Baby Update - 43 weeks old

Age:  43 weeks... a day late again, someone hates sleep.

Weight: He was due to be weighed this week at his Health Visitor review (which was cancelled for another 4 weeks) so I went and got him weight by myself.  He was 8.25 kg or 18 lb 3 oz.  He's almost reached the 25th centile!  His length was 71.5 cm and head circumference was 46.7 cm.

Health: We're still going through it!  His first molar has cut through - 9 teeth before he's 10 months old, crazy!  His reflux seemed to be really troubling him at night, including waking up to vomit, so we've been giving him Gaviscon before bed which seemed to help a bit.  He also has a cold now so he's struggling to sleep because he can't breathe properly.  We've been managing him as best we can but he's rather grumpy.  The Health Visitor who weighed him spotted the eczema on his cheeks and said we ought to see the doctor - I've been mentioning it to doctors and Health Visitors for months and they've always told me it's nothing to worry about!  We've managed to get an appointment next Friday for his reflux and eczema.

Feeding: He's been wanting a bit more milk, probably to soothe the discomfort from the reflux, but still eating solids relatively well.  He's eating more solids now than the last few weeks but that might be because I'm sticking to relatively safe foods - my meal plan has gone out of the window because it's rare I get any time when he's asleep to do anything and it ends up being taken up cleaning, eating, cooking, showering, sorting out stuff for my potential business or doing my blog.

Sleep: We've relatively stuck to the 6 pm bedtime, a little later if he's had a late nap and it's certainly not made things any worse.  Whatever time he goes to bed he seems to be up at 6, the last couple of nights he's not managed to get to sleep until around 9 pm and still been up (happily) at 6.  The Gaviscon did give me a bit of respite from his constant feeding for a night or so but then he got this stupid cold.  It's hard to judge because a lot of the time I deal with him without properly waking up or looking at the time.  Often on the nights I think have been the worst my Fitbit tells me I've barely moved in the night and nights like last night, where I thought I'd only fed him twice, I was apparently moving so much it thought I was awake for a solid 3 hours!  The Fitbit isn't very reliable for sleep because it doesn't have a heart monitor so it just goes on movement which means I could be moving but asleep or awake but lying still. 

Routine: We started to get in a reasonable routine for 2 days then the reflux started keeping him awake, then he got the cold so we're basically just trying to follow his lead and get him as much rest as possible for now.

Likes/dislikes:  He absolutely detests anything that involves keeping him still: nappy changes, getting dressed, wiping his hands/face, putting him in his car seat.  He loves being thrown around and tipped upsidedown.  

Firsts:  First molar.  First August bank holiday animal trip (it's a tradition of ours).     

Milestones:  He's trying hard to stand by himself and getting quite brave.  He's getting better and clambering over obstacles or moving things out of his way to get to where he wants to go.  He's cut his first molar this week too, probably when we had a couple of nights of screamy wake ups.  

Things we did: On Friday ALS' parents came to visit.  On Saturday morning we went swimming then we had some friends round for pizza and to watch movies (Sharknado 6 and Jurassic Games... classics).  On Monday, as it was Bank Holiday, we went to White Post Farm.  I loved it there as a kid and it was wonderful to take OJ.  ALS and I accidentally fell into a tradition of going to some sort of animal attraction on August bank holiday weekend from the first year we got together so it was nice to have our first one as a family of 3!  We've done lots of walking this week - on Tuesday morning we walked to get OJ weighed then in the afternoon went for another little walk, on Wednesday morning we walked to the hospital for my blood tests then walked to playgroup in the afternoon and this morning we walked to a cafe near town for my business meeting with the lady from the Princes Trust.

Me: I got my blood test results back today and they're all okay so I've got a phone consultation with the doctor next Friday.  I'm pretty sure I'm starting to catch OJ's cold which is annoying as hell.  I'm working hard on trying to get my business set up so that I can work from home and have been busy applying to agencies for freelancing and writing up my business plan.  Hopefully the Princes Trust are going to provide me with a small grant to get a foot pedal and the software that I need for the audio dictation.  I'm really keen to get cracking but when OJ refuses to sleep it's hard to get anything done!

42 weeks 1 day - 2 years ago we were knee deep in stims ready for egg collection and now we have this little squishy face!

42 weeks 1 day - still not feeling himself and wanting lots of snuggles.

42 weeks 1 day - bedtime and the third successful put down of the day after 2 good naps!

42 weeks 2 days - the kid LOVES berries.

42 weeks 3 days - leftover pizza from having our friends over, comparison to illustrate just how big Costco pizzas are.  18 inch five cheese pizza for £8.95.  WIN.

42 weeks 4 days - little man squealing his little head off in excitement at the animals!

42 weeks 4 days - "Hmmm... can I eat them?"

42 weeks 5 days - he loves breaking things (ripping up paper, snapping breadsticks etc.) but then he tried to eat the paper so we swiftly cleared it away.

42 weeks 5 days - kid loves a good pear!

42 weeks 6 days - wrapped up all snug on the walk to the hospital, thank goodness the weather has cooled down.

42 weeks 6 days - look at that cheeky grin!  He's the spitting image of baby me here, I can see why he gets mistaken for a girl, although I used to get mistaken for a boy.

42 weeks 6 days - napping on mummy which is a rarity these days, he started with the sneezes a few hours after this!

42 weeks 6 days - munching away!

42 weeks 6 days - finally asleep after 2 and a half hours of feeding, walking, rocking, singing my way through Andrew Lloyd Webber's back catalogue (with a few Disney songs too).  Gaviscon seemed to do the trick in the end.  I didn't realise he had a cold at this point, until he woke up all snotty 2 hours later.

43 weeks - still trying to steal my food but the poor little man is full of cold, so we watched Moana.

43 weeks - napping while mummy works on her business plan and drinks hot chocolate!

43 weeks - slept for 20 minutes then woke up screaming, he was drifting off on the sofa while I tidied up then daddy came home and he started flapping!

43 weeks - still awake, watching Blue Planet with mummy.

I came across this the other day and realised that I hadn't been sharing pictures of our faces and I decided it was too nice not to share.  This was 3rd July so OJ would have been just over 8 months.  He was asleep with me, ALS came to bed and OJ rolled over and snuggled up to his daddy.  It was such a beautiful moment and so nice to get a family photo of all 3 of us for once!

Baby Update - 42 weeks old

Age:  42 weeks, posted a day late because let's face it I'm just unreliable!

Weight: I wasn't going to get him weighed until his Health Visitor review next week but we ended up in A&E again at the weekend so they weighed him and he was around 8.2 kg (he wouldn't sit still enough for an entirely accurate reading) but that puts him at almost 18 lb exactly!  If that is accurate that means he's put on 1 lb 6 oz in just over 4 weeks which is AMAZING and the most he's ever put on in a month, despite the fact that weight gain usually slows down at this age.  He's definitely getting chunkier and growing taller too.

Health: The poor little man has really been through the ringer this week.  He woke up with a temperature pf 38.5 on Saturday and was really clingy, sleepy and cuddly (which is NOT like him at all).  He kept letting out little high pitched noises which sounded like he was in pain so we gave him some Calpol.  The Calpol took an hour to bring his temperature down to 37.5 but within 2 hours it was back up to 38.6 and he was really lethargic and breathing really fast.  I rang 111 for some advice and they arranged an appointment at the Urgent Care Centre just before 5pm.  When we saw the nurse his temperature was 39 and by the time we saw the doctor 10 minutes later it had gone up to 39.9!  They gave him some Calpol and left it half an hour to work but it only brought his temperature down to 38.6 which was concerning to them.  The doctor thought he might have some crackles on his chest so he offered us either a 2 week course of antibiotics or asked us to go to A&E.  I was pretty sure it wasn't a chest issue as he had no symptoms of a chest infection so we opted to go to A&E and they confirmed that his chest was fine but were concerned about his temperature.  They gave him some ibuprofen along with the Calpol and eventually it came down and he perked up so we were allowed home.  They expected him to get ill over the next 48 hours but he doesn't seem to have had an infection or virus.  However, on the Sunday and Monday nights he woke up screaming with what seemed like teething issues and settled with teething gel and Calpol.  Yesterday he started spitting up in a reflux-y manner again (7 times after dinner/milk).  We think it's all down to teething, although I'd be surprised if it had caused a temperature that high.  He seems to have a top molar coming through... poor kid really isn't getting a break from these teeth but at least we're getting them all out of the way early I guess. This afternoon he's seemed to be teething again and lay on me cuddling for around half an hour which is unheard of, normally I'm lucky if I get 2 seconds of cuddles!

Feeding: Food has been much the same, rather hit and miss.  He's wanted a bit more milk so I'm just following his lead.  He still eats well at breakfast and then usually eats well at dinner.  By 9 months they are meant to have snacks too but honestly I don't think he'd eat anything at mealtimes if I introduced snacks - lunch is usually the time he doesn't eat much at all and I'm guessing it's because he's not hungry, as it doesn't seem to matter what food he has.  I'm not at all concerned as he's putting plenty of weight on so I'm just going to continue to offer a healthy variety of foods, breastfeed on demand and let him guide me.

Sleep: I've done a LOT of reading about sleep this week.  We've decided to parent him to sleep rather than putting him down to sleep and are happy to continue to feed/rock him to sleep as long as necessary.  Unfortunately ALS works evenings so is rarely around to help which means feeding is the primary association and makes it hard for ALS to help out even when he is here.  We've moved the bedroom around AGAIN so the cot is against the wall, on the lowest setting with one side removed and our mattress is on the floor pushed up against it making one big bed.  ALS is now back in the bedroom and the weather has finally cooled down.  We had a couple of rough nights where it was hot again and ALS thought it might have been his presence but last night was a little better.  Today we've started following a new nap routine whereby he goes for a nap 2 hours after waking, then again 3 hours after waking from the first nap then bedtime 4 hours after waking from the second nap.  He was up at 6, napped from 8:15-10, napped from 1:15-2ish and then has gone down to bed happily at 6.  He doesn't normally go to bed until 7 but he's often tired earlier (last time we tried an earlier bedtime he was up at 3 am so we usually try to stretch him out until 7) so hopefully he won't be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow!  I'm hoping this works as I'd been trying to find a pattern in the times he slept rather than the length of waking, which hadn't worked as he gets up at a different time every morning and therefore naps at different times etc.

Routine: If the above plan works, which I'd like to be hopeful about but I know OJ has his own agenda normally, he will get up around 6, breakfast at 7, nap at 8, lunch at 11:30-12, nap at 1-2, dinner at 4:30 and bed at 6.  I'd rather him go to sleep at 7 and wake up at 7 if he's going to do 12 hours so I'll be taking advantage of the clocks going back in October to hopefully change his pattern naturally.  However, I'm not expecting him to sleep 12 hours at night, even with wakings, and I am fully expecting today to have been a one off with how easily he went down for his naps and bed.  I'm tempted to stop bathtimes before bed (every other night) and do them in the afternoon instead as he gets really frustrated getting dried and dressed when he's getting tired so it doesn't put him in a good state for bedtime.

Likes/dislikes:  He doesn't like nappy changes any more as they require being still but he does enjoy grabbing his bits whilst you try and change him!  He loves anything that's not meant to be a toy - plastic cups, TV remotes, baby wipes etc.  His current favourite food is peas.  He dislikes being still and is starting to not like strangers or anyone who isn't me, although ALS is still an acceptable substitute most of the time.

Firsts:  First proper soft play experience.  First time being poorly and snuggly all day.   

Milestones:  He's starting to really cruise around the furniture and stooping down to pick up toys.  He's learned how to put his stacking rings onto the stand and also how to drop a ball into a tube and find it underneath.  He's getting vocal at the moment and really sounds like he's trying to communicate, as if his babble actually has meaning, although nothing that sounds like words.  He's in size 4 nappies now as well.

Things we did: On Friday I took him for a long walk around the local park in the morning, but he slept the whole time.  On Saturday he was poorly so we watched the first 2 Jurassic Park movies and then spent most of the late afternoon/evening in Urgent Care and A&E.  On Sunday we went to see our friends at a powerlifting competition but I spent most of it outside walking around with OJ in the pushchair trying to get him to sleep and we left around lunchtime as OJ was clearly still feeling under the weather so we just chilled out for the rest of the day.  On Monday OJ and I went into town for a meeting about benefits to help with childcare.  On Wednesday my mum and grandparents came to visit and then today we took OJ to a soft play centre for an hour or so.

Me: I've been to the doctors this morning regarding the weight loss (I'm now 49.7 kg) and pain in my joints.  My little fingers have been getting stuck and I've been having to bend them manually and I'm also having a lot of neck pain radiating up into my head and down my arm.  I think the neck pain might actually be a trapped nerve as my arm feels weak and I'm struggling to hold OJ in it.  The GP has ordered some blood tests and if they come back normal she will want to investigate the weight loss further as it is quite concerning.  On the job front, I went to discuss benefits to help pay for childcare and ended up managing to get set up on a free course by the Princes Trust to help with starting up my own freelancing typing business so I'm getting on with that in my own time and have a mentor who is going to help me!  I'm feeling generally quite positive at the moment.  I've banned the TV from being on during the day so that OJ and I spent more quality time together (other than 20 minutes in a morning while I get some breakfast) and I'm also keeping my phone out of the way so I'm paying better attention.  Hopefully this will help our relationship, aid his development and maybe give me a better idea of what he wants when he's trying to communicate his needs. 

41 weeks 1 day - our local park is absolutely packed during the school holidays, but not at 9 o'clock in the morning!

41 weeks 2 days - we started the day by falling asleep on mummy whilst watching Jurassic Park.

41 weeks 2 days - then he had another nap on the sofa.

41 weeks 2 days - then he fell asleep on daddy while mummy was making lunch.

41 weeks 2 days - we managed to get a beautiful smile during the hour where the Calpol was working (taken on ALS' new phone, the camera is amazing).

41 weeks 2 days - he quickly went back to feeling rough and just flopped down and fell asleep like this...

41 weeks 2 days - ...so I took him off to bed for a proper nap.

41 weeks 2 days - finally he perked up in A&E after the medicines kicked in but he only wanted to play with the plastic cups, despite there being lots of toys.

41 weeks 2 days - finally at home in bed, fast asleep with his little bum in the air and his nappy sticking out because he was too upset to let me dress him properly when we left A&E.

41 weeks 4 days - waiting for daddy to meet us in the shopping centre and mesmerised by the sensory tubes.

41 weeks 4 days - new books from the library are always popular, especially "That's Not My..." books.

41 weeks 4 days - falling asleep while trying to climb over my legs!

41 weeks 4 days - woke up screaming with his teeth and wanted mummy snuggles.

41 weeks 5 days - that was after 1/4 of a raspberry, he looked a lot worse by the time he'd finished a handful of raspberries and blackberries!

41 weeks 5 days - where has my tiny baby gone?  He looks so grown up in his big boy PJs!

41 weeks 6 days - even the Hulk likes to read sometimes.

41 weeks 6 days - the Hulk also likes to eat his books.

42 weeks - climbing over my baby barricade, nothing is safe nowadays!

42 weeks - super early morning, then nap refusal led to me just plonking him in the pushchair in front of the TV until he fell asleep so I could nap too!

42 weeks - a selection of photos from soft play (again on ALS' new phone), I love the bottom right but I can't help but see how gaunt I look on the bottom left!

Baby Update - 41 weeks old

Age:  41 weeks, posted a day late because we were changing around our sleeping arrangements (again) last night!

Weight: He was due to be weighed a couple of days ago but we were in Cambridge.  However, we've had a letter through saying that he has his 9-12 month Health Visitor review on 28th August so I may as well just wait for her to weigh him then.

Health: He's been a little bit reflux-y on and off but nothing too bad, mostly just vomiting a bit rather than being in pain etc.

Feeding: Breakfast continues to be great - this morning he had TWO whole Weetabix!  Lunch and dinner are hit and miss.  Today he polished off a sausage, sweet potato muffin, corn on the cob, peas and a banana for dinner but at lunch he had about 2 bites of almond butter on toast and that was it.  You win some, you lose some.  As I've been ill we've had no meal plans and then we were away for a couple of days this week so he's basically just been having quick, easy meals.  We'll get back onto plan next week and give him a bit more variety!  He barely has milk during the day now, other than before a nap.  Even when he wants it he gets distracted pretty quickly.

Sleep: Sleep is very much the same.  The other night we moved back into our bedroom with OJ in the cot and me on the mattress on the floor (so I can bring him in with me if needs be).  He settled perfectly at 7:30.  He woke at 8:30, 11:15 and 2 but each time settled with just a quick feed and then at 4 I fed him in bed with me and he stayed there until 6.  That was a good night... although now I see it in writing it doesn't sound so great!  Last night, however, he was tired earlier so I took him to bed at 6:45, he didn't settle until 7:30 then slept until 10:30.  However he was awake until 11, settled back down until 2 and then was awake again until 2:30 when I brought him into bed with me.  He then woke again at 4:45 and 5:45 before finally getting up at 6:30. We're really determined to work on it now that the weather has cooled down a little so fingers crossed we get somewhere with a little perseverance. 

Routine: We were away for a couple of days this week so there's been no sort of routine at all.  However his lack of routine meant that he coped wonderfully with the disruption while we were away!

Likes/dislikes:  He loves dummies... he'll sleep with one in his mouth and hold onto another, usually his Wubbanub, so we're going to have a battle getting it off him in the next few months!  He likes nursery rhymes and being thrown around in the air.  He loves crawling around, exploring and generally getting into mischief and is happiest when he's on his feet.  He likes ripping things/pulling things apart too (such as his Bright Starts Lots of Links). He dislikes nursery rhymes if you try and hold his hands and make him do the actions!  He's also developing a distaste for getting dressed, probably because it's been too hot to wear clothes that he's forgotten what they are!

Firsts:  First city break/mini family holiday (unless you count that disaster of a weekend in Manchester).  First crisps... our friends in Cambridge gave him a couple of Quavers, I decided against making an issue out of it and he didn't like them anyway haha!  

Milestones:  He's developing so quickly at the moment.  He's getting really confident on his feet and pulling up on everything - we've lowered his cot right to the bottom setting today.  The other day he used my legs (I was sat on the floor) to get onto his hands and feet then straightened up and stood unassisted for a good 5-6 seconds which thoroughly surprised me!  He's pretty much figured out how to put his stacking rings on the stand too.  We have officially registered him for nursery as well... I'm really pleased with the one we've chosen but I'm going to miss my baby, especially as I'll be away from him for even longer than he's in nursery.

Things we did: On Friday we went out for lunch with my mum and grandparents.  On Saturday we went swimming and the rest of the weekend was spent just chilling and doing bits around the house.  On Tuesday we went to Cambridge to meet our honeymoon friends with their little boy, who is 2 months younger than OJ, and stayed there until Wednesday.  It's been a busy week!

Me: I'm finally starting to feel human again and trying to get out walking now the weather is cooler in an attempt to regain some energy.  I'm trying to get organised in terms of going back to work: sorting out our expenses, applying for benefits to help with nursery costs, getting ALS' accounts up to date and realistically I need to get my Christmas shopping done (I know, I know, it's only August but time is flying) before I go back to work, so that I don't have it all to do on my days off when I want to be spending time with OJ.

40 weeks 1 day - evidence of the dummy addiction, usually he holds the actually dummy part rather than the toy cat though.

40 weeks 2 days - they gave us chance to take some photos at the end of swimming this week which was lovely!

40 weeks 2 days - blowing bubbles.

40 weeks 2 days - when the baby is asleep in the car and you want him to have a decent nap there's only one thing left to do!

40 weeks 4 days - my little boy is starting to get chunky <3

40 weeks 4 days - one of his new sleeping positions, which only lasted around 5 minutes before he got up again (typical, as I needed to pack for the trip to Cambridge).

40 weeks 4 days - snuggling up and watching TV while mummy tries to get sorted for going away.

40 weeks 4 days - finally stops fidgeting and falls asleep, has to be moved because he's at risk of suffocation *sigh*

40 weeks 5 days - matching outfits are the cutest!  ALS bought these for Christmas and I've been (impatiently) waiting for OJ to grow into his, it's only 3-6 months but it's American and their clothes always come up big.  Even now he's almost 10 months it's still big on him!

40 weeks 5 days - this is how he likes to sit in the pushchair, typical bloke!

40 weeks 5 days - little monster grabbed my ice cream and stuffed his face in it whilst I wasn't looking!

40 weeks 5 days - he was so tired that he fell asleep at around 7 in the car on the way to the hotel and we managed to get him out, check into the hotel and get him down on the bed without him waking up!  Normally we can't even stop the car without him waking.

40 weeks 5 days - his sleep didn't last long though, so we got his big boy PJs on!

40 weeks 5 days - refusing to go to sleep after his little power nap.

40 weeks 5 days - snuggling with daddy watching Hotel Transylvania 2!

40 weeks 6 days - these chairs are a great idea in toilets BUT they are super high up on the wall and the straps don't tighten any more than this (I know OJ is petite but still) so I had to pee with one hand on him so he didn't fall off.

40 weeks 6 days - it's been a LONG time since he's napped on me but he was all out of sorts from the couple of days away and had been being quite sicky, possibly due to the ice cream the day before, so we had snuggles.  I've missed this if I'm honest!  I was so desperate to get him to sleep somewhere other than on me so that I could do things but the day he decided he wouldn't nap on me any more was pretty sad.

41 weeks - standing up on everything and completely ignoring my baby barricade.

41 weeks - finally tall enough to pull up on the sofa, just in time to steal daddy's pear!

41 weeks - eating dinner on mummy's lap after a minor meltdown because he bit his lip :(