my-speck

i'm pregnant and it's going to be a rollercoaster

Murphy’s Law, Christmas and an Ear Infection December 24, 2009

Filed under: healthcare,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 2:58 pm
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Hello Poogie,

you are reclining on our bed, coming in and out of dozing.  You are officially ear-infected, and on a bunch of paracetamol to bring your 39.5 degree celcius (that’s 103.1 farenheit) fever down.

Yesterday you came down with a fever in the morning, so I dosed you up on paracetamol, as it was pretty high, and made sure to give you lots of breastmilk during the day.  I am not a generally ‘give babies paracetamol’ kinda person, but your temperature was HIGH and you were burning up, and I’d rather keep your temperature down so you have a chance to recover.  You seemed to get better, but another fever spike late in the afternoon, so we kept you in bed with us and you spiked again around midnight.  The paracetamol seemed to bring it down, and you weren’t screaming in pain or anything, but oh, so hot.  The books I read seemed to say you’d be ok if the fever came down with paracetamol, but I figured 24 hours the day before Christmas was long enough to wait to see if you could right yourself, and I didn’t want to spend the next two days lining up at the emergency ward of the hospital…

So.  I managed to convince the lovely receptionist at the Doctor that we really did need an emergency appointment, she was much more resistant than normal but finally relented.  You screaming your way through the waiting room I’m sure helped us get moved up the list…  And you have a middle ear infection.  Right on the six-month mark – just what the baby books say is common in infants six months to 2 years.  Good work.  I’ve had a stressful night and morning worrying about you – not just the ear, but the antibiotics too – both my sister and I are allergic to the one you got prescribed, so I’ve been watching you to make sure you’re ok with it..  But now, apart from being very dopey, you seem a lot better.  The doctor said 24 hours or so until we should see a big improvement, and to lay low.

So.  Santa, be quiet when you come, we have a sleeping, dozing, recovering baby in the house.

Shhhhhhhhhh

mum

 

Sleep, glorious sleep: Happy Christmas Mum! December 23, 2009

Filed under: development stages,exhaustion,family,healthcare,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 9:59 am
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Hello Poogie,

Yes, you’re having your morning nap and I’m taking the time out to write.  Because I am blissfully rested 🙂

Three days ago I was exhausted once again, from the combination of the flu and you waking up four times a night.  And I just decided and said to your Dad,

“That’s it.  Poogie slept through for months.  Right from when he was about six weeks old until about a month ago.  I’ve had it.  He hasn’t been having a growth spurt for a whole month… He is now over his flu so is sleeping and feeding perfectly well.  And he slept through for so long before that I know he can do it.  And he is eating two square solid-food meals a day.  Enough.  I need my sleep.  Tonight if he wakes we are just going to try to settle him and get him back to sleep without feeding him.”.   ..

Tentatively, your Dad, “Ok…”  Pause.. “I’m just remembering what G&J said about T learning to sleep through at six months, and how it was 3 nights of pain and no sleep while G nursed him back down each time he woke.”…

Me: “We can do it”.

Did I ever mention just how much I need my sleep??? Me: no sleep, emerge crazed automaton manic woman.  Can you imagine automaton and manic combined?  Think sci-fi-horror film character with wayward curly crazy hair.  You’ve got it.

So.  First night.  1.12 am.  Crying from your room.  I put the pillow on my head.  Ten minutes later soft crying has escalated to loud crying.  Your dad gets up.  Here we go, I think, he’ll nurse you back down.  Pillow on head.

1.13 am:  30 seconds has gone by and your dad comes into the room with you and puts you in the middle of the bed between us, you keep crying and do the automatic ‘search for boobie’ reflex thing you have going when you’re half asleep and crying.

me: thinking, “C, did you even try to settle him???  30 seconds really isn’t long. Oh well, your Dad isn’t the best in the middle of night.  He’s good early in the morning, but between 11 and 2am not so great. ”  Pick you up.

your Dad: “Are you really going to not feed him? Mmm. ZZzzzz”

1:14-1:36 am: So I got you up, bounced you around for a bit until you stopped crying, tried to rock you to sleep for 15 minutes.  Got sore legs. You were awake but happy.  So I put you in your cot and went back to bed with the pillow on my head.  Without using my boobs at all!

1:36-1:48 am: resting with pillow on head.  Noises in your room escalating.

1:49-1:55 am: retrieve you from your cot where you are once again crying.  Repeat bouncing motion.  Settle you.  Hear door opening as your Aunt gets home and think, “Damn, the front door waking the baby again, this just isn’t going to work”…

1:55 – 2:10 am:  More bouncing…  Stick you back in cot.  Return to my bed.  Again, no use of the boobie at all 🙂

1:56 am: put pillow on head, think “mm, there is a lot of ‘talking’ going on in the cot, I bet I’m going to have to feed him”

1:58 am: pass out.

….

6:20 am: wake-up to baby talking in the next room…

Yippee…

Three days on…

And you’ve now slept through perfectly for four nights.  And I’m becoming more and more sane by the minute.  Scratch that.  I’m becoming more and more like my usual self by the minute.  Woot.

I think you woke on the second night, and your dad gave you a bounce and you went back to sleep.  And the third night I heard you, but you just did a little talking at around 3am and then went back to sleep.   Apparently you woke up last night and did a little crying.  But I just slept on through, and your dad said you were asleep again by the time he went to the bathroom and came back.

You seem to have adjusted your feeding accordingly too – back to your old HUGE feed, followed half and hour later by another HUGE feed, just before you go down for the count.

so, excellent work buddy.  Please keep it up.  This is a GREAT Christmas present.  Thank-you!!!

love mum

 

…escape is imminent… December 19, 2009

Filed under: Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 3:50 pm
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Hello!

Well Poogie, I’m still sick.  But I’m not going to dwell on it as it’s really boring and I’m over it.  So.  I got a few shots of you over the past few days that I wanted to share.

The increased mobility and ease with which you roll around has meant some interesting sleeping positions.  I haven’t captured any of those, but got you just after you had woken up in the cot, trying to claw your way through the bars.  I’m sure I put you to sleep with your head at the other end and actually under some kind of cover…

you're trying to work your way out..

you’re trying to work your way out..

You are doing much better than me.  Today is Saturday, so thank goodness, your dad is at home to keep you entertained all day (though big thanks to Grandma K who came over to help out for a couple of hours each day when I was feeling totally rotten and got you out and for a walk etc while I slept).  You have been super-excited to see and play with your dad all day, with the biggest smiles reserved for him.

Playing with dad

Playing with dad

You’re getting so big!

Love and kisses

mum

P.S.  I have been tapping away at my computer a little each day.. And yesterday we made the change – our blog is now moved and at www.my-speck.com …  Our own new space to write away to our heart’s content.   If you’re reading and you have it bookmarked, you can update your links, but the old blog is redirecting to our new home anyways.  If you’re subscribed via emails, I think you mighta got an extra one yesterday, sorry! Hopefully it’ll all be back to normal from now.  And lastly, if you already link to us from somewhere else, we’d appreciate if you could update your links (though again, the redirects will sort it out if you don’t)!  thanks ..

P.P.S.   Christmas is less than a week away and I haven’t managed to do much at all to get ready.  Lots of presents and food NOT DONE YET.  And no sign of recovery yet so a few people may be getting big hugs rather than nice wrapped gifts 🙂

 

And bring on the summer flu. Erk. December 15, 2009

Filed under: healthcare,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 11:26 am
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Hello Poogie,

Well, you had a snuffle on the weekend, and so did I.  So we laid a little low.  But to no avail.  Full blown flu has hit.  I thought you were worse than me – snuffling and coughing and having difficulty breastfeeding.  But today it’s me that is worse.  Think all out on the floor unable to do much except get a glass of water then lie down again.  And feel like death warmed up.   You are relatively cheeful for someone who is obviously sick too – despite coughing and hacking and nasal-breathing difficulties, you still seem to want to play in between longer-than-normal sleeps.  Which is tough for me as all I want to do is lie down and stare at the ceiling.  So.  We’ve reached a middle ground.  You’re on the bed with me, playing rolley-polley while I lie there staring dejectedly looking at the ceiling, alternatively moving you back to the middle when you’re in danger of rolling off the bed again or giving you a muslin wrap to play with (you are endlessly fascinated by the variety of ways in which you can eat, wrap yourself in, cover you face etc by such a cloth).

You are supposed to be having your six month vaccinations today.  I think they won’t give them to you as you have a cold.  But we’ll go to the doctor – to check you, and hopefully get me some medication.

Ark. Erk. Yuck.

love you

ps. your Aunt is severely afflicted too. In fact, I think she is worse.  Your dad however is at work and seems to have escaped so far.

P.p.s. And yes, this  is the first time you’ve been sick.  And I was really worried about you and feeling bad on the weekend.  But I took your temperature a lot, and you aren’t feverish.  So I figured just a bit of mucous and discomfort.  But still felt heartwrenchingly bad for you.  Now that I’m feeling like death, I do feel bad for you too, but in a more detached way.  Like, as long as you are ‘ok’, then you’ll get through it and be ok.  I just don’t have the energy to feel bad for you anymore.  Sorry.

 

on a lighter note, you got your first pair of sunglasses December 12, 2009

Filed under: Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 6:55 pm
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and you look very cute.  If I do say so myself.

baby wearing sunglasses

you in your new sunnies

We went to the fruit markets at Woolloongabba this morning and you wore them to keep out the glare.

I’ll have to re-wrap them for Christmas day!

love you

mum

 

Ok. People warned me about smelly poos when you moved onto solids. They should have been more specific. Yoghurt is the worst. November 25, 2009

Filed under: baby's feelings,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 4:38 pm
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Oh my goodness. You smell like a gross thing. Here I was, thinking I was coping with the newly changed poo-situation quite well. Until this morning.

Another poo on the mat, floor, all over you episode. But this time with me trying not to gag as I wiped you down and washed everything, including you.

poo on the mat

lovely. Stinky poo to roll in.

Yerk. It was definitely the yoghurt. I mentioned it to someone else today, and they said, “oh yeah, yoghurt was the worst”. I wish I’d been warned. I would have added it to your diet a little later.

Gross.

rolling in the muck

happy as a pig in mud. No, as a baby in poo. Muck. Yuck.

Yet you still looked so happy, rolling around in it when I got out from the shower. Needless to say, the clean-up took a while, but not as bad as last time. And, due to the requests last time, I did stop to take a photo. What the heck, you already had it all over you.

love you stinky poo pants
mum

 

Learning to eat is a messy business November 24, 2009

Filed under: development stages,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 5:37 pm
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Hi Poogie,

head to foot. That is how covered you were in banana and yoghurt mixture yesterday. You like to try to feed yourself with the spoon. I let you. Most goes everywhere.

baby eating

baby eating – a messy business

You had a bath afterwards.

But not before you’d got it in your nose, hair, eyes.

the spread of food. But you ate a lot

the spread of food. But you ate a lot

Yes, that’s right. The eyes. That made you cry a bit. And note to myself: banana yoghurt is almost like glue and difficult to remove from eyes and eyelashes. Especially when you have a squirmy baby…

messy eating baby

in the eyes with the food

love you
mum

p.s. note the fat rolls in the photos. above the nappy. nice one. “baby bacon” according to your dad.

 

Visiting the beach November 23, 2009

Filed under: activities for kids,baby stuff,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 5:21 pm
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Hello Poogie,

Well. 5 months old last week! Congratulations. Time is flying by.

New things for the week:

  • still eating more solids (banana, avocado, potato, zucchini, plain yoghurt, carrot, pumpkin, farex)
  • still refusing the breast a little during the day (frustrating for everyone, but we’re working through it with some help from the australian breastfeeding association).  You’re unfortunately making up for the lack of day-time feeds with more night waking, which is difficult for me (lack of sleep and tired mum’s are a bit more cranky than usual)
  • you rolled over the other way a few times (i.e. front to back).  Managed a good one this morning where you rolled clean off the mat and smacked your little head into the wooden floor.  Ouch.  You got a bit of a fright and cried. Overall still more stressful for me than you though, I think. I have many years of falls and spills to get used to the fact that you will hurt yourself sometimes.
  • you went to the beach and in the ocean & you swam in a pool!
dad and poogie on the beach at Rainbow

dad and poogie on the beach at Rainbow

The beach was fun.  We went up to Rainbow Beach for the weekend to visit your Grandma E & Grandpa, and your cousins & aunt & uncle were there too.  It’s a bit of a long journey for you – we left at 1:30pm on Friday and didn’t get there until 6pm, with a few breaks for you to play and tire yourself out as you can’t be in the car for that long.   It is beautiful there though – quiet and not too many people with lovely water temperature.  You had a great time playing with your cousins and getting into all the noise and confusion.

you and your grandpa

poogie and grandpa on the beach

And you went in the water of the ocean (a bit too cold, you weren’t 100% keen) and the pool (loved it) for the first time. AND my boot is allowed to be OFF for spells now, so I got to SWIM too! (YAY YAY YAY). We will definitely be doing lots of swimming over the coming weeks, though as you have the fair hair and skin of our family, and we live in Australia, we stay indoors between 10am and 3pm and swim before or after that… The beach was best on Sunday morning at around 7am, when it was quiet and lovely. We had it all to ourselves until, lo and behold, your Dad looked up to see our friends K & kids F & F & J about 3 metres away. Who we didn’t even know were going to be in Rainbow. Good thing, as it meant I got to have a swim too as K helped me out of the water as your dad held you (still a bit unsteady on the old fixed-up ankle).

baby on the beach

you on the beach

Love you
mum

baby on the beach

you on the beach with me. Teething huh!

P.S. Not at all fun: the trip home. We had a big break for dinner having left at 5:30pm. But you still just got sick of the car and then got yourself into such a state you just couldn’t sleep. One and a half hours of screaming baby in a confined space with lots of breaks in random places where we pulled off the highway. Yerk. It’ll be a while before we attempt such a long drive with you again. Not worth it.

 

Taxes and the Library November 19, 2009

Filed under: activities for kids,cooking,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 2:47 am
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Hello!

So. Your Aunt Reegan has been busy looking for a job now that I’m all mobile again (boot is allowed to come off for a few hours to suit my level of discomfort a day now -WOO HOO!). And one of her primary complaints has been that moving back to Australia & looking for a job really isn’t great as the tax we pay here is so high compared to Japan. So even if she gets a job paying more than her salary in Japan, she gets to keep less. I keep telling her how wonderful the government here in Australia actually is (sarcasm). I then encourage her to write to her local MP, councillor, senator etc whenever something comes up that she feels strongly about. Email is the way to go. And it’s easy. I think I write to the government about something I care about at least once a week. Helps me vent and keeps me sane. Latest was the proposed changes to Youth Allowance (or whatever it’s called now – the money you get to help you live while you’re studying) – i.e. it’s not enough & we’re trying to be an educated nation yet don’t help students from non-priveleged backgrounds enough to keep them from the poverty line while they are trying to get a degree… Rant aside, what I do keep telling her is that the government here does provide some resources to the public, and since we live in the inner-city, it’s worthwhile taking advantage of whatever you can get hold of. She ums and ahs and then just grumbles at me. But, two weeks ago we went down to the new State Library building. Walking into it, with its lovely plush couches and air-conditioning, and free wi-fi and banks of computers, she said, “and this is why we pay taxes in Australia. Japan has NOTHING like this”. It’s great. And there is a kid’s corner just waiting for you to enjoy as you grow up. Just down the road from the free water-park for kiddies.

This morning, you and I again went in the car, and down to the State Library kid’s corner for “Rhyme Time”. A few shots which don’t quite capture the manic atmosphere: think about 50 children of all ages in a brightly decorated room about 4 x 10 m, all shrieking, squealing, talking and singing along to the rhymes done by the librarians. Crazy. And a pram convention just near the room.

Poogie rocking on to the rhyme time

You enjoyed yourself.  The first time we took you two weeks ago I think it was all just a little too overwhelming.  Today you did some singing on my lap, and were happy being up on some benches high above most of the other kids, so you could watch and be secure with me.   After a bit of singing we went and you laid on the carpet and did some rolling around.  There are all sorts of exciting things hanging from the roof so you got distracted by that a bit.  There were a few other kids who seemed interested in you and came over to give you some touches and a bit of a ‘hello’.  You were pretty keen on the little boy who seemed to like rubbing his hair in your face.  And you are astounded at the noise and interaction with so many other children.  Crazy – I could almost see you thinking.  What are they all doing, and why are they so loud??

a snapshot of the chaos. It just doesn’t quite translate in a photo.

After about an hour, you were starting to get tired and over-it. You enjoyed the stimulation, but it just got a bit much. So off we went, home again.

You’re getting so big so quickly, I look at the kids in the room and think you’ll be in school before I can blink. I’m pondering how if ever I’ll be able to balance you and work and study and life.

A good morning. You’re a cutie and I love you.

kisses
mum

 

lessons learned about nappy free time November 17, 2009

Filed under: baby stuff,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 3:07 pm
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1. when you have a four-month old baby who has learned to roll over (almost both ways at will) they are more mobile than before.  (doh!)

2. when you have a four-month old baby that wants something it can’t quite reach, it will wiggle and roll until it gets there

3. nappy-free time is good for very hot days (34 degrees centigrade & sweltering) and makes for an amused and happy baby who may play on the floor by themselves leaving you to do the laundry or something else (like talk on the phone) and thus pay less attention to their every move (and noises, facial expressions) than you normally would

4. four-month old babies like to play with their feet and raise them almost to their mouths.

4. when said baby decides it’s time for a poo he will have inevitably moved from the carefully-laid towel, have his feet near his mouth, and it will be the less-than-solid variety of poo that appears, with great force and noise, from his anus.

READ:  Poogie, you CRAPPED in an EXPLOSIVE and LOUD manner all over everything.

Towel – covered a bit

Playgym – covered

Mat – covered

Kitchen floor – covered

Kitchen wall – covered

Your body – covered.

Excellent work.

Love mum