A day of firsts

Today Isaac has: eaten his first proper little bowl of food (rather than tasting from the end of my spoon), done a 110° turn in his cot and grabbed (and munched on) his feet. He's been a very busy little fellow, what with his almost non-stop wiggling, and now 3 new things to add to his infant repertoire!

All towels have been removed from the cot bed. It's just him, his blanket and his sleeping bag. I thought he might wake up if he couldn't pull the blanket down over his face, but he seems to manage it wherever! Bless him. It was such a surprise for me to see him at an unfamiliar angle in there. He wiggles the most in his sleep I reckon.

The feet thing was hilarious, for both of us. I was changing his nappy and momentarily looked away to put the used nappy in the bag. I heard a squeal of laughter & looked back to see him grinning like nobody's business with his sock clad toes in his mouth! He now seems to know that those weird things that Mummy puts colourful things on are actually part of his own anatomy.

Coming up on Eating News: banana, but first a little background surrounding The Weaning. I took him to clinic to get him weighed on Thursday last week and he had lost 3oz :-( I was surprised at the time, but thinking about it now, I'm not. Since he's been sleeping through the night he hasn't been having any extra feeds during the day and he hasn't increased the duration of his current feeds either. Since last Thursday I've been giving him an extra feed before bed, which he would usually refuse, but he's been quite happily chowing down so we'll stick with that methinks. A suggestion was made a few weeks ago by HV to wean him around now. Since then she's relaxed about the issue as she's seen that I'm really not worried about him & that (other than not conforming to WHO weight gain charts) he's quite a happy wee wiggler. Anyhoo, at my baby group on Friday last week she mentioned it again to see if it would help him gain weight. He's been getting much more interested in food/eating over the past week or so (to the point where I have to put my bowl in the middle of the table almost so that he doesn't get his fingers in my dinner! Not that I mind, but babies aren't supposed to have anything with added salt so grown up food is a no-no right now.) He's displaying other signs that he's ready, such as not seeming satisfied after every feed, putting everything in his mouth etc, which makes me more confident that weaning is a good idea rather than forcing it on him before he's ready just to fit the "norm".  I've been dutifully expressing each night for about a week to build up a stock of freezer milk to add to food to make it the right consistency for Mr Man. It's actually convenient (weaning wise) that I only get 1 oz a time because then I can easily freeze small amounts. I'd still like to be able to express lots for emergencies, but hey.

Today I took the plunge and, after his first feed, gave him a very small  mashed up piece of banana (about 1/6th) mixed with some breast milk. He. Totally. Loved. It. So much so that I gave him some more after his 3 o'clockish feed - scoffed the lot. He was wise to the spoon by this afternoon and wanted to hold it himself. I'm all for baby-led weaning, but I might leave that until A) he can sit up and thus not choke, and B) until I have more bibs and some sort of floor protection!! So I've made a list of items to purchase after payday to help us on our way. We've already got blenders/whizzers/wands etc so that expense has been spared. What we really needs are...spoons, BIBS! with plastic backing, wee pots/ice cube trays & tubs and some non-slip bottomed bowls (for the baby-led business). The NCT weaning lady also said that teaching them to use a cup early on rather than the spouty things is better so I'm investigating doidy cups.

He really does seem to love it. While I'm really pleased that our first foray into solid food has gone well, I can't help but be sad that this is the beginning of the end of breastfeeding. It was tedious at first, but I think I'm really going miss it. It's afforded us such beautiful quiet time *sigh* won't be long until he's eating family food with us. As goes the cliché - how fast they grow! Or maybe I'm just having too much fun?

Out of the pram and into the cot etc

Isaac slept in his cot for the first time on Tuesday. It was very exciting for me! He had his last nap in there & then slept the whole night through! Dad and I constructed a bed tent between us.

 

I wanted to do this to help him with the transition from pram to cot bed and to reduce the enormity of our room for him. He seems to like it in there and it's working so far. He continued his streak of through-the-night sleeping until last night when he woke up at 1.30am which makes it 9 consecutive nights.The towels will be removed gradually so that he has more room to move about. I think he likes the restriction for now. It was only about a month ago that we stopped swaddling him, again because he told us that he didn't want it anymore.

So...the erroneous night-wake of last night: the poor wee mite was screaming at the top of his little lungs because his eyes were glued together with Gunk - 2nd attack of the conjunctivitis methinks (apparently acquired from youngest step-sister from her half brother). How terrifying it must be to wake up and not be able to open your eyes! I didn't want to have to go to the doctors for more drops again because I know tears often clear it and so decided then and there to see how things went. I cleaned The Gunk from his eyes, fed him & put him back to sleep & there he stayed until 7am. I was fully expecting to be woken again several times with Gunk-related issues, but no! The Gunk has mysteriously vanished! Go self healing! I think that if it weren't for The Gunk then he would've slept through again last night. He's not doing so well with going off to sleep tonight, but I think that's more to do with lack of naps today and the excitement of eldest step-sister's 6th birthday tea. There's a fair bit of noise about the house while Dad fixes our stupid doors, but it's only a temporary measure and worth the end benefit of not-stupid-anymore doors. Let's hope his routine isn't compromised permanently.

I was thinking today about things I don't like about caring for a baby. The single thing I can think of is essential and so easy that you take it for granted as an adult. The task in question is: cutting nails. Seriously - it's a nightmare and I put it off until I can't stand the scraping at my breasts during feeds any longer. The first time I did it I managed to pinch his skin terribly making him scream until he had boob. Since that awful introduction to the world of baby nail cutting I live in fear that I'll actually cut him. I'm so careful when I do it and often take the clippers away from his nail & reposition it to make doubly sure I've got nail. He's recently decided it's fun to hit my nail cutting hand with his free hand while I'm doing the deed; all well and good until someone loses some skin young man! Each successful clip is a mini victory. I used to nibble them off when he was smaller, but that just leaves sharp bits now & hurt even more that long nails when he grabs at my breasts during feeds.

I can't believe he's almost 5 months old! The time really does fly. Weaning is under way in our NCT group, but I'm not rushing into anything just yet. He's starting to be much more interested in food, but I'm waiting for grabbing. He has found his knee to be an object of fun and spends quality time each day slapping it. He tries to do this in the bath as well, but ends up splashing instead, which I suppose is consequential when slapping a knee immersed in water. He quite likes this, well, doesn't dislike it any. Still isn't a fan of hair washing though, not even with warmed up shampoo.

Sleep news!

After waking only once in the night at roughly 4am for about a week, Isaac has now slept through for the last 4 nights in a row!

HOOOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! This momentous occasion has been duly recorded in his My Baby Book :-D

Ner to HV who said BF babies don't usually ever sleep through until they're weaned. It does mean my boobs are like rocks by 7am! We haven't done anything special - usual routine etc. He seems to have come to this on his own. He's also seemingly reducing the number of daytime naps he takes from about 5 to 3 or 4 depending on what we do during the day. He now usually has at least 1 2 hour nap, but varies which in which nap slot (i.e.: morning, lunch time or afternoon) it falls. I can't tell you how pleased I am that he naps regularly now, and for longer than 10 minutes. I was worried that he would become sleep deprived. The best tactic for parental sanity is to not get used to it, or expect it, because then there isn't any disappointment if he does wake in the night. As it is, it's great that he is sleeping through!

We had planned to move the cot bed into our room this week & "um"ed and "ah"ed about going ahead with the plan since he started to sleep through (didn't want to tempt fate!), but did it anyway a few days ago and are making gradual changes to his sleeping arrangements to complete Operation Transfer. The first change we made was putting his pram thing in the cot to get him used to the different perspective. Next we made stopped tying his pram blanket around him, instead we lay him on top of it (so he can still pull it down over his eyes- cos he likes that) and put him in a sleeping bag. That seems to work successfully, but when I put him to bed I have to "tuck him in" as it were; he's used to me tying the pram blanket, which I obviously don't have to do with the sleeping bag, so instead I straighten his blanket out & give his tummy a little rub & say good night etc before leaving the room. He seems to like this & it replaces the blanket tying quite effectively. The last time we tried him in a sleeping bag it was a  complete disaster so we're very pleased that he's taken to it this time.

The latest change has been that I only put the pram hood up one notch, rather than the two to extend it fully. I'm contemplating making a hood for his cot bed, for two reasons. 1) He's used to it in the pram thing & 2) our room is very big & possibly a bit much for such a small little Wiggler who is still, in the grand scheme of things, not long out of the womb. It would be something like the Ikea bed tent (pictured left) and would, I imagine, make his space a little cosier, plus mute the light from above the door (stupid 70s glass panels).

When the time comes to take him out of the pram thing completely we're going to move the pram blanket with him so that he has something familiar in there with him. I have plans to make a larger version of the blanket if necessary because he loves it so very much it does what he needs  effectively. I think we'll put some stuff around him too, so that he isn't overwhelmed by the amount of space he's got & reduce it in stages. I'm sure he'll be Wiggling around all over the mattress in no time!

Our Little Man is quite amazing. He's leading the way with his sleeping & eating. I thought I wouldn't have a clue, which I didn't really at first, but now I know my son (my son! still sounds strange) more I'm happy to follow his lead. I'm still quite gutted that the co-sleeping didn't work out for us. He does like his own space at night. We do have a little bit of bed time - I bring him in bed with me when he wakes up and he has his morning feed lying down next to me. It's lovely all snuggled up together :-) I'm enjoying that while it lasts because I know it won't be for much longer. I can see why people want more babies, they're kind of addictive and you forget the first 3 months pretty much as soon as they're over!

Anyhoo. That is our big news. I can't stop grinning like the proud Mummy that I am :-D