don't play with your flab

we are on holiday in england - that seems like a strange concept in itself! We are down in Weymouth at the moment with Jamie's parents, and have had a lovely few days visiting his grandparents and also my dad and Sarah in Bournemouth, and having a BBQ in the garden etc. Weather has been great - very sunny and warm, and Isaac has been enjoying looking at the leaves and the blue sky and green of the grass - he seems to be fascinated by gardens.

Jamie and I went out for a meal this evening and Miranda and Chris babysat Isaac. When we got back we found him up and feeding from a bottle of expressed milk - he usually doesn't eat in the night til 3 or 4 am, and this was 11pm. hmmm - playing up already! Anyway, he is back in bed now and seems to be sleeping alright.

We wanted to write down a particular theory / observation that we concocted this evening about Isaac - only we had too much to drink and now we can't remember it. maybe tomorrow.

It is great to have a child, even if it has left me with an extra stone of flab - and Jamie seems to have extra flab too even though he only observed the process!!!

He seems like he is quite sensitive to people's faces and emotions - like he knows if someone is genuinely interested in him or not.

Jeans!

isaac in his first pair of jeans!

And that will be Clare's boobs behind. Lucky boy.

Note to self (Clare)

My menstrual cycle has resumed normal operation. Splendid. 10 weeks, 6 days since D-Day.

grabber

Just a quick note that Isaac is really grabbing well at things now - if you give him a toy he grasps it with both hands and clasps it to his chest or starts to explore it a bit. Kate has lent us a few new toys and he was really getting to grips with them.

He is also playing with his 'speeltuin' although he isn't really looking at it when he hits the buttons, so I guess it is all rather random still. He is also smiling and giggling more, and looks at me even when someone else is holding him (even when he is with jamie sometimes!).

He has also taking to waking up suddenly from daytime naps and screaming as if he has just been stung by a bee. Not sure what that is all about. But he has been sleeping really well at night for about 2 weeks now too - he sleeps from 7.30pm to between 6.30 and 7.30am, waking only once between 2 and 3am for food. Long may it last..

Clare finally had her baby today after being sent home from the hospital rather than being induced last week. She was induced instead on Monday morning 8am and gave birth at 2.30 this morning (wednesday) to her son, Luka Alexander. 4.3kg and another boy - that means everyone in my yoga class - Julia (Joop), Jelena (Bruno), Tara (Finn), Clare (Luka) and me - all had boys! Weird.

jabs

Isaac is a touch grizzly today. Took him for his jabs this morning - for diptheria, polio, whooping cough & tetenus. I didn't watch, but he screamed out and cried for a bit but wasn't too bad til we got out of the surgery, then he cried for about 20 minutes before I could leave the building to walk home (in the rain). Now he is kind of ok, but keeps crying then settling, then crying again.

I set up a playpen for him yesterday in his travel cot, and bought him some new toys - a 'speeltuin' with lots of buttons and buzzers that play horrible tunes as it turns out - not what I would have chosen if I had realised, but I am sure he will love it. He hit at the rabbit's carrot a few times yesterday when Jamie was holding it in front of him. Also bought him a couple of rattles and a teething ring, and a ridiculous blob thing that laughs when you squeeze it - I hope he never gets the hang of doing that himself! I can see why parents find their children's toys so irritating!! Anyway, put them all in the playpen, hanging off the sides and a pole across the top, and I also made him a felt banner for the end of the pen with 6 simple shapes on it so he can learn them when he gets a bit older.

Anyway, I digress! They also took his measurements at the consultatie bureau - 61cm long, 5.77kg and head 41cm - about 75th percentile for all three so he is well in balance. The nurse was a bit concerned about his head shape so called in the doctor. She said that it wasn't particularly strange and is probably permanent although it may round out a bit more. I guess it won't look so odd when he grows some hair (!) and anyway isn't as bad as it was.

Clare O'Donnell is in hospital today to be induced, as they discovered her baby has an irregular heart beat. She is 12 days overdue. She had wanted a home water birth, so she must be pretty gutted, but at least she will have her baby soon. We await news..

Mo-blog

Gym session! Testing blogging from my phone!

Mirror

Just gave Isaac his bath, and had a session of bird noises with him. He was very attentive and really took his turn to squawk. He was very excited and kicked a lot, he likes chatting!

Afterwards I showed him himself in the mirror. He normally just lolls about and doesn't really do a lot, but this time he leant forward and really looked interested. He then made an inquisitive noise and really smiled at himself. It was amazing, he obviously didn't realise he was looking at himself, since he has no concept of self - but to react to another baby in the mirror was pretty good going! I kept him there until my back really hurt leaning over the bathroom shelf and then Clare took him off to 'tit feed' as we now call it. Clare always refers to 'the breast' as people do with 'breast feeding'. It sounds so royal, 'The Breast'. So we are going to call it 'the tit', and 'tit feeding'.

Discovering hands

Isaac discovered that his hands taste nice this week. He has progressed from
quite lame attempts to suck his thumb to full on finger sucking (still
has problems unfolding his thumb in order to suck it). Today he is 9
weeks and 2 days old.

In the last week he has been making so
many more noises and really reacts to being jiggled around to music.
His ability to amuse himself is getting better as well. He sits in his
chair making silly noises and bashing his baby gym for up to half an
hour! Last week he could not really hold on to the rings of the baby
gym, but now he is getting better and better at curling 1 or 2 fingers
around a ring and sometime pulling quite hard on it. He is getting
quite good at lying on his front and not crying, he lifts his head and
upper body up quite well, but its mostly his back muscles - he doesnt
realise that his arms are useful in this regard - what a dummy!

For
some reason in the last week he also seems to like mucking around
during breast feeding. He stops at some point and starts shoving his
fist in his mouth and generally treating all like a bit of a game.

We also picked up the car last week and so went on our first trip - to the Kroller Muller sculpture museum and park. It was ace.

Things Isaac can't do at the moment but might be coming soon...

* Turn his head towards noise (such as parents calling his name)
* Look ast his hands and then do something with them (known in professional circles as 'regarding ones hands'). Oooh, posh.