This is my latest Emma’s Diary blog post –
On Tuesday night, Loz was going in to London to meet her pregnant friend for dinner. This meant I was home looking after little J on my own. Because we both work at home pretty much all the time, it’s not unusual for me to do the bedtime routine. I’ve done it lots of times before, but I felt slightly nervous without Loz being here – not because J is particularly horrendous and a nightmare to settle, he’s actually very good. Sometimes though, every once in a blue moon, he’s a little sod; nothing that you do will calm him, no amount of the usual things you do will get him off to sleep. He’ll just scream, and cry, and scream again!
This is what I was concerned about. When he’s this way, it’s stressful and any parent will tell you this. You get pushed so far and it’s very easy to get cross. It’s silly getting cross because you know it won’t last and they’ll calm down eventually, but you do, because it’s pretty hard having this tiny thing screaming at you constantly. Normally when I reach this point, Loz is on hand. I give her the look and we swap. On a few occasions, we’ve subsequently swapped back because the screams have got too much for her. Eventually, he’ll calm down and all will be right again.
I was worried though. What if he has one of ‘those’ nights? Obviously there wouldn’t be much I could do, I just had to get on with it!
Not long after Loz left he decided he wanted a nap. That was fine, it would give me enough time to cook some dinner. He went down really quickly so I flew downstairs and cooked a pizza. I’m convinced he can smell the food as thirty seconds after it came out of the oven he was wide awake! I quickly stuffed it down as he lay in his cot coo-ing at the mobile. So first up in the routine was dinner time! We’re letting J try some foods now – it was carrot and parsnip which he adores. He’s actually very good at eating and will steal the spoon and try feeding himself. This is how he ended up.
So far, so messy. Trust me, that’s him looking clean! The spinach one usually ends up all over his face and he looks like one of the babies from Shrek! Next up was bath time. J loves the bath; he kicks and splashes like a mad man, only stopping when he’s splashed just that bit too hard and soaked himself.
Next up was getting him ready for bed and giving him his last bottle (hopefully!) of the night. J has a really random habit of throwing up his last feed. He’s been doing it for months now, but it’s not every night – maybe not even once a week, and only the bedtime feed. I had my fingers crossed I wasn’t about to see his bottle again. Thankfully he kept it down and after some gentle rocking he was off to sleep. It couldn’t have been easier. I bounced downstairs, flicked the kettle on and made a brew, ready to catch up on Twitter. Then I heard a shuffling over the baby monitor. I switched on the video to see him wide awake, on his back and looking round. Him being on his back is usually is a sign he won’t go back to sleep. True enough he started squirming more, and moaning more. Arse.
I went back upstairs and gave him a little cuddle and rock, and he slowly drifted back to sleep. He was zonked by now – didn’t even moan when I put him down. Brilliant!
I knew now that was him for the evening, I could go and have my brew, demolish the ironing pile and watch some telly. And I did. It was fab. Until
*SCREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!*
Bugger. He must have been having a bad dream as he was asleep and screaming. This does happen sometimes and he’ll go straight back to sleep. Not tonight though, his scream woke him up. It turned into a sob and then a proper cry. Thankfully he was still pretty much asleep, so I scooped him up and held him close which calmed him quickly. He was back asleep in his cot after five minutes.
That was pretty much that. I went back downstairs and got the ironing finished and caught up on lots of TV and little man slept until 3am. Thankfully Loz was back to feed him then! I really loved my little ‘Boys night in’. I was happy to report to Loz how well it had all gone. I think it’s really important for us both to get out once in a while. As we work at home and rest at home it can be pretty intense at times, so getting out from the four walls is good for all of us. I know Loz is looking forward to me going out tonight so she can sling on a shit girly film or play on ‘The Sims’ when J is asleep, and I must admit I’m looking forward to getting out and seeing my friends!
