The magic pudding

Sometimes getting Redford to finish his dinner is like getting Nick to willingly do the vacuuming - near impossible. A lot of coercion is needed, including singing, many spoons, rice cakes, you name it, I've tried it. He does get there in the end but unfortunately he's half me and has inherited my incredibly short attention span and would rather twist in his highchair a little too Exorcist-ish for my liking and try rub his grubby hands on our nice new curtains.

Last night though, I hit the jackpot. We stumbled through his dinner (bolognaise, rice and kumara), with him getting more and more distracted and me getting more and more frustrated as the minutes went on. Dinner down, we moved onto pudding. I had a beautifully ripe avocado that I was desperate to use and wanted to pump Little Red with some good fats yet for some reason he's vetoed avo as of late - why, I have no earthly idea. So I got creative and mashed a quarter of it with half a banana and half a black doris plum and holy moly, I've never seen the child eat so fast! And he cried when it was all done.

As you can see, he morphed into somewhat of a sparrow - sticking his neck out as far as he could and opening his gob wide (for once):

Booyah! That is freaking good:

The last remnants, I can feel the tears welling already:

It doesn't look that appetizing but I had a wee taste and I have to admit, I struggled to give it to him.... I wanted to keep it all for myself! It was absolutely scrummy. We did it again tonight and yet again, it went down a treat - you'd think all Red's Christmases had come at once! 

So if you're after a healthy, oh-so-delish pudding, I totally recommend this. And don't keep it all for baby, shove some in your gob too!

The food conosseur - solids take five million and one

Oi vey! More solids junk, you say! Well, you know I like to keep y'all updated and this time I have lovely things to report!

As of last Friday we started Little Red on three meals a day and that, along with his super baby sleeping (I'm guessing), has helped immensely with getting his head around this whole food thing. He now lets me shove a spoon in his gob - to which he actually opens his mouth for - and even swallows it down. He's been doing so well in fact, he quite often finishes the whole bowl!

The firm fave at the moment is pear, potato and baby rice. Strange combo but oddly delicious. This morning we had pear and baby muesli and he scoffed it down.

Spoonie is still a must but anything to get the food down, right?

I had a play with the idea of BLW over spoon feeding but I can now confidently claim that Little Red's foodies are a mixture of both and it works! His main meals are spoonie meals but I generally give him a slice of apple, carrot, pear or avocado to chew on during the day. Plus, he's quite partial to hand feeding himself straight from the bowl, i.e. he shoves his hand in the puree - lumpy puree, might I add - and then into (onto?) his face. I'd be a tad surprised if any was actually going in, but that's not the point, is it?

So there you have it. All rainbows and cupcakes over this way. Stay tuned for more solids updates (hopefully all good ones)....

Let's all hold hands and cry it out

Not in a schmultzy group therapy kind of way but a "my baby doesn't know how to settle himself to sleep so I'm going to let him cry it out" kind of way. And yes, there were tears. Plenty of them. From Little Red. But mostly from me ( no, not really but I don't want to sound like an ice queen - I simply managed to dissociate myself from the sound).

Baby Daddy Nick and I were pretty over the fact that a) the wee peanut's cot was literally attached to our bed and b) we were still getting up (rolling over?) every 1-2 hours to either feed him or put the dummy back in. No rest for the wicked and all that but come on!! I was turning less into a normal, functioning human being and more into a mean devil zombie with each passing day. So! I figured it was time for some evasive action. I sat down with the lappy and did some serious swotting on sleep. Why I didn't think to do this sooner is beyond me but better late than never, right?

I made the executive decision to go with the "verbal reassurance" technique - pretty much the beginner's guide to "cry it out"/Ferber method - and go with it we did! I took the reins and insisted Nick sleep in the spare room and cook dinner so I could go full bore in tackling Little Red's night-time shenanigans (why is it when babies are concerned we women always seem to be made of steel and nails whereas men turn to custard and cuddles as soon as a tear is shed? I suppose us ladies are the alpha, after all). 

When I first had Redford I swore I would never result to this technique as I thought it was beyond cruel to let your poor defenseless bundle cry themselves to sleep. But now, when I weigh up my sanity with his tears for a night or two, my sanity wins out big time. So I thought I'd document the whole thing for y'all....

First though, a bit of background:

Little Red has always been a totally crap day sleeper but from 5 weeks started sleeping 7-8 hours a night. He even settled himself! Admittedly, he spent a lot of time in bed with us but who cares? I'd rather have solid sleep than the bed to myself. Then, wham! We hit five months and he started waking at 3am. Then he started to wake at 12am and 3am. Then it turned into bed at 9pm, dummy run at 10pm, comfort feed at 12am, dummy run at 1am, real feed at 2am, comfort feed at 4am, real feed at 5.30am and so on and so forth and you get the picture. He'd gone from self-sufficient wee man to clingy comfort feeder in the space of a week. I was not a happy chappy and neither was he. So in comes Ferber, we go sans dummy (cold turkey, I tell ya, it's the only way to go) and this is how it went....

NIGHT ONE:   Little Red has his bedtime bottle at 7pm and after 5 minutes of sitting and burping we sing our bedtime song (Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen but sung in the style of Jeff Buckley) on the way to the bedroom. We turn on the white noise (a rather serene mountain lake but I reckon it's actually a stream) and bubs goes down with Denver, Patrick and Sophie around 7.30pm.

This is Denver the dinosaur. He appears to have eaten a disco ball - his

tummy is reminiscent of Studio 54 come night-time.

This is Patrick. He's the firm favourite. The BFF, even. Fire and brimstone

shall rain down should you forget Patrick. 

 This is Sophie. She's French and rather exotic and has a good ol' squeak

when chewed on.Yay for squeaky things.

Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes. So Little Red is in the cot! Awake! I left the room and the crying began. Five minutes and I went in to verbally reassure him. Again ten minutes later and then fifteen minutes. Et voila! About half an hour after going down he was fast asleep and we didn't hear a peep (a very rare happening) until 2.10am. I was a little unsure what to do so figured I'd let him cry - I thought perhaps he'd go back to sleep - but after 45 minutes it was clear that he most definitely wasn't so I got up, fed him (he guzzled!) then put him back to bed awake. He then slept through to 5.30am so I bought him into bed with me and we snoozed until 9am. Bliss!

NIGHT TWO:   It was easier on the second night as we knew what to expect. The routine went as per usual (although we were still getting into the swing of a set time for bed) and Little Red was in his cot by 8pm. This time there was only 15 minutes of crying! He woke at 1.50am so I fed him and then he went back down until 5.20am. I fed him again and then tried to put him back in the cot but he wasn't having a bucket of it so up we got - a slight shock to the system being up that early, but hey, I ain't complaining!

NIGHT THREE:   We've now moved down to a 10 minute settle time, yay for progress! Down at 7.40pm with a wake time of 12am. I have to admit I felt a bit nervous with the midnight wake, it seemed he was back to his old tricks so I thought I'd wait a bit and see what happened and you know what? He cried for 10 minutes and then sozzled himself back to sleep not to wake until 5.30am - superb!

NIGHT FOUR:   Naughty Mummy forgot about Little Red's arvo nap so he was absolutely knackered by 7pm. He gulped down his bottle, was in bed by 7.15pm and asleep in less than a minute. He woke at 2.50am for a feed and then slept through til 6.45am. I'm really liking where this is headed....

So it's Night Seven tonight and goodness me have we come a long way from those disturbed nights. We've been doing a breast feed at 4.30pm, dinner at 5pm and then Redford's ready for his bottle by 7pm. He's still crying when we put him down but it's usually only for 5 or so minutes. Midnight feeds usually happen between 2am and 3am (after which I make sure he's still awake when I put him back down) and he's now sleeping til 6.30/7am.

It's utterly amazing how well this has worked. I was terrified upon starting that it just wouldn't stick, that I'd end up with a baby that never slept and a body and brain that was slowly idling down a path of insanity. All three of us are happier and healthier - Nick is refreshed when he leaves for work as he's not suffering broken sleep - even if he does manage to snooze on through most of it, I'm getting two solid blocks of dream time thus having so much energy during the day I resemble the Energizer bunny and Little Red is chilled out and just.... awesome! 

I'm pretty chuffed. We're all pretty chuffed. Long live happy, sleeping family times! 

PS. This technique isn't for every baby, but if you think you and your little tot can handle it - I highly recommend it. A few nights of yucky crying is well worth the results!

The food conosseur - solids take.... 3?

Admittedly, I'm beginning to lose count! An update on my last rant.... the solids are ever so slowly going down a little easier with each meal. The sleeping? Yeesh, don't even get me started.

But! I want to keep this post upbeat and positive so I'll stick to the foodies side of things. Now we haven't done a 180 and Little Red hasn't turned into a ravenous devourer of all things solid but we're getting there. I'm sticking to Farex baby rice (pear and apple) because, well, it pretty much tastes of mushy breast milk to which I add a little apple and (if I dare!) some mashed banana. We also gave Only Organics fruit muesli another try and this time - hooray! - no sore tummy's which is a hand clap moment as the wee bunny rather likes it. I also throw some baby muesli with apple and avocado in there sometimes to spice things up a little. 

This is all good and well as long as Little Red has a) his spoon, b) his sippy cup (from which he has no interest in drinking but does thoroughly enjoy throwing it on the floor) or c) a bowl to hold - preferably the one with the food in it. As long as he's happily distracted by either of these three things I can sneak the yums in and he even opens his mouth for the spoon, yippee!  

He's now steadily on the lunch and dinner bandwagon so, fingers crossed, it's all smooth sailing from here and at some point soon Sir Redford will be eating something more than anything with apple in it....

Mind that bump - the magic massage table

One of my favourite people, Gillian Parkinson of Le'Essience, has recently purchased herself a super cool new toy..... 

OK it's a massage table, you say. What's so great about that? But wait.... there's more!

This isn't just any old massage table, it's a custom made table for those of us who need a good old rub the most - expectant mothers! Hooray! That big round cut-out you see on the table is made especially for that ever expanding baby bump so pregnant ladies can now too experience the relaxation of a full body and back massage like all us flat-bellied folk.

Particularly in my last trimester when I was all pinched nerves and pulled muscles, Gillian's massages came as a welcome relief. Yet as good as the shoulder and back rubs were, it's always a little hard to get super comfy and relaxed when you're straddling a chair with your belly propped on a cushion and your chin resting on the back of the seat.

Needless to say, when I heard about this super special mechanism I knew I had to share it with the baby wielding mamas out there. And not only this, once mine and Baby Daddy's number two is in the oven (but don't hold your breath) I'll be face down on that table faster than you can say "Painkillers, please!"

Aromatherapy makes for magical Mamas

Not just airy-fairy hogwash, aromatherapy is fast becoming a popular natural alternative for many ailments - from stress to headaches, cold and flu to skin conditions. In my second and third trimesters I had the enormous privilege of being a case study for the absolutely divine Gillian Parkinson of Le'Essience.

Aromatherapy was something I knew a little bit about. Growing up, my Mum had massaged lavender into my temples to help me sleep, put jasmine in my baths to relax me and made inhalations of eucalyptus or peppermint when I had colds. Even though these practices had always "worked" for me, I put it down to the fact that these oils were more of a comfort than anything with healing properties. But then I met Gillian.

I've always been slightly (OK, quite) highly strung and am easily prone to anxiety and depression, not to mention the fact that I suffer from hideous knots in my shoulders and a hugely unstable lower back. Pregnancy didn't really.... suit these traits of mine hence my jumping at the chance to be a case study when I began to get a little panicky over the unknown and very, very sore! One session was all I needed - I was sold. I left that afternoon feeling as though I was walking on clouds.

Each essential oil has many different healing elements. I started tucking a tissue with a couple of drops of tangerine and ylang ylang in my bra each day (great for anxiety, stress and depression) and found work was a lot easier to bear, particularly in those last few weeks. I rubbed lavender onto my temples for headaches and across my cheeks for sinus tension. Alongside weekly massages with gorgeous, personalised blends I felt totally zen and new age - like I should be sitting cross-legged beneath a shady tree making daisy chains, nodding my head to some Creedence Clearwater Revival and calling my son River.

Towards the end of my third trimester, I developed PUPPPs (Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy) aka the closest thing to torture I have ever experienced. More common in women carrying boys, it's caused by your hormones colliding with baby's hormones and the result is nothing short of horrid and cruel. Starting on my stomach and sides, I developed this hideous rash (red and welty, ew) that then spread to my thighs, butt and finally my arms. I have never been so itchy in all my life. I would scratch and scratch until I thought my skin would fall off. I would go to bed each night with a bag of frozen peas on my tummy, and a bag of frozen veges on each thigh, although this had its drawbacks when one night I woke up in a puddle of melted, squashed peas.

I tried vitamin E and oatmeal moisturisers, calamine lotion, Dettol cream, Bepanthen and aloe vera. The doctor prescribed me antihistamines and steroid cream, both of which did absolutely nothing. I was about to resign myself to spending the rest of my pregnancy either in a bath full of ice or a straight jacket when Gillian flew to the rescue with a blend that calmed the redness, all but diminished the welts and, most importantly, completely halted the need for manic scratching - all within two days. I was now free to live the rest of my pre-baby days blissfully itch-free and kissing the feet of dear Gilllian - the woman deserves a medal.... a shrine, even.

As well as this amazing feat, I had blends to upkeep my now knot-free shoulders, smooth my skin and keep stretchmarks at bay, soften my perineum (pregnancy's not all glamour, after all - plus, I only needed a few stitches thanks to this blend) and help bubs along should he bake for too long, all meticulously measured out with oils that were personalised to my very pregnant state. And you know what? They all worked. 

These days, I'm a complete convert - my first port of call for anything is aromatherapy. Little Red enjoys his post-bath massage with his own special blend, I swear he sleeps like a comatose drunk afterward and I now treat myself to a Mummy massage with Gillian every fortnight that keeps me stress and anxiety free (it's also doubly cool now that I can lie on my tummy). The few stretchmarks I had are fading, my sinuses are now delightfully clear and our house constantly smells like lavender, ylang ylang or jasmine and Little Red, Nick and I are all dreamily relaxed and lovely.

So ladies, if you get the chance, milk aromatherapy for all it's worth. Find a decent aromatherapist, stick to it and your glowing Mama aura will brighten with every passing day. One caveat though (and this is important), while baby's still baking you will need to work alongside a trained aromatherapist - essential oils are powerful things and some should not be used while you're pregnant.