111+7 Weeks

The great news for this week is that every night Arley has been having a bottle at 7pm, then only waking up for one feed in the night before his bottle at 7am!  He started this at 6 weeks old, which is SO GREAT!!  Carmen didn't do this until 4 months, so we are counting our lucky stars.  Arley is now 7 weeks old, and he is still fairly easy going.  He gets cranky sometimes, but I just have to put him in the sling and he calms right down and nods off.  Mum has him tonight, which I am very thankful for, because somehow this week I came down with both tonsillitis and conjunctivitis :(  Impressive, huh?  But apart from this, we have had a good week, with fantastic weather and a nice trip to the beach.  Carmie is still in swimming lessons, and having a blast but totally acting up - she wants to float when the other two kids are paddling, and jump in when she is supposed to be sitting on the edge.  But she loves it, so every Saturday I take her and hope that she is going to be well behaved.  The good thing is, she can "fall in" to the pool and turn around and pull herself out again, so the lessons have been worth it besides all the fun that she has.  Next thing I know I'll be taking Arley too, so I'd better get used to it :)

109,110 + 5,6 Weeks

These last few weeks have been a bit of a blur, so much so that I skipped a week posting on this blog and didn't even know it.  Arley is now 6 weeks and 2 days old, which I am very happy about.  This is because babies are supposed to be at their fussiest at 6 weeks, and things shouldn't get any worse than they are now, which is such a relief.  He is actually turning out to be an easy baby, albeit with fussy periods.  He generally only wakes up for two feeds in the night (from 7pm to 7am), and two nights last week he only woke up for one feed, which is fantastic for a baby under 6 weeks old.  He naps fairly well, as long as he has his 'wubbanub' with him (this is a stuffed toy with a dummy/pacifier attached to it).  When he doesn't nap well, I can put him in the sling and he tends to fall back asleep. Arley started smiling at five weeks, and at his six week check up on Tuesday he measured in at the 85th percentile for height and the 50th percentile for weight, so he is growing very well, and taking after his sister.  I still haven't really done a day with both kids on my own yet, thanks to getting lots of help from Mum and Geoff.  Arley spends one night a week there so that Jeffrey and I can catch up on sleep.  They also take him or Carmen whenever we need help, and Mum has spent the last two Fridays here helping me with them both.  Carmen has been a bit sick, but remains in good spirits.  She seems to really like her brother, with the only danger being her crushing him to death when she tries to hug him.  Carmen is such a clown - she has spent four of the last five days wearing a party hat, wherever she goes.  In fact, she is wearing a sparkly green one today while she is at school.  She is loving school, by the way, and I am loving that she is loving it :)

108 + 4 Weeks

This week is kind of a blur.  Arley has good days and bad days, good nights and bad nights.  Last night was a good night, but the night before was just about as bad as you can imagine, with Arley screaming and rigid for half the night (definite gastric pain, I think).  But he has been making up for lost sleep.  Right now he is sound asleep, in the sling on my chest, but sound asleep no less.  He was four weeks old on Tuesday, and he will be a month old tomorrow.  This past month has gone really quickly but also SO slowly.  Arley is about a 1000 times easier than Carmen was at the same age, so we are counting our blessings.

Carmen has had a cold this week, but has been happy and as well behaved as can be expected.  She loves to hold her brother, but she thinks he cries a lot.  At her school there is a poster board and on it is written who is in each child's family and Carmen's answer was, "Mummy, Daddy and Monkey".  No mention of Arley at all!  So, I think he hasn't affected her life too much :) 

Thanks Aunt Shirley for Carmen's outfit!

4 Weeks