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August 1, 2004
11.5 Months
The heat, finally, has arrived. Ahhhh, heat. And, even better, the humidity that has always accompanied the heat in Halifax is pretty much nonexistent here. Woohoo! Heat that is drier like this gives you so much more energy, it is remarkable. I am loving the heat. Can you tell? I fell as if I can wear my shorts now, justifiably, because it is finally warm enough to HAVE to wear shorts. :-) I have been dressing Iain in really cool outfits as well (well, double meaning to that) like in tanks and shorts, and then in the evening, he gets to scoot around in his diaper, because by then it is so hot that it would be cruel to wear clothes if you didn’t have to. It has been the hottest on the weekends, funnily enough, so we just try to make the most of it and not be outside during the hottest parts.
I had been trying to get our Honda serviced for over a week, to no avail. The reason for the appointment was that we have slowly but surely been losing controls on the steering wheel. First went the cruise control (on a two hour drive no less on perfectly straight highway), then the radio controls, finally, the horn. I wasn’t concerned really with the controls, but the horn is just something that you need in a city, and particularly when you have an infant in the vehicle with you. I had made an appointment with a dealership, because it is warranty work, and they kindly drove me and Iain home, then went to work on the vehicle. They then picked me up, and I assumed it was fixed. Almost at the dealership again, I tested the horn – no horn. I was told that a part needed to be ordered, that it would come in in two days and the following day I could come in to get it installed. I stressed the urgency of this matter, I had almost been hit twice because I couldn’t notify the other driver that I was there and in their way. Anyway, the fellow promised that he would phone as soon as the part was in to schedule the appointment. The weekend passed, and no phone call. I was supposed to have it installed on a Thursday. I finally phone on the Tuesday to ask where it is – oh it was here on Wednesday, did you want to come in? Uhm… YEAH! Didn’t know why I was not notified, and the appointment was scheduled for Thursday, very first thing in the morning.
Simon had to get out to the plant on Thursday morning, a last minute revision, so I wasn’t able to get to the appointment. They didn’t phone to ask me where I was, and later that afternoon I got a phone call saying that they have the part in, do I want to schedule an appointment? What is going on over there?? Clearly they have a major communication issue. I decide that enough is enough, this was my first visit to a dealership here, with a 8 month old vehicle having problems like this. I look up another dealership and phone them up. I ask to speak to the manager right away, and get his voicemail. I leave a message with him and stress the urgency of the problem again. We had almost (inches) been hit the night before by a semi-trailer who just decided to change lanes and not signal, it was during a huge thunderstorm and there was poor visibility, but we had all our lights on. Simon had to slam on the brakes and we almost hydroplaned. Not good. Iain was in the back with us too.
Anyway, the manager of the other dealership phones me back and we have a few phone calls back and forth as he checks whether he has the part, if he can get us in etc. I was able to go in mid-morning on Saturday, they dropped Iain and I off at the nearby Chapters while the van was being fixed. Oh, the other thing is that the first place said it would take over two and a half hours. The manager asked one of his techs while he was on the phone to me and I heard the whole conversation. The tech said it would only take an hour, tops. Tops! Iain and I had a lovely time in Chapters, I bought three board books and a solid food book for Iain, then we walked back to the dealership. Turns out that the manager did the work himself, I guess he rose up from the shop floor, and I have a horn again! Yeay! Another thing – the van was sparkling clean, they had even washed it for me, something that the other dealership did not do, and they had the van for more time. So, the moral of the story is, if you aren’t being treated fairly, tell your story to another location and you’ll get treated well. The place is definitely getting my service from now on, even if it takes me double the time to drive there than the first location. :-)
We have painted our garage floor, and I have to say, it looks awesome! We were thinking originally of going in with our neighbours on the paint, but they were taking forever, so we just went and did it ourselves. We bought a pressure washer first however, so that it was really clean, and then went through all the steps of using the cleaner and degreaser, then the etching solution, twice actually because the first one didn’t work too well, then the primer, and finally, two coats of the paint. We put in a package of very fine grain sand so that the floor has a touch of texture, and it turned out quite well. Oh! The colour is a deep green, with a hint of blue in it. Looks marvelous in the sun. :-) So now that that is done, we could start moving all the stuff in the basement that should be in the garage, into the garage. This took many, many loads in both the van and through the house.
We initially started doing van loads because it had rained and our backyard was a quagmire. But we just did another few hours this weekend and Simon was able to walk it all over. Then for the organizing of all this crap! LOL We went out to Canadian Tire and bought a box of mounting hooks in all sorts of shapes and sizes so that we can start to hang up some of the things we own. As well, I convinced Simon to buy two drawer organizers for all his bits and pieces, so those will come out of the shoeboxes they currently are in and into the nice, see-through drawers. I might even do labels for him for the screws so he knows what sizes they are. The other thing we bought was a storage locker with doors and peg-board inside. Now, many of Simon’s tools can go into there and he can hang things on the doors inside, making it SO much easier for someone other than him to go and get a tool. :-) Not saying who that is, that someone else. Much of the mounting and putting away and purging is done in the garage now, after a couple hours spent in there by Simon, so that is wonderful. He was even able to park the van inside after he came back from doing the recycling! Wooooohooo! This was the very first time that we have been able to park in the garage, and I am so excited to be able to have the van in there, safe and sound. Simon had also made a nice path using the giant paving stones that were our front walkway before the aggragate went in, so now I have something to get to the garage, instead of walking through all the nasty muck and mud.
One thing about the pressure washer. I had to go way down south to another Canadian Tire to get it because the one by our house was all sold out. The box was all beat up and Simon said that when he used it, there was some water already inside the washer. The other thing is, the detergent container and the instructions were not in the box either. I went to our local store and said that these items were missing and they asked me to come back at the end of the month when they had a whole shipment coming in of the model that I purchased. So, I come in and when they find out that I bought it at another store, the problems start. The manager wouldn’t allow them to take the items out that I needed, so I had to go home, pick up the washer, bring it back and they would give me a brand new one, all parts included. Little bit of a hassle, but at least now I know we really have a brand new washer – the bags and ties were still on all the cords and the body of the washer so it really hadn’t been touched. The woman helping me thinks that I got a display model or something and that is why it was missing all these things. So, we have a brand new washer, haven’t had the chance to use it yet, but I am sure next weekend we will, because we need to clean the van and the front walk, among other things. :-)
The other big thing we have done is do a total and complete house clean. I mean, top to bottom, every thing sparkly and nice, clean, clean, clean. This is so that I only have to do a touch up clean once before we leave on our trip, and we still get to come home to a nice clean house. And you know how it goes – you come home after a loooong drive and your house is filthy: dirty sheets, dishwasher full and dirty, dishes on the counter, floors full of pet hair, things on the stairs to go upstairs… recycling and garbage to be done… Well, whenever we go somewhere, we try hard to get the house clean before, because it is SO much nicer to just drop all the luggage and crap and go to bed or veg out on the sofa for an hour before going to bed instead of having to clean up. So, we have totally done all the bathrooms, including mirrors, I have done the wood furniture, Simon vacuumed, I mopped, he did the stairs, I did the kitchen, he worked in the garage some more, I took care of Iain and pumped. Took us almost all day, but we got it all done. And now the house just shines. :-) We even cleaned off the bar counter, which perennially has crap and stuff all over it. Now, I have literally a ton of laundry to do, but oh well… That is for Tuesday (laundry day around here).
A little bit about our routine now. We do our grocery shopping on Tuesday nights. I used to go shopping on Mondays, but since we realized about my depression and Simon’s worry about me driving, we have been going out together so that I don’t have to drive so much. We will usually do Costco and the regular grocery store on the one night, to get it all done, and I have to say that it is helpful to have Simon there, because lord knows, those Costco boxes can weigh a lot, but also unloading the van is a ton easier with four arms than it is with two. I pick up Simon from work and we head out from there. That is not to say that the night isn’t really hectic and crazy, because we still need to eat dinner, sometimes we have the hot dogs at Costco, sometimes we eat when we get home. And Iain, too, needs to eat, so I need to bring his bottle, or some food along with us. But it is also fun too, Iain sits on Simon’s shoulders and we just go up and down the aisles, making quick work of our list.
We have tentative plans to travel to Belize, courtesy of my mum, this Christmas. I have not had any shots or boosters since high school, and so scheduled an appointment with the travel clinic, conveniently located upstairs from my doctor’s office. It was a great appointment, the doctors were fantastic. They asked me a lot of questions about where I was going, what type of accommodation I was staying in, how long I would be there and such. I made sure that the shots I was going to take were okay with breastfeeding (they were) and we talked a lot about Iain getting shots. Something that I hadn’t really considered before was that many countries do not permit children in who have not been immunized. Eeek! I mean, we have chosen to delay Iain’s shots, and were thinking of not getting a couple, but not if we can’t take him with us on our vacation, for heaven’s sake! So, I have to get him scheduled posthaste to do his shots, unfortunately. Mine were fine. Initially. I got the Twinrix (sp?) Hep B and C in one arm and then Typhoid in the other arm. And the nurse instructed me to try not to lift anything very heavy for the rest of the day, but laughed after saying it because I was holding Iain on my lap during the shots. My arms remained vaguely sore for the duration of the day. The next days were not as good, but more on that later.
One thing I do have to mention is that the malaria meds I have to take are special, because the regular one is not good with those under depression meds, or those prone to depression. Ah, me? So, Iain will get the regular meds, and I will get the special ones. That won’t come until closer to the date of departure however because the meds are based off of your weight, and that hopefully will be changing for me, and certainly will for Iain. Oh, one last thing about the meds: is not good for pregnancy. I am really sad that we won’t be able to TTC while we are there, and that we will instead have to be careful to NOT be TTC, because the meds are really not good for a developing fetus. And you have to take them for a full four weeks after your return, so that means that we won’t be “officially” TTC until the end of January. :-( Oh well, I guess that just means that there is more time for me to lose some more weight before getting pregnant again. Let’s hope, eh?
Miss Scarlett has turned into a cat who tries to get outside. Not every time that the door is open, but she does lurk and slink around if there is one open. I think that she isn’t as afraid here as she was in Halifax, there are trees close by, not the gigantic and massive open expanse that we had for a backyard before. So I guess it appears that it is safer. Anyway, she got out just recently, and we didn’t realize it until I was pumping for the last time. I hadn’t put Iain down yet, so Simon and Iain tried to “find” her by shaking her treats and calling for her. Or, rather, Iain shook the treats because it was interesting and Simon called to her. She didn’t come. At all. So, I finished pumping, fed Iain and went out to try to find her. Each and every time that she gets out, my heart just about leaps out of my chest. She is really just a tiny little kitty, and I worry so much about her. I kept hearing her little bells, but couldn’t pinpoint an exact location of where she was. I thought that she was in our nasty neighbour’s yard, he has a giant sprawl of evergreen ground cover in his front yard and I worried that she had gotten in there. My worries were correct. I had gone back inside the house to get another toy to lure her, and thankfully saw her eyes glowing from the reflection of the front porch light. She didn’t move as I came towards her, nor when I picked her up, thank goodness. She was safe, but she slept in her kennel that night! I think we are going to have to be more careful about our little minx getting out from now on…
I was at the big mall that I have raved about before in this diary, getting a couple things done before going to swimming and passed by La Senza on my way out. We were already *just* going to make it to class on time, and then I saw the sign. It practically called out to me like a siren only could: $8 Bras! Oh my. How could I resist that type of bargain?? I checked my watch again and thought that if I found something in my size (highly unlikely) that I would try it on and then we would go to swimming. Well, I found six in my size. I whipped into a changing room, Iain kept trying to crawl under the door, and I desperately tried on bras as fast as I could. I actually ended up buying six in total, three colours in one style, two colours in another style. I love them. LOVE them. And hey, who can argue about the price I paid, eh? :-) So, we were desperately late for swimming, but Iain and I just stayed extra long in the pool that day to make up for it.
Speaking of swimming, I have made another mum friend. Her daughter is 7 months (born late December) and is a real sweetie. The mum is great too. My other mum friend and I were talking outside after class one day and she joined us. She was lamenting going back to work and mentioned about pumping when she did that. I told her about the fantastic listserve that I belong to and said how much information and support they have given me. My friend left at that point and we continued our conversation. Turns out that she wasn’t able to nurse off of one breast because she had ‘bruised’ it pumping one morning and she said sort of offhandedly that she wished she could use it again. I said to her that relactation was certainly hard, but absolutely doable. We were at her vehicle at that point and the conversation was winding down, but I told her how to get to the listserve and said we would talk more the next day. I told her to pump that side as much as she could, for 15 minutes each time, to stimulate the milk again, and that should help. Over the course of the following classes, we talked about pumping and how much she was getting (she was able to get 3-4 oz a day from that side, which is a ton of milk for someone who doesn’t “use” that side when nursing their baby) and how she was so excited to have ‘use’ of her breast again. Now, while I have made another friend who is going back to work, she has invited me to join her mum’s walking group that meets twice a week, the week after swimming ends. I am really excited about this, exercise at the same time as meeting other mums! Yeay!
Our August visit is starting to go awry. :-( Simon got this strange email from his mother saying that her brother and his dad’s two siblings won’t be coming to the big party at my mum’s house. No explanation, just that they weren’t coming. Simon replied to ask why and to date has not gotten a response from her. Now, there have been definite moanings from his side of the family over this past year that they have not met Iain yet and when are we coming out to visit? Well, how about you come out to visit? We made no bones while we were in Halifax that anyone was welcome to come and stay with us and visit, but that it was simply too far to travel with a young baby and we weren’t going to do that. Did they come? No. Then stop complaining. And now, after we have made all these plans to make it convenient for everyone to come and meet Iain, they aren’t coming at all. My mum’s house is central to everyone, the party lasts all afternoon and evening, so you can come at any time, and still, it is too much hassle. Oddly enough, my whole extended family is really excited and all coming, except for my favourite aunt, whose partner’s family already had something for that date that they had committed to. So, whereas we usually expect my family to be horrendous and Simon’s to be great, the roles are switched around now. My brother-in-law (sister’s DH) is a chef, and will be preparing all the food, I am in charge of the cake (because of our wheat intolerance, I will be making it of special flour so Iain can eat some of his cake). I am going to get some crepe paper and balloons to decorate with, but not going to do a theme, that can be saved for later birthdays.
Simon and I feel really hurt by his family not making the effort to come to Iain’s party. They have been asking and hinting about meeting him since he was born, and now that we are literally, in town, they have better or more important things to do that afternoon. It is really hurtful that we haven’t heard from them directly either, just a relay from his mother, and no reason for them not coming. Just that they aren’t. So, we have already decided that we aren’t going to waste a whole week of Simon’s precious vacation time next year just to go and visit family who don’t want to see us. There is just no point. We’ll go camping or down to the states for a driving vacation, or something else. As it stands, if Simon’s mum tries to do a second birthday celebration at their place on the Island while we are staying there, we are packing up immediately and taking the next ferry to my mum’s house. There is going to be one celebration for Iain, arranged by us, his parents, and if you choose not to come to it, well, that is too bad, because he is an amazing baby boy and you have really missed your opportunity to have such a beam of sunshine in your life. And that is really how both of us view it.
On another birthday note, I had found these great invitations. I had searched high and low, as does every parent I would think, to find a nice invitation that didn’t cost an arm or leg. I found these nice ones at Hallmark. They have got a little bee on the front and say: It would Bee fun… and then inside it says: if you could come! The lines for information are dotted and a couple of them have little hoops like a bee’s path when flying. I went and printed up driving instructions to my mum’s place and printed it out onto address labels so I could just stick it into the invite. I am proud of the invitations, I like them quite a bit and I think they fit Iain’s whimsical qualities. My mum liked them too, as did other members of my family. No word from Simon’s side on the invites. We will see how this “vacation” goes… Oh, we will be bringing Brook AND Miss Scarlett with us, they are family and this is a family vacation. :-)
Okay. We wanted to go to this canoe course the second to last weekend of July, and played phone tag with the canoe club about whether or not we could bring Iain. By the time that we found out that we couldn’t, the spots had filled up and there was only one left. We resolved that Simon should go, that he could teach me whatever he learned. Then, on Thursday, I got a message that there was another spot, Iain still could not come, but was I interested still? I spent the next 2.5 hours trying to come up with childcare for Iain for TWO WHOLE days, on one day’s notice, in a city where we know exactly five people. A really nice girl from Simon’s work (I think I talked about her last entry about her wanting to baby-sit Iain) will be looking after him ALL DAY on Saturday (what an amazing person) and then my cousin who looked after him while Simon and I went to a movie will do Sunday morning and then hand him off to Jenn B, who will do Sunday afternoon. We will then come and pick him up from Jenn’s and that is that. The only thing I was worried about was that it was going to be really hot again over the weekend, and I was also slightly worried that Iain wouldn’t have a nap, what with all the excitement of new people taking care of him. I typed up an instruction list of what his day is usually like and when he eats etc. and left that with the fully packed diaper bag.
Turns out that he had a fantastic time both days. He had a little nap in the Chariot on Saturday, 30 – 40 mins, and a good hour plus nap on Sunday at my cousin’s house while she packed (she was moving the next week). I made sure to make up two Pedialyte bottles for each day for him, and he apparently drank them down like he had had no other liquid that day. :-) All of his caregivers said that he was really great, no trouble at all, which truthfully, I expected, he is such an easygoing and curious little boy that he is a breeze to take care of. The only thing was that he was slightly more cranky and fussy in the evenings, but because he didn’t get his usual naps, I certainly can’t blame the little guy!
Alright, on to the canoeing. We had a fantastic time. We learned a ton. We worked as a team. We were way better than the other two canoes in the course because of our teamwork and communication and power and strength in the water. We learned a ton. We can’t WAIT to take out Iain and Brook in a canoe! :-) The first whole day was spent on the irrigation canal that the boathouse is situated beside. So, there is a current still, but it is much calmer than the river, which is just over a berm separating the two. Our instructor was a sweetheart of a girl, really knowledgeable and patient and supportive. At lunch we took a break and I pumped in the van while eating A&W that day (too crazy on Friday getting Iain ready to make us lunch!). The following day, we met up at my favourite park (I have mentioned this place before) to do canoeing on the river all day. The morning was dedicated to working with real eddies and currents and refining our techniques, and the afternoon we headed out on the river.
Simon and I were getting touch bored in the morning of the second day doing eddy turns and ferries, but it was clear that the other two canoes really needed the extra practice still, so we just hung out whenever we could instead of wasting our energy doing eddy turns when we could bask in the nice sun we were having. :-) The trip down the river was fantastic, we had a wonderful time. Simon and I work really well together as a team, I as bow, he as stern. On the way to drop off the canoe at the boathouse we stopped by the house to let out Brook and change out of our grimy clothes, thinking that we might have dinner with Jenn and her DH. We did indeed have dinner, and it was a wonderful end to a great weekend. It was nice for Simon to meet Jenn, me to meet her DH, and for Jenn to meet Simon. Iain fell asleep on the way home, absolutely exhausted from the adventures of the day.
Oh, one thing about the canoeing, and my immunizations. I had the shots done the Friday morning. Friday night my arms were sore, the Typhoid one more than the Hep one. But I could manage. Saturday it was a touch sore in the morning, more in the afternoon and by evening it was really bad. I could barely lift up my arm with the Typhoid shot above 20 degrees. Above that and I was cursing in pain. Which was frequently because, well, I have a baby, dishes that need to go away, a shirt that has to come off, a nightshirt to put on… the list is endless. And painful, oh, so very painful. I took extra strength Tylenol that night, because it just hurt so much. And apparently, every time that Simon brushed my arm (which was frequently because it was the closest one to him) I would hiss or moan in pain. Waking up on Sunday morning it was still really tender, but manageable. I still took Tylenol that morning however, in preparation of the day’s activities. It was still sore the following Wednesday, actually – it took a full week for the tenderness to fully subside. Now, I am sure, that if I didn’t have to lug around my baby boy, that I wouldn’t have been so tender to begin with and it wouldn’t have lasted so long, but this is just a warning to those of you having to get these type of tropical immunizations: It ain’t the shot, it’s the after effects that are a killer! LOL
Iain and I did a test run of a Gymboree class, the Gym Walkers. He was the only boy there that day, and there were only five or six of us. I just let him look around and crawl around at will for the most part, letting him absorb this new environment with all it’s shapes and colours. That day they were going through tunnels and Iain did go through some, with just a bit of coaxing. He was fascinated with the bubbles however, which got me to thinking that perhaps I should buy some bubbles, so he can explore this new texture and shape. The other thing is that he was the youngest there and the only one not walking yet. So, I don’t know if I will do a class in the fall. I think that if I can find out if there are going to be more people in the class, that would be better, so we will see.
I have just started a food diary. I have talked almost endlessly it seems about getting repeatedly on this health bandwagon, and I just keep falling back off of it. Now, the point is that I keep getting back on, but still, it’s hard when I keep falling off so much. So, the food diary is another tool that I am using to become more aware of what I am eating and to help monitor, if you will, not just *what* I am eating, but how *much* it is as well. For instance, while it is marvelous to eat 5 pieces of pizza, I really am only hungry for 2. And yes, 5 cookies are tasty as a mid-afternoon treat, I should really only have 2. And so on. It will also help me I think in ensuring that I eat more regularly. With this depression, I have really not been feeling very hungry of late and tend to snack on nasty foods like tortilla chips, cookies, pop… Heavy on the high-glycemic index. So, it will remind me to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and remind me of the choices that I do have in those meals. Now, I know that I am going to cheat, but I hope that by writing it down, the cheating will be small, and not gargantuan. Here goes…
Lastly, I have been feeling rather retrospective of late, what with Iain’s first birthday looming up on the horizon and all. So, I have taken a few moments here and there to re-read the last couple of weeks of pregnancy entries. And I have been overwhelmed by the positive energy that I exuded in these entries. I was so looking forward to labour, to meeting my Little One, to the life I was going to have when that momentous day finally dawned. I am amazed by myself. And I am so glad that I wrote all those entries, to remind myself of that incredible energy that I had. Because it is so many times forgotten, particularly now, in the midst of clawing my way out of this depression. And I long to be that happy person again. I know that I will be, eventually, but the light is still far away from the place where I am right now. Anyway, it was wonderful to feel the excitement that I had in those last couple of weeks again as I re-read those entries. I hope that my next pregnancy is just as wonderful as it was the first time. :-)
Okay, time for pumping issues. Again, I have been having plugged ducts. Except that it isn’t the duct on top, it is one on the inside and wraps around underneath a bit. Ouch! I know that it is the stress that is causing them really, I haven’t been able to feel like I have “time” to pump lately and so I don’t empty the breast and this is the last duct to empty, no matter how I compress or massage, it is just long to empty. And it is incredibly hard to get out, because of where it is and how it goes down along the bottom of the breast. Ouch, again. There is nothing I can do but try to relax some more, but that is next to impossible right now, things are just too crazy around here with the house not being completed and bickering with Simon because we are both exhausted and stressed to the max, and not sleeping well, and being all tense from that… It sucks.
With the heat, though, my milk has definitely gone much more watery than creamy, it is funny how our bodies do that. Funny, but incredible at the very same time, you know? Even though I am not breastfeeding directly, my body knows that Iain is more thirsty from the heat and doesn’t necessarily need the cream right now, he just needs liquid to replenish what he is sweating and exerting out. And it turned watery quite quickly, and then when it cooled down again during the week, the cream came back. Quite the marvel, our bodies are…
My supply has taken a bit of a dive however, because during the canoeing weekend I sort of forgot to remember to take my pills (domperidone) at the right times, and in fact, I think I only took them in the morning, forgetting the middle of the day and dinner time pills entirely. So, I was only taking a half dose. And also pumping earlier than normal because that is when our lunch break for the canoeing class, and I had to pump then. So, it was a touch lower lately than normal, so I had to up my dosage of dom a touch for a few days to get it to increase, and make double sure that I pumped at the right times for the following few days. It did come back up, but there were definite moments there that I was worried about it all. It is always a scary thing when my supply isn’t what it should be, I want so very badly to give milk to Iain for the first 16 – 18 months of his life, possibly longer if we see how my freezer stash goes. So, I had a few worrying days there, but things look like they are back to normal now, thank goodness…
Alright, you guessed it… the rest of this entry is solely for Iain news!
Iain has been able to sit up from lying down on the change table. Once again, his strength astonishes me. I will be trying to put on his shorts or pants, so his legs are straight, he tenses them and sits up. All by himself, all the while I am trying to pull up his pants. It is as if he is trying to tell me that he doesn’t want to wear bottoms, that his diaper is just fine, thank-you. Now, he doesn’t do this frequently, but I would say he does it perhaps every day or two at least once. I have no clue as to whether other babies do this at all, or if they do, can they do it as quickly as Iain can and with no assistance from me? Or is this just another magical thing that my Strongman can do…
When I feed Iain his last bottle of the night, for the most part, he goes to sleep at the beginning. All throughout the feeding, he twiddles and twitches his feet. Just like me. This is something that drives Simon bananas, but is such an unconscious movement for me to do that I can’t really help it. But, on the other hand, I am absolutely delighted that Iain does this. I am delighted every time I realize that he has some trait of mine or Simon’s. These discoveries are so delicious, I can’t wait to make more of them as Iain grows up over the coming months and years. It reminds me again that he comes from me, that Simon and I consciously made him. And it think it is one of the truly magical things of parenthood, when you see these things, because it makes you think about yourself and wonder where YOU got that trait from. And it makes you think about other traits of yours and which ones you wish they get, and which ones you hope that they don’t pick up. In the end, it makes you think, very hard, about yourself, which in my humble opinion, is never a bad thing.
Iain can eat whenever and where ever. We had been practicing giving him his bottle when he was just sitting down somewhere, for him to get practice drinking from an upright position. Well, now he will cruise around, bottle in hand, checking things out. This is great because he can now eat while he is in his car seat, on our way somewhere. Before, this was a little bit of a trial, he didn’t particularly like eating while upright, preferring to be lying down. This is great now, because it gives us a lot more freedom in going out if we don’t have to wait until Iain is done eating, he can eat on the way. The other great thing is that if he is eating at home, standing or sitting down, it takes him a bit longer to eat, which lets me get more things done, like making dinner or cleaning up the living room. Neat trick, eh? :-) If I need him to finish quickly for some reason, all I have to do is lie him down and presto changeo, he just sucks it back. Oh, one other thing, sort of related: Iain is still using the newborn nipples that came with the Avent bottles I bought, way, way back. There was no need in the beginning to use a faster flow nipple because he was still so small and there were hopes of getting him back on the breast. After the pumping decision was made, we just kept him on the same nipple. Why buy more, when the first ones are working so well was our philosophy. I do have a couple of the next step up, with two holes in them, and I use them only when feeding him his last bottle of the night, because he is mostly asleep for that feeding and drinks much more slowly for whatever reason. That way, even though the feeding is longer, it is still short enough for me not to fall asleep in the nursing chair… :-)
Iain’s nap schedule has been fantastic for the month of July. We finish up swimming at 11:10, and are usually at the van getting strapped into the seat at 11:50. By noon at the latest usually, Iain is fast asleep in the back. I transfer him from the van to his crib, he almost never wakes up in that process, and he has been sleeping until 3:30-4:30. Sometimes, even later. I don’t let him sleep much more than that, otherwise his bedtime gets moved too late for me (not for him, it’s ME that wants to go to bed!). Essentially, I have the entire afternoon to do work around the house. Most of the time this work consists of doing phone calls to lawyers or whatnot, paying bills, sorting paper piles on the desk, and, oh yeah, doing my darn thesis. I have no idea what his naps are going to be like in August, I have activities four mornings of the week, but he will be in the stroller for those activities, not in the water expending huge amounts of energy exploring about.
Iain’s hair is getting completely insane. It is so long, that it passes by his ears and when it is hanging over them (usually how it is) he looks like the sweetest little ruffian you have ever seen. And it is so thick, people come up and exclaim about his hair. Absolute strangers. I thought I always had very fine, soft hair, and not a ton of it, so this is something I think that comes from Simon. His hair is the kind that sticks up because the hair shaft is so thick it doesn’t have the flexibility to lie down unless it gets to a certain length. It is also the reason why Simon shaves his head, he hates his hair, it drives him looney. Iain’s hair is still quite fine and soft, but it is quite thick, particularly at the back – no bald spot on this baby’s head, just masses and masses of hair. People are also starting to ask (again, strangers) when we are going to cut his hair. Not anytime soon we reply. We have affirmed our intention of letting it grow, so that he has long hair, because as a culture, we treat baby boys differently from baby girls. Unfortunately. I want Iain to be treated as a girl as a baby, because people are… how should I explain this? People are more open, more unassuming, and more friendly really when talking to a “girl” baby. And I don’t know why we have to cut toddler boy’s hair either, it wasn’t really that long ago that we left all children’s hair to grow long. I don’t really think that I will be cutting Iain’s hair in the near future at all, I want to see how people react to him with long hair, I think it would be a good experience.
Iain has this wooden bead, wire shape toy. I am sure that we all have one of these things. The wooden beads run along the wires, and you can move them from one side up and down the curves to the other side. I have been putting it in his crib since we moved into the house when he drinks a bottle in his crib, so that he finishes the bottle and then plays for a little bit while I do things around the house. Anyway, at the doctor’s office, they have a GIANT one. Really, it is huge. It is on legs, more like a table, and is the perfect height for Iain to stand at and play with. Well, the past two or three times I have been at the doctors, I pop him down right beside it and he has immediately started to play with it, almost going – hey, I know exactly what this thing is and what I do with it. Very cool. Another astonishing parenting moment there, where I see him form the association between his toy at home and this toy here. And when we were at Gymboree, there was a very small wire toy there and he wouldn’t let it go when the leader was trying to put away all the toys for singing time. Very funny and cute. :-)
I am in for it now. Iain has figured out how to throw things. I have been quite blessed up until this point, he really didn’t sit in his Megasaucer and just chuck his toys all over the place. They would fall off on their own really. Well, we were in the garage putting things away and he was in a giant box that one of the new shelving units came out of. I gave him a couple of his Peek-a-Boo blocks to shake around (he LOVES the ones that he can shake and make noise out of) to occupy him while we worked. Well… He threw one down and I picked it up and gave it to him. He got a funny little smile on his face, threw it down again, I picked it up… The fourth time, he just started to howl with laughter, this was apparently the funniest thing in the world to him. And I have to admit, he was having so much fun that it was really funny to me, too, so I was also laughing. He kept throwing (more like dropping) the block and we had a good time. The following night I think it was, he was in his Megasaucer and I was resting on the couch. As usual, I had loaded up the saucer with toys for him to play with (as if there aren’t enough on the saucer already). He again dropped the blocks, in particular, off the side, and again, started to howl with laughter. That precious sound is like angels singing to me, it warms my heart, makes pain go away, makes me love him all the more. Of course I would do anything to make him continue to laugh! I picked up the blocks and quickly found that I had to sit on the floor just to keep up with him dropping things off. :-) We had a ball. He hasn’t really done this new “trick” since then, so I am lucky that he isn’t connecting dropping/throwing things with too many other places. YET.
Iain is standing up, alone, no support, a ton lately. He will be cruising around the sofas and just let go, holding onto whatever he has in his hands and just stand there. He doesn’t wobble much at all, just stands there, then reaches out and holds on again as he goes cruising some more. So, Simon and I think that walking is literally *just* around the corner for us. We still don’t have any idea how far away it is, he is so fast at crawling that if he wants to get to something quickly, he will immediately drop down to hands and knees and scoot over to it. So, with him knowing that he can get to things very quickly if he crawls to it, I don’t know if he will make the “effort” to walk to it if it takes that long, you know? It will definitely be interesting to see if his curiosity and stubbornness will make him walk quickly, or if it will take him a while to do. I think we will see quite soon which way this is all going to go! :-)
Iain’s vocabulary is really expanding. He isn’t saying any words yet, but furthermore, we are not pushing him to talk either. We have a very laidback approach to that sort of thing anyway, we are certain that when he wants to talk, he will go ahead and talk, just like him wanting to crawl and explore, and doing it within a week. Anyway, we have noticed lately that Iain has been combining vowels and consonants lately into new words and sounds. A favourite is “bweh” which will be repeated and repeated. I think the fact that he can move his tongue around way more now helps in making these new and interesting words to him. So, while I was initially concerned that he isn’t really calling us by name yet, like many other babies his age, I have come to terms with that because in other ways he is far ahead of his peers. Simon and I love to hear him chatter away, and often will ask “oh, really?” and such when there is a pause. Who really knew what a wonderful sound this would be?
Lastly, Simon and Iain were downstairs eating breakfast while I was upstairs pumping one weekend morning. I was just about finished when Simon called up that I should come down as soon as I could to see something. I quickly finished up and raced downstairs to see what Iain was doing. Simon had given him his own banana to eat, and he was feeding himself! :-) How cute is that? He would move it to his mouth, which was wide open in anticipation of the impending arrival, take a bite and grin at us. Waaaay too cute. Simon made sure to get some photos, but I then got a couple of both of them eating their breakfasts together. :-)
**Talk To Me**
Tell me about your vehicle services – were you treated right and stayed at a service place because of it and what did you do when you were treated poorly?
What did you do when your vacation plans started to go awry because of family – did you try to talk to them about it or just left it alone?
How were your emotions in the weeks before your baby’s first birthday? Were you retrospective like me?
Namaste, Laura and Iain
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