A Food Update

So here's where we're at with baby food these days.

Life is better because Cate can eat pretty much what we eat. I no longer spend time whipping up purees and mashes - this is a positive. I also have a child who has gone completely off baby custards / rices / oatmeals. Again, this is good thing as they are crapola anyways and expensive in the long run. So - the negatives. I seem to have a relatively fussy eater - she eats little amounts lots of times during the day rather than three set meals. This is painful (for me!) and I'm not sure it's a great habit. Another negative is that often quick and easy stuff to give Cate is probably not what's best for her. Case in point: I don't think she's seen or tasted a vegetable in a month. Hmmmmm.

Here is a completely honest overview of what Cate ate today. Try not to judge me!

* 1 slice vegemite toast, one spoonful of strawberry yoghurt (off the yoghurt today it would appear) and a splash around in my cereal (I kid you not. She plays with it. Some of it actually ends up in her mouth though so I'm counting it) for breakfast.
* 1 scotch finger biscuit (thanks to my Nan for introducing these...)
* Half a white choc and berry scone (kept her quiet whilst I crusied the shops)
* 1 box of sultanas (yay, these have got to count as healthy right?)
* 1 bite of my Boost bar * blushes furiously*
* 1 banana (couldn't believe she ate the whole thing...but it WAS after swimming)
* 3 mouthfuls of grated cheese
* 1 tiny baby sized hamburger (I made these and they had fetta and parsely in them. That parsely is as close as it gets to a vegetable!)
* 1 small tub of banana custard

Geez, that actually looks like more than I thought it was!! Kudos for me! (keep in mind she had 400mls of milk as well, plus water)

As you can see though, a fair bit of crap in there considering she's 14 months old. Do I feel guilty about that? Yup. Am I just relieved she's eating anything at all after long periods of food refusal? Yup. So I guess I'll just keep keeping on for the moment - with maybe a vegie thrown in there for good measure one of these days!

Before I sign off for tonight better fill you in on our new highchair habits too (seeing as it's kinda food related). Basically Miss Cate now has a lowchair. She refuses to be strapped in to her high chair (the tantrums are Oscar worthy) so I ahev lowered it to prevent a fall. Since it's been lowered she's actually stopped crawling out on to the tray - bonus. As you can see in the pics - she often stands to eat. Truthfully? I don't care. As long as she eats, I'm happy. Some days this means food from floor to ceiling, some days it means she eats on the run. I know I am breeding a table manners monster but...like the refrain goes...I don't care. Besides...she's pretty damn cute no? ;)

There's Miss Cate eating her custard like a pro and there's the cheeky minx standing up in her low chair happy as can be. Bless x

Our Christmas Traditions

Lots of the blogs I've been reading lately have been talking about Christmas traditions, inclduing the biggie....Santa. To Santa or not to Santa...that is the question my friends.

But first to Christmas traditions. We're only a new little family (this our second Christmas with our baby) so we don't have many of our own traditions (we spend Christmas first at my folks' house (we stay there Christmas Eve) and then at one of Justin's siblings' places (we stay there Christmas Night)). So far we:

* Take a walk around town in the dark and look at the houses with their lights up. Easy to do last year when Cate was tiny and snuggled in the Ergo (and also sporting a 10pm bedtime), not so easy to do this year when it will mean waking her from slumber to chug around in the pram. Still. We will persist as it's lovely walking in the dark with my little fam and there is this gorgeous house that does an utterly amazing life-sized nativity scene complete with the three wise men and the star.

* Buy Cate a Christmas Eve outfit that is utterly and unashamedly Christmasy. Last year it was a Santa hat with a red 'Baby's First Christmas' onesie, this year it is a cute-as-a-button Mrs Claus outfit. Can't wait to get her ready for mass in this darling little number.

As you can see, it's not much! This year we are adding 'Going to Christmas Eve Mass as a Family' to the list for the first time. Every previous year I have gone with my mum and sister in my hometown parish. This year, Justin and I will take Cate to mass in our own parish - a big step for me! I am sad to not be with my mum and sister but excited to be with my own little family.

Next year we'll be adding several other Christmas traditions to the mix. First, we'll have a tree. Have skipped it for a few years as we don't spend Christmas here AND I didn't want to deal with a tree and a 14 month old. But next year Cate will be old enough to understand a tree so we'll get one and decorate it together and it will be grand. She'll also receive a stocking next year with her name on it and Santa will fill that with little pressies. Fun! Next year we will also be ready to start telling the story of the nativity and Cate will have an advent calander too.

Now to the Santa bit. I have no problem with Santa. I don't care that his image is taken from a 1930s Coca-Cola ad, I have no problem with Cate sitting on 'Santa's' lap for a picture (as long as Cate is happy to sit with Santa - if not, no big deal) and I don't consider it lying to my child when I induldge in accepted childhood fantasties such as Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Cate will receive a stocking from Santa and a present or two under the tree from Santa and I hope she'll enjoy the Christmas Eve anticipation and excitment, the long process of falling asleep and the delightful anticipation of waking in the morning, knowing at last, it's time to get up and celebrate (a.k.a get up and rip the hell out of every available wrapped item!). For me the problem isn't with Santa, the problem is that sometimes the hyper-excitement about Santa takes away from the real meaning of Christmas - and for me, as a Catholic, this is to celebrate Jesus' birth.

Now I'm not all happy-clappy freaky-deaky religious and I'm hardly a model Catholic. But I was raised Catholic and I have had my child baptised. It is therefore extremely important to me that, alongside Santa, is Jesus...and that the beautiful story of Jesus' birth is not swept to the side in an orgy of presents and red suits and white beards.

On future Christmas Eves I hope my baby girl is excited not only beacuse Santa is coming, but also because it's time to celebrate Jesus' birthday. I hope she finds peace and wonder in carols like 'Silent Night' and 'O Holy Night'. I hope she continues to stare at the nativity and want to reach out and touch it (okay, so hopefully she won't want to slobber all over Mary and Joseph as has been the case this year...teething and the nativity don't mix!). Most of all, I just can't wait to experience the wonder, magic and excitment of Christmas through my baby girl's eyes. To me this is what Christmas is all about.

PS Excuse the lack of pics lately...my camera died. Boo Hoo. Perfect time for a replacement to crop up BUT not sure the budget will stretch to cameras when I just recived over $800 of bills in the mail. Bah Humbug!

PPS But here is ONE little piccie - Cate did sit on Santa's lap this year with little fuss, although it didn't exactly thrill her. Oh well!

Three Things

I've been absent for the last few days because, well, life cropped up :P Nothing like actually having things to do, people to meet and parties to play at to get in the way of dedicated blogging.

First exciting thing to happen in the last few days was that my husband graduated from being a firefighter recruit into a fully fledged, has-the-uniform-and-badge-to-prove-it firefighter. This was the culmination of over three years of applications, interviews and recruitment processes, as well as the past 16 weeks of firefighting training. It's been tough emotionally, physically and mentally for Justin and it's also been tough on us as a family unit. So it was wonderful to celebrate the start of his new career. We did so with a graduation ceremony at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds (he looked very tasty in the uniform by the way!) and a posh rooftop party in the city afterwards with all the blokes from his training course and their partners (where I drank far too much and had a ball). Justin had his first offical day at work today and will work four days on, four days off for the rest of his career. Fairly mindblowing and something we'll all be getting used to over the next few weeks. (The piccie above is pretty crappy. My sister took better ones and I'll upload one here when I get copies) (Oh and Justin is the one in the middle in the back row! Looking very serious!).

Second exciting thing to happen was that I escaped to the beach for the night with a group of great girlfriends. We met at work a few years back and have stuck together ever since, celebrating birthdays and taking overnight trips. Two of the girls in the group are among my best ever mates and everyone in the 'gang' is good value. It was lovely to leave my husband and baby behind and head off to the beach for girly chats, bubbles and shopping. Must admit though that it was even better coming home as, whilst I was away and walking along the gorgeous Jan Juc beach, all I could think about was how exciting it will be to take Cate to the beach this summer. I'm looking forward to some special day trips with Justin and Cate as we explore summer as a little family (albeit, a little family on an extremely tight budget right now...at least day-tripping to the beach is relatively cheap!).

Third exciting thing to happen was that it finally hit me that's it's Christmas THIS WEEK! Four more sleeps until Christmas Eve, one of my favourite times of year. This year, for the first time ever, Justin and I will be staying in our home town and going to mass as a little family. After mass we'll hightail it to my parents place, 25 minutes away for a Christmas Eve feast, family chatter and laughs and some bubbles of course. And Christmas morning - Cate's first year of understanding presents! Incredibly excited to watch her getting excited about paper and ripping (even if the gifts won't mean much just yet).

Good times, good times.

Birthing Cate - Meeting Our Girl

No 'short and simple' blog could ever contain the magnificence of birthing my daughter. It just won't do it justice at all.

I have written out my birth story a number of times for a number of different auidences. I could talk about giving birth for hours and hours. Well, at least I think I could still do this. I dunno - it all feels like it happened a very long time ago! The details are getting hazy and fuzzy...then the next second everything is crystal clear. It comes and goes. One thing that's faded is the pain sensation. Yes, I know it hurt A LOT, worse than anything I have ever been through BUT it was worth it. A thousand times over.

I'm really going to attempt to keep this short.

I had a GREAT birthing experince. My body did amazing things.

I lost my plug at 10.15am, my waters broke at 12.15pm and labour was established with regular, painful contractions by 7pm that night. I laboured at home with my husband and my sister acting as support people and, apart from some 'freak-out' tears when my waters broke (I couldn't believe this was it!) I generally felt excited, confident, calm and in control.

Once labour was established I got through contractions with breathing, then moaning, then large, cow-having-an-organsm like noises. This was all instinctual behaviour and it worked! The noises definitely helped me stay focused and helped me work through the pain. I also became permanently attached to my hot water bottle and eventually moved to having two - one for my back and one for my front. I rocked, knelt head down bum up, walked, leant over the bench and table and leant into Justin and Kat.

It did get bad. It got to the point where I felt like I WAS pain, there wasn't room left for anything else. I got irritable and a bit frantic and I wanted to go to hospital. NOW please.

The drive (20 mins) was horrific. Contractions were every three minutes, lasting for a minute. So a minute of hell then two minutes to rest and gear up for more hell. I HATED being still and started thrasing about in the front seat. I was slapping my leg hard at one point to move through the pain. I had to keep my eyes shut and had to work hard to control my breathing - the second I stop focusing on the breathing, I started freaking out and the pain became overwhelming. All the pressue was in my backside and I desperately wanted the toilet. Little did I know that was my baby's head!

I gave birth in a small, country hospital attended by two midwives, my husband and my sister. We arrived at hospital at about 12.30am and went straight to the birthing suite - I now sounded like a dying cow so they knew it was nearly time! An interal revealed I was....10cm dilated!!! I burst into tears - we'd done the hard yards! It was nearly time!

I knelt on the floor on all fours with Justin next to me. I was screaming through each contraction - I couldn't move through the pain. Thank God Justin helped me. He told me to stop. Just stop. "Babe, you have to stop screaming and you have to push. Chin to your chest and PUSH". So I did. And it HURT. And I still screamed - after the push anyways! But..it worked. After twelve minutes of pushing, my baby shot out in one huge push, head, shoulders, body...she flew out so fast the midwife nearly dropped her!

Justin and I didn't know the sex of our baby and I was convinced I was having a boy. Imagine my delight when Justin said "It's a girl Babe". I said "No, it isn't" and he said "have a look". I reached down between my legs and pulled my baby towards me - my beautiful, pink and bloody baby girl.

Hello Catherine Anne. Hello my darling Cate.

My heart was full.

Holding her, knowing her...this secret girl who'd been with me all those months. The smell of her skin, her warmth, her mewing little noises and loud screams. Her weight in my arms. The love that lit up the room. The delight, the tears the reward after the hard work. If I could choose a moment in my life to return to, to watch again, it would be this one.

If only I had have known the utter delight that lay ahead. Yes, it's ben hard and tough and challenging and I've had off days and I've gotten cross and grumpy and sooky.

But...oh, this girl, this girl.

Daily I look at her and my heart swells. Didn't know it could be this good.

Love you Catie Coo xxx

Waiting for Cate - Brewing a Bump

So I was pregnant. It was bliss. After all that time...here it was.

Being pregnant means you get to tell people. Some of my favourite memories were telling Justin, my folks and my siblings. Everyone we told was delighted for us - my stong, self-controlled sister burst into tears of joy. We told our best mates because I stopped drinking and it was just too obvious - they all knew we were TTC and, rather than have them piece it together, we wanted the thrill of sharing. So our three sets of best mates all knew within the week. We knew that being pregnant didn't necessarily equal a baby but, I also knew, that if I couldn't hold on to this precious babe, I would need my friends and family to support me. So between five weeks (when we found out) and thirteen weeks we slowly shared our news with selected family, work mates and friends. When I hit 13 weeks and was still pregnant, the world was informed! It finally felt real.

Being pregnant means you get tired. Oh man, did I get tired. I spent about a quarter of the first trimester awake and the rest of it asleep - often in awkward places. Justin would pick me up from work and I'd be asleep in the car within a minute. I was tucking myself into bed at 5pm and not waking til 6am. If I was expected out and about I would be feral and Justin suffered many a tantrum. I think we both felt a hell of a lot better once my energy returned at about 14 weeks.

Being pregnant means you get scans. There was a bit of confusion with ours and I ended up going back to the fertility specialist at 14 weeks for our first scan. Crammed into the tiny scan room, legs akimbo, probe dancing towards me...and finally we saw a glimpse of Baby Mahony. I lied above - THIS was the moment it all felt real. On out third wedding anniversary we saw our baby for the first time - no better gift on earth.

Being pregnant means you get a bump. Eventually. Oh man, I couldn't WAIT to show! And it took aaaaaaaaages. I didn't have a bump until I was 19 weeks and even then it still looked suspiciously like fat rolls. By 25 weeks I had a gorgeous bump of which I was so proud. I adored getting HUGE, loved waddling, loved every kick and squiggle and squirm. Speaking of which - I didn't feel Cate until the end of my 20th week. I woke up and was lying still and bam! She did a big sommersault. Hello baby! I quickly told Jus and he placed his head on my tum...and less than a minute later, another sommersault! Justin felt our baby at almost the same moment I did! Oh the magnificence!

Being pregnant means you pee. A lot. I didn't get sick and, after the first trimester, I wasn't so tired. But, oh Lordy, did I pee. I was unstoppable in the first trimester as hormones raged inside me and, by the time I hit the final trimester, my bubba's head was firmly jammed on my pelvis. I had to go to the loo every 45 mins to an hour, 24 hours hours a day. I actually started getting MORE sleep once Cate arrived as I no longer had to get up every hour in the night, it was back to three hours for feeds - a blessed relief.

Being pregnant - well it was one of the best times of my life. I felt happy, healthy, beautiful, excited and the world seemed to be brimming with anticipation. Sure there were moments of grumpiness, hysterics, fear, trepidation, discomfort and even pain - but they paled in comparison when it came to the relief, the blessed, joyous relief that I was finally pregnant. And, as my pregnancy progressed, the realisation that, finally, we were going to have a baby.

I Heart Granny & Gramps

I spent today with Cate and my folks. It was grand :D

I am adoring watching my parents being grandparents. They are so good at it. And they so obviously LOVE it. Case in point: today mum and I took Cate to work on some of mum's Christmas shopping (mine's done, narny nar nar nar!). At one point mum had Cate in the shopping trolley and was flinging her about, rushing up and down aisles whilst making these great booming pirate cackles that Cate was mimicking for all she was worth. They were having the BEST time, my mum was acting like a loon in public and Cate thought it was delightful.

So did I :)

My siblings and I are struggling to cope with the fact that our strict, no-nonsense parents are big smooshy lumps of love and happiness when it comes to their grandkids. It's hot? Dad rushes out to buy a paddling pool. The grandbabies love trampolines? Dad rushes out to buy the largest trampoline I have ever seen. Cate's gone to bed and she's crying in the cot? My father is the one rushing up the hall to comfort her (my siblings and I were all brought up via the controlled crying method). Cate won't eat her savoury dinner? Mum's rushing to open the custard and scrambling for a sweet biscuit. Cate's bored and being a little minx? Mum to the rescue with a special cupboard of toys *just* for her grandbabies.

My parents routinely spend whole days with their grandchildren where they do nothing for themselves all day. My nephew is two and he spends his Granny and Gramps day in heaven: he plays in the shed with Gramps, he goes for walks with Granny and a million other fun activities in between. The night before Granny and Gramps day, Matty packs his bag and puts it near the front door - he gets THAT excited about his grandparents.

Cate has spent heaps of time with my folks since day dot. My parents rushed to the delivery suite at 3.00am the night Cate was born - they were holding her before she was 2 hours old. She now reaches out to Granny when she sees her, cracks up laughing at Gramps smooshy kisses and spends her time with them delighting in the fact that she's the centre of their universe (oh, she's an attention hog this bubba of mine).

Mum told me today that, when you have a baby, someone should tell you how wonderful being a grandparent is and, that in roughly 25 - 30 years, you'll be one. She said it's the best thing that's ever happened to her...and I know my dad feels the same.

How lucky am I? More to the point, how lucky is my daughter?

PS Up top is my dad with Cate having a ball, my mum reading two of her grandchildren (including Cate) a story and, finally, Mum and Dad meeting Cate for the first time - bliss.

Finished...and excited!

Well today I finished off the last of the Christmas shopping *big round of applause*. Whoot!

Justin has to buy one gift - his KK present for my dad and, as a couple, we have decided to buy ourselves new, white crockery in the post-Christmas sales as our Christmas gift to each other. So, technically, there's two gifts left to buy, but for now at least, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done!! I have even bought the food contribution for my family Christmas (I was in charge of providing the turkey this year and it is already stashed in my folks' freezer. Organised or what?!).

I have taken immense pleasure in buying Cate's Christmas presents this year. She is receiving the following on Christmas morning:

* Her new Fisher Price swing (which will last until she's three)
* A ball
* A tub of clipex blocks
* A DVD of 'In The Night Garden'
* A board book copy of Where Is The Green Sheep?, her favourite book EVER (I can't wait for her to have a copy she can maul as much as she wants so that her precious hardbacked copy can be put to rest before it's destroyed!)
* Her clam shaped paddling pool (a bit of re-gifting there seeing as I have already cracked it out!).

We spent roughly $120 on our 14 month old so, even though I could think of fifty other gifts for her, I think we are done. She won't even know what to do with the blocks, ball or DVD, I am just waiting for the thrill of watching her tear off the wrapping with glee. I'm happy with her gifts, their simplicity and the cost involved - I don't want to be going too crazy, too soon. Before we know it, Christmas will be costing us a fortune so I am enjoying savouring this time when Cate doesn't mind what she receives...she just loves tearing wrapping paper to bits more than anything!

Next year Christmas will be even better...she will have a stocking and we will definitely have a tree at our place, not just at Granny and Gramps' house. More importantly, next year she'll have much more of an idea about Christmas, Baby Jesus and Santa. And the year after that, she'll be three and that's when the magic of Christmas will really begin...the excitement, the joy, that excruciating sleep on Christmas Eve...I can hardly wait.

Crying It Out

Back to a post on sleeping. Sorry, I know it's obsessive. But you try sleep deprivation for a few months and you'll become obsessed too!

Those of you have been reading know that we recently changed sleep habits in this house condsiderably. We used 'Save Our Sleep' by Tizzie Hall (SOS) after a three week trial of first controlled crying (CC) as recommended in 'Babylove' by Robin Barker (my bible!)then some of the ideas and concepts from the 'No Cry Sleep Solution' (NCSS) which were suggested to me by on-line friends. With nothing working and things getting even worse, it was time for something different, hence the trial of SOS which I had previously been against. Why was I against it? I had heard it was very regimented and highly routine based and I thought that wasn't for me as I like to go with the flow when it comes to Cate.

Anyways the SOS method involves the using of 'crying it out' (CIO). You put to bed the same way every night (same bed time routine and cue phrases and environment) at the same time (7pm sharp) and you let baby cry it out until they sleep. When you first start, bubs can cry for up to two and half hours. The theory is that you do not go in to them - you leave them to cry it out and fall asleep (as long as they are 'protest crying' as opposed to 'emotional crying' which needs to be responded to immediately. Oh God, this is all sounding very complicated but truly, it's not. Just buy or borrow the book and have a read!).

Anyways, long story short, with some adaptions to suit us, SOS has saved our lives. We now have a baby who, USUALLY, goes to sleep at 7pm without a peep, self settles when she wakes in the night and sleeps through until at least 5.30am (if not 6, 6.30 or 7am).

To get to this point though, I had to learn to let Cate cry it out. And, holy moley, the amount of stuff you can dredge up on the internet about crying it out / controlled crying is quite terrifying. People either seem to be passionately FOR CIO or passionately AGAINST it.

My take on it is this: it worked for US. I was happy with the decision to let Cate cry it out and it didn't take her long to learn how to put herself to sleep very quickly without the crying. Yes, it sucked and was really, really hard for at least three days...but I had a very supportive hubby who was much stronger about it all than me and I got sent into the back yard to enjoy a glass of wine out of ear shot while he stayed inside to make sure she was okay....crying, but okay. Couldn't have done it without that kind of support.

Last night I struggled to get to sleep myself. I was tired, but couldn't get to sleep. My mind was ticking at a million miles an hour, I had jumpy legs, I couldn't decide if I was hot or cold and I was getting very fed up. Then it occurred to me: this is what happens to babies. And because my baby can't talk yet, I imagine she expresses her frustration through crying. And I know myself that crying is exhausting and it knackers you out, hence why she eventually falls asleep after a good cry.

To get to sleep last night I had to read my book for a little bit longer. This is why Cate goes to bed with a book and an assortment of soft toys - some nights she plays and talks to herself for up to 45 minutes before falling asleep. I sneak in before I go to bed and remove everything from the cot and some nights the toys are spread everywhere and the book has been flung to the side - these nights I assume Cate needed some play time before sleep time.

So when I was desperately sleep deprived I resorted to crying it out - a method I never thought I would use and a method I am extremely glad I tried. Sure, a bit of heart ache. But with a supportive husband and the sensibility to change the routines and ideas suggested by the book to suit US - crying it out worked beautifully. Best bit - most days, I'm not so sleep deprived after all. Even better bit - my baby no longer has dark bags under her eyes and she's a much happier girl in general now that she's getting some sleep.

Amen to that!

Paddling Pool Etiquette

Yesterday at 4pm Cate was feral and I was flat out of ideas to keep her entertained for the hour before dinner time. So I improvised...and busted out one of her Christmas presents just that little bit early. That's right, yesterday Cate received her brand spanking new paddling clam-shaped pool.

Do I care that it made an early appearance? Nope. Cate was happily entertained climbing in and out of her clam pool for nearly an hour (then she threw a chunk of dirt from a nearby pot plant into the water and that signaled the end of pool time).

So when I spoke on the phone to one of the mummy friends from Mothers' group last night, I told her how great it had worked as a distraction and, considering it was set to be 31 degrees here today, I invited Kelly and her bubba Hayley over for a paddle this afternoon.

Paddling pool set up with both sides full of water: check.
Water warmed slightly as it was hardly 31 degrees as promised: check.
Two little girls in swimming nappies and togs: check
Deck chairs set up next to pool for mummies to recline upon: check
A plethora of brightly coloured plastic bath toys on hand for entertainment: check.

Sounds great right?

Well, what actually eventuated was that the moment Cate hit the water, she started drinking it like she had been trapped in a desert for a month. First she starts tipping buckets of water into her mouth, then she chucks the bucket to one side and just plants her whole face in the water, still guzzling. Oooooooo - kay. Weird behaviour from my kid, but we moved past that and started enjoying paddling time...

...until five minutes later when Cate vomited up all of said water, plus half of her afternoon nap bottle.

Great. Just freaking great.

So, from this point on, Hayley was designated non-spewy side of the clam and Cate just had to paddle in her vomity water. Yummy. Except Cate and Hayley both had different ideas - Hayley was over the whole idea of the paddling pool and Cate wanted out of her vommy side and into the clean side thank you very much. All good, except that once Cate had happily repositioned herself, you guessed it, she started drinking the water like a thirsty mad woman AND, five minutes later, vommy number two. In the previously clean side of the clam pool.

At this point, although Cate was quite content splashing around in her own vomit, Kelly and I decided it was time to pull the plug. I don't think paddling pool etiqette allows the continuation of paddling after the water has been well and truly contaminated with toddler vom.

So, note to self: do not allow frantic drinking of paddling pool water by darling daughter...especially when sharing her toddler pool with others!!! Thank God both Kelly and Hayley have thick skins!

PS No piccies. The whole vommy in the pool thing happened far too quickly to allow for photo taking opportunities!

I think I can, I think I can...

Okay I just got creeped out by my Little Bean. I actually thought she was walking up behind me and it's kinda freaked me out (she's a crawler. Dedicated crawler, but a crawler all the same). Anyways, she wasn't stalking up behind me on her feet, but she was stalking up behind me on her knees. Clever little minxy.

The last two days have seen Cate become completely addicted to her walker (a crappo cheapy one from Coles that's doing the job beautifully I might say). As in, she wakes up in the morning, squawks for it and hardly lets it out of her sight for the rest of the day. A big time love affair with the walker. It is a cute as hell watching her stomp around the place and this has got me thinking that it won't be long until she actually does it for real...sans walker and all.

Go, go, go Catie girl!!!!

Got to admit it's getting better...

So over the last two weeks sleep has started featuring in our lives again. Thank God. We missed you sleep!!!

Yes it would appear that Catherine Anne has finally learnt to self settle (to an extent) and the horrific all night tossing / turning / crying / shhhhing / patting marathons have fortunately become a thing of the past (I dread writing this. It will be just my luck that as soon as I crow about it, she'll regress. God help me).

During the bad patch I tried lots of different ways to get Cate to sleep. Top three favourites were 1) Giving her a bottle 2) Giving her a dummy and 3) Putting her in bed with us. The problem was that slowly each method stopped working. Plus, the books said those things were bad, bad, bad.

I read a few different books, talked to lots of different mums and researched on the net. All about sleep. Yup, I was obsessed. In the end, the book that started making the most sense to me was 'Save Our Sleep' by Tizzie Hall. I'd held out for a long time when it came to this book - it just didn't sound like it was for me. Three weeks of next to no sleep and I'm desperate enough to try anything.

So this is how bedtime works for us now. Cate goes down to sleep for the night at 7pm. She has the same story in her cot every night and we use the same sleep cue sentences every night too. We still give her a bottle in her cot - against the advice of...well...just about every book I've ever come across - and nine times out of ten, she goes to sleep without a peep. Most nights she wakes at least once, if not twice at some stage. Now I let her cry it out. Again, most night this takes her under five minutes before she is sound asleep again. Progress.

Most mornings she wakes at 5am-ish and I give her another bottle in bed. This usually means she sleeps til 7, 7.30, 8 or even 9am. SWEEEET. This morning she slept right through the 5am wake up call and din't call out for a bottle until 7am. So she slept right through from 10pm - 7am no wake ups at all. This is one happy mummy.

I'm not so good at sticking to the routines suggest by Tizzie Hall - my times get thrown out every day. But I am sticking to the 7pm bedtime as much as possible and I am sticking to the 'cry it out at night' theory and both are working for us right now. And that, my friends, is a little piece of heaven right there!