20 months

Twenty months. That's almost two really. Two is that magical age where you just have a number for how many years you are, rather than months; or at least how many years and months. I guess it means you're growing up. Although, I do know some mums keep counting in months for a lot longer, no-one really knows how old the kid is when you state months after two. I had the same problem with weeks after about 12 weeks. By then, it's just easier to count in months. Someone told me their kid was 18 weeks, and I'm furiously in my head, in my sleep deprived state, trying to figure out how old that meant he was.

Rachael's big development for the month has been in words/sounds. Where sounds technically make it as words, I'm not sure. But we probably get a new one per week. They knid of creep up on you now, like coming up to you one day and saying "hi" when I got home from work. I responded with "hi" back to her, and then you find yourself wondering just how long she has been saying "hi" without it registering.

Mr Lion is now known as "Raa". As in the sound you say a lion makes. It makes things heaps easier for me, when I ask her what she's looking for in the bed, when she answers "Raa", and I know she's seeking out Mr Lion (which usually means it's feed time). I do have to admit that I ask her what she's looking for, when I already know, just to encourage conversation. Racheal thinks wearing the Mr Lion top that was made for her birthday last year, although a little small, is great. You'll randomally get "Raa" all throughout the day.

Rachael in Mr Lion top at her birthday last year. 8 months ago...

Animal sounds are very popular;squeaking for a mouse, snorting for a pig. She's doesn't quack for a duck though, just says Duck/Uck.

Rachael loves trains at the moment. Both Thomas the Tank and Chuggington. Two boys at playgroup on Wednesday were wearing Thomas tops, and she spent the entire eating time making train whistle noises, to let me know she could see Thomas. I'm looking out for Thomas tops for her, as I'm sure she'd be quite chuffed to have one. They're all "boys" jumpers, but who really cares? She still gets called a boy when wearing pink from head to toe because of the lack of hair anyway. There's nothing physically about boys tops that makes them inappropriate for girls. It's probably harder to get away with putting boys in "girls" clothes though. And why the heck aren't they putting Thomas on the "girls" clothing for this age anyway? Missing the market on that one.
Shh, don't tell the clothing gender police on me. She also has a set of blue pajamas because they were cheaper, and blue onesies.

Rachael is still big on the word "bum". She actually says it now. Her first verbal body part, of course.

Warning to all who read who know Rachael. Well, actually the entire 6 blog readers know her I think. Rachael runs around talking about "duck", and has picked up on the number 6. Why number 6? I have no idea. Any number she sees is automatically 6. We don't have a potty mouthed toddler, just one who doesn't announciate very well.

Racheal's also getting onto the concept of "baby". Three of the swimming lesson mums who have children Rachael's age have just had babies, and also there are new baby siblings to her friends at playgroup. Any baby is known as "Ba". We've also just borrowed her a baby doll from the toy library (great place that). Rachael was insistent the naked baby had to have a hat. Unfortunately, I have leant our small sized hats to a friend who needed them. So baby has ended up wearing a 00000 sized grosuit instead. That seems to have satisifed her. Now she can undo all the press studs, and then present baby so I can do them all up, so they can be undone again. Great game it seems.

Rachael also enjoys "breastfeeding" baby. It started that Mr Lion had to have a feed from mum before her. Then one day, after a shower, she decided to feed Mr Lion herself. Now Mr Lion usually gets a feed from mum before her own, and I have also fed a duck or two- as you do. I guess I'm probably lucky I haven't had to feed any cars yet. But truely, it's gorgeous to watch. Racheal also insists on wearing my bra each morning after her shower. To her, this is all perfectly normal, trying to be like her parents stuff, just like trying to put on our underwear (Which is both legs in one hole, a thankful change from underwear on her head, as she was rather fond of when she was younger).

Nap time has, unfortunately, decreased. She used to get 2 hours, but these days it 1-1.5 hours.

19 months

Well, I stretch the truth a little. The ticker up the top says she's 1 year, 7 months, one week and one day old. It means I'm late in posting again. No real suprise there.

Teething has taken a long time. More than a month this time around, 5 or 6 weeks. I don't know if it is actually taking longer than it used to, or wether you shorten things in your memory when you look back on it. Things have started to look up in the last two days, so she's finally starting to eat again, is back to 4 feeds in 8 hours overnight instead of 6 (oh joy).

We have been able lucky enough to discover Rachael's comprehension of a lot of words over the last few weeks.
Rachael can now point to her main body parts when asked:
Head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, toungue, teeth, shoulders, arms, hands, elbow, fingers, tummy,  belly button, bum, back, legs, feet and toes. She still is almost obsessive with her love of her tummy, as she has been for quite a while, and is sure everybody in the world is as in love with her own tummy as she is, and naturally wants to share it. Bum is a new love, thanks to grandma pointing it out in a book. Thankfully the word only, not the sharing bit.
I'm sure she knows words we don't know she does, as discovering her comprehension of words is often by accident, so it makes sense there are some we haven't discovered yet.

Have I mentioned her favourite colour is red? She loves wearing red socks, and insists on her parents wearing red jumpers at every possible moment.

Rachael loves to share with inaminate objects. She shared her lunch with a rubber duck. She shared her feed with Mr Lion. She thinks this is great fun.
She is also quite good at sharing some things with other people. Sometimes when eating a meal, she will insist on a parent taking alternative bites with her. This seems to be a fun game. Other times she wants to share it all- very happy to "share" the entire food with a parent if it's a vegetable. Ie, "if you like it so much, you eat it; I'm not interested"
Sharing toys with other children, not so much. But she IS a toddler. It'd almost be weird if she did play perfectly well with others at this age.
She does share Mr Lion's hugs quite readily with just about anybody though. Which I didn't expect. I thought she'd be territorial of the most important thing in her life. But in some ways, he's like an extension of her. Often if she's having a feed with mum, dad will have to hold Mr Lion. Mr Lion gets special hugs and kisses at bedtime. Mr Lion will also get passed into the car as dad is leaving, for last hugs and kisses as he goes, as if she can't physically get there, he'll do as a proxy. He'll also often get passed to someone if they're after a hug, and she's not ready to go to them yet.

Speechwise, not much has progressed in the last month. Her new favourite word is "stuck" (although it is distinguisable from "duck" by context only, as she's only getting out the "uck" sound. She loves duck too though). Stuck is a very handy word for her though. It's great to alert caregivers when she needs help. I can't help buit think of the video of Addie every time I hear the word though.

I'm still amazed by the way she grows up. A year ago she was only 7 months. Just started rolling. Now she's running all over the place. And then I look at Finnian and Noah, and see what a "big girl" toddler she's going to be in another short year.

To BLW and back

It's funny how your ideas on things change about parenting- before you have a child, and then they continue to change as things go.

When I heard about BLW, it made sense, I studied the book, and decided to go along with it.
We started with purely fingerfood at 6 months
I'm not exactly sure, but I don't think she'd had anything but finger food at 12 months, where we discovered her love of mashed potato- so she had mash
And then closer to 18 months, we discovered pureed food is very handy when she'll hardly eat any solid food for weeks when teething.

Finger food- mash-puree

Sound really backwards to anyone else?

What I've discovered along the way:
* You can serve up broccoli for a year- but she still won't eat it. I'm starting to think fussy eating is inherent to some degree, rather than something that can be avoided by an eating/ feeding method. We eat our vegetables in front of her. We serve her vegetables. After that, mayby we just have to admit mayby she's just not fond of broccoli for now.

* Puree of itself is not evil. (shock, horror)

* Sometimes, for the parent at least, any (healthy-ish) food she eats is better than no food. Rachael seems to take teething harder than most children. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm finding it hard for breastmilk to be nearly the entire food source for an 18 month old who happens to be both teething and having a growth spurt at the same time, for weeks on end, all day and all night. A little help by puree is appreciated to give me a little break.

*Kids really love those sqeegy pouches. Crazy stuff; if it's in a pouch, it'll get sucked dry quickly. Even though the manufacturers state you've got to decant the food first, honesty, no-one does because this way it gets eaten. I see parents everyday giving them tothe kids like this. I'm pretty sure it's the reason why they're packaged like that in the first place, but they're just covering their backsides.

*BLW purists would be appalled.

 But you know what? I don't have a problem with the way we're doing things. Firstly, we've figured out by now Rachael is not your "average" child. She's not at all inclined to follow the baby books, or the "methods". I don't wish we'd gone back and done purees from the begining; I like that Rachael is not used to being force fed. She's confident and in control. Even when that independance can be inconvenient to us at times.

So we've been to BLW, and back again. We've learnt some stuff, softened ideals on some stuff. And that's just the way it goes.

18 months

18 months- another one of the "big ones". However, I more feel at the moment like she's a little baby again, rather than a big girl. Blame the teething. Teething always sends her on quite a regression. We go back to being whiny, impatient, clingy and teary. Also, Rachael eats practically no solids, preferring round the clock breastfeeding, and not much sleep overnight, even in our bed. She even woke up crying strongly, it took us a while to be able to calm her down again. A difference between the "big girl who acts like a little baby while teething" and an actual little baby is the big girl version also throws tantrums. Yesterday it was screaming and thrashing about in. the. library. (honestly, of all places) because mummy said it was time to go. It's the four eye teeth that are cutting through the gums. At least we know from experience that so far, this behavior change has only lasted for about two weeks each time, so we'll get through it, and out the other side. But really, two weeks sounds like a long time from where I'm standing. We haven't been able to get any Panadol into her yet, as she just spits it all out. I've also tried mixing it into some pureed apple and berry mix, but haven't managed to get it into her yet.

Before the regression, I;m pleased to say we were doing quite well. Rachael was eating meals and snacks throughout the day, as well as plenty of water. Sleeping was on the improve too. Our night routine works quite well. Rachael is happy to go into her cot once the routine is finished, knowing she's going to go to sleep. I just sit next to the cot, so she knows I'm there if needed. On a "good" night, she'll go to sleep herself fairly quickly and happily. Some nights she finds it rather diffucult to go to sleep though. It's quite funny to watch, because she'll have backside in the air, and moving around, but with her head on the mattress the whole time, like she's trying to say that she really is trying to get to sleep. On these nights, she'll often need my hand in the cot with her; to either just hold onto, or sometimes I pat her to try to help her settle in, or just have my hand on her. She seems to appreciate having me there as a "only if needed measure". Once she's settled in, but usually not asleep, she's ok for me to leave the room. So she really is learning to go to sleep by herself, but in a comfortable and supported way.
We'll be back to it after this phase passes, I'm sure.

Today we had Rachael's 18 month checkup, and vaccination. Boy oh boy, needle soreness on top of teething, we're going to have an interesting few days coming up it seems. I have no idea why, but I've just found out the health nurse didn't put her info into her blue book. I do remember though that's she's 10.6kg. About 40th percentile weight, and 20th percentile height, with a small head. All of the above is pretty normal for her.

Sleeping

I'm just so proud of Rachael right now.
Sleep-wise, three nights ago, I decided that she was responding quite well to the night routine that I'd move it onto the next phase of getting her to go to sleep in her own cot after her feed.
First night, she was drowsy after the feed, and after 15 minutes was asleep in the cot after being patted to sleep.
Night two, she was super tired, and was asleep by the end of the feed anyway, so not much to read into that.
Tonight, Rachael was still fully awake after her feed, but did not object to being put into the cot. She tossed and turned for quite a while, and I eventually gave up trying to pat her to sleep, as it didn't seem to be working. But she eventually was able to calm down and go to sleep, only holding my hand.

It's so wonderful on several fronts
1) She might actually sleep well eventually
2)She seems to be responding to the gradual changes
2) And a lot more important, the gentle approach seems to be working- she is not afraid of sleep, she is not afraid of her cot. It is rather vindicating that she's starting to do what "experts" who don't agree with our parenting approach claim that she'll never do if you don't take rather more severe measures

All at once she seems to be ready to eat solid foods and settle down with her sleep. No, I don't think the sleep is a result of the food intake, but a general maturing.


We'll see how it goes from here.

17 months

At 17 months, we're definately into Toddler territory. There's so much in the world that she wants and isn't allowed. There's also so much in the world she wants, is allowed, but she has diffuculty communicating what it is she's after. The first one won't change in a hurry, but we're hoping for some improvements for the second as we go along. Rachael's vocabulary is still pretty limited in relation to her opinions. Some more "functional" word (like those relating to food, drink and sleep) would hopefully reduce some of her fustration. So we're just have to wait for them to arrive. Her actual solid food consumtion has gone up in the last few days, like she's eating for sustenance, not just to play. We haven't been worrying about her small food intake up until now though, as she has really very good fork, spoon and bowl skills, it's jsut that she has chosen to only consume small portions. An increase in food consumption does lead to a concern though; reading the ingredients listing on "toddler" snack foods is rather quite disconcerting how much sugar is added into items marketed as"healthy".

I think I like each age a little more as we go (not overly hardfrom where I started though). This early toddler stage has Rachael swapping between being completely adorable and more challenging. And the adorable really is gorgeous. We have found however, the challenging is often assisted by a snack. It seems she is prone to the same blood sugar dips as her mother.

Sleep wise, we started adding a bedtime book into her routine, and settling her in her room at night at a regular time of 8:30. Sometimes she's asleep by 9, other times she's still wriggling around by 9:30. My aim is to hopefully have her settling in a decent timeframe regularly once she gets the hang of it. Overall, the hope is to gradually get her to the point where she will be able to actually go to sleep in her own bed. Then, if she can do that, mayby we can hope on her being more receptive to staying in the bed, and more likely to actually sleep overnight. Pretty lofty goal really. But at least I feel like we're actually trying something. That just mayby we'll get a full night sleep in the next 2 years.

Current obsession is how things work. Clips are of particular interest. Some days she doesn't want to come in out of the car, instead working on trying to figure out how to do up her carseat buckle. After much investigation, she's figured out how to do up the clip on her backpack harness. She'll spend ages to do it up, and as soon as it's together, she's rather impatient for a parent to undo it, so she can start again. Pram harness has a similar appeal. She's also very much into her pram. Not sitting in it, but she wants to push it. She's also rather keen on trying to plug my power cord into my computer, and the USB into the port (my poor computer) .

Rachael is also a bit of an accessoriser. I don't know where she got it from, definately not me. But she's into shoes, handbags and headbands. And she wants to wear her one pair of red socks every day. Red is definately the colour favourite. I managed to find some more red socks at country kids this week, haven't tried them with her yet, but I'm on a hunt for red socks. But at the same time it seems red socks are rather hard to find at the moment.

Another red item is Murray and Captian Feathersword from the Wiggles. She's just recently discovered the Wiggles, and they're her favourite characters. She was rather chuffed to discover Dorothy the Dinosaur on her pajama top though. The Wiggles have recently chucked out Sam to reinstate Greg. I listened to CDs of both yellow wiggles today. I have to say I think Sam is better.

School term starts back this week, and so does Rachael's swimming classes. It's rather sad to see that after not going to the pool for about 3 weeks over Christmas, Rachael has lost a lot of her pool confidence. But I guess three weeks is a long time when you're 17 months. She is getting back into the swing of it, so I hope she'll be back to where she was soon enough.

Rachael had her first play date in the last month. Didn't really go that well, but it's a start. I'm thinking of not going to playgroup for the next few months, as it's rather intimidating to have so many kids, and start setting up some one-on-one playdates instead.

Rachael is also trying to perfect her "cute" look (and it is SO cute). We've caught her practising it in the reflection of the oven door.

16 months

We've had Christmas and New Year in the last month, so it's been busy.

At this moment, Rachael's alseep on my bed. She's had a very busy morning with Grandma. It's rare at the moment for her to sleep without being attached to someone, but she was so tired she fell to sleep there right after her feed when I put her down so I could go to the toilet. She's just been sleeping very lightly during the day at the moment, so putting her into the cot wakes her up, and she won't go back to sleep. She's also refusing to go back to sleep in her own bed after feeds overnight, so we give up eventually, and bring her back to our bed so we can get some sleep ourselves.

No particular news eating-wise. Most of the time she still likes to eat very little. Sometimes it stresses me out, othertimes I'm more happy to let her decide. At the moment, Rachael has a thing for anything potato, as well as biscuits. Anything green veg is way off the radar. It does concern me that she may not be getting enough iron from solids, I have to take a iron suppliment on top of my pregnancy/feeding multivitamin or I feel like I've been run over my a truck, and we tend to have iron issues in the family, but she just plain old won't eat them. She's oven gone off her meat obsession, which is odd. And of course, she can't live on biscuits (even though she'd like to give it a shot I'm sure), not a good thing. It does help my mind somewhat though that she's still breastfeeding. Don't tell her it's nutritious, she's blissfully unaware of the fact. I know through this that she's still getting some amount of nutrients. There has been suggestion that if I weaned her, she'd eat better. There's no way to know, but I sort of get the feeling she'd eat larger quantities, but I don't think it'd affect her variety. I don't see her suddenly accepting broccoli just because she doesn't get milk.

Rachael didn't really get the point of Christmas gifts. She wasn't even particually keen on the wrapping paper. She did get some lovely gifts though, her favourite at the moment is probably her broom.


Rachael is really starting to get into toddler mode. Things she's not allowed to do or have fustrate her, so she gets angry. On the other hand, she can be incredible cute at times. We have been reminded that she watches everything we do; A few days ago I decided to take her to the swimming pool, so put my bathers on. Since I had just had my shower, Rachael knows part of my routine is to put on my underwear (shocking, I know ;). She seems to have decided that I forgot to do it, so got a clean pair of underwear out of my drawer, and tried to put them over my feet. I obligingly put them on, and had to take them off again when she wasn't looking.  

Getting into the Christmas Spirit, givng the Santa Claus look a go

15 months

The 15 month blog never got posted. Why? Because I wrote it, was going to find a picture, but she woke up instead, so that was the end of that. I went back to post it a few days later, but it all had changed, so I re-wrote most of it, but it never quite got posted. Sure enough, it changed again. That's life with a mini-toddler; it keeps changing, particually on the sleep front.

In the begining, we were having a particually diffucult time with lack of sleep.
We had a few nights where Rachael was feeding every 2 hours or less. After a few day, I was over it. I was tired, I wanted to do anything to get a night's sleep. I was going to night wean (immediately). I was going to hire a babysitter for a night's sleep. Then Rachael and I went to see a friend, had a chat and then came back to a more rational truth. Our truth, at that time is that either would most probably be damaging to Rachael. Yes, I would love to get a full night's sleep, but there's no harm in waiting a little longer to see if she'll be ready to do this on her own. I may have to night wean her at some time in the future, and I have read up on some gentle stratergies for if they are required, but I don't want to do it before 18 months. She isn't ready to comprehend the communication side that these stratergies use. And these nights are really handy to point out another truth to me- Rachael will remain an only child for a while longer. There is absolutely no way I am ready to go back to the newborn no sleep stage yet.

Then shse started to sleep better. Her solids intake increased (it was becoming almost non-existant when she was at home with me), she increased her water intake a lot, and went back to sleeping. She went from her 3 hourly feeds that she's had since birth, to feeding 4 hourly overnight, for a few days. Which is absolutely lovely. It means  I was still getting disturbed sleep, but more likely to get more complete sleep cycles in (woo hoo). And for a 9:30pm to 4:30am sleep on a work day, we've only had one feed instead of two. But it only lasted a few days, and we're back to fairly regular feeding again.
When Rachael is with either grandmother, or Jai, the increased cosumption of other food and drink mean daytime feeds are reduced to a feed before her nap, an afternoon feed and then bedtime feed. This is much more like what I expected extended feeding to be when I researched it, rather than the around the clock that we'd been doing. But if it's just the two of us, it's still regular feeding.

Since then, she's settled back into her old habits.

I can't rememver what else was happening, so I'll just start my 16 month post

14.5 months

Yes, it's rather late, but my computer has been having some serious issues for the last few weeks. It's a pity, because it was a rather exciting time. Rachael took a few steps on her 13 month birthday. But then refused to for another 3 weeks. I don't know if she fell over too many times that day, or simply forgot she could do it the next morning. But she did decide to start again eventually, and is well and truely walking now (when she feels like it anyway).

Other highlights of the last six weeks for Rachael include the visitation of Tabitha, Addie and Clementine. Rachael found the two girls to be a bit intimidating, but did still have some fun. I have found that she loves to have one playmate (Jack or Noah are lots of fun), but two or more children seems to be a bit much for her (Jack and Orlani), at this stage, so she will be rather clingy until one child goes home, and will start to have fun with just the one, right when it is time for us to go home.I haven't downloaded any pictures yet, will have to do so I can post some.

In the last week Rachael has also had a virus that gave her a fever and was sleepy for a few days. Of course, as soon as I took her to the doctor to have it checked out (costing $100, being a Public Holiday), she got better. I think her eye teeth may not be too far off either. Of course they may be stubborn and take a few months yet, but I'd prefer to have it over.

I had a personal highlight yesterday, getting to meet, and actually have a chat to Pinky McKay. I was rather excited about it. I've only discovered her when Rachael was about 12 months, reading the "Toddler Tactics" book Tabitha gave me a while ago. I wish I'd had her baby book when Rachael was born. Her philosophy on raising babies/toddlers really fit into what I felt instinctively, which was quite different to the other baby/toddler books I had. Trying to explain it to someone else (particually who has not had children) is a bit hard. The concept of treating a child with love, support, having realistic expectations based on their capability, and being respectful of the child a human being; it sounds so obvious. That's what makes it hard to explain how it is so different. I do also enjoy getting her fortnightly email. It's good to be reminded to parent gently, it's so easy to get caught back in doing things "to" the child, rather than seeing it from their side.
I'm not here to bash anyone else's parenting style, but books that tell me I should be weaning my toddler regardless of either of us desire to or she'll risk malnutrition; and having parents stop each other from going in to comfort a scared baby to "train" them to sleep are not right for ME. And I am of the belief that is it not right for Rachael, being the unique and sensitive individual that she is.

And on a train of thought from that, it took 14 months, but  Rachael is finally able to sleep in her own cot for daytime sleeps. This makes for one rather happy mummy, as I can have a small time to myself, as I am right now. As long as you don't plan to eat in that time; because I'm sure the beep of a microwave could wake Rachael even from a coma. Contrary to popular opinion (as I have been made very aware) I see this new delevopment (independant sleep, not microwave food) as a sucess, not a failure of our parenting. We did what Rachael needed to feel secure for the time she needed it, but having developed enough, (probably due to having gained some idea of object permanence), she is now ready to sleep by herself. Do I think everyone should do it? Heck no, it just seems that Rachael has a higher comfort and security need than the majority of children of her age. We never set out to do it like that, I don't think anyone ever would, but we see it as responding to her needs, rather than making a "rod for your back". In the end what I knew would happen occured- she's do it when she's ready. Hippy much? Oh well, it's my blog after all. I'm just noting what works for me as I go along, I'm not pretending to be an expert on anything; parenting, nutrition or breastfeeding (or not) included.

Foodwise, Rachael will eat, drink water and milk I've left, well for everyone else except me. For me, she is insitant on breastmilk only. I did get to have a discussion with Pinky about this (eeek), and she assures me that she'll still be getting adequate nutrition, and will grow out of this phase in her own time. In addition, it may have something to do with breastmilk having an analgesic effect, so if it's helping with her teething (seriously, when isn't she teething?), it's natural that she may prefer it when thiongs are bothering her.

One thing that keeps coming back again and again is that she'll do things when she's ready, in her own time. You'd think I already would know that, but it seems a lesson I've got to learn over and over to trust her.

She's also super-cute at the moment (to me at least). Yesterday Jai realised that when I'm not home, and she wants a drink of her milk, she'll do her own sign for a breastfeed (I gave up on trying to teach her the "proper" sign, hers will doquite fine), and then point. What she is pointing at is the picture of us at our wedding on the wall. So she wants a drink of mummy's milk. Awwwww. That melts my heart.

The flip side is that my baby has definately turned into a Toddler. As soon as she's started walking, the tantrums have begun. Mobilisation has allowed her to move from one activity that she know's she's not allowed to do, to another in quick succession, resulting in a string of "no"s. Poor girl. That's rather fustrating to her. Supermarkets and shops now have a new allure, seeing as she can now get to them, she want to go test everything out. Somehow clingyness goes right out the window when it comes to exploring, and she's quite happy to wander off to investigate in the shops, despite having no idea where I am at the time (yes, I do actually know where she is though). But these situations also encourage tantrums, no vocals or kicking yet, just throwing herself forward onto the floor. Thinking back, I should have avoided some of these situations by being more careful of when she is out. Shopping when she was tired never was a problem when she would just fall asleep in the carrier, but tiredness mixed with the ultrastimulation of a department store is just begging for a meltdown. Another mummy thing to learn: think about what time is best for her, not just most convenient for me.




Okie dokie, after all that I think I need some lunch. If she's still asleep I might see about getting some photos up

As promised

As promised on the 11 month post, I said I'd get a photo of Rachael smiling in the pool eventually

I keep my promises:

This was just before her swimming lesson last Wednesday. There weren't even any faces being pulled in the background or anything, this is just how she relates to the water now.

13 months

Goodness that last month went fast. Mayby I wrote the 12 month post late?
I have really enjoyed this last month with Rachael, I'd say it's been my favourite yet.

This has been a big month for communication development, and when she can tell me what she's on about (a bit anyway), we're both a lot happier.
Rachael has taken on some gestures, in addition to the waving she got the hang of a couple of months ago she can now point at everything she wants, can nod and shake her head with meaning and enthusiasm. There's defintaely no doubt that she means 'no'. Rachael has also picked up the sign for "finished". We didn't teach it to her specifically, but we sort of do it withouit thinking about it and she picked up it. The actual sign is a bit beyond her at the moment, but if she's in her highchair and starts waving her right hand at you, it means she's finished. And in typical Rachael style, finished is finished NOW, and she will make it quite well known if you haven't removed the food and got her out of the highchair in the time she determines as appropriately fast.
I've just bought a baby signing book, as she is obviously receptive to learning signs at the moment, and a few more words to communicate would help out.

Rachael has just picked up her second verbal word. The first was dad, the second is "Yay". Anything she enjoys is "yay", and it's so incredibly cute when she's enjoying herself, having plenty of 'yay's.

The last few days have also provided an exciting development. From sitting, Rachael has been able to stand herself up unaided, and can take a few steps from there. Very exciting, but she won't do it on cue, just when she feels like it, so we'll just have to keep watching.

Rachael isn't eating very much at home of late (still plenty of feeds), but when she does, she wants to only eat using her own knife and fork. Finger food is only accepted sometimes. If she drops/throws her fork or spoon, she'll often use her fingers for a few minutes, and then decide that she wants to use my cutlery instead.

I'm not so good at getting pictures since changing computers, so I'll see if I've got one to add later

Happy Birthday little one

A this time a year ago I was in labour (and not having too much fun)

Rachael Ava Wiseman was born into this world at 9:16pm on 1st September 2010 at 6 pound 13 ounces.
It's been a big year and our little girl has changed the world of her parents forever.

One week old

Rachael now

Happy first birthday my beautiful baby girl

The Spotty Dotty Flu

Well no, it's not the flu at all, but I think we had a kids book about the spotty dotty flu.

Rachael has been fairly miserable for the last week. Been refusing her food, had a temperature, runny nose, drooling, loose nappies, clingy and lasck of energy, the whole kaboodle. So we presume teething. Don't we presume teething for everything? Anything unexplained in a baby we write off as teething. It's a most convenient answer because they can teethe for months before getting their first tooth, then there's 19 more after that to get in the next two years, so pretty much they're getting teeth at any time. The confusing thing was, which tooth? At 5 teeth- two bottom, three top, the most obvious answer is the matching top tooth. But it's progress down the gums is happening, but at a very slow pace, it's not looking like it's going to come through anytime soon.

So we are expecting the other "number 3".
Saturday she was pretty unhappy, and we gave her some Panadol overnight to help (we don't use it very often). Sunday was a very cranky day, even for ma, so there was some more Panadol at lunch time before she went to Jack's birthday party, and she really picked up. About 6 hours later, after her afternoon sleep, things got bad again. This is when (while she was crying), I noticed a white spot in her mouth. Turns out she has the tips of a tooth coming through- a molar on her left side.

That's not supposed to be next, there's supposed to be 6 more before then. Looks like she hasn't been reading the baby books again.
Big tooth coming through; that explains a lot.

Monday Rachael developed a light rash on her back. I figure it was either heat rash from the fevers she's been having, or a minor food reaction from the party. Tuesday the rash spread to her tummy, so we took her to the doctor. Turns out she's caught a virus called Roseola infantum.

The basics of it is that Roseola infantum is a virus that 95% of children will have by the time they reach the age of two. The child will have fever for 3-5 days, then get a rash for about two days when the fever goes away. Some kids will get the fever without the rash, so parents may not even know they've had it. It has a incubation time of about 9 days, and is only contagious before the symptoms appear. What I find odd that if just about every kid will get the virus, it's not listed in the Babycentre rash guide I looked up.

More info:
http://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/factsheets.cfm?doc_id=11173

We were initially concerned we'd have to cancel Rachael's birthday celebration on Friday, but after research, it seems she would have been contagious a few weeks ago, but probably hasn't been for the last week anyway, so the party is still on.

What the chances a kid is going to cut a molar that's not due and have a virus in the same week as their birthday party?

The spots should go away by tommorrow, so we're just left with the teething symptoms. Mainly the food rejection. I hope she gets back onto solids soon, because a 12 month old who is only drinking breastmilk (and lots of it- more often than the old 3 hourly) is getting very messy in the washing clothing department, and tiring overnight, even though we are co-sleeping at the moment.

11 months

It's a rather exciting time to be watching Rachael grow. There are so many new achievements, and she's on the cusp of some new developments. Although, it's also quite nice to have her asleep on my lap at the moment-she is still my baby girl, after all.

Where to start? Eating is still very much a day to day thing. One day/meal/minute Rachael can eat quite a lot, but there are still plenty of days that while her food can make its way all over her chair/ bib/mouth, side of cheek/in eyebrows/rubbed into back of head/under legs/all up and down her outfit/ thrown onto the floor, none of it actually makes it into her mouth, let alone into her stomach. Not to mention how many crumbs can make it into our bed.
But that's ok. We are still committed to ongoing breastfeeding, so we can be fairly relaxed about her input of solids. I am also happy that we have been able to get past the biting stage. Much thanks to Mr Google on how to get through it. Although it ended up only lasting a week or so, it had the potential to become a big problem if not handled well. Thankfully it was not repeated when the next set of teeth made their way through.

And speaking of teeth, tooth number 5 will be breaking its way through the gums within the next week it seems. Teething behavior never really stopped after teeth 3 and 4 (they started coming through about 5 weeks ago), so we were sure 5 and 6 would be on their way sooner rather than later.

Rachael's hair is starting to thicken up. There is still very little of it, but the texture has definately changed. It also no longer sits down if you stroke it down. That, combined with the fact she loves to pull everything over her head (with the exception of clothing) amounts to permanent hat hair.

We have started swimming lessons with Rachael. Not so good on that point. From when she was born, she hated baths.

First bath

We figured she'd get better once we left hospital. It never did, and once we discovered her love of the shower, we stuck with that.

Enjoying her shower a week later

We have tried her in the baby bath on multiple occasions, but haven't had any luck, She also demanded to get out when we tried to share our normal sized bath with her. Even now, when she is as big as the baby bath, she seems scared stiff of it.
We were hopeful of more success in the pool, where she could hold onto a parent and feel secure a la shower. No such luck. The day before her first lesson, we visited the pool, watching other lessons. On the day, she wasn't keen on the change room, and absolutely hated the pool. In fact, she managed to cry pretty much the whole lesson. We switched parents, which did help a small amount. We even bought the dummy into the pool part ways through, which also helped a little, but she still was not liking it. It would have looked rather strange to everyone else in the pool centre (who were all very aware that she was there) to see the crying baby in the pool, with both parents, sucking a dummy while the other kids enjoyed the activities.
I have been asked by several people if we will continue with the lessons. We will. If she had been a younger baby, we may have put it off for a while. But at 11 months, if she was going to grow out of it, she probably would have, so we are proceeding with the familiarisation route. Between the first and second lessons, I took her to the pool for a few hours, to get her a little more used of it. As a result, we have got to the stage where we can eventually get her into the water with a minimum of fuss. Small steps, but we'll take any small improvements. Second lesson was a slight improvement on the first, but we still have a long way to go. We will go in of our own time once a week in addition to the lesson so we can get her more used to the water. Hopefully we'll get a smiley face picture in the pool in the next few months.

The personally most exciting development are to her movement. Rachael can, when choosing, perform an ordinary crawl. A crawl often starts off this way. But predominantly returns to the one leg, one foot version. This version also appears to give more traction on tiles, where "standard" crawling seems a bit slippery. What has not changed is that all crawling performed is at Rachael's will only. It's frequency is increasing, but she still isn't a convert to the crawling way of thinking. Crawling is good to follow dad or grandma to see what's happening, or to get to the pantry to investigate, but isn't a preferred mode of transport. Assisted walking is great fun though- it is quick, and allows Rachael to be able to pick up an item and bring it with her. She often enjoys pulling herself up to standing on the couch. Just in the last few days, Rachael has, on a few occasions, stood herself up from sitting on a parent to stand up to an object. As the beginning of balance, I find that very exciting. She has also, a couple of times, taken a single step alone when going from one parent to another. I don't think she knows she did it though.

On a personal note, I have celebrated my 25th birthday. We had not given Rachael chocolate or cake yet, but we let her indulge in her first bit of chocolate cake. I think she enjoyed it, and was looking for more :)

It's now only a month until Rachael is able to celebrate her own first birthday

10 months

I'm a couple of days late on this one.

Biggest thing first- as per previous post, at 9.5 months, Rachael decided it was about time to get moving. Her style isn't exactly conventional, but it gets her there- sometimes. Overall, Rachael is not at all impressed with the idea of crawling (mayby that's why she never bothered with it for so long). She'll only crawl on occasion, should she feel like it. Pretty much it's kept for getting to things she knows that she isn't allowed to. For everyday movement, she much prefers to "walk" holding onto someone's hands. If she wants to walk- just about all the time- there is no way you're going to be able to convince her that crawling is a perfectly acceptable alternative. A screaming tantrum lets you know in no uncertain terms that it's walking or nothing. After saying all this however, we have started babyproofing. A house you think is pretty ok turns out not to be when there's a bub there. She is remarkably quick to crawl to things that she shouldn't. Power cords, daddy's office papers, catalogues to chew. So far it's Rachael 1, house 0 after she managed to pull over the lamp in her room, leaving it minus a lampshade.

In the last week, Rachael has caught onto the concept of waving. It's very cute. I am sure I've caught her trying to say bye-bye on a couple of occasions. But in baby language, you can never be too sure what's real, and what's in your head. Should it prove to be correct, it might be her first meaningful word. Eith way, she is enjoying this new "game" of waving, and the attention it brings, particually from both grandmothers.

We think she might be teething again. It's always hard to know, but she has been feeding pretty much every 1.5 hours today.

In an update to the 9 month post, Rachael is no longer scared of the singing dog. She hasn't quite yet figured out which pieces to press to activate it, but is she presses it into the floor, it will inevidably activate one part.

Crawling a la Rachael

Cousins



Clementine



Rachael

9 months

Yes, Rachael is now 9 months old. If 2/3 way through her first year was enough last month, she's 3/4 the way through now!
Rachael is weighing in at a chubby 8kg, growing out of her clothing in width, rather than length. I tried putting a gorgeous denim pleated skirt, with little white belt on her this last week for a birthday party, but couldn't get it over her thighs no matter how much I tried, let alone her backside. So it was elastic pants for us instead. Rachael got a helium baloon at the party, which was a new experience.

Although we had a bit of a slow start with BLW, it is going really well for us now. The addition of her two bottom teeth have helped things along a lot, so she sometimes can eat a whole (small) piece of a food if she is rather keen on it. This week hasn't been an overly happy week, as her first top teeth are cutting. It will further help her chewing, but makes things rather miserable for now. We have also moved onto loading a spoon with food, which Rachael places into her own mouth. For example, dinner tonight consisted of marinated steak (yum to chew on), green beans (she didn't actually eat), carrots, and mashed potatoe on a spoon, that she could put into her own mouth.
Today Rachael has been exploring a singing/talking dog toy we bought her, but she's actually scared of it. oops.

No major physical developments to report this month. Rachael still shows very little interest in crawling, regardless of how much we try to encourage it. She is rather interested in walking though. She believes she can stand, walk and climb, but doesn't have half the balance required to do any of it.

Rachael still enjoys going shopping and charming everyone in sight.

8 months

It seems crazy, but Rachael is 8 months old. She's 2/3 through the first year of her life. That's pretty big for me. My little baby I took home from the hospital isn't so little anymore.

Tori and Rachael 3 days old



  She'll be one before I know it, it seems. She is asleep on my lap right now, which means she still gets to be my baby for a little longer

Rachael has had her first two teeth come through. Rachael discovered what to do with them (besides biting mummy) while eating some pieces of raw apple for the first time. She seemed pretty proud of herself, and rather enjoyed the apple. It must be rather odd to suddenly grow teeth, having no idea what they are. As a result, she spends a good part of her day with her tongue out of her mouth, just feeling her new teeth. On the upside, she enjoys the fact that she has refound the art of blowing raspberries, which was out of favour for a while.





Rachael has also started to say "mum". I'm not getting too carried away with it however, as she only says it when she's hungry and demanding a feed. Mum mum mum mum is a continuation of the mmmmm sound that proceeded it. So "mum" pretty much means "I'm hungry, feed me NOW". Other people seem pretty excited to hear it though.

While still not crawling yet, Rachael is pretty proficient at rolling around to get what she wants. She has also hopped along on her bum- once, and that was to get to Aunty Katie's laptop cord. Feat has not been repeated since. Crawling is still only getting as far as getting her backside into the air, or her arms up, but rarely both at once.

For several weeks, Rachael's obsession has been standing, holding onto the hands of a parent. Any time you offer your hands to help her from lying to sitting, she pulls right up to standing. She'd spend the whole day standing if you had the stamina to hold her the whole time. Unfortunately, she has very little balance, but that doesn't stop her trying things. Her confidence is better than her balance, she insists on trying to climb (mainly up a parent's body), picking up toys, or just looking at her own feet.



Foodwise, we haven't found a meat Rachael doesn't like. Steak, roast beef, chicken, fish, lamb- they're all on the good list. Vegetables are ok, give her a lettuce leaf, she'll pound it into the table. Salads don't seem to be her thing. A girl after my own heart :) 

Rachael has a specific "look at me" sound to attract the attention of other people. She had a great time while shopping in her hug-a-bub this week. Every single store we went into, she made her presence known, and sure enough, got herself plent of attention. While she was very pleased with herself, she's getting a bit heavy to be carried around for so long, my shoulders still aren't loving me a few days later.













Traditions

There have been a whole heap of significant days this week, that got me thinking about what traditions to start with Rachael.

Good Friday morning we were lucky enough to get invited to go along with Nic, Hannah, Finnian and "ma" to the walk of the stations of the cross. Long story short, having two prams and a toddler, we ended up being up the back so we couldn't hear much, ended up cold and wet. Regardless of this, it was realy nice to share this occasion, and I think we'll be back in future years, hopefully with better weather and the ability to hear it.

This morning Rachael, Jai and I attended the ANZAC Day dawn service with dad, Katie and Tori. Dad and I have been going together for about 7 years or so, in recent years with Jai. Rachael atteded by default last year (I had to kneel part of the time because my pregnant body had a severe lack of blood pressure). I can't remember if in years previous we went (we may have). It became more significant for me after, as a cadet, I was priveledged enough to serve on a Catafalque party at a dawn service. Going with dad (and others, depending on the year), is a special tradition for me, and I want to continue it.

We were able to spend time with members of both sides of our family over Easter. It was really good to do this.

I hope that in years to come we can continue these traditions, as they mark significant things, and have a great sense of community