Nine months old!!!!!

Well yesterday our baby boy turned nine months old!
It astounds me how much he has grown and changed in just 3 quarters of a year. Hes gone from being described as a bonny baby by strangers to being called a 'bruiser' (were quite proud of that ;) and hes a noisy bugger! One of his faverite games is to yell, listen to me copy the yell and then yell back and so on and so on and so on!
Yesterday was gorgeous. Jase always reacts very enthusiastically when Chris comes home from work. First, he hears his voice before he sees him and he starts looking around, then Chris shouts to him again and he starts shaking with anticipation and looking all around for him, and then when his father finally appears hes smiling like a nut and shaking to be picked up by him. Well last night was a new one. he did the usual shaking and looking, but then when he finally saw his father he just completely lost his nana. He screamed with excitment, gave the biggest laugh weve heard from him yet and practically LEPT out of my arms into his dads. It was an absolutly beautiful thing to see.
Jase has a funny laugh, instead of a normal laugh its more of a loud uncontrolled exhale - if that makes any sence. the closest thing i can think of to describe it is a sweet and definatley non-creepy version of Bevis and Butheads laugh.
On another note I found a great website yesterday that promotes a child rearing philosophy that actually mirrors to a large degree what Chris and i have been doing. Finally!!! I didnt think i really had a parenting style, but apparently I do and its called Attachment Parenting. If anyone is curious just search for Attachment Parenting and youll find a hundred sites, and theres a great overview in Wikapedia. I dont take some of the principals as far as some do, but its definatley very interesting reading.
Chris and I also decided the other day to stop stressing about Jasons night time sleeping habits. So when he wakes in the night i try to settle him and leave him in his bed, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. When it works it works, and when it doesnt he just comes to bed with us. Last night he woke at 2.00am and I got him to settle in just a few minutes, but then he woke again at 3.30am and he was wired and deeply unhappy about it. So he came to bed with us and was asleep in seconds.
All in all its been a wonderful 9 months and I wouldnt trade a single second. Except for maybe the two minutes it took yesterday to clean him up after he filled his nappy while IN his jolly jumper. Ugh.

A quick update

Just a quick little note because i wanted it recorded that J's third tooth has popped through. Its on the bottom next to the two others. That explains my cranky potential unibomber baby!

Also, J has hit a new milestone. I was cooking a fortnights worth of baby food on Saturday (what fun!) and I heard J laughing really loudly from our bedroom. I went in and there was Chris putting a cloth nappy over Jasons head. Then Jase ripped it from his head laughiing like a nut. Its now one of his faverite games and its the cutest damn thing you ever saw!
Hes nine months old this week and it still takes my breath away how much I love him, and just thinking about anything happening to him is enough to make me cry. Its a scary kind of love this 'ole parent/child thing.

Say bye bye to the bottle

We went to Plunket yesterday, and as usual I had a sheet of paper with all my questions listed on it. The plunket nurse says she doesnt mind...
Anyway...Jason is supposed to - from what I read - be doing 600mls a day, but only after hes eaten his solids. Problem is that J loves his solids, and by the time hes done hes not interested in the bottle, so we have been giving him his bottle first - and even then its a struggle to get 500mls in him. So I have ben stressing heaps ('nnnooooo' I hear you gasp. 'You, stressing??? Well yes I have - and dont be a smart arse) about not getting enough formula in him.
So I talked to Jo - the nurse - about it and she basically said that was bullshit and that all I need to do is offer J a bottle twice a day and whatever he does is what ever he does - no stress and not a big deal. HALLAYLOOYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Since the moment Jase was born we have dilligently, methodically and without exception documented what time he drank, and exactly how many mls he did. For almost 9 months we have been doing this. And last night, I put the record book (his third) away.
It was very liberating, and of course it was lovely to give him his bottle and not worry about how much he managed to get in. Now we give him his bottle at breakfast and he does about 100mls and has another 100 or so in his cereal, and then another bottle after his bath just before bed. Last night was the first time, he did 60 mls, but thats not suprising seeing as he had dinner less than an hour before. And now were doing all sorts of fun things like giving him apple juice and feeding him tinned spaggetti. The apple juice is poisen, but the spaggetti is pretty popular.
And, I had been feeling guilty about giving him choc dairy food, but I compared the sugar content with yogurt and its the same and Plunket confirmed it was a great lunch cos of all the calcuim. Thats good enough for me!!!
Funny how Plunket are great when its what i want to hear aye ;)
The only other update is that I have been inadvertantly dyeing my child yellow. I feed him pumpkin and carrot every dinner, along with mince, and although Chris and I hadnt noticed, it was pointed out to me by the nurse that Jasons nose is turning yellow.
Oops.

Tragedy of the boy child

My poor little boy has had a rough few days. Hes his usual fabulous self most of the time, but his 'bad' times are little worse, and harder on him, just of late. I think its probably due to a few reasons. Firstly, his cheeks are fire engine red quite a bit lately so Im guessing he might have a tooth or two on the move. Secondly, I think hes hit a new developmental phase - two of them actually, at the same time. Seperation and stranger anxieties have arrived... so not only does he stress when Chris or I arnt there, he also stresses at whoever is there in our place!! Lucky for him I can count the number of times weve left him with someone on one hand. Well, a hand and a half. And thirdly, I dont know if its part of the teething or hes in a growth spurt or whatever, but when hes tired, hes TIRED. Theres no gradual decline into tiredness, its an immediate state and must be addressed within seconds if we want to avoid our beautiful perfect baby turning into some kind of disgruntled postal worker.

Oh well, good thing hes so damn georgeus!!!! Last night wasnt to successful, we didnt bother with the 11.00pm feed and he woke at four - dont know if two are related - i dont think so....so anyway he came to bed with us and instead of settling straight away as usual, he grizzeled til breakfast. The only times i got him to be quiet was when he slept on my chest. Tis very hard to sleep with a 10.5kg weight on your chest. I am tired today. And maybe a little bruised.

Last night we were on our own cos my beautiful hubby (in spirit if not in law :) plays squash on Wednesdays. We were out of bibs cos the ones on the hot water cylinder hadnt dried yet so at dinner Jason was a mess. He was also cranky, grizzly and generally unco-operative. I decided to take a photo for posterity and as usual, as soon as he saw the camera he turned on the charm!






Mummy says Im a messy monkey, but I prefer to call it artistic.



















Sometimes for dinner all i get is this lousy wooden spoon. I think Mummies trying to cut down on laundry...

A quick rant

Do you know what relly annoys the hell out of me? Those baby books everyone gives you when you bring a new baby home. Its not the giving of the book that bugs me, its the book itself.
At first glance their great, all the pages are shiny and theres heaps of great moments and 'first's' for you to document. But then after yourve had the baby for a while you realise they are completley and utterly bloody useless - the book, not the baby. And because it was a gift you cant get rid of it, so you have about 5 of them permenantly stacked on your bookshelf taking up valuable space.
The reason these books are crap is because their is no such thing as The Moment When...
I cant say when Jase started sleeping through the night because its happened gradually with ups and downs, a step forward and then two steps back (he went from 8 till 7 last night without waking even once, except when I woke him at 11.00 for late feed !!). I cant say when his first tooth appeared because a) the bottom two came at the same time, and b) what moment do you use? the first time you saw a hint of them, when the first fraction broke through or when he started biting you with them??? I have no idea what his faverite lullaby is because no matter how many times I ask him he just wont bloody tell me, nor do I know what he thought of his first Christmas.
So there. Thats why those books grate on my nerves, even though their so pretty and look like there going to be a lot of fun filling out. Cos their not.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

First off, the good. Jason slept through the night last night by anyones definition. His bed time was 8.00pm as usual, and I woke him for a bottle just after 11.00pm and he did about 60mls which is pretty decent for the late night feed. Then we didnt hear a peep from the little guy until 6.00 this morning!!!! WOW. He then came to bed with us for an hour and then we all had breakfast in bed together (like we do every morning) at 7.30am. What a beautiful thing!

Now, the bad. I had the fright of my life the other day and its an experience I hope never to repeat. Jason was being bathed in his brand new bath seat and all was going well. Then, to make a long story short, he got stuck, he panicked and then when I was sorting him out, with the security bar removed (!!!!!!!!), he slipped completely under the water for about 0.02 seconds. We were both utterly terrified and Chris basically had to calm us both down - not that i let J see my panic. I have never been so shocked and upset as this in J's entire life. I had to removed the security bar to put him right, but it has shown me how quickly and easily a baby can have an accident. I still feel a little sick about it actually. Or it might the chicken sandwhich I had for breakafast.

And the ugly?? Well, theres nothing ugly really. Jason has been pretty grunpy for the last few days, buts thats ok. He calms right down as soon as you toss him in the air or quack like a duck, so its not so bad :) There has been a new development. Hes starting to talk a lot more, and a few new sounds have popped up. He now makes the LaLa sound as well as Ba Ba. In fact, I put him down for his morning nap 20 minetes ago and hes still yelling and chatting away to god knows who, at a fairly decent decible as well!

And of course its all punctuated with an enthusiastic rasberry.

He sits!!!

Firstly, a quick update on the sleeping through the night thing. Hes not really sleeping through the night yet, but he can go up to 5.00am without waking up. YAY!!!
Weve stopped feeding him at this 'awakening', and if he cant be calmed with a dummy or a stroke of the head I just pop him into bed with us. The earliest I have had to do this was last night, at 4.30am. The latest would be around 6.30am. He stops crying as soon as he's in bed with us and usually goes back to sleep reasonably quickly. Its a solution that is working well for us, and putting him into bed with us is definately better than feeding him.

And now for the good stuff!!!! I took these photos this morning of J sitting up. Hes only been able to do it less than a week, but hes already sitting on his butt like an old pro!

Well wadda-ya know!

Am very excited!! Would be more excited, but too tired.

JASON SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!

Well, close enough to through the night anyway. Had his last bottle at 10.30pm, and only did 85mls so we were sure he would wake around 3.00am. Chris and I went to sleep just before midnight, and the next time I woke it was 4.30am!!! Of course, after that I couldnt go back to sleep because I was waiting for him to wake up (which is why I am tired). He did wake at 5.00, I threw his dummy back in and left him to it. He grizzled and moaned for half an hour, and then at 5.30 it turned into real tears. He calmed as soon as I picked him up so i just took him back to bed with us. He ends up in our bed every morning, but rarely before 6.30 or so. (its a wonderful feeling having the whole family in bed - I wish co-sleeping didnt have the bad rap it does in our culture - millions do it around the world. Anyway...) So Jase played with my face and pulled my hair for a while and then went back to sleep. We both woke promptly at 7.00 with him yelling to be fed.

Yay for him. YAY for me!!!

I dont expect this to happen every night -still very early stages, but hes doing well, and as i reduce the amount hes being fed at those 3.00am feeds (when he does wake for them) he should soon learn not to bother.

(we hope!)

The plan...

Jason has intermittently slept at night for 6 hours or so for a little while now, but those nights are few and far between, and the 6 hours always ended around 3.00am, instead of 7.00. So we have developed a plan. Because I am sleepy.

Firstly, we have changed his daily routine. Gone are the four hourly feeds and in are three hourly ones (three main meals, two snacks and a late night bottle). Gone are the naps every 2 to 3 hours, hello are two naps, at 10.30am and again about 2.30 - 3.00pm. After talking with friends (thanks Saff!!) and researching EVERY RELEVANT SITE EVER CREATED IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET I have come up with this new routine starting with breakfast at 7.00am.

There are those of you who will look at this routine and think - well of course - this makes sense - what you were doing just sounds stupid compered to this. I would agree. I could kick myself! In my defence, what I was doing was recommended by Plunket. THEY told me to switch to four hourly feeds months ago. They told me to put him down every 2.5 hours. BASTARDS. Well. thats a bit harsh, but I am wondering if perhaps this is the reason why Jase still doesnt sleep through the night.

So thats what were gonna do - feed him up all day, give him two good naps (no more of this half hour napping nonsense) and see if that can get him through the night. Bed at 7.30 - 8.00pm, bottle at 10.30pm and hope till morning!! Yesterday was the first day, and he loved the additional feeds, and it was the first day since his diet has been focusing on solids that i havent struggled to get the required 600mls of formula in him. yay!

And the second part of the plan...this is a little more painful. We had plannned to start the controlled crying technique last night. Basically this is only an issue at 3.00am - hes fine all the rest of the time. We planned to deny him this feed, and comfort him every 5, 10, 15 and 30 mins till he gave up from either sheer exhaustion (or misery :( and went back to sleep. Chris was going to do all of this, because to Jason I am the bringer of food - and if I denied him it would confuse and upset him even more. All the advice I have read says the father has faster success than the mother with this technique. So, when J woke at 3.00am, we both got up, talked about it, and then I fed him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DONT HAVE THE COURAGE JUST YET!! I know I may just be delaying the inevitable - but I have justified my decision in the following ways.... he was born three weeks aerly, so hes actually really only about 7 months old. Lot's'a'babies still get night time feeds at J's age, and he drinks all thats offered so he must need it. So what I did was give him 100mls instead of 150. Ill do that all this week, and then next week only give 50mls. The theory is that he soon wont bother waking up for a measly 50mls. Ive read of other parents who did this with great success so I am ever hopeful. If it hasnt worked after two or three weeks, then we'll see about the harder line.

And it doesnt really take that long to give him 50mls anyway :)

I blogged to soon...

Well the last two nights have been the exact opposite of all that I said before. Both nights he has woken for a 3.30am'ish feed, and then thrown wobblies about 5.00am and ended up in bed with us by 6.00.
I am tired.
But, on a lighter note... J wasnt to happy about going to bed last night. After a few false starts we finally thought he'd gone down when Chris heard a thumping from the other end of the house. Shortly after he'd gone to investigate I heard him laughing from J's room. Iwent in to find Chris chuckling (was going to say giggling - but men dont giggle ;) over J's cot.
There was Jason, who had not only managed to get out from under his blankets, but also flip on to his tummy, get his head where his feet should be and feet at the head. The thumping was Jason happily kicking the wall while he chewed on his blanket.
He was so obviously wired that we got him up for another 15 min and then put him back to bed. That time he went out like a light!

WooHooo!!!!!!

Two major developments are underway!!!!!

Firstly, just of late Jason is making a habit of sleeping through the night! Well, not really sleeping through the night as he wakes for a bottle around 11.00pm. But as I am still up at 11.00pm and it doesnt break my sleep I dont mind this feed (actually i quite like it - its like a bonus 'goodnite' moment after the 7.30pm one). The one hes skipping is the anywhere between 2.00 and 4.00am one. THATS the one that kills. YAY for us - yay for ME. Its not every night that he skips - but we're getting real close, hes holding out till 6.00 or 7.00am.

The second development came as a bit of a suprise. Jason hasnt been able to sit up by himself for his entire life, so I just automatically hold on to him when ever hes upright. Yesterday he was sitting up on the floor with me balancing him as usual, and when i did a little 'fake out' let go, he stayed upright. For freaken ages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now hes just sitting up by himself all over the place! Clever little man! He does topple over occasionally, usually when his father walks by and he gets all excited, looks up and flaps his arms a million miles an hour. Funny as hell when he does topple - its in slow motion and he has no idea whats happening - till he hits the ground :)
A few well placed pillows has taken the drama out of that though.

I will try and get a photo of him sitting up today - my boy!!!

While J is maybe a little way off crawling, (he just lays there on his tummy and flaps his arms and legs without getting his stomach of the ground and actually moving forward) he has become a gosh-darn great roller. This morning i put him on his play mat at one end of the lounge, and three seconds later returned to find him AT THE OTHER END OF THE LOUNGE! Granted - we have a very small lounge, but still, that in no way detracts from the achievement :)

Just a couple of images cause i had the time... they were taken in the last few weeks.



Mummy says books nourish the mind...

A look that says 'what the hell is that'?

My little foodie...

Yesterday was a day of firsts - cant recall if i mentioned it earlier, but we went to Plunket yesterday - he now weighs in at 10.2 kg! As of yesterday we are offering solids first, bottle second. So...after his vegies yesterday, and after a measly 50 ml of formula, I gave the boy his first ever toasted crusts with a little marmite on it. As you can see HE LOVED IT!!

Eight months old!!!

Jason turned 8 months old yesterday, and what an 8 months it has been. For as long as I live no matter what I do or where I go having Jason is absolutely the most amazing and wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, and his father feels just the same (even though he says he loves J almost as much as his old Mazda).


I dont want to jinx it but I have to say that J did us proud last night. He woke for a bottle at 11.45pm, and then slept right through till 6.00am!!!!!!! I actually slept more than four hours in a row!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant believe it. The sky is bluer, the grass is greener and food tastes better - everything they say about a full nights sleep is true! I know it wont last, it never does, but it sure feels good when it happens.