Top banana

Feeding time in the weekends are great fun for me as it’s currently the only time I get to see Baby A eat solids. What a difference a few weeks make. He would previously go crazy at the thought of a spoon, let alone any food, but now he actually seems to enjoy it. Amazing. 

He managed to eat half a banana on Saturday. Not that you’d recognise it as banana, mind you. Mummy A pulped it quite well so it resembled….well, vomit if anything. Glad it’s not me having it – I’m one of those people who pukes up at the sight of vomit….

He hasn’t quite learned to swallow properly, but he’s getting better. He kept dribbling it out and Mummy A had to keep scooping it back in. You can see how messy it gets in the picture – notice all the tissues under his chin! 

On Sunday he had a bit of banana and also half a Farley’s rusk biscuit. He really liked that! He was really taking it in. Again, to look at it isn’t what I would call appetising. I notice he doesn’t look at it much though….probably for the best.  

After a certain amount of time he clearly decides that it’s time to play and starts messing about. Hey, you think it was that easy? At that point, Mummy A bribes him with a sip of water. He loves his water that’s for sure – let’s hope it stays that way (although I do have a worry – in the evening I was holding him on my lap having a fizzy drink and he kept trying to drink from the can!). 

He’s starting to get the hang of holding the bottle himself too – soon he can get on with feeding himself. Ok, maybe not. 

PS in case you wonder what the blue bar is in the picture, we have to put him on the baby bouncer to distract him whilst feeding him…

Three days is a long time

I went away on business for a few days this week. I flew out to Germany on Sunday night and returned home on Wednesday evening. So….three days away. The longest time I have been away from home since Baby A was born.

Great isn’t it? A bit of peace and quiet, less stress…no more crying, no fighting to make him drink milk. And hey, no housework to do. Actually, no….it wasn’t that great. I know it was only a few days but I really found myself missing him. Oh yeah…..and Mummy A of course. 

I felt like I was going to miss something really important. What if he spoke a word other than “ooh eh”? Or managed to finally roll over? (Which he did manage to do. He wasn’t very happy though as unfortunately he couldn’t roll back the other way…)

So it was with great excitement that I came back home. I saw Mummy A sitting on the sofa and started looking round for him.

“Oh I see,” Mummy said jokingly, “Now that you’ve got him, I’m number 2 now am I?!”

At least….I think she was joking. Hey, I couldn’t help it. Of course, I was excited to see her too…..honest. Anyway, I found him in a very good mood. He was looking very cute in his blue dungarees (incidentally, I tend to think dungarees are a hideous piece of fashion – but babies somehow always look cute in them).

I picked him up and he gave me a big smile. I’d like to believe he was excited to see me. 

“Oooh eh,” he said to me, “Aiiooo”.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “Me too. 

Dressed for success

As a result of his unsociable behaviour last weekend, Mummy A has been taking our boy out in the pushchair a bit. He needs to be seeing people more regularly obviously.

We still haven’t quite worked out what go into him, but meeting people should help. It’s amazing how his temperament just flipped in the space of a week – I reckon he got that from Mummy A (well not from me, obviously….).

Of course, to see people, it’s very important to create the right impression, so Baby A has got dressed and ready to face the summer…..all two days of it.

In the summer heat it’s very important to wear loose, short sleeved tops and nice baggy shorts (although a pair that actually fit would be good). Sandals are preferable (Winnie the Pooh, of course) so his feet don’t get too sweaty (not that it works….his sandals already stink). Most importantly, the hat to keep the sun out of his eyes.

He is one cool customer, and is now ready to face the world……question is, though – is the world ready to face him?

A feast fit for an Ayaan

Mummy A has been trying to feed the ‘special one’ solids recently. A couple of weeks ago, you only has to show him the spoon….and he would scream. Yep, another thing for him to scream about.

Doctors normally recommend feeding solids at 6 months so it is a bit early….but then again they used to recommend 4 months a few years ago, and some countries feed solids even earlier….so who knows what’s right? Mummy A has had more luck this week – she put a bit of banana on her finger and he quite liked the taste of it.

Today was the first chance for me to be there and watch him eating. Yeah, yeah, probably not exciting to most people. Hey, I’m easily pleased. So Mummy A prepares his food – he really gets some good stuff. Baby rice….mixed with mashed banana. And milk.

Mmmm, yum.

Like most kids, he likes putting things in his mouth. His own fists of course, my finger, his bib, the blanket….he’s not fussy. But bring a spoon towards his mouth….you might as well try and break into Fort Knox.

He eventually ate a bit, and drooled some of it out, but it’s a start. A few more days weeks months years and he’ll be ready to have pizza…..

So, Mr Paediatrician…..we meet at last

We had made an appointment to see a paediatrician and yesterday was the day. Only 5 weeks late.

Since then, he’s feeding and sleeping better, we’ve been to the hospital and changed his routine….so you can imagine how useful this visit was going to be. Sounds daft doesn’t it – you have a problem with your child right now, but your appointment is five weeks after the event.

We purposely made the appointment at 8.30am so I could get into work at a reasonable time….and of course the doctor himself didn’t turn up until 9.15am.

Now I’m a great believer of the NHS and what it stands for. I have a lot of respect for the nurses and their hard work….but sometimes hospitals are just so inefficient. To demonstrate:

The nurse took him in to be weighed…but the scales weren’t working.

“I don’t understand”, says the nurse, “it was working yesterday”.

The letters “BATT” kept flashing up on the machine, so….er, perhaps the batteries had run out?

Someone went to get another machine, by which time another nurse found a power lead. Unfortunately, there was only one power socket in the room, so they had to move things round to connect it. What a farce!

They measured his length as well…but the nurse had no idea how to use the machine. She had to wait for someone to show her – don’t they train these people? The machine isn’t exactly that complicated either – you just out the baby flat and move a bar to the baby’s foot. Even a fool would know….

We finally get in to see the doctor, and he’s not a bad bloke. Although, he kept going on about this allergy and that allergy, which could be the problem. Funnily enough, he was a bit of a specialist in baby allergies…so of course there must be an allergy issue, mustn’t there?

So….all in all, a visit which should have lasted 20 minutes somehow took almost 2 hours. Can’t wait for the next appointment…..

That ‘leaky tap’ thing (part 2)

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, he’s started blowing raspberries!

Where on earth did he learn that (I’m looking at you Mummy A….)?

He has great fun doing it, I’ve got to say…..I just wish he wouldn’t do it when I’m holding him. It would be an understatement to say that it can get a bit messy.

We used to think it was really cute when he did it…but drool on your face soon puts a stop to that.

Hmm….I wonder if there’s enough drool in his bibs to fill a glass of water…..

That ‘leaky tap’ thing

Well, the blowing bubbles phase didn’t last long did it? I thought it would be a while longer, but Baby A is considering competing with Thames Water for the leakiest “tap”. The difference is that at least you can turn off the water supply (well…..eventually anyway).

In case that didn’t make sense, Baby A has started drooling. Big time. Combined with stuffing his hands in his mouth, it gets pretty messy. And you wonder why his hands smell.

A lot of my T-shirts are collecting drool these days. Lovely. The price you pay for being a father (sigh). 

It’s amazing how quickly a bib can go soggy – my dish towels take longer than that! If you could design a super dry bib, you’d make a fortune (hang on a minute – baby dry nappies….baby dry bibs…..there’s an idea there somewhere….).

We just bought another pack of bibs to keep up with the running tap….it isn’t enough…..