Just stuff......

I just thought I'd write a bit of a general post about general things I may not have mentioned so far!  I seem to get sidetracked by the cute photo's and miss out on the important facts etc... so as he's coming up to 24 weeks next week I thought I'd rectify that.

Ok, stuff to note:

On the 20th April 2011 the number one single in the UK was Beautiful People by Chris Brown.
David Cameron was the prime minister and leader of the Conservative party.
Petrol (unleaded) was about £1.30 a litre.
A first class stamp went up to 46p earlier that month, the highest increase since 1st class post began!!  (In 1968 in case you were wondering!)
The weather that week was unseasonally warm making it the warmest April on record with temperatures in the early 20's all over the country!  I vaguely recall feeling the heat being 10 days overdue, and seeing bright sunshine coming in through the windows of my hospital room!!

I may edit this post once I've decided on other things that should be important enough to 'note'!!  I'll have to check my dad's diary he wrote when I was born as he put all these sorts of things in it which makes entertaining reading 32 years later!!

Ok, Joel.  Lets talk about him for a little while!!

He is doing so well it's adorable!!  He is laughing now, deep gusty chuckles and what's more fabulous is that we laugh all day long!  If he's lying down I go 'nom nom nom' on his tummy and he finds it hilarious!!  If I'm holding him I go 'nom nom nom' behind his ear and he finds that hilarious too!  Even if he's just playing in his jumperoo he finds that funny enough to laugh as well!  I find myself laughing along with him, as his enjoyment of the world is at such an innocent stage and he's just so cute and gorgeous and life is brilliant!  I find myself wanting to protect him forever and keep him in this unblemished state where he is petted and played with, fed and watered, put down for naps and entertained!

He ate a huge bowl of lunch today, and porridge for breakfast too!  In fact, he loves his porridge so much that he won't have a feed from me before hand.  His face lights up as I bring his bowl through, and he laughs and kicks with excitement at the milky stuff going into his mouth!  He then deigns to have a mummy feed about an hour afterwards once he's a bit tired again and wants cuddles as well.

His lunch today was a cube of butternut squash  mixed with a cube of apple and considering these two didn't seem to thrill him last time, together it was a different story.  Today, they were yummy and he cleared his bowl again!

Yesterday we went to Bounce and Rhyme at the library again and afterwards went with two other mums and their baby boys to the park where we fed the ducks and swans and had a bit of a picnic in the park which was lovely.

Today Grandma called round for a cup of tea in the morning and we stayed in as it was so hot outside, but at three o'clock decided to go for some fresh air and went walking round and about for over an hour.  Needless to say we were rather pink on our return.  At least Joel got to stay shaded in his buggy.

Having had a panic about what he should wear as he's now in 6-9 sizes and his 3-6 tops are a bit tight around his middle I remembered a 6-9 romper suit he was given that I didn't think would get worn as obviously it should be cooler by  now being the end of September, but out it came and the bonus was a matching hat!!  he looked so lovely in it, and he kept it clean enough to wear again tomorrow I think!

Sleeping, erm, this hasn't been going so well.  The solids haven't meant he's going through the night again.  He seems to wake hungry any time between 9-11pm which isn't too bad, but then 3am and sometimes 5am.  This has meant I've been feeling pretty drained these past couple of weeks.  I do wonder whether it's habit and last night tried to ignore him when I could hear noises telling myself that he wasn't crying, just murmering and he did go off to sleep again so I shall try that again tonight.  trouble is I have to get up to go to the bathroom having been woken and that tends to wake him properly and then I just feed him to get him back to sleep again which probably isn't helping matters.

Other than that my only other blogginess is that I think I'd like to take him swimming again tomorrow.  I doubt Steve will be able to come so it'll be the challenge of whether I can do it all on my own!  Getting in and out and changed etc....  There's only one way to find out!

Here Comes The Sun

I can't believe how hot it is again for the end of September!

We went out for the day yesterday after Mum's and Toddlers first with Grandma and Grandad for mum's actual birthday, and here's some photos' of the occasion!

Sitting in the sun at our local marina having lunch

Joel had banana!!

Biddulph Grange Gardens

A Joel sized seat!!

Smiles with Mummy

I forgot his hat so Grandad's handkerchief was put to good use!

Birthday Fun

Well, Joel's had another exciting weekend!  He finished off his first week of weaning with sweet potato on Saturday which he enjoyed, and mango on Sunday which on the first attempt he was a bit sleepy for, but he cleared the bowl on our second attempt!

It was Grandma's 60th birthday, so we had a party day and cooked an Italian meal for lunch. All our family were together and it was lovely.

gathered around the dinner table

eating our starter

the newest member of the family at the table now!!

Mmmmmmango!!

Firework puddings!!

they were rather groovy!!

presents time!

candles for the cake, Isaac is trying to light them with his stare!

time to sing and blow the candles out.

Grandma and Joel 

Grandma and grandsons,,,

That's all for now folks....

A Week of Weaning

And we've had some marvellous faces!  (And some not so marvellous nappies!!)

Sunday - Carrot

Monday - Butternut Squash

Tuesday - Apple

Wednesday - Parsnip

Thursday - Pear

 Friday - Potato

Pear

Everyone's told me how their baby loved pear the most with it's smooth texture and exceedingly sweet flavour and yep, Joel was no exception!

he LOVED pear!  He kicked his feet about with excitement and anticipation of each spoon and beamed happily during the munching!  He also thought his cup was very interesting and that the rubber nozzle made for a fun chew teether so I took the valve out as he wasn't sucking it, and introduced him to the fact he could get breast milk from it!  So I ended up tipping up sips into his mouth which he then either drank or allowed to dribble out depending on his mood that moment!

So he had a good lunch with not too bad a drink with it.

He also seems to be going down to two naps a day at the moment.  Whereas he'd wake at 7, nap at 9, wake at 10, nap at 12, wake at 2 and then nap at 4, wake at 5 and go to bed at 7, (nice and structured!!) he now wakes at 7, naps at 10.30, wakes at 11.30, naps at 2.30, wakes at 3.30 and goes through till bed time most days with the occasional 20 minutes at 5 if it's been a particulalry tiring day.

Just have to find more things to do in those awake moments!  More walks, more singing, more rolling practise!!

Potato - nope! Parsnip

Today was meant to be potato.  Turned out I'd eaten them all (not me on my own of course) and had not saved one.

Rather than panicking that I wasn't following 'the plan' I decided to be sensible and use one of my frozen cubes from the freezer and decided that parsnip was the same colour as potato and sweeter and therefore probably more in favour by the little man.

So parsnip it was!  With a little breast milk added to smooth it out as well.  (The expressing seems to be going well.  I'm getting a bit more every day and tomorrow he'll be trying to drink some from his cup as well!)

And he really seemed to like it again!  He seems to prefer the root vegetable smooth texture to the slightly grainy apple texture, and the fact it was sweet helped too!

So disaster averted and potato will have to wait till next week when I've bought some!  :)

Apple

Well, I really thought apple would be a big hit, but again, he wasn't as excited as the carrot day!

I steamed and pureed 8 gala apples which then only made about 6 cubes (I don't know where it all went) and it was a bit thick in texture as you'll see in this video:

so after this, I added more milk to smooth it out a bit and he took more, and seemed to like the taste, but I think it was still a different texture to what he liked on Sunday?  He still wanted to suck his thumb after each mouthful which meant he was all sticky and his sleeve got rather appley too!!

We're moving onto potato tomorrow, so hopefully, that will go down better! Izzy is having the leftovers each day so she's liking it, even if Joel's not too enamoured at present!

I shouldn't be discouraged.  I know it's all new, and it's all just tastes at the moment, but when he loved his carrot I thought he'd love everything!!  At least he's having a good few spoons of each one, and I know his milk feeds will sustain him more than anything else for now anyway.

This is our weeks menu, just for anyone's information if you're interested?!!

Sunday - Carrot
Monday - Butternut Squash
Tuesday - Apple
Wednesday - Potato
Thursday - Pear
Friday - Sweet Potato
Saturday - Butternut Squash

Then I need to see whether he's ready to move onto two meals a day or just carry on for another week with one meal a day.  I could also add parsnip, swede, banana and papaya next week!!  I'm sure when I was weaned it wasn't this exotic?!!

5 Months Old!

My darling little baby is getting to be a rather big baby!

So much has been changing this past month, namely rolling, weaning and teething.

He began rolling from his tummy to his back three days ago, so at 21 weeks.  He's never particuarly enjoyed tummy time and so now he's thrilled he can just flip himself over and shows no aspirations at all to go back to his tummy at all!  Sometimes he'll stretch out to try and reach a toy or Izzy, and I think that it'll be the moment he goes over, but no, he'd rather stay on his back than quite reach the toy!!

We began weaning last week with baby rice which he gobbled up, probably because it tastes the same as he's used to, and he loved having it from a spoon and we began vegetables on Sunday which seem to be going down ok, but no day has been as popular yet as Sundays carrots!  Butternut squash was met with a bit of puzzlement (not as sweet I guess) and apple, I think he found the texture a bit strange but he seemed to like the flavour and kicked his feet in excitement with each spoonful.

With regards his teeth, we met a little lad at mums and toddlers today with proper rosy cheeks which has made me realise what I thought were red cheeks on Joel are nothing like it really!  So I guess we have a bit longer to wait, although the health visitor did last week comment that his gums look as though some teeth are getting ready.  I do hope these first ones are soon as he's feeling pain with them in the evenings once he's gone to bed and woke 5 times one evening with painful cries.

Aside from that, we're finding some 3-6 clothes on the tight side now, and he's been in some 6-9 tops already!!  We've got all his new stuff ready in a drawer for sorting through and with the winter months his grandma and granny are knitting away to keep him warm!

He really is a true delight of a baby.  He gives giggles with gusto now when he likes a funny face or gets a tickle.  He loves the anticipation of 'round and round the garden' when it's done on his hand, or tummy.  He's not too bad at sitting if he remains still but once he leans, over he goes.  It won't be long before he's sitting.

His joyous smiles of greeting first thing in the morning make my day, and his little hand clasping my finger at his night time feeds melts my heart.  I love that he's growing up, but also that he's still my baby

Butternut Squash??

He started off ok with the butternut squash but he certainly didn't seem to be as enthusiastic about it as he was the carrot yesterday.  Whether this is the flavour/texture of the squash or weaning in general remains to be seen.  We'll be trying apple tomorrow so I'm excited about his first taste of fruit!

Joels like carrot!

Today is the first vegetable day and we opted for carrot with a little breast milk to make it runnier!

His eyes widened at the first taste but he kept opening his mouth for more so I think he's liked it!

I'm not sure how much to give him, I thought he'd stop when he had enough but he keeps accepting each spoon offered?!

It's going to be butternut squash tomorrow so let's hope that one goes down as well!

Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

Out and About

With it being a Saturday and Steve had a spare day, we had a nice lunch at home with some slightly thicker rice than yesterday for Joel which was again guzzled and then headed to Cannock Chase to have a stroll in the sunshine with Joel and Izzy.

Daddy having a go with the spoon!

And Mummy making silly faces!

Good old baby sling!

Dare she dip a toe in?

Yep!!  Splish splash splosh..... going for her tennis ball on the other side!

Mummy and Joel :)

Mummy, Daddy and Joel

Weaning Day 3

And he's loving the baby rice!!  :)

No adverse nappies as yet, although I do have to admit I'm rather dreading more solid deposits as I'm pretty queasy when it comes to that sort of thing, and some of his heftier breast milk poop which will be nothing in comparison has made me double take and heave a little!

Urgh.... Teeth

After a promising start to weaning, we had a terrible night!  I think his teeth were really bothering him as he didn't seem hungry when I picked him up, each time, about 4 times?  I lost track in the foggy time zones of the early hours, but he wanted a feed each time to soothe himself back to sleep.

I rubbed Dentinox gel on his gums which seemed to help and he didn't like going back in his cot so into the spare bed we went until he was fast asleep then I transferred him back to the cot so I could try and get some decent sleep too.

I'm still feeling under the weather with a cold which no doubt is due to me feeling run down with these broken nights, and this morning, Steve took him downstairs to play at 6.40am as there was no way I felt up to doing it today, although he wanted a feed at about 7.40 so he came back up again!  Then we both dozed in our bigger bed whilst Steve took over the spare bed so we all changed rooms during the night!

At about 9am we woke up again and left Steve sleeping to come back downstairs and we've both been a bit groggy and tired since.

Grandad came to take Joel out for a walk this afternoon so I could get some rest, and although I've slept for well over an hour I'm still feeling a bit rotten :( and headachy.

On the plus side, day two of baby rice has gone down very well, and he cleared his bowl earlier!

I'm' just really hoping and praying for a better night tonight!  I'm not sure how much longer I can cope with bad nights! 

Tired = Guilt

These past few days I've had been so very tired, and with Steve being out early each morning this week, even though I'd been up 4-5 times a night with feeds, and teething troubles, I still had to get up at 7am and be cheerful and fun as if I just lay on the sofa trying to nap, it would mean Joel wasn't getting quality time and that makes me feel terribly guilty, as though he has to have the best of me as much as he needs.

I was getting to the point of swaying on my feet Wednesday morning, and was able to nap from 8.30 - 9.30 when Joel did, and also fell asleep alongside his afternoon nap which seems to have helped regulate me back to almost normality.

I just don't feel that I can zone out and ignore his needs.  Even watching the television I don't tend to do unless he's feeding or asleep as I'm playing or talking to him.  I don't like leaving him unattended and to be honest, he likes to know I'm watching what he's doing and he responds so well to attention.

I'm sure I'm being rather over zealous, but I can't imagine being so tired I can't interact with him yet!  Steve seems to manage and dozes on the sofa whilst Joel is in his jumperoo, but he loves jumping for you rather than for no-one!

I guess I just want to do the best I can for him and I can't be anymore! 

Baby Rice

In the end, although I'd made a bundle of purees, I opted for baby rice as I could make it with my milk, he's not been great at taking medicine (Calpol and gripe water) so I wanted to introduce him slowly to the concept of food from a spoon and the rice would just taste like the milk he's used to, but with a bit more substance to it.  I'm making it a little bit thicker each day and am aiming to get it to a yoghurt like consistancy before starting the vegetables maybe on Sunday?!

Maybe that's too slow a process, but I don't want to rush, he's still having his breast milk regulalry, and it's suiting us :)

All ready to go, with bib, spoons, expressed milk, rice and bowl!!

First face after first spoonful - bit like 'hmmm?'

But he wanted more!



I'd say this was a success!

He really seemed keen on accepting the spoon, and opened his mouth ready for each one.  He had quite a bit of it which I'd made with one spoon of rice made up with breast milk to a pretty runny consistency, so he had lots of spoonfuls.

Whether it will help him in the night I don't know, but as far as weaning goes, it's a good start!