Email me
2005-05-12 - 2.00pm previous entry next entry
Here we are, full time!! Solids and stuff...
I�m here!! Ooh a new diary. I miss the old one :( But hey ho. It�s hardly any different really. You�re all still here, and I like the colours and the picture of Arthur :) So I am sure I�ll get used to it.
I have about 0.2 seconds to actually type anything, since Arthur is getting bored already watching me on the computer. He is playing with his musical bug thing but it�s getting old. We need to go out now and buy more teething powder. He is teething again (hurry UP tooth!) and we ran out of the nice nice powder yesterday. It does seem to help him, and he always opens his mouth for it and sticks his tongue out for me to put the powder on if he needs it! It�s so sweet. He keeps his mouth closed if he doesn�t need it and I offer it to him. Clever boy :)
Well. What to write? We are going away tomorrow for a long weekend � I didn�t get chance to write about this in my pregnancy/Arthur diary because I don�t know why. Time got away from me, or else the subject slipped my mind when I was updating. But anyway, I think I said here a couple of entries back, my grandparents are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary and we are all (my entire family of 9 people!) going to stay at my parents� house in France to celebrate together :) That sounds so nice. I am looking forward to it, but urghhh we are so tired and the journey doesn�t thrill me. It�s such a quick flight, but the weather is going to be rubbish tomorrow. And the stupid darn flight leaves at 9.45am. With check in, parking and driving there, we have to get up around 5am. Bleurgh. Sooooo not looking forward to that.
I posted an entry just before this one with all the links to Arthur�s video clips. They are all in my pregnancy journal but they ought to be here as well.
Ooooooh!!! Arthur is obviously trying to get my attention, because he just did a NEW thing while I was typing!! He has always rolled from back to tummy, and only rolled from tummy to back like two or three times since 4 months old, and those seemed by mistake. He gets frustrated on his tummy because he tires himself out and can�t roll onto his back. But just now he rolled from his tummy to his back!!! I had to stop and clap and say �Yaaaaaay!� and stuff :) Then after finishing his minute-long beaming smile (!!) he rolled back onto his tummy again, and IMMEDIATELY rolled back onto his back!!! Now he�s like a little roly-poly thing as I type this � tummy, back, tummy, back! But only one way though. Yay for Arthur getting more roly :)
I am baking another bran loaf. It was that good :) I�m taking it to France for my family to marvel at.
Arthur has forgotten how he rolled now and is fussing on his tummy. I had better go and rescue him, and buy those teething powders. His cheeks are all puffy and red. I wish that first tooth would get a move on! I am fully expecting it before the end of this month, given that it is his 7th month and that�s when Neil and I got our first teeth. C�mon toothie!!
Ohh no wait, I can�t stop yet � I have to tell you briefly about solids. We�re quitting them. Arthur had rice cereal and breastmilk on day two and sincerely disliked it! He spent most of the time giving me a very odd look, a very weird grimace and tucking his chin onto his chest to avoid me! So I chucked it away. I tasted it myself, and yuck oh yuck, I don�t blame him for not liking the stuff! It�s so bland and blah. So I researched (for hours) online that night and decided to skip the rice and try him on a veg or fruit. I had planned to start him on carrot first so I just did that yesterday. I actually finally decided to try the �baby-led weaning� idea (breathe a sigh of relief Meg! ;) ) and just give him a very soft mushy whole carrot to hold, and see what he did with it. But I boiled the proverbials off a carrot for like 25 minutes and STILL it wasn�t soft. So I gave up (Arthur getting cranky in highchair) and mashed it. Not-entirely-soft carrot doesn�t mash well, I have discovered. I tried pureeing it but it was too tiny an amount for the blades to reach it! So I added a few well-directed squirts of breastmilk and mashed for dear life till it was reasonably smooth. Arthur was interested in the first taste, but mostly he was interested in the novelty of the bowl and the spoon, etc, which actually I think he was doing with the rice feeds too. I don�t think it was the food that excited him after all. I fed him mostly from my finger-tip to make it seem more familiar to him.
He actually seemed kind of unhappy in the highchair � that�s the second time he�s been like that as I�ve put him in it since we first tried him on solids. He started to whine like he wasn�t happy, and you know Arthur is the MOST laid-back baby. He never cries or whines about anything, unless he is tired. He has never even cried about being hungry. Unless of course that�s because he never is! I nurse him lots :) But anyway, so that wasn�t so nice. He keeps giving me looks like he can�t believe I�m doing this to him when I put food to his lips! If some dares to actually enter his mouth, he holds it there on his tongue with the MOST disgusted look on his face, mouth open, hehe! But he does have a go at moving it around his mouth and eventually to the back where he struggles quite a bit to actually swallow it. Poor sausage. He isn�t enjoying solids at all, and I see no point in persevering at this stage. I tried him on rice cereal � easy to swallow as it�s just slop. I tried him on something more interesting and the experience of a slightly different texture. He really doesn�t like it, so solids are off the menu for a while. I haven�t decided how long yet, but I know my milk is still all he needs, and he is obviously thriving on it alone. He loves to nurse, and so do I, but we both find that eating solids makes us feel a bit like this:
That is a new face for Arthur, ever since starting solids. He actually looks more miserable with it normally than in that photo. He does it if I approach him with food or a spoon, and if some food is in his mouth then he makes that face basically the whole time. I don�t think it�s purely a taste thing either. The funniest thing though � when I finally gave up and dumped the carrot on his highchair tray for him to examine and play with a little, I went and fetched the camera to take some photos, and the INSTANT he saw it, he went all smiley and cover-boy!! Hehe! He really knows what the camera means now, and he does smile a lot for it, even if he had previously been a bit miffed with the situation. So these photos of him with the carrot LOOK like he�s having a whale of a time, but he really wasn�t before the camera appeared. Little poser ;) So here are some more photos of the last solids for a while :)
He did swallow some bits of carrot though, despite all that. Yesterday he had rice in his poo! Today it�s carrot-poo. One difference though is that he is pooing ALL the time!! Normal poo and all that, but like 4 big poos a day! It�s amazing. I don�t know where he was keeping it all before! He took very little actual food down though, so I don�t know why he�s suddenly pooing like crazy.
Anyway, I have spent FOUR HOURS researching extended breastfeeding and weaning to solids online, and I feel very confident that he absolutely does not need to be on solids yet. I can not recommend Kellymom.com highly enough. Seriously. It is so well-researched, and puts a lot of commonly believed myths to death. Yay! I don�t believe his iron levels will be a problem if I continue to exclusively breastfeed for a while longer. If it goes on for aaaages (like to 8 or 9 months, which I seriously doubt) then I can get his iron levels checked to be sure. But the research is not supporting the theory that babies get deficient in iron if not introduced to solids shortly after 6 months. Iron in breastmilk is less than in formula, but it�s MUCH more readily absorbed than any other source of iron. Anyway tons of stuff on that at Kellymom if anyone is interested. Great great site. However, I knooow my health visitor is likely to strongly disagree with my choice and site a ton of reasons that are disproved by the latest research, so I don�t plan on letting her know unless I happen to be seeing her and she asks me directly. Which I hope will not happen! ;)
Well I have to go. Arthur is now sitting in the ring (poo and nappy change occurred half way through writing this entry!) and starting to get bored with his confinement! Plus my bran loaf is smelling gooood, so I should probably check on it. And um. Oh but here�s a lovely photo of my large-nappied (!!) boy in an outfit I won at eBay last week. And his blue suede shoes (my absolute favourites on him at the mo!) and a new hat for the sunny weather. And a big smile as always :) Will write when I can, but possibly not till we�re home from France after the weekend.
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