I have put some survival tactics into place. Its probably God awful parenting but its saving my sanity a little bit at the moment.
He is amazing in what he can do. But god is it a nightmare! I do think its a reflection of his personality as much as his ability though. He is very determined and seems to be very like his father in being totally fearless (DH is a climber and kayaker). If he sees something he wants he WILL get it. This is usually everything he shouldn't have. Like cables. And he has a tendency to ignore them until the second I turn my back for 3 seconds. He was an easy newborn; I think he will more than make up for it as a toddler. That's not totally unexpected if I'm honest, but I wasn't planning on it so soon.
We had already invested in an Ikea gym mat as our living room floor is wood laminate and was adding to the stress, but its a bit small. So DH has got his climbing mats out and I've got a couple of cushions out too. Having a little protection from falls or banging heads whilst crawling or rolling is a god send. I've also dug out a bean bag which is saving my back no end. And he seems to like trying to climb it too.
He still has no interest in food which is stressing me out. So have decided to be a bit more relaxed about it and take a bit of a different approach. I'm still trying to give him his porridge in the morning, but I've also tried to give him a finger food snack too. The idea of giving him 'junk' is something I'm not entirely happy with, but its solid, he has to chew it, and it dissolves a bit in his mouth so its slightly less of an issue with choking.
First attempt this morning, he was a bit "What the heck is this?" and he did choke a little, but he I coped with it. I'd much rather do that then try full on BLW with food which is more solid. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm going to be fighting a loosing battle with purees, because of his personality - he seems to want to be in control - so until he has the fine motor control to feed himself better with a spoon its just going to end up a battle ground and a food explosion which neither of us will enjoy.
So I think we'll have to go down the BLW route whether we want to or not. In the meantime I think I will try and continue with an afternoon puree meal of veg or fruit to try and introduce flavours but without pressuring him or myself to actually eat any. I've reluctantly also bought some baby vitamin drops as I'm worried about him not eating solids, and the advice being 6 months based on the fact that iron and vitamin stores start to run out after that. At least that way he's getting something down his trap apart from breast milk.
I'm trying to stop expressing and given up given him bottles of expressed milk as he'd started refusing them anyway in preference of breast. Which is a bit of a pain in some ways (especially the timing with weaning and ideally wanting to be introducing drink from a bottle or cup), but I wasn't coping terribly well as it was taking too long and was turning into a nightmare with his mobility.
I've kind of made progress on the sleep front. He wouldn't sleep in the day anywhere but on me. But in the last couple of days I've managed to get him to go to sleep on the bed. The problem with this, is the only way I can do this is by lying down next to him with my face an inch from his and/or with his hands on my face or in my mouth. And this is now the only way he's going to sleep at night too. Not ideal. Especially not at 3am when he wakes up, panics, rolls over to try and find me (with his eyes closed) with zombie outstretched arms and claws me in the face. However since I can now actually leave him for a few minutes during the day, I think I'll take it! Its sweet, and to be fair, co-sleeping rather than spending all night trying to get him back into his cot is working better for us. DS will have to be in our room until he's two or three years old anyway, due to the layout of the house so its not a disaster. We just have to hope he grows out of it.
I think the sleep thing is a symptom of the start of separation anxiety though. He's not fairing well when I leave the room at the moment.
Cradle cap: DS did have it really bad. I removed it in the bath whilst in with him. I gentled massaged it in circles whilst wet with shampoo until it came away and gently pulled it off (DS is a baldy). It took a few sessions, but DS was totally unphased by it. Its not come back too much since.
Wraps: I think its another one of those things that it depends on the personality of your baby. I tried one with DS but he HATED it. He just hated being restricted. I should really try a hip wrap with it now he's a little bigger but with all his arm and leg waving I've not had the energy to try (and suspect it will be a disaster).
DH bought, a littlelife baby carrier instead, www.johnlewis.com/littlelife-ultralite-s3-back-child-carrier/p939263 which DS does seem to love though (not so good for around the house though). John Lewis are out of stock at the moment. I think this is down to them selling it for about £20 less then everywhere else!
Sorry, that was a bit long than I intended. DS is asleep and I'm just enjoying the peace for once.