laurasaur

What an amazing week. Reuben started to sleep through the night this week. By sleep through the night I mean I give him his last feed (supposed to be a dream feed but normally he wakes up fully) around 10.30pm and He is in bed by 11.15. He then wakes anywhere from 6-7. You may know I am following the BabyWise schedule – and it states in the book that from 8-12 weeks your baby will start sleeping through the night. I personally think this is more dependent on the weight of the child and sure enough it must have been the day he hit 12lb he slept through for the first time.

He is also having a super happy week. He loves his independent play time on his playmat, and has started to reach out and grab things. Nappy changing has even become less of a drama because he will do these super cute huge smiles half way through instead of screaming.

Feeding has also improved dramatically, I have been struggling the whole time with breastfeeding but this week it just seems to be a lot less painful and he is feeding for about 30 minutes total most times – although he will still have the occasional long feed of an hour but no more than once a day and I am confident he will speed them all up soon.

A couple of people have asked about his routine for this week so here goes:

6.30am – 8.00am Feed & Play time. This is still more than an hour off from his proper wake up time of 7.30am but I’m very happy with his progress. Have some play time with mummy and then some independent mat/gym time while I have a shower/breakfast.

8.00am – 9.30am Nap & nap time for mummy too!

9.30am – 11.00am Feed & Play time – this is his happiest time of the day. Try and do some tummy time and gym time.

11.00am – 12.30 Nap

12.30 – 2.00pm Feed & Play time

2.00pm – 3.30pm Nap

3.30pm – 5.00pm Feed & Play time

5.00pm – 7.00pm Walk/Nap time

7pm – Feed & try for bed time. He pretty much either is going to go to sleep or is not, and I can tell by how he has been so I either put him straight down or have some quiet time for an hour then put him down.

10.30pm Dream feed time – try and feed him quietly so he doesn’t wake but hubbys love for loud tv often kills this.  Straight back to bed after. I don’t change him at this time unless he has made some poop lol.

Time is of the essence for me at the moment. In between feeding, changing and playing with my baby (and changing and changing and changing), there is precious little time to do anything other than get myself showered and dressed – some days I even fail to do that!

I find most cheesecakes very easy to make except for the part where you must have patience and leave it to chill down overnight. This is no exception and the combination of white chocolate and raspberries is heavenly.

Like any baked cheesecake this must be made the day before you want to eat it.

ease:  4/5
mess factor:  3.5/5 – few bowls to clean up
cooking time:  1 hour
total:  11 hours

taste: 4.5/5

Ingredients
1 x 250g packet of biscuits
100g ground almonds or hazelnuts
150g melted butter

750g cream cheese (3 x 250g packs)
140g (2/3c) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
3 eggs
200g good white chocolate chopped into chunks
200g frozen raspberries

Grease a 20cm springform pan. Place biscuits, ground nuts and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely crushed and well combined. Transfer mixture to prepared pan. Use a straight-sided glass to spread and press mixture firmly over base and side of pan (Try to get it all the way up the sides – I was using the wrong size pan). Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 160°C. Use an electric beater or mixer to beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Use a spatula to gently fold in chocolate and raspberries.

Pour mixture into the biscuit base. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour until just set in the centre (Gently shake the pan, the middle should still wobble a little). Turn oven off. Leave cheesecake in the oven, with the door open a crack, for 2 hours or until cooled completely (this *should*prevent cake from cracking). Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to chill.

Well I did it! Giving birth was by far the most excruciatingly painful experience of my life, but at the same time, so enjoyable and amazing – I got to have the home birth I wanted (but only just!), and gave birth to a gorgeous (albeit massively cone-headed) baby boy weighing in at 7lb and 5oz, way less than I was expecting.

He is the most alert little guy ever. He came out with his eyes wide open and looking around, no crying or anything like that, just breathing well and taking everything in his stride. This photo was taken right after he was born and before he had even been cleaned up! So fresh and new to the world. The first photo was about an hour after he was born and on the bed he was born on!

I’ve stuck my birth story after the jump if you want to have a read. It’s pretty long and involved and sort of TMI but there you go… Read the rest of this entry »