Sleepy boy

Little t has been so sleepy as of late, that he hasn't really been making it to the 2 hour mark that I would expect. I wonder if he's having a growth spurt. He ends up sleeping a good 4 hours a day, and 11 hours at night

This compared to his friend little c, who currently sleeps in toto just over an hour during the day.

I've also found that, because of the extended feeding time, combined with the normal daily chores and the reduced wake time, that I simply haven't had the one on one time that I would like. I've left him sitting on his own much more than I feel I should.

Don't get me wrong, he does like entertaining himself, but he's actually a little too good at it. He's not developing the social skills, or the language skills that he's going to need. (and for that matter he's not moved on from rocking forward from sitting position to crawling yet either)

All these desires that a Dad has, when really all I should be doing is providing him with love and attention. You go little guy, and work things out in your own time.

Solids are boring

So far, I have to say I'm not a fan of weaning. [delay of 24 hours cos little t woke up and then things got busy] Basically it's a lot of faffing.

It's very slow, and is very messy, to cook this stuff. The mashing of the cooked vegetables, and then portioning them out into ice cube trays for freezing covers the kitchen in goop.

It's very slow to prepare the stuff for eating. You have to unfreeze it (I haven't worked out a reliable, easy way to do this; and suggestions?), and then sit little t in the chair (we use a bumbo as he's so small) and put his bib on (full body bib of course, why even chance having his clothes dirtied). You may even have to make up a little baby rice or something. And if little t is hungry, what a nightmare!

It's very slow to be consumed. Little t will usually eat all the food, but it will take him 30-40 minutes! He spends most of that time looking away, I'm guessing he's swallowing it, so I don't push him. I also don't want meal time to become a fight, so take it as calmly as I can. And it's not that he doesn't want/like the food, he just isn't that interested.

And finally, it's not too bad to clean up, though certainly messy.

All up I'd say it now takes a good hour per meal.

All compared to a bottle which requires; buying formula, preparing and heating formula (4 minutes), feeding formula (10 minutes at most), cleaning bottle and steralizing (5 minutes). What's that, about 19 minutes, at worst.

Oh those heady days...

Feeling Ill

Well, on Wednesday night I was watching TV with big S when I suddenly thought 'the reason I'm so tired and grumpy is because I have man-cold, and I can prove it because of my now aching throat'.

Thursday was a hard day. First little t woke at 4:50 - I managed to lull him to sleep by 5:20 - then we were both grumpy and tired all day long, and my throat wasn't getting any better.

I spent the whole day trying to handle him as little as possible, and keep my hands clean and so on, but how does the primary carer _not_ pass on their highly contagious disease to their caree?

I forced myself to go out in the middle of the day, because I always feel worse if I don't, which gave t a chance to have another nap, which meant he was wide awake and ready for play when we got back - and I was tired and wanted to sleep!

Food went well, but that's about all. He ate all his breakfast (apple and pear, yum) and, with a little convincing, got through all lunch too (carrot and butternut squash/pumpkin, not so yum).

When big S got home from work I handed him over and went and collapsed on the bed - delicious, and thank you Mum!

Distractions

Related to grumpiness is my distraction level - high! I've been reading my book more than I should, I've been playing a game more than I should, and not interacting with little t enough.

I've twice got either the feed schedule or the sleep schedule wrong because I wasn't concentrating on things and didn't attend to little t as I should (don't get me wrong, I'm not leaving him crying in the corner, but might not feed him until he cries out for food)

It doesn't help that I'm having so much trouble getting him to sleep, even though his crying and red eyes and yawning all indicate that is exactly what he wants. I come to doubt my ability to tell when he's tired, and then get angry at myself for not being able to get him to sleep.

I guess that's the thing about being stuck at home all day with no one but a baby to talk to, one gets caught up in it all and gets things all out of proportion.

While he's not being neglected, I do want to interact 'socially' with him a lot. Boys start off behind on that footing, and I know that as a boy myself I might hinder his social development.

Grumpy little t === Grumpy Big T

Maybe he's a little sick at the moment? Certainly his nose has been running a bit and he's coughing more than usual. Whatever the case, little t is proving a handful at the moment.

He doesn't want to go to sleep. He doesn't want to be held by Dad. He doesn't want to play. He's not hungry. Not a lot left!

And this gets Dad down, so he doesn't feel at all like going to a babyTalk this afternoon. I'm going to force myself anyway, but really, not very excited about it at all.

Hopefully little t will decide that he wants to go to sleep halfway through, and I can go home early.

Second, urm, whoopsi

But first - the first whoopsi turned out to not be a whoopsi. For some reason Big S's milk smells like that after freezing. (Very faintly before, but strongly after). So I'm not in trouble :) I now give little t 3.5 ounces in the morning and 3.5 in the afternoon, followed by formula. This way he takes it all, without wasting that precious real milk.

On Wednesday though, I was cutting little t's nails with the clippers for the first time, ordinarily I use my teeth. I chopped an enormous chunk of the tip of his thumb off and boy did he cry! (understandably) I managed to distract him surprisingly easily (with previously mentioned remote) but that didn't stop the blood!

In the end I called Big S and she recommended gauze (which I couldn't find) and then a band aid (funny how obvious things aren't always so obvious). The band aid stayed on for a surprisingly long time, about 30 minutes, which was long enough to staunch the blood.

So he now has a big scab on his thumb. The only consolation is that when Big S did the same thing when he was 3 weeks old, it got all infected and stuff, so I win!

Started Weaning

And Tallin is just not interested. It's not that he doesn't like it, he just isn't interested. I imagine the internal conversation in his head (assuming he's very advanced and actually has language in his little skull) is something like

"OK, fine, I'll eat some of this pumpkin stuff"
"Happy now? I ate it all up, barely razzed any. What?! More? Jeez, when does this stop?"
"Hang on, that was carrot, what's going on here? Are you trying to make it more interesting? Well, FAIL, can't I just play with the spoon?"
"What's this over here? A remote!!! awesome, can I play with that? Nope? You want me to eat more? Just give me the freaking milk and I can get it all over with, these solids are such a waste of time"

So, after 20+ minutes of boredom he's finally finished his meal. No complaining, just not at all interested.