Bethany Elsie Ellis 13/10/13

[Juice]

Well, I'm starting this journal a little bit late as Beth is almost 12 weeks. But better late than never. Up until now, there wasn't really that much to write about I suppose. Tiny babies are adorable and lovely to have around, but they're also a bit... well... boring! :/
Now Beth is smiling and laughing, showing interest in toys, recognising us, etc.. She's much more enjoyable and fun. Not that she never was fun... Ahh you know what I mean!

Anyway, it's currently 5:15am and I can't sleep and I'm bored! So I guess now is a good a time as any to start this journal

Firstly, let me properly introduce my little angel...
Bethany arrived 5 hours and 44 minutes after her due date on 13th October 2013. She weighed 7lbs 13oz and the digits in the time she was born add up to 13. So I guess that's our new lucky number!
We named her Bethany simply because it was a name that was suggested by me and one of the very few we both liked. Her middle name Elsie comes from mine and Colin's initials: L for Lucy and C for Colin.

So here we are at 12 weeks! What an amazing 12 weeks it's been! Beth started smiling at 7 weeks, properly starting holding her head up at 10 weeks and started showing interest in and bashing at her toys at about the same time. Right now in my insomniac state, that's all the milestones I can think of!

Big thing going on right now... We've started a bedtime routine!! For the past two nights, Colin and I have had four whole hours to ourselves in the evening. We've had no idea what to do with this time so spent it watching bits of TV in between staring at the flashing green light of the sensor mat on the baby monitor!
I've been doing the "cry it out a little bit but not too much because it makes mummy sad" method of sleeping. She's never been too bad at settling herself, but she's never liked being upstairs by herself. Even if we're silent she always seems to know that we're there.

I start getting her ready for bed at 7:30. I turn a few lights off first. Change her nappy, wipe her face, hands and cheesy neck with an Asda's Little Angels fruity face wipe and put her in a sleep suit. Then we have last bottle followed by a story read in my best "calm voice" and then I take her straight to bed at 8pm.

Night number one took two hours of crying for 2 minutes followed by settling followed by 10 minutes sleep followed by more crying. Rinse and repeat.

Night two was much better. I put her down and waited outside the bedroom for three minutes whilst she cried. I went back and put her dummy back in and she went straight to sleep for four hours. I did a dream feed when we went to bed at 12 and it all went downhill from there! She took only two ounces and then woke up every 2 hours but refused milk. Poor baby just couldn't settle.

Night number three was tonight. We missed story time because she was so upset because she was ridiculously tired. She went up at 7:45. Woke for a feed at 10:30 and then slept until 2ish. She would only take two ounces so I decided not to fight with her and just left it at that. Then when I put her back down, it took A WHOLE HOUR for her to go back to sleep. She eventually went back to sleep but I didn't. Hence why I'm sat here writing this essay that no one can really be bothered reading at (now) 5:35!

Soooo... I'm hoping that I can keep this journal more up to date than I did my pregnancy journal. I do very much want to document Bethany's progress!

If you read all that ramble... Thank you!

 

[Dotty_woman]

Hi Juice! Great to see you've started a journal. Bethany certainly is coming on leaps and bounds and what a little cutie. I'm looking foward to Vi holding her head up as it's still all over the place at the moment but getting stronger. I look foward to reading your story as it unfolds. xxx

 

[cornishfairy]

Aww it's great to hear how you've been getting on, she looks like such a happy little lady! xx

 

[Juice]

After asking for advice from the health visitor, Beth is now in her own room. It's soooooo much better! The other night she slept for 9 hours straight for the first time! We don't disturb her and she doesn't disturb us. It used to be that when we brought her back to bed after a night feed, she'd keep us awake babbling to herself whist she tried to go back to sleep, so we'd rock her and put her dummy in and now in hindsight I think we were keeping her awake longer by interfering. Now when I put her back down, she goes off within a couple of minutes.

Bedtime routine is going exceptionally well. She doesn't cry when we put her down any more, she just talks to herself for a while until she falls asleep.

We've also been doing some exciting future planning... We were talking about when would be the best time to start trying for number two and after a long discussion I decided that I would like to start trying when I've lost 3 stone. We both thought this was a perfect idea because it takes away the "is it too soon?" question because we're not aiming for a specific time period.
So I started my diet last week and have lost 3lbs. So only 2 stone 11lbs to go! When you put it like that, it doesn't seem like that much lol

So all in all, things are going pretty well for us all

 

[Dotty_woman]

Pleased to hear Beth is doing so well. Good luck with the weight loss. I've started too but not shifted much yet. How exciting to have a goal though. Sounds like good motivation and not time based as you say. All the best. xxx

 

[Juice]

Yes it's really exciting to be planning our future!
I'm doing slimming world, it's a really easy diet and once you've been to one meeting and had it explained and got all the material, you can quite easily do the diet at home by yourself without shelling out a fiver a week to stand on someone else's scales. So if you're struggling, I highly recommend it!

Beth slept through again the other night. She woke at 2am and instead of feeding her, I put her dummy back in and she slept until 6am! I was really excited that this was the beginning of sleeping through but since then she hasn't done it Ahh well, we'll get there

She's now in her 3-6 month clothes, which is great because she growing up! But it's incredibly sad because she's growing up! :/

I don't know if I'll be able to wait until I've lost 3 stone to have another one! I'm slowly edging towards broodiness with every milestone that Beth passes! lol

 

[Dotty_woman]

Great to hear that Beth is sleeping through. It's amazing what a difference that makes. The very best of luck with your diet. It sounds like you've got off to a good start. I've wavered tonight a bit and had a bottle of cider. Hoping that Vi doesn't want a feed or I'm going to have to defrost some of my precious breast milk.

I know what you mean about the clothes. It's sad when you have to confine the baby clothes to the "too small" drawer. It's happened all too quickly. Sounds like broodiness is starting to get the better of you! good luck with holding out! xxx