Wednesday, April 17, 2013

6 Months and 35!

Harris is 6 months today!!!!! I can't believe it!

He is so sweet and clever and on Monday sat unaided for the first time, but today it was for proper little spells and was actually able to play with his toys at the same time!!!! Clever wee fella.

Harris started solids a week ago. His first week included tastes of baby rice, carrot, butternut squash and this week he's tried apple and parsnip so far. It's tricky getting a time when he's hungry but not too hungry, but this mornings apple went down well. So this week we are now on twice a day and are going for 9amish and 5pmish.

He has got really good at feeding as he often feeds for only 5 mins and is definitley full I think as he has slept through to 5am and today was 5.45am (even better was Murray sleeping until 6.50!!!!! and even crazier, 7.40am yesterday. Poor lad is knackered as that is now 7 days in a tow with no nap at all. He nearly fell asleep in the car on the way home at 4.30pm today, but I managed to keep him awake. This is really important now as we have all sorts of antics at bed time if he naps after 3pm. Fingers crossed the later pattern continues, but we'll see.....) I think this faster feeding happened at the same time as oral thrush which added to my difficulties as I couldn't get him to feed for hardly any time! I'm just soooo glad he is not arching his back and squealing post feed any more as it means he is no longer in pain and it is all healed up. All new territory for me now and it is quite interesting to note all the new things. Harris is obviously teething too and likes to squeeze me between his gums with a fair force - OUUUCCHHH! He is not allowed to get away with that! I was asked the other day if I'll continue to feed when Harris gets a tooth (assuming he gets his first tooth before 1 year old unlike Murray). I answered that we'd cross that bridge when we/if we come to it!

Potty Training

We're still plugging on with PT. It is hard work with a v stubborn toddler. Boy do they ever know they have the upper hand. He can seriously fight me about going to the loo, but when he sits down, he usually does a decent sized wee (still no poops). So frustrating! The worst thing is I know he needs the loo as his behaviour ramps up!!! Think we may have to go back to the reward chart.

Behaviour Triggers

What situations trigger your toddlers 'behaviours'? Hand washing, getting jackets on to go out (even if he wants to go out) and now the toilet trigger what I call slippery fish (flops on the floor and makes it virtually impossible to be picked up) in Murray. It is exhausting. I try so hard to be patient and ignore the nonsense and catch the good, but woah!!!!! Again, I'm thinking I might have to start some sort of a chart. I'll do some reading and thinking I think. My worst times of the day are trying to get Murray dressed to get out while Harris is at level 3 crying because he's tired and in the car seat and not in his cot so he thinks he'snot getting to go to sleep. I'm desperately trying to keep my cool and Murray decides it is an excellent time to do Benny Hill shennanigans, running off all over the place! They are so fabulous, but wow, the terrible 2s deserve their reputation! It is sooo lovely when they just do as they are asked and everyone can have a happy day. I guess the aim is to get to that as often as possible!

35th Birthday!

On a completely different note, I turned 35 on Saturday! Can't believe that either! I had a lovely day: Mum looked after Murray in the afternoon and Al and I headed to Perth with Harris and I hit the sjhops with birthday money while Al pushed H around in the buggy so I could actually make some good buys. Got loads of long sleeves, vests and Ts from Primark and then treated myself to a new hoodie, T and jeans from Fat Face. So lovely to have new clothes. Al and I then got to go out for dinner together. Lovely!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Oral Thrush! Ouch!

I'm getting worse and worse at blogging!

Practically a month has gone by since my last post. That said in the past 3 and half weeks Harris has been waking every night and as such I've been going to bed progressively earlier and just did not feel like blogging. After 2 weeks of hideous feeding and waking, he finally got diagnosed with oral thrush down the throat. He's been on the medicine a week and as of yesterday it didn't look like anything had improved. The doc took a swab on Fri so we will see if it has cleared or not. Today has been better and I think most of his discomfort from teething pain and I think perhaps he has got better at feeding and doesn't need as long to feed. This is all new territory for me now so I really just don't know. He is so distractable now though! Discretion is no longer an option! I really, really hope things can settle down for a while as I am exhausted.

Potty News!

Good news is Murray is dry during the day for wees. He's still not great at asking, but is completely dry and with a reminder goes on the loo quite the thing. I still have him in pull ups as he still hasn't mastered poos in the loo. We've moved from complete denial of doing a poo to him telling me he's done a poo after the event. Hopefully we'll move to him being able to let me know before hand, soon, but it'll happen when he's ready.

Easter

Easter was a bit weird - I was just plain exhausted. We were meant to have Al's folks over, but due to the crazy snow falling everywhere, his folks were snowed in, so they are coming on the 19th April instead. As such we went to my folks on Easter Sunday. My mum came with me to Mass and boy was I glad as it was crazy busy and the only seats were on the Altar and I could see Murray eyeing up the bell that is rung at Holy Communion! I must say he was v v good, but I was sweating and using al my teacher eye ball techniques! LOL!

Exercise

Exercise had been going really well, but the past 2 weeks have taken a hit especially this week as my immune system finally gave up and I've ran out of gas and had to sleep and knock back paracetamol to ease the sinus pain (ouch). Swimming has got back up to 130 lengths though, so I'm pretty chuffed. Hopefully if we finally get some good weather I can get out on the bike????

Solids

I had planned to start Harris on solids this weekend, but the doc said to hold off util we get the throat sorted.  I spent the weekend steaming parsnips, carrots and butternut squash to go into ice cube trays in prep, so we're ready to go soon. I think we'll get Harris in his own room soon too, but I'd like to get him a bit more settled and also start him on solids first - only a few more weeks perhaps. I'm looking fwd to having our room back for sure! That said, I'm not looking fwd to trying to creep quietly past Murray's room if Harris is up, so I don't disturb him and then spend they next few hours trying to get Murray back to sleep!

Fingers crossed for a better week - Last week I'd had enough! An afternoon nap today has helped things a bit and Al taking both boys out for the first time since Harris was born (he's looked after them both in the house while I've been at the gym, but never taken them both out) has given me some space to breathe and recharge a little.