Back from Italy, 20 weeks old, Tracy Hogg

We are back! Flying with the children is fine, so much so that I'm going to go solo with them in December when I'll be off work! And that flight will actually be 2 as I have to go through Hamburg...let's hope for the best.

Our time in Italy was great, Oliver slept with no problems thankfully which made his mood and overall enjoyment of the weather superb.

Clarissa, Oliver and Martina

Martina on the other hand...does not sleep through the night at all, wakes generally between 11.30 and 1 am, then again around 4 and then at 6...not good. At least I now have her in bed by 8.30-9.00 consistently which is something. During the day she can somewhat successfully fall asleep in the stroller (morning and lunchtime) but she cries. I can count on one hand the times that she just fell asleep on her own without crying. It's hard. I'm resisting latching her on during the day for naps (but still do at night time) or we'll never come out of that and I'm going back to work in 6 short weeks...She still cat-naps but I'm working on it, mostly because I know she is not well rested after only 40 minutes.
An update on the tongue-tie. My friend the surgeon doesn't think she has it at all, and when in Italy my parents insisted we brought the children to a peady there (you know...the best in the city, yadayadayada) as Martina was still coughing and my dad was convinced Oliver's knees were converging too much. I want to add that I believed Oliver's legs were physiological and that Martina's chest was clear as we had them both already checked out. Just in case you think we are careless parents too.... Of course we were told by the super paedy exaclty the same things we knew already and he confirmed too that Martina has no tongue tie that can affect bfeeding. In the last few days I have started feeding her again without the shields but being consistent with putting on the lanolin and so far so good. She has also started solids very slowly at lunch time which means we skip a feed and all seems to be going well. She is 20 weeks old today and she is rolling over (back to front and occasionally the other way around too), weighed in at 6.2kg at 19 weeks and is 63 cm long. Very sturdy, I can believe she is "only" 20 weeks old and she looks about 6 month old for alertness and interaction.

 At the table with papà last night

"Reading" a soft book in her bouncer this morning

As of yesterday I have started applying the Tracy Hogg method for Martina's daytime naps...so far Martina is winning...