lucysprog

Quick question for people like absinthea: when I got pregnant, I had various blood-tests, & was considered quite high-risk for genetic disorders.

But I had a lovely standard-issue baby.

If I got pregnant again, would my odds be better because of this, or keep getting worse because I'm getting nearer to 40?

No, I'm not pregnant, just wondering.

Today, we went to a La Leche League meeting, where we chatted about breastfeeding & watched the babies & children play together.

Sabrina grabbed toy cars from the older boys, & pushed them around the floor: we'll have to find a nice one for her!

Had a good walk home without getting wet, with her in a wrap sling, then went out to lunch with her in the babyhawk, so it's been quite a babywearing day.

Tonight, she found out she REALLY likes butternut squash, & ate FIVE HEAPED TEASPOONS of squash puree with breastmilk added. May not sound like a lot, but believe me, it's a lot for a little baby.

Not that she IS a little baby any more. She's 75th percentile, & we sat next to an 8-month-old who is 9th percentile, & MUCH shorter & smaller than my cheery little bruiser.

TV: police cars chasing speeders
Bean: Woooo-W000!

Last night, The Bean started to say Da-Da-Da with intent.

She soon discovered that saying it, in a very sweet little soft voice, TO her Daddy, causes him to squeal & kiss her & go crazy.

This morning, she elaborated, & said Da-Dee, but it was a fluke.

She is now quietly saying Da-Da to herself while bouncing in her Jumperoo.

If you say it back to her, she grins widely.

She loves jumping in the bouncer, & reacts to images of jumping/dancing on TV by laughing & smiling, so whenever an advert showing kids trampolining comes on, we have manic sympathetic bouncing & smiles.

Yes, she spends quite a bit of time in the Jumperoo, because she can now wriggle & roll & shuffle about so well that she heads tight off her playmat & onto the hard wooden floor within seconds of being put down there. Time to re-build the play-pen!

In other news, I was going through all my small baby-clothes as it is 5p listing day on Ebay tomorrow, got all emotional about no more tiny babies & ended up tying it all in a giant plastic sack instead. Oh dear.

Edit: thanks Maz!

Last night, we enjoyed BANANA! Today we've been out for a few hours shopping in town, in the Babyhawk carrier, including a nice wander round Chinatown with roaster :)

I was very nervous, & looked like this:



After a certain amount of unpleasantness, medical professionals handed me this:



Causing us to become one of these:



They let us take her home, & I fed her & fed her:



And now she looks like this!



Hey little Bean, it's been a long time, where did it go?

http://www.alongfortheride.biz/contest-s/49.htm

Great competition to win a whole heap of baby-carrying devices! Really lovely & you don't have to buy anything. I just entered :)

Going for a nap, due to my daughter's puzzling habit of waking at dawn lately...

More beneath the cut... ( Read more... )

Today, we walked to the baby clinic with Bean in the Babyhawk Mei Tai sling (the one in my pictures last week) & got the leedle fat beastie weighed.

16lb 13oz!

Wow! She's shot up, again, & into the 75th percentile, if that means anything to you. If not, it means she's starting to be bigger than average :)

Having a good deal of fun with the slings, both because walking about wearing them is fun, good exercise & comfortable & because thebabywearer.com is an online mum-community I can have fun in, full of hippy-ish folk like myself.

I went to the doc, too, to have lumps in my underarm region checked out, & they think they're cysts, so I have to go back next time they flare up & get examined again, but it's unlikely to be more breast lumps because they are too far away from the breast. Phew!

Saturday: Bean grabbed the peach I was eating & gnawed on it. Teething, hunger or curiosity?

Sunday: Day from hell. Bean hated going to a house-party with lots of people, slept too long on the way over (quite long road trip) so it got past her usual feeding time, then refused to feed & howled herself silly all evening, refusing to feed whatever I did. Only calms down when people are leaving & I walk her around in her Babyhawk Mei Tai sling. Finally fed at 10pm, after I'd pumped 5oz of milk from one breast so she didn't struggle to feed from it, after NINE HOURS without anything passing her lips. Fed normally until she went to sleep & slept for six hours. Phew. She's teething HARD, with a very snotty nose & obvious pain. I freeze the milk I pumped.

Monday: Happy bunny again all day, not napping much, not teething as badly, sunny little critter again. Sucks on another bit of peach in the evening. Hey, these are MY peaches!HOWEVER...

Tuesday: Instead of sleeping for six hours, she sleeps for less than THREE before waking for a feed. She then does it again. Mummy is a wreck. She feeds voraciously every two hours.

Mummy straps on the babe in a wrap sling on her chest & marches to the organic grocery, where she buys fruit, veg & organic fruity baby cereal/rice stuff. We walk all over the place having people squeeze her chubby legs & make her smile until Mummy is worn out.

Mummy makes & freezes some vegetable puree while cooking dinner for everyone else. Bean feeds rather frantically from both breasts & takes a nap.

It's 10.30pm. It's time. Bean has her first solid food. A bowl of baby rice/quinoa cereal made with breast milk. I made it with a whole tablespoon of the mix, which made what looked like a LOT of baby-food, & although lots of it went on me, cavalorn & every bit of the baby, a great percentage went INTO THE BABY!

I have some fantastic photos. I'll post them later. When I worked out that she wanted to suck & lap it off the spoon rather than have the food scooped into her mouth, we really filled her little tummy.

She is now very happily in her bouncer, in a clean vest!

I've no intention of stopping breastfeeding, or weaning her altogether for a very long time, but I'm so proud of my little girl!

Thumb is nice to suck, but what is even better is a thumb wrapped in a layer of sleeve. Delicious. Apparently.

Want to go out & meet people at an eco-hippy-type solstice thingy in the park, but, ooh, drizzle just looks so inviting, & I'm in the warm in a big fuzzy cardigan with a telly & some chocolate finger biscuits...

This is a Babyhawk, red straps, cracking dragon-tattoo print. It arrived while I was out at Slingmeet, which was fun, & I met more local mums & lots of babies.

Bit hard to concentrate on the talks when you're surrounded by babies. I ended up sitting on the floor making faces at them, mostly.

New baby-carrier is comfier than the previous one, but I still have rather sore shoulders... getting the hang of tying it on right, tho.

Bean likes it. She fell asleep while I made dinner, & I had both hands free & she was safely tucked away.

I need a babywearing icon!

Oh, btw, today, after some time of having virtually no sugary treats (the odd bit of icecream, but no chocolates, cookies, cake etc) I cracked & ate four supercalorific choc chip cookies.

I've fed the baby since that.

I now have a wildly-flailing, hair-pulling child who just grabbed my face and pinched me so hard I cried. She looked very surprised indeed.

I had to hand her over to her Daddy for a bit. She is roaring at him and flinging herself about.

She CRIES whenever I eat now. She watches me, and starts crying. She whines until I finish anything, including drinks, which she tries to grab from me.

I have no intention of giving up breastfeeding, but I think there is some baby-rice or veggie puree in her immediate future!

Well, people complained there'd not been enough pictures lately, so here's a couple from our trip to the seaside the other week, a couple of older cute pics, & a lot of blah about what we've been up to.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/lucybond/Sabrina/beanbeach.jpg?t=1213618190

This is Conway harbour. We took her to a sandy beach, but she was fast asleep & missed it. Woke up to look at the boats, though!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/lucybond/Sabrina/10062008002.jpg?t=1213618425

You can see my red hair a bit there. Bean is nomming my breastfeeding reminder bracelet.

And here's a couple from the tail-end of May:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/lucybond/Sabrina/27052008.jpg?t=1213618463

May 27th. Another bright-green baby-pic from my mobile phone. It takes quite nice pics in the sunshine, as you can see from the seaside pics, but not so great with flash... Bean is showing us the Nursing Necklace that matches the bracelet, & no, she doesn't usually get to play with it on her own, she has her own little string of rainbow-coloured safe & rubbery beads for chewing.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y198/lucybond/Sabrina/24052008.jpg

May 24th. She's wearing my friend Bex's smallest T-shirt, as we just got home from visiting friends, & she managed to pee on her dress & silly mummy hadn't packed a spare! Won't do THAT again! It's a bit blurry, but it shows her flipping over from her back to her front to grab a toy!

She's half-asleep in her bouncer right now. Zzzzzz. bouncebounce (eyes open)Zzzzzzz.

We went to a La Leche League meeting last week, which is a breastfeeding advice organisation, if you've not heard of them. About fifteen mums & lots of babies, having a little informal discussion using prompt-cards about how we get on with our everyday lives with a new baby, & then home-made cheesecake, kids playing in the garden, lots of nice women, including people who wanted to talk about C-section recovery & subsequent natural birth. NO, I'm NOT about to have another one! Just interested. I actually met some women from my area, who told me about other fun stuff to do, like a dance-class for mums with babies. I dance with my Bean a lot (mostly to Blondie!) so that sounded entertaining.

But on Wednesday, we're going to Slingmeet, which I can't wait for! This is a group who are into baby-wearing (carrying your child on your body rather than using prams & pushchairs) & they have a library of slings you can borrow, as well as lots of folk involved who make & sell slings.

I'm a bit addicted to slings atm, as they come in a wide array of colours & shapes, to go with any outfit & fit every kind of person, & I'm trying to find just the right one to amuse my clingy child without putting my shoulder out. She loves going about in a sling, & I love carrying her, as it is good exercise, & also means I can cook & pee & other vital stuff without leaving her on her own in the fenced-off part of the living-room.

She can't crawl exactly, but she rolls over, spins & drags herself about quite a bit, & can get into all sorts of trouble on her own...

I'll post some pics of her in her slings at some point to show you how she looks, but I went to the seaside last week using a pouch sling, which has her sitting on my hip, & my shoulder was wrecked, so I'm trying a mei tai, which straps over both shoulders next.

Blah blah blah slings. But... they come in shiny Chinese satin brocades, & amazing multi-coloured striped linen & stuff...

(EDIT) Photobucket & LJ are playing silly-buggers. Please excuse links instead of nice pics.

Wow.

Five months old. Where did THAT time go?

Some days seem to last forever, with crying & feeding & wriggling about demanding constant attention, but, as a whole, they must have been rushing by.

The other day, we were sitting in a nice warm bath, when she reached over to the side & purposefully pushed some rubber ducks into the water & began patting them about, picking them up & sucking them, putting them back in the water & splashing.

A whole set of actions she couldn't have managed just weeks ago.

She is so strong it startles everyone, & yesterday, as well as rolling onto her tummy from her back & lifting up her upper torso with her arms, she started to grab hold of things to pull herself more upright. Soon she'll be on the move, rather than just dragging herself round in circles.

She grabs both feet with her hands, & soon I'm sure they'll be in her mouth. She carefully pulls dangling toys from her play-gym arch, & turns things around in her hands or feet to examine them & feel their textures.

She coos, she squeals with delight, she seems to sing through her whole repertoire of noises in the evening, or given an audience of grandparents or new friends.

She really doesn't cry often, unless something hurts her (like her insides being uncomfortable) or if she wakes up by herself or in a strange place & is startled.

Of course, she's teething, & has cranky days when she cries & chews everything in sight & just feeds & feeds until I'm exhausted, but there don't seem to be too many of those.

But best of all is how she reacts to people. Yes, I know she's been beaming at everyone for weeks & weeks, but there's SUCH a difference between the helpless little red squalling animal, & this little girl who grins at strangers, & who greets me in the morning, or if I leave the room & come back, with a huge gummy grin. The little fingers than grab mine, or wander around my face, the happy laugh she just gave when I picked her up & hugged her.

I never regret the change I've made to my life, even when I'm wiping up poo, or like yesterday, she grabs my drink & tips it down my cleavage. Or, like now, when she has hold of my typing hand & is giving me a love-bite on my upper arm #7 pressing my keys with her other hand!

Better go! kmn cvbhnnmmmmmmmmmmmmm

L'Oreal Kiss Proof Invincible Luminous* lipstick no 603 (purple) does not come off on the baby's head when you kiss her.

It also does not come off when, hypnotised by the vivid stuff, she grabs Mummy by the lips & pulls.

btw, she also spent part of her evening apparently trying to pick up one of my tattoos.

Kids, eh?

*No, it's just bright, it doesn't glow in the dark. Pity. Why, yes, I am 8 years old when it comes to make-up.

Poor little Bean had more injections this morning, & was so cranky all afternoon, that eventually I just strapped her in the sling & started walking.

Immediate silence as she looks around at everything. Walked a good long way, which is a good work-out with a 15lb baby strapped to your chest. Felt so self-righteous that I bought myself cake. And biscuits. And some chocolate. And two Danish Pastries.

All stocked up on treats now ;)

Need extra calories. Yup.

Sabrina just loves activity-based, physical, educational toys...

We've been busy.

4 months, 2 weeks, & just had her naming ceremony, a teeny private affair (our living room is too small for parties!) at which she behaved beautifully & made all her best noises afterwards, but looked suitably solemn & interested during.

We now have this amazing bouncer-thing which she hangs in while playing with a control-bank of toys all around her. Seeing as it is meant for a slightly older baby, her feet don't reach the floor well enough for her to bounce it, but she juggles merrily nonetheless.

Little Sabrina has smiles for everyone, even when she's unhappy with her teething. She grabs & holds things using her thumbs & will very accurately take hold of the thin ribbon round my neck that has her favourite jingly pendant. She will copy sounds you make to her, if she can, & although she can't say any words, she will copy the notes you use to intone them.

She still adores baths, and likes to be held up by her arms on your lap so she can pretend she is standing under her own steam. She laughs & smiles an awful lot, & rarely cries unless she is actually in pain.

She still sleeps for six or seven hours most nights, although she quite likes 6am starts!

She is growing so fast!

Sabrina, quite by herself, & all of a sudden...

...has learned to roll herself right over.

Oh dear. Lock up your valuables.