6 month check up

“As soon as her nappy comes off, she grabs herself. Is that normal?”
The baby nurse laughed. “Yes, they all like to do that. Boys like to try to pull their bits off.”
“I’m afraid she is going to hurt herself, she’s not gentle or anything.” Not to mention I now have to contain a hand as well as two legs whilst I change a nappy. Otherwise she gets a fist full of poo.
“She’ll be fine.”
Hannah had her 6 month well baby check up at the early childhood centre. I forgot the list of questions I made, but I seemed to remember most of them.
“She steals all of the other babies toys. Not just one toy, she doesn’t stop until she has all the toys and they have none.”
The baby nurse laughed. “She’s very assertive and determined. She’s too young to know that it’s not acceptable to take all the toys though. You’ll just have to watch her carefully if the other mums think it’s a problem.”
“How much food should she be eating?” I really had no idea.
“Half a cup to a cup per meal. When they start eating protein, their main food source should be food, not breast milk. Still breastfeed her 4-5 times in a 24 hour period, but she should start dropping a night feed once you up her quantities and give her protein at lunch and dinner.” Awesome.
“She often needs to lay in her cot and cry for 5 minutes before she will have her before bedtime booby. Is that normal and ok?”
“Some babies just need to wind down like that. They get so stimulated during that day that they need some wind down time. Some babies are ok after you read to them quietly, others need to scream it out. Screaming is not the way the majority of babies go, but it’s not harmful.” Phew.
Darn, I forgot to ask about napping. Little Miss Hannah isn’t so fond of the naps. Sometimes she won’t sleep at all, others she will sleep once for 2 hours, other times half an hour each (2 naps per day is what we aim for). It’s so unpredictable. Oops, should have remembered my list!
She also told me I can start making her food lumpier and introduce more meats, cheese, yoghurt (Hmmm..spell checker is telling me that yoghurt is spelled yogurt, but I swear it has an h. It is telling me it has an h if it’s plural though. Strange), and even toast fingers. We’re in for some fun, I think!
I gave her some cheese that very same day. I grated it (as I was told to) and put it in her broccoli, sweet potato, and potato mix, and gave it a stir. She took an unsuspecting bite and made the “what the heck is this terrible stuff” face. Then she gave me a food shower. She blew every last it out of her mouth and continued to do so if I got the spoon anywhere near her. She grabbed for the container and held it. She grabbed for the spoon. ‘Why not,’ I thought. She wasn’t eating it, so at least she could play with it. To my surprise, she actually ate it. As long as she was holding the spoon (with me also holding it, although she clearly thought she was doing all the work) and the container, she ate it. After a couple of days, she ate it just fine.
Next, we tried yoghurt. I got some of the natural kind as I thought it would be the least offensive taste wise, the most mild. I got the ‘what the heck are you feeding me’ face again. I tried some myself and found it was quite tart tasting. No wonder she didn’t like it. I didn’t even like it. Guess I’ll have to find a different kind of yoghurt to give her. Or maybe some cottage cheese, she might like that. Next on the list though, is tuna. I made a nice batch of really soft pasta, tuna, broccoli, and sweet corn, whizzed it up in the blender, and put it in an ice cube tray in the freezer. Tomorrow, she will try her very first portion of fish.

This week

Tuesday:
Hannah hasn’t been interested in her afternoon naps, so I decided that today would be the day to cut her day time naps down to 2. I kept her up for 2 hours before her first half (rather then the usual 1.5), and she fed and went down great. I gave her some banana for breakfast for the first time. I really thought she’d like it, but she made funny faces and then refused to eat anything else after (hmmm…sounds a little like me when I was little). I guess I’ll try again tomorrow. She went down for her second nap just fine, after being awake for 3 hours (instead of the usual 2), but then woke up after half an hour and proceeded to scream the house down when I tried to get her back to sleep.
Maybe all the irritation is teething though. She has been pulling at her ear to the point where she has actually scratched the inside of her ear 3 times and has dried blood all over it. I would just wet a cotton bud (Q-tip) and get it off, but she would flip about and then I’d probably end up bursting her eardrum or something equally horrible, so I just let it clean itself.
We went for a walk this afternoon to the supermarket (it’s about 20 minutes away by foot). The lady in front of us in the line to the self checkout kept staring at Hannah. I know she’s cute, but I thought that this lady must just think she’s super cute. I went around the front of the pram to talk to Hannah and saw the dried blood in her ear. No wonder the lady was staring. I don’t want to know what she was thinking, but I’m sure it wasn’t good (OK, so that happened last week, but I forgot to write about it then).
I went through Hannah’s closet today to organise the mountain of clothing. I can’t believe how many clothes she has! I found an entire bag of size 00 and 0, which she is in right now, that I forgot was even there. I had to reorganise her dresser just to make everything fit, and the bottom of her closet is absolutely full of garbage bags now labelled with the size of clothing they contain.

Wednesday:
Hannah got up twice to feed during the night. That’s what she’s been doing for a while now. There was a point where she was getting up 4 times, so I’m grateful for 2. Most of the other babies in my group are also getting up twice. I wonder why they do that now? I mean they used to get up once or not at all, and now they routinely get up twice. Oh well, it’s certainly better then 4 times! Unfortunately the racket outside also woke me up. Just as I was getting back to sleep from her second feed at 5am, I heard a noise which sounded remarkably like someone heavily sweeping a tarp right inside my bedroom. I’m pretty sure it was a street sweeper, but who knows. I wonder why noise ordinances don’t cover garbage trucks and street sweepers. I like to be sleeping at 5am, not lying in bed awake and annoyed at all the noise outside. That of course, was followed by the kookaburra’s “laughing” at 5:30 like they always do, in some tree right near our unit, which was then followed by Hannah waking up from all the noise. She put herself back to sleep though, and eventually, I went to sleep too.
I tried to give Hannah some banana again. I learned from my mistake last time, and gave her the apple (which she likes) first. She still doesn’t like the banana. I will keep trying though. They say it takes babies up to 10 times of trying something before they might like it. After that if they reject it, you know it’s because they actually don’t like it, not because it’s unfamiliar.
I put Hannah down for her nap at 9:30. She went out like a light, so I got in the shower. 10 minutes later I heard her grizzling through the baby monitor. I finished my shower just in time for the screaming to start. 1 hour and 1 boob later, she was finally back asleep. She slept for nearly 2 hours which made me late for lunch with the girls. Why is it that the only time they have a really good nap it’s when you’re supposed to be somewhere?
We have our tv set up to start recording a chosen show 10 minutes before it starts and continue recording for 10 minutes after it’s supposed to finish. So you’d think we would definitely be able to catch the end and start of our programs, right? Well, it seems that the Australian networks are a lot special and even though the shows are not even remotely live, they can’t seem to stick with the times they are supposed to be on. Is it really that hard to start and end a program on time? We only just found out who was voted out in Survivor. Just as Probst held up the very last vote, the recording cut out. And that was 10 minutes after it was supposed to end. Seriously, why do you have to annoy everyone stupid tv networks?? And it’s not just that one program, this is a regular thing. That is why we have it set to record 10 minutes before and 10 after. We used to have it set for 5, but that just didn’t cut it anymore. I think we may have to go to 15 soon. I should write channel 9 a complaint letter….

Thursday:
I put Hannah in her highchair with some reservation. She has been crying and arching her back in attempt to escape every time I put her there to feed her. I didn’t know anything about high chairs when we bought it and therefore didn’t realise what a ridiculous design it is. The back is not sturdy, but rather is held in place by the straps that secure baby in. So baby can’t sit up properly and is instead swallowed up by the chair with just a little head poking out. No wonder she doesn’t like it. I ended up feeding her her new big girl multigrain rice cereal in my lap on the floor. I think I may need to visit ikea for the simple wooden highchair, the kind she likes so much.
A mortgage broker was supposed to come and talk to us today, but he cancelled at the last minute. When he called to cancel he said he was sick and that he would leave it up to me what I wanted to do. That was basically saying he can’t really be bothered, so the option to not see him is on the table. I took it. Just because we are not buying a really expensive house around here, and instead are going to move west where things are actually affordable, doesn’t mean that we are a waste of anyone’s time. I’ll find someone who actually cares.

Friday:
Hannah slept really well this morning. She napped for 1 hour and 45 minutes. But then this afternoon she wouldn’t sleep at all. Then she had to have her 6 month injections. She didn’t even cry for the first one. She even smiled at the girl who was holding down her chubby little leg. She had to have another injection in her other leg and I think she screamed for both after the second one. Then she looked at me with the sad “how could you hold me down while they hurt me like that Mommy?” look on her face and then stuck out her bottom lip. I felt HORRIBLE!!

Saturday:
Wow, she slept right through to 3:50am and then wanted a feed. At 5:30 she woke again. “I don’t know why she is awake again,” I said to Aaron crankily. I went in her room and picked her up. She could have easily been mistaken for a furnace, she was burning up. I took her bubba bag off and gave her some baby panadol, some comfort booby to stop the screaming, and then put her back to bed. Sometimes when they get immunised, they get a fever. She never has before, but I guess there’s a first for everything. Poor baby.
I took Hannah grocery shopping at lunch time. Some crazy woman almost backed right into us when I was pushing Bubba in the shopping trolley in the parking lot. The car wasn’t moving and there was no room for us to get by in front, so we looked both ways and walked behind her. All of a sudden, she started backing up. Then as she was backing, looked in the rear view mirror and slammed on her breaks missing us (well, me, I started running as soon as she started backing, so Hannah was in the clear) by only a couple inches. Seriously, who starts backing BEFORE looking to see if there is anything behind them. Especially in a parking lot, where there are lots of small children who don’t look where they are going? That’s actually not the first time that that’s happened to us either. Once a couple weeks ago, we were walking on the sidewalk next to the street and someone started backing up out of their driveway when we were already half way through their driveway when they started backing. Another case of not looking before backing. It’s amazing what amuses babies. Hannah played with a tube of Lucas’ paw paw ointment for 25 minutes. I suppose it is rather versatile, she can chew it, pass it from hand to hand, examine it, try to pull the writing off of it, run it along the bed as if it were a toy car, and of course, her favorite, hit Mommy with it.

Sunday:
I gave her some pureed chicken and sweetcorn to try this morning, and she loved it. Huh, she doesn’t like banana, but loves broccoli, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, avocado, chicken, and sweetcorn. I haven’t offered the zucchini again since the um…incident. I’m still a little scared.
It was hard leaving Hannah by herself with someone other then immediate family, but we bucked up and did it. She had her very first time in creche while we were at church. It was a little strange being in church without her. We could actually focus on the sermon rather then trying to keep her quiet and entertained. We picked her up straight away rather then milling about like we usually do. We peeked in and saw that she was happily playing on the floor with one of the ladies. They said she was very well behaved the whole time and didn’t even cry once. What a good girl!

Monday:
I know I usually do my blog on Monday’s, but Hannah and I went to Parramatta to meet The Jess and Romana and baby Violet. Hannah squealed and got excited when she saw Violet even though she has only met her once before. I guess she likes Violet.
In the evening, Hannah and I had dinner with Aaron in the city. Walking back to the bus stop, a gust of wind came and I had a horrifying Marilyn Monroe moment. But not just for a second. This was like the wind had a vendetta against me. My entire dress was up past my butt long enough for me to try to get it down, fail, then say to Aaron “I’m having a little bit of a problem here!” and it was still up. I could hear people laughing. “What underwear are you wearing?” Aaron asked. I thought about it and then told him “Black ones.” Phew, I wasn’t wearing ugly embarrassing granny panties. When I got home, I realised I wasn’t wearing the black ones at all, I wore those yesterday. I was in fact, wearing ugly embarrassing white, half see through granny panties. Not half see through because that is the way the came, but half see through due to wear. I think it’s time to buy new underwear….

Muffin top

Time since birth: 9 weeks
Weight loss this week: 500g (1.1lbs)
Total weight loss: 11.1kgs (24.5lbs)

Anyone could see the muffin spilling over the top, the scent of chocolate filled the air. Hold on, I’m not talking about muffins, I’m talking about the unsightly muffin top I sport when I put on my pre pregnancy jeans (or any jeans really) (and the scent of chocolate is the new lynx men’s spray deodorant that was lingering in the bathroom, long after Aaron went to work. mmmm…chocolate). At least they fit now, and well enough to put on, and then actually wear out somewhere without feeling like my legs/butt are in a straight jacket. Thank you butt, for finally deciding to shrink.

Poor Hannah had to get her immunisations on Wednesday. I took off her pink pants (yes, pretty much all of her clothes are pink, and yes, I like it that way. I would like to find some purple stuff, but that has proven difficult), and the doctor had me hold her on her side. The doc then wiped her tiny defenceless leg with a cotton bud and whatever solution they put on there to clean the area, and then jabbed Hannah with the needle. Poor Bubba never saw it coming. The room filled with a high pitched “oh my goodness, I’m going to die” loud, loud scream from Hannah. I think my heart broke a little right at that moment. I’ve never heard her cry like that. Unfortunately, the 8 week immunisations require 2 shots. We repeated the process on her other thigh, and I nearly cried myself. I think I would have lost it if she had to have 3 shots. To hear your baby in such pain and distress really does break your heart. The doctor put a little band aid on both legs, but one of them fell off as it was full of blood. Poor little bubba!! I put her in her pram after and then wheeled her off to the bus stop. She fell asleep and then slept for 2 hours. Luckily she doesn’t need any more immunisations until about 6 months (I think anyways).

I finally did it. This week, I took a shower while no one else was here except for bubba. She was still sleeping when Aaron left for work, so I figured I’d take the plunge and try for a shower. I was always scared of her waking up screaming while my hair was full of shampoo. Seriously, then what do you do? You’re in the middle of your shower, and you’re baby is screaming. Do you finish your shower, and let your baby scream herself sweaty in the cot, or shove a towel around yourself and pick up baby while you drip shampoo all over her and your entire house?? I didn’t have to live out either scenario. She slept the whole time. I kept my eye on the baby monitor the whole time though.

As soon as I got out of the shower, I heard a strange noise coming from the monitor. “What was that?” I thought. The noise came again, longer, louder, and clearer. Hannah was doing a giant series of farts. I laughed out loud, naked and dripping, in the bathroom. I quickly got dressed, brushed my hair and teeth, and put moisturiser on as I knew it was only a matter of minutes until she woke up, her britches filled with a giant poo. Sure enough, I was right.

We’ve discovered that Bubba likes to give kisses. If we put our cheeks to her lips, she will give a little lick. Okay, so I’m not sure if she is just trying to see if we have a flavour, thinks the cheek is a nipple, or is actually trying to cute, but it doesn’t matter, it’s very cute.

Aaron got to celebrate his first Father’s Day yesterday. Hannah made him a nice card (with mommy’s help…), and some coupons (good for a hug, kiss, etc.), and ordered him a mouse pad with her photo on it. Aaron said it was his best Father’s Day ever. Haha.

This morning I was showing Grandma the beached as video on you tube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA. Hannah LOVED it! She couldn’t tear her eyes off the screen and kept smiling at it. I showed Grandma some videos before that, and Hannah didn’t have any interest what so ever, but I guess she likes the cheeky cartoon whale.