She's 15 weeks old already!!

  Raven, our baby daughter has reached 15 weeks old already, how time has flown since we gave birth to this little bundle of joy. Here I have decided to update you all on how she is doing. THIS IS FROM HER 14TH WEEK UNTIL THE START OF THE 15TH.

   This week Raven has accomplished rolling over from her front to her back during tummy time, which she absolutely hates with a passion. People will tell you that this will come out of nowhere and that's exactly what it did. It took me and Luke with complete surprise. Seeing your little one flourish and hit their milestones is soo rewarding as a parent and it makes you even more excited for the many other milestones that are to come. We make sure that she plays on her play mat to do tummy time at least twice a day.

   Sticking her fists in her mouth and everything that she can get her hands on has also become a little obsession of hers. As well starting to suck her thumb, as we have decided to not give Raven a dummy. I'll explain why we chose to not give her one in a separate post to go more in depth about it for all of you mummies out there who are umm'ing and arr'ing about whether to use a dummy or not. Just be prepared also mummies, that you'll need loads of different t-shirts of your bubbas, to hand, as the dribble this week is unreal (for our little one anyway).

   Raven has been able to talk in her own little baby language for a few months now but this week she has become a right little chatterbox. There's nothing more enjoyable than chatting with your little one  and getting those cheeky smiles. We just can't wait until she says her first word, hopefully it will be mumma or dadda, which we keep saying to her, hoping that she will pick it up, instead of a different random word like poo poo. Which would be rather surprising and quite comical.

   Then there's the 4 month sleep regression, where your little bubba will change their sleeping habits and everything will go up in the air for abit. This normally occurs between three and a half months to four months old. Day naps become a struggle, bubba will wake up every hour or two in the night for a feed and by morning you will be struggling to open your eyes and dragging yourself out of bed. Luckily for me Raven's daddy Luke takes raven from seven am in the morning and I get a couple of sneaky hours of rest in bed. I also have chosen to breastfeed, so bubba has mummy to herself every night. Also Raven started to reject bottles of expressed milk, which would mean we could share the night feeds if she would take them, but instead she just wants mummas boobie; Which I don't mind as I get lots of cuddles.

   With this 4 month sleep regression, we have decided to stick to a schedule for nap times, to try to help her get her naps back in. I am also sleep training, using the fading method, which means either me or Luke put Raven down in her cot at nap times, when she's tired and stay in eye distance so she can see that we are there. If she starts to cry we stroke her belly or shhh her gently, until she falls asleep. Eventually once she falls asleep straight away using this method, we gradually move further and further away from her until she can sleep straight away without us soothing her to sleep. As we haven't given Raven a dummy, this means it can be extra challenging as she doesn't have that extra soothing there for her. However all it takes is patience and a lot of love and attention. I will also be posting a blog about this method, our progress on it over time for us and what schedule that we are following.

   So that pretty much sums it up for us this week, It's been a busy week for all of us and especially for our fast growing little girl. I'll be keeping you all updated on her progress every week, so look out for these posts and watch this space!

   V xx