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July 16, 2004
11 Months
I forgot to write about Iain and my Canada Day last entry, I wrote about how Simon spent it, but not us! Recall, if you will, Simon spent all day performing open heart surgery on my poor computer, so that I can sit and type this :-) Anyway, we didn’t do much that day, just spent it around the house, but I did want to write about Iain’s outfit. I bought the cutest little one piece jumper from Roots with Canada on the front, it was of course, red. It had a tank style top, and went down to the knee and Iain scooted and motored around all day in it, happy as a clam. I got some good photos of him in it later that evening, after my thesis had been resurrected. I will have to make sure that I post one, so all of you can see him, so proud!
We have been having almost nightly thunderstorms lately. And I have to admit, I am loving it. I love to witness the power of mother nature, she is incredible. The lightening and thundering has been phenomenal, albeit somewhat unusual for this time of year. Now, in Halifax, the rain came down like it was the last rain of time, it was so hard it would drench you in maybe as long as one minute. And it would rain like that for hours. Here, the rain starts, and it is almost like someone is pushing buttons, because the ferocity goes up a level, and then another level, and then a further level to where you don’t think it could possibly rain any harder. Iain is completely fine with the thunder, which is great because oddly enough, I have never heard thunder like I have heard it here so far. It is long, crackling, rolling, sweeping, booming thunder. The kids are freaked, I have to keep talking and reassuring Brook, and Scarlett just disappears for most of it, but at least Iain is fine!
Couple house things. We now, finally, have a front walkway. Yes, four months after we moved in. But now, I no longer have to push a stroller over uneven ground and paving stones to get to the sidewalk, I only have to go down one step to a smooth surface all the way to the sidewalk. Not that we are happy with the work, it is aggragate concrete, you know, the kind where you see the stones on top. Well, our walkway was the third to be poured and they started to run out of the stones and so we have huge chunks in the walkway that only have tiny little stones, and then areas that look like normal aggragate. Oh, and they didn’t manage to level the front step/landing, so now when winter comes we are going to have a lovely ice puddle there, perfect for stepping on and slipping. Simon and I literally just shake our heads now at the incompetence that has gone into building this house.
Oh, and the fellow is trying to charge me $200 for the extra 6-9 square feet that we wanted for the step/landing. He has on the invoice, which I told him to write up before I was paying anything, that it costs $8 per sq foot. I am wondering where all this imaginary aggragate is that I am supposed to pay for. He says it is because I changed my mind three times on the shape of the landing, but I only changed the design once, and from the beginning told him how to do it, it was he who actually didn’t do as I had described in great detail, six times so that it could be very, very clear. You know, because I am a housewife. And clearly, I don’t have anything in my beautiful head. So, what I described all those times must be wrong. Must be! And now, he is trying to charge me for the mistake that HE made! Argh! Well, I am just not writing the cheque is all! He even tried to threaten me that he wouldn’t spray off the layer of concrete to expose the aggragate and then my walk wouldn’t look pretty. I said go ahead, I’ll rent a pressure washer and do it myself! I am a strong and capable woman, hear me roar! I think he forgot to tell the guy doing the washing though, because I came out and it was all done. Whatever. Okay, enough venting on that subject.
Simon had to install a new dryer vent in the morning on Canada Day, because our current vent vents up to the roof, instead of one foot to the exterior wall. And my clothes weren’t drying on the automatic dry sense setting, I would have it on on high heat for over an hour and the clothes would literally still be wet. Not even damp, like they had dried a bit, they were still wet. This had been going on since we had the dryer installed back in April. The fellow came by to check it out and said that it was the venting. Okay, fine. We will fix the venting. Venting is fixed, I do the laundry, clothes are still not dry. For heaven’s sake, will ANYTHING in this house go RIGHT already? Serviceman comes again, I tell him all this and he just stares at me when I repeat that we installed the new vent, as in, my husband climbed up a ladder, onto the roof, drilled the hole, mounted the vent and connected the dryer. My clothes, finally, are drying now, he apparently replaced the temperature sensor. I have my fingers crossed that this is the last time I will have to have someone in to fix an appliance in this house…
We have fired our lawyer. After weeks of him delaying pressing charges against our builder’s lawyer and him never returning our phone calls or phoning us when he said he would, we have decided that enough is enough, we are firing him. He knew from the very start that we were contacting him because things were not moving forward on the house in anywhere near a timely manner, and initially, the letter that he sent to the builder’s lawyer was good. Then, I don’t know what happened. He didn’t follow up when the deadline expired and things were still not done. And he couldn’t seem to call us, or have his assistant phone us either that week. And when we finally got hold of him, he was still reluctant to sue, what lawyer is reluctant to sue? What is worse is that he knew about my depression, we were hoping it would spur him on to clue in that this was a really serious thing happening to us, and he just suggested that we take a vacation back to where our families were. Hello? He knew we moved for a new job. As in, new hire, don’t have vacation time accrued yet, just out of probationary period? Another thing to add to our immense stress list. Now we need to find a new lawyer as well, one who is willing to actually fight for us.
Moving on to something a lot more cheerful to talk about, that stuff makes me feel way too upset and miserable and helpless.
I have been looking forward to July for almost six weeks now, and I will tell you why: I had signed up Iain and I for swimming lessons. The first session runs every day but Friday for two weeks and I signed up for an additional two week session so that Iain and I are swimming every day for the rest of July. The only problem was that Iain hasn’t been in a bath, let alone a pool, since we moved. He’s only had showers. He has gone through so many developmental changes since we moved that we really were worried that he was going to be freaked out by being surrounded by water. So, we tested how he would be in the bath starting a week before the classes and the first night he was literally petrified. He just cried and hung on for dear life to the edge of the tub. And you all know how strong he is, so you can imagine, he almost left dents in the marble surround. :-) The next time, still petrified, but calmed down for moments. It wasn’t until the night before the first class, when I sat him in his seat that he started to become more comfortable. The first week of swimming was actually aquafit class for the mums and the babies sat submerged in little rafts while we exercised. The rafts are SO cool! If I knew where to buy one, I totally would. They are two squares of inflatable plastic, an inner square and outer one. In the middle, where the babies are is a “+” of plastic, where you can put the babies either in the front two slots or the back two slots.
Iain was in the back slots and was really apprehensive and cautious that first class. He held on tight to his bath toys that I had brought, and then five or eight minutes into the half hour class, he lay back against the raft tubing and looked like he was lounging. But, I knew he was still a little apprehensive, I could tell by how he kept looking to me throughout the class. Well, it got better day by day and by the end of the week, he was patting the water, letting go of his toys in the little open space in the centre of the raft, moving forward to lean forward or laying back, being chatty and flirty, he was a water creature again! We had done swimming lessons with his girlfriend back in January, but it was so long ago that I think I was rightfully worried about what he would do this time. I was so relieved when he started to loosen up in the water! The next week, he really took to the water, although it was his part of the session this time, where we were supposed to be focusing on him. Our swimming instructor, however, is an imbecile. I was expecting to learn about how babies should be introduced to the water, what we can do with them in the water and all we played were games that were mostly focused upon the parent, not the child. So, Iain is not really “swimming,” I am holding him and we play ring around the rosie, or going on a lion hunt, or what time is it mr. shark. I just hope that we get a different instructor for the next session.
The great thing about this activity is that I have met a mum, Melodie, and she has a son named Ewan. Her DH is actually named Iain and spells it properly too because he is Scottish :-) Ewan was born on Simon’s birthday, so is only 10 days older than Iain, which is great. So, we have been chatting all class long about all sorts of things, and went on a walk this week after class on the pathway system. She is going back to work, but will only be working 4 day work weeks, so we will hopefully still get the chance to hang out together. She has signed up for the rest of the swimming sessions this month as well, so I will see her everyday for the rest of July. It is nice, we share a family change room because you can change two babies, almost three even on the huge canvas bench they have in there and it makes it faster for those also waiting for the rooms. I have told her about my depression, I am trying to be really honest because this disease is so silent. Whenever someone gets it, they don’t talk about it, and I don’t think that that is right. We need to get it out into the open and talk about it, share our experiences and support each other. So, anyway, I have made a friend. I hope to make more in the next session! :-)
We had friends visit us for three days, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was exactly what I needed. A little bit of distraction from a couple who are really wonderful people. They came to town for the event of the year in the city, the Stampede. For those of you in the know, you know exactly what I mean, a crazy, happy, delirious, yahoo time. They arrived on Thursday, just as I was finishing up pumping. I had to take myself off the pump and run downstairs while hooking up my bra and lowering my shirt. I think I was quite the sight :-) I haven’t seen the couple since I had dinner with them when I was in town for my grandmother’s funeral back in 2002, so it had been awhile. And they weren’t even engaged at that point. They have since gotten married, just a couple weeks after Iain was born, and on the other side of the country, so we were not really in a place to go to the wedding :-) Simon hasn’t seen his buddy since we left for Halifax in 2001, and has never met his friend’s wife.
We had a really great visit with them, they stayed at our house, our first guests, and took to Iain like a fish to water. They are such a truly wonderful couple, both Simon and I are glad that we got to meet up again and have some fun with them. We went to the Parade (165 floats – HUGE!) on the Friday morning and we were all dressed up in our cowboy gear. The whole city gets dressed up in cowboy gear actually, everyone in cowboy hats and boots, jeans, shirts… you name it! In preparation of this huge 10-day long event, Simon and I had gone out to buy me and Iain a hat, we got matching ones actually. Simon already had his cowboy hat, he will just wear that one. But one of the cutest things was that Simon found tiny little cowboy boots for Iain! LOL We had searched in a couple of stores but hadn’t found any. He surprised me as he went out at lunch one day and I was instructed to close my eyes while he did something with Iain, well, he put on the little boots. They are actually really good looking; black boots with blue and silver accent stitching. I had found a shirt at Gymboree that had “Wanted” in appliqué on the front. I dressed Iain up that morning in his dark blue jeans, “Wanted” shirt, plaid overshirt, three pairs of socks to fit into the boots, and his hat, of course! I wore a jean skirt, white shirt and my white matching hat. We made quite the picture and all during the parade, people were pointing and smiling at Iain, the cutest, littlest cowboy there.
We spent all day at the Stampede on Saturday, all lathered up in sunscreen for all of us as it was a beautifully blue sky day. We had a really great time, checking out booths, barns, games… The rodeo was fantastic, Iain did go down for a nap on our laps during part of it, probably for about an hour total, thankfully. That was his only nap of the day :-) He usually has a 3-4 hour nap, not a 1 hour, but I’ll take that little one if that’s what he is offering me!
One thing about the rodeo. There was a woman in our row that was videotaping the event. Except that we didn’t exactly have stellar seats, it was quite a ways from the field and it was just a hand recorder, not a really fancy-shmancy recorder. I had to get up to change Iain and use the washroom myself, and said excuse me and all that. I made sure to time it so that there was nothing going on at the moment that I left, so that she wasn’t recording anything. She took a while to get up even after I excused myself, and then was “huffy” as I passed her. When I returned, I waited for a pause in the action, excused myself, but she didn’t stop recording. I asked if she was recording and she replied yes. She then got up and made so that I had to walk behind her to get to my seat. I said that there was no way I could get through there, not carrying my baby I couldn’t! So she slapped the viewframe of the camera closed and moved back, and “huffed” again. Simon had watched this and just gave me a look when I sat down. As the last event started, the bull-riding, it began to rain. I didn’t particularly relish getting soaked alongside Iain, so myself, and the four people beside me got up to leave, as did MANY others. I watched the recorder lady closely as this happened, and it was only as I passed that she “huffed” again. What, do you have something against babies? I had been polite both time I had asked her to move before, none of the others in the row complained. And hey, this is a RODEO! People get up to buy beer and hotdogs, go to the bathroom, go have a cigarette… Oh, I should also mention that we only had one exit from our row because we were at the very end, and sitting beside the wall, so we couldn’t just go the other direction to get out – there was no other direction. After the rain began to let up to the point where it was just sprinkling, I returned to Simon, who had stayed in the rain. This time, I allowed her to barely stand up, then brushed by her. I had given her three opportunities to move out of the way and she had been rude all three times. So, I didn’t feel I had to oblige her attitude anymore. When the rodeo was over, just a few minutes later really, again, I didn’t allow her to fiddle with her camera, I just said excuse me and made sure to bump her as I left. She didn’t leave me much room and we were the first row of the upper grandstands, there was a fifty drop to the next section down. I had to hold Iain over on that side just so that I could get around her because if I didn’t, he would have bumped into her; rather, I did and not too gently either. Simon also “brushed” her as he said.
The only other problem of the day was that I had to pump late, almost three hours later than I usually pump. We have a saying when I haven’t been able to pump at my regular time “I’m about to explode.” And that time, I almost did feel like that. There were two Mother’s Rooms on the grounds, but the first one that I found was revolting – it was a ‘why bother’ situation. As in, there were two vinyl 10-foot long benches, in a room that was off of the 50 stall bathroom, and it was open to the stalls as well. Not exactly a quiet and private area to nurse your baby. I ended up pumping in a washroom stall for a nice restaurant. It was MUCH cleaner and quieter than the other restroom. And I had a huge pumping too. Whew, my boobs felt SO much better after that pumping! LOL
All told, we had a great day however, and it was so much fun hanging out with our friends. I had brought enough milk and a bit of food for Iain for the whole day and we ended up going out to dinner that night as well, so we were away from the house for the entire day and we survived just fine! :-)
The next time we were at the Stampede was for the Chuckwagon races, Simon’s office paid for one ticket and you could buy a ticket for your family. His office also held a BBQ for lunch that day, so after swimming Iain and I dropped by, with him all decked out in his cowboy stuff to show off to everyone in the office. Everybody loved him of course, and the meal was great. We went home after that for Iain’s nap and for me to pump, and then we picked up Simon after work and headed over to the grounds. The races and grandstand show would last until almost midnight, so we had to decide when I would pump for that night too. I ended up pumping in another washroom stall, because we couldn’t find the other Mother’s Room on the grounds and we ran out of time until the races started. I missed the first three races, but caught the remaining six, so that was okay. We had a really fantastic time that night, and know where to get our seats for the next year. We will go to the rodeo next year, but skip the chuckwagons and grandstand show (it was pretty silly) unless we have visitors next year.
Simon is a cookie monster, and I think that Iain is turning into one as well. :-) I haven’t really had the opportunity to make cookies since we have moved here, and Simon had gotten a real bad craving for them. One night, it apparently got too much for him to handle because he turned off the TV and announced that we were making cookies. Okay, mister, whatever you want! LOL We ended up making a double batch, but only cooking one batch. The other one went into Ziplocs and into the fridge, to be eaten as batter. The house smelled soooo good. I had literally forgotten what it smelled like to have cookies in the oven, it has been that long. Must do this more often.
Another thing we did this past weekend was go out canoe shopping. Or rather, canoe researching. We won’t be buying one this year probably, and be getting a second hand one next year. Unless we come into some money or someone wants to buy one for us! LOL We have decided that this is the activity that we want to do in the summer, with snowshoeing in the winter time. I am a little leery of the canoeing right now, because I know that you have to kneel down in the canoe, and my knees are absolutely crap. Simon has a co-worker who is a member of a canoe club here and we are going to join up. They have courses and do over 100 trips a year, all over the province and all sorts of levels. So, it should be excellent. We also bought a book called “Cradle to Canoe” by a couple who raised their two boys practically IN a canoe, they were so young when they had their first trip. It actually has some fantastic advice in it and promises to be a great resource for us for our new activity. There is a basic water course coming up that we hope to register for, we’ll have to see if they let us take Iain however…
I had another bad day this week, on Thursday. It was all that I could do to not crawl into bed and cry. I don’t know why I had this terrible day, I had been doing really, so well! All I can hope for is that they are not as frequent anymore. And that they also not get so bad. I didn’t really get anything done that day, which just makes the following day even harder because there is so much extra to do. It is really hard, you know, because the repercussions of just ONE bad day is so great. I feel bad the following day because there is so much to do, and rush through the day trying to do everything, exhaust myself, get snippy and angry, which then carries on, and on… Man, depression really sucks.
On the other hand, I had my first psychiatric appointment. We talked about my family history mostly, didn’t really get into why I have my depression now, but rather just got history on me as a person. Iain was pretty good, not really Destructo except for the last 20 minutes of the hour appointment. I have another appointment for two weeks later. I definitely felt better after talking, and he was quite clear that if I need more sessions after the six that the program allows, they make sure that I get that help, so that is good. For now, we will talk every couple weeks and see how it goes.
Okay, lately I have had a huge run of plugged ducts, and I have no idea why. It is one recurring plugged duct and you’d think that by now I would know how to empty my breasts of all the milk so that I wouldn’t run into this problem. So, I don’t really know what is going on. The first one that I had – they are all the top duct on my left (high producing) side – was the worst as I couldn’t get it unplugged on the pump. I was having a shower with Iain when I finally just sat down with him, to work on it sitting down. I had already tried standing up with the water hitting it, but no go. All of a sudden, I see this jet of liquid spurt out further than the spray of the shower head (thank goodness we have a shower head on a hose that is eight feet long) and I realize that it is milk! Now, this next part got me a little sad. I figured, why waste good milk? I tried to spray it into Iain’s mouth, but he just got frustrated and kept moving his head away. This broke my heart just a little bit more. I don’t know if I will ever get over the grief of not being able to continue to nurse Iain. But him not wanting this milk… Anyway, I just expressed enough to get the achiness to ease a bit. I was going to pump after the shower anyway, but wanted to get the plug started. I have since had three more plugged ducts, but able to work them all out on the pump. Don’t know what I’ve been doing to get them, and they seem to be gone for now. The funny thing is how much milk is in the duct when I get plugged. I can get up to 3oz more milk from that ONE duct. Woah, mama. I have pretty much figured out by now that I have a good carrying capacity, but 3oz from just one duct is a lotta milk :-)
Okay, time for Iain news. There is so much exciting or funny stuff to share this entry that I don’t know where to start…
Iain was given the Little People Animal Sounds Barn for Christmas last year and when we got his room set up, we took it out of the box for him to play with, figuring he was old enough by then. It took me a couple more months to put in the batteries for the sounds to work, and then a few more weeks for Iain to really start playing with it. Now, he will sit (albeit, not for long!) and swing the doors to the horse and cow’s stall. The other day he was picking up the pig and putting it back in its place. He loves to take the rooster and windmill thing off the roofs. He is really starting to get the hang of this toy, and I am so excited for him. I make sure to put the animals back in their places so that he learns where they go. I don’t really talk to him as I do this, that isn’t really the way that I parent, going “the horse goes in his stall” etc is really not my thing. I just place the horse back, swing the stall, and let Iain do his thing. I mean, he has gotten this far without that type of “coaching” from me or Simon, and look how he has been able to figure things out already. :-)
Iain LOVES the front bay windows. The two little side windows we literally have just left open for weeks now, and he will happily stand there, grip the arm that closes the window and chatter away. It really is quite cute. He will move from one side window to the other, cruising the whole way, babbling to himself and anyone who will listen. Brook is often at the windows as well, particularly if Simon is outside doing something, she loves to watch him, just waiting for the signal that she can join him. So both of them watch eagerly. :-) Oh, the other thing that Iain does while standing up at the window is slap the sills. He is *just* tall enough to reach the arm and also to see over the sill, but I don’t think it will be all that long before his chin will be over that sill…
Okay, funny story. Potential 21st birthday highly embarrassing story. :-) We were out doing the canoe shopping and were on our way to the two canoe stores in town from the canoe club. I started to smell something. A nasty something. I did not anticipate changing this something when we arrived at our destination, it smelled that badly. I had remarked to Simon on the smell, and he agreed that it did not bode well for the person who was going to deal with the something. Suddenly, the smell got worse. You ask, “how could it get worse?” Simon looked back at Iain. Who had a gigantic grin on his face, and poop all over his leg and both hands. The disposable diaper that he had on (we will often use these if we are out for many hours instead of cloth) had not even attempted to contain the explosion Iain had had. It went right out the side and Iain likes to reach down and play with the buckle to the car seat and probably felt this, uhm, stuff, on his leg and decided to play with it. Simon literally said “Oh, *hit!” I asked right away what was wrong and Simon just said, “emergency, you need to deal with him RIGHT NOW.”
I turned around and just started to laugh. I mean, there was just nothing else I could do, but laugh at my son. I managed to get out the wipes and get a couple to wipe off his hands. The problem was that he had it in his nails… Simon was disgusted with this, but nothing fazes me, I have dealt with this type of stuff all through my career as a nanny, so I was just trying to not cry I was laughing so hard. I instructed Simon to get off the highway as soon as he could, as soon as he did, he got out, unbuckled Iain and pulled off his pants. Then, just holding him by his arms, he undid the diaper so that it fell off. Simon uttered another expletive, I handed him a wipe to deal with the mess that was still left. He kept asking me to stop laughing, but it was hard. :-) Simon asked what we fed him last night and when I told him, he stated that we were never feeding him that again, the repercussions were just too stinky. I replied that was just tough, the mechanics were never going to change, it goes in, it comes out :-) We did manage to get Iain pretty clean, his shorts were beyond repair, so he wore his receiving blanket into the canoeing stores. Ah, a man in a skirt… And so the tale ends.
So, we had been feeding Iain solid food for a while, but have only been giving him veggies or fruit, and only at dinner time. Last grocery shopping trip, I bought some of the stews and meal-like foods for him. The grocery store only carries the Heinz brand of baby food, but I have come to like the variety of types available quite a bit. I tried the Turkey Stew, and Iain was rather nonplussed with this. I had to put in some spices and Worcestershire sauce for him to eat it, the little monkey! The next night, I tried the Spanish Chicken with Rice, and it is now famous as per the story above. He love this, and I have since figured out that it is the textures that he loves. The stew was just a baby food, but the chicken and rice was a ‘toddler’ food, and had grains and chunky bits in it. Iain still doesn’t really have any teeth, so it is not a matter of biting or chewing, but I guess that we have been feeding him so much of our food that he likes the feeling of chewing with just his gums. So, he has had all sorts of different meal-like foods now and loves them. We still give him our food occasionally, but for the most part, he gets his own. Oh yes, and the soups that I talked about in the last entry too, he still loves those. :-)
Iain has another tooth coming through… but it isn’t the one you’d think would come up. He has the left side of his bottom two teeth, so you’d THINK that the right side would come up too. But no, he’s gotta do it his way, the right side of the upper two teeth has just started to peek through. He had been playing in his crib after finishing his bottle and smiled at me. I saw a flash of white and went “is that what I think it is?” I popped him on the change table for the leverage to really have a good look and low and behold, it was indeed another tooth! It was time to go and pick up Simon and when he came down to the van, I said “Dad, I got another toos” and Simon turned around to have a look. Logically, he looked on the bottom first and I said “is not down there…” Simon looked at me, and then looked at Iain’s upper gums and smiled and laughed at his silly son. So, you can’t really see it yet with his smile, because the other side just popped through so that the whole bottom is free, but hasn’t moved down yet really. I expect by the next entry that it’ll have moved down a bit more and be more visible.
Speaking of teeth… Iain’s teeth have become a new and interesting thing for him. He has discovered that he can run his tongue over his bottom tooth, and that it feels really interesting. Initially, we would catch him every now and then with his tongue moving over that tooth. Now, we find him with his tongue out all the time. A fantastic result of this is that it appears that Iain’s tongue is getting longer. He has never, ever been able to just stick it out of his mouth like other babies, because of his tied frenulum. This was the major reason why we weren’t able to nurse as well – his tongue couldn’t wrap around the nipple and areola the way that it was supposed to. Now, his tongue can come completely out of his mouth and a bit off/past his lower lip. This is amazing for someone who could barely get the very tip over his lower lip. So, I would hazard a guess that if we could resume nursing, we wouldn’t have any troubles now at all. Except that Iain fights me so much now when I try, that I have stopped trying. He just screams and pushes and pushes so hard actually that he hurts me, so I just stop. He gets my milk… just not from the tap per se, and not how I originally intended. I am sure that if I had a more ‘placid’ baby, I would be able to get the breastfeeding relationship started again, but Iain has been anything but placid from the moment that he was born. I LOVE his personality, it is truly wonderful to see it develop and expand and work, though.
Along with the boots, hat and “Wanted” snappy-T, I had also bought a blanket from Gymboree that had old fashioned cowboys on horses or bulls or whatnot on one side and just a cream fabric on the other. I had brought it to the races the night we were out, in case it got cool. I did end up bringing it out and Iain did the sweetest thing: he fingered one of the cowboys. He has never really paid much attention to these types of things in the past and it was so cute to see that he “saw” the cowboy and wanted to actually touch it. Because of his interest in this blanket and because it is such a neat little ‘boy’ blanket, I have tried to use it a lot, and he also sleeps with it, when it isn’t too hot to use it. I would love it if he formed an attachment to this sweet little blanket… we’ll have to see. As of right now, only ‘Magic’ Bunny is ranked that high. :-)
Iain is a funny little sleeper. He has always slept on his belly, since he was just about two weeks old. The reason we did this was because no matter HOW tightly we swaddled him, he could kick free in mere minutes. We timed him actually, it got to be a competitive event, how long will YOUR swaddle last? LOL We tried him on his belly, and he didn’t kick quite as much. The swaddle stayed on better. The other thing was, once he was loose, he would very frequently wake himself up just because he flailed so strongly. Once we had him on his belly, he started to sleep much better. Decision, made. Anyway, he is a squiggler in bed, that is for certain. The few times that we tried to co-sleep, he kept us up most of the night while he was in dreamland, squirming away, Simon and I were being constantly kicked and shoved all over the place. Clearly, that wasn’t going to work. He was 2.5 months old at that point. Lately I have noticed that he has been sleeping on his side. It really started when he had chicken pox, he didn’t want to lie on his belly. He will now, alternatively, either squirm right onto his belly when I roll him from my arms into the crib, or push with his legs so that he remains on his side. The other thing is that he moves. All. Over. The. Crib. When I go in in the morning, there is absolutely no way to tell where he will be facing. He can be lying across the crib, stuffed in the corner, the opposite way to the manner in which I put him down, or seemed as if he didn’t even move. Every morning and or afternoon after his nap, it is a surprise to see where he is at. :-) I wonder though, will I have to have rails on his next bed, just to contain my little wanderer?
We have started to give Iain animal or arrowroot crackers. Just a couple here and there, and at first I gave him a whole one, well, with no teeth really to bite with, it was a little difficult. :-) So, I have broken them up to give them to him. He has really not had much opportunity up until now to get the whole ‘pincer’ finger thing, because we don’t feed him goldfish crackers, or cheerios or anything. So, I was delighted when he was able to feed himself so well with me handing him the cookie, taking it from me and putting it in his mouth. It seems like such a small thing, but I am glad nonetheless that he has ‘gotten’ this skill, even without the practice that I am sure other babies his age and younger are getting. The other great thing about the cookies is that I can break up a good sized pile of them and it will keep him occupied for a little while he gobbles them all up. :-)
We have also been giving him more juice lately, with the heat that we have been experiencing. Same amount of milk, not warmed as much as usual, just so that the cream can be incorporated into the milk, and nice, cold juice. Oh, and pure fruit juice too, none of that added sugar crap. We will water it down a bit as well, and I am thinking of giving him some Pedialyte if it gets any hotter, because he is so hot and slightly damp, I know that he is sweating all day long, and he is hardly dressed in anything. We’ll see how the next couple weekends go.
Finally, I have noticed that when Iain is upset and crying lately, he will be “talking” crying. Like, he will babble ‘mamamabamyahayay” as he crawls towards me, crying. I have no doubt that this is some sort of new developmental level, that he is trying to tell me something. I notice that he will ‘talk’ cry particularly if he is hungry. Hmmm, could my baby boy be trying to tell me that he is starving, and to please feed him right this very exact moment? When he does this I try to talk to him more, and as I said above, I am not really the type of parent who constantly chatters away about things. I am more the type to talk when it is needed, and to be quiet if it isn’t. I figure, I was raised by a nanny, and don’t know how she dealt with me, and I turned out fine, so I am sure that Iain will too. Simon and I completely agree that the whole flash card, talk all the time about everything that you see parenting dealio is way over rated, our kids are going to be fine, with us parenting the way that we do.
**Talk to Me**
Did you meet any of your (now) good friends through an activity like swimming?
When you were coming out of a depression, did you seem to have bad days on a certain day as well, or were they random?
What order did your baby’s teeth come in, is Iain funny or the norm with one lower and one upper coming in?
Namaste, Laura and Iain
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