October 1997.

After seeing another baby of his own age crawling, Matthew has become more determined to get mobile himself. He has been able to get up onto all fours for a while, but is begining to try and move himself forwards now. He is still too wobbley when he only has three limbs on the ground to get far.... but soon he will strong enough.

Matthew seems to be thoroughly enjoying nursery, he is making friends and getting plenty of encouragement to build on new skills. He was already growing up fast, but now he is gaining his independance even more. I have settled back into the rouine at work, although I am very pleased to be able to see Matthew during the day when I go down to feed him. Being able to continue breastfeeding Matthew after all our initial problems is so special to me.

Matthew is constantly waking up in the morning, wet through, so I have spent the last few weeks trying out different nappies on him, to try and find a solution. I have never been able to use one of the 'big' brands of nappies on Matthew because he has an allergic reaction to them, I had been using the other 'big' brand name... and even these are leaking. I tried all the main supermarket brands, but I still didn't have something I could rely on. It had been my intention to use cloth nappies before Matthew was born, but I had never got round to investigating them, it now seemed like the ideal opportunity to make that effort: I had nothing to lose!

Karl's work is sending him away to Newcastle, this will probably be for four to six months. He is allowed to include the commute in his paid working time so we are lucky that he only needs to leave on Monday morning, and returns in time for tea on Friday evening, but during the week it will be just me and Matthew for a while. Matthew doesn't seem too bothered, he didn't miss his daddy during the week, but make a huge fuss of him when he got home on Friday.

Matthew is definitely teething: he has his first tooth, the bottom left incisor, and more are coming through. The first one didn't seem to botther him too much, but he has become very under the weather as the teething has continued. He has now got both bottom incisors and the first top one, but he also has a cold and some diarreah, and he isn't sleeping. As a result he has ended up getting himself in a terrible routine, not sleeping at nursery and then napping when he gets home until bedtime - when he wakes up! I ended up with him in my bed again for one night, it seemed to break the cycle and he has settled down again.

We have been practising a new trick to impress Daddy when he gets home from work this week: Matthew is begining to say "dada". He is also fully mobile now, from lying down he can get onto all fours, crawl, move to sitting, and then even pull himself upto standing. He can cruise, and is prefecting the use of a toddle truck!