked away by Daddy from the ballpit to go keep an eye on the birthday girl instead…

At the party we weren’t short of volunteers who wanted to spend some time with Conrad while Mummy and Daddy did their co-host party duties. One of the mums, Lisa, asked to hold him for a bit and he lent in towards her face, forehead to forehead, to look into her eyes – something he does a lot, he seems to like to be very close – and she knew straight away to just lean and look back (‘”My Tommy used to do this”, she said – so I guess they grow out of it…).

While everyone else tucked into the party food, Conrad had his afternoon bottle. Towards the end of it all, he was getting tired, looking a bit hot and bleary-eyed as he does then. He got so many comments about how contented and happy he seemed.

In time for Conrad’s sister’s birthday party I had bought Conrad a new book – he doesn’t have many – ‘Baby’s first animals’, which basically shows an animal on each page and has the noise it makes written underneath (in English, but I always translate). When we looked through the book together on the day after the party he was staring intently at each page I pointed at, then when I got to the last page and said: “Och här är en hund. Hunden säger ‘vov vov’ “, he turned around and looked at me with a big smile. When I repeated the sound he started to laugh. Must have been my delivery… Would be exciting if he’s developing another interest in books besides chewing them, though.

On Sunday (15 February), Conrad sat on a swing for the first time. He seemed to be quietly enjoying himself with a smile on his face, but his sister (already on the swing next to him) went into happy hysterics over her baby brother sitting on a swing too, which was catching and soon he was laughing too. Lovely!

Gabriella

It’s hard to believe that we are 8 months down the line already. The evenings are gradually getting lighter out there, and before we know it we will be nearing summer.

Conrad is so aware of what goes on around him now and so keen on everything. He has had several comments from people recently about how grown-up he looks, how tall he is and how happy he is all the time. He has a really infectious laugh – that definitely has been confirmed by lots of people (including plenty of strangers out and about) so many times! Yesterday (Sunday 8 February) we went with friends to a kids’ soft play place called “Manic Monsters” in Edenbridge for the first time and Conrad had two fantastic laughing sessions: one when I changed his nappy in the ladies’, and one when his Daddy was making faces at him through the netting in one of the play areas. Several people nearby started to smile, one Dad looking up from his laptop at one of the tables near the play area, and someone actually burst out: “What an infectious laugh!”. So apart from smiling away ourselves, we were so proud…!

Conrad loves to try to communicate with any toddler that happens to be nearby, and they usually in turn seem quite curious, if sometimes a bit puzzled by the baby that’s giggling so unreservedly at them. I took Conrad and his sister to a 2-year birthday party on Friday 30 January, and he was playing really happily in the middle of the floor and all the 2-year-olds with a few toys, at the same time as his big, happy eyes were taking in everything around him. After a while away from me, though, I could feel him looking at me and when I turned around he looked straight into my eyes and made an unhappy face – he didn’t cry, but it was as if he was telling me to come and pick him up. As soon as I did, he was all smiles again.

Conrad can be very noisy at times, predominately all happy sounds, mainly caused by his delight to be walking or standing, playing with certain toys or watching his sister. Apart from general, happy shrieks, his favourite sound of the moment is “da-da-da”. (Jessica actually has started to refer to him as “Da-da” – not being able to say “Conrad” just yet.)

Conrad absolutely, definitely has a little brown patch above the pupil of his left eye – the rest of his eyes are still blue – I have checked in different types of lighting conditions so I can finally be certain. The birthmark in the palm of his right hand appears to have shrunk, though I’m not completely sure whether that’s because the rest of his hand has grown bigger around it.

Gabriella

With Conrad’s first tooth coming through, we had a few nights when he’d wake up at 4am and not manage to go back to sleep. I tried baby paracetamol and teething gel, rocking him and singing to him and changing his nappy, but nothing helped, and at about 6am – his normal breakfast time – I’d give him his mid-morning bottle (basically swapping the meals around, so I could feed him in the bedroom and try him in the cot again afterwards, as he certainly would need more sleep after having been awake since 4am) in case he was getting hungry. After his bottle he’d cheer up and become quite active, but be happy enough to lie in his cot giggling and kicking his legs. And after about another half hour he’d go back to sleep.

This happened four mornings in a row. The fifth morning I tried singing him to sleep (‘När trollmor…’ seems to work well for Conrad) kneeling by the side of his cot, holding my right hand against his left cheek and stroking his temple with my thumb. After a few minutes of crying and tossing and turning, he started calming down and then quietly fell asleep. And slept for another hour. The following night he woke and stirred at 4am, then 5am, resettling himself in-between. I reckoned then, that if it had been teething the first few nights, his tooth probably wasn’t causing him discomfort anymore. As it happens, though, today I felt the rough edge of Conrad’s second tooth coming through – right next to his first one, at the front right at his bottom jaw – so we’ll see what the next few nights are like. Daytime he’s not complained at all, only seemed to chew on things a bit harder than normal.

Conrad’s steadier on his feet now, standing by the sofa, the sofa table or the trampoline to play. He’s still so chuffed when he gets to walk about – or rather run, as he can get up to a fair amount of speed, at times almost lying horizontally with his head first as his feet don’t always seem to keep up with him… A few evenings ago, Conrad and Jessica were chasing each other through the kitchen/hallway/living room (Conrad holding on to Daddy’s hands) and it was really fun!

Last Thursday (5th February), Conrad woke up again after we had been at the Thursday morning toddler group for only about half an hour. He was so excited about everything going on around him that both he and I forgot that he was due his milk at 10am. (I remembered about 45 minutes later and he was very happy to have it when offered.) Afterwards he threw up a fair bit, mainly over my jeans and the floor. He hasn’t actually been sick much at all for a very long while, but the last week it’s been a bit bad again, though mainly after milk feeds. I have been wondering whether it can be linked to the teething (Conrad’s sister Jessica can still be sick every so often if she’s tired or unwell), but so many people want to blame everything on teething – from sore bottoms to heartburn to runny noses, when the real reasons to my mind most likely probably are tummy upsets, acidic food and colds – that I’m not sure I should look to make that connection. Not that it matters; it’s just a case of wiping stuff clean and doing a bit of extra washing, and I’m sure it’ll improve as he gets older.

Conrad had another bath in the tub today and was splashing so vigorously he gradually slid backwards until he had his back at the other end, right by the shower. I held a towel in front of me to try to protect myself from the worst, but it’s great to see him having such fun and not minding water splashed in his face. He also doesn’t mind at all when I pour water over his head to wash his hair. At one point he suddenly sat completely still and reached his hand out to touch the water, as if he was trying to grab it between his fingers. Then he spotted a bright blue mug in the corner of his eye, reached to grab it and the splashing started again! It would be so nice to take him to ‘water confidence’ classes (‘swim’ classes for babies) and see what he makes of it, though my problem would be what to do with his sister meanwhile (I haven’t found any baby swim classes on a Wednesday).

Every day there’s a moment when the two siblings have a giggle together. Yesterday there were two. In the morning I was hanging up some washing (in the living room as unfortunately winter time we have no other space to hang it). Jessica loves to help and Conrad usually watches us sitting on the floor. In the last few days Jessica’s also started to place things on top of her own or a toy’s head saying ‘hatt’ (‘hat’ in Swedish). When she was grabbing Conrad’s bibs out of the pile of damp laundry, this time she started putting them on Conrad’s head, proudly declaring each one a “hatt”. Conrad started to giggle, then Jessica started to giggle too, and the game continued for a while – Conrad was sitting quite still, closely watching Jessica with a big smile on his face, but every so often he’d move just a little bit and one of the bibs would slide off so Jessica had to hurry to put it back on top.

In the afternoon, Jessica played ‘Where’s Conrad?’ putting a muslin over his head and every time he tore it off or it slid off to reveal his smiling face peering out underneath it (unbelievably cute…!). They were giggling so much I thought they’d fall over.

Gabriella

Sunday night to Monday (2nd February), the skies decided to open and treat the UK to some proper winter weather. Especially in Surrey, things came to a standstill, with lots of people not making it to work or school – a lot of schools actually shut for a couple of days. Ian didn’t manage to get to work either – the station was shut, with all trains cancelled, and when he phoned work to say he was going to be a bit late in and drive instead, he was told that traffic into Redhill was horrendous and not to worry, but stay at home. So suddenly we had an extra day the whole family together!

We certainly didn’t want to miss the opportunity for the kids to experience all the snow, so we set off to the park and the playground. There was plenty of the white stuff for Daddy to make a sizeable snowman in a not too short space of time whilst Mummy put a pair of wellies on Conrad to let him stand and walk outside for the first time and get a closer look at the snow.

He was quite wobbly on his feet, understandably, as the snow was thick and uneven under foot, Conrad not having worn anything but socks on his feet, and I’m not sure the wellies were the best fit, either. But he was giggling away happily, so he must have been enjoying himself. I didn’t wait too long until I tucked him back into his cosy toe, though, as it felt pretty cold.

With a lot of parents not making it to work, we saw lots of couples with young kids out for walks or playing in the snow. And with schools closed, there were several groups of excited kids roaming around Horley. It was a bit of an odd day and the kids suddenly having a day off probably felt like the whole day was a bit of an exception to routines and rules – as we were in Lidl getting a pack of nappies a group ran through the shop, cheering and throwing snow balls at the tills. We did see several police cars driving slowly around Horley the rest of the day, every so often stopping a few kids for a chat.

Today I decided to not go to the park at all. Snow starting to melt yesterday afternoon, then freezing overnight, had made roads and pavements slippery. So I took the kids food shopping and back in the double buggy. Schools were still closed but more people, including Ian (though it took him longer than usual and he had to catch a bus instead of the train) made it to work.

Gabriella

Conrad wanted to chomp on my fingers this morning, as he does quite often, and I don’t really mind as I’m only at risk of getting soggy, but maybe I need to re-consider that now – at the front left of his bottom jaw I could feel the rough tip of a little tooth coming through…!

Gabriella

Yesterday Conrad and I had another one of our days together just the two of us. He fell asleep in his pushchair while I went out for a morning walk and then did some shopping, and carried on sleeping in the hallway, while I batch-cooked a couple of dishes for him. He quite happily ate my mushroom and leek with wholemeal noodles concoction for lunch. About an hour after lunch, I’d decided to try putting him in the bath tub for the first time, rather than in the baby bath.

I needn’t have worried – he absolutely loved it! I guess he’s been watching his sister bathe in it often enough – when Jessica has her bath before bedtime, Conrad usually stands for a while by the side of the tub (now he holds on all by himself) and giggles when he watches her splash about. Pretty often she’ll hand him a toy or two, or complain “nej, nej, nej” when he tries to grab a toy she’s balanced on the side and doesn’t want him to touch.

Conrad was certainly ready to be in the bigger bath himself. He splashed and splashed when reaching for the selection of toys I’d put in the water with him and giggled away. He was sitting very confidently. After a while he reached for one of the handles on the side of the bath and started pulling himself up, which didn’t work quite so well: he slipped a bit so I had to catch him, but then he happily stood up in the bath holding on to my hands instead.

We’ve been thinking that we should let Conrad bathe in the tub for about a month, with Jessica watching him at the weekends to get used to the idea of him in there, and after that try them both in the bath at bedtime. Will be quite interesting to see what they make of that when the time comes…

In the afternoon, I’d decided to take Conrad to an ‘under 1’s’ get-together at Meath Green Infant School. I’d been thinking about doing some sort of an activity together with Conrad, and this one was on in the afternoon and a drop-in one – so no commitment needed if I or Conrad didn’t like it. It was only a small group of people, and the others all seemed to know each other from before, although that didn’t stop them from happily chatting to me. The other babies present were around 6-7 months and I was glad that Conrad got a chance to see others like him. He’s mainly seen toddlers so far (and always chatted and giggled delightedly at them in an effort to make contact) and I’ve been wanting to give him a chance to ‘make friends’ his ‘own age’ – although it’s obviously very early days yet…

There were different and fun toys for him to play with (or rather dribble on), and he was curiously watching the other babies and they him. Then after a while he of course wanted to stand up and walk around. I’m always hesitant to let him do that around other mums, especially ones I don’t know very well, in case they think I just want to show him off. But on the other hand I know how much he enjoys it, and others must surely see that it’s him setting off whilst giggling away, and not me dragging him along going ‘look, how advanced my baby is!’. (That’s not to say I don’t feel proud while he does…)

Gabriella

The following night, it took Conrad an hour to go back to sleep, using the same tactics. And the two nights after that, he actually slept through – there was a bit of a moan or a cry from him a few times during the night but he seemed to drift off to sleep again straight away and I didn’t need to leave my bed. The last couple of nights, though, I’ve needed to spend about an hour comforting him again though. But this could be partly due to a cold that he and his sister are suffering at the mo – Conrad’s got a bit of a cough and it seems to upset him. Conrad still hasn’t had any formula during the night since the night Thursday to Friday, and I’m very pleased about that – hopefully we’re generally heading in the right direction.

Conrad loves to walk about for little excursions around the ground floor (holding on to my hands still, of course) and to stand by the trampoline or a chair or the sofa, where toys are spread out. Occasionally he lets go of me completely to only lean on or hold on to the piece of furniture, but I still need to hold an arm behind him as he can loose his balance very suddenly. He’s walking with the trolley too now, but a bit jerkily on slightly wobbly legs, and I stay very close behind or have a hand on the trolley just to make sure it doesn’t run away with him (though he can get up to quite a speed himself at times…). He’s so much more aware of everything now. When he sits on the floor and wants to stand up, he very deliberately grabs for my hands – his right grabs my left and his left my right – and then starts to pull himself up. When he walks, he sometimes moves so quickly his feet don’t quite follow him, he really pushes forward. It’s fun to see him so keen. When he gets up on his feet, he usually giggles and looks really chuffed with himself.

Conrad isn’t much into books, apart from some with touchy feely bits, especially crinkly or shiny ones. He loves the glittery, rustling wings of a dragon fly in Jessica’s Meg and Mog book, reaches for the page with both arms and really leans into it, as if he’s totally absorbed by it, and runs his hands over it for ages. If he can get hold of a plastic bag or anything else that rustles, he’ll scrunch it and put it in his mouth as soon as he can (something we obviously don’t want to encourage). Lights attract him too; sometimes when I hold him he’ll lean right back so he’s almost upside down to see the lights in the ceiling.

Feeding is going okay. I’ve just introduced beans into his diet and he seems especially keen on mashed potato mixed with butter, milk and pureed kidney beans. Other dishes he likes are mild lentil curries, and broccoli and cauliflower with cheese. Unfortunately, as his napping can be a bit irregular, he can be too tired to eat and just cries when I try to feed him – he’ll open his mouth for a few spoonfuls, as he’s obviously hungry but then bursts into tears. As solids are relatively new and he’s only little still, eating, rather than just lying back and gulping formula, is probably still a bit of an effort. I feel really sorry for him – it must be really frustrating for him, and as I want to make sure mealtimes are a positive experience for him I’m a bit stuck sometimes regarding what to do. Once, after a few spoonfuls of his savoury main dish, which made him cry, I gave him his pureed fruit dessert, and he was happy enough to eat that. After he’d finished his fruit, I tried the savoury again, and this time he ate a fair bit of it. I’m guessing the fruit seemed easier for him to eat (maybe because it was sweet and more appealing…?) and once that had taken the edge of his hunger, he had more patience with the savoury dish. Sadly though, this doesn’t work every time. I just have to hope his naps happen before feeding times as often a possible, so that he’s rested and happy to try new things, and then eventually eating will be less of an effort.

Gabriella

Encouraged by the fact that Conrad managed to resettle without a bottle a couple of nights ago (i.e. he definitely isn’t waking because of hunger), I decided to finally get to it and try to actively ‘coach’ him to make this the norm. I’d been hoping for a long time that Conrad would stop needing a bottle all by himself, but I imagine the association between bottle/comfort/sleep is much too strong and he obviously doesn’t know why he should try to break that. Not only is it for the sake of me getting my nights back (selfish, I know!), but as long as I keep putting a teat in Conrad’s mouth to help him back to sleep I’m not actually helping him in the long run – to become self-reliant when it comes to sleeping when he needs it and to not fill up on milk during the night when he should be feeding during the day (with emphasis on solids now, of course).

A friend of a friend, who’s a single mum of two boys (and an accountant, not that that matters), had told me that when she needed to start planning going back to work, when her youngest (one month older than Conrad) was six months, she decided she had to stop the night feeds as she would need as much sleep she could get. So she decided: no bottle, only cuddles. The first night her little boy didn’t so much cry, but moan for about four hours…! The second night it was half an hour and the third he slept through, and, she told me, now he sleeps through most nights. I had been dreading losing as much (or more…) as four hours sleep but as it worked for her little baby, it was worth a try with Conrad.

Conrad woke up at 3.20 am that night and started to cry. After a few minutes it seemed quite clear that he wasn’t going to just drift back off to sleep himself, so I switched the green night light on and went to pick him up. It’s been a bit frustrating trying to comfort Conrad in the past; he’s been trashing around and crying (sometimes even louder from being picked up) and it hasn’t seemed to matter that he’s being held or cuddled. This was obviously worse while he was colicky, as he was in pain, but has continued since when he’s woken up at night. I guess this is part of why I thought that trying to comfort Conrad back to sleep wasn’t an option and I’ve assumed that only formula would do. But this time I persevered.

Conrad trashed around and cried in my arms. I had to keep moving my head out of the way so he wouldn’t clonk himself on the corner of my glasses and keep a firm grip so I wouldn’t drop him. But at the same time I sort of managed to hold him softly, with a hand behind his head to try to encourage him to rest against it – not that he did, but hopefully he noticed it being there. I couldn’t stop thinking about a piece of advice I’d read somewhere, that even if babies don’t stop crying and what you do doesn’t seem to make any difference, it does matter to the baby that Mummy or Daddy are there. So I started rocking him slowly and singing a lullaby (“När trollmor har lagt de elva små trollen”) in his ear, hoping he’d realise that he was safe and it was alright to calm down and just cuddle. And after a little while he did. I put Conrad back in the cot, kissed him on the cheek and tucked him in, and he was calm for a little bit before he started crying again.

I just repeated the procedure about every 5-10 minutes (whenever his crying started to become a bit more serious), determined to not open the carton of formula I had waiting on the bedside table together with scissors and bottle, and every time he seemed to calm down sooner from me holding him. And eventually, after only an hour and fifteen minutes in the end, he quietly drifted back off to sleep in his cot.

In the morning when Conrad woke up, slightly later than usual at 6.30am, he was happy and playful and not in any hurry to have breakfast, but I had time to wash and change him and then he sat on the living room emptying a bucket of plastic bricks and teething rings to chomp on while I prepared his breakfast.

So it’s ‘watch this space’ (and fingers crossed) now, for whether this will work or not…

Gabriella

Last night Conrad woke up at 2am, and for the first time I actually managed to help him settle again by just cuddling and singing to him. It was a close call, though – he was crying so I picked him up, but he was thrashing about in my arms and I had a hard time trying to avoid him clonking himself on the corner of my glasses. I sang a lullaby to him anyway, then after a couple of verses I gave up and put him back in his cot in order to go sort a bottle out. But as he was lying down again, Conrad stopped crying, started moaning a bit and then drifting back to sleep… I held fire on the bottle and soon he was snoozing away and slept until morning. So it can be done – it’s not that he’s actually hungry anymore…

I took Conrad to the health visitor weighing clinic in the afternoon, which I do once a month to keep a log of his physical growth. But it wasn’t a great experience and I’m seriously wondering whether I should go back. Conrad was a bit heavy on the scales, something I would expect as he’s been feeding during the night and therefore drunk excess milk – something that will sort itself out once he starts sleeping through without night feeds, so I’m not worried. But the health visitor nurse, who weighed him, started talking about childhood obesity and ‘that’s not the way we want to go, is it?’. And then she started grilling me about his diet. As it is, I’m sure Conrad is at no risk of of becoming obese whatsoever: he eats very healthy home-cooked food and it’s not like I have or will start giving him fast food, sweets or cakes anytime soon…

The last few months I have gone to the clinic, I have every time been given lots of advice I’ve not asked for or been questioned in detail about what I feed Conrad, and felt like I’ve had to defend myself. There’s no need for that. Any advice they’ve given has been basic and thereby unnecessary (I’ve usually tried it before, with Conrad’s sister, so would have known to try it already, or it’s not applicable) and most of the time I’m sure I know a great deal more than them about how to give a vegetarian baby a good, well-balanced diet. (The exception is Noreen, who was a good support in the early days when I was struggling to get Conrad to breastfeed.)

Regarding Conrad not sleeping through the night, she also asked: ‘Does he get enough attention during the day?’, as apparently babies who do not can try to compensate for this by waking and crying at night. I didn’t know what to say to this. (Apart from ‘of course’.) And on the way home, I’m sorry to say, I cried. How much further off the mark could she possibly be? And how useful can advice be if the person giving it really doesn’t know anything about you or your baby?

Apart from logging Conrad’s progress in weight for the baby book, there’s not really any reason to go to the health visitor clinic. Maybe I should come up with a fun activity for Conrad and me to do together on a Wednesday instead – something sociable that we can both enjoy.

Gabriella

Time’s just flying by, days are busy and Conrad seems to be growing taller and become more of a little boy than a baby every day. He plays quite happily sitting by himself on the floor now, though I put two flat cushions behind him just in case he topples: although we’ve got carpet with a fairly soft wooden floor underneath in our living room, the bump when he falls on his back still makes him cry unless there’s some extra cushioning. When he lands on the cushions it’s quite funny to watch, actually – he falls very slowly and then looks a bit puzzled, and slightly awkward like a cute little turtle on its back. (I tend to sit him up again as soon as I can – he’s not keen on lying down nowadays.)

He seems the happiest when Jessica’s around though: he watches her constantly and often giggles at most things she’s up to. And she in turn giggles when he giggles. Earlier in the week, Jessica was bouncing on her trampoline and I was sitting by it holding Conrad and let him bounce up and down on my lap whilst watching her. The two kids were laughing so much it was fantastic, and in the end Jessica got so excited she had to stop bouncing to shriek happily and pat Conrad on his cheek and head. It’s so lovely to see the little signs of affection between them. Sometimes Conrad looks at Jessica with what looks like such intense admiration that it almost breaks my heart; it’s so lovely to see her appreciate him in return.

Conrad’s weaning hasn’t taken any significant leaps since last, really, apart from me trying to make his food a little lumpier and a bit thicker. I have been mashing cooked apple and banana, for example, with a fork for a while now, rather than running them through the blender. I still try to cook as much as possible and am proud to say I’ve only resorted to giving him a jar once in the last couple of weeks (when I’d mixed some quinoa into the food I’d just cooked for him and then realised that it was probably a bit too old – better safe than sorry). I’m keen to move on to beans and other pulses than red lentils and peas to vary his diet more, but have to remind myself to not rush things – beans aren’t recommended until 8 months of age and Conrad’s only 7 months old yet (today in fact!). During the last few days I have given Conrad a couple of rice cakes and a piece of cracker bread (knäckebröd) to chomp on, just to give him a bit of experience of finger foods, but not knowing when he’ll get his first teeth (theres a sharpish lump in his gums at the back on the right hand side of his bottom jaw, but that could mean nothing, especially since first teeth tend to appear at the very front) I won’t worry about carrot sticks or anything harder just yet.

Conrad has eaten everything I’ve offered him so far – apart from a kiwi fruit, which probably was a bit too tart and made him cry. He doesn’t quite get on with his hard plastic bibs, so has grumbled at that and I’ve reverted back to soft plastic bibs for now, and at times when he has been a bit too tired and hungry he’s been a bit cranky, but on the whole feeding seems to be going well. The only thing is the night feeds… He still has one or two bottles of milk at night, because I can’t find any other way of resettling him when he wakes up and cries. He does resettle himself every so often and I usually leave him to it a bit to see if he will. But when he gets more upset and it’s time to pick him up, cuddling, rocking or singing won’t help. Putting him back down in his cot just makes him cry worse. So I’m carrying on feeding him at that point, hoping that he’ll learn to resettle without milk – somehow – eventually.

Another issue with the night feeds is that, in effect, Conrad is having too much milk at the moment. He’s meant to have 600 ml of milk/dairy in every 24 hours (so any cheese, cream or milk that I put in his food counts too). I put no more than 200ml in each bottle, of which he’s meant to have three each day: mid-morning, mid-afternoon and before bed. And more often than not Conrad sleeps through his mid-morning bottle to wake up sometime around 12 or 1 o’clock, so I feed him lunch straight away. But with the night feeds he still often has 800ml of formula per 24 hours. As long as the night feeds still happen, all I can think to do is to maybe water his formula down a little bit and maybe also give him some fruit in-between meals so that he fills up on that instead of quite as much milk during the day.

Regarding sleeping, Conrad still more often that not sleeps for 3-4 hours during the morning, and sometimes has a half hour in the afternoon too. It can work out so that in effect Jessica has me all to herself during the morning, and then when she settles for a nap around 1.30-2pm, Conrad has me to himself for the 2-3 hours that his sister sleeps. It’s so good to be able to spend a bit of quality time each with the kids, to give them my full attention for a little while.

Gabriella