Random words

I said I'd write about Isaac in my last post, but I haven't posted anything since 6th April. With it now being 24th April I decided it was high time I pulled my finger out & wrote! Some of the delay can be blamed on our unplanned "extra holiday" in Spain owing to a certain Icelandic volcano and its ash emissions. We should've been home on the afternoon of 18th April, but made it back on the night of 22nd instead. Isaac was a little star the whole time. He really is a placid little thing. He made lots of friends on holiday and took the travelling (flights & hideous coach journeys) in his stride and didn't seem upset at all by the time change. It was only an hour - we'll see how he fares next month when we go to Florida. I'm sure he'll be fine. How can he not be? He's perfect :-) Having travelled a 20 hour coach journey with him has made me realise - we can do anything.

Before our [dreaded] holiday I kept a note of Isaac-related things I wanted to write about in my Isaac-related post and now I sit down to write it, they don't really make any sense - just words on paper: hair, solids, sleeping, clothes, interested and nappies. Hmm. I'm sure they all made perfect sense when I wrote them! So much has scrambled my brain over the past week that I'm just going to have to hazard a guess as to what each meant.

Hair - it can't be my hair because I wrote about that already in my last post. Isaac's hair is lovely. It's so soft and fluffy. He's developing a little mohawk that makes it's best appearance when he wakes up from his night sleep. His slightly frightening baby mullet that emerged from the womb with him has now gone and he has the perfect little boy do right now. I'm just going to let it grow I think, see where that takes us.

Solids - yes, he eats them. What did I mean?? Hmm. I guess he eats a lot more now than he used to (!) ? He isn't a huge fan of the baby led weaning and seems to want the food in his mouth RIGHT NOW! Hungry boy. Purée/mashing it is. Who am I to argue? The kid knows what he wants. I'm finding myself up against a brick wall with vegan weaning. At a recent weigh-in, when questioned about what to give him, the weighing HV said "well you're more qualified than me to say really". Thanks for your complete and unwavering help and advice. I feel so...supported. Back to the drawing board with that one. All suggestions gratefully received!

Sleeping - since the commencement of solid food, Isaac hasn't been sleeping through the night. We've had one or two nights of uninterrupted sleep, but otherwise he sleeps from around 7pm until between 1am & 4am, has a nappy change & a feed & then goes back to sleep until just before 7am. I still think we're incredibly lucky that he doesn't wake more often.

Clothes - he's still in 3 - 6 months sized clothing. See, he's very long, but not very wide. He's not a porker by any stretch of the imagination. The 3-6 month bottoms are so loose around his little waist, they'll do him for a while methinks. It's a good job summer is on the way (or are we having it now?) so that I can pass short trousers off as 3/4 lengths or turn them up into shorts. I'd love to know from where the basis for children's clothing sizes comes as I know a few other babies who find clothing too big for the size.

What is this noise machine??

Interested - Isaac is so much more interested in everything around him now! It's so lovely to watch. He still isn't overly fussed with toys, preferring household objects - measuring cups, pegs, his monitor (the parent unit), the telephone (he's particularly taken with speaker phone!) He does love his little jangly bell froggy and his cuddly squeaky dog. His little face lights up and he does this amazingly cute little grab and grin when I pull it out of my bag :-D He also LOVES Rinny. She's always doing something so he always has something to watch. He very much enjoys our play time with her which consists of *me throwing the ball for her & her chasing after it & bringing it back, (rep from * until someone gets bored). He can watch this for a very long time!

Nappies - I know this one! He's finally moved up a nappy size! Woohoo! I don't know why I'm so pleased, I suppose it's physical evidence that's he's gaining weight and growing. So, we're now on size 3 Bambo Nature nappies! Just before we changed sizes, his other ones still fit him, but leaked a couple of times so we decided to move up a size and it's all going swimmingly.

While I've been writing the above I've made a mental note of some more I'd like to add: weight, smile, character, squeal.

Weight - at the last weigh in he was 12lbs exactly. Now, that's still about 3lbs under any kind of "normal" on the breastfed baby chart in his red book, but seriously. Who cares? He's healthy and happy. I could understand the need for concern if he was all skin and bone and wasn't himself, but he is. So. I see nothing wrong with him being the weight he is. HV comments are like water off a ducks back now. In one and out t'other.

Smile - he's beautiful enough already without him smiling, but when he does, oh boy. I melt. My face explodes into a super smile and I feel so overwhelmingly full of happiness and complete adoration for my little Wiggler. He smiles. A lot. He even smiles when you can tell he's tired or not feeling so great, only not for as long.

Character - our Little Man is such a character. Over the past few days I've noticed his personality start to come out. I'm looking forward to seeing more of it!

 Squeal - he's developed a sort of squeal that goes so high pitched it becomes silent. It's not a bad thing, just something he does. Right now I have some sort of throat thing so I can join in the disappearing squeal making!

Here ends the random wordage.

Ok. One more. Maybe two.

Own room.

I put the blackout blind up today and Isaac has gone to bed in his own room tonight for the first time. I'm looking forward to going to bed in our room and having a little read before I turn the light out. Honest. I'm very sad that he's not in there with us anymore. In-fact, I'm a bit downhearted that he's gone, but we were disturbing him when we came to bed and discovered he sleeps better on his own while we were on holiday. *sigh* Our room feels much emptier now, although there are actually more pieces of furniture in it now we've swapped his cot for our chest of drawers etc.

And now for the final two. Promise.

Separation anxiety.

Little Man loves his Mama.

7 months a mother

Forgive my lack of posts, sleeping has been somewhat erratic recently. The clocks changed and it all went wrong. We're back to newborn uncertainty! Seems that bathing before bed  works a treat so we'll continue in this manner every night & see how it goes.

This post is a purely selfish waffle. I'm writing about me. Isaac's development will follow in due course. So anyhoo. I've been a mother for 7 months now. Some things I wasn't expecting have happened, well quite a few of those, but the main ones are: random hair and losing weight.

While my belly isn't this flat, my jeans were about this much too big

Regarding the weight loss. I was under the impression that, when one had a baby, one lost control of ones stomach muscles and got fat. I believed as much because there is a multitude of products available to "help you get your pre-baby body back" - exercise DVDs (Cindy Crawford springs to mind), diets, creams, therapies etc. I'll admit to being a little concerned by all this. My weight had crept up to an unacceptable (for me) level before I was pregnant and I really didn't want to get any bigger thank you very much. You can imagine my surprise, then, when the weight started to drop off before my very eyes. Within 2 weeks I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight and dress size. 7 months on I am exactly 2 stone lighter and 2 dress sizes smaller (on the bottom and 1 on top) when compared with pre-pregnancy figures. Needless to say I am delighted for several reasons. 1) I've lost the weight that's been steadily creeping on since my teens. 2) I didn't have to do anything to achieve said loss. 3) I had to go shopping to buy clothes that didn't fall off! It's lovely to be able to shop for clothes in the regular section of stores rather than the plus size bit, something I haven't been able to do for years now. Anyway, I feel great - I just hope it doesn't all come piling back on when the breastfeeding stops.

The Hair, nothing freaky don't worry. At about 4 months pregnant I noticed that I lost a small patch of hair at the front of my scalp. I didn't think anything of it & assumed it was part of the ageing process. Didn't even cross my mind that the raging hormones in my body might be responsible! I looked in the mirror the other day and, lo & behold, it's growing back! This I was not expecting. I was reminded of when I was about 8 or 9 and fed up with the same missing wispy bits of hair. In my infinite wisdom I decided to chop them off so that they weren't there any more. What I didn't realise, and what Mum told me (while smirking) would happen was that the hair would grow back giving me a temporary and horrific mini-fringe. Here I am at the ripe old age of 28, feeling the frustration of a 9 year old, only it's not self inflicted this time.

I've already had the freaky hair loss in the shower thing. I'll explain...I don't brush my hair apart from when I wash it so the way I keep tabs on hair happenings is the amount that comes out in the shower - anyone with hair that needs squeezing in the shower will know what I mean. During pregnancy I noticed that it all but stopped coming out in the shower. Again, I thought nothing of it and got used to it - it made the washing of hair very quick! At about 3 months post birth, my hairs appeared to be jumping ship! I didn't really know what was going on until one of the NCT Mums said that her hairdresser had mentioned it would happen at around 3 months. Phew. I wasn't balding! Massive relief. I guess my hormones are rebalancing because my hair loss is back to pre-pregnancy levels now and it's maintenance levels are too...boo! I could get away with washing it once a week during pregnancy. Back to every other day now.

Click image to zoom for full gory details!

I had my first menstrual period a few weeks ago. I was pretty shocked and a bit stunned! Blood loss has been something to worry about for so long now that I'd nearly forgotten about the monthly joy. It'll be interesting to see how regular it is. Before my pregnancy I was very regular...every 26 days on the dot. I wonder how well my body will return to it's baby-less state? I can always see my acupuncturist again, he who so very skilfully sorted my 'mental-menstruals' before!

The return of the periods also made me a little sad. It means Isaac is needing less milk from me. I know he'll continue to need about a pint a day until he's 1 or so, but still. I'm not his main source of food anymore. Initially I thought weaning was getting my son onto solid food. Now I think it's that as well as weaning me off him.

My caesarean scar has fully healed. It's quite smooth on the left side. The right side is less purple and more that reddy pink of scar tissue; it's nowhere near as bumpy as it has been. and I don't notice it anymore when I pull clothes on etc.

Spring is rolling along nicely. The crocuses and daffodils are shooting up in the garden, there's blossom on the way everywhere and next door's honeysuckle is starting to green. Our trees has little buds on them too. Simon's mowed the lawn for the first time this year and I'm planning raised beds in which to plant the  poor jasminum that's been sitting by the kitchen window in a pot all winter long. I'm shedding clothing layers as the season moves on. I'm wearing my own clothes again as opposed to last year's maternity mish-mash. It may seem trivial, but I didn't realise how much what I wear affects me. Last year I was limited to a range of rubbish maternity clothes; I really didn't have the energy or the inclination to customise. This year I'm back in my old garbs (that still fit) and new ones that I love. I can't even begin to tell you how much happier I am. I suppose the extra weight and hormone trauma didn't help either! I'm like a spring lamb with energy to burn....boing boing boing...waiting for Isaac to join me in running around like a loon - it won't be long!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Isaac’s new scream, food and family

...of horror? Terror? Pain? A combination of all of the above? Yes that's right ladles and jellyspoons, Isaac is now pooing real grown up poo. Please feel free to stop reading now, I won't be offended. I do, however, feel that I have the right to talk about this subject, at length. This is a baby blog about baby things so...suck it UP! (Not literally, that would be gross.)

So, it's no longer just breast milk he's squeezing out about once every 8-9 days. Nope. He started off pooing after every solid effing meal. Which, by the way, is 3 times a day. I don't quite know how that happened. He got a taste for real food and it fills him up more than my breast milk can I guess. We went from having banana once on Sunday evening to him eating 3 solid meals a day - breakfast, lunch and tea - almost over night. In addition to his regular feeds. WHAT?? The books say to build it up slowly. Slowly my arse. The boy wants food and he wants it NOW!!

He now poos sporadically, but always preceded by the aforementioned scream. Bless him. I genuinely wish there was a way I could make it easier for him to pass the stuff, but I know not how. I think this will be the first of many things I wish I could make easier for him, but what kind of mother would I be if I could and did?

One thing I wasn't prepared for, which I should have been really, was the mess. I'm not even letting him feed himself yet (because he isn't yet upright) and there's mess. Duh - of course there is, he's learning to eat. See left for evidence of said mess - poor Zeb has borne the brunt of a particularly savage sweet potato hit.  I'm surprised by how much I'm not freaking out about future-mess. I'm a bit of a neat geek, but I seem to have been granted infinite patience. I suppose I've been broken in already somewhat by meeting my youngest step-daughter at 9 months. Nappies, feeding, crying for no discernible reason - and not even mine! Was I mad? Possibly. But. They are both wonderful little people who I love dearly.

Aoife, 6, enjoying "The Weezer"

Roisin, 3, slightly mental, but so much fun!

Isaac loves his sisters too. They are great at entertaining him, even if he is somewhat bemused at times!

He had his first bath solo this evening. We usually avoid bathing him when the girls are here because it's just easier, but tonight he really needed a bath. So, I bathed him first in his little seat thing, rather than going in with him. Then we topped it up & the girls had their bath. Worked really well. I now know I can bath him alone with him in the seat and he won't mind - hurrah!

Anyhoo - back to food related business. I've already decided to raise Isaac as vegan. I don't feel I need to justify this to anyone, least it be said I feel he will reap the benefits of an animal free diet particularly healthwise. I'm almost there with the veganism myself, although cheese is sometimes still a hard one, specifically on pizza (a weakness fo sho). I'd like some vegan weaning pointers. All babies are essentially vegan at first, until meat is introduced. This is good. He's already had some lentils and quite liked those. My main query is: what about B12? Where does that come from? I'm not a huge fan of yeast. I've heard that the amount of B12 needed over the course of a lifetime is minimal and having researched it a little, up until the age of 4 children don't even need 1 microgram! How big is a microgram? It's got to be pretty small huh? I think I'm getting a little obsessed. How can I not? He's my little boy. I'm responsible for his well being and this includes a varied and balanced diet, among other things.

Pleh.

I shouldn't try to rationalise anything when my head feels full of cotton wool (for you Yanks) and I have a wad of tissue stuck up my nose to absorb the persistent and unblowable drip.

On that note I bid you an abrupt goodnight; I'm off to take my sweat juice and sleep this mother off.

Weaning in earnest

As the title suggests, weaning has begun in earnest. After my last post I started to um and ah about it again as he is still not yet 6 months.  Despite my indecision I've been buying bits this past week to prepare us for our imminent adventure into the world of solid food. So far we have (as Boots have 3 for 2 on feeding items) Boots weaning bowls - 3 of, Boots soft tipped spoons - 4 of,  Boots cutlery case - 1 of, Brother Max food portioners, 18 of. On order we have Brother Max combi bibs - 12 of and doidy cups - 2 of. We already have one set of Brother Max combi bibs with a crumb catcher for Roisin who, until recently, liked very much to decorate herself with food. Isaac doesn't need the crumb catcher yet so the sharing of bibs is working well, but we certainly need more of them hence the mammoth order!! We also already have a Tommee Tippee beaker thing with spouty thing. I think we'll keep it for out and about & try to use the doidy cups at home. Will have to see how that goes & report back; best laid plans & all that.

Last night was the kick up the florals we needed to decide to get fully on board with the weaning. He wouldn't feed from me properly and was incredibly grumpy. I tried to give him extra feeds yesterday to help him make up what he wasn't getting at night now that he sleeps through, but it didn't work and just buggered about with my milk supply for when he actually wanted it. I should have known to go with him rather than forcing what I think to be best on him, but this is all still new to me so still feeling the way.  Anyhoo - he's  apparently developed quite a taste for banana & devoured 3/4 of said fruit before deciding he'd had enough. Today, as well as his regular feeds, he ate 1 & 1/4 carrots followed by a full milk feed at lunch time and nearly a whole small cox's apple this evening after a full milk feed. He doesn't like avocado, for now. It's a shame about that because it'd be really really good for him, being so full of nutritious fats & all. Might make him less of a skinny bean!

So now he has his own shelf in the freezer

and one in the fridge too.

I seem to have FAR TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS. Well, actually I don't, but I've clearly gone round the loop and have made this.

It is my first attempt at video. Oh the joys of modern technology! ANYONE CAN DO IT!

My goodness. My poor son.

Right, I'm off to bed before I do something else ridiculous.

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?

Hat(s) & food

I saw on From A Sesame Seed that Shiloh has a hat very similar to the pixie-esque one I knitted for Isaac in the final few weeks of pregnancy. I have to admit lack of faith in my knitting skills, being more of a crocheter, and so put it away in the too-big-at-the-moment bag of clothes. While going through said bag today I found the hat and tried it on him for kicks and...it actually fits rather well! Not sure how long it'll fit for, but I'm glad to know that it does. Here it is:

Not everything I make is for Isaac, although it seems that way at the moment...*drums fingers impatiently on table top while still waits for new sewing machine*...

I found some other pictures on the camera while downloading the above image for editing.

Hmm, starting to show an interest in food perhaps?? He doesn't yet try to grab things, but he LOVES to watch the food LOL! Just another little observation. I love watching him change & grow, it really is the best thing in the world! I also love writing about it all because I can look back on things and remember how he was at the time. It all happens so quickly!

I had the most horrible (for me) dream last night. I dreamt that he started to get really skinny and looked quite emaciated. His face was gaunt and almost alien looking. It was awful. I had to give him formula, in my dream, and I can't believe how it made me feel! I felt guilty, sick, disgusted, bitterly disappointed - it was quite harrowing. I clearly remember making up a bottle with the powder and the water and it being in slow motion. I was thinking "I can't believe I'm actually going to give him this stuff, what happened to get to this point?" I woke up feeling terrible and rushed over to see that he was OK. Of course he was, but still. That such a little person can have an enormous impact on me is scary, yet reassuring in a way. I'm quite a detached person (in that I can quite easily remove myself from a situation for reasons of self preservation), but I don't think I'll be able to detach so easily from all things Isaac related, but I guess that's part of our programming, right? Not something I want to override :-)

Please don't take this as an insult if you formula feed your baby. I appreciate that breastfeeding isn't for everyone. We don't drink milk & don't want Isaac to either and aren't so keen on soya formulas so it's boob all the way!