It's been a while!

We have recently celebrated our little man's 2nd birthday. He is growing into a charming little boy in our eyes. He has been in a bed since June and has loved it from the first day. He has moved on to sippy cups from bottles. He only knows 2 speeds - flat out and sound asleep. He has discovered chalk and loves to draw on any surface he can find. He does not talk yet, but seems to be doing everything else right for his age. (This is apparently a big deal, we have a speech pathology appointment next month, so more on that later) He certainly as no problem communicating what he wants. He still regularly seems to get bugs, but bounces back quickly. He's had his first haircut and we are working on getting him to the dentist. We can't get over how quickly these 2 years have passed. I find myself looking at his baby photos often, just mesmerized by the changes in him in such a short time.

It's the little things

It may seem such a little thing, but after the week we've had it has been a great achievement. Little man actually had breakfast today. I made him a bowl of cereal which he refused. I let it on the table and tried to encourage him to share my toast with me. He had some small pieces of toast. Then as I sat finishing my breakfast, Callum walked over to me with the bowl of cereal. I offered him a spoonful, which he took. He then asked for some more. He ate practically the whole bowl! He hasn't done that in such a long time. He apparently had lunch at Daycare and had quite a bit of food for dinner. Let's hope this is the start of his recovery :)

Sleeping positions

Callum always amazes me with his sleeping positions - he's a bit like Bangles (our cat). He has always been like this. He moves around so much in his sleep, I can hear him now banging up against the side of the cot, obviously willing it to make way for his arms and legs. From the time we brought Callum home from hospital, he made it quite clear to us that in his book, you do not need to sleep on your back. We used a wedge and Callum slept on his side. We would rotate him and swap his sides each time we laid him down to sleep. (to make sure he didn't get a flat head) Now this is apparently a very big no no according to "the book". We had a proper baby wedge that he fit into snuggly, there was no danger of him rolling over onto his belly (apparently that is one of the concerns about bub sleeping on their side) and he couldn't move all over his cot. He slept very comfortably and so did we. We would sometimes find that he had wiggled onto his back. Now he sleeps on his belly all the time and we put him on his back to start! When we finally get his bed organised it will be interesting to see how many times we find him asleep on the floor, or standing next to our bed! :)

Sick, sick, sick

Poor little man vomited all through his bed on Saturday night. He vomited all over me on Sunday morning. We thought he was recovered having been well Sunday and all of Monday, but no, today it was the daycare girls turn to have the vomit! Daddy had to go pick him up from Daycare and take him to the doctor. He is on two lots of antibiotics this time - apparently a virus and bacterial infection. Just when we thought he was getting over the last lot - apparently this is the way it will be for about a year while he gets used to being with the herd at daycare - GREAT!

size does matter

When Callum had his 18 month check up, according to "the book" one of the things to be ticked off was his ability to build with blocks. Callum has plenty of blocks but doesn't like putting them together, so he did not achieve that tick. What Callum is interested in is lining things up. He lines up anything he can get his hands on - empty bottles that he takes out of the recycling bin, his toys, his outside toy trucks. He doesn't just line them up, he lines them up in size order! We were told that was clever, but he still hadn't achieved the milestones that he should have (the blocks) According to the book of Callum, lining things up in size order is a much more important skill. So is reading books, chasing cats, playing music, jumping on a trampoline, climbing, and much, much more :)

Bottles

According to "The Book" Callum should have given up bottles at 12 months, he still has them now at almost 20 months. We've been told they are his dummy and we should throw the bottles out. He doesn't carry them around in his mouth sucking on them, when he's finished his drink he puts the bottle down (or in the sink - love this!) and off he goes. That doesn't sound like a dummy to me. He will drink from a sippy cup, but given a choice, he prefers the bottle. He doesn't seem to drink as much from a sippy cup as he does with a bottle and living in the tropics, the amount of water he has is important. Is it really a problem if he has bottles for a few months yet?

Mother's Day

While little man didn't give me a sleep in (got up at 6am) or breakfast in bed, he did give me some amusement early on! When his Daddy tried to get him to give me the card he had bought, little man threw a temper tantrum. To our amusement, we have no idea what sparked it, all his father said was "Callum come here" we watched and waited while he cried, layed on the couch and then the floor. It took him a while and in the end Dad just gave it to me. Once we got that out of the way, we sat down and had breakfast together. We went out for morning tea at Grandma & Poppa's house. He came home and is having a sleep, which has given me time to put my feet up, read a magazine, play on the computer, do some scrapbooking...just relax. Looking forward to him getting up so that we can take some photos and spend some time together.

Eating

Eating has become a challenge over the last couple of weeks. Little man has been sick with a sore throat, and understandably he wasn't too keen on eating anything other than yoghurts and custards. He seems to be over it now, but his appetite hasn't returned to normal yet. He would always have quite a big breakfast, but the only thing he will have for breakfast now is a bottle of milk. He isn't really keen on lunch, just nibbles, but will have some dinner (depends what's on offer). He certainly hasn't lost any energy and according to our scales has put on weight. I'm hoping that if I just keep offering him food he will eventually go back to his normal eating. He is happy and energetic and drinks plenty of milk and water. How long should I let this go on before seeing a doctor?

Sleep

My gorgeous little man is sleeping, he has been for a couple of hours now. "According" to the book, he should be having 2 naps a day (morning and afternoon), perhaps getting to the age of dropping to one sleep. Callum has only ever had one nap a day - they are 3 hours long! Sleep has been an ongoing issue with his checkups. He doesn't follow the book - he doesn't go to bed at 7pm and get up at 7am, has only ever done that once (I think he was about 4 months old). He goes to bed just before 8pm and gets up anywhere between 6 - 7 am. He used to go to bed at 9pm and get up between 6-7am. I was told by a child health nurse that Callum's brain would not be developing properly because he wasn't sleeping correctly (having day naps & sleeping 12 hrs each night). This caused me a lot of stress, I worried about his brain, I worried that he wouldn't make his milestones, I worried I wasn't being a good mum. I tried different methods of getting him to sleep during the day, read the books on sleeping and babies. When I finally stopped stressing about it - Callum seemed to relax and settled into his own sleeping pattern, which works for us. He has had this pattern since he was about 8 months old. He doesn't have a set time exactly when he goes down for his day nap - it depends on what he has been doing during the morning. If he has been very active he might go down before 11am, if he's had a relaxed morning, he might go down after 12pm.

Intro

I am Mum to my gorgeous son Callum, who is 19 months old. He is a delightful child, who does not fit in to any of the 'books' written about babies. This blog is a place for me to vent and hopefully will create conversations with other mums, whose babies don't fit the 'average' label either.