The last week or so suddenly sleep has become a big issue in our household again. I'm starting to realise how much I take Josiah's good sleep for granted. For me, having to try for half hour to get him to sleep only to give up and attempt another nap an hour later seems a huge deal and is really frustrating. I forget that for a lot of parents it is just a normal day in their household. I am very blessed to have a child who takes a nap for an hour just after breakfast so I can get dressed and do chores and then sleeps for an hour or two around lunch giving me time to eat in peace. When he suddenly stopped sleeping I got really fed up of being stuck at home spending the entire day (or so it felt) trying to get him to sleep. I got nothing done and lived in my pyjamas for days on end cos he never stayed asleep long enough for me to shower and get dressed. I felt gross, stressed and a little resentful. Then it dawned on me just how much is going on in Josiah's life right now. He's learned so much recently he must be buzzing and, like a student revising for a test or someone preparing for a big event, he must find it really difficult to switch off and sleep.
In the past 2-3 weeks he has learnt the following:
1. Rolling over in both directions
2. Drinking from a sippy cup
3. How to say Dadadada (as well as a variety of other new sounds)
4. Turning the pages and lifting flaps in books
5. Getting in the correct position to start crawling (no crawling yet though)
6. Relearnt how to drink from a bottle (been so long since he tried he had forgotten but he's mastered it again and now can hold the bottle himself)
7. Using his hands to splash water everywhere in the bath (who knew so little water could cause so much mess?!)
8. Circling his wrists
9. Playing hide and seek (so cute and he thinks it's hilarious)
10. Biting and chewing food
11. Opening mummy's ipad case
12. Turning on the playstation controller
13. Pressing buttons on the TV remote
14. Playing on the swings and holding on properly so we don't lose him! (he giggles and squeals with excitement when you push him higher)
15. Wiggling off the sofa to sit on the floor and reach things he wants on the coffee table
16. Remembering when his favourite bit of a song is coming up and giggling just before you get to it
17. Understanding what light switches do and trying to turn them on as he goes past (not strong enough yet, thankfully)
18. Putting his arms up towards us when we reach out to pick him up
19. Giving kisses (even gave a kiss to someone other than mummy and daddy today and without any prompting either)
20. Taking his bib off
21. Reaching out to hold hands with other kids when playing together
22. Robbing toys off other kids when playing together
23. Putting his feet in his mouth
24. Drinking out of a grown up cup
25. Standing while hold on to furniture
I'm sure there's more but you get the idea - so much to process it's like me trying to fall asleep when I have lists of chores and errands and random thoughts going round my head (i.e near impossible to get to sleep and then you wake up in the middle of the night thinking 'did I remember to.....'). I really need to learn some patience, cut the boy some slack and remember he wants to sleep just as much as I want him to sleep.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Sunday, April 07, 2013
The weaning adventure continues...
We're a few weeks into our weaning adventure now so I thought I'd share how it's going so far.
In the beginning it was so simple and carefree - just occasionally handed the boy a bit of what I was eating if I happened to be eating something healthy for him. He loved food from the start and is keen to get his hands on things and explore.
A few weeks on we began introducing one regular meal a day - breakfast. Things began to get a bit more hard work. No more breast feeding him in bed and then rolling over and falling back asleep again - now I have to get up and make cereal. The plus side is I now eat breakfast myself a lot more often. Most nights I was expressing milk to make his rice cereal with the next day so that made it seem even harder work. Thankfully I soon discovered 'just add water' cereal varieties that are much nicer than the boring baby rice. We also discovered that baby rice causes constipation so that box of cereal has now been retired to the back of the cupboard for the treatment of diarrhea only.
One of the major challenges so far has been dealing with belly ache. There's nothing worse than spending 45 mins fighting to get a kid to nap cos he's got bellyache from eating too close to bedtime. Actually, the worst was when he didn't poo for nearly a week. One night his belly was giving him so much trouble that he woke every hour for the first 4 or 5 hours of the night. We're slowly working out what effects different foods have and when are good times of day to eat.
Another challenge is coming up with ideas for what to give him. Breakfast is pretty easy as there's a wide choice of cereals and yoghurts out there. Then we began introducing things like fruit and toast with fruit puree at lunch time. Dinner is taking a lot more thought. I'm not a fan of giving him dinners from a jar and he certainly prefers 'real' food over purees. I've been trying to work out which of our 'grown up' meals he can share with us. Yesterday he had some stew (made with extra low salt stock cubes) and today he had some of our spinach and bacon pasta (minus the bacon and tomatoes so really it was just pasta, creme fraiche and spinach). He absolutely loved both of these and cried when he'd eaten it all which I take as a huge compliment to my cooking!
We've been using a mixture of purees and 'baby led' weaning and found the boy really loves feeding himself, trying new things and getting to share what the grown ups eat. It's great to see him loving food and growing in his confidence and ability to feed himself. He's so confident with food he now assumes it's all for him. We went out for milkshakes with a friend the other week and when a huge milkshake was put on the table in front of him check out his reaction...
Without skipping a beat he just leaned forward and grabbed the handle and began reaching for the straw. He was most upset when he was told it wasn't for him.
So, my only question is this - now we've taught him to eat 'grown up' food, how do we teach him not to steal food from people?!
In the beginning it was so simple and carefree - just occasionally handed the boy a bit of what I was eating if I happened to be eating something healthy for him. He loved food from the start and is keen to get his hands on things and explore.
A few weeks on we began introducing one regular meal a day - breakfast. Things began to get a bit more hard work. No more breast feeding him in bed and then rolling over and falling back asleep again - now I have to get up and make cereal. The plus side is I now eat breakfast myself a lot more often. Most nights I was expressing milk to make his rice cereal with the next day so that made it seem even harder work. Thankfully I soon discovered 'just add water' cereal varieties that are much nicer than the boring baby rice. We also discovered that baby rice causes constipation so that box of cereal has now been retired to the back of the cupboard for the treatment of diarrhea only.
One of the major challenges so far has been dealing with belly ache. There's nothing worse than spending 45 mins fighting to get a kid to nap cos he's got bellyache from eating too close to bedtime. Actually, the worst was when he didn't poo for nearly a week. One night his belly was giving him so much trouble that he woke every hour for the first 4 or 5 hours of the night. We're slowly working out what effects different foods have and when are good times of day to eat.
Another challenge is coming up with ideas for what to give him. Breakfast is pretty easy as there's a wide choice of cereals and yoghurts out there. Then we began introducing things like fruit and toast with fruit puree at lunch time. Dinner is taking a lot more thought. I'm not a fan of giving him dinners from a jar and he certainly prefers 'real' food over purees. I've been trying to work out which of our 'grown up' meals he can share with us. Yesterday he had some stew (made with extra low salt stock cubes) and today he had some of our spinach and bacon pasta (minus the bacon and tomatoes so really it was just pasta, creme fraiche and spinach). He absolutely loved both of these and cried when he'd eaten it all which I take as a huge compliment to my cooking!
We've been using a mixture of purees and 'baby led' weaning and found the boy really loves feeding himself, trying new things and getting to share what the grown ups eat. It's great to see him loving food and growing in his confidence and ability to feed himself. He's so confident with food he now assumes it's all for him. We went out for milkshakes with a friend the other week and when a huge milkshake was put on the table in front of him check out his reaction...
Without skipping a beat he just leaned forward and grabbed the handle and began reaching for the straw. He was most upset when he was told it wasn't for him.
So, my only question is this - now we've taught him to eat 'grown up' food, how do we teach him not to steal food from people?!
Josiah's Diary - 7th April
The other day my friend Oskar came round to play. Do you know what he did? He sat in my chair! If there's one thing my daddy taught me it's never let anyone sit in your chair. I tried to politely drop hints to move by tapping him on the foot but he wasn't getting the message. Next he started playing with all my toys! I tried to take them back from him but mummy told me not to. She said that I'm supposed to let him play with my toys - it's called sharing. I really don't understand this sharing thing yet. The other day when I tried to take one of Oskar's toys from him mummy told me not to. And when I tried to take some pizza off some kid's plate at church the other week mummy said no as well. So it would seem that sharing means everyone is allowed to have all my stuff but I'm not allowed to take anything from anyone else. That doesn't seem right - I must be missing something.
Yesterday morning me and Daddy went to 'Who let the Dad's out?' It was nice to have a boys morning out and play with friends. The food there is always good too. I was hoping someone would share their bacon butty with me but they never did. Instead daddy gave me these new things called rice cakes. They are amazing - easy to hold, yummy to taste and good to chew on.
In the afternoon daddy had to go to work so it was time for me and mummy to hang out. We went for a walk by the sea and looked at the boats and the seagulls and everyone playing in the sun. Walking home through town we saw some people dancing in the street. Mummy decided to stop and watch but the music was SO LOUD! I really didn't like it so I cried very loudly and mummy soon got the message.
When we got home it was nearly time for dinner. I got a bit bored waiting so mummy came up with a fun way to entertain myself. Here's what I did...
Usually I just have milk for dinner but this time mummy let me have some of her homemade stew for dinner. It was so nice to have real homecooked food instead of some of that pureed stuff from a jar. My only complaint was the portion size - more food mummy!
Yesterday morning me and Daddy went to 'Who let the Dad's out?' It was nice to have a boys morning out and play with friends. The food there is always good too. I was hoping someone would share their bacon butty with me but they never did. Instead daddy gave me these new things called rice cakes. They are amazing - easy to hold, yummy to taste and good to chew on.
In the afternoon daddy had to go to work so it was time for me and mummy to hang out. We went for a walk by the sea and looked at the boats and the seagulls and everyone playing in the sun. Walking home through town we saw some people dancing in the street. Mummy decided to stop and watch but the music was SO LOUD! I really didn't like it so I cried very loudly and mummy soon got the message.
When we got home it was nearly time for dinner. I got a bit bored waiting so mummy came up with a fun way to entertain myself. Here's what I did...
Usually I just have milk for dinner but this time mummy let me have some of her homemade stew for dinner. It was so nice to have real homecooked food instead of some of that pureed stuff from a jar. My only complaint was the portion size - more food mummy!
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