"He's just like you..."

Both Mum and Dad see so much of me in Otis. It's an amazing thing, to see a tiny replication of myself! He not only looks like me — he behaves just as I did. He's very curious, fairly demanding, increasingly entertaining, and terrible at sleeping. Last night he woke at 9, then 11 (for a feed), 2:30 (feed) and 5. At 5 I tried to ignore him, in the hope he'd drift off again, but no... He was raring to go!

Phil and I have decided to buy a king size bed! We figure we'll be sharing it with babies for the next few years, so it should be worth the extra cost. We've chosen a really cool, metal frame, and are in the process of negotiating a price.

The one big development is that Otis has finally learnt to self-settle. I was at my wit's end a few days ago — I felt as if I was spending all day, every day, patting/rocking/shushing/singing him to sleep. Mum suggested that I wrap him up, give him a kiss, pop him in his cot, close the door and jump in the shower, and go back in ten minutes or so if he screamed. I'm no advocate of controlled crying, so was very apprehensive, but, lo and behold — there was no crying involved! The little cherub moaned in a somewhat pathetic fashion for about 5 minutes, and was then silent! I've since put him to bed fully awake, and left him there to fall asleep himself, for every sleep bar those middle-of-the-night moments.

He's loving his food. Mouth opens like a baby bird, and he gets all agitated and greedy. He's had Farex, pear, apple, avocado, potato, sweet potato, carrot and pumpkin so far.