Theoretic Gal ~ Textiles ~

Week 10

All dressed up in a cute pure pure baby outfit and it lasted for about 10 seconds before he puked all over it.

His reflux is driving  him and us a bit nuts. His Dad changed him 5 times over night he just kept bring it up. The worst is just before he chucks he gets the biggest smile on his face so he has a new nickname the smiling assassin. We've tried thickener and gaviscon infant neither helped as he reacted to thickener and screamed for ages with both. Mylanta helps and he has developed a taste for it but the next step is Losec.

After discussing this and his sleeping issues my mother group leader suggested we go to a mother/baby unit for a few days and let them help. So she rang a private hospital one where she used to work and got us on the waitlist. Then this afternoon they rang and said if I could come in tomorrow I had a spot.
So it's goodbye long weekend, hello baby bootcamp.
Not sure if I'll have internet access and the thought of 4-5 days with no internet scares me more than I want to admit. I'll take my knitting, an ipod and a good book or two.

Other things that happened this week
I had a lovely morning with a girlfriend at the new Pure Baby outlet opened in Melbourne, which was very good news for C's burgeoning wardrobe and my wallet.
I totally splurged on $5 sample t's, $10 sample knits and rompers, $15 sample sets and $20 single flat sheets from their yummy organic cotton jersey. The samples all either went with stuff I had purchased from the new range or mixed/matched with each other.

See entire haul here

Better go pack my bags and make sure I have everything we need.

Anzac Biscuits

OK so I am a few days early with this one BUT a chef needs to test out her recipes before the big day.

When baking a classic like this there are usually 1001 variations to be found so I consulted a classic source for my recipe.
'Central' cookery book by A.C Irvine  which was my school Home Ec cookbook. I love that they give Miss Irvine the title of Mistress of Domestic Science, Education Department Tasmania. She has long since passed by the time by 15th edition was produced in  metric version in the mid 70's and it is still in print last time I checked. My battered copy purchased somewhere in mid 80's is battered but well used, pages glued together by cake batter and numerous annotations in the well worn biscuits, cakes, scone and batters sections.

Now since we have those pesky wheat/dairy intolerance issues we happily substituted Rolled Spelt flakes for the Rolled oats, Spelt flour for the Flour and Dairy Free margarine for the butter and they worked out fine.

Ingredients
130gm butter
1Tablespoon Golden Syrup
1 Cup Plain Flour
Pinch Salt
1Cup Coconut, Dessicated
1Cup Rolled Oats
1Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Boiling Water
2 Teaspoons Bi-carbonate of Soda
1 Teaspoon Vanilla ( optional)

Preheat oven to 180 deg C ( 350 deg F).
Melt Butter and Golden Syrup until butter is just melted, be careful not to burn or boil.
Mix together all dry ingredients. Dissolve Bicarb into water Adan the mix all ingredients together.
place small balls of mixture on trays leaving space for them to spread.

Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown, They are supposed to be a bit darker than most biscuits but not burnt.
Allow to cool on tray 1-2  minutes before moving carefully to a cooling rack where they will firm up to a nice crisp biscuit.
Yields around 36.

week 9

I am still having trouble catching him smiling but he is more likely to give me this "serious" look than big smiles when I have the camera out.

He concentrates so much when playing with his toys, like he's on a mission to be the world's best basher of soft toys hanging over your rocker, at next years baby Olympics. Monsterboy enjoys playing peek-a-boo with his little brother, but he doesn't quite get it just yet.

On the health front:
We have started offering him some thickening agent at the beginning of his breast feeds to try and  reduce the alarming amount of milk that is being vomited on a regular basis. Hopefully that will do the trick and help his weight gain. He weighted 9lbs 6oz at his  delayed 8 week MCHN appointment which means it's dropped him into the 5th percentile but he ticked all the other boxes. So it's not panic stations yet more a matter of seeing if we can get him to take a little more food.

We are also giving him 1ml of Mylanta if he has been vomiting heaps and is showing signs that the acid is annoying him. It seemed to really help him the other night, within minutes of giving the Mylanta, he stopped screaming and went straight to sleep, poor little fellow.

We have been out and about a lot but I keep forgetting to take my smaller camera, I am lugging too much baby stuff to take the SLR.
He went to Stitch'n'Bitch on Tuesday Night and was quite well behaved, even if I only got about 3 rows of rib done on these baby socks  using regia clown yarn.

Our cupboards were looking a little bare so Friday night we went to our fav vietnamese place for dinner then to the Collingwood farmers market this morning. Both outings he slept the entire time so they would have been boring baby sleeping shots anyway.

He is sleeping a lot better but still not back to those wonderful 7-8 hour stretches we were getting at night, but at least he's sleeping for 1-2 hours 2-3 times during the day, so he's not totally overwhelmed but mid-afternoon. Makes for a much happier theoreticgal, if  baby sleeps and isnt crying for hours on end every afternoon/evening. It is heart wrenching to have a screaming baby that isn't sick, he's just so overtired he doesn't know why he's crying.

I decided I wasn't going to be going out baby-less for a while so I really needed a nice mummy-bag, not just  a nappy bag but one that could do dual duty. I have almost lost my handbag twice lately as I am just not used to carrying around two bags. I ended up getting a nice storksak bag, apparently Angelina has the same one but carrying it around didnt turn me into a glamourmom.

 

A little crafting has been done but no finished objects to show as it's been just snippets that were totally unproductive. On the other hand, the spelt sourdough breadmaking has been successful so I'll show off the first edible loaf, ( there was one dud  before this but I followed a different recipe, so I am going to blame the recipe rather than my cooking skills)

It's made from a SanFransisco sourdough  starter I purchased online, of course. It took about 7 days to get the mother going well and then another 2 weeks of me fluffing around before I actually made my second loaf. Now we have the starter in the fridge and I just get it out as needed.  It is a real winner  especially for the wheat/bakers yeast intolerant gardenboy. I have another sponge developing today and I'll make up the dough tonight and we'll bake it in the morning.
It sounds like a very intensive process but it is not really, just a few minutes then leave it for 6-12 hours and then another few minutes etc then 2 days later you have the most scrummy bread, Worth every minute. Can't wait to try some fruit breads and bagels, but first I need to master the basic loaf.

Week 8

We are loving being parents again and Monsterboy is loving being a big brother.
Baby C is still a little munchkin hitting somewhere around 9lbs ( He has a few appointment this week so we'll get  areal weight up then.)
He is just starting to outgrow his 0000's and other newborn clothing, mostly in leg length but there's still a  way to go to fit into the "normal " 000/ 0-3 month sizes. Luckily I have found one or two brand that suit and I'll have to buy him some more cute outfits, as his supply of clothes that fit right now is a little too small to be practical for a refluxy child.

Sleep: There we were thinking we were doing quite well. Days were not great but nights were going  fab, so of course it all fell to crap. Things have been going from fab to  bad to worse and hours spend screaming last night were not pleasant. Luckily I had booked in a sleep guru to come for a home visit on Wednesday. Originally the appointment was to help with the minor daytime issue but now it's a full-on all day issue it will be even more useful.

Just to prove he does sleep sometimes

To make matters even more difficult he wants to he held constantly, shades of monsterboy the limpet
who was permanently stuck to one of us. Hold and comforting a baby constantly puts a real dampener on life, as you struggle to get things done.
We have tried
Slings--- he isn't keen on then
Baby Bjorn --- ditto but I think it's because he is only just at the lower limit of weight/height and it's not quite right for him yet.
Hug-a-bub --- he loves it but it's not quick or easy to put on and it looks well a tad daggy especially on my curvy body.
Pram -- hasn't decided whether he likes the basinette, he slept in it for 2  hours at mother group last week but when shopping he wasnt keen on it.
Rocker with vibration: OK for short spurts of  playtime up to 10 mins, which means you can squeeze in some things.
Car trips -- hit and miss

We even tried a Dummy and after trying every type on offer, he doesn't like them either.

Week 6-7

I couldn't resist this outfit from westcoast baby   even if DH refers to it as his ninja outfit ;-)

We had a great Easter break. Planes ran on time, Baby C slept at night, met a lot of relatives including his great grandmother who was so pleased that number 14 great grandchild arrived safe and sound.

The weather was great and Gardenboy transformed into Diving boy and did the hunter-gatherer thing.
Scored his bag limit of lovely sweet scallops. They were so good we were eating them sashimi as we cleaned them up.

It's been a bit mad since we came back as I have spent the week trying to get him back into daytime sleeps which had totally disappeared during our trip. ( Too many snoozes when being cuddled, isn't conducive to real productive sleep).

We also had a chance to catch up with our friends who had their daughter 10 days after  Cadel.
They were totally uninterested in each other, I am sure that'll change and he'll be pulling her hair in no time.

I am still doing a little crafting but never have enough time to actually finish what I start. I have baby socks and a jacket on the needles and occasionally a few rows are worked. There's also various sewing projects  being worked on in the moment's between feeds, playtime, cuddles and pat him to sleep times.

smile week 5

smile week5
Originally uploaded by theoreticgal

Finally captured a smile but it isnt the most flattering shot.

 

Like any good supermodel he can do the gaze off into the distance pensive shot.

And he knows how to look like he's really interested in what you are saying even though he doesn't understand a word of it.

He has his first plane trip over Easter break and gets to meet all the relatives so hopefully we'll get a few multi-generational shots.

5 weeks

Haven't managed to catch his fledgling smiles on film yet but he is giving us lovely gummy grins as well as finding  his voice. Lots of cooing and ahh'ing and thankfully not too many grizzly sessions a day. So it's all fairly relaxed here most days. Nights are  fabulous compared to monster boy's first few years, so the less said the better as we don't want to jinx ourselves.

He is feeding nicely and is thriving on his 100% breastmilk diet. He hit 8lbs this week. whoo
He started to grow out of a few 0000 items and now I have more of an idea of  the brands that suit his bodytype I can shop a bit more confidently. In love with Bebe by minihaha as well as Purebaby

When I get a chance to sew some cute little winter outfits I will probbaly have to make a size or two down and lenghten as most sewing pattern for babies are designed for chubba bubba's.

He's wearing the microfleece pockets I made as nappy covers over Newborn Prefolds. They aren't super absorbent but they are small enough for his tiny butt :-) I juse don't like how the flats are so bulky on his wee little body so I'll be sticking to trim comfortable looking ones at least until he grows.

He loves being in his Dad's arms  and this can quieten him down  like magic most days.

4 weeks already

Wow that went quickly, we had our 4 week checkup today.
He's been stacking on the weight and now weighs in at 3510 gms which is almost 7lbs 12 ozs.
Visually he's now equal to a stack this big, according to DH!

Other things that have been happening in our cloistered baby-centric world this past fortnight.
- he's starting to smile at us but I haven't managed to catch one on film yet.
- we had our first play date with Gizele who is 10 Days younger but 800 gms heavier and 4 cms longer at birth

-he met his Poppy

- Finally fitted into his mum-made MCN's In this case a previously shown AIO

and he caught his first cold, poor fellow.

Back in the (online purchasing) saddle

My parcel guy is getting a workout again as I have mastered the art of concurrent breastfeeding and online shopping.

The little fellow is getting a nice wardrobe of warmer clothing for the impending Melbourne Autumn/Winter.
I hadn't splurged too much on tiny baby clothing for him as I had learnt from Monsterboy that some things such as co-ordinating weather and newborn growth rates can be a little unpredictable.  Even though I was restrained,  we will have some summer things he'll never get to wear, as he'll be in the midst of winter woolies when he would fit into them but that's no huge drama.
There are plenty of other babies we know who would appreciate the soft organic cotton clothing or we could even try for number 3 ( Gasp, He's barely 3 weeks old so we shouldn't even be thinking of such things so soon, especially when it took us 3 years to decide after number 1!)

Thanks to the fab PC girls and our lovely US$ exchange rates I discovered Gymboree.
In the up to 7lb size I got a few rompers to see how they are sized.

They don't look too bad on the barely 7lb and 49 cm long cherub.
They are very close to Bebe's 0000 sizes which are up labelled as Newborn, 56cm up to 4kgs.

Week 2

Well luckily for us week 2 was much less eventful than week 1.

Baby C is growing well and  passed the magical 3kg mark, which also meant we also bypassed his birthweight within the 2 week as preferred by those  who care about such milestones. Thus keeping the medico's happy which means we have a little more leeway in the transitioning back to normal breastfeeding, thus keeping mum happy. ( And we all know how important it is to keep mum happy). As part of that process we spent the day at  the breastfeeding clinic, which wasn't really the most productive day but it reinforced that I was doing everything right, which is always a bonus.  I decided to give some galactagogues a try as I couldn't try the standard herbal remedies as it was contraindicated by the BP drugs.  Speaking of which, my BP settled down super quickly, infact it dropped too low at one point, and gradually I am weaning off that medication.

So far he loves his baths, he just relaxes as soon as he hits the water, swishing his legs and hands around like a nymph. If he could he would probably spend all day in there.

Everyone want to know how he is sleeping, well it's ok but he's no superstar. He likes to sleep in the car, pram and in his parents arms like all good babies. Occasionally he has been known to nod off in his rocker and even shock horror his basinette.

Although I am not sure whether his father reading him such exciting titles as Infinity in Your Pocket ; Over 3,000 Theorums,facts, and Formulae       is conducive to a good nights sleep.

 

I am so going to get shot for using this picture but Gardenboy doesn't know my typepad password so he can't do anything about it < wicked grin >

We have a few unsettled periods everyday and today has been the worst day so far. Only a couple short sleeps and  loads of grumping combined with a few piercing screams, which are new thing for him. Not sure what going on there but I know from experience with Monsterboy that sometimes once you know they are clean, fed and generally ok the only other thing you can do is comfort them as best you can.