The joys of parenting (thus far!)

Ah yes. Parenting. It just warms your heart. I must say, that upon reflection the past 5 months have been better than I thought. Well, ok, the first month was just nuts (sleep deprivation, breastfeeding problems, emotional highs and lows, trying to get our act together with this new parenting thing). But as the days go by things have got a lot easier. We still have our random days where Wesley may be a little fussy, but that's always for a reason (whether that be he is tired, in pain, or I've had him out and about too much!). Since he was around 6-7 weeks he has progressively increased his hours of sleep at night, so that now he is sleeping approximately 12 hours at night. So our usual scenario, now that he is almost 5 months, is:

• Wesley wakes around 6:30am and babbles to himself until I go in at 7am.
  
• 7:00am - Brekky (bottle and rice cereal), then play in the playpen. Around 8:30-9:00am he goes down for a nap.
• 11:30am - wakes up. Has his lunch (bottle, vegies). Then playtime (or we go out!). Then around 1:30pm he goes down for another nap.
• 3:30pm - wakes up and has dinner (bottle, rice cereal & vegies). Playtime. Then usually goes down for a shorter nap around 5:30pm. Might only sleep for 40 mins, but sometimes will sleep for longer and we have to wake him for his last bottle.
• 6:30pm (approx) he will have his last bottle. He'll stay up until around 7-7:30pm (depending on how tired he is), and then we'll put him to bed. And that's it. Nye, nye until 7am! Occasionally we may need to pop the dummy in or tuck him in again if he stirs during the night, but not usually.

Of course there can be some variation on some days. Especially if I'm out, he may not sleep for as long etc. Just depends. So he may have his bottle and food half an hour early sometimes. Also, we are usually out at church on Sunday nights, so we might give him an extra bottle when we get home at 8:30pm, but if he happens to have stayed awake since his 6:30 bottle, we just put him straight to bed when we get home. So because I have a bub who is characterised by sleeping well (both day and night) I have time to write these blogs and do all the things I need to do around the house etc. I actually have time to have a hot coffee in peace!

James and I participated in a Preparation for Parenting course before Wesley was born and the things we learned and thus put into place were quite useful to encourage Wesley's stability, yet possibly also contributed to me having a low milk supply and thus discontinued breastfeeding Wesley at 2 months (so, in some ways, not very useful!). The course (via DVD) was by Gary Ezzo who has those Baby Wise series of books. I have friends with older babies (toddlers etc.) and I have seen the advice in these books in the every-day practice of my friends lives and can see the benefits of a happy baby who sleeps well and is content ... and also well-behaved toddlers! (not the kind that come to your house and pull everything off your bookshelf!). But at the same time, a good reader of my blog has reminded me of the controversy about the Ezzo books and suggestions for parenting. Thus, I have revised this paragraph to include a caution. For anyone reading or participating in an Ezzo course (especially breastfeeding mums) it would pay to also read-up on what the controversy is all about. See http://www.ezzo.info . I must emphasise here that I whole-heartedly agree with the following statement by Focus on the Family (Dr James Dobson) that, "... [the Ezzo's] principles be implemented only in conjunction with generous measures of common sense, intuition, and natural parental affection" (quoted from a report called An Evaluation of the Ezzo Parenting Programs, p. 23, by Dr Kent McClain), as found on the aforementioned website (under Child Development Issues section). It is in that light that we have followed most principles taught by Ezzo, but our own common sense and intuition has heavily depicted how we relate to our precious son.

Anyway ... now that we have Wesley well-stabilised with his sleeping, eating and playing, I am wondering how I am going to get through these next few years as I (and James too of course) guide Wesley into appropriate behaviour! Especially since he makes me laugh. The last few weeks Wesley has learned how to blow raspberries. Very cute. But he cannot distinguish yet, between blowing raspberries during playtime and doing it while eating dinner! So when he does it when he's eating I follow through with a "no, we don't spit when we eat" and place my finger gently on his lips. But as I do so, he smiles at me and tries to lick my finger! Try keeping a straight face and a firm voice then! Awww! Well, he is almost 5 months old. I'm sure sooner or later he will actually understand. Yet, I will plough on! I am determined to have a child who behaves appropriately :) Anyway, enough from me on that. I've spent enough time this morning on the computer ... had better get going ...

Daddy feeding Wesley