Blog From A Broad

i turned two months old, and all i got was this lousy jab

Mia had her first round of immunisations today, and amazingly, I didn't cry this time. That's the cold, dark heart of a second time mum for you. It was really awful to see that heartbreaking face babies make when they get a jab, though. The needle went in and Mia frowned, looking thoroughly confused. Then her little eyes widened and she let out an almighty shriek, which abruptly subsided...until the nurse stabbed her in the other thigh with the second one. Like her big brother, she was absolutely fine as soon as the shots were done, and I let her know about the chocolate buttons she'll get when she has her MMR in about a year. I figured that talk about chocolate would brighten her mood. So far, I haven't had to haul out the Calpol; she seems to be doing just fine. If she's anything like Jack was, she won't be needing it at all.

In other news, Mia has been - touch wood - sleeping brilliantly at night. For over a week, she has been going from around 10 or 11pm until 5am without a feed. Our nightly routine has been: feed at 11, mummy and Mia go up to bed and mummy stays up way too late reading Harry Potter, sleep, feed at 5, and get a bit more sleep until the next feed at 8 or so. I would like to note that anyone who claims that formula fed babies sleep better is full of curdled SMA. Jack's nightly feeding routine was 8pm, midnight, 4am, and 8am - not a lot of difference from Mia's, and he didn't have this schedule until he was around 3 months old. I remember thinking that it was so much easier to have Jack on bottles (and later, formula) because it meant we could share the nighttime feeding duties. Thankfully with Mia, I'm only waking once to feed her and I don't feel sleep deprived at all. Paul takes care of Jack when he wakes up, giving me the chance to catch a few extra z's.

Speaking of which, we think we've cracked Jack's very early rises. He was waking up at silly o'clock (i.e. anywhere from 5-6:30) and no amount of persuasion could get him back to bed. On the advice of my friend Liz, I bought a clock that teaches children when they can get out of bed. The Kidsleep clock has a picture of a bunny sleeping and of a bunny happily skipping along with his little bunny rucksack on. You set the clock to change at whatever time you want your child to get out of bed. When sleeping bunny is lit up, it means Jack needs to stay in bed. When skippy bunny is lit up, Jack can get out of bed. This, along with the reward of Bob the Builder stickers has proven to be a huge success. Thank you, Liz! She's a teacher you know - she's knows stuff.