Wednesday 17 June 2009

9 months, 2 weeks, 1

Weight: 3.5 lb until pre-preg weight, 7.5lb until ideal

Well, Callum is still going well with his new food routine. He eats so much now. He is also getting quite good at fishing something out his mouth that he doesn't like - its quite funny to watch and I have to try hard not to laugh. He will have a mouthful of food and will find a carrot. He will then push it to the front of his mouth and then stick his tongue out disposing of offending item. He has eaten and liked carrot but I think I made the pieces too big and hard the other day for the shepherd's pie mince so he kept spitting them out.

He was a little monkey this morning. We had our first episode of wetting the bed!!!! Stuart had gone into him when he woke up, while I was in the shower, and took him out of his growbag. When I went in there, he had taken off his own nappy and then proceeded to wee while I was watching before I had chance to move him or do anything with him. Luckily, the mattress cover is washable and there is a pvc layer underneath protecting the mattress.

He is also a nightmare to get a nappy on. Whether I'm changing him on his changing unit or on the floor after his bath, he tries to roll over (and usually succeed) and tries to roll all over the place before I get chance to put his nappy on. Every time I turn him back and start putting his nappy on again, he makes his escape! Grrr! Quite funny too though :o)

Still no crawling but he keeps trying to pull himself into a crawling position from sitting. Failing miserably at the moment but I don't suppose it will be long. Most stories I've heard is that it will happen in the space of a week. One minute, nothing! Next, crawling at high speed all over the place!

We are going on our first holiday next week and I can't wait. We are off to Cornwall to stay in a Haven Caravan Park. Not been so excited about a holiday for a long time. Hoping the weather will be nice.

Ooooh, I nearly forgot - we are pretty sure we have our first word :o))))) - Cat. Not as clearly as that of course but it will sound like 'Ca' and if he is listening to us and trying really hard it will be 'taaT'. We are sure he is trying to say Lotte too but can understand that's a bit harder to say. It isn't just us either, my mum heard it and agreed with us - she said it sounded pretty much like cat to her. So exciting!

Right, gotta go - Callum's calling for his breakfast! As in - whhaaaaaaa, grrrrrr etc, not "muuuummmy, can I have some breakfast please?" - but watch this space!

Tuesday 9 June 2009

9 Months, 1 week

Sorry not updated for a while. Been quite busy.

The BLW with Callum, nearly came to a head! Callum had reached the 9 month mile stone and still wasn't consuming that much solid food. He would pick and play with his food but didn't actually consume much at all. At 9 months, babies tend to have used up their store of iron and other nutrients that they have at birth so they really need to be replenishing it with food (rather than milk). Stuart thought we should buy some jars of purées and give him one every day. I really didn't want to do this as I really believed in the BLW concept and I felt like this was admitting defeat or giving in too early. It was probably pigheadedness on my part too and a fear of "I told you so" from the doubters, which I know isn't a real reason to dig my heals in and continue with it.

I knew that other people, when their child is around 9 months, only give their child 3 milks a day. The BLW book says to let your baby decide when to drop milk etc and to be lead by him/her. However, this wasn't working for us as Callum wasn't eating enough food to enable him to drop any of his milk. So, I thought we should try switching to 3 milks a day. This would mean that Callum would get to eat food first and then milk later rather than getting full up on milk and not wanting food. I suggested this to Stuart and thought we should try it for a week (until next food shop) and he agreed to try it. Our new timetable is:

7-7.30am - milk
8-8.30am - breakfast
9.30am - nap
12noon - lunch
1.30pm - milk
2pm - nap
5.30pm - dinner
7.15pm - milk
7.30pm - bedtime

Hooray! It seems to have worked! The next day, we were out at lunch and I had macaroni cheese. I was going to give him a couple of mouthfuls but he ended up eating about a third of it and I had to buy a banana too as he was still hungry, which he ate nearly all of. He has continued to do well at lunch and dinner ever since. Breakfast is still a bit hit or miss as this is the only meal he has after milk (might be worth thinking about changing this round too). He has between 1/2 and a whole wheatabix. However, he now eats pretty well for both lunch and dinner. Now I don't know where he puts it all! It is such a relief.

Callum had also started to get quite lazy about feeding himself. Rather than grabbing the spoon, he would just open his mouth for us to spoon feed him. I think this is because we swapped his chair to the other side of the table to give Lotté a bit of piece while eating. This meant his stronger feeding arm (his right) was further away from whoever was feeding him, so he didn't try to hold the spoon. We have moved him back to the other side and he has started to feed himself a bit more now. I do get a bit impatient with him when he starts banging the spoon in between mouthfuls as the food goes everywhere.

We now have 4 teeth in total. We were having quite a tough week of it last week as his two top teeth tried to come through. We actually had it quite good compared to what other parents suffer with teething - it was more a pain than anything else. Rather than going to sleep at 7.30pm, it would take him about an hour to go off, so 8.30pm. He would then wake up between 11.15 and 11.30pm and need resettling (which actually only took a couple of strokes to his face), then would wake up at 6am instead of 7am. So not too bad but I preferred his usual routine!

It was also very hot last week which I don't think helped. We just didn't know what to dress him in to go to bed. It was often 26 degrees in his bedroom with the window open. Should we put him in a gro-bag or not? What should he wear, just nappy, body suit or babygrow? Would he wake up cold in the night? Such fun!

Still no crawling yet. I'm not worried and quite enjoying the fact that Callum stays pretty much where he is put and I don't need eyes in the back of my head yet. Stuart is paranoid that he is falling behind because a friend's baby, who is younger, is crawling all over the place! The danger of comparing your child to others!

That said, although Callum isn't crawling, he is so much happier on his front and sometimes sleeps on his front. He has occasionally tried to pull himself into some sort of crawling position in an attempt to reach an object just out of reach but he doesn't appear to be strong enough yet and seems a way off being able to. Though I have heard it all seems to happen in the space of a week when it does happen!

I'm trying to get Callum to wave, clap and I have started to repeat more words to him now too. Things like Ta or thank you. With the waving and clapping, he is fascinated and watches me very closely but doesn't do it himself. I'm sure I've caught him trying to clap once, when he thought I wasn't looking but got all shy and wouldn't do it when I saw him and tried to praise him. Bless!

Think that brings us up to date. Really looking forward to our holiday in a couple of weeks time :o)