Work has been crazy busy recently, so it seemed like a good time to re-charge and take a break. I agreed with my client that I'd take 2 weeks off over Christmas and was looking forward to this break for a number of reasons. It was our first Christmas together as a family, we've finally bought a new Car which is big enough for the four of us and all our assorted baby paraphernalia to allow us to go away for more than a single day and I was looking forward to relaxing with Tash and the babies. We had also planned to make quite a few changes to the babies routine in order to try and get them sleeping more solidly through the night.
It has been lovely spending so much time with the babies, seeing with them round the clock I noticed how visible their day-to-day development is. Both Luca and Finn have started to chatter and babble and are so funny to listen to. Luca has also figured out how to roll from front to back, although can't yet do it consistently. And Finn has found a love for the Jumperoo and goes quite mad when he gets in it!
Going home was a mission, I don't think either Tash or I could really believe how much stuff two babies need just to go away for a few days. Fortunately the new car had just about enough room for everything we needed. It was great catching up with family though and we really appreciated everyone's willingness to muck in and help with baby feeding and entertaining. Tash's brother Ben has been living in Cambodia recently and came back for Christmas, he hadn't met the twins yet so it was great for them to get to meet their other Uncle. We were also lucky enough to catch up with Phil Cox and Ben Knighton and it was great for the littluns to meet them too.
When we got back home we instigated quite a few changes to the twins' bedtime routine. We moved them from our room in to the nursery, stopped swaddling them and started trying to reduce their reliance on dummies at night. The net result of these changes was several nights with awful sleep and a few more where I ended up sleeping on the nursery room floor in a sleeping bag as it seemed easier than traipsing down the hall every 5 minutes to settle them... Things didn't really improve from there and we have now regressed somewhat. They're now back in our room and Finn is back in his swaddle. We are however making progress as they're starting to sleep a little more reliably and we're having much more luck at not using dummies... One step forward two steps back I suppose!
I've had a great break, but it has been exhausting. I don't think either of us anticipated how much the travel and exposure to so many new places and faces would exhaust the twins. They both got really knackered as a result and their sleep was worse than usual. Having said that it felt really freeing to be able to leave London for more than a day and the new car is ace - so glad I finally found what I was after!
I went back to work this Monday, I was so tired that I felt like I was on another planet while I was bumbling around the flat getting ready. Fortunately the morning cycle and a few cups of strong Tea sorted me right out! Having a break has clearly done me good as I'm feeling really focussed on getting the team to address some of our more debilitating technical debt items so we can take then build the next sections of our deployment pipeline. Exciting stuff ahead!
EdD