A very normal pregnancy.
Our surrogate Sam was due to be induced on Rio’s due date but luckily her waters starting trickling the day before. Mild contractions started at 7pm on Saturday 13th November. We all went to hospital at 1.30am. At 6pm the midwife said that Sam could go in the pool. Her active labour lasted just over an hour. Rio was born in the pool at 7.19am on Sunday 14th November. No complications and interventions, only a bit of gas & air.
He was exclusively given breast milk for the first 4 months of his life. He fed from the boob from Sam for the first week as well as donor milk. When we got home to London he was only given donor breast milk from multiple donors. We started giving him 1 bottle of formula a day from 4 months, and at most only ever 2 a day.
No health I issues with feeding. He has had no colic or wind. He seemed to be fine when introducing a goats milk formula. On 2 occasions we were out and about and run out of milk so gave him a Hipp organic ready-made formula. On both those occasions he was sick. The 2nd occasion was in A&E when he was ill so could be link to that but we have stayed clear from cow’s milk formula since. He has been ill 3 times. Once with a sickness bug that lasted 24 hours. He has had covid and an ear infection over a week.
6.45am- wakes up. Generally in a happy mood. Sometimes he’s crying but as soon as he opens his eyes he starts smiling. I then change a heavy wet nappy and take him downstairs for playtime.
8am- He has his first bottle which is always breast milk.
9.15am- Goes down for his nap. We have moved him into his cot but in our bedroom. Since being unwell recently he takes longer to settle. Needs to picked up and soothed. On a good day we can put him down, rock the bed and he will fall asleep. We always put him down when he’s sleepy from milk and haven’t put him down from being awake.
10.30am- Wakes from his nap. We get him changed.
12pm- We give him milk and tasting of a root vegetable. His favourite is carrot. He warms up to being interested in the food. After the veg we finish the feed of milk.
1.30- Goes down for his afternoon nap. This nap tends to be a bit longer. We find it easiest to put him in his pram, walk him outside and he falls asleep quite quickly. The other day, after a night if being ill and being up a lot, he slept for nearly 4 hours. On average he does 2 hours.
4pm- bottle. Normally formula at this time.
It has not been consistent 2 or 3 naps a day. It varies. Sometimes he will need a power nap at 5pm. He was sleeping right up to 6pm the other day so we thought we should wake him up so he would sleep more a night. Big mistake! He was very angry. Had to give him a bath to change his mood and he still went down at 7.30pm.
6.30pm Bath time.
7/7.30pm bottle and bed.
This process has varied recently. He is taking long to settle. Wakes up every 5-10 mins for the 1st hour. We do a mixture or rocking the bed but sometimes have to pick him up. He has to be in a deep sleep to allow us to settle him on his own. He is moving a lot in the cot as it’s a new bigger spacer for him. Does a mixture of sleeping on his side, his stomach and his back. Sometimes he cries as he stuck on his stomach.
10.30/11pm- He will wake for a feed. This is his aggressive feed. He wakes up very angry, screaming and pinching! Lol.
3am- Pretty much like clockwork, regardless of the time of his last feed he will wake up. Generally its easiest to settle him after this feed. He just accepts being put back in his bed.
Occasionally at 5.30am he wakes again but I just put him in our bed and he happily co sleeps until around 7am. He has been known to sleep in longer with us.
All bottles of milk are generally around the 220ml mark.
No dummy or white noise used. We did have the snoo bed but we stopped that 7 weeks ago as he no longer liked it.
He generally sleeps in his cot in our room. Sometimes we move his bed into his room for his nap.
To get him sleeping through the night! 🙂 and to eating well with lots of different foods.
