jun, 15th - with the sparrows....

day 1213 / 312:

this is what happens when you wake up too early.....you are the first ones at the park......

sep, 26th - night night....

day 956 / 55:

okay.....i'm shattered.....utterly and completely.....when Limi was born, i said that it's not the initial lack of sleep that everyone expects that's difficult, it's the accumulated lack of sleep that gets you in the end......

we are now playing sleep relay in our household......Claya puts herself to sleep in her crib first (still impresses me), closely followed by Limi....a couple of precious, kid-free hours later, I follow and A. (who is crazily busy at work) is often last.

then Claya wakes up at around one am.....Limi often follows at around two am (this is a new thing), then just when everyone is settled again, Claya wakes up at four and this seems to wake up Limi again. she generally wanders through to climb into our bed (it just doesn't seem right to force her to stay in her own room when the rest of us are all in one together) and snuggles down between us. if i do manage to get Claya back to sleep in her crib, i then have to contend with a two year-old who wants to sleep on top of me (very sweet but not sleep-helpful).....so mostly, my days are starting at four am......

i have asked friends to excuse all strange behaviour (i sat through part of a lunch the other day wondering why it was so dark inside only to realise, that i still had my sunglasses on)........

i definitely have Sleep on the top of my ever expanding to do list.

jun, 5th - big girl's bed....

day 877:

we took the side off Limi's bed last week.....mainly because she seemed ready and we're changing the sleep routine in preparation for 'thunderhooves' {see day 785}. there was unbelievable excitement about being able to sit and play in bed, jump around and off the bed and have her very own pillow. it's been going pretty well with only the odd roll-off at night. sometimes resulting in us finding her curled up happily on the pile of blankets next to the bed and at other times the jolt waking her up with tears. 

in the mornings, she wakes up and comes straight into our room and hops into bed with us (which is a real perk.....not having to claw our way out of bed and haul her out of the cot). the only minus being that it's generally earlier than six o'clock.

morning naps are now either in the buggy or the bed depending on what the day holds, except for earlier this week (pic above) where i found her happily curled up half on and half off.

p.s. although i'm a big fan of plain white linen, i have some ideas for homemade linen for Limi's bed.....let's see if i can get my act together.

sep, 20th - sleep....

day 567:

all i can think about is sleep. lots and lots of sleep. 

frankly, i wish that i could say that it's all i dream about. 

a late night brain-buzz, combined with a teething baby is certainly not helping.

a sleep holiday. that's what i need. perhaps a mattress company needs a spring-tester (almost as good as a job tasting wine), i could happily apply and commit myself completely to the the new role.

for now, i'm aiming for a full, uninterrupted 5 hours.

sep, 23rd - rock-a-bye baby....

day 223:

so...it was years 6 months ago that we introduced a bedtime routine for limi (day 38).....which means that i've been listening to the same bedtime soundtrack for 185 days now (and given it's calming effect on her, i can't see this changing anytime soon).....the good thing is that i don't even hear the songs anymore.....but i also don't think that any of them will ever be the same again for me.

since limi has also been listening to the same tracks for 185 days (and counting) and although this might reveal my cheesy taste in music, i thought that i should document the soundtrack somewhere so that one day when she's driving along and one of them comes onto the radio, she will understand why she has a sudden urge to curl up in the foetal position and go to sleep......

limi's sleep sountrack:

• somewhere over the rainbow - israel kamakawiwo'ole
• i'm yours - jason mraz
• chasing cars - snow patrol
• can't help falling in love - bob dylan
• what a wonderful world - louis b. armstrong
• run - snow patrol
• summertime - ella fitzgerald and louis b. armstrong
• honeybee - zee avi
• into temptation - crowded house
• more than words - extreme
• karma police - radiohead (rockabye baby version)
• return to innocence - enigma
• air on a g-string - societas musica chamber orchestra

sep, 8th - milk pout....

day 208:

this pose is the sleeping-milk-pout....it only happens after a bottle....

aug, 24th - dream feed....

day 193:

so....we've introduced a dream feed. 

as the name suggests, it's a feed that the baby has whilst still sleeping (haven't we all wished that we could manage this at some point). here's a bit more info.

anyway...the idea is to give the baby a warm bottle between 10:30 and 11pm, just before you go to sleep and preferably without waking them...in the hope (beg, pray) that they will sleep for longer.

up until now....although the yoga mums have all been advocating the dream feed since week 3, i've been a bit reluctant to introduce it. to me, it seemed a bit foie-grasesque to feed a sleeping baby, especially when they're not hungry, just to get them to sleep longer for your own benefit. i liked the idea that limi was setting her own patterns and waking and eating only when hungry.

but...*groan....over the past week, she's started waking up twice a night (2am and 4am) instead of just the once (4am)....and i'm feeling the pain....i need sleep and that's more for HER benefit than mine.

so, after debating for awhile, i decided to give the dream-feed a go. and.....my foie-gras-baby is now sleeping through the night (well, except for the strange dream that she's having at 11pm of being chased by a bottle). the interesting part for me is that although i am waking up with a bounce that's been a bit stunted for 6 months,  limi also appears to be enjoying the longer, uninterrupted sleep and is waking up looking very rested, with an even bigger smile....

now, we just need to discuss the 6:30am start time!

aug, 15th - zzzzz....

day 184: feel like this today.....strong desire to curl up in the foetal position and zzzzzzzzzzz........

aug, 14th - come back, i promise not to cling....

day 183:

so 6 months and separation anxiety sets in.....um....sadly, it's me experiencing it, not limi. fast forward 5 years and i'm going to be the one clinging onto her ankle at the school gates.....crying 'don't go!' naturally, i thought that i was much tougher (see day 65)....you know....more like...apron strings? pah! i use a stick on apron. but, when it comes down to it.....it seems i'm more like....apron handcuffs.

what brought this on.....limi moved out! no, not into her own London Shoebox saying 'i'll call you mum, don't call me'....but just 5 paces into the next room.....(yes, it is that close in a London Shoebox....Mother Hubbard had nothing on us)

we never expected to keep her in our room for 6 months....6 months seems like ages when you're looking at other parents but given that her room was previously where guests stayed, it has been half nursery and half bed-for-guests up until now...and the 6 months has flown by. added to that, it's just been easier to pluck her from the cot next to the bed in the middle of the night.

now that most of the Summer guests had been and gone....it seemed that the time had come to move her in. so last night...fresh from Italy, Limi slept in her own room....and far from loving the 'freedom'....i very nearly curled up on the floor next to her.

those 5 paces seem gigantic (especially when you have to navigate them in the middle of the night....nope, she still doesn't sleep through) and i just missed not being able to open my eyes and catch a glimpse of her snorting in her sleep, or just opening those eyes and giving me a smile....or wrestling with zozo.

on the plus side....when i went in this morning...it was the most excited someone has been to see me since we left A.'s dad with Limi and came back to discover him mid-change (he'd held off for as long as possible)....

to be met with huge grins and wriggles of excitement each day....that may just make the missing her easier.

jul, 28th - drama queen....

day 166:

limi's impressive drop lip. she's definitely learning quickly how to work the crowd.

jul, 20th - routine mojo...gone....

day 158:

my routine mojo obviously decided to stay behind in Cornwall (probably thought that it was not yet windswept and interesting enough....). we certainly haven't stuck to just one routine in the past 5.5 months ...but as Limi has grown and changed, I've tried to understand her patterns and build the routine around her and us.

we started out with feeds every 3-4 hours and a loooong sleep in the middle of the day followed by short naps on either side. this was brilliant for lazy lunches with friends (see day 15) but meant that they seldom got to see her awake and even resorted to poking and prodding her on occasion (you know who you are :). lately, she's been favouring a longer nap after her formula in the morning followed by a 2-ish hour nap early afternoon....but well this week...all patterns have vanished. and i'm stuck scrambling for bottles because she's suddenly ravenous....and trawling the local streets to get her to sleep when we appear to have somehow missed the afternoon nap and I know that she won't last until bedtime....help! if you're in Cornwall please post my mojo back (first class!).

so......below is a collage of my neighbourhood pacings (stopping for coffee once i've succeeded in getting her to drop off....hooray!)

jun, 27th - climbing the walls....

[we look a bit serious but actually there were plenty of smiles....]

day 136:

after a day of spring-cleaning yesterday, we needed to escape the house....so limi was bathed and pyjama-ed (didn't you used to love going out in your pyjamas when you were small...you'd fall asleep and wake up in your bed in the morning....as if by magic! i think that the idea may have over-lingered into my university years...except, i'd just wake up in the clothes from the night before.) 

anyway, we're lucky because limi is fine with falling asleep in her cot and then being transferred into her car-seat and back again! with a gorgeous, long, Summer eve and wanting to recreate the recent trip to Greece, we headed to the terrace at The Real Greek. They're a chain which is usually not our favourite but it's close to home and sitting on the terrace, you have a view of this stunning Green Wall. 

i'm a big fan of Green/Living walls. i guess they're the contemporary version of ivy-clad walls which i've always had a soft spot for. another great Living Wall in London is at the amazing Anthropologie store in Regent Street....i may need to go and show Limi that one too!....i mean, surely it's a bit like taking her to an indoor park on a rainy day........

[source: www.biotecture.uk.com/pics/Anthropologie.jpg]

jun, 24th - swaddling....

day 133:

yay, they've arrived!....i've been struggling to balance swaddling and the British Summer (which arrived a tad late...but never-the-less with some force and steely determination). although the swaddle designs versions were fantastic for winter they're pretty dense for the Summer....especially when these old Victorian houses, are just not equipped to deal with heat! so...just received these gorgeous light-weight, muslin blankets. (they're by aden and anais. i bought mine from hamill baby). they're amazing quality, lovely and soft and will also be great to throw over the pram as a sun shield or to use as a cover. loving the mono-chrome colouring. (they actually come in packs of 4 but the stripey one's already in the cot...pic below!)

of course now that they've arrived....limi appears to be teetering on the brink of breaking free from the swaddle. she's been favouring the back-stroke frog sleeping position this week instead....well i guess they would also make great hammam style towels.

ps. i can't seem to get my head around patterned pyjamas....i know that there'll come a time when she'll want horses, fairies or even worse Hannah Montana splashed across them but for now, after a full day of colour and pattern...there's nothing better than a freshly bathed, sweet smelling Limi in simple white.  

jun, 17th - spoke too soon....

day 128:

so we were hoping for this at 7:30am:

instead, we got this:

so much for sleeping through...Limi has decided that for the rest of this week, the day should start at 4am. It seems like she is processing all her new 'words' during the night and then she can't contain them anymore and they all come spilling out at 4am...LOUDLY!! it's difficult to ignore (or slumber through) and of course you're complete toast when you look into the cot because you then get this:

loving all the new sounds and squeals...especially her 'earnest voice'. will try and get some footage of it next week....

jun, 15th - bring on the slothful teenage years....

day 126:

at 5:30am recently....with limi kicking and babbling away between us...A.glanced over and said: 'i look forward to those teenage years' when we struggle to get limi out of bed before 10am....'

well last night was the start of that! she's been tantalising us recently by sleeping from 7pm to 5/6am but we've still had very early mornings! last night she slept through the 3am-wake-up and only woke up at 7am (i think that it counts as her first non-jet-lag-related-sleep-through)......hopefully this is the start of regaining some much needed beauty sleep (i have got 18 weeks to catch up on)!

may, 16th - jet-lagged....

day 98: 

[video to follow....stuck in the editing room]

struggling to keep Limi awake at 4pm UK time…..

mar, 19th - fighting sleep...

day 40:

When your days are so full and exciting...sleep can get in the way!

mar, 16th - sleep routines...

day 38:

Everyone seems to have an opinion on getting babies to sleep through the night! It's really no surprise that babies are nocturnal creatures since they learn their sleeping patterns in the womb....they fall asleep when you are moving i.e. walking around during the day, rocking them from side to side (have you ever wondered why pregnant girls develop a distinctive walk...it's not pregnant-waddling but human-rocking) and they wake up when you keep still i.e. sleep like a stone at night. So, my advice for having a baby who pops out with the correct day/night body-clock it to start working night shifts, attend all night raves or sleep in a hammock when pregnant!

Other advice comes from the infamous Gina Ford, who recommends a military schedule....which means that you have to sacrifice any life until your baby is fully regimented and give up any thoughts of a holiday (where the baby sleeps) for the first 4 years. (Her funny solution for not being able to leave the house, for fear that you cannot put the baby to sleep in exactly the same position every 3 hours, is for everyone to come and visit you.....so, besides going stir crazy from cabin-fever, none of your maternity colleagues would also be able to do Gina Ford or you would all be stuck at home....I guess there's always Facebook chat!) When discussing her views with the aforementioned maternity colleagues, we were appalled at Gina's rule that there should be no eye contact during the night-time feeds..not because we thought it too cruel, but because it suggested that we should be making eye contact during the day....this is when we catch up on email!!!)

Then, there's the Baby Whisperer (not my BW, a different one), who supposedly suggests a gentler approach, but it is essentially still Gina Ford just disguised in pink!

At the opposite side, are lackadaisical parents, who's approach is: anything-goes-let-the-baby-dictate. You can spot these types from their haggard, aged-5-years-in-5-weeks appearance.

We are trying for something in the middle! Implementing our own routine that takes suggestions from them all but hopefully works for us. This is our approach:

1. Work with the routine that Limi has already naturally fallen into.

2. Still encourage her to fall asleep with noise around (at least during the day). This is setting her up for future back-packing adventures...

3. Create a night-time routine that can hopefully travel: bath, feed, sleep soundtrack and sleepy giraffe's watering-hole sounds..all of which can be packed up and transported! Will lead into bedtime story-telling/reading later on.

4. Still let her sleep in a variety of 'beds', from her cot, to the pram bassinet...hopefully allowing for easy transition to the travel cot and later on, to being able to sleep on long-haul flights (something that I wish that I had been trained for from a baby!)

5. Not get too stressed out by the whole thing......she's still very small....and very cute when she wants to chat at 3am!

Anyway, that's the plan! Any recommendations to the above are most welcome. Leave comments below!

mar, 12th - baby whisperer...

day 34:

Limi has given us a really gentle introduction to parenthood...so far....which probably means some interesting teenage years to come. But since birth, the only time that she really cries is when she seems to have nappy-filling-pain (oh, and that first bath!). I took her to see the midwife, who helpfully said that she could weigh her (maybe we could compare before nappy and after nappy weights?) but in terms of the stomach pain, to make an appointment with the doctor. I then took her to the doctor (day 30) who said to give her a week and see how she progressed. Well, a week is a long time when you have 11 nappies a day to deal with and the majority cause a bit of pain! So, I decided to look for alternatives! My yoga teacher had recommended a chiropractor...

A chiropractor! My opinion of chiropractors is limited to one experience in the late eighties where it was all about turning you upside down and cracking-your-bones-until-they-squeak manipulation....not something that appeals for a 4 week old baby. But since my yoga teacher was talking from experience and this particular surgery deals with babies and digestive issues I thought that I would give them a try!

Well...I've found the baby whisperer, his name is Stephen and he operates in West London! We took a niggly Limi in to see him. After trying a few different 'holds' to no affect I handed her over and within 30 seconds she became a rag-doll and went to sleep.....seriously...show me what button to press. Not only that..Stephen started chatting to Limi and within about 2 minutes A. & I were ready to put our heads back and sleep (a talking lullaby). As we struggled not to nod off, he regaled us with a story of a family who brought in their 8.5 month baby who had never slept for more than 1.5 hours at a stretch. At the start of the consultation, he was talking to the baby to calm her down and looked up to see both parents passed out on the couch....they slept for the full hour. So really, he's the people whisperer!

We managed to stay awake to see some of the gentlest 'manipulation' I have come across (to the point where A. thinks that Stephen was just holding her on his lap for 40 minutes). He assessed Limi and found that she had some tightness in her left shoulder and right hip. It is common for infants to have tightness/ misalignment as a result of their origami time in the womb or travels into the world. This tightness usually disappears over time as the baby 'unravels' him/herself. Anyway, with some gentle manipulation this unravelling can usually be speeded up. The receptionist said that after amazing results with their first babies, parents have even been known to come passed with their second on the way back from the hospital. I can definitely see the benefits!

By the time he handed her back to us, Limi was in a trance-like state. She's generally a very chilled out baby but this was on a different level...I imagine a bit like having one of those 6-handed, head to toe massages (yes, they do exist..use Google!) Since then she's been even more laid-back and most of the pain seems to have gone. I have another appointment in ten days. This time, I'm taking my pillow!