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 - 25 weeks

Age:  25 weeks

Weight: He was weighed at 24+5 weeks and was 14 lb 9 oz (6.62 kg) which is another pound on in 4 weeks and he's finally doubled his birth weight!  He's following his centiles nicely now which is a relief too.

Health: His nappies, reflux and eczema seemed to have improved quite nicely with me cutting out dairy but he's still not quite right - quite unsettled, lots of wind and not full resolution of the eczema.  As you'll see from the next paragraph we have started weaning and yesterday he had some avocado on toast which he loved - he didn't actually swallow much but he enjoyed chomping on it.  He was really unsettled all night, feeding every hour, a couple of really runny nappies and a lot of wind then today he's woken up with a nasty eczema flare on his face and had 2 nappy explosions, both of which have caused a rash on his back wherever the poop touched them (despite it being cleaned up within less than 5 minutes).  He had such a tiny amount that it may be coincidental but we are going to try avocado and toast separately in a few days to see if either causes the reaction - we think it may be bread as it has soya in it and it's not uncommon for babies with CMPA to have soya allergy too (and would explain why he improves off dairy but not entirely).

Feeding: He's still breastfeeding 2 hourly most of the time but has been going up to 3 hours at some point during the night most nights.  As I mentioned above the Health Visitor who weighed him gave us the go ahead to start weaning and suggested finger foods so we cracked on with baby-led weaning.  He has tried steamed broccoli and carrots which he wasn't keen on - he didn't seem to mind the taste but they were so soft he was having trouble holding on to them, they kept slipping out of his grip or just squashing in his hands.  He fed himself a little potato puree with a spoon which was a hit.  As mentioned above he really enjoyed avocado on toast and he loves sucking on a hard slice of apple or pear (as we found out when he stole mine and Ant's fruit).  He had a bit of omelette this morning with no obvious reaction so hopefully there's no egg allergy!  I'm really enjoying the weaning, even if it is a little scary, and he seems to be enjoying it too.

Sleep: Sleep has been up and down, we had a few nights where he was really settled until around 1 am then fed every couple of hours, got in bed with me at 6 am and slept until almost 9, which was great.  However, last night (possibly due to the food issue above) he fed almost every hour and was really upset in between - I finally caved and put him in bed with me around 5:30 am and he managed to sleep until just after 8 am but there was a lot of fidgeting and trumping!

Routine: I'm really struggling with wanting to take him to groups as they all fall around naptime. He's settled himself into a routine where he'll have about 45 minutes sleep in a morning, around 10 am, half an hour at lunchtime (around 1 or 1:30 pm) then a good 90 minutes-2 hours around 4:30 pm and all the classes are either 9:30-11 which hit his morning nap or 1:30-3 which hits his lunchtime nap and if I keep him awake when he's tired he then really struggles to get to sleep so I feel he's missing out.  Hopefully we will be able to start going to some afternoon classes once he drops his middle nap.  The only exception to this is swimming which is at 1 pm and unavoidable.  However, by the time we've got him home, bathed and fed it's around half 2 and a nightmare trying to get him to sleep so I wouldn't want to do it for other groups - I love swimming with him but dread Mondays for that reason!  

Likes/dislikes:  He's been moaning constantly for the last 4 days and just generally grumpy.  He's been really chewing at his fingers so I thought he might be teething but there's no red gums and we've been in this position before - I'm assuming it may be a developmental leap.  So this week he basically dislikes EVERYTHING!  He's only really enjoyed eating and swimming this week - although he did love the paddling pool at the weekend.  He does however love his Wubbanub dummy toy  because he can get it in his mouth easily and he likes holding onto the cuddly part and fiddling with it.

Firsts:  First paddling pool experience, first tastes of solid foods, first trip to the farm - it's been a busy week!

Milestones: He's FINALLY doubled his birth weight which is a big one for us, considering how slow he was to gain weight in the beginning!  I guess the big milestone this week is starting weaning and we're all having so much fun with it - it's great that daddy is home for a few hours in the middle of the day as it means he gets to join in too.

Things we did: We bought a paddling pool at the weekend and took OJ in it for a little bit - but typically it got cold and rainy 10 minutes later!  We went with some friends and their children to a farm park, again we got rained on and called it a day earlier than we would have liked (we were prepared for OJ but neither ALS nor I had a coat, dumb parents).  We had a massive blitz of our living room on Sunday and finally got everything organised, got some pictures on the wall and generally tidied the space up.  We've spent lots of time experimenting with foods and reading about weaning in the last few days and today we had a nice visit from ALS' parents.

Me: Honestly I'm a bit exasperated this week - I'm still full of cold so finding it hard to sleep and when I finally do manage to sleep OJ wakes up wanting a feed.  As I mentioned above he's been grumpy and making a constant moaning noise which is very draining and I feel like I'm not keeping him happy, which makes me sad.  I'm also dropping weight again and I'm now sitting at 53.1 kg (5.4 kg below my pre-pregnancy weight and a good deal lighter than I can ever remember being).  People keep commenting on it but I really have no idea what to do - I'm eating well and eating good amounts, even adding in dairy-free brownies and cookies to get some extra calories in!  It may be from breastfeeding and OJ stealing all my nutrients, along with the cold, but generally I only drop weight so rapidly when I'm having a flare of my illness and it's a sign of bad things to come... hopefully that isn't the case though.

24 weeks 1 day - finally back asleep after a 3 am wake up with his silly cough.

24 weeks 1 day - snoozing on his walk.

24 weeks 1 day - another nap, trying to catch up on his sleep so I slid away and replaced myself with a cushion (it didn't fool him for long).

24 weeks 2 days - using the paddling pool as a ball pit whilst daddy cut the grass.

24 weeks 2 days - "Are you nearly done yet daddy?"

24 weeks 2 days - finally in the paddling pool... for all of 10 minutes before it rained!

24 weeks 3 days - knackered from his trip to the farm.

24 weeks 5 days - first ever solid food, he wasn't convinced because he just kept squashing it and there was nothing left by the time he reached his mouth, he also didn't seem keen on the texture as he was pulling faces just touching it.

24 weeks 5 days - 10 minutes later he was happy to steal daddy's pear and have a good munch!

24 weeks 5 days - a little later on he spoon fed himself (and the table and me and the high chair and the floor and the cats) a little mashed potato which he rather enjoyed.

24 weeks 5 days - then he STILL stole some of my apple 10 minutes later!

24 weeks 6 days - absolutely loved his avocado on toast.

24 weeks 6 days - snuggling his Wubbanub!

25 weeks - serious face trying to get at the camera while I tried to take a picture of his nasty eczema (which looks fine on this photo).

25 weeks - omelette time!

25 weeks - decided the bib was tastier than the omelette...!

Baby Update - 24 weeks

Age:  24 weeks (except I'm posting a day late because I was too ill yesterday... and this is the second time I've typed it up because I did it this morning and it didn't save for some reason)

Weight: He is due to be weighed in a few days time so I'll update next week.

Health: He's had a nasty cough and cold this week, which he's kindly shared with me.  He's still been pretty chirpy but it's taken its toll on him a little!  It's hard to tell how his reflux is because he's coughing and vomiting so much anyway.

Feeding: He's getting much quicker at feeding now and all feeds tend to be under 10 minutes unless he's sleepy.  He's also really easily distracted.  He feeds 2 hourly most of the time but he usually goes for 4 hours in a morning - he'll feed around 6 am, sleep for a couple of hours then wake up and play until around 10 am, which is nice for letting me have a lie in when daddy's around to get up with him!

Sleep: Sleep hasn't been great but that's to be expected with him being all congested and coughing a lot.  However, the night before last he did go from 8:30 pm until 1:30 am which is the longest stretch we've had in a LONG time, I thought my boobs were going to explode!  When he naps in the day he regularly does this weird whining/crying thing in his sleep (it occasionally wakes him up) but never at night, it's really odd.

Routine: Nope... that's all I have to say about that!

Likes/dislikes:  He's absolutely loving swimming at the moment, we even got a smile after a submersion the other day for the first time.  He's really enjoying crinkly toys too and loves to chew on a spoon (or two).  He's really not a fan of being still, in fact I don't think he is EVER still.

Firsts:  First nasty cold, first time out in the sunshine without having to be bundled in warm clothes and blankets!

Milestones: He's really coming along with his sitting and can sit for a good 20 minutes or so, or until he sees something he wants that is out of reach and throws himself towards it!  He's also transferring objects (he has been for a few weeks but I keep forgetting) between hands and has learned to shake his rattles rather than just chewing on them.  He's so close to rolling back to front too - he can basically do it but when he realises he's on his front, rather than pulling his arm from under him he just rolls himself back over, which isn't surprising considering if we put him on his tummy he just rolls straight over.  He tends to be happiest on his side!

Things we did: We had a relatively quiet weekend, OJ spent lots of time with daddy whilst I prepared a load of purees for weaning.  However, I have decided I'd rather do baby led weaning so I'll probably end up using most of the purees in porridge etc. or just giving him the spoon and letting him go to town by himself.  For the last few days we've not really done much as we've both been poorly but we've had a couple of nice sunny walks and today we've cracked down on reorganising our living room and moving all the furniture into better positions so that OJ has more floor space.

Me: I'm absolutely full of cold and exhausted from both of us being poorly.  As OJ won't take a bottle and has been comfort feeding through his cold I'm having trouble fighting off my own cold.  ALS is amazing and takes as much of the pressure off as he can but unfortunately he doesn't have breasts!

23 weeks 1 day - still a bit too small for his 3-6 month outfit from his aunty in Australia but he's rocking the Simon Cowell look, don't you think?

23 weeks 1 day - he loves Lucozade bottles so I've made him some shakers, including the one between his legs, but he still insists on taking the one I'm drinking from!

23 weeks 1 day - happily munching on a spoon whilst mummy gets ready for weaning - he's a few weeks off starting yet but I like to be prepared.

23 weeks 2 days - loves a good selfie.

23 weeks 3 days - wakes up, goes for a snuggle with daddy, steals his phone... standard Sunday morning.

23 weeks 3 days - poorly boy snuggling my boob after lots of coughing fits and some milk to make it better.

23 weeks 4 days - 4 am wake up call with lots of coughing and sneezing, poor little mite.

23 weeks 4 days - fast asleep again by 7 am after lots of milk and snuggles.

23 weeks 5 days - sitting up like a pro!

23 weeks 5 days - isn't he just the cutest?!

23 weeks 5 days - he was ignoring his toys and trying to eat my foot but caught me when I tried to take a photo... I think his face says it all!

23 weeks 6 days - in his first summer outfit looking smiley because he learned how to share (his cold) and then looking thoughtful because I told him he didn't need to share everything and I didn't really want it - I jest, he was trying to figure out an answer on The Chase haha!

23 weeks 6 days - is this how baby led weaning works? (Disclaimer:  We haven't started weaning early or given him a whole packet of snacks, the packet wasn't open but he loves playing with anything that crinkles).

24 weeks - another 4 am start but with daddy this time, lucky daddy had him back asleep in half an hour and he was still like this when I got up at 8 am.

24 weeks - impromptu trip out in his little sunhat (cue me panicking because he would be too hot in the footmuff but I didn't have anything else to cover him with and I had nothing to shade his face... I was much more prepared later on when we went out again).

I'm a big advocate of home cooked food for babies but there will be times where we are in a pinch and need something practical (such as at competitions) so we've stocked up on these goodies for special occasions.  How awesome are the Ella's Kitchen pouches with the attachable spoons?  OJ should be able to have a good go at feeding himself with those too!  Also, we are low on storage space in the kitchen and need to reorganise so for now we are using an empty cat food box to store all his bits and bobs... whatever works, right?