Email me
2005-06-18 - 9.34pm previous entry next entry
Standing and baby-led weaning and stuff
Thank you for the notes and messages again! Thanks for the congrats on my new niece (yes, she will call me Auntie Alice! Yay!), and for the wisdom over Arthur's bouncing (!) and also to Jeannie for reassuring me over my feelings about stuff. *hugs* And hmmm, the "me" time... I forgot about that, whoops! I am not sure what to do with myself though. I guess I come here and type. Mind you, lately I have been watching Pride and Prejudice, and over 3 days have managed to watch all 5 hours! :) I love Pride and Prejudice (that particular version anyway - the BBC one with Colin Firth). It relaxes me to disappear into it. So that has been nice.
I am STILL sick. Blah. I know my cold is lots better though. It's just that somebody filled my entire sinus cavity with sage and onion stuffing, or something. And I can hear like I'm underwater. And I have a bad cough. I am still achy and exhausted, but hopefully it will go away soon. I'm hoping over the weekend, since that is when I get to rest a little more with Neil around to help with Arthur. Anyway that is why I haven't updated for another couple of days. I have just felt crappy.
It's hot and huuumid today. Yuck. I've said it 2,495 times (!) and I'll say it again - I hate summer. I love the blue sky, and the green leaves, and the summer "smell" on the breeze (when I have my sense of smell, that is), and the birdies cheeping away till 9 or 10pm, and the lovely association with the memories of being out from school for the summer, and going on summer holidays. But I hate the heat. Even puny amounts of heat. Basically once it gets to 70 degrees I am moaning about it! But 70 degrees when it's not humid is gorgeous. Today it has been 85 though, and should be a bit hotter tomorrow. Yeurgh. We had all the windows open today but Arthur has been such a sticky little boy, even just wearing his nappy. He is like me with hot weather.
I think I am not that tolerant of sunlight. If I go out in it for just 30 minutes, even covered in sun cream and wearing a hat, I feel unwell by the evening. Usually feeling like I am getting flu or something, and not right in my tummy. I have noticed it too many summers running for it to be a coincidence. Also my arms get a horrible bumpy rash, and it's definitely not sun cream that my skin is reacting to. The only constant factor is the sun, as it has been happening since I was ten. My great aunt is allergic to the sun. She can't even walk in it now that she's elderly. She feels terribly ill and sometimes even faints, and it doesn't have to be hot sunshine, so it's not the heat. She gets a rash too. I hope I don't get like that, otherwise I will have to totally avoid the sun, and that would not be good! I am noticing that my symptoms are a bit worse than they were when I was in my teens though. Hmmm. Weird thing.
Okay, here is my scrumbly cutie-boy in a summer romper outfit playing with his jingle ball on the sofa. Obviously I don't leave him sitting on the sofa like that, but sometimes it's easier when I'm feeling yucky to sit on the floor and have him ABOVE me so that I don't have to congest my head further by reaching/looking down all the time. Anyway, he likes it there :) He is getting soooo good at sitting, and even balances perfectly on uneven squishy surfaces! Anyway, here is my lil gorgeous man:
And here he is after I'd snapped a few similarly smiley photos, and he was getting bored, hehe!...
Agghhhhhhhh, I love him so much that sometimes it's like someone really DID shoot me with an arrow through my heart like in the cartoons! Not in a bad way at all, just almost painful in its overwhelming physicalness. Yes, I know there's no such word as physicalness. There is now!
He is still not crawling, though now rocks on hands and knees with his knees drawn right up under him to his tummy. He mostly has his head down though, and doesn't seem to have figured out lifting both ends at once! On the few occasions that he has though, he seems happy just rocking. He rocks so violently, it's funny!
STILL no teeth. Aaargh! He even seems to have come down a bit from the bad teething he was having a few days ago. I'm sure it'll be back with a vengeance though, because he only usually gets a few days respite from teething pain. Why won't they come THROUGH?!!! Tsk.
Have recently noticed that when Arthur is getting upset about something, like he is tired and I put him in bed and get ready to nurse him, and he's impatient, or he's got himself stuck and starts yelling for help, that he moans, "Ma-mam... Ma-maa!" at these times. I just wonder.... I don't know if I'd call them real "mama" words, but he definitely makes those word sounds when he's cranky and wanting me to do something. I like it :) I refer to myself when I talk to him all the time, and when I do, I call myself Mummy or Mama. Often it's Mama, like when I say, "Mama's just going to the loo" or "Mama will be back in a minute", etc. I don't know why I use that name, since I always presumed to call myself Mummy, but I just seem to have settled on it as it seems easy. Anyway, that's the word he seems to be making when he's particularly wanting me for something. He won't say anything resembling it at any other time though, so I'm not sure!
I've decided to persue baby-led weaning completely now. Yesterday I tried Arthur on some very nice apple puree, and he made the most disgusted faces at me and spat it out. After that I went online and did some searches on baby-led weaning (coming up with very little) and then asked at a couple of parenting websites, whereupon I was given lots of good advice and much reassurance from others whose babies have not been interested in purees or at the "right" age, etc. And I joined a yahoo group especially about baby-led weaning! Yay! So far everyone has been really helpful and given me loads of advice.
At the moment I feel like I'm the only person in the world who is still exclusively breastfeeding her 7-month-and-one-week-old baby, because that's how people make me feel about it. Friends, family, anyone in the healthcare profession. But finally I have found people amongst whom I don't feel odd or wrong, and actually Arthur seems to be among the youngest of the babies there, which is lovely! They make me feel like I have nothing to be ashamed of if he's still taking only breastmilk at 8 months even. But we'll see how that goes.
As of today, Arthur will never be offered a puree of any sort again. Nor fed mushy slop from a spoon. UNLESS things go really wrong with any other method or something, or unless he suddenly really WANTS to be spoonfed some puree. Tomorrow (if his naps coincide) we are giving him some of our dinner. Just like that! We're having roast chicken and mashed potatoes. He can have some chicken, and I will make his potato with just breastmilk. If he hates it, then never mind, but even if he is interested in touching and handling the food, that would be good. I don't mind if he eats it off my plate. I think he will MUCH prefer food in this way, because he is so much more interested in our "grown-up" things than his toys or things that set him apart from us in any way. He gets most frustrated when he isn't allowed something of ours that he wants because we're using it or something! I think it's only fair that he be offered food the way he sees us eating it and finds it interesting. I don't blame him for rejecting the baby-food way. So we'll see how this goes, but I'm not going to stress too much about it. He'll eat when he's ready.
Um, what else? I ovulated, yay! But that was only the day before yesterday, and today I already have cramps and it's sore this evening when I nurse Arthur, and I have the odd spot on my neck (yucky pre-period sign for me, blah). So it seems that I am about to have the shortest luteal phase EVER, which sucks. I want them to lengthen! I don't want to have to choose in 5 months time between having another baby and night-weaning Arthur so that I am actually ABLE to conceive. I hope it evens out by itself. People say that when he's on solids it might even out more, but that would be because he is taking less milk and more nutrition through solids, and that is DEFINITELY not my aim, not till he's at least a year old anyway, no matter how much he ends up enjoying solids. And nooo, that's not because I have a hang-up about me being the sole source of his nutrition. It's because it's better for him that way (research-based, incase anyone objects!).
Dum-de-dum. What else can I write? Surely more has happened than this?! I have just not been well enough to take Arthur out of the house ALL week. I feel bad about that, but I really have been quite poorly so it's all I could manage to just look after him in the house on my own.
Next week Arthur is 7 and a half months old! How the time is flying!!
Oh oh oh, I know what I wanted to write! He stands and doesn't fall now, if he is holding onto something!!! If he is standing (which he is doing a LOT with me supporting him, as he loves it so much!), sometimes he puts his hands out and rests them on me, and then I can take my hands away (keeping them nearby!) and he will stand leaning on me for a while quite steadily! I saw this reflected in the mirror today and couldn't believe how weird it looked to see my tiny boy STANDING, with so little support! He seemed suddenly like such a big boy! Or else soooo tiny to be standing up on his lil leggies! His legs don't buckle as much now, unless he's bouncing, which he has started to do a little more when standing now. He can also stay standing with one hand on me, when twisting his top half round to see his daddy! Clever boy! :) He loves to stand. I will have to get some photos of him doing it. He always wears a HUGE smile when standing! He is so proud of himself!! Mind you, he wears a big smile most of the time :) My lovely smiley boy.
We are starting to shift things around upstairs so that we can change the layout of our bedroom. We are taking the darn cot-bed apart again and putting it in the loft. Tsk. I know we'll probably use it eventually though, like when he goes into his own bed, or maybe with another baby. But we decided to take apart the bedframe and make a proper family-bed on the floor, like the books recommend. That way we will have the most space (our kingsize mattress with his single mattress right against it, making the biggest bed EVER!!), and Arthur is not at risk of falling out once he starts crawling. The whole idea is a huge weight off to my mind, so the sooner we sort it out, the better. We just need to find a place to stow our huge bedframe! Neil moved the spare bed in the other bedroom, to make room for one of our wardrobes from our room. Then we need to move the other wardrobe to the opposite side of our room which should leave a huge space for a wall-full of mattresses! I can't wait. It sounds like the most heavenly bed. Spaaaaace. Comforrrrt. Saaafety. Permanent sleeping arraaaangements. No more clutterrrr. Ahhhh.
Oh, talking of sleep, Arthur is doing so well these days! He naps well in the day, and I don't know why, because I haven't done anything different! At least, I don't think I have. His daytime naps are great because he goes off to sleep easily on the breast, or if I pat his little bottom. Often he won't take me patting his bum but then if I just nurse him again he calms down and sleeps almost straight away. He has started sleeping past his normal 30 minute wake time almost every time now! I don't know why, but I'm not complaining! So his naps are a better length - usually between 1 hour and 1.5 hours, but he tends to sleep longer in the afternoon if I put him down late enough - over 2 hours usually. He seems to need more sleep in the day than the "average" baby his age. He is not quite able to cope with just 2 naps a day, no matter if they are a good length. I think he would manage if they were 2 hours long each. He just can't seem to go more than a couple of hours awake without getting tired and cranky, so if I go by that then he ends up with 3 naps a day still. Which is fine really. Today he had two because I tried stretching him out a little, but he was overtired and upset at bedtime so I won't do that again for a while.
At bedtime he goes to sleep much better, though it takes a little longer than at naptimes. He rarely tolerates me patting him to sleep, and just gets totally sad and cries :( He definitely likes the breast at bedtime! These last 3 or 4 days he has been super breast-clingy for some reason, and cries like he's heartbroken if I gently remove him when he's nearly asleep, or try a different method like patting.
Last night during one of his wakings he went back to sleep by himself without any help from us! And today, for the first time, he went to sleep by himself at naptime. Neil lay next to him on the bed, and Arthur fussed and turned this way and that, and then suddenly he was out! I like the little mannerisms that I can read on him now that tell me he is getting himself to sleep. He lifts his chin and makes such cute little movements with his mouth, pursing his lips and stuff, it's the cutest thing! I can't describe it well enough here.
He has been asleep now for maybe 2 and a half hours. He is dressed in just his nappy and a popper vest, and the fan is osscilating in the hallway, but it's still so muggy and warm in the bedroom. Our Grobag thermometer is lit up on 27 (81), which is the top of the thermometer and translates as "too hot" - bleurgh. He feels comfortable though - I keep checking his arms and legs.
Oh, since he got dehydrated with his cold-thingy, we have kept him in just one night nappy overnight, and not changed him between 12 and 2am, and he hasn't leaked! At first that wasn't so good because we wanted a sign that his hydration was improving, but now he is definitely much better and he wees lots, but he still doesn't leak in the one night nappy! Hooray! I think maybe he is still rehydrating, but hopefully we can keep things the way they are with the nappies at night. I keep going to make up a night nappy before I go to bed, and it's such fun to realise we don't need one!! :) He is less disturbed during the night because of this, and is easy to resettle when he wakes now. He does still wake between 5 and 6am and think it's time to get up! But after I nurse him, Neil usually lies with him in bed and he goes back to sleep after a while. If it gets to 6.30 and he's still wide awake, Neil takes him downstairs for the day :) This week I have been in the spare bedroom because I haven't been well. I would have kept both of them awake with my sneezing, nose-blowing and coughing. Not to mention tossing and turning, and constant fluffing of pillows, etc! I am glad though, because I think I have had better sleep for it, and I've needed that to help me recover. I will stay in the spare room till I am completely better I think. Although last night I nursed Arthur at 1am-ish, and next thing I knew I was waking up with his lovely little warm body curled against mine, and it was 3.15 :) Ah I love my little boy! I can't wait till we finalise our sleeping arrangements and I can get a good night's sleep in my own space, whilst still sleeping with my little one. AND managing to sleep with my husband at the same time, hehe!
Neil made THE most delicious dinner tonight. He made lamb and vegetable gratin. Gggggaaahhhhgggghhh. Soooo yummy! He is wonderful. And yet he still does not get rewarded with parsnips! Poor Neil. I need some different hormones.
Okay it's 9.30pm so I think I will turn in early and try to kick this cold once and for all. Plus I like the new position of the spare bed! I have always been so excited about sleeping in a room when the furniture has been rearranged! I used to spend all day on a weekend rearranging my bedroom furniture in my teens (and before that too), and then it was always sooo exciting to sleep in my new arrangement with a different view of my room for the next few nights. Like being somewhere different, but safe and familiar at the same time. I'm strange. But loveable! ;)
And it's bedtime for me. I'm just going to get a water refill and kiss my baby boy sooo gently that he doesn't even know about it, and then go to bed. Hopefully we'll have a good night!
Recent entries.....
Moving time... - 2009-01-04
Christmas Eve! - 2008-12-24
Long-overdue update, a few Nathey pics and a video clip :) - 2008-12-01
Lots of news! - 2008-11-03
Nathan at 8 months... - 2008-10-12