Hello there poppets! / L Plate Mama

I haven't yet written about how besotted with my baby I am. Seen as I want to write about how I've been apart from my bubba a lot (comparatively), it seems like a good opportunity to start off with how ridiculously inlove with the wee man I am. It is difficult to put into words how much I love him, I had no idea I had the capacity to love someone so much, it is almost like I have grown a whole new heart that is devoted just to him; for his sweet milky breath, his golden wispy fine hair, his adorable chubby cheeks, his sparkling blue eyes and his Elvis-like lopsided smiles. When he beams his happy smile at me, it makes all the broken nights, all the crying and explosion poos more than worth it. Loving him so, and his reliance on me as his only source of food, it hard to leave him. It is very easy for me to imagine that no one else can care for him as I do, no one else can endure his crying with the patience and love that I can, no one else can jiggle him just so. So I have...

Good morning (or whatever time it is where you are when you are reading this). It is a bright and sunny spring morning here in Melbourne, and the bub is 'chatting' away and kicking about on the floor. You may think from this cheerful observation that I had a good night sleep; however this is not the case. Despite giving Bub a dream feed at 9:30pm (a dream feed for those of you not in the know, is where you feed the bub without waking him up, he latches on and feeds while fast asleep), he woke at 12am, 3am, 4am and at 5am there was going to be no way to resettle him, so took him back to bed with me to listen to him wriggle and suck furiously on his dummy. I didn't get up to him at 4, he grizzled for a few minutes and went back to sleep, which was a really lovely thing. This very broken night, followed our best night ever with only one waking at 3, and then he slept through until 7:15am - hardly believable! The other half woke up and worried there was something wrong. Good ni...

This week I had the pleasure of helping a friend decide upon her wedding dress. It was an absolute honour to be there to help her make her decision, we had a wonderful day; the weather was beautiful, the babies were well behaved, we had a lovely coffee and a yummy lunch. Unfortunately there were two little blips to the day - we had a horrible incident on the tram, and I came away with a terrible case of buggy (pusher) envy. First of all let’s tackle the tram trauma. Perhaps my language is a little extreme, but both my friend and I were a bit shaky after the experience. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon, and we got both buggies on the tram coming down Royal Parade from Sydney Road. This was my first buggy/tram experience. The tram was not busy when we got on, but a few stops later a hoard of uni students crammed on, and we were surrounded. When we rung the bell to get off, the tram was packed so tight we couldn't move. Some of the students got off to allow us to move, a grown man d...

Tonight I went to bed (after successfully dream feeding bub - hurray) and there was sand all over the sheets. Arghhhh! The Bella dog had managed at some point in the evening to get on to the bed, our human-no-dog-bed, and deposit sand and god knows what other grime in the place where I go to sleep! The other half was already in the bed, in doze mode. When I registered my disgust and frustration he responded 'it's just dirt, the sheets need to be changed anyway'. But it's in our bed, at bedtime, after all the other activities, to get into a gritty bed is not the way I choose to end the end. Seen as he was if not happily, but definately comfortable upon the gritty unclean sheets I couldn't change them then.... ARghhhhaaaa! Now I cannot relax, and drift off to sleep so have got up to vent. Deep breath. Slow exhalation. Deep breath. Sneaky little minx of a dog. So it is not just bubs that can get overtired and then cannot easily fall asleep, it can happen to mums too.

Not enough sleep? Too much stimulation? Too little stimulation? Tummy pain? Some other pain or discomfort? Is he just having a difficult week? What is the reason Bubba is grouchy? Seems that is likely that it is not enough sleep.... Since his 8 week birthday I've been providing more active stimulation for the little man; more tummy time, more toys and eye contact and all that stuff. But he is still not sleeping for longer than one sleep cycle (approx 45 minutes) for his 2 day sleeps, and we've had a lot more unsettled time, which up until now, bar one week, we've had the luxury of all crying being solved with the classic suite of care - feed, change, soothe. Up until now Bub just fell asleep wherever he was when he was tired. It's like now he's a bit older he's forgotten how to get the sleep he needs. And he is still waking 3 or 4 times a night. I am tired, and to be honest a bit overwhelmed and anxious about the whole sleep thing. I'm no good at the leavin...