Happy 1/2 birthday Nico!

Nico is 6 months today.
Wow, half a year already.
15 months ago, on 15 March, I was staring at a grinning Bastiaan with a positive pregnancy test in my hand.
No, wait. I was already 6 weeks pregnant then, so that was around 13-14 months ago.
This means that 15 months ago, we started this amazing race of more than a million participants and Nico came out the winner.
And at the risk of souding cliche, he's grown so fast!

He's become a lot more interactive and chatty and I've noticed him passing objects from one hand to the other. And it is apparently fun to pull Mummy's hair close to his face to get a kiss. He does it so often I started feeling like these pecking birds that fill up with water and tip over on a regular basis. Time for a shave I guess (my hair, that is, not my beard or legs).

Ba Ngoai has come over from New Caledonia for two weeks and he's been loving the constant attention he's gotten so far. The little devil certainly knows how to pull the cute look to avoid naptime in his cot and get more cuddles so he can sneakily fall asleep in her arms.

He's also managed to catch his first cold, which makes him sound like a little snorting piglet whenever he feeds. Must find out how this flashy cordless electric nasal aspirator works, and take him to the GP tomorrow if it's still bad.

Here we go again with these milestones:

• Mastered skills at 6 months:
  - Turns towards sounds and voices. Check. Unfortunately Nico also does it during a feed, which last twice as long as they should do. After all, he's inherited my attention span.
  - Imitates sounds. Nothing here. I've managed to get him to repeat an 'uh-oh' or two, but not on demand. We do hold extensive conversations on the change table, but no exchange of meaningful information took place.
  - Rolls over in both directions. Fat chance, with his track record. He's only rolled from front to back twice. The rest of the time he'll just stay on his front and grizzle or fall asleep.
  
  



• Emerging skills at 6 months:
  - Is ready for solid foods. Whoops. Been doing this for a month now, readiness signs or not.
  - Sit without support. He can sit when I pull him by the hands, but he has to hold onto my hands and he's shaky like baby-shaped jelly. But there's help here.
  - Mouths objects. Check. He'll mouth anything that he can lift or bring his mouth to, and even gums it. My thumb has been the victim of his gum attacks, and it's not pretty.
  - Passes objects from hand to hand. Check. But just once today.
  



• Advanced skills at 6 months:
  - Lunges forward or starts crawling. No way, we'll be lucky to see some forward movement before 8 months.
  - Jabbers or combines syllables. Hmm. I'm not sure what constitutes jabbering. I don't think Nico's discourse attempts on the change table count.
  - Drags objects towards himself. He has reached objects I've put in front of him and pulled them to inspect them, so I guess we'll count this.

The C seal of approval. Part V.

Nico is 5 months and 4 weeks old today.

I've learnt yet another trick lately. Make Nicolas laugh and, faster than a speeding bullet, shove the spoon in his mouth. Make sure that the spoon is full. Some of it is bound to trinkle down his throat before he gives me his best betrayed look and raspberries the unswallowed stuff out onto my glasses, which he likes to inspect every so often.

Trick or not, it seems fruits are decidedly tastier than vegetables.

• Wattie's Pear & Banana. Sweet smell and taste which was very easily eaten and I didn't get much leftovers from this one, barely a spoon to lick. Definitely on the buy-again list. If not for Nico, then for me.
  
  
  
• Wattie's Carrot & Rice. It's also got a pretty solid consistency, like chocolate mousse. OK, the mousse doesn't have to be chocolate. Anyway, I got overhopeful (or maybe I just didn't care any more) and served Nico half the container. Because it was so solid, the Traitor technique (see above for ste-by-step instructions) wasn't successful and the food just squirted out like orange toothpaste after some gagging. The rest went to our L'Organic Kollector I (tm) food disposal system, also known as L.O.K.I. Will get Ba Ngoai to coerce some more into Nico if she can.
  




• Wattie's Pear, Guava & Strawberry. I didn't get to taste this one much, Nico ate it all. I can tell I'm going to have some competition over the good foods (namely chocolate) when he grows up. Maybe it was the pear, maybe not, but Daddy got treated to an explosive nappy that traumatised him for a few hours. It's a bit like the ringing in your ears when you hear a really loud sound, except that this particular explosion and its lingering effects were olfactory and visual.

So I still have lots of that Farex baby rice in the pantry, I may mix it with some apple to give it a bit of taste. Donna & Phil gave me a link to http://www.greenmonkey.co.nz/, which has got an interesting range of products and a really useful chart which will be hanging on our fridge shortly.

And by the looks of it Nico has worked out a trick himself; before each meal, he will clench his lower lip, making it impossible for me to push a spoon between his lips without spilling the contents all over the place. Only then will he taste whatever landed on his lips and decide whether he'll carry this on with the next spoonful, or open his mouth if it is deemed edible.

The C seal of approval. Part IV.

Nicolas is 5 months, 3 weeks and 1 day old today.


I read in a 1997 Little Treasures magazine that Plunket don't recommend starting solids before 6 months unless necessary. However most discussions I've had with Plunket recommend starting between 4 and 6 months before the 'window of opportunity' is gone. The window of opportunity referring to the baby's willingness to try new tastes. 35 years ago, mothers were advised to start their babies on solids at 6 weeks.


This reminds me that there is so much conflicting advice out there, than I'm bound to have screwed up somewhere. Thankfully, neither of our families has got a history of food allergy or intolerances, so I have a good margin of error here.


I've decided to keep going with the solids but without being too rigid with it. If we come across a difficult day, or a yucky taste, I won't stress too much about it. I'm also supposed to try and time this with our family meals so here's yet another change in lifestyle for us. Regular meal times.


New flavours this week:

• Farex Baby Rice. The way it works, is that I'm supposed to have 1tsp of the rice (which is like milk powder) for 2 tsp of boiling water/milk. However I ended up with something the consistency of ice-cream (OK, maybe not ice-cream but I've been obsessed with icre-cream for the last few days now so I can't think of anything else) so I added a lot more water than prescribed to obtain a consistency similar to the baby food. I couldn't smell anything at all.
  Well, that was a waste. Nico spat out most of the two teaspoons I gave him, and pulled out his best martyr look. After I tried some, the rest ended in Loki's bowl. That was the most tasteless food I have ever tried. Even pumpkin & sweetcorn was tastier. It doesn't taste bad, it just doesn't taste at all. It is in dire need of some ketchup. And now I have a whole pack left, plus some already mixed in the fridge and what am I going to do with it if Nico still doesn't like it the next time?

I've also learnt a trick. Don't be afraid to feed Nico when he's crying. Because his mouth is already wide open.
If he keeps on crying, it'll be easier to feed him.
If he stops crying, well it'll be harder to feed him but at least he stopped crying.

Hair loss

When I was pregnant, Rebecca warned me that while my hair was looking all nice and shiny and plentiful, I'd lose most of it in the few months after birth.

(Rebecca's all doom and gloom isn't she, she also warned me about painful let-down reflex, and soggy breasts, and Nico's flat head, and other stuff as well...)

Anyway, I had just attributed this to either hormone fluctuation, or to my blood volume going back to normal.

Now I know that it was neither.

The C seal of approval. Part III

Nicolas is 5 months, 2 weeks and 2 days old today.

Solid meal times are actually quite fun. I was dreading them because I thought tears, chaos, swear words and a happy dog would be involved, but each solid meal only takes about 15mins or so. Depending on the flavour.

• Nutricia's carrot. This one is the most blend-smelling baby food so far. Naturally tasty, the label reads. Nutricia must have starved the taster prior to tasting. At least the consistency was very runny so it was a lot easier to just stuff it into Nico's mouth and hope that some will trinkle inside him. But, and this is a big but: he hated it. Screwed face, pleading looks, gagging noise, grimacing, shuddering, spitting, he gave me the lot. I gave up after two spoons. Will try again in a few days' time.
  

Feeding Nico with the carrot this morning was rather trying, with the responses I got. So I decided to clean up and try later. I stood up and thought I was going to faint. I had been needing sleep, had been losing weight in the last few days, and now was starting to see orange spots!

Then the penny dropped.

That's what happens when a baby sneezes a mouthful of mushed carrot onto your glasses.

The C seal of approval, part II

Nicolas is 5 months, 1 week and 6 days old today.

I've been keeping up with solids after most meals - unless it's at night time. Or I'm out. Or I forget. Or I'm tired/busy.

We've tried two new flavours, and it looks like Nico is accepting solids easier than he used to. Then again I haven't tried to feed him pumpkin & sweetcorn again.

• Wattie's Pear. Nico took it fairly well and unfortunately for me he finished all of it. Note to self: unless glasses come with window wipers, do not attempt to feed baby with food while he/she is blowing raspberries. Full nappy but nothing faintness-inducing

If I'm feeling brave I might try pumpkin & sweetcorn again. Not that I sound traumatised.

Raspberries

Nicolas is 5 months, 1 week and 6 days old today.

We visited Tina & Byron, and after a while Nico got tired so he got into a bit of a grizzle.


Most unfortunately for him, he decided to express his displeasure using a very ineffective method: blowing raspberries.



So much for sympathy.

The C seal of approval. Part 1.

Nicolas is 5 months, 1 week and 1 day old today.

I have been giving him solids (and by solids I mean runny mushy stuff) after his daytime feeds for a few days now, and with mixed results. The only constant is that the usual glitter of hope in Loki's eyes turns into a full-blown supernova. Oh well. We know that Nico will become Loki's new best friend as soon as he starts to hold a spoon.

I initially decided to be brave and try cooking the food myself. While I ended up with a reasonable quantity, there were three downsides to this: it takes ages to make (maybe I was using the wrong technique, I can always put through the Magic Bullet instead), and I can neither taste it nor give the leftovers to Loki. Because of the breastmilk.

Nico scrunched up his face at the very first try but still ate a good 2 teaspoons, and our carpet is still its original colour (creme with brown pawprints).

So off I went to Pak N Save and got two cans of Wattie's baby food. Apple & peach and pumpkin & sweetcorn.

Apple & peach went down fairly well, but pumpkin & sweetcorn might just end up in Loki's bowl. After tasting them both, I just can't blame Nico. Pumpking & sweetcorn was disgusting.

And because I don't want to feed my baby some vile-tasting substance, I'm going to record all this here and add to it as I go. I've bought all the different brands and flavours under the sun. Except for fruity apples and fruity pears, I just couldn't find the difference between those and standard apple / pear.

• Wattie's Pumpkin & Sweetcorn. Smells pumpkiny, tastes sweet corny. Was reluctantly taken by Nico on his first two meals, the third meal ended up being spat out and the rest went into Loki's bowl. I haven't decided yet whether to torture Nico with some more of it later.



• Wattie's Fruit Salad. It really tastes like the fruit salad that you find in cans! There was more face scrunching but less spitting than the pumpkin & sweetcorn. Full & foul-smelling nappy. I'm starting to think that I should blame it in the apple.

Sleeping like a baby

Neil and Janita have just welcome little Fletcher into their family last week (Congratulations guys!!!)

I got a call from Neil today and it seems that they have learnt, the hard way, that the term 'to sleep like a baby' is a misnomer. Just like most parents have, I suspect.


So I thought I'd list here the list of steps we undertook to help Nicolas learn how to sleep and self-settle.

• Bed routine. Each and every baby info site emphasised it. Especially the ones that sell massage oil or bath products or pyjamas. Whoops I've started to sound cynical already... Our routine (as of today anyway... not that we change it that often) starts at around 5-6ish, when Nico starts to grizzle. It goes: breastfeed >> burp >> solid feed >> play/watch Mummy & Daddy eat >> bath >> massage >> read >> bed. He's normally in bed by 7:30pm.
  
  
• Environment. During winter, we turned the heater on a few mins prior to putting Nico to bed, just to take the chill out from the bedroom. I also used a wheatbag to warm up his spot in his cot (yes it was removed before we put him to bed). In summer, I left the windows open during the day. We left a salt crystal lamp on so I could check up on him whenever I woke up, but I guess a dark room is better. I also turned the radio on and tuned it to 92.6 which was the classical channel, and left it on snooze - that's 59mins of background music, though some people have recommended just the white noise. During the day, we left radio, TV, phone, conversation on at normal levels so he'd grow up getting used to noises while sleeping. I also leave stuffed toys in his cot just for a bit of security, and in case he needs to go for a sleepover at Oma's. At the moment he's got Jazzy the lion, whose mane he always grabs before going to sleep, Mukluk the husky, and his bear.
  


• Swaddling. Interestingly enough, this practice is not widely known in Europe any more, though it is an ancient way to help babies sleep. It was something that we learnt at the antenatal class and again during my stay at hospital. There are lots and lots of ways to swaddle and some will work with some babies, some others won't. There are little Houdinis out there who can wiggle out of almost anything, so some clever companies have come up with swaddlewraps. We just use the standard square cotton nappies and leave one hand out for Nico to suck on. We stopped at one point because he managed to free himself, but we had to resume doing it as it made a major difference. The trick that worked for us in the end was to swaddle him pretty tight like a giant pink spring roll.
  


• Rocking. Most of the time we didn't pick Nico up when he cried, which was pretty difficult. We did rock the cot to get that rhythm going, which babies like so much. Our Portacot's bassinet floorboard can be lightly swung from side to side.
  
  
  
• Shushing. Another rhythmic thing that we did was making a shhhh... shhhh... shhhh... sound. Not to tell him to shut up and sleep already, but because it reminds them of the sound from the womb.










• Literature, baby. Never too early to start reading novels. Daddy read H.P. Lovecraft, and I read Dean Koontz. Lucky babies can't understand just yet else they'd have nightmares of rats behind walls and killer clowns. Bas would sometimes take over and softly talk/read to him. I think it's because of the lower, deeper voice. Not sure that it works on babies other than Nico, but he said Dutch stuff like gouda, komijn kaas, edam. Beats me why and how it worked but who cares, it did!!!
  
  

• Peace of mind. We had a timer on my computer which I started as soon as Nico started crying. Every time it reached 5mins, we'd take turns going upstairs (we are so lucky to have a 2-storey house so at least we could distance outselves from our siren... Maybe buy earmuffs for all the people in the house would be an alternative?) and checking up on him, rocking him, pattting him etc. We avoided (well, most of the time) picking him up and it used to take a good 3/4 of an hour for him to cry himself to sleep before the time gradually decreased. The sure-fire way for us to tell that he was OK, was to pick him up. That was the magical Off switch, which confirmed that everything was physically fine with him and he just wanted to be picked up.
  

We'd take the steps above only if we were sure that Nico was fine - checked by touching the back of his neck that he wasn't too hot/cold, that he was properly burped, his nappy was dry, his tummy full, he wasn't sick, etc. There were times when all that failed and he overtired himself from crying, and that resulted in either him falling asleep, or just got grumpier and grumpier, in which case I resolved to give him a cuddle to settle him and 'reset' his mood before putting him to bed again.