Finn Henry

The bear is called Hubert but pronounced Hoobert.

Christmas Day 2003

Finn had his first lot of vaccinations today (apart from the Hep B he had in hospital).

He was given the polio one orally. It didn’t taste too good and prompted a momentarily screwed up face.

Then the other two by injection. One in each thigh.

The first hurt and required a bit of yelling. Then the second hurt and required a bit more yelling. Then there was a bit of yelling about the injustice of the whole situation.

But then the dummy was presented and vigorous sucking on that made everything seem not quite so bad. He even managed a couple of smiles after a while.

Last night the Funster slept from midnight until six-thirty in the morning uninterrupted.

I think that is a record for him.

We just took about twenty photos of Finn for a Christmas photo to send to people.

Anyhow he loved having his photo taken especially when Nicky had him lying in a bed of tinsel.

He is a very good model.

Finn visited the Maternal and Child Health nurse today for his regular weigh in and measure.

The munchkin has grown like a weed in the last 4 weeks. He’s gained 1.2 kilos and grown just over 4 centimetres.

He really is the monster baby.

Note: that’s monster as in large, not monster as in horrible - there’s nothing horrible about the funster apart from the occasional nappy.

Sleeping through is the holy grail when you have a small baby. An unbroken night’s sleep is something you dream of. When it comes, though, it’s a wee bit scary.

Lately Finn has been sleeping for longer periods at night and we often get a stretch of 5 hours between feeds - usually from 11pm to 4am. For a young baby this is fantastic and we know just how fortunate we’ve been.

Last night Finn went to bed at about 9pm and slept until about 5am, had a feed and then slept again until about 9am. 8 hours without a break and then almost another 4! I’m sure he enjoyed it but I didn’t cope as well.

He’d had a bit of trouble breathing initially - I think it was mucous getting stuck in the back of his throat because his nose was a bit blocked up. It was only bothering him when he lay flat on his back so I propped him up a bit by moving all the stuff in his snuggle bed down to one end (I made sure he couldn’t slip or roll and get his face covered) and that fixed it.

I was a bit paranoid after that so I kept waking and checking the time. When Finn hadn’t woken by 2am I had to go and have a look at him. He was fine. When he hadn’t woken by 4am I went and looked at him again and tickled his ear to make sure he wasn’t in a coma (the things you think of in the early hours…). He wriggled so I was happy.

I was relieved when he woke at about 5. Mark got up and fed him, and I meant to get up, but I was a bit too sleepy and drifted off again. When I got up at 9 and found that Finn was still asleep I just had to wake him. He sprang to life as soon as I touched him and has been pretty cheerful ever since.

The big sleep was probably a combination of the heat, the lack of a long sleep during the day yesterday and the fact that Finn’s bed is quite warm and it may not happen again for a while, but it’s nice to know that we’re getting closer.