I don’t know if I’m writing these the wrong way round, but basically I’m writing the updates after the whole month, so Honey Nut has now been 3 months for the month of October, if you know what I mean!

What Honey Nut likes:

Lying on her playmat and looking at herself in the mirror
Looking at her mobile
Her Goldfish rattle
Sitting up with me holding her up
Watching Tyler
My yellow Iphone
Having no clothes on
Chewing her hands
Being in the buggy
Being sang to
Baby yoga and me stretching her arms and legs
Looking at her hands and fingers
Rhymetime at the library
Sitting on mummy’s lap
Her dummies
Dentinox teething gel – it’s sweet

What Honey Nut dislikes
Having lots of layers on (she’s a hot baby!)
Going in the car
Having trapped wind
Getting dressed
Having a jacket put on her
Playgroups

How is Honey Nut

Weight/Size – At 12 weeks she weighed 4.85kg so growth had slowed down. I started to feed her more, and she started having night feeds again, usually once or twice a night so she has been having a growth spurt. She looked much bigger at 15 weeks but I haven’t had her weighed again yet. She grew out of her Size 2 night time nappies as they started leaking, so now she’s in size 3. Day time nappies are still size 2 just about. From 15 weeks she’s moved on to 3-6 months clothes.

Food – She is being breastfed with one bottle of formula having been introduced once a day at around 3/4pm. This is when we go to pick up Tyler so it’s a 5oz bottle of milk for the bus journey or when we get home. Morning feed is around 6.30/7am, then one at 9.15am after I come home from dropping Tyler to school. Another feed around 11am, then 2pm, then 4pm, 6pm, and then dreamfeed 10.30pm and if she wants some in the night. It’s demand feeding (or they call in responsive these days) and it looks like it’s roughly every 3 hours.

Sleep – She’s been falling asleep earlier for the night, sometimes it’s 7/7.30pm, sometimes 8.30pm/9pm. I then dreamfeed her before I fall asleep around 10.30pm. From 14 weeks she started stirring for nightfeeds around 1/2am and 4.30am. She wakes for the day around 7am. She has daytime naps when she is in the buggy to drop off/pick up Tyler from school, and sometimes she has a long 2 hour nap between 11.30am – 1.30pm, but this differs each day. She sometimes has a short nap around 6.30pm for about half-an-hour, and then she goes to sleep for the night at 8.30/9pm. If there is no short nap, then she falls asleep for the night around 7.30pm.

Development – Honey Nut has desperately been trying to lift her head up when she is lying down. She has discovered her hands and is always looking at them. She is grabbing things by accident. She seems to want to roll but can’t yet. She wants to sit up, so I hold her sitting up, and have bought a Mamas and Papas snug seat for her. She is teething and drools a lots, chewing her hands. The hands are always in her mouth. I got her an amber anklet she wears under her clothes. The teeth are under the gums and I don’t think they’ll actually come out for a while though. She is so alert, noticing sounds and things above her. Her voice is getting louder, she is squawking and she giggles sometimes too, especially at Tyler or if we say things to her in a funny voice, and she’s been blowing raspberries too -really wet ones. Her arms and legs move when she is excited, proper punches and kicks.

What we have done

I have taken her to the cinema, we saw Bridget Jones
Rhyme time at the library, she loved watching the other children dance
Train ride to Maidenhead and baby group. She loved the train ride but cried all though the baby group
Baby group in Slough – cries during this. I don’t think she likes baby groups!
Train trip to Windsor, walk along river and dinner in GBK – she slept through most of this
Got weighed at the clinic – she smiled through this
Tube to London and meeting her baby friends – she loved the tube but cried when we met with friends
Visited grandparents – she seems unsettled at my parents’ house, I think she just likes being at home
Coffee breaks at Starbucks, The Curve and Gaudios. Out of the 3, she was happy at Starbucks.

How am I

This month for me has been the hardest. I don’t know if it was because I expected it to be magically easier after 12 weeks so it was all in my mind, but to be honest I’ve been finding it hard managing to look after 2 children. Honey Nut’s cry is quite a shrill one, I find I can’t think straight when she is crying. Tyler has been quite difficult after school as I think he is so shattered that he’s all cranky and started behaving awfully, throwing things and slamming doors, just not listening to me. And this always seems to happen when Honey Nut is crying hysterically. My husband does not get home until 7.45pm, and the worst of it happens around 6.45/7pm, so it’s usually over by the time he is back. It’s really made my brain frazzled, I have cried and I almost think I fell into some sort of depression. After dropping Tyler off at school, I would stay in with Honey Nut the past few weeks, just watching crap TV on E4 and not wanting to do anything with her. I did talk to my husband about it and talking helped. I think it’s not knowing if this is how it’s going to be forever. Have I lost Tyler? Has school totally changed him, or does he just need to get used to this new long day. I swear a full day is too long for a 4 year old, and then they expect you to do homework with them. It’s like they don’t realise that parents have other children to look after too!

Anyway, I digress, this is meant to be Honey Nut’s update. I have felt like a crap mum this month, like I’m not looking after her well enough, otherwise she wouldn’t be crying so much. So today, at 16 weeks + 2 days, I decided enough is enough, I am going to look after this beautiful girl properly! Put that smartphone away, only post photos to instagram and blog when she is sleeping. When she is awake I will play with her, entertain her. Enough with this depression! I took her to Rhyme Time today and oh my god, she was the happiest I have ever seen her. Today was a good day, and I really think it’s because I put my head back in the right place. I played my music today in the flat instead of watching the crap on TV. I felt happy, like a cloud had lifted above me.

Happy mum = Happy Baby – I HAVE to remember that!

So hopefully by the 4 month update, it will be a happier update from me.

Sabrina x