I’m a few days late for Nathan’s 7 month entry, but going back to work has meant I have even less time to myself.  Nathan is exceptionally clingy to me at the moment, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve gone back to work or he’s getting a new tooth or he has a cold or it’s just what they do at this age.  Maybe it’s a combination of it all.  Whatever the cause, Nathan hates it when I walk out of his line of sight.  Andrew tells me that he cries in the pram and car more when I’m around than when I’m not, because he just wants me to hold him.

Andrew is still doing well during the day and I think that he and Nathan have an absolute ball together.  They go on lots of walks, meet up with lots of people and occasionally even visit Mummy or pick her up from work.

Development wise, Nathan is just getting better at everything.  He sits on his own now, his crawling is getting better, he loves standing up (to the point that he doesn’t want to bend at the waist when we put him in his chair for meals, he just wants to stand), can pull himself up to standing (though this doesn’t happen often yet), he is getting better at eating food out of his fist although a lot still goes on the ground and I love watching him try so very hard to pick up peas and eat them.  He doesn’t seem to be sucking his hands/fingers so much any more, though he’s started sucking his bottom lip again, I think it’s something to do with his second tooth that is making an appearance.  He is starting to show delight in what he does rather than only deriving enjoyment from what others do to him (he and Daddy were tickling me the other day and he thought it was a great joke, and Nathan was tickling me all by himself!).  He looks at things a lot now too, turning them over infront of his eyes before putting the item in his mouth.  He even looks at books again and isn’t always trying to get them in his mouth anymore.

Andrew finally found a teddy that he is happy with, so Nathan has a new mate.  We are going to try out letting Nathan sleep with the teddy, because he seems to want to cuddle something when he’s asleep and I’m hoping it will help him to sleep better if he has something specific to cuddle.

The elimination communication seems to be going relatively well at the moment too.  Andrew was finding it hard at the start, but Nathan went through a period of potty refusal which didn’t help matters.  He’s more than happy to sit on the potty now, and I think he is starting to try to communicate his needs to us.  Occasionally he will play with the potty and then do a wee when put on it, sometimes he complains suddenly and will wee when offered, and sometimes he goes still and just looks at me and smiles and will wee when I put him on the potty.   I’m trying to teach him to pat his tummy when he wants the potty, and I almost convinced myself that I saw him pat his tummy before weeing this morning (but it could be simply wishful thinking).  Anyway, I still get excited when I catch his wees and am very impressed when we go an entire day without a wet nappy.

I started work again on Monday, though I took Monday off to drive back from Port Stephens where we’d caught up with my parents for the weekend. So yesterday was my first day away from Nathan, and Andrew’s first day of looking after Nathan.

I think the day went really well from Andrew’s point of view. He managed Nathan’s sleep very well, as well as I do, and feeding him the expressed milk seemed to work a charm too! The amazing thing that happened was that Nathan went to sleep in the pram!!!! It was a beautiful, sunny day, so Andrew took Nathan out for a walk in the pram and he fell asleep!! That has never happened before, though last time I took Nathan for a walk I thought he might go to sleep since he was so relaxed, and then he started figeting again. So I had hopes that the day he slept in his pram would not be far off.

On the other hand, my day wasn’t so good. I’d been woken about a million times in the night by Nathan, I cried when I left home, I had to wait ages for the bus since I’d just missed one, I got bombarded with all the crap that’s been going on while I’ve been gone, and expressing only went marginally well. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to express enough for Nathan for a single day and so we’ve had to take out a frozen container of milk each day to supplement the fresh milk. When those frozen stocks are gone, I guess the only option will be to buy a tin of formula. It just seems a shame to put so much effort into expressing, and still have to resort to formula, but if it has to be then it has to be.

People tell me that it’s easier to be at work than at home looking after a baby, but so far I think it’s the other way around! Mind you, maybe those people don’t have to wake up for a proper feed twice a night, feed back to sleep when he wakes inbetween, and express milk while at work to feed the baby for the next day.