A very chunky boy

Hudson is still growing fast – both taller as well as in the weight/width stakes! The last time I got him weighed a fortnight ago he was already 18lbs 12oz at 15 weeks old! Lots of mums I’ve spoken to have said that their kids were even that weight at 12 or  18 months old. Wowsers. It’s amazing to think that nothing but my breastmilk has helped him grow into such a big boy. I guess his weight also explains the very frequent feeds for the first three-or-so months. He now has calmed down a lot with the number of feeds he has and goes longer between feeds during the day and has started to at night too, yay! I’m actually getting more than two hours of sleep at once some nights. Fingers crossed I get longer stretches soon.

I’ve sorted out his 6-9 month old clothes now ready to swap in instead of his current 3-6 month stuff but can’t quite bring myself to size him up yet. It’s like admitting he’s not a teeny baby any more.

I have had a couple of people asking or suggesting that now might be a good time to start weaning him due to his size and the amount of milk he has/how often he wakes at night but we’re going to wait until he is six months old before trying him on anything else other than my milk. I genuinely don’t think it’ll make a difference to his long and fairly frequent feeds as breastfeeding is more than food and drink for him – it’s his comfort and boredom buster too. I’m hoping to continue breastfeeding for as long as he wants to so we’ll see how long that particular journey is.

Teething

Just after I mentally gave myself a high five for getting through the “fourth trimester” (Hudson’s first three months in this world) relatively unscathed teething started! He’s not been too bad with it but is desperately chewing everything he can get in his mouth. The frustrating part for him initially was the fact that he couldn’t quite hold onto things and get them to his mouth for the first two weeks so we had very soggy fingers and knuckles whilst helping him out! He now seems to be able to chew his toys when he needs to so seems happier. It was the many many more dirty nappies thanks to the increased dribble that I wasn’t prepared for! It took three big “poomamis” in the middle of the night resulting in changing his clothes and sheets for me to realise that getting him in bigger nappies might help. Low and behold no more disasters as yet! Just when you think you have the hang of this parenting lark something else comes along to make you feel totally unprepared and silly!

Our first family holiday

We went up to Lauder in the Scottish Borders this weekend for one of my best friend from school Eilidh’s wedding. I was really excited for her big day and to see two more of my close friends from school for the first time in ages but I think both Sam and I were secretly dreading the car journey as Hudson has never been the best on short journeys so we had no idea what a 4-hour one would be like.

We had to stop just an hour into our drive there but then he wasn’t really feeding so I changed him then popped him back in the car seat. I knew this would happen but ten minutes later he was crying again so I sat in the middle and fed him in his seat whilst we continued down the motorway! This was no easy feat as I am, shall we say, not that well endowed in the boob department but my sister had reccommended giving this a try. Despite the awkward angle and the side of the car seat digging me in the ribs it worked! 10 minutes later he was happy then promptly fell asleep for the rest of the journey. On the way back we got in the car around 9:30 which seems to be the ideal time for him and he slept the whole way home, woop. We’re going to Wales in September so I’m glad we can go without hating the thought of the journey.

He also slept really well in the hotel both nights – he did five hours in one go on the first night (as far as I’m aware, I don’t remember waking up to feed him!). Let’s hope this happens at home soon.

The wedding itself was lovely and Hudson was pretty great throughout. I fed him on and off during the ceremony, in between getting up to do a reading, and he was happy to be cuddled by Sam and our friends for the rest of the evening. My Tula baby carrier was a life saver as I popped him in it around 8pm-ish and we managed to stay downstairs with Hudson either napping or happily looking around until 9:30pm before taking him to bed which was much later than I was anticipating.

Two lovely things happened to me during the wedding:

1. An older lady who had been sitting directly in front of us during the ceremony came up to me whilst we were getting our food at the BBQ and congratulated me on breastfeeding! She said she thought I was doing really well and that it was the best thing for Hudson and that even her husband had commented on how nice it was to see me “doing it naturally”;
2. I met another “sling mum”! I spotted her as we all sat down outside for the ceremony and we talked later on about the different slings we have and how great they are. It was cool to meet someone else who thinks the slings are as brilliant as I do!

Hot hot hot

I am pleased that it is finally warmer but I have to say that I have really been struggling with these mental temperatures the last two days. And Hudson is never happy when he is too hot so he’s been really unhappy this morning. Yesterday we went to Primark with my sister and the aircon was amazing! Plus I used the carrier whilst shopping and finally managed to feed Hudson in the carrier. That has always been one of the biggest benefits of using a carrier, hands-free feeding. I’ve just never managed it before, most likely due to my aforementioned modest chest size!

Poor Hudson was obviously very tired this morning but I think me trying to feed him to get him to nap was making him too hot so he cried on and off for the best part of 40 minutes before he finally fed and fell asleep! I’ve had to give him some “nap boob” after his first sleep stint to get him back off but at least he’s settled now. I found it difficult to remain really calm earlier as I tried to settle him as I was getting hotter and hotter too – I don’t know how we’d cope living in a hot country! I guess we’d be used to it? Needless to say Sam is coming via B&Q to buy a fan on the way home – phew!