16 mths

19/11/08

Very exciting at MG today - both J and K are pregnant - due within 2 wks of each other. Lovely for A to get a sibling but even more exciting that M gets one too as K was concerned about her age, looks like she's got a honeymoon baby! However all this exciting news just proves I am NOT ready for it to be us yet! I am not at all envious, I am thrilled for them but not at all wishing it was us again, not yet! Mind you, this progress for me on being terrified by the idea of another baby!

20/11/08

Big excitement at lunch time - I sat down to eat last night's pasta bake leftovers (cheesy chicken pasta) in front of Claudia and offered her a lump of the chicken off my fork, she sniffed it and the refused. So I dropped it as casually as I could manage on her high chair tray, used the fork to split it in half and then kept eating from my bowl - she picked it up and put it in her mouth! Then she chewed and then she swallowed!! So I put more pieces of chicken and some pieces of spiral pasta on her tray and kept trying to look casual while I ate mine, and she kept going, pasta and chicken. I don't know how much she ate in total, not loads but more than one or two pieces. Then she started throwing pieces off the tray, so I knew it was over and I went on to her yogurt. Her appetite overall has been reduced the last couple of weeks or so, which I guess is fair enough as their growth rate slows in the 2nd year. Anyway, I must keep offering her different types of finger food!

23/11/08

Stood unassisted 3 times. Said “mama” clearly to me couple of times while we had post-nap cuddle this afternoon.

6/12/08

First unassisted steps – 3 of them. From couch to me! Repeated later in the day.

11/12/08

Due to more consistent unassisted steps, up to 4 at a time, and more standing unassisted, including jigging up and down on her feet without over-balancing, I took her to buy her first shoes today. Mum came with me. Ohhhh she’s so not a baby any more! The first shoes are white trainers with pink stripes, the only other ones I had to choose from were gold, silver or hot pink. They’ll be fine for summer, so many of her clothes are pink anyway. I’d like a Mary Jane style by winter though!!

19/12/08

I had S from MG to play with me on Wednesday morning, Claudia went down for her nap as normal even tho S was there, S was no trouble at all for 2.5 hrs and her mum J got all her Christmas shopping done which was big relief. Then we all had nice afternoon at MG after that.

PG Christmas party yesterday morning, someone brought in a mobile ball-pit and set that up, the bigger kids (3 x 3 yo boys in particular) kept leaping in, making lots of noise, lots of kicking and throwing balls out but then every now and again some mums would turf the bigger kids out and we'd put all the smaller children in. Claudia had a ball! I took photos on my mobile, just haven't downloaded them yet. At one point Claudia was still in there when the 3 bigger boys leapt back in but another mum said hey, Claudia's here, remember she's like S/H/T (naming each of the 3 boys younger siblings!!) and the boys were pretty good for few mins, then they couldn't contain themselves and kicked up a bit. But Claudia coped really well, frowned a bit, just moved to the side, pushed a socked foot away that came close to her face and looked for me to get her out, no tears or anything, so proud of her! As one other mum said, you wouldn't guess she doesn't have an older sibling straight off - this is where the combination of PG plus MG plus CC pays off I think, well it has for her (I know all bubs are different). Anyhow, just as I was about to fish her out, as I could tell she'd had enough, 3 yo M (who has a 1 yo sister) leaned over to her and really gently kissed her on the forehead - it was soooo cute! I wish I'd had photo of that one instant!! I did tell his mum, who was so thrilled too!

Yesterday afternoon I headed over to see J and J. J is doing ok, mastitis over with, still finishing off the antibiotics. Scan to see how J's hips have gone with the harness on 30th Dec, same day as next sees endocrinologist about her thyroid (BT the day before so he has results to talk about). Am crossing my fingers for her on the 30th, esp about J's hips!!

As for my MIL Sunday lunch dramas, its all sorted now, she's moved it to Saturday (tomorrow!) - so we'll go down there for lunch. I would guess Claudia won't get her afternoon nap and how well she copes with long drive home is anyone's guess (she MIGHT fall asleep then but she equally might cry a lot ...). So tomorrow I get to meet A's new girlfriend J, and we see MIL, FIL, A and J and I think O too. Best be on my best family-orientated behaviour I guess!!

24/12/08

Definitely finally feels bit Christmassy here – felt Christmassy Friday afternoon when I’d finished work and spent time wrapping up presents. Yesterday and today I made my mini mince pies and brandy butter, and my grandmother’s shortbread this morning. Unfortunately Claudia woke up coughing and has been quite snuffly this morning, had a very short morning nap, was harder than normal to settle for that nap, so I think she has a Christmas cold – poor mite!

Claudia has been very hard/almost impossible to settle for her afternoon nap the last week, I think aside from a short nap in the car Saturday and me patting her to sleep Monday, she hasn’t had a 2nd sleep in about 10 days now …. Thing is, she is ultra-tired and ready for her normal morning nap at 8.30-9am, so I can’t see how to stretch her out for a 11.30am middle of the day sleep. And she is showing all her normal tried signs for an afternoon nap too, just won’t actually sleep once in her cot! :

Claudia is walking really. Weekend before last she walked clear across the living room twice. Since late last week more and more confident, more and more time on feet than crawling. We have put a gate across the bedroom so the cats have that space and she now toddles and toddles (and some wobbling!) in laps from living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway and back into living room. Cute!

31/12/08

Sad news, K had a miscarriage on Boxing Day (a night in hospital, 2 units of blood transfused , sounds very traumatic, she was about 10 wks, and I’m fairly sure its her 40th birthday on 2nd Jan too). Really crap way to start the new year.

J & G with baby J coming over for dinner tonight – Thai takeaway. I don’t expect any of us to last to midnight!! J will apparently settle in her port-a-cot in our bedroom.

09/01/09

Pre-Christmas I was SURE Claudia was dropping from 2 to 1, but now she's firmly back on 2 a day (unless we're out all afternoon or today at CC I doubt she'll have napped twice). Here I was all ready, mentally prepared etc, to move her to one sleep, and she's still having 2! Mind you, I think it was actually because of the Christmas break that she came back to 2, when I was working before that, so a normal week, she'd have one day CC and only 1 sleep, then on playgroup days only 1 sleep and on MG days often 1 sleep, so maximum 4 days a week where she'd likely have 2 sleeps, no wonder the poor bub was confused! Over the Christmas break as we didn’t do much, we were home to put her in the cot for 99% of her sleeps, so she had proper routine based on her needs, regular sleep times etc. Now I'm back at work, she's back to CC etc, yeah I can see it won’t be long now before more and more 1 nap days come in and she WILL make that permanent move..... Which makes me wistfully wonder what she'd *naturally* do if I didn’t work and she wasn't in CC and she could sleep whenever she really needed to in her own cot ...

12/01/09

A wants us to go stay with some people (I have not met) who used to be clients (before he changed territories) in Yarra Valley on Australia Day long weekend, I said only for 1 night not 2 - pathetic as it is, I've not been away from home overnight since coming home from hospital and it scares/stresses me out just thinking about it (prob would have been easier if I'd just had to get on and do it months and months ago, like you with up-country relatives but it didn't work out that way!). I don't know if these people have children, I don't know how big their house is. My big worry is getting her to sleep in first place, then her staying asleep all night, if I have a big resettling period in the night and she's crying a bit and the house is small and I know they're loosing sleep too....

One night would be manageable to start with - wouldn't have to switch her from cloth to disposable, could take food with me for her meals, ready made in pots, just slip into their fridge. BIG thing is sleep in port-a-cot, if its a disaster and we (ie, me and C) get no sleep then its only one night and then home to her own cot again, I worry about getting her to selep in it (hit and miss at Mum's, not tried anywhere else) and staying asleep all night in it. if she doesn't sleep through the night and i am up for an extended resettling period, her cries would wake hosts too?

I have already planned/talked to Mum that next time there is very hot weather I plan to go stay at Mum's for the night anyway, as a test of being away from home, although that wouldnt' be in port-a-cot now as Mum bought an Ikea cot last week -- easier to settle her in cot as we can put hands through bars and pat, while in port-a-cot you can't pat, can only rock the cot itself. We need a bigger break from the port-a-cot before we try putting C back in it after stupid Dad's cousin S taught her to PLAY in it!!

Must talk to A about what is worrying me about this trip, very specifically, because this man has no clue, he doesn't even know what goes into the nappy bag for trip to the shops!! And he's probably thinking mmm trip to Yarra valley, sitting round being entertained, good food & wine, relaxing etc, I need to explain to him C might well be MORE work than normal out of her normal environment! Packing bub up for 24 hrs somewhere I am not familiar with .. hmmm fun! Also, 2 nights away would be much harder with the cats, so I can also use them as an excuse to come back after 1 night!
So thats me, bit stressed at idea that should appeal, how silly, I'll get over it I guess, think about it some more, prepare for worst case and then hopefully it won't be so bad!!

13/01/09

Ohhh what a morning!

Due to the heat and with Australia Day weekend potentially being away in mind, and because Mum has Claudia today and wanted to take her back to her place after morning nap to escape the heat, I decided Claudia and I should stay tonight at Mum and Dad's place. So last night was packing (not packed an overnight bag for her before) and then last minute stuff this morning, had to get Claudia up, breakfast, dressed etc, and me up, showered and dressed etc and off to Mums, all before 7.45am!! (up at 6am, left home 7.20) So dropped Claudia off, took all her stuff in, unpacked etc so Mum knew where stuff was and then back out to the street, meaning to jump in car and drive to closest train station, park there and train to work on time. Now Mum and Dad's street is relatively narrow, but due to its exact location lots and lots of people use it to drive through (local residents have petitioned local council for speed humps many a time). And as it happens the house next to Mum and Dad's is being built, and the people across the road from Mum and Dad's had a huge tree taken out just last week, so tradies and their cars and vans all over the place. Mum and Dad say reversing out of their driveway is a right nightmare every day! Anyway so I had parked just outside their gate, big van in front of me and a ute on the other side of the road. And at the exact moment I came out of the front gate to get in car and drive to station, I saw a huge local council garbage truck (its not garbage day in their street) trying to drive down the street - his great big rubber wheels were rubbing against my car!! He was reversing and then moving forward inch at a time, trying to get past, my car was rocking from side to side as he tried each move - shesh mate, you could see it was a narrow street, you shouldn't even be there! So he sees me, gets out of his truck, asks if its my car, shakes his head, ask if I can possibly move it, I say yes please, I'd actually like to go to work thanks if he could move his truck and let me past, he gets rude with me for being in his way, I repeat I'd love to move my car and go to work if he could move his truck - so he gets back in, reverses back up the street a bit, more rubber on my car, then there is enough gap for me, so I leap in, and carefully negotiate out of the parking spot, down the street and onto to train station. Made my train and at work on time. But really! There is no damage to my car (had a look before I got in, standing in middle of the road, in front of this ruddy council truck!)

So basically I'm here at work for a rest!! I am nervous as all heck about Claudia sleeping at Mum's - Mum will put her in the Ikea cot for her naps today - I said to Mum its really no trouble if she doesn't have her 2nd nap as its probably easier for me to get her down tonight (ie, she should feed to sleep) - but with the heat, Mum can't take her for long walks in stroller if she's over-tired and grumpy, so could be long day for Mum! As for tonight, well there is part 1 - getting her to sleep in cot, then part 2 - sleeping through/any resettling overnight. Oh well, wish me luck! Its only one night, although tomorrow night will be mighty hot too, but my plan is to take her home anyway, back to own cot, we do have ceiling fans, and then again its only one night until the change (until the weekend when it gets hot again!!) ...

14/01/09

Warning, rants of a sleep-deprived woman! I got 2 hours sleep last night!

Got to Mum and Dads to find very over-tired baby, cool I thought, she'll feed to sleep, easy. Erm. No! Mum had given her dinner so I did bath as normally as I could given it wasn't our bathroom (had taken our bath mat and some of our bath toys). Then quiet good nights then off to my old room where we were to sleep, to sit in relative dark to feed (as close as possible to what we do at home in her room). Air-con was on in background (white noise!)

Wouldn't feed to sleep, in fact after a bit, wouldn't feed at all, kept pulling off. So into Grobag, light out, and cuddles, hoping to rock to sleepy, nope, kept arching back away from me(tried sign). So into cot, tucked in, tried to leave, hysterical crying, back in to her, more cuddles, still kept arching away so back into cot, patting and shhing.

Started feed at 6pm, got her into cot for first time at 6.30pm, much patting and shhhing, offered boob in case she wanted it again at 7.30, refused me again, more patting and shhing, got her to SLEEP at 8pm. Nice. Did I mention air-con turned itself off at about 7pm, so only had fan in there. Even better.

8.45pm – resettle
9pm - I went to bed.
Every 45 mins to 1am - she cried out a bit, enough to wake me but not herself, so I never really got to sleep
1am - awake and crying for real, resettle, more patting and shhhing
Sleep to 3am (both of us!)
3am - awake and crying again, patted and shhhed to sleep, back into bed, awake and crying again 10 mins later, more patting and shhhing, sleep for another 10 mins, repeat repeat repeat until 6am when I gave up and got her up, so I haven't slept since 3am, barely laid in bed since then.

Home now, she napped ok today but putting up and fight for sleep tonight, A in with her patting and shhing now - I'd hoped she'd crA in her own cot - seems not.

Right now, bearing in mind I am NOT rational, I say NO to going away to stay with his client/friends in Yarra Valley for Australia Day weekend. We shall see!!

16/01/09

So Wednesday night at home was worse - this time only because of the heat (as far as I can tell, I don't think anything else was going on ... teeth etc). We got her to sleep at 9pm - OMG that's the latest by a long shot in months.

AND I was so grumpy with A through it all - he doesn't do well in the heat, he tried a couple of pats and shhhh after I put her into bed after her feed about the time I was emailing you (wouldn't feed to sleep, again when it would have been lovely if she would). But he kept coming out of her room and stropping round the living room about how she was such hard work ... yeah matey, I'm standing here preparing dinner, having folded laundry and cleaned up kitty litter on TWO HOURS SLEEP.

Anyway so I wound up going in and patting and shhhing a bit, by 8pm (she went into cot at 6.45pm) I was starving so I went out to living room for couple of minutes while she cried hysterically, and asked when he was going to cook dinner (I'd done salad and dressing, he just needed to pan fry chicken) - he muttered about "when she's asleep" and I said well this might take a while, I am starving, can you please cook dinner and then relieve me settling her for 10 mins so I can eat please ... so he stropped off to the kitchen, I went back to her, more patting and shhhing. He eventually came into her room and threw open the door (flooding room with light!) and said well your dinner is served ... gee thanks sweetie, just so kind of you I thought .... so I ate and went back into to her, he had turned the ceiling fan DOWN (because it was bothering HIM) and was standing there holding her (she will NOT rock to sleep, she just won't, and he's hot and she's hot so they were making each other hotter!! ) because kneeling on the floor patting her in the cot bothered his knees .... geee ...... anyway as we'd all been going for 2 hrs by this time, and I just wanted the poor mite asleep and out of her misery, I thought maybe half a dose of panadol would help (for all I knew by this time poor mite had thumping headache from all the crying) - well he gets grumpy and snaps "I do not want you to drug MY child unnecessarily" - so I tried to stay calm and ask what other suggestions he had, he didn’t answer the question, he just kept saying the same thing "I do not want you to drug MY child unnecessarily" over and over again .... so I took her back and suggested as politely as I could he go eat his dinner ... he thumped out of the room saying Oh I didn't think I was allowed to eat ... shesh!!! Anyway I turned fan back up, laid her in cot, unzipped side of sleeping bag to help her cool down a bit, and patted and shhed and patted and shhhed and by 9pm she was asleep finally and I zipped up her bag and left. She slept through to 7am next morning (normally wakes at 6).

A is still miffed I packed up and went to stay at Mum's without him! Yeah sure, you wanted to have that little sleep too???!!

Its all normal for me :-( He gets stressed about things, I have to stay calm and not aggravate the situation further, basically how dare I ask him to cook dinner for me!! (he cooks dinner almost every night but I don't actually ask him to IYKWIM, so on this night he'd made his token couple of attempts to settle her, given up, left her to me, he was sitting in front of tv, with a book, while I settled bub, and I asked him to cook dinner for me NOW and he didn't like that ....) I should have just ducked out of her room, grabbed fruit or glass of milk or something to take edge off my hunger and then gone back to her – then we'd both have eaten dinner after 9pm - nice!

I know I am not perfect, I get stressed about stuff too, and normally the stuff that REALLY stresses me out doesn't bother him at all, and most of the time he does ok (ok, not great, any of my girlfriends can do a better job) at calming me down, but not all the time. Anyway so yeah Wednesday night was a comedy of errors, depending on your point of view!! Nothing really new to me!


19/01/09

Ruddy child care gave Claudia fish on Friday!! The 2 full-timers in the babies room know she isn't to have fish and on previous Fridays when they served tuna pasta for lunch they always gave Claudia vegies with pasta instead (and noted it on the board where they put the food they ate for the day). But the last couple of weeks they've had casuals in the babies room due to staff holidays and one of the full-timers being in the office as director is on leave, anyway so comedy of errors, they gave her fish for first time - as A is allergic we'd decided not to offer her fish until she was 2. Apparently she loved it and she had no obvious reaction, no rA, not sick, no awful nappies, etc. Anyway I'm about to call the centre and have a polite call with the director (or whoever is covering for her this week) about staff communication and children with allergies/restricted diets ...

Claudia – at 16 mths - 12 teeth (2 bottom ones at 5 mths, 4 across the top at 8 mths, next 2 bottom ones with no fuss at all about 11 mths, then 4 first molars at 13 mths). Still picky with food. Bolognese (with diced onion, celery and carrot and grated zucchini) and macaroni cheese and cauliflower cheese remain most reliable meals. Cheesy chicken pasta bake is fine as finger food (must be spiral pasta!). Everything else hit and miss. Foods the child care centre say she will eat varies for us (ie, I tried baked beans again on weekend, had 5-6 mouthfuls then started to refuse it). Loves her Weetbix for breakfast (2.5 of them) and yogurt at lunch and diner. A banana for morning tea. Pear or sometimes apple, some sultanas for afternoon tea. Will also play with watermelon. That’s about it. Will drink lots of water, will walk round the house with her sippy cup especially on hot days. Will also drink quite a bit if given the sippy cup in the stroller or car. Walking very confidently now, almost too confidently (especially near steps or Grandma’s staircase!) I took her to Boyd Park on Saturday afternoon, she insisted on toddling from the playgroup all the way back up to Neerim Rd, at which point I insisted on putting her back in the pram. Think we’ll have to just move her to one sleep in next week or so, I really want her in that “11am lunch then off to bed” pattern before she starts at new child care on 2nd Feb – transition to new centre and 2 days a week in CC surely will be less stressful her that way. Words: daddy, teddy, duck, tab-tab (the cat), bye bye, occasional mama, lots of other words we’ve heard once including banana, kisses, cuddle, and I am sure she said grandma one day too. First brushing of teeth today! I had brushed my teeth in front of her in the morning a bit over the last week (big thanks to K for that tip) with her looking very interested in what I was doing. So today I brushed my teeth and handed her a baby tooth brush to hold while I did mine. She put the non-brush end in her mouth, so I sat on edge of the bath, pulled her into my lap and she put up no resistance to me brushing the front of her teeth. Didn’t get inside her mouth or to the molars but for first go pretty good! Favourite toys – loves cubby house she got for Christmas, loves her seal soft toy, variable interest in her dollies, loves her teddy (the small teddy and friends one that came with my flowers from my employer when she was born). Puzzles and books (we give her unlimited access to board books, and we read her story books in our laps) very popular too. Blocks are good and she likes the activity table we gave her for Christmas. Nap time routine is quiet story on our lap in living room, then quiet change of nappy, then quietly into her room, lay her on sleeping bag, zip her in, turn on CD, set to repeat, draw blind and curtains, into arms, cuddle until she arches away (less than a minute normally) then lie her down in cot, tuck in with sheet, kisses, she reaches for her teddy (teddy head in middle of a pink fleece blanket from best’n’less), cot side up, shhhh as we leave the room, close the door behind us. Mostly will self settle. Bed time routine is dinner (about 5pm, up to 5.30pm) then bath then breastfeed (still one a day) then into sleeping bag, CD on, cuddle and into bed same as for naps. Again mostly self settles and sleeps about 7pm-6am.