So one year later the little boy in our lives has turned one and I can’t say I am happier to have gone through everything we have with him.
There have been lots of changes in this year and to see him progress has been fantastic, this year I ‘m going to try and get more of those milestones up on here, I have been truly slack in maintaining a record of his life.
Day 9:
2011 – X-wing Fighter
2012 – Imperial Officer from Hoth
Day 3 & 4: Dad’s Turn and the Scary Part, followed by a little Sojourn.
Saturday, since I was at work all day Friday and Kate had to fend for herself, Saturday was my turn at learning how to put Sean in his new routine.
It actually wasn’t too hard and he does settle down nicely for his sleeps. even more surprising is the morning, we wake a little later than usual for the schedule at 10 to 7. I wander into the little guys room to wake him, expecting the usual little grumpy bum, but he opens his eyes and gives me the biggest smile.
My heart melts.
we go through the process and look at what the day will bring, 10 am and we are going in for a check up.
Here is the scary part, 2 days in, upped feeding with 100ml comp feeds to bring his weight up, 2 servings of solids each day. What happens?
200 grams…. down.
How? why? what have we done wrong?
Admittedly he has done two absolutely massive shits after his first day, but to loose that much weight.
New plan, 100ml comp feeds moves up to each feed rather then the ones after midday. The formula should help him build back up, most bottle fed babies do tend to bulk up more, Sean has been on pure breast for the last 3 months and only a 100ml top up before his last sleep. We will do what we must to get him in shape.
Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s a healthy little chap, but the little part seems to be the concern.
The rest of Saturday goes well, he eats his pumpkin, potato and zucchini like a champ, cereal and fruit goes down too. Sleep overnight is an eventless joy, not even a dummy.
Sunday… wake at 6:15 am feed, play, have breakfast, put him down for 8am…. and the struggle starts. Apparently the Fourth day at Tressillian is a day that most kids slide back. Sean lives up to it. Up around 9:30, get through an early rise and get him back on schedule with a 10am feed, solids included that he eats with gusto. 12pm down, not happy jan, lets us eat lunch but fights the sleep the whole way after 50mins down.
This continues for the rest of the day, we are both tired, a visit from the family of Kate’s sis, hubby and niece, put him down for 4, struggle town again. up at 6pm for feed, solids and we have to try and get him settled for a night out, otherwise no dinner for us.
8 pm rolls around, after a bath we get him settled and head out looking forward to a nice meal, our first sans Sean since his birth.
Dinner does not go as planned, we wanted to try a new Brazilian BBQ place in Beverly Hills, but they close at 9pm on a Sunday, so we decide to go to an old favourite, the D to D cafe. Sangria is ordered… Nice, Steaks are ordered…cooked to perfection and tasty as, dessert is orded… shouldn’t have.
After 4 days of hospital food, dinner is great, but we head back to be in the doors b 9:50 pm, nt much of a night out, but we are both so tired.
Evening report, 50mins then in goes the dummy, he was asleep when we got in and has just gotten up at 11 for his last feed.
Tomorrow I leave Tresillian, Kate is staying an extra day due to the weight concern. We shall see what his result is tomorrow. I’m back at work and on call so I can’t return to the hospital. let’s hope for good news.
Back in April I went to see Jay and Silent Bob get Old, one of my favourite podcasts to listen to.
On the way to the show I sent the tweet that Kev reads out, and this was his response at the show. A regular thing he does at the live shows is to reply to tweets sent before the show when he is “centered” and read them back to the audience later, sometimes they are a surprise to himself what he wrote.
Not Safe for Work btw..
Easter, that wonderful time of year when we get an extra long weekend to do so much with that we don’t know what to do with ourselves….
Until you have one of these 🙂
It truly is amazing how much time gets sucked into the vortex of a new baby. You wake up at 6 am to do the morning feed and before you’ve had your first coffee of the day and cooked a piece of toast that goes half eaten, it’s 3 pm.
We’ve done nothing this long weekend, it’s been hands on Sean the whole time. he’s unsettled all the time and very whingy if you put him down for longer then 10 seconds.
So it’s lots of cuddle times and constant feeding, but he is now 6 weeks old, and the growth spurts are happening. My little man has put on quite a bit of length in this short space of time.
It’s a lot of joy and a lot of frustration, and a bit if a laugh too.
How do you know if your son has a full nappy? when the shit stain is spreading across his chest and it squirts up the front of his nappy!!! my god the kid had some in him.
That was a straight to the shower job for the clean up, almost the equivalent of taking them out in the back yard and getting the garden hose out to clean him up.
Sitting down and having cuddle time has allowed for some movie catch ups though, so there is that good side, just need to get out and mow the lawn…. can I strap the pram basket to the lawn mower?
Here he is a month later, in that rarest of states, quiet and asleep. Life certainly has changed with Sean in our lives and it’s not an easy path to take.
Sleepless nights are becoming our norm, he loves to sleep all day long, but come 10 pm and it’s eyes wide open time, no chance of getting me settled and being allowed to have a few hours.
We are coping in the only way we can, sleep one at a time, in separate beds, different rooms. Try to alternate nights as much as we can.
Does make it a little harder on Kate as we are breast feeding as much as possible, I’ll help out with a bottle feed some nights, handy if we have a bottle of expressed boob juice in the fridge but not always possible.
Changing nappies, the joy of all new parents brings to itself a whole new bit of fun and games when dealing with Sean, or as he is now known around the house, Senor Stinky Pants.
He cries as his nappy is wet, normal.
We change his nappy, normal.
He wets said nappy within 2 minutes of being changed, probably normal.
We change said nappy, normal.
He poops while on the change table, clean that up, pees all over us (mostly Kate, I am yet to cop a spray)
Senor Stinky Pants delivers all this with the comical timing of an Abbott & Costello classic.
Keeps me amused in the wee hours of the morning….
Pun intended 🙂
We’ve been home two days now, things are ramping up in our life with the new little creature that will bring so much into our lives.
He’ll also take so much.
The decision was made when Sean was born that I would stay at the hospital full time, I want to contribute to Kate’s burden lessening as much as I can.
First point has been nappy changes, I think I have done 95% of his changes so far, and it’s something that Kate doesn’t have to worry about.
Trying to settle him down and allow her to sleep as much as possible is very important, and this 3 weeks I have off work is all about sharing that burden for as long as I can, because when I do go back to work, I’ll have very little opportunity to get time off for the next 12 months at least.
Getting up in the middle of the night to change a nappy, re-wrap him up, settle him down, or take him out to the lounge room just so Kate can grab as much sleep as she can get. We are trying to keep up with just breast feeding at the moment for as long as we can, formula has not been ruled out, but the longer we can hold out, the benefits for Sean will get only bigger.
Tiredness is hitting me a bit, but I’ve always been a bit of a night owl. But I’ll slog this out for as long as I can (next 18 years or so), it’s important for all three of us.
One of the things I tried to do when moving into the new place was to de-clutter.
Success, I had none.
Dealing with an emotionally unbalanced pregasaurus was not easy, every time I made a suggestion of “do you want this?” or “what is this?” the outbursts started. As far as Mrs Fen was concerned if it wasn’t bolted down I wanted to throw it out. Not the case.
As you progress through life you accumulate stuff, it happens, but if that stuff is sitting in a box you haven’t looked in since you last moved and your about to move again, do you really need it?
Sure there are things that you don’t want to let go of that hold a great piece of your life within it, but re evaluate what you have every now and again. remove that useless clutter and have a clean out.
The challenge we have now is while where we have moved into a house with slightly more room to store stuff, we still have too much crap. With a baby on the way this ain’t a good thing, reduction of this needs to happen so we can have a room set up for the little bundle when they arrive.
What is the best way to deal with the clutter in your life? is a flamethrower the only answer?
Today I caught the train from my new local station of Riverwood, a far cry from the hub that is Parramatta, cost is the same yet the conditions are worse, the 7:55 before had ample room and was an express, now it is sardine material, supposedly still an express but more stops.
I think a different time will need to be checked out for optimal travel comfort. Travel time is still way better than the car, and station to door is under 10 minutes.
