six

The latest teething saga is still ongoing, with 3 top teeth adding to the existing 2 bottom ones, and judging by the continuous difficulties to sleep and nap, there may be more on the way. Childminder maintains that constant whinging to crying when not held cannot possibly be due to pain as Cubling is fine when entertained. I disagree. She's clearly overtired because she can't sleep or is woken by teething pain. Anyway, all the night time feed dropping is gone to shreds. A baby in distress that can be comforted shall be comforted. To be fair, I had one blissful night's sleep last week and the others weren't too bad, mainly because the night feed/waking that was dropped and is now reinstated roughly coincides with my bedtime, so not much lost.   more »

Phew, I think we've turned another corner. Cubling had the worst week in sleep terms since, hm, possibly since birth. I'm a good sleeper and I've never been bothered to get her to sleep through early. Even with 3 night time feeds I kind of felt ok, because effectively she would feed for 30 mins (increasingly shorter) and go back to sleep. And so did I.   more »

Mustn't forget to note some new developments. Or old by now, because the time for blogging eludes me what with a seriously busy week at work (but on holiday now, for ONE WHOLE WEEK!).   more »

The other day, after her feed, Cubling turned away from the magic source of milk, stretched herself on my lap, looked in the distance and smiled with delight. A penny for what was going on in her beautiful baby head. It was the first smile on her face which was not prompted by silly faces, jumping madly up and down, dingle dangling extremities or clothes in front of her face, or making strange noises which better go unobserved by non parents.   more »

The recent change of regional Government in Scotland has led to some ambitious announcements affecting the status and entitlements of asylum seeking families in Scotland. It's a difficult ground, because asylum and immigration is reserved to central (Westminster) government, but in real terms, asylum seekers are people who use services which are devolved to regional government, such as health and education.   more »