15 weeks, 6 days

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm starting to get excited about Christmas now - and am really looking forward to spending it at my parents this year - not done that for about 4/5 years :o).

I have started a couple of traditions already with Callum, even if he isn't aware of what is going on. They are as follows:

1. Continuing my mum's tradition, I have bought him a new babygrow to wear Christmas eve. Obviously, my mum didn't buy as a babygrow every year - might've looked a bit weird, a teenager in a babygrow!!! The tradition is a new pair of pyjamas but as Callum is still wearing babygrows, that is his pyjamas. 
2. Every year, he will create a decoration for the Christmas tree. This year, I painted his feet and pressed them on card to make them look like holly and I painted my finger red to make the berries (he still wont uncurl his hand to do them himself!). I then cut it out to make the holly shape and have hung it on the tree.
3. I'm thinking of continuing on another tradition of my mum's of taking a picture of Callum in front of the Christmas tree (and any other children I might decide to have in the future :-o). My mum did Christmas eve and Christmas morning but I might just choose the morning! 

A few more might develop over the year too but these are the only ones worth doing now. We haven't bothered to do a stocking for him this year as he wont appreciate it....and to be honest, we can do with saving the money. We have bought him presents but they are just things we were getting him anyway and have just wrapped them up as presents. I'll ask my mum to open them though as she wont know what he has. Seems pointless wrapping them up otherwise.

We are still battling with Callum at feed times but now we are feeding him more often - every 3 hours instead of 4 - I am worrying less that he isn't taking as much milk. I do re-offer it to him after he has burped but if he continues to throw a fit, I give in. As long as he has done around 4oz or more. It does get really stressful though when he gets really worked up and tries everything to get away from the bottle. Don't think the Gaviscon is doing much now. Distracting him with a toy does sometimes help but you really need someone else to wave the toy as it doesn't work if the person feeding does it.

Still going well with putting him down awake. I put him down, put his blanket on him,

 put his dummy in while stroking a muslin against his face and then put his lightshow/lullaby thing on. I really didn't want him to have a muslin as a comforter/soother but it is the only thing that works.  He can be crying and not looking in the slightest bit tired, then I put that next to his face and he likes to grip it in his hands too and as soon as it is there, his eyes droop! The only worry is, I worry he will suffocate himself with it as he likes to cover his mouth and nose with it. I try and position it though so he can't do that, or if he does, he can easily turn his head to breath again. Quite frightening though. 

Our only problem at the moment is that he only sleeps for 45 minutes over lunchtime when he needs about 2 hours. Babys have a sleep cycle of approximately 45 minutes and often wake up or come near to waking after that time but they should be able to then drop back into deep sleep after about 15 minutes of light sleep. However, Callum can't do this. I do try to go in and do the same thing as what gets him to sleep in the first place but he just can't get back off to sleep. You can see he needs to as his eyes are really droopy but he just tosses and turns. If 

I get him up though, he just whinges and cries the whole time until his next sleep. It is very draining. He can do longer as he has done a few times but it is the exception rather than the rule! One step at a time though I guess. We do need to get a blackout blind. Perhaps that will be all he needs!

We have finally got our evenings back too. I was making sure that once he had gone down to sleep at bedtime, he didn't come out of his nursery again until morning. After only two evenings he stayed asleep longer than an hour and has remained asleep until 10pm or, if longer, we have given him a dreamfeed about 11 before we go to bed. Am trying to bring this forward though. Tried 10pm last night but think that was too early as he woke up at about 12.45am. So, I'm going to try 10.30pm tonight. He fed at that time the night before last and slept until 3.30-4am. 

The next post will probably be in the new year so:

Have a great Christmas and New Year everyone. I hope you all have prosperous 2009s (despite the recession!).