Last week: a summary

Gosh it's been a week since my last post, and that was a hastily thrown together picture affair rather than a proper post. So. What have we been up to? Well...

Monday

Isaac & I do our food shopping together; he likes to check out new things so I let him explore stuff  from his perch in the trolley while we're going around the supermarket. Today he decided to sink his teeth into a red bell pepper before we got to the checkout! He looked at me as if to say "I know I probably shouldn't be doing this, but what the hey". Who am I to stop a mini-scientist? And besides. Isn't that the cutest little set of bite marks?

We discovered that Isaac is a BIG fan of cherries.

Nom nom nom

And also of eating bits of carpet fluff. Busted!

Tuesday

We went to a soft play with some NCT chums where Isaac had his first ride on a rocking horse! He loved it.

Wednesday

In the mornings after breakfast & while I'm doing the dishes, Isaac likes to drag himself around and discover new things. This morning he particularly enjoyed removing & replacing a cloth from the gap between the washing machine & the cupboard under the sink where we hang the tea towels. I now truly understand the saying "it's the little things".

Thursday

We were going to go swimming, but Isaac decided to sleep from 9.40am - 12.15pm! This meant there was no point us going (the pool we had planned to go to with a friend is about a 20 minute drive so by the time I'd have got him dressed, booby fed, in the car & there the session would've been over as the baby slot was from 12-1pm). So, no swimming last week. Plans? Forgeddabouddit.

Instead we went to clinic and got Isaac weighed. 17lbs 11oz! At this rate he's putting on 1lb a month which is pretty good going. He's still on the chart & doing what the piece of paper says he should. He sat up on the scales this time. I remember seeing other babies do that when I first started to take him to be weighed & I remember thinking "gosh look how grown up they are". Now our Little Man is growing up just like that, but he's still my baby boy...

Happy post-nap baberoo

Friday

Today was the start of the Just So Festival, but more about that in another post. Needless to say it was a totally insane rush to get everything ready & we didn't end up leaving until 3.15pm. Exactly what we didn't want to be doing. PLAN, ORGANISE & PACK THE NIGHT BEFORE NEXT YEAR! Before the craziness started, though, I managed to snap a shot of Isaac doing something he loves which is sharing his food. He really is a very generous child with his munch, despite putting a healthy sized portion away!

Observation

Since Tuesday Isaac's naps have become more regular. He sleeps for 2 hours twice a day with a good 4 hour chunk of day in between. This is great! We do more stuff during the day; he eats a small lunch  at 1 o'clock now instead of getting stroppy & chucking it about meaning he's full after tea and subsequently he goes to bed later (about 8pm) which means...*drum roll please* he sleeps through & gets up later!!! Between 7.30-8am. OH YEAH! I feel like that bit in The Matrix where Neo finally *sees* The Matrix. Lets see how long it lasts....!

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.

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!

4 month update including The Weight Gain Issue

Bless me Father for I have been slack. It's been over a month since my last post!

Isaac is now 18 weeks old and officially in 3-6 month sized clothing :-) He's mostly such a happy wee chappy (only grumping when he wants something i.e.: food, clean nappy, sleep) with a smile for nearly everyone. He's (literally) getting to grips with his toys more and more each day; his developmental progress is incredible to watch. It's such a pleasure to see how he approaches things & observe thought processes being cultivated (hmm...I can use these arm and hand things to put that really exciting blue thing in my mouth!) You can see him learning! Amazing! It's all quite manageable at the moment because he's still stationary, but as he gets older I'm sure it'll be less cute & more - I wonder what happens if I put this down the loo?

Double handed elephant grab

So the festive period was lovely. We had planned to celebrate the Solstice, neither of us being Christian thus finding Christmas a little hypocritical, on 21st December, but our boiler's condensing pipe froze, several times, meaning that when we had planned to be out walking & doing Yule tidey things we were watching Dad re-route the pipe through the house so it didn't freeze again. We did go to Matlock to the Green Way Cafe on the 21st which was lovely. Dad treated us - and we had cake! On 25th we didn't really do anything, just stayed at home the 3 of us. Isaac had his first 2 hour nap since he was very small. It was weird!

He still sleeps well at night, and in the day, in our room in his pram thing. He knows it's time for sleep now. No buggering about with boob; just change nappy, put him in his bed, he rolls over onto his left side & off he goes. Helps enormously being able to tell what he wants & when. It's all about routine. He even fell asleep in the car seat/pushchair combo a few weeks ago. It was only for about 1/2 hour, but it's a start. We're definitely going to have to move the cot bed into our room in the not too distant future though because he's absolutely going to be too long for the pram thing soon. His length is good - following in between the 25th & 50th centile (for those that know) which is "normal" (for those that don't). His head circumference is about the same. His weight, however, remains a contentious issue. He has officially dropped off the  centiles on the WHO breastfed baby chart (average weight gain chart) which has my HV a little worried & wanting me to start weaning at 22 weeks 8O I'm not worried. He's fine dagnammit! He isn't bony or emaciated, merely slim. He eats when he's hungry, sleeps when he's tired, excretes as necessary (also "normal" according to the bumph) and the rest of the time he's busy playing, watching, chewing, smiling his face off, wiggling etc.

I've read that between the age of 4 & 6 months the human digestive tract matures to accommodate solid food, but there is no way of knowing when this happens. From reading people's experiences it would seem that those who were weaned too early develop digestive disorders such as IBS. I can see from a medical point of view that he isn't conforming to "normal" weight gain and that this could be bad because...he DOESN'T FIT ON THE GRAPH (!), but he really is happy enough and I don't want to rush him into eating before he's ready. Does he look underweight to you?

Mr Big Eyes

He might look a little slim, but that's because he's  NOT A PORKER!! :x Anyhoo, we have our NCT weaning course this Sunday so I'll ask about it then. Just as I thought breast feeding was going really well too :-\

Gosh - I digress. Back on track. Sleeping. Yes.

Bedtimes aren't the trauma they used to be. We have a little song that denotes bedtime. I swear blind that this helps him go off. We both sing it to him & give him a kiss, then I take him upstairs, change his nappy & put him in a sleep suit (while still singing the song) then take him into our room, put him in his bed, wish him goodnight & sort the covers & he's off within 10 minutes. No grumbling anymore. It seems that only when we don't do it in the right order he doesn't get off  to sleep properly, for instance if I've been in the bath with him & am drying myself etc while Simon gets him ready for bed. Again, it's all about routine. Hmm. I'm noticing similarities between child rearing & raising a puppy. Let's hope he doesn't turn out like Rinny!

Continuing the singing business - he LOVES it when I sing to him. Particular favourites include: The Grand Old Duke Of York and 1-2-3-4-5 Once I Caught A Fish Alive. With actions of course, usually involving lifting him up and down & he's a big fan of being wiggled about. Hearing him laugh is actually the best thing in the world. He's got such a funny little cute face when he does, all goofy & lovely :-) Daft sap Sarah...*slaps self out of Mummy stupor* ahem. With this in mind I'm definitely going to investigate the rhyme time group nearby. I don't think we'll do baby signing until he's about 6 months though. Don't want to overload the poor chap! I think it'll work best if we build it up gradually :mrgreen:

When we went the the doctor's for Isaac's 8 week check, Dr G said his right hip was clicking & to make an appointment at the hospital for an ultrasound to check that the joint had formed properly & was articulating correctly. Holy crumpet! That was 10 weeks ago! Anyhoo, I did & this week we went  to the hip clinic at Derby Royal Hospital. I'm pleased to report that "they don't come more normal than that". Isaac enjoyed his first bus ride and spent the whole time gawping out of the window at Derby whizzing past. On the way back he slept in-sling while Mummy tried her utmost not to break her neck on treacherous pavements.

I've signed us up for baby swimming. When I read about it on the Puddle Ducks website, the classes nearest to me were on a Wednesday afternoon which would've been ideal. They've now been moved to a Saturday afternoon which is turning out to be a logistical nightmare. what with step-sisters & other weekend activity. Should've listened to myself at the time of booking when I thought, Saturday? That'll never work. I'm going to see if I can swap to the other classes on a week day instead. They're further away, but the timing is better. I think he's more ready for stuff like that now. He's starting to stay awake for longer between naps and is more interested in other things.

I took him into town in the pushchair today. It felt weird not having him next to me in the sling. I felt guilty almost. He seemed OK & spent much of the time looking around. I've noticed that he likes his own time. Don't get me wrong - he likes to be cuddled & played with, but he really does enjoy alone time when I'm close by and he's doing things himself, even if it is just watching the world go by. He's got quite long for the sling now and I don't think he enjoys it as much anymore because he can't see so well what's happening around us. I do put him facing outward sometimes, but I'm loathe to do it too often. We've got our new carrier, but I'm going to wait until he's bigger to use it I think. I expect I'll use it like a backpack so I want to be confident that he'll be happy up there before I embark on that adventure.

I almost forgot - he fell asleep in his cot bed the other day! On his own! I sneakily put him in there while I was doing something, knowing it was his nap time, and I came back a few minutes later & he was zonked :-) He didn't sleep for as long as he usually does at nap time, but it was a big thing for us! Bodes well for the future (fingers crossed). I think it helps that he's comfortable in there already. He's used to it because we put him in there when we wash our hands after we change him; sometimes we put him in there just for something different for him to do with one of us being close by. He likes looking at the mobile I made for him & all the teddies we've been given.

Cine Babies was great, although not very busy at all, this month - not surprising with all the snow & ice. I've just checked & the next one (on 4th February) is *drum roll please* Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll!! Holy cow! I LOVE Cine Babies :-) I'll be gutted when he's too old to go. Will mean relegation to Cine Kids (kids films) & evening cinema for me without him :-(

So, next time will probably be 5 months? Until then...Pie out.

P.S.: Updated 17/01/10 13.18. Just been into town with him in the sling & all is good again. He was quite happy in it - I just need to tie it so that the pieces of fabric at the front are the other way round to the the way I usually tie it. This supports his head better (now that it's bigger) when he has a little sleepy. :mrgreen: