14 mths

14/09/08

Ate lumpy food – 10 mth plus Rafferty’s Garden baby Bolognese variety, plus ate a piece banana, plus played with pieces of canteloupe

15/09/08

Had her 12 mth immunisations – very brave, screamed at the time, settled very fast after.

I gave her one teaspoon baby yogurt in her fruit at afternoon tea – didn’t seem to mind/notice.

Pulled herself to standing on ottoman in living room (age 12 mths 2 days).

17/09/08

12 mth check. Weighs 8.505kg – so closer to 10th percentile for weight but still 50th percentile for head circumference and height. Gentle suggestion from my MCH nurse about upping her food intake.

19/09/08

I think she'll do better now we can give her diary. Until now, and I’ve only twigged to this over last couple of days, her diet has been mostly fruit with some baby cereal in it (breakfast, afternoon tea and some as 2nd course after lunch and dinner), and twice a day for lunch and dinner she has basically meat and vegies, some pasta. So not enough carbs and not much fats either. Poor mite, lucky I was still BFing! She's had small amounts of yogurt all week with her fruit instead of cereal and so far so good, no reaction. So aiming to increase amount of yogurt she has and try to get some grated cheese into her food too (so far she's rejected cheese when I've given her a lump or some grated to play with, but maybe I can grate some into her vegies and it will get mixed/melted and she won't mind that. Also once I think we're ok with introduction of dairy, so maybe another week or so, then I can try egg yolk and once that’s ok, then I can do things like custard (home made, no sugar, served with fruit). So its just prompted me to think about exactly what she's eating and try to see her turning one and now being happy to introduce dairy and egg as a good opportunity to try new exciting things, trying to reinvigorate myself because food has been such a battle with her, still won’t eat lumps or swallow finger food. Not actually really stressed about it, trying to not dwell on the fact she was born on 50th percentile and finished her 1st year on the 10th!!

19/09/08

Been talking about OB’s and deliveries with C now she’s pregnant agin. I'll do the same next time, pick an OB that delivers at Cabrini but a different OB to last time. We've talked about our OBs in MG and everyone else says how lovely their OBs were, which I can't say. So for next time I will check which OB from my MG deliver at Cabrini and go for that, also J liked her OB so I could go to him (same hospital).

I'd like someone more encouraging. When I was in hospital and asked for the epidural, NO ONE told me they were surprised I asked for it as they thought I was doing well - they told A but not me - man oh man will I be having words with my husband before "next time" about "support".

Whenever the OB popped in, she never said anything to me, I was straining to hear anything she said to the midwives etc.

Once we got to 10cm, I have no idea whether I was pushing effectively at all or not, because again no one said anything, I remember asking and got nothing back, I remember thinking the midwives seemed very different when OB was in the room compared to when she was out of the room, I remember the midwife examining me at one point (OB not there) and pointing out the top of the baby's head to A, if someone, anyone, A even, could have told me if the head was moving down at all please when I tried to push?

So its not just the OB, I need more from my husband than utter silence -when I was at home (26 hrs) he was in bed, then went to work, then in bed the 2nd night, then in hospital he left to go home for a shower after I was admitted, then walked back in with the ruddy newspaper and sat by the window and read that through most of the labour, my fault I guess, I wasn't asking him for anything except heat (I hadn't packed anything adequate so he couldn't provide that) or the epidural (he went and got the midwife).

Then OB walked in and said in really condescending way, well we can either get baby out now or in 1.5 hrs time. If someone would have just told me if they thought I could do it or not? The epi was so strong after it was topped up, I felt NO PAIN, couldn't feel if I was achieving anything ... Anyway I said I wanted to keep trying a bit, but minutes later she was back with same comment - now or 1.5 hrs time, I was sooooo tired having been going 38hrs without rest and no one was being at all encouraging, no one was talking to me, so out with forceps, two tugs and she's in my arms.

As for the tear, my OB never said anything, except on discharge I asked how long I could expect to feel so crap and she said "oh maybe 7-10 days" - OMG its was weeks before I felt half way ok. And she wasn't any nicer/warmer at 6 wk check, so I'm not going back to her.

Nothing particularly complicated happened during the labour/delivery or pregnancy that I'd want my next OB to be really familiar with my history, so happy to move on.

And at least now I know how long 2nd deg tears REALLY take to heal, next time I promise myself I will learn to feed lying down before I leave hospital, because surely staying off my rear-end would have to make it easier/less hideous, every BF was crying in pain with poor attachment I didn't know how to fix (until day 12 and BF clinic) and pain from having to sit on couch when I really wanted to lie down ...

Ohhh that all turned into a bit of a rant!!!

23/09/08

In last couple of days Claudia has picked up, played with, put in her mouth, chewed and then SWALLOWED mouthful of banana – more than once!

Had small quantity Weetbix for breakfast (crumbled, then cows milk then pureed pear & apple stirred in, then warmed in microwave) – maybe end of baby cereal is in sight

Now eats the Heniz baby pasta (the 7 mth plus box) when stirred into pureed baby bolognese.

Seems to favour fruit bread over wholemeal bread!

27/09/08

Dropped the middle of the BF today – now 2 per day (on waking before breakfast and after dinner and bath before bed)

Loving her yogurt, even plain (didn’t give it to her that way to start with as don’t like it myself, oppps, must remember my taste buds not the same as hers!!)

Standing/pulling self to standing more and more confidently with minimal effort. Some small steps taken along front of couch holding on the couch with both hands – so moving sideways.

Lots of babbling, making noises we can’t mimic, her tongue must move in different way to an adult!

29/09/08

I’m having a crap time trying to drop this middle of the day breastfeed. Saturday was day 1 and that was fine, because I was out between her 2 naps and Ash did morning tea, lunch and put her down for afternoon sleep. But Sunday was worse as I was home, he did the get up from morning nap, change bum, offered morning tea but as I was home she kept reaching for me and he kept passing her over even though I said I needed him to distract her, lots of tears from her (and then me) and eventually she had some cows milk in her sippy cup and was ok playing. But I’m sure she ate LESS for the day as a whole, not more. Then today has been a disaster. I met S and R and E and A at the playcentre at 10am so got there early, took Claudia for walk in stroller to get her to sleep for morning nap. When she woke we had the lovely mega-distraction with the playcentre and I offered her some pureed fruit for morning tea (ate very little) and sippy cup (nope), had a long play (was very cute, she’d crawl away from me, quite a long way across the room, then when we moved from one area to the next, I was carrying my bags and she crawled after me, the whole length of the playcentre!). I later offered yogurt (yes) and fruit (no) for lunch. Then car ride home she fell asleep but instead of having nice long sleep (which she has done before when she is very tired) she slept 30 mins. Well disaster-baby all afternoon. I offered lunch but she refused all 4 different things I offered her including her favourite yogurt and fruit. Refused sippy cup of water or cows milk, refused my last resort of warm cows milk in a bottle. Very very tired because of short nap so tried the cot, lots and lots of crying, tried rocking her to sleep in my arms (have only done that once since 3 mths old), no luck despite getting quite cuddly and going quiet at one point. So back to playing with her toys but she kept stopping and bursting into tears, I couldn’t leave the room, let alone get anything done. I rang A for moral support and he said just breastfeed her, I can’t even begin to reply to that, how does that help, its a backward step, I don’t have time to express enough to leave for Mum tomorrow now, etc etc. So then he said what do you expect me to do, so I hung up on him because I’m was so fraught by the whole thing. So whole afternoon of clingy, upset, non-eating, non-drinking, teary baby, and teary mummy because I felt like I’m letting her down and dreading leaving poor Mum to deal with her tomorrow. Eventually I put her in the high chair and offered her just once more some yogurt (until then I’d been offering her something on a spoon each time we walked through the kitchen, while she sat on my hip) and she actually ate most of one pot of yogurt, so that was afternoon tea I guess. Dinner was ok, not huge but ok, then A was home in time for bath and BF and into bed peacefully. Phew! I spoke to Mum late in the day, who was very calm and suggested she was just out of sorts for who-know-what-reason (she’s too young to tell us!) and that I’m focusing too much on the missing BF. So I’m clinging to Mum’s calming words for now!

30/09/08

Pulled herself to standing in the bath for first time, very weird seeing her skinny legs supporting her upper body (big tummy full of dinner, with those lax baby tummy muscles).

Very close to pulling fridge open herself.

Royal wave at trains!

01/10/08

Swallowed bread at MG – multigrain bread with butter on it, ate bite by bite from my fingers (but wouldn’t hold a piece of bread herself to feed herself).

04/10/08

Yesterday at child care they said she ate all their food and didn’t offer any of the stuff I’d sent – very pleased with this although don’t know exactly what she did eat as A didn’t ask or check the board when he collected her. I think she didn’t eat (swallow) as much as they thought as she was starving at dinner, had almost double normal amount. So next week might politely ask that unless they are convinced she swallowed heaps, to offer one of the jars of fruit I sent for her after each meal, see if she is interested after all or not. She is only just getting idea of lumpy food and finger food.

Today she has turned into banana eating monster! In nicest possible way of course, I offered her pureed fruit for morning tea (as usual), no mum, then yogurt, no again mum, pieces of banana (2 lumps while I ate rest), yes please! Devoured them and still refused yogurt and fruit so I offered more banana, ate all that too! I think she had at least half one banana all up, so nice for me to give her finger food and potter round kitchen cleaning up etc, instead of sitting there spoon feeding her one whole meal!! Now of course to hope that much banana in one go doesn’t bind her up again …

05/10/08

Started passing things to us. Will pass blocks she picks up from her bucket to A’s hand for him to stack up.

15/10/08

Full banana for morning tea since last week. Still only finger food actually swallowed. Offered her tiny bits of sausage roll today (put in her mouth myself) – swallowed! Whether she’d eat as finger food yet to be tested. Ate some pear slices at diner time (clap clap).

Saw women’s health physio again today, more exercises, go back in 4 weeks.

16/09/08

Vent alert

Tired and grumpy here, Claudia didn't have her afternoon nap yesterday so was awfully over-tired and hard to put to bed last night. Then she had me up at midnight for an hour of joy too. This morning, well she's in her cot now whinging and whining, keeps sitting up and squealing, so yeah sure not much sleep going on there again. I have food I need to get cooked for her for freezer, and laundry I need to hang out but all this settling in/out of her room is making it hard to get anything done.

I'm so tired from my midnight activities (worried about how tired I'll be at work tomorrow), plus grumpy at A who insists on dozing on the couch in front of tv he's not even watching, then coming to bed way after me each evening, then wants to lie there and read a book to "wind down" before sleep, heck i want some sleep and I can't sleep with the light on, then he sets the alarm for half an hour before he plans to actually get up, so I'm awake then too, sorry for whinge!

So madam took one hour of me going in and out lying her down again and re-tucking her in and a bit of patting to get to sleep. Somewhere in there I must have missed her thump her head against the cot bars because when she woke up she had a purple bump on her forehead. You'd think she would be safe from falls and bumps and bruises in her own cot??!!

Yeah seeing as this is her 2nd bruise on her forehead in 2 weeks, today i bought one of those boo boo ice pack thingys, fairy shaped, it now lives in the freezer

Cute observation of the day #1 - while I was giving Claudia her dinner (macaroni cheese and I can make it with actual macaroni instead of baby pasta now and she eats it - yipee!) she kept looking to one side and waving - turns out she could see her reflection in the lid of the saucepan that was draining on the side of the sink LOL. Cute observation of the day #2 - she was playing with her bath stacking cups, they have tiny holes in the botton, and she picked up one with 2 hands exactly like she was holding a cup and held it to her mouth, it was full of very-slowly-draining-bath-water and she took a mouthful - so cute- she's never had a proper "open" cup before to play with, only her sippy cup, however poor mite, she got quite a fright when she suddenly had a mouthful of warm water!!

25/10/08

Last weekend - started definite “cruising” – walking, holding onto couch, along front of couch. Still can’t stand/balance unassisted. Cute to see her on her feet but I don’t think even close to actual walking (phew!). Quite nice to be able to sit down, with her in my arms, not have to bend all the way down to put her on floor, instead she slips between my legs, to stand, holding onto (leaning against) my knee, then falls to her bottom then crawls away.

Today, dropped morning BF so now down to 1 BF per day. Currently not in hurry to stop altogether - getting repeated comments about it from Mum that she’s “had enough” and “you can stop now” – yes I know I can, but I don’t really want to. Number one, fear factor, of mucking up normally good evening routine, think that final BF is more about the cuddle/comfort than the actual milk drunk. Number 2, sometimes, despite this standing baby, I still look at her and think she’s still a baby, she needs this. Number 3 – once you stop, you can’t get that BF relationship back if you regret it. There are other factors too. See how I feel in a bit, if I want to nudge her along to finishing up altogether, or happy to let her decide.

How did we do it? A got her up, distract distract distract. Into living room from her room, straight to toys, instead of into laundry for nappy change and then back to her room for BF. Nappy change quickly on living room floor! Offered warm cows milk in sippy cup, and then later on breakfast as usual.

30/10/08

Said “mama” most distinctly straight to my face. Had been saying it for about five days but not clearly at me, usually as part of play. Poor mite is teething, all four “1st molars” in one go. I can feel a large bulge in each gum. Saturday night was the start – 1.5 hrs to settle in the evening, plus lack of appetite all day and red bottom at bath time. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday didn’t seem so bad. Wednesday night she was hard to settle to sleep, 1 hr 40 mins including 1 dose Panadol and 3 applications of Bonjella. Tonight was the same – 1 hr 50 mins to get her to sleep, Panadol given after the breastfeed and 3 lots of Bonjella. The last application was when she said “mama” – I had laid her on the bed in her room to apply the Bonjella, I was sitting awkwardly sideways on the bed, had on her on my lap, then laid her down, moving my legs so one leg was on the bed, one over the edge and she was lying between them. I did the Bonjella, screwed the top back on, then looked at her, bent over her, patted her on the chest and stroked her face, whispered “we need to get you some sleep baby girl” and then she smiled at me, and said “mama” – then more smiles and a happy noise and I knew she was getting more and more wide awake which I didn’t want! So off with the light, picked her up, her head onto my shoulder and I sat on the bed and rocked her until she wriggled and squirmed and I knew she wanted to be laid down again for another try. Minutes later she was patted and shhhed to sleep. The relief!

1/11/08

Oh good grief, I've had about 4 hrs sleep! Claudia was up from 1.50am to 4.40am this morning. I tried Bonjella, Panadol, cuddles, you name it. Poor mite, those molars must really hurt. Finally crashed back to sleep after some loud crying. I am so wrecked today, feel like a blob when its the start of the long weekend (A home until Thursday) and I should be bouncing with energy to get out and do some stuff .... erm, nope ....

6/11/08


Well I survived yesterday – one day conference for work in Adelaide

A actually managed to get her to sleep at 8pm (only an hour of settling) which I was amazed about – I thought with no BF and with her teething she’d be awake when I got home.

The day was fine for me, although long and tiring (the early start, the 2 flights, lots of sitting round in the conference venue listening to less-than-fascinating talks, plus I have a head cold and can’t take medication for it!!). I did however get stressed when I got back to the airport to find my flight delayed by 45 mins –I thought I was rushing home to an upset awake baby and A wasn’t replying to any of my text messages, which I thought meant he was busy struggling to settle her. What made it worse was there was a mum with 2 toddlers (twins) about Claudia’s age toddling round the departure lounge we were all waiting in, being delightful, and I was just sitting there REALLY wanting to be home with my baby girl. Anyway got home finally and she was asleep, and didn’t wake (I wondered if her mummy-radar would mean she stirred when I crept in front door but no).

Only catch is with my head cold and being so tired and having to back up to work tomorrow I’m too tired to achieve anything today and am skipping playgroup

7/11/08

Home from work, streaming head cold (can't take sudafed 'cos of BF), lousy cold wet windy weather too!

Its A and my 4th wedding anniversary today - we're off to movies and really nice afternoon tea on Sunday when Mum can babysit.

08/11/08

Head cold still there, Slept badly and had sore neck Wednesday, now its sore neck and down one side of my back, such fun. Was thinking of farmers market this morning but A got up and headed out “to do some stuff” so guess not!

09/11/08

She threw up dinner while still in highchair, was fine in bath, had good BF, then threw that all up, settled a bit, sick again, 1 hr sleep then sick again. I think we've changed the cot sheets 4 time so far, plus all A's clothes (he was giving her dinner when it started) plus my clothes (when i was BFing) plus the bedding on the single bed in her room where I was sitting to feed/comfort her. Done 3 loads of laundry tonight so far!

10/11/08

Well Claudia was only really sick Sunday night but several times over, 4 changes of cot sheets plus my clothes, A’s clothes, the bedding of the bed in her room where I sit to nurse etc etc! She was off colour today, very quiet, had two long naps and not much to eat or drink - extra BF this morning, kept offering sippy cup water, 2 hr nap then offered banana, she ate whole thing, only offered lunch after she got very grumpy and then only gave her bread which was refused and one small tub yogurt, not more even though she looked keen, no reaction to that, another 1.5 hr nap then offered afternoon tea of pureed fruit, very little eaten, more play then diner of Bolognese which she ate very happily then part of tub of yogurt so less than usual then bath then BF and into bed (20 misna dn quiet as a mouse so far!). I spent most of the day trying to get fluid into her to get her wet-nappy count up. She’s not had a dirty nappy all day, which is fair enough as she had nothing in her to pass, so I assume she’s in the clear with regard to diarrhoea?

Walking progress – Pushing her ride-on toy, walking behind it, falling to knees a bit and keeps going, also pushing stool from under high chair round kitchen. Stands unassisted very briefly couple of times, walks round house (ie, round the dining table, from living room to kitchen) sideways holding onto wall with 2 hands.