UP ALL NIGHT

Charlotte had her worst night ever. Not the worst since the early weeks - the worst EVER.

She went down fairly well at 7pm, despite her painful eczema and tummy, but then woke about four times in the subsequent hour and a half. So we tried giving her Calpol. Now, Charlotte must be the only baby for whom the apparent fail-safe for calming babies and getting them to sleep doesn't work.

From 8pm until midnight we had almost constant tears, screaming and crying - and definitely no sleep. We tried everything. We took her out in the car, tried rocking her in her pram, tried ignoring her cries. In the end I think she was just so exhausted she gave in, relaxed in my OH's arms and about an hour later dropped off in her cot - for all of two and a half hours. Then she was up every hour after that again :(

I even resorted to calling NHS Direct as a last resort as it was all so unlike her. Sod's Law - once I got through to a nurse Charlotte had calmed right down and wasn't screaming the house down. And by the time the out-of-hours surgery called me back, she was almost asleep.

She's had two good sleeps in the day today, and her constipation certainly seems to be easing. But her nasty eczema's getting worse and it's proving impossible to give her her antibiotics. She just won't swallow it - either by spoon or syringe , and when she does she often throws it straight back up, so we've no idea if she's actually getting any.

I think another trip to the doctors at the end of the week may be in order :(

FEELING HELPLESS

Our Little Monkey's poorly. She's got horrible eczema, coupled with crippling constipation. She's not the happy little girl we know at the moment - lots of tears, loss of appetite and sleepless nights.

I know both conditions are very common in babies - especially when you start weaning. But it doesn't make it any easier when I see her so unhappy. The doctor's prescribed her antibiotics for the infected bits of her eczema. But when we gave her one dose today she projectile vomited all her milk and the extra water we're trying to give her to ease her bowels.

Last night she woke pretty much every hour, crying - presumably in pain, because her tummy's hurting. I don't think it's the eczema, because I've not seen her scratching very much. I'm expecting a similar night tonight as she was equally screamy when I put her down, and she's been up three times in the past hour and a half.

Poor little munchkin. I know we're doing everything we can to help her. She's got a hyrdocortisone cream for her spreading eczema, and we're giving her water and pureed fruit to help her constipation. And I know both things will pass. I just feel so helpless when I can't stop her from crying.

It also means I've had to cancel a few of the growing social engagements in Charlotte's busy diary! The doctor recommended she doesn't go to her swimming lesson this week. And as she was so grizzly, uncomfortable and tired we gave Baby Stay and Play at the local Children's Centre a miss today. But if she's any brighter tomorrow I'll try to take her along to Baby Babble for some fun stories and nursery rhymes.

BABBLING BABY

I got a bit of a lie-in this morning while my OH gave Charlotte her breakfast. As I awoke, all I could hear was "Dadadadada" - in varying pitches and intonations. Out of nowhere, Charlotte has properly started babbling away.

The "Dadadadadada" did not stop all day - not that I wanted it to! It's such a lovely sound. Occasionally it would be interspersed with the odd "Rarara" or "Bababa", what sounds a bit like "Yeah", and the old favourite "ahhh boo". But there was no mistaking her new skill that she spent the day practising. "Dadadadada" all day long!

It co-incided with a busy day of me throwing myself into all the local baby groups - NCT Bumps and Babes in the morning, and - ironically - Baby Babble in the afternoon. As I'm new to the area it's the best way to meet other Mums, and Charlotte also seems to thrive among other people.

We've also started another baby swimming group after the success of last term in London. Unfortunately there's only one other baby in the class, and she's a second time Mum, so there's not all the comparing notes in the changing rooms that we had last time, but Charlotte loves it in the water and it's good fun for both of us nonetheless.

FIRST CHRISTMAS

Yes, I know Christmas was two weeks ago, but we've only just got broadband in our new house, so not been able to update my blog very easily.

So far as I was concerned, I've never felt less Christmassy this year. Christmas Day itself was just another day of making sure Charlotte was fed, slept etc., just with added relatives around and piles and piles of presents. As expected she was spoiled rotten by grandparents and aunts and uncles (just as well, as me and her Dad didn't really buy her much!).

There were a couple of moments when she was a bit grizzly from maybe too much attention and having yet another noisy toy thrust in front of her, but really she was very good.

She's still sleeping well through the night, and in the day we've gone full circle. From a few months back when I had to take her out for nearly every nap, she now gets her best daytime sleeps of up to two hours (but still sometimes just 25 minutes) in her cot!

Charlotte's equally fickle with her feeding too - one day she'll happily eat whatever meat and veg pureé very well from the spoon, the next she'll not take so well to the same flavours and play around with the spoon and bowl (very messy). She's now on three meals a day - breakfast around 7.30/8am, lunch between 1130-1200 and tea at 1730 with milk feeds with breakfast, lunch, mid afternoon and before bed. 

I feel like I'm making it up as I go along, and her milk intake doesn't seem to be reducing by very much at all. But as with most other stages so far I'm just taking bits and bobs of advice from various people, books etc. and fitting it with my gut instinct and what works for us. I think I'm guilty of what I often do, and that's trying to rush things and get her along to the next stage, when I know weaning is a slow process and I keep forgetting that she's still only six and a half months - I keep looking ahead to what she "should" be doing as a seven month old and beyond.

She's also sitting up without any support really well now - and so I'm now watching out for and encouraging her to crawl. (Like I said, guilty of looking ahead to the next thing too much).

SIX MONTHS OLD

Moved house and we have no broadband yet - hence no time or capacity to update my blog. So just a quick one until after Christmas.

Charlotte's been amazing since we moved - I was concerned all the changes may have unsettled her. But she's pretty much been sleeping through every night for the past week or so. And when she does wake she's been putting herself back to sleep pretty swiftly.

Still taking it slowly with the weaning. Pureed fruit or veg twice a day. And as it's Christmas, we tried Brussel Sprouts this morning:

 

They seemed to go down pretty well, but I'm not looking forward to the nappies!

COUGHS AND SPLUTTERS

Charlotte's got a stinky cold :( She's had a stuffy nose for more than a week, but in the past few days it's been joined by a nasty cough. And today she had a couple of major vomitting episodes after particuarly violent coughing. 

But in between her coughing and sneezing fits she seems perfectly happy (although it's affecting her daytime naps worse than ever), and she's not got a temperature. So I'm pretty confident it's just a winter cold and it will pass. But if it gets much worse, or doesn't clear up after the weekend, I will take her to be checked over by the doctor.

I think it's worse for us seeing her suffer and not being able to do much to help. All I want to do is help her blow her nose, but saline drops will have to do the trick until she's rather older! Feel so sorry for her, and giving her lots of cuddles and kisses so she knows how much we love her :)

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

We're having food issues this week - good and bad.

Charlotte started weaning last Thursday on her five month birthday - very, very slowly at first, just one new flavour every three days, and just one attempt each day. So far. so good. She took the baby rice and banana off the spoon pretty easily, and seemed keen for more even after three teaspoons. But I don't want to overfeed her solids at this stage while milk's still her main intake.

But given the encouraging signs so far, I may  increase it to two sessions of trying solids a day next week. Other than the consensus on what  to feed your baby, weaning seems to be another area where there's conflicting advice over when, how often, how much etc. So I'm really trying to use my instincts and Charlotte's lead on this one and see how we get on.

The not such good issues concern her milk feeds. In the mornings, even before we started the solids, she's had a tendancy to barely touch her milk - maybe 40ml - even when she's slept through without a feed since 6.30 the previous night. I think we've sorted this one though - she seems to take a bit more when we leave it at least half an hour after she's got up, and make sure the milk's a little warmer than she used to take (i.e. not just room temperature).

But the real biggie is her evening bottle. She's still refusing to take it from anyone but me. She'll take a little from her Dad, but then when she realises who's feeding her she'll scream and scream and not take anymore. And once she does take more from me there doesn't seem to be any consistency as to how much she'll take - sometimes barely 100ml, sometimes a full 220ml. Sometimes I think it was easier on the breast when I never actually knew how much, just that she was satisfied.

What with her continually erratic naps, her Grandma keeps telling me Charlotte's just keeping us on our toes. She certainly is that.