Ten weeks old tonight! We've had a good week on the sleeping front...the weather has been quite wet so I've had a lot of time to devote to implementing a day time sleeping routine. Joseph has responded quite well and only cries for a little bit before nodding off. The late afternoon sleep is proving the most difficult to get him to adopt but I'm perservering! We're turning the monitor off when he cries...so much easier to pretend we're good parents when we can't hear him cry!

His fingernails grow so fast and I seem to be cutting them every couple of days. Most mornings when I go to get him from his cot there will be a new scratch on his face, usually around the eye area - it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

Here's Joseph in his Baby Gap towelling tracksuit (thanks to Steve and Cheryl Hoyle) - looking very "southside" in it too. It's been a big hit with the public when he's been seen wearing it.

On the developmental front...Joseph's head control is getting better, he's becoming more aware of his hands and his eye sight range continues to improve. Plus, we think he's very cute.

Again, it's been awhile between posts...I'm going to try and do it every Friday from now on so that it will be a regular task for me!

Last weekend we had Dan's sister, Margarite, come and stay for a few days. Unfortunately the weather was pretty terrible so we couldn't get out and do as much as we wanted but it did mean that Joseph got lots of cuddles.

Joseph was weighed yesterday and is now 6.69kg...as Joan our Plunket Nurse says "a bonny boy". I've bought the next size up in nappies and am going to try them this morning - we've had a few nappy leakages where the "infant" size doesn't quite cover his chubby thighs. Dan has updated the weight graph and I will get him to post it over the weekend. Meanwhile, here's a pic of Joseph in puku enhancing horizontal stripes!

I've been trying to bring a bit more structure to our day and part of this means that Joseph now gets a bottle of formula at his last feed of the day. This is to give me a break and also for Dan to have a set time with Joseph at the end of the day. I think it will work well for all three of us! Here's a pic of Joseph having a little snooze in the sun after his 11am feed yesterday.

Only a short post today but this is fresh off the camera...managed to capture a great shot of Joseph's tummy time skills...he can hold his head up for a few minutes now. I also carry him around on his tummy resting across my arm so that he gets additional TT.

I have been writing this for three days now but have had a few interuptions from the Monkey Prince...at 22:27 last Friday night we celebrated seven weeks with Joseph. It has been a busy ten days and we have seen a few medical professionals in that time. Monday saw us at Starship Hospital for Joseph's kidney scan - all normal (at the 20 week anatomy scan the tubes from the kidneys to the bladder were a bit larger than normal so they wanted us to get that checked out once he arrived). He was charming with Sarah the sonographer and only did one little wee.

Wednesday was his six week injections appointment and he was very good...yelped a little bit when they went in but not too many tears. I fed him straight afterwards and the immunisations did not seem to impede his ability to feed in any way! He was a bit whingy for the rest of the afternoon - nothing that a lot of cuddles from Grandma, Mummy and Daddy couldn't cure! This photo shows two of the three injection sites on his (substantial) thigh. As the nurse said - he's hardly failing to thrive!

I've managed to get a pic of the mullet, which on viewing the is actually more of a rat's tail. Eye colour still not determined and I haven't been able to capture a decent tummy time shot, suffice to say it's coming along well.

We had our first "Mother's Group" on Thursday - only a mini one however with three Mums and babies. Joseph was the oldest by three weeks and also the heaviest by at least three kilos. The other babies, William and Elizabeth, were tiny dots of things...I was remiss and didn't photo-document the event. I'll get a photo from next week's gathering.

He's also getting to the age when we can start getting some shots of him being more alert and generally cute - here he is in a yellow two piece courtesy of Grandma.

I've starting doing a little expressing...I was concerned that if we started giving Joseph a bottle he would refuse the breast. No need to worry...he polished off 80mls (our trial size) in about three minutes (less time than it took me to express!!). Just had time to grab the camera.

Finally, here's something else we swore we'd never do...have him in our bed...this was after a bit of a fractious night and I couldn't get him to settle back in his cot. Anne Geddes - eat your heart out!