Journey to a Family: Baby Update

Age:  27 weeks (but posted 3 days late because my clever husband hoovered through the wire for the internet!)

Weight: He's due to be weighed again at his hospital appointment a week tomorrow.

Health: His eczema has cleared up beautifully since I've been avoiding dairy and although he's not been weighed he definitely looks like he's growing really well as well! We're still unsure whether wheat is actually a problem as he's had wheat-containing foods a couple of times with no reaction, although I'm not sure he actually swallowed any of them. However, last night I gave him a pinwheel which he definitely had a few mouthfuls of and he was sick twice, once during and once after. Then he spent the whole evening either nursing, sleeping or crying and was very clingy/cuddly, which is unusual for him - he never wants to cuddle and is always on the go. He then had diarrhoea this morning! Touch wood though he seems to be back to himself this afternoon, despite occasional bouts of grunting/discomfort, mostly when lying on his back.

Feeding: He's done really well with new flavours and hardly turned his nose up at anything, although he loses interest quite quickly unless it's a particular favourite. He wolfed down a HIPP pea, carrot and cauliflower pouch the other day far quicker than any of my homemade foods, which was a little disheartening, but I'm still only using the pouches on the odd occasion where we're out or really pushed for time. He's getting much more dexterous with his hands already and he's really starting to chew and swallow bits - he wolfed down a banana pancake today! He's still nursing about as often but spending a lot less time feeding and most sessions are 5 minutes maximum.

Sleep: We've had a couple of nights where he's slept for around 5 hours after first going down at night (with just a couple of strokes/dummy replacements) and the fact that he's getting better at finding his own dummy really helps. We've had a couple of nights where it's been harder to get him down but he was teething and once we soothed his gums he calmed down and slept. His naps are hit and miss, some days he'll have 3 short ones and other days he'll have 2 short ones and a long one. If he's up really early he might have 4 naps but they're usually all short. On the whole his sleep has been better this week than the last couple so hopefully it continues to improve. He's growing out of his co-sleeper crib and we don't really have room for his cot in our room but I don't want to put him in his own room until he's reliably feeding only once between me going to bed and ALS getting up. I don't mind bringing him into our bed at around 6 am when ALS gets up but I'd rather not before that and I don't want to be traipsing around the house all night! It'll be hard work because I think I often soothe him back to sleep in his crib without realising it so even when I think he's sleeping for longer chunks he may not be but I won't really know until we move him.

Routine: Between his stomach symptoms and teething our routine has gone a bit out of the window but we're getting into a better routine with food. I generally give him some milk around 6 or 7 am and he snoozes for a bit longer then when he wakes up I give him his breakfast. He has lunch around 11:30-12 and dinner around 4-4:30 so he has plenty of time to digest his food before bedtime.

Likes/dislikes:  He likes playing with noisy toys at the moment and loves shakers/rattles. He seems to rather enjoy his teething gel too! He also seems to have got over his previous dislike of the car and it's been a while since we've had a meltdown (touch wood).

Firsts:  First (and second) tooth! First tastes of lots more foods - including proper meals such as pinwheels, pasta, pancakes, boiled egg.

Milestones:  We have TWO teeth this week - one of the bottom middle ones and one at the top to the side of the middle ones (he seems to be getting them in a random order)! For a few weeks he's been putting his arms up to be picked up, which I previously forgot to mention. He's also getting much better hand control - he can spoon feed himself pretty well if I load the spoon and although he's been able to put his own dummy in for a while, now if it's the wrong way round he can turn it around in his hands before bringing it to his mouth. He's also learned to throw this week... which is great for when he's decided he's had enough of his food. He's started giving kisses too when you ask for them, albeit rather open-mouthed! He's developing so quickly at the moment and learning new things every day.

Things we did: We had some friends round for a BBQ on Saturday and got the paddling pool out. On Monday we took him swimming (there was no lesson as it was a Bank Holiday). I did some meal prep at the weekend and made some fishcakes which I'm going to try him with tomorrow too!

Me: I seem to have stopped losing weight - probably because I'm now taking vitamins and eating anything and everything in sight. I'm feeling a little better with a bit more sleep but still quite overwhelmed with weaning (especially trying to avoid milk and possibly having to avoid wheat). It's also amazing how much salt is in things that you might not expect - a single crumpet contains nearly all of a baby's RDA of salt!

26 weeks 2 days - we went to a baby show and IKEA were giving out free teddy bears but OJ just wanted to chew the label!

26 weeks 2 days - paddling pool time! Looking at this photo it's hard to believe that he's below average weight for his age but they do say the camera adds 10 lb!