(Non-)Christening(s) - by Theo

Kate and I have on several occasions had idle conversations about which of our friends and relatives we would ask to be godparents to Rosie, weighing up the pros and cons of asking family members vs friends, those resident nearby to those further away, and so on. I guess it's a good thing that we don't so much have a shortlist of potential candidates as a very, very long one. All this, of course, presupposes that we will actually have a christening for Rosie, something which is by no means certain.

Last weekend once again raised the topic in our minds as we attended two very different baby-related events. Firstly, on Saturday, we headed over the Second Severn Crossing to Wales, and the haven from the world that is Rocks Cottage, the home of the Bullock clan. It was to be the introduction of the latest member of that illustrious family, baby Jessica, to the wider world. Karri, Jessica's mum, hadn't wanted to do a Christening, but at the same time had wanted to have some kind of event for her, and so a summer garden party was the solution.

Embarrassingly however Kate and I forgot that Karri had told us this back in July; we simply thought the weekend get to together was because Poppy (Jessica's aunt and my best woman) was coming back from Brussels for the weekend. Of course if we'd managed to rub our sleep-scrambled brain cells together we might have wondered why Poppy was coming back that particular weekend.

As ever, we had a lovely time. Su, Allan, Amy and Karri put on a fabulous spread (Poppy just wafted around really), while eldest Bullock grandchild Harii supervised the various visiting children and Rosie commandeered first the baby walker then the hammock.

The following day - Sunday - saw us up very early thanks to Rosie, although this was just as well as we had a Christening to get to at 9.45am. Lateness definitely wasn't on the cards as Kate was to be named a Godmother to Liz and Al's cheerful little boy Damian Beren. A cranky Rosie was taken for a brisk nap around St Andrews park, then we snuck into the back of St Bart's church for the last 10 minute of a very modern and very child-friendly service, that included bubbles for the kids and a rubber duck in the font.

Kate's new Godchild Damian was angelically behaved, both in the church and back at Liz and Al's for the Christening party. Rosie also enjoyed herself, amazingly not being too overwhelmed by the mass of new people as Kate and I tried to engage in a whirl of catch-up with old friends before we headed down to Cornwall (see next blog).

Rosie chomped her way through a veggie sausage, then was treated to one of S's outstanding cakes before deciding to spill the whole of tub of bubble-blowing fluid down Mummy's legs. Still, we all had a great time, and the weekend has got us thinking again about what, if anything, to do for Rosie in terms of socio-cultural quasi-superstituous naming-ritual(s).

Sunday with the Lahoz-Frosts - by Theo

We had a lovely day out today at Kirsty, Juanmi and Emily's place in Rivas. It had been far too long since we last saw them, so we invited ourselves down - I cooked to try and compensate for the invasion!

Rosie and Emily seemed to get on fab; it was really the first time that Rosie has properly acknowledged her and responded to her. Rosie still wasn't sure of course - our daughter is nothing if not cautious - preferring to sit next to Emily and point but not-quite-touch her. However they both enjoyed doing a bit of wordless call and response at various points, particularly (and hilariously) over lunch. I think Kirsty was a bit miffed that Emily, 22 months and bilingual, wasn't showing off her English and Spanish vocab!

The curse of maternal insomnia By Kate

You're used to your baby waking you up at various times in the night. It's not exactly fun, but it's one of those aspects of parenthood that most people have to live with at some point or another. The real bummer is when your baby is sleeping like a small log and you're wide awake, wishing someone could rock you back to sleep, offer you a pacifier or stroke your head until you manage to get settled again.

Yep, maternal insomnia sucks. It's definitely worse than being kept awake by a fractious child. It's also surprisingly common, especially when you consider how exhausted and sleep-deprived many mothers of small children are.

Ironically, the insomnia usually hits hardest when the baby is sleeping better. You wake up for no particular reason, then something inside you tells you there's no point in sliding back into unconsciousness because you're bound to be woken by your offspring in a minute. Then another minute passes. Then an hour. Then another hour. And so it goes on.

Inevitably, just as you are on the point of dropping off again, that's the cue for the baby to start wailing. It's as if they know.

Well, I've had enough of it. The maternal insomnia, that is. So I'm doing something about it.

I tried a short course of hypnotherapy and although that helped a bit, it didn't solve the problem.

So now I'm following a self-help book which uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to get the insomnia put to bed. I'm in Week Four and after keeping a sleep diary; working on correcting my thinking about sleeplessness; and practicing relaxation techniques, I'm now at the tough part.

For this bit, you have to decide on a daily getting up time, work out what your average amount of sleep was over the last ten days, then go to bed no earlier than that number of hours prior to the morning alarm call. Does that make sense? In my case, I've been getting just over five and three-quarters of an hour of sleep per night, so subtracting that from 07.15, you get 01.30.

Oh, and if you wake in the night, or can't get to sleep when you first lie down, you have to get up again after fifteen minutes of lying awake in bed. You can only go back to bed when you are feeling genuinely sleepy again.

For someone who's fallen asleep no later than 22.00 for the best part of a year, that's a bit scary. But it kind of makes sense. Instead of lying unprofitably doing nothing except feeling narked about being awake, I might as well do something vaguely productive. Like write a blog, for example.

One point to make is I have to make allowances for Rosie. On average, she's awake for just over an hour a night. She also tends to wake earlier than my preferred getting up time - often between 06.00 and 06.30. So I've factored both those things into my calculations, leaving me with a going-to-bed time of 23.15.

Apparently, if after a week you score a 90 per cent snooze rate for your designated kip window (not the official term), you can then lengthen the in bed time by 15 mins and see how you do for another week. Etc.

The aim is to get you to "sleep through". Well, I'm all for that. I'm just aware that the chances of nighttime derailment by Rosie are very high, given that she's never "slept through" in her life thus far.

But if I can at least maximise my sleep around Rosie's nocturnal habits, that at least would be progress for me. As for Rosie's sleep, I'm hardening my resolve to do something radical to get her "sleeping through" the night as well. Just not yet.