"Hello, my name is..."

Babies are brilliant, aren't they? Obviously, they change your world/make life worthwhile blah, blah, blah. But they also create a brilliant ice breaker when meeting new mums.

We went to a new baby/toddler group today and I have to say, even though I needed to psyche myself up to have the guts to walk through the door, once I was there it was N who helped in meeting the other mums. 

Prior to having a baby or any work networking settings, I was rubbish in talking to new people. While I am pretty social and pretty awesome once you know me, please never make me go somewhere on my own - I am much happier with my own people.  

But not I literally have my own person who I can use as a buffer. 

Just another plus to being a mum ;)

Sleep training update

We are now 11 days into sleep training and I think we are finally getting somewhere. It's not been without many, many tears (N's and mine).

I think I mentioned, but we started with Pick up, Put down and closing the boob bar. Well, whilst the latter definitely worked; PUPD was a dud.

So four nights ago we decided to play hardball and change up the strategy. We have followed the Ferber method and so far, so good.

Night one was an absolute bastard with 46 mins (yes, I counted) of crying. Night two got us down to 14 mins and night three, we'll he settled himself!!! Yes!!

Having spoken to another friend who tried this with her bubba, I think the babies just need to be ready themselves to self settle. What's more, we have gone from up to FIVE feeds a night to just ONE around 5am and even then I'm starting to think we could erase that completely (though, I am still a mum and don't want to deprive my baby).

What's more, we are then not waking until after 7am - absolute bliss I tell ya!

The true test will now be once the hubby returns to work tomorrow, how N copes with more noice around the house in the morning. As ever, wish us luck!!

Sleep training (or lack thereof)

We are currently six days into sleep training during the Easter holidays.

Whilst holidays used to be full of long lies and afternoon naps pre-baby, we are trying to figure out how to get the boy to sleep longer at night.

Before we set off, the hubby and I did our research and spoke to friends to find out what they did. After a chat on what we would and would not be comfortable with (cry it out didn't make the cut), we decided to close the Boob Bar between midnight-5am (previously on 24/7 service) and try the Pick up, Put down option.

Before I get into the details we probably didn't pick the exact right week to do this as we were going away on our first holiday as a threesome and we're taking a different buggy (which was previously the only place N would nap during the day) but try we must.

Long story short, we have managed to cut down on feeds for five to just two, but the screaming matches have been blood curdling - to the point N has been close to losing his voice. We (I) also had to give in on a couple occasions as the Boob was the only way to calm the beast.

So this brings us to today and we have decided that whilst we might not be feeding five times a night, N is still waking the same amount so we need a brand new strategy.

From tonight, the bar will still be closed, but will be trying the Ferber method which seems to be a nice balance of CIO and PUPD. After trying it for this mornings nap, N settled after just 15 mins.

Please, please wish us luck. Needless to say I will be topping myself up on wine before the night begins....