This is our second Me & Mine picture as a family of four. Gabe is now six weeks old but we’re still figuring things out and trying to get ourselves into something of a routine. Although day to day life still feels quite hard when I look back at where we were a month ago it is already massively easier than it was then, and things can only get better, right?

Although Gabe is often unsettled during the day, and my Lillebaby carrier has become my new best friend, he is sleeping fantastically well at night which makes the days an awful lot easier to deal with. In the last week we have started putting him up to bed around 8 pm and he will then sleep until somewhere between 2 and 4 am, when he’ll have a feed and go back to sleep until 7ish. I am well aware that for a 6 week old baby this is amazing and it feels brilliant to have our evenings back again. I’m not counting my chickens too soon though – from about 10 weeks old Toby used to sleep from 6:30 pm until 8 am every night. I was so smug…and it lasted about two months. And then he had his last set of vaccinations, got a cold the same day and never consistently slept through the night again until about two months ago! So although things are going well so far I am well aware things could change at any minute.

Being a parent to two small boys certainly has its challenges and we were well and truly tested on our tag-team parenting on Saturday night when Gabe was awake at 1 am and then again an hour later, at which point Toby woke up and was sick all over his bed, and then again over himself and me half an hour later! He’d been up earlier in the evening not feeling well and we weren’t sure what was wrong with him….I think I got about 3 hours sleep that night. Not one I want to repeat in a hurry but we got through it and we will again if we have to.

Barry has been fantastic over the last month. I know he feels a bit ineffectual sometimes when it comes to Gabe because he’s still breastfed most of the time and so he only wants me. But I can only do that because Barry is doing everything else. After leaving for work at 6:30 am he comes home to a sink full of washing up, laundry to fold, meals to cook, Toby to collect from nursery…the list of jobs seems never-ending and he does them all without complaining. I simply wouldn’t be able to manage any of this without him, and not only for the practical stuff… he’s been a wonderful emotional support as I’ve struggled with breastfeeding, a baby who is almost permanently attached to me and a toddler who is coping with it all admirably but who is the source of massive mummy guilt for me as he spends another morning watching CBeebies (embarrassingly he’s watched so much he can now sing along to nearly all the theme tunes).

And so another month has passed and we are slowly settling into our new expanded family. This month’s photo was another last minute one, taken tonight on our bed after both boys had been bathed and dressed ready for bed in their matching sleepsuits (how cute?). I am once again grinning manically as I do a big ‘cheeeese’ trying to get Toby to smile, and Barry looks like he’s about to say something. Toby was very sweet and got hold of Gabe’s hand though which was just lovely. I think it might be quite a while yet before we can manage to get a photo of all four of us together where everyone is looking at the camera and no one is pulling a silly face so for now this will have to do…

After we got this picture Toby wanted to have a go with the remote but couldn’t quite grasp that he was supposed to look at the camera, not at the button he was pressing. I still love this photo though so although it’s not perfect I wanted to include it anyway.