Post-op

I wrote about two months ago about Baby’s impending operation. He has an undescended testicle and needed it investigating. This involved keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic. You might have wondered what happened. The original operation date was postponed, a day before it was due, because of ‘winter pressures’. But fortunately he wasn’t left waiting too long and had the operation about a fortnight ago.

I had been dreading it. But it actually went remarkably smoothly. Baby couldn’t eat or drink for six hours before the op. But he napped through a fair bit of that time and the rest was spent with him being easily distracted by the excitement of being in a new place. Baby’s daddy took him to theatre and held him whilst they put him under. I think this shook him up but Baby took it all in his stride. An hour or so later and Baby was awake. At first he was rather unhappy and couldn’t hold down any milk. He projectile vomited all over himself and me which wasn’t great given I’d brought tons of clothes for him and none for me. But after a few cuddles, a bit more milk and some pain relief he got much better. I had thought pain relief would be a big issue but actually he was fine after that. I had Calpol and ibuprofen ready but we barely needed it. He slept a bit more than usual the next few days but otherwise has been grand. We came home that same afternoon.

I have to say I was mightily relieved. Everything went so well and it was in large part due to the amazing nursing care we had – they and all the staff were so lovely.

The Doctors say that we need to do this in two stages so we’ll be back at the hospital for a repeat procedure in about five months time. I can only hope it goes so well.

Growing in understanding

Baby is nearly a year old. And suddenly he seems to begun to understand what we are saying. We play finding games all the time. We say ‘where is Bub?’, for instance, and he looks around and points. It’s really odd what we can understand and what he can’t. Ask him where Mia is, our cat, and he gets it every time. Ask him where mummy or daddy are and he hasn’t a clue. He’s very good with some toys – one baby doll called Tommy he loves and will happily search around for ages looking for him.

He is also kind of speaking a bit too. He says ‘da da da’ all the time, though not in any context. But he does try to say the cat’s name. When he sees her he says ‘eee-a’ and does it so often it’s not a coincidence. This is all very exciting because his big brother Bub didn’t do much early talking or experiment with sounds.

Getting so big and clever

Argh! Time is flying, I keep thinking of things to blog but then don’t get around to doing it.

The boys are getting bigger and better at everything. Bub is now four. Can you believe it? He’s suddenly got really into drawing and writing. He does ‘stories’ in which he draws random letters and numbers on the page. And his pictures aren’t scribbles any more. His people have faces, bodies, legs, toes, even shoes. And big smiley faces!

And Baby is nearly one. He’s started to pull up to standing all the time. Though rather annoyingly for all concerned he doesn’t yet know how to get back down.

Christmas round up

So I kinda missed blogging about Christmas. This was disappointing as it was Baby’s first so I’d have loved to have written more. So here’s a quick note to record some highlights.

Firstly, Bub’s ‘car cake’. A delicious concoction of icing and marzipan. He made it the same time his Daddy made a proper Christmas cake. Bub was so proud if it. He said he’s share it with his cousin on Christmas Day and showed it to everyone. I had to pretend I’d eaten it when it was finally time to throw out the final remains last week!

Secondly, the trauma which Father Christmas caused in our house. Bub decided that this Father Christmas bloke sounded kinda dodgy. Creeping into houses in the dead of night etc. No way did he want him here – he said he’d rather have no gifts at all. He was getting very anxious about it and his sleep really deteriorated in the days leading up to Christmas. In the end we agreed to leave the stockings in the shed so Father Christmas could go in there instead of coming in the house. This made Bub much happier, to the point where he even left out a drink and carrot for our guest.

And then the nursery nativity play. Bub had the starring role (not!) as a percussionist. Given his lack of any musical ability and hatred of all singing I’m not especially surprised. I went along expecting him not to participate at all. But how wrong I was. After a few tears when being dropped off he soon got into the swing of it. I swear I even saw him singing too.

And what of my lovely Christmas Baby? Well he had a jolly good time despite a shocking cold. He didn’t even mind getting into the Christmas spirit by dressing as an elf in a seriously cheesy photo shoot with his baby friends!

Anticipating pain

Poor Baby has four teeth coming through. Four! This really isn’t much fun for anyone. I can see teeny tiny white bits though in his top gums where they are just about to break through. So hopefully it’s not too long to go now.

Helping him deal with the pain and discomfort is probably quite good practice though. In a few days Baby is due to have an operation. I’ve not mentioned it before but he has an undescended testicle. So later this week we’re off to the hospital for his surgery. It’s routine, from the perspective of the hospital, and he’ll probably be out that day. But from our position it’s anything but routine. He’ll be under general anaesthetic so can’t eat or drink for six hours before hand. Try explaining that to a nine month old! It’s keyhole surgery but it’s still likely he’ll be in a fair bit of pain afterwards. Poor little mite!

Call and response

Baby has started to make a variety of vocal sounds and noises. It’s really exciting. He’ll make a ‘ssss’ sound and then laugh when I do one back. Often we’ll have what are almost conversations where we are hissing and smiling at each other. He also makes ‘duh duh’ and ‘buh buh’ sounds.

This is all lots of fun. And in massive contrast to his big brother. Bub had very delayed speech and I don’t remember him ever testing out sounds or doing call and response type stuff. All this makes me think that Baby will be speaking much sooner than Bub did.

Review & competition: HIPP Organic pouches

I must confess that I’ve always liked HIPP Organic. Both my little ones used their formula milk (after breastfeeding) and we regularly buy their baby food jars and snacks. So when I had the opportunity to review their new baby food pouches I jumped at the chance.

Eight month old Baby does a lot of self-feeding. His evening meal is identical to ours and he has lots of finger food. But I still use a fair bit of jarred baby food. Sometimes spoon fed by me, sometimes a loaded spoon controlled by him, sometimes on toast or as a dip for breadsticks. Having some new pouches to try was great. Especially when out and about as a pouch seems easier to carry than a jar or Tupperware box. Baby seemed intent on learning how to suck direct from the pouch too which is really not a great look but probably a very valuable skill when mess really isn’t an option.

So what did we try?

Baby’s favourite savoury pouch was the sweet potato, cauliflower & sweet corn bake which he had on toast. More substantial than just a pure veggie mix he wolfed this down.

He also really liked the banana and baby rice smooth pouches. I used these as an alternative to his usual porridge and they proved a handy substitute for a meal out and about.

But his absolute and easy favourite was the banana, apple and apricot with yoghurt. Yoghurt is his favourite food anyway so this was probably a no-brainer. I like that this doesn’t need refrigeration so is perfect for meals on the go.

And so that big brother Bub wasn’t left out he had the plum, pear and blackcurrant smoothie pouch. And really enjoyed it too.

I don’t know how typical a mum I am when it comes to weaning. I love the ideas of baby led weaning but at the same time I’m kinda lazy and willing to adopt a ‘whatever works’ strategy. HIPP did send me the findings of their weaning survey (see below). Only 1/4 of parents are willing to follow their instincts on this issue, according to HIPP. Maybe I’m one of them?

Anyway the nice people at HIPP have promised a £25 hamper full of lovely HIPP Organic goodies for one lucky reader of this blog. To enter just leave a comment on this post. I’ll then pick the winner at random. The competition will close on Monday 2 December 2013.

(Disclosure: I was sent the pouches of food by HIPP Organic. My views are wholly my own.)

Weaning update – 8.5 months

Two and a half months into weaning. Baby is doing pretty well and definitely loves his food. But he still doesn’t eat a huge amount. Tiny portions compared to all his baby friends. But he enjoys it which at this stage is probably the most important thing. And isn’t waking up hungry or anything. So he’s probably getting what he needs.

I am being much less purist in my baby led weaning than with his big brother. We started off doing just finger food. But after a month Baby wasn’t really eating much at all and what he was offered wasn’t very varied. He’d have bread really often and very few veggies. I decided to introduce a bit of spoon feeding. This was partly because it was an easy way to vary his diet. But also because he seemed to really like it. I never push him to eat anything he doesn’t want to. And if he wants the spoon to do it himself he is welcome to it. But lots of the time he is happy for me to spoon feed – I think it’s because he gets the food in quicker. So in some ways we have gone backwards rather than forwards. But he seems happy and is very much in charge so that feels fairly baby led to me.

Our routine feels a bit transitiony but has been working for a couple of weeks at least. Here it is:

7.30am Wake, 8oz milk
9am Nap
11am Wake, breakfast
12.30pm 8oz milk
1.30pm Nap
3.30pm Wake, lunch
5pm 5oz milk
6pm Occasional catnap in sling
7pm Tea
8pm Bath
8.15pm 8oz milk, bedtime

His breakfast and lunch don’t really fit in with family mealtimes which is another reason I have used a few more baby food jars etc. Typical meals are:

Breakfast
– Weetabix, or
– Baby porridge, or
– Mini shredded wheats
– Plus a handful of Dry Cheerios or a banana

Lunch
– Half a baby food jar (stage two)
– Some finger food like toast, bread sticks, baby crisps etc
– Some grapes, strawberries or blueberries

Tea
– Whatever the family are having, true BLW style
– Full fat natural yoghurt

Not exactly the most inspiring menu but it works for us! Would love some extra ideas though, welcome your recommendations.

Fireworks

Went to a local fireworks display. Baby’s first. It went surprisingly well. He’s very sensitive to some noises but didn’t mind the fireworks at all. Some borrowed war defenders helped. He spent the display tucked up safe in my sling watching the bright lights with a look of complete awe on his face. Three year old Bub loved them too and watched with a massive grin. My boys clearly do have a taste for all things loud.

I didn’t get any photos of our fireworks outing. But here’s a lovely one of the two boys this Halloween.

Eight months old

Wow, time flies. All of a sudden my little baby isn’t quite so little. He is crawling, in fact. Amazing. His big brother didn’t do this for another six weeks so Baby is well ahead in the mobility stakes. Probably a by-product of spending much more time on the floor…

Anyway I thought it’d be interesting to contrast the two little ones at the same age. So here we go, first big brother Bub and then little Baby.

These also show another major difference. Teeth. Baby has had two teeth for quite a while. Bub didn’t get them till nine months. Both at this stage are still fairly chubby, though Bub slimmed down a lot once he started crawling. Will be interesting to see if the pattern repeats itself.

So, my two boys. Feels like only yesterday Bub was eight months and now he’s almost four. Gosh!