Friday 6 April 2018

Just The Two of Us | A Weekend Alone With Charlie

Charlie and I spent a whole weekend entirely alone together for the first time recently. 3 days, and 3 nights just us. Apart from Ash coming over for a few hours on the Saturday, but still. That's literally the longest we've ever been alone together.


I was terrified. Sometimes I find him really hard to cope with when I have Mum helping me, so I was really worried about how we were going to be. In short; we were fine! As soon as Mum left on the Friday morning I started to feel really anxious but somehow got through it. We played together, I read two books to him, managed to bath him AND wash his hair without making him cry, and then I blogged while he napped. Friday was literally an absolute dream day. We just had lots of fun and Charlie didn't cry or scream over anything. He was a pure angel. Until the evening anyway, then I started to struggle. He fought bedtime a little bit and I was tired and hungry so I wasn't impressed. But when he fell asleep I just started to feel really lonely. I realised I hate being a single parent. But that's not going to change any time soon so nevermind, best get used to it.

I was really tired on Saturday. Charlie got us up quite early, so we had breakfast and then he wanted to nap again about 9am. I totally fell asleep with him and we woke up about 11. I felt like shit but Ash came over about 12, and looked after Charlie for me while I washed up, showered and dressed. Ash even brought his hoover with him and hoovered the entirety of downstairs while I sat on the bed with a napping Charlie. So not a bad day but once again, a really difficult evening. He didn't want his dinner and he didn't want to sleep. It literally took about 3 hours to get Charlie to bed.

As for Sunday, that was probably the worst of the three days. It started off brilliantly. We woke up about 8:30am, had breakfast and Charlie even fed himself! For the first time in ages, he actually had a whole pot (half a pouch) of breakfast and I was so happy! I got him cleaned up and took him back upstairs to get him dressed, play and read before his morning nap. I even got to do a Mum and Baby workout with him, which he always finds hilarious. I soon realised that he wasn't going to nap particularly early. He usually falls asleep between 10:30-11:00 for an hour or so, but decided to stay awake until 12:30. But he did sleep for an hour which gave me time to wash up and have lunch.

When he woke up he was an absolute grump. I don't know what his problem was but he was PISSED. He refused his lunch and water, and only cheered up when I let him play with his food. Of course he got it absolutely everywhere, but I did notice that he ate some of it too, so it's not all bad. I even caught him trying to dunk his wafer into his puree - cutie! I totally forgot to put a bib on him though so once he'd finished I had to strip him off and chuck him in the bath! He loves his baths now though, so that wasn't an issue.

Then I had all the fun of getting him dressed again, more playing, and chasing after him, as well as trying to clean up his mess from lunch. I ended up putting him in his walker in front of Cbeebies so I could clean the kitchen, and he didn't seem to mind that too much. I thought he was going to nap again about 3/4 but nope. He stayed awake, made me cry from stress, barely had any dinner right up until 7:15pm. I wasn't used to that. He'd never gone a whole day with only one nap before, and of course he chose to do it on the day I had a lot to do, and had only had 4 hours sleep. He was in a good mood though so I'll give him credit for that. I was so relieved when he finally fell asleep again though, I almost cried again. He slept absolutely brilliantly that night though. 

Overall: not as bad a weekend as I expected! I wish I had known about the eighth month sleep regression though; I might have been more prepared for it! 

2 yorum:

  1. You did a fantastic job. You can do it on your own and it may take some getting used to but your an amazing mum. Oh, and you'll always come across the TV haters. "don't stick him. In front of cbeebies just to get stuff done" I say... Fuck that, I stuck E In front of the TV every day to get chores done, played and went outside in between, and she's a very bright, intelligent little miss, with a fantastic imagination and confidence. You are doing so well with C.

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    1. Thank you Amy, I really appreciate that! Hahah the TV has actually barely been on since that weekend! He's quite happy to play in his ball pit now it's been moved to the front room. E sounds like a wonderful little lady, you must be such a proud Mumma xx

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