The Twilight Zone

Elodie is 8 weeks old now and we have both been officially discharged from the various medical people. Things should theoretically be settling down but although Elodie does seem to be able to sleep longer at night, it still seems to take two to three hours of feeding/soothing/ putting her down/picking her up to settle her. Which means a typical evening will go like this - feed er around 7.30pm, bath and baby massage at 8pm, another feed after that between 8.30pm and 9pm. At this point, sometimes she will drop off for 45 minutes, then we have more feeding, interspersed with periods of putting her down then picking her up again. It's like a puzzle I'm trying to solve. I've been keeping a feeding and sleeping log to look for patterns. So far it hasn't helped.

Since my mum went back home a couple of weeks ago, I've been trying to get out as much as possible. I've joined a postnatal group and a bumps to babies group - but haven't got anyone else's number yet. But my quest to meet other mums continues.

Things change all the time. Elodie's first cold heralded a few sleepless nights. Her first smiles, however, brought the power to enchant - she will grin up at me mid feed and all is forgiven. She slept for 7 hours straight a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, that feat is yet to be repeated. She is now allowed to take her harness off for three hours a day - but cries when it is put back on, then forgets all about it, She gets stronger all the time, lifting her head up and pushing her arms and legs against anything that provides resistance.

She remains a gorgeous, beautiful little mite and sometimes I'm so overwhelmed with love for her it brings a tear to my eye. And when she has woken me for the umpteenth time and I'm exhausted and losing my patience, she looks at me with her big blue eyes and all is forgiven.