The week of change.

I remember when my first son Aston turned 12 weeks, it was a huge change for him, he became happier, more alert and less pain-in-the-butt baby. He would cry all the time and never eat or sleep for his first 11 weeks and when we hit 12 weeks, I had a new baby boy and life was wonderful.

After Will (my second) turned 12 weeks, it was just another week of bliss. He was the dream baby from birth, he slept through the night from 8 weeks and ate and slept and was happy all the time.

For Freddie, it has been a week of change after change. I officially realised that Freddie is the baby bear of the family, not too happy but not too sad, doesn’t drink all his milk but doesn’t not drink at all and isn’t a wonderful sleeper but is a fine sleeper. He is just right.

The thing is, and I am not sure if it is a third-time parent thing, but I am pretty cruisy and happy to try new things to make him happy. What do I mean by change you ask?

Within one week we have changed clothing size to 00, we changed dummies to the big cherry ones, we changed back to Nan HA Gold again, well, for one day only and went back to Bellamy’s. We went up a size in the bottle teats, we went from sleeping in the cocoona baby to a flat mattress in his bassinet, his farts went from smelly to not smelly and he was pooping every third day and now daily.

Phew! That is a lot isn’t it, oh wait, two more things… biiiiig things… are you ready?

We went from no real routine to a strict routine (I will touch on this) and… the big news… I stopped breast feeding.

Pause.

Take it in.

Breathe.

Waaaaaaaaa…..

I am sad, not because I actually stopped and because I said I wanted to breastfeed for six months, I have already come to terms and accepted this, but because he is my last baby and this little bit of milk I have left in my boobs will be the last time I will ever make milk. This has been a confusing time for me, so much so, I had the silly idea that, wait for it, I might want another baby?

Early in the week I would offer the breast, he would suck and then refuse and then I would give the bottle, which he would drink from and then I would spend time pumping. All up, that is a lot of time consumed and with two older kids, it was like a life time! Everyone was getting cranky, the big kids, the baby, me and after a few days, I had to come to terms with the fact that, the baby made the decision for me and I had to listen to him and stop. Looking back, yes, I think the mix feeding did give him a preference for bottle but it is what it is and it was the decision I made and it is done.

I haven’t fed him from my breast at all, apart from a few small sucks to relieve the sometimes fullness around the nipple. I made sure I would express just enough so the milk wouldn’t make again. They are slowly going down (soon to be south, deep south, south for the winter south.. and empty and flat, flat like a boy) and the engorgement days are long gone, which is good.

So, that is that.

Other notable things that have happened this week are as follows:

He is drooling a lot when he is doing tummy time, he is starting to interact more with us, not a huge amount but more than usual. His fontanel isn’t completely closed yet, he likes to be on the play mat now but on a pillow to be slightly up, I whipped out an old bouncer that moves on its own and plays music, he seems to enjoy this.

Freddie also is starting to get distracted by his surroundings, for example, he won’t properly drink and finish a bottle if it is daylight.

This leads me to my new routine. Freddie still wakes up grizzling at 12:30am and then 2:30am for a feed and then 5am for, just cos’. So, I decided he might need a strong daytime routine so he sleeps better in the day (and night) and drinks his entire bottles in the day.

Currently I am doing as follows:

7am wake and give bottle (180ml) he usually has 100ml

Stay awake for 1 ½ hours

Put to sleep and re-settle him until next feed (pat pat shhh shhh)

11am feed

Stay awake for 1 ½ hours

Put to sleep and re settle

3pm feed

4:30pm nap

5:15/30pm bath

6pm bottle

7pm bed

10:30pm dream feed

I re-settle any awake time over night but I will feed at around 2:30am if he wakes.

So far, so good. My goal for him is to sleep soundly overnight and to drop that 2:30am sleep when he is ready.

Saying all this, I also have two children which means I have to do the 8am drive to school, the 9am walk to kinder and then the pick-ups. I will try the best I can to keep Freddie to the routine where possible but, life is life!

Me? I started my personal training again, slow and steady. My butt and legs hurt for a few days, but that is good, right? I think we will film a few sessions to show you what exercises we are doing.