She started to wobble her head back at us a few days ago when we shook our head and said ‘No’ she shouldn’t do something. She’s got her head wobble down to a fine art now and when we say ‘No Esmé, don’t eat the cat biscuits’ she looks up to scrutinise our faces, wobbles her head as in agreement that it’s not allowed and then turns round to make a beeline for Misha’s biscuits.

So, not sure as yet whether she understands perfectly (I think she maybe does as she’ll virtually elbow you out of the way as you try and stop her) or if she’s still too young.

As it stands it’s hard to keep a stern look on your face when she’s checking to see how serious you – I think it’s fair to say she’s got me round her little finger!

Been busy, hence no posts recently.

Things of note:

- Esmé took a bottle yesterday (two bottle actually) – finally!!!! It seems stubborness comes naturally to my kids

- I lost the best part of a tooth this morning, will need to go to the dentist to see what can be done to the jagged remains in my mouth

Jo went back to work yesterday for the first time in nine months since the birth of Esmé. This brings in a new routine for all of us.

Esmé isn’t going to nursery yet – they’re building a new municipal nursery just round the corner from us which should be ready by September, so we’ve decided to try and muddle through until the summer holidays. As such Esmé is looked after by Penny in the morning, and by me in the afternoon when (the idea is) she has her afternoon nap. When Jo gets back after school I go back to work.

Yesterday was the first test and it went OK. Esmé slept for an hour after lunch which was OK although longer would be better!. She got a bit grumpy between 4 and 5 when we go to pick up the kids, but this was always going to be the trickiest hour as it’d be around then that she would have had a feed from Jo (she’s still refusing a bottle).

The hardest part is going to be managing everything else which Jo’s been doing while on maternity leave: shopping, cleaning,washing, organising etc. I’m supposed to be doing this in the afternoons when Esmé has woken up, but it remains to be seen as to how much I can achieve.

The other ‘problem’ is when anything outside of the routine crops up; it’s all so tightly packed that anything extra throws it out. As it was the kids didn’t get to bed till 9pm last night and so far we’ve all been awake before 7 am with Jo up and about.

I think we’ll all be exhausted by the time the summer holidays start…

Tuesday night I started the sleep program which we’ve used on the other two kids – the idea is that when the child wakes you go in, calm them down, then leave while they’re still wide awake. Talking/rocking/singing/comforting of any real kind should be avoided. They obviously cry immediately, but you leave them crying for a short period of time before repeating the process. Each time you leave her, extend the amount of time before going back in slightly. You’re not really supposed to do this till 7 months and on, but we felt she was ready.

Tuesday: I went in, came out and counted to 50 before returning. I then counted to 60, 80, 100 and 120, after which she fell asleep of her own accord in her cot. Roughly speaking about 7 minutes give or take.

Last night: I went in, came out and counted to 50. I wasn’t sure I’d get to 50 but went back in. I repeated the process and went in at 60. When I came out I didn’t bother hanging around – she was asleep.

It’s a fantastic program, it really works brilliantly. We just need make sure she stays in it.

On another note Esmé had her 6 month check up this week: she weighs 9 kilos 115 grams. This puts her way up on the scale of size for her age. A friend of ours has a 9 month who is pretty much the same weight and average for his age. All our kids have been big, right from the start.

Following Esmé’s bout of illness we’ve had a little regression with the old sleep training, so here we are again – only this time we also have to get her to take a bottle.

We’ve been making progress with the bottle, slowly but surely. Initially this involved a certain amount of pinning her down and putting the teat in her mouth while screaming (that’s her doing the screaming). I found that if I put her left arm ’round’ me and I put my right arm round her and put my finger in her hand she found it comforting and was also unable to escape from the bottle. It worked to a fashion, the main problem being that rather than actually drink anything she just fell asleep.

We’ve moved on from there with the bottle but last night I decided to use the same technique in getting her back to sleep – it works a treat. Unfortunately she’s got into this bad habit of waking up and screaming when she’s put back into the cot so we had to resort to serious sleep training: don’t pick her up, just keep going in, calming her down and leaving again; repeat the process every few minutes, lengthening the pause between visits gradually. It took about an hour or so, I’m not 100% sure of the timing, but eventually she went to sleep on her own, in her cot.

We’ll repeat the process tonight and I’m feeling reasonably confident it won’t last much longer than that. The nights of Esmé being breast fed back to sleep are numbered.

She was six months old yesterday.

Did we have fun? Not really, she’s been ill for a few days and it’s not been easy. She’s been snotty, grouchy and with a temperature, and it’s all coincided with us trying to get her onto a bottle.

Jo’s just got a couple of weeks left before going back to work so Esmé has to get used to it, but it’s been almost two weeks and she’s still refusing. A couple of days back she was so thoroughly miserable that we relented and Jo fed her, something that has probably set us back somewhat.

She’s still been feeding her once in the morning and before bed but with her being ill it’s crept back into the night. Tonight we’re swapping roles: I’m dealing with Esmé in the night and Jo’s getting up to get the kids ready and out of the door in the morning. I’m already looking past tonight to my lie-in in the morning. A cup of tea in bed and a quiet start to the day, hmmmm.

We’ve now had a few consecutive nights of sleeping through – amazing how things can change so quickly from this post. Esmé is now well into her routine – in bed by 8 – 8:30pm, wake 6-6:30 am. She might then go back to sleep for another hour after that.

With this new found feeling of normality we went to a party on Friday night till 2am and survived

Of course if there is one thing to be sure of, we’ll definitely have more disturbed nights ahead of us at some point, it’s all to easy to fall out of a routine..

We moved Esmé into Olivia’s room on Friday night – at 5 months old much later than Gabriel or Olivia. This is partly because we’re sleeping on a different floor to the kids, partly because she hasn’t slept through as well as the other two.

Friday night went OK – two wake-ups – but last night was not great with four wake-ups. Because she’s sharing we’re less able to experiment with leaving her to cry/rocking her off etc and are back to being a bit dependent on giving her a feed, not necessarily the greatest. Nice to have our bedroom back to ourselves though.

I’m shattered now, partly because of a disturbed night and partly because we put on Zodiac at 10pm last night. The film was OKish but by 12:10 I’d completely lost interest and just wanted to go to bed (so we went through all that and didn’t see the end – I think it’s a 2 1/2 film, way longer than it needed be). Esmé is pretty regular at waking at 7 am now, so lie-ins are not anticipated now for a year or two

Jo went out last night. All was well until 11:30 when Esmé woke. She’s decided that the novelty of being rocked off to sleep just doesn’t do it any more. Unfortunately she doesn’t go for dummies or bottles either, only the real thing for this girl. I did eventually manage to get her back into her cot after 20 minutes of violent kicking and screaming, but she woke again at 12:10. Luckily for me Jo had just got back in so I didn’t have to go through it again.

She’ll be five months old on Saturday and it’s already becoming clear that she’s been gifted with Gabriel’s obstinacy and Olivia’s temper, both legendary in their own right – God help me!

We’ve obviously got to re-think – being rocked off is no real alternative anyway, she needs to learn how to go back to sleep without external comforting.

Ever since my smug post on the 31st we’ve had a reversal of fortunes. Esmé has been waking two to three times a night, which clearly wasn’t the plan. Last night took things to a new level, as we had a pretty terrible night due to the fact that she’s ill again (nothing major, just blocked up) and wanted nothing more than to be comforted by her mum.

So much for an unbroken nights sleep