31/12/2006

Baby's first Christmas

Well, Christmas and the trip to Crowdy Head is all done. It wasn't quite as fun as I had hoped - Asher is starting to get a bit clingy (obviously completely developmentally appropriate) and wasn't sleeping well in an unfamiliar environment so I was tired, he was tired and therefore neither of us were at our best. He is also just about to start crawling and is wildly frustrated that he can't go anywhere which made him rather short tempered. We did get to have lots of good food, a swim (despite the rather uninspiring weather), lots of nice wine. Watching the little guy opening his presents was also great.

Sanjay had to come back to Sydney for work but Asher and I stayed up at mum's for a few extra days. It was nice, and everyone helped out with the baby but since he wouldn't sleep in his tent when I put him in there I didn't get much sleep. The flight back was ok but it was at the end of the day so he required full-on entertainment to avoid a meltdown. This included a lot of saying 'gah!' to each other, bouncing (on my full bladder) and singing under my breath in his ear. Apart from the fact that a storm in Sydney meant our flight was a lot longer and bouncier than it should have been it was all good. It was nice to be home though.

And, just for Brendan a convenient list of Asher's New Tricks:
- Handling objects much better
- Eating pretty well off a spoon
- Almost crawling (inching backwards and bunny hopping forwards).
- Sitting fairly reliably
- Saying "Gah!" ('mum' and 'dad' still to come).

I have to go and think about my New Year's resolutions (keeping the blog updated?) and make cheese biscuits (we are having a few people over to Sanj's brother's place tonight to watch fireworks) and I hope everyone has a very happy and safe New Year!

21/12/2006

Too busy, can't write....

So with Christmas and a baby I have been neglecting updating Asher's developmental milestones, as well as any more general musings. I've finally got the little guy to bed and Sanj is at dropping some things off to his parents place so instead of cleaning the kitchen and packing for our week away I'll give a cheat sheet abbreviated update.

Solid foods were going great, then they weren't, now they are going well again. I'm learning what he does when he wants a little break or needs a drink of water. He's learning that he likes sweet potato and rice cereal (and pureed pear, and blueberries and mango in the mesh thingy). Carrots aren't quite such a hit and he was pretty dubious of the oat cereal we tried this morning. On balance it's going well though.

He's sitting up pretty well by himself now. He will fall over and bang his head on the floor after a little while (if he's tired he falls quicker) but it's good. I was confident enough that I left him propped against the stair while I folded up his pram after an outing the other day which is the only reason I'm keen to hit that milestone.

He's also pretty mobile, but not really crawling yet. He is like a back-to-front caterpillar and creeps slowly backwards, he rolls both ways and turns 360 degrees on his tummy, getting a view of the whole room. I'm guessing he'll be crawling a bit within a month.

Once we get him to sleep he usually only wakes once, or more often twice, which is OK, but getting him down to a solid sleep is now really hard. Tonight I fed him to sleep at about 8 but he woke at 8:30 and it took us til 9 to get him to sleep again. He then woke at 10 and it only took me 10 minutes to get him back to sleep (I did use the magic b00bs though!). I'm hoping he'll stay asleep now.

His day sleeps are getting better. No matter what time he wakes in the morning (typically between 6:30 and 7:30) I attempt to put him back to sleep after he's been up for 2 hours. This usually works and he normally sleeps for an hour, but sometimes longer. Later in the day I try putting him back to sleep after he's been awake for three hours which works less often (and he usually sleeps for less time) but it's the gold standard that we are working towards.

He cries and grizzles so much less now too - today the only crying we had was when I was trying to pat him back to sleep after his 8:30 wake up. His funny little sense of humour and general good nature make him a joy to be with most of the time. A far cry from the early days when there would often be tears from both of us at the end of the day.

Alright, I'm exhausted, but I have to get the kitchen under control before poor tired Sanjay gets home. More soon I hope, but if I don't get to post tomorrow - Merry Christmas!

08/12/2006

The horror. The horror....

So, I've just remembered the other reason I wanted to delay starting solids as long as possible - the nappy! I'm still shuddering with the hideousness of it all actually although I'm kinda surprised that last nights blueberries didn't colour his poo as much as I expected. Ugh.

We started solids on a bit of a whim on Tuesday, after a few weeks of worsening night wakings (I confirmed that I don't do well if I need to get up a 5 or 6 times a night). I gave him just a bit of rice ceral with half an apricot in the mesh feeder and it went ok. He didn't appear to love it or hate it but he didn't really spit any of it out. He doesn't really 'get' taking food off a spoon so a little bit dribbled out, but very little considering this is the first time he's done it. Wednesday we had a tiny bit more rive cereal with frozen pear in the mesh feeder and last night we had, yep, more rice cereal but this time with blueberries in the feeder. He seemed to really love the blueberries but I'm having difficulty getting the stains out of his bib. I'm also not sure whether they, like strawberries, are foods that shouldn't be offered til kids are over 1? I'm assuming that the main risk they present is the very serious choking hazard, which is negated by putting them in mesh and letting him gum the juice out of them.

Anyhow, the whole process is more fun than I expected, and very very messy (which I did expect) and gives us something to do in the late afternoon when we are normally getting a bit tired and cranky and really looking forward to Sanjay getting home. The pictures tell the story:





Just for the record, some of the other reasons I didn't want to start solids until after 6 months include me being lazy (arrgh! the extra hassle!) and not believing that Asher would need anything besides breastmilk until then. His sleep has markedly improved since we've started food - he has slept through for the last 2 nights after a period of *very* frequent night wakings but I'm not convinced that is because of the food as, to mym mind, it could just as easily be a developmental stage. He will be 6 lunar months (as opposed to calendar months) next Monday and 6 calendar months on the 26th of December.

05/12/2006

KinderKot


No serious discussion about Feminism or the new Rudd/Gillard Labour leadership here, just a cute photo of the little guy all wrapped up in his baby tent. He loves the Kinderkot, and at only two-point-something kilos and a simple setup we love it too. I also like not having to bend down when I'm putting him in it like I would have to with a traditional port-a-cot/pack'n'play. Plus, it's really really cute! Sorry for sounding like I'm trying to advertise the thing.