On Tuesday night, for the first time in more than 18 months, I had 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. As Roj said, it was like staying in a hotel. Amazing. We've also had two nights where Miles woke and whimpered but went back to sleep himself, and one where Roj had to spend 5 minutes calming him back to sleep at about 5:30am, so on the whole, progress is good.

It's very weird without Jody. I took the kids out to Cotswold Wildlife Park on Tuesday to meet my mum and drop Jody off until the weekend. We had a nice day but I got back late afternoon to a very quiet and empty house. I've since been reminding myself of how to entertain a 16-month-old since he's usually obliged to play along with whatever Jody's doing. It's very strange to feel like you only have one child again. A completely different kettle of fish.

Jody's having a lovely time though. I'm sure she's being completely spoilt up in Shropshire but then that's the grandparents' prerogative isn't it? It's got to be sheer Jody-heaven to have two adults (and more) focused solely on her all day long.

Our flat completion has been postponed again. The vendor requested a completion date in mid-January, then late October and now it's back to mid-January again. Which is a shame because it means we won't move in until mid-February which seems an age away. We're fed up with her changing the plot all the time, but in a position of zero power in the negotiations, we just have to swallow our tongues and wait for that elusive exchange to happen.

We're off to Shropshire this weekend where we're braving the Long Mynd for some mountain biking (the first since December), and back to London overnight before we fly out to Monaco and Sardinia next week. I'm quite looking forward to the holiday though it seems like there's a heap of things to do beforehand and not enough time to pack. When I get there I'll relax and enjoy it, I'm sure.

I'm trying to make progress on my French course while Jody's away. I had a 1.5 hour stint yesterday and am hoping for the same today and tomorrow. I'm getting quite intimidated at the prospect of the approaching exam though, particularly since bad timing means that I'm out of the country for my last two tutorials. I'm hoping to tune in from France for the last one, but who knows what French broadband is like.

The last 3 nights have gone quite well with Miles. Thursday night was another all-nighter, as was Friday with the exception of him waking at 5:30am wanting breakfast. Last night wasn't so good, with 15 minutes of him screaming in his bedroom at 2:40 as Roj tried to coax him to sleep, followed by an hour downstairs on the sofa with me, but there was no feeding and no apparent desire for feeding, so it's still progress in my book.

Also progress being made on the physical front since yesterday was the first day I saw Miles stand autonomously. Granted it was only for a few seconds as he let go of the dishwasher, but he repeated it a couple of times this morning to prove it wasn't a fluke. At this rate he might yet be walking by the end of the year!

I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone. It seems like only last week that we were moving house and Jody was finishing term at her nursery. I don't seem to have done anything momentous but each week has ticked quickly by and been filled with playdates and outdoor time. Now there's just next week (Jody will be staying with my parents and I will be avidly trying to complete my French coursework), and the bank holiday weekend (mountain biking in Shropshire), before we head off to Monaco for 3 days and Sardinia for a week with Sonia & family.. The day after we get back, term starts again for Jody and I start the new regime of toddler groups and swimming lessons for Miles.

It's also noticeable how much cooler it's become these last couple of weeks, and darker in the evenings. We're closing the curtains in our sitting room at 8pm now and I know that when we come back from our holiday it'll be even more evident. The kids have grown out of all their long-sleeved and long-legged clothes so it's back to Gap to stock up for the Autumn.

As for what autumn will bring us, there are several things in the pipeline, not least of which is the evasive flat purchase. The vendor is procrastinating over the completion date. We've been assured that she'll definitely sell, but the fact that the exchange has already taken 7 weeks longer than agreed is not reassuring. My mind is already turning to alternatives should the sale fall through (again). I'm even contemplating a move out of the area, though that hinges on other unknown factors that should reveal themselves in the next few months.

For the time being though, am still trying to keep my optimism alive for the flat. Need to buy another bottle of champagne for the fridge, since we drank the last bottle for fear it would go off before we got to exchange. Have started accumulating kitchen catalogues this weekend. It's fun to look but impossible to focus without confirmation. Fingers remain crossed.

The weirdest thing happened yesterday with Miles. I got dressed to go running before putting him to bed, since I was meeting Toria at 7:30pm. But as soon as I was in my running kit (which isn't weird I promise - just a t-shirt and shorts), he started whimpering in fear. He pulled this face like I was some kind of horrible monster and couldn't get away from me quick enough. I couldn't work out what was wrong. First I thought he didn't like me putting him to bed before Jody, since he's used to sitting in on Jody's stories and songs, but even when I tried to do that, he sat far away from me and started to whimper again if I went near him. Roj came home just after 7 and picked him up and when I went over he clung onto Roj for dear life, turning his head away from me. He really was absolutely terrified. Only after about 15 minutes of this did I realise that he didn't like something about my clothes, so I finally changed back into my jeans and went to him and he couldn't jump up into my arms quick enough. How bizarre is that? It's terrifying to have your baby afraid of you though. I was quite upset about it until I worked out what it was.

The run was great. Toria and I spent the entire 40 minutes chatting away and hardly noticed the ground we were covering. I'm aching a bit today but not as much as I thought I'd be. We've resolved to try and do it once a week and perhaps once again at the weekend (with another running mum) if the husbands' timetables allow. We even ventured up Primrose Hill to mix up the terrain a bit, and it was quite nostalgic to get onto my old training ground, though I'm a long way from managing a marathon, on or off road.

That said, Yi Shun has invited me to join her on the Austrian iron-man in August next year and I'm sort of tempted. Actually I'm very tempted but I have to calculate whether it's in the least bit feasible since it will require a fairly heavy training regime. I might be better setting my sights on something more achievable (like a 10k or something!) but it's tantalising to have a carrot waved in front of me like that.

The progress with Miles's sleeping has been somewhat mixed. On Tuesday night he didn't wake up at all between the hours of 7:15pm and 6:45am (when Roj woke him), which is the first time he's ever done such a long stint. I thought he'd cracked it but last night he reverted to a less desirable 2:15am waking. I let him whinge for around 15 minutes but since he was showing no sign of relenting I took him downstairs to calm down in front of the telly. An hour later he was gently dozing but woke again screaming when I tried to put him into bed. We left him for another 12 minutes and eventually he succumbed to sleep when Roj went in to stroke his back. Since he's used to feeding in these early hours, it's not good therapy for him to have me go in there and refuse him. I hate to make Roj do the dirty work when he has to go to work in the mornings, but it might be the best technique to get Miles realising that the midnight feasts are over.

Great big congratulations to Dave and Octavia on the birth of little Iona on Monday. Oc's labour was exactly the same length as mine with Jody (i.e. short), so I'm guessing they're feeling about as gobsmacked as we were in those first few days. I'm so excited for them though. Seeing the newborn pics really reminds me of those first surreal amazing hours with Jody. Good luck to them both. I hope they enjoy every second.

I bit the bullet last night after a heart-to-heart with Sabine yesterday afternoon about last children and sleep habits. Since moving Miles to Jody's bedroom he's been waking 2 or 3 times most nights and I just felt I was making backward steps. Sitting there complaining to Sabine (who's youngest is a mere month old and waking not much more than Miles) about lacking the energy to do any big projects over the summer, and hearing her tell me that Miles is in control, was the push I needed to attempt to let Miles cry it out during the night. My philosophy stayed the same though - I wasn't going to leave him crying for more than 15 minutes because each 60 seconds is like 10 minutes of sheer torture, but I stuck with my resolve and to my utter surprise, it paid off. He woke twice in the night and cried (in anger and frustration) for less than 10 minutes a time, and funnily enough (although he's done this before so I shouldn't be surprised), he went from fever pitch one second to absolute silence the next. There was no winding down; he just stopped as if someone had flicked a switch. Weird.

Anyway the upshot is that I feel very tired this morning. I know that doesn't make sense but this is something I constantly find - that once the pressure is off and the expectation of getting up several times a night vanishes, my body suddenly realises just how tired it really is. I mustn't rest on my laurels either because one successful night means nothing in the long run, but I'm resolving to be strong and ignore the temptation to go in and reassure him. The payoff will be phenomenal.

Toria and I are also planning our first run this week, which is another big change for me. The chance (and energy) to regularly exercise is something I really miss nowadays. I managed to get back to it inbetween kids, but I've done hardly anything since Miles was born and I can't wait to get back to feeling fit and strong rather than exhausted and lethargic. It'll be a long process but a worthwhile one; I refuse to think that my days of exercise and competition are over.

Our neighbour came round on Wednesday afternoon to introduce herself. But only after she revealed that the real reason for her visit was to complain that Miles's screaming was waking them up in the early hours of the morning and wearing them out and please could I do something about it.

I said I'd speak to Miles and ask him to cry at a more convenient time.

I do feel for them - it can't be easy to live next to a family with young kids - but it doesn't exactly make me feel comfortable and what, exactly, does she expect me to do about it? I have to assume that she never had any children because of the patronising way she said "I know screaming is what babies do, but he's so loud isn't he?" and, (as Jody accidentally pushed the door up against him causing him to whinge) "There, you see!" as if her point was entirely proven by a single little whimper.

I'm not really the type to be confrontational and obnoxious though (not often, anyway!); more the type who snarls in outrage behind closed doors, but I'm now jumping out of bed at the meerest hint of noise from Miles, at exactly the time when I want to be leaving him alone in the hope that he might get himself back to sleep. I laboriously took apart beds and cots yesterday to swap him over to Jody's bedroom which backs onto offices rather than snotty neighbours' bedrooms, but that just means further disruption to him (he hates new environments) and the need for me to feed him while sitting on the floor in his bedroom, rather than comfortably dozing as he lies next to me in bed. I'm quite annoyed (if you couldn't guess) but at the same time I know how exhausted Roj and I are from Miles's night-time waking so I can (through the haze of umbrage) see their point.

All the more reason to hope to move out of here into the Montagu Square flat as soon as possible, though no further news on that score.

Toria and I have decided to start running. For the best reason in the world she opted out of our first run last night but we hope after the false start to get into a routine from next week. My hope is that motivation from a mum who is under exactly the same pressures will help me get back on track. It's been 11 months since I last went running and though my lifestyle is far from sedentary, my cardio fitness must be approaching nil. Roj suggested that I have a fitness test (a real one, with lactate testing and all that), and then another when I've been training for a year or so, to enable me to see the difference between where I like to be and where I am now (rock bottom). I don't know if I can cope with what it might tell me but I've told him I'll do it if he does!

I don't expect great results from the running. I think even twice a week is being optimistic, unless Miles suddenly improves his sleep-pattern. I was very tempted when next year's London Marathon application form came through my door a few weeks ago, but too many times have I had to back out of events through lack of readiness. This time I'm going to wait until I'm ready and then apply. Give it 5 years!

Roj is off on a stag all day this Saturday, leaving me to take Jody and Miles to a 3-year-old party half an hour away. I should be much less disappointed than I am, but summer holidays mean I depend on those weekend days for a break much more than during term time. Thank goodness my parents have been kind enough to offer to take Jody off my hands for a few days later this month. At this rate though, I'll have to use every second to finish my French coursework since I've done s.f.a. since completing the last assessment and time is swiftly running out. And here was me expecting to be able to catch up during the holidays. Ha!

Sardinia is all booked. Phew. We had to re-think travel though, since the ferry we originally wanted from Genoa to Olbia had no accommodation available in either direction. Unwilling to put ourselves through two 9-hour night ferries with nowhere for the kids to sleep, we settled for a more broken up approach which gets us from Nice to Corsica and then Corsica to Sardinia in not much more time than the original.

Sonia has been supremely organised as usual and booked our apartments in Sardinia after we'd had several hours of unsuccessful searching. We think the Italian rates are much better than the British because we're only paying 450 Euros for a 3-star apartment each. It'll be interesting to see what it's like but it's apparently right next to a beautiful beach so who cares? It's not like we're going to spend much time loitering inside.

Suffered from insomnia on Sunday night after I woke to feed Miles at 3:50. Went back to sleep for 45 minutes at 6:40 after Roj had taken the kids down for breakfast. It always amazes me how I can suffer from insomnia when I'm getting so little sleep in the first place, but I get ideas into my head about certain things and can't relax until I've mulled over them for as long as humanly possible, or spent time faffing at the computer as dawn breaks. Or both. Agh.

By contrast, didn't have to get up at all on Monday night. Miles woke at about 2, whinged without conviction, and went back to sleep again. Apparently he did the same at about 6am but I didn't even stir. It's the closest we've come to him sleeping through the night. Just as you think you're onto a good thing though, this morning Jody wakes up at 5:15 and comes into our bedroom waking Miles in the process, despite the acquisition of a bunny alarm clock which is supposed to tell her when it's morning. Very frustrating when you've already had a fairly sleepless and agitated night. And the worst of it is that you know you'll all be suffering the consequences for the whole day.

Yesterday we had a bit of drama in the playground in the morning. I've just started doing a section of climbing frame with Jody that she's only been doing with Roj for the past few weeks since you have to be right there to watch her. She climbs up a convex climbing wall about 7 feet high, reaches for a bar over her head about 2 feet away and lowers herself down from that onto a plastic seat-thing below. Just as I was moving from the base of the climbing wall round to the other side of it to spot the second half of this activity, Jody reaches for the bar, misses, and somersaults head first down the 9 feet or so to the ground. Luckily she was completely unhurt barring a small bruise on her side, but it was certainly a big shock to the system (hers and mine). She's always been adventurous and fearless but it was a sharp reminder that the things she does competently are often things designed for much older kids. Miles needs a lot of watching in the playground right now since he has no concept of danger but likes to test his physical skills, so it's difficult to be in two places at one time. And even when you're right there, the accident might happen in the moment that you're more than an arm's length away, as it did this time. It's a wonder any of us make it beyond childhood.

I've noticed recently that Miles seems to have abandoned the thumb-sucking since his teeth came in. He was a very avid thumb sucker in earlier days, to the extent that Roj worried he might do it well into his school years (as Roj did himself), but he seems to have weaned himself of the habit entirely. Very convenient. And on the subject of weaning, he's also taken very well this last week to a cup of milk in the afternoons instead of boob. Jody was never a big fan of milk and to this day doesn't drink more than a few measly sips, so I was very surprised to see Miles slurping so merrily (particularly as he hadn't been interested in milk in either a bottle or the different sippy cups I've tried over the last couple of months). Just shows you that cup selection can be paramount.

Got my French assessment mark through yesterday and was pleased with the result. My 4 assessment marks are all within 5% of each other, which proves I'm consistent. I'm expecting to lose a little over my exam, since it's in a much more spontaneous format, but so far I'm very pleased with progress. It's a bit of a chore at times when I get very behind, but I've made big progress this last year (thanks in big part to Sabine, admittedly), and I intend to continue when I can. It's nice to have something to focus on outside of sippy cups and playground falls!

Phew. French assessment all done and dusted. I'm less certain than I've ever been about the quality of this one but at a certain point you just have to stop working at it and send it in. Particularly when you're already pushing the deadline. Now I just have a whole heap of coursework, some revision and the exam between now and the end of September. Which suddenly doesn't seem all that far away. Eek.

The vendor of the Montagu Square flat has seen fit to change her mind again. Having agreed a mid-January completion date that enabled us to go into long-term rental (rather than expensive short-term), she has now reneged on that agreement and decided that the end of October would suit her better. Which means that we'll be paying both mortgage and rental for two months until the break clause comes into effect here. On the one hand we're furious that the silly woman has messed us around yet again, but on the other we'll be very glad to see the back of her and calculate that we're only losing out by one month, since we would want the flat empty for a few weeks anyway to get the new kitchen sorted out. And in fact if we stuck to the original mid-January moving date, adding that month onto the end of it would mean that we wouldn't move in until mid-February so this way - if the kitchen is done in November - we'll be in a whole 2.5 months sooner. Which is worth doubling up on rent/mortgage for a month.

Of course the exchange has not yet occurred but we received the final paperwork to look over yesterday so it should honestly happen either this week or early next. At some point I want to go back over my blog from the last 2 years and count how many times I've written that phrase. Hundreds or thousands?

Summer holidays are progressing. Good friends are going on long holidays overseas and I'm racking my brain for ideas to keep the kids entertained. I don't think the usual rotation of park playgrounds is going to cut it. We're getting anxious that our trip to Sardinia might not come off, as the whole island appears to be completely booked up during our preferred week. Personally I'd be gutted not to see Sonia and the girls one last time before they hop it back to Australia, but a week on the Côte d'Azur would be small recompense.

Miles seems to have regressed to babydom these last few days. Roj complained at the weekend that he's a little whinger and I'm perpetuating it by treating him like a baby when really he's (nearly) a toddler. He reckons I'm wrapping him in cotton wool because he's my last baby (never say never) and I'm - consciously or not - trying to prolong that cuddly, cute, soft phase and not teaching him new ways of being comforted other than to breastfeed on demand. Well OK he has a point. Miles is much more dependent and keener on breastfeeding than Jody ever was. By this stage with her, I was just doing one feed a day at bedtime and when it came time to wean, it happened without a hitch. Miles on the other hand, claims it as his right several times a day and while he doesn't grab at me and scream for it, he gets whingy and agitated and it's true that I haven't experimented with other methods to calm him down; I've always taken the easy route. While I know he's not ready to wean yet and neither am I, I also know that I'm not going to feed him forever and I've caught myself recently being impatient with the whole ordeal and looking to a time where I might not be so much at his beck and call. And last night was a case in point: A good meal at 6:30 followed by his bedtime feed at 7:15 but then two nightime wakings at 11:30 and 3:30. I can only believe it's the habit of being fed at night because I'm positive he's receiving enough nosh in the day to keep him going (he's not exactly emaciated), but how on earth do I break it? He's just not one of these babies who are receptive to 'crying it out' and only gets wilder and more anguished with each minute that passes. I'm not entirely immune to that way of thinking - we successfully got Jody to sleep happily without us by using the technique over about a week and never left her crying for more than my ultimate threshold of 15 minutes. But with Miles it's different. He just doesn't calm down. I've done 15 minute stints and he gets progressively worse. So I don't know how to handle it. I don't want to impose anything on him that makes him feel insecure but nor do I want to be running into his bedroom in the middle of the night when he's 7 because he never got used to sleeping through the night. Oh the trials and tribulations!

At some point I need to catch up on all the correspondence I've been ignoring the last few weeks. I'm so behind on everything it feels like I'll never get ahead. Roj says I'm just the sort of person who likes to perpetually operate under several feet of pending tasks. Maybe he's right.

Enormous congratulations to Jennifer for the birth of Ethan's baby brother on Monday. Haven't heard details but he certainly looks cute.