And finally, Elliott seems to be trying his hand at a few yoga moves (taking after his Nan perhaps?). His favourire time to practice is dinner time. Not sure what you call this one...
Elliott's Photo Album
Sunday 30 September 2007
Beautiful days ...
The weather has been sooooooo beautiful the last couple of weeks and Elliott has made the most of it by having plenty of play time in the garden. Here are a couple of photos ... pretty impressive given that he's a sick little boy - he can still muster a pretty good smile!
And finally, Elliott seems to be trying his hand at a few yoga moves (taking after his Nan perhaps?). His favourire time to practice is dinner time. Not sure what you call this one...
And finally, Elliott seems to be trying his hand at a few yoga moves (taking after his Nan perhaps?). His favourire time to practice is dinner time. Not sure what you call this one...
Still sick, still hungry, still trying to feed ...
Well, since the last update post things haven't changed much with the little guy - Elliott is still unwell with a head cold, which is making him a bit miserable a lot of the time. We had two trips to the GP this week - one for Kel (for help with milk supply issues - not helpful, by the way) and another for Elliott. Turns out Elliott has pharyngitis (fancy name for a sore throat!) and a bit of an ear infection on top of his head cold, poor guy. Elliott is finding it hard to sleep at night and the fact that feeding is such a big issue at the moment isn't helping.
To cut a long story short it's looking like Kel will have to stop breastfeeding Elliott (a very difficult decision indeed) because there isn't enough milk a lot of the time (despite numerous attempts to increase supply) and there isn't really much of a 'let-down' of milk anymore when Elliott tries to feed. It would be nice to do both (breast and bottle feed) but that's not as easy as it sounds. So, for the sake of Elliott's nutrition, Kel's sanity, and all our happiness I think Elliott may just have to be a bottle-fed baby from 6 months of age (that's still one more than his Dad, and he didn't end up too badly). The decision isn't made fully yet though ... we have a lactation consultant coming tomorrow to help us with all our questions. By all reports from Mums who have seen her she is fabulous. Hopefully she'll have come across our issues before and will have some practical advice for us.
To cut a long story short it's looking like Kel will have to stop breastfeeding Elliott (a very difficult decision indeed) because there isn't enough milk a lot of the time (despite numerous attempts to increase supply) and there isn't really much of a 'let-down' of milk anymore when Elliott tries to feed. It would be nice to do both (breast and bottle feed) but that's not as easy as it sounds. So, for the sake of Elliott's nutrition, Kel's sanity, and all our happiness I think Elliott may just have to be a bottle-fed baby from 6 months of age (that's still one more than his Dad, and he didn't end up too badly). The decision isn't made fully yet though ... we have a lactation consultant coming tomorrow to help us with all our questions. By all reports from Mums who have seen her she is fabulous. Hopefully she'll have come across our issues before and will have some practical advice for us.
Wednesday 26 September 2007
Getting back on track
This post is about a week old but we'll post it anyway ...
Probably a silly post title (almost welcomes things to come undone again)...but things are getting back to 'relative' normal. In the last, slightly desperate, post we noted that Elliott was having a bit of a bad time of it. Lots of crying, not much sleeping (especially at night), unsettled though the day, and sadly not much pooing, the poor little man was constipated.
So what happened next???
Well there was more crying to come that night... and then eventually in the middle of the night, at a loss of what else to do, we tried to give him a bottle. This was simply desperation as there was no reason to think he'd accept a bottle at that stage, after all he had not taken a bottle in the previous 5 months... BUT he took it! He drank 400mls and then went to sleep and had the best sleep in probably 5 days, we did too!
That night he also passed another milestone... it was smelly and filled his nappy, phew!
So it dawned on us that he simply wasn't getting enough milk to be satisfied, and properly hydrated. Kel's milk supply has periodically been going off the boil, and despite loads of advice that:
1) he was still getting enough, he's just more efficient,
2) it just settles down and you think you don't have enough,
3) you begin to get better at just producing it on demand. etc... etc...
He really wasn't getting enough. The subsequent week has been up and down as we (all three of us) try to come to terms with juggling bottle and breastfeeding . It might seem trivial but it has been a real challenge, wanting to give Kel a chance to stimulate her supply, while still giving Elliott a chance to get used to and accept the bottle when necessary.
All this was on the background of Kel's first week back at work, which anyone would appreciate was a pretty big thing for us all. She went into work on Monday afternoon (for an orientation) and then on Thursday (which will be her regular day). I'll let her write about how she felt, but from my perspective she did and is going through all those nervous feelings you get when you haven't done something for a while "can I still do it"? "Do I still want to do it"? She's also going though having to leave Elliott for a morning (ends up being about 5 hrs), which I think only another mother can truly understand. Of course we are really lucky because I'm able to spend that morning "working" from home and hanging out with Elliott. I've only done it once and I got about 2 hrs of work done while he was asleep... time will tell if I can get anything significant done, if I can't I'll just stay later on Thursday nights.
With all this going on, we've been trying to keep things as stable and consistent as possible and on Saturday night we were invited to a fancy dress to celebrate our good friend Beth's birthday. We had decided that we wouldn't make it (7pm start was a little late for the man) but in the end we just turned up really early and helped get things set up. It was a nice suggestion (by Kate) and a chance to still be involved. So at the last minute we decided we'd still dress up, just for fun. The theme was superheros. Kel went as Dangermouse, I went as Brainmaster, and Elliott went as Wonderboy (see earlier posts for episodes I & II of Wonderboy). Dangermouse is fairly self explanatory but just to elaborate on Brainmaster, he first appeared in an Aussie superheros comic book in 1975 (the year I was born) and starred with his partner Vixen in their only dedicated comic in 1977 called 'Brainmaster and Vixen'. I just wanted to find an Aussie superhero and, after all, there's probably no better option for a neuroscientist. I may pull on the swimming cap again sometime, it was quite fun. Beth was dressed as Batgirl, Paul as Robin, Matt came as Batman (new version) and Kate came as a bodysuit-wearing-sequin- clad superhero that matched her little boy Ben (top effort). There's a group picture below.
On Sunday, Elliott woke up with his first full blown head-cold and was so bunged up he couldn't breath through his nose. Luckily we have this snot-sucker thing that Lisa gave us. It must be so uncomfortable for him when we use it. Basically, you squeeze a little bulb attached to some tubing, put the tubing up his nose and then release the bulb and it sucks. This procedure hasn't been without protest but overall he has been an extremely brave and tolerant little boy and doesn't fuss much at all. We've since invested in some Baby Demazin, Karvol and Medic spray and the combination of them helps him get through the night, but at this stage he still needs some serious snot-sucking by the morning. Anyway, that day (Sunday) we had a little lunchtime visit from Nan and Pa (Anne and John) which was really nice. We went for a walk to the wetlands and had a coffee which was nice. On the way back Elliott was carried in his Baby Bjorn pouch by his Pa (the first person other than Kel or I to do that). I think it is safe to say that they both really enjoyed it, Elliott held Dad's hands the whole way.
Elliott and his Nan
Elliott and his Pa
Probably a silly post title (almost welcomes things to come undone again)...but things are getting back to 'relative' normal. In the last, slightly desperate, post we noted that Elliott was having a bit of a bad time of it. Lots of crying, not much sleeping (especially at night), unsettled though the day, and sadly not much pooing, the poor little man was constipated.
So what happened next???
Well there was more crying to come that night... and then eventually in the middle of the night, at a loss of what else to do, we tried to give him a bottle. This was simply desperation as there was no reason to think he'd accept a bottle at that stage, after all he had not taken a bottle in the previous 5 months... BUT he took it! He drank 400mls and then went to sleep and had the best sleep in probably 5 days, we did too!
That night he also passed another milestone... it was smelly and filled his nappy, phew!
So it dawned on us that he simply wasn't getting enough milk to be satisfied, and properly hydrated. Kel's milk supply has periodically been going off the boil, and despite loads of advice that:
1) he was still getting enough, he's just more efficient,
2) it just settles down and you think you don't have enough,
3) you begin to get better at just producing it on demand. etc... etc...
He really wasn't getting enough. The subsequent week has been up and down as we (all three of us) try to come to terms with juggling bottle and breastfeeding . It might seem trivial but it has been a real challenge, wanting to give Kel a chance to stimulate her supply, while still giving Elliott a chance to get used to and accept the bottle when necessary.
All this was on the background of Kel's first week back at work, which anyone would appreciate was a pretty big thing for us all. She went into work on Monday afternoon (for an orientation) and then on Thursday (which will be her regular day). I'll let her write about how she felt, but from my perspective she did and is going through all those nervous feelings you get when you haven't done something for a while "can I still do it"? "Do I still want to do it"? She's also going though having to leave Elliott for a morning (ends up being about 5 hrs), which I think only another mother can truly understand. Of course we are really lucky because I'm able to spend that morning "working" from home and hanging out with Elliott. I've only done it once and I got about 2 hrs of work done while he was asleep... time will tell if I can get anything significant done, if I can't I'll just stay later on Thursday nights.
With all this going on, we've been trying to keep things as stable and consistent as possible and on Saturday night we were invited to a fancy dress to celebrate our good friend Beth's birthday. We had decided that we wouldn't make it (7pm start was a little late for the man) but in the end we just turned up really early and helped get things set up. It was a nice suggestion (by Kate) and a chance to still be involved. So at the last minute we decided we'd still dress up, just for fun. The theme was superheros. Kel went as Dangermouse, I went as Brainmaster, and Elliott went as Wonderboy (see earlier posts for episodes I & II of Wonderboy). Dangermouse is fairly self explanatory but just to elaborate on Brainmaster, he first appeared in an Aussie superheros comic book in 1975 (the year I was born) and starred with his partner Vixen in their only dedicated comic in 1977 called 'Brainmaster and Vixen'. I just wanted to find an Aussie superhero and, after all, there's probably no better option for a neuroscientist. I may pull on the swimming cap again sometime, it was quite fun. Beth was dressed as Batgirl, Paul as Robin, Matt came as Batman (new version) and Kate came as a bodysuit-wearing-sequin- clad superhero that matched her little boy Ben (top effort). There's a group picture below.
On Sunday, Elliott woke up with his first full blown head-cold and was so bunged up he couldn't breath through his nose. Luckily we have this snot-sucker thing that Lisa gave us. It must be so uncomfortable for him when we use it. Basically, you squeeze a little bulb attached to some tubing, put the tubing up his nose and then release the bulb and it sucks. This procedure hasn't been without protest but overall he has been an extremely brave and tolerant little boy and doesn't fuss much at all. We've since invested in some Baby Demazin, Karvol and Medic spray and the combination of them helps him get through the night, but at this stage he still needs some serious snot-sucking by the morning. Anyway, that day (Sunday) we had a little lunchtime visit from Nan and Pa (Anne and John) which was really nice. We went for a walk to the wetlands and had a coffee which was nice. On the way back Elliott was carried in his Baby Bjorn pouch by his Pa (the first person other than Kel or I to do that). I think it is safe to say that they both really enjoyed it, Elliott held Dad's hands the whole way.
Elliott and his Nan
Elliott and his PaMonday 17 September 2007
Who didn't cross their fingers last night?
Well, we probably can't blame anyone, though that would make it a little easier. Last night continued along the tearful - no sleep variety. We are not sure what has changed with our little man but he is very distressed and inconsolable at night the last two... and sadly tonight is shaping as being just as bad, if not worse.
He wouldn't have been asleep more than 20 minutes before it began.
Think we are in for a long one again.
Forgive us if we're a little short-vague-distant-temperamental in the coming days... hopefully not weeks.
He wouldn't have been asleep more than 20 minutes before it began.
Think we are in for a long one again.
Forgive us if we're a little short-vague-distant-temperamental in the coming days... hopefully not weeks.
Sunday 16 September 2007
News of the week
This is where I usually say how busy we've been and how I wish it was easier to be a more regular blogger... Oh well, no need to bore everybody, you get the picture.
The past week was a great one, Elliott was mostly the happy little boy he always seems to be and the weather was beautiful, which meant lots of outside time... fun fun fun.
Like most weeks Elliott past a number of milestones including:
1) He's had a bit of trouble with the pram, on two walks he just went ballistic and Kel had to finish the walks carrying Elliott and pushing the pram (I was at work). We're not sure but he has been a little more clingy and so we think that he misses us when he's up the front all alone. Having said all that they had a much better walk on Friday... no tears.
2) The past weeks Elliott has developed this nodding habit. We are not sure why but he gets on a roll and just nods and nods and nods. Any question you ask him he'll respond with a nod. We're sure he doesn't know what it means, but it is really cute. One theory Kel has is that is feels good on the back of his head... alternatively he may be just mimicking us (always telling him how much we love him, and nodding at him). Anyway, it caused us to start calling him Noddy for a while (not the washed up half back at the Sharks, but the jolly little fellow with the blue hat and red tunic). Check out the footage of him in action below.
3) Elliott was also a sleeping champion this week! He slept through the night from Sunday through to Friday... that's 5 in a row! Till this run he had only slept right though the night on 3 previous occasions (that's being strict on the definition, he's generally a good sleeper but I call sleeping though the night going to bed at 7pm and not waking up before 6am). Thankfully we appreciated it while it was happening but weren't under the impression it would go on forever! Low and behold he woke for a feed in the night on Friday night and then we had our worst night in a long while on Saturday night (a few stints of hard core crying that seemed to last forever)! We're not sure why the abrupt change???? We figure teething is one possibility (see the rusk picture below). It seems that with teething, though, it is only a retrospective explanation. You go through a couple of days/weeks of unsettled/unhappy times and then at some stage teeth appear and 'Ohhhhhh, he was teething!'. At least thats how I imagine it will go (I'll keep you posted).
4) As with the post on Food Glorious Food, he's continued to the try new things. Below are before and after photos of the mess he gets all over his face and then the cleaned up version... heaven help us when he feeds himself! The latest is prunes. This relates to the sudden change in sleeping habits - apart from teething, another explanation would be constipation, which we have some evidence of (I won't say any more). To help his problem we've been trying extra hard to get him to drink fluids (other than his milk), but he's just not a big fan. He's tolerated some dilute pear juice today and hopefully we can make some progress there. Anyway, fingers crossed the prunes and increased fluid will do the trick. The poor little man just has not been himself this weekend, very unsettled though the day as well as at night.
5) Despite the unsettled weekend we've still managed to get out and about and today was Elliott's first visit to the beach! He liked the sand but wasn't too crash hot about the water (we dangled his legs in) but who can blame him - It might have been a beautiful sunny day but the water is still pretty cold... I can vouch for that! For the record, it was at Bar Beach (Kel and my old turf... ahhhh the old Brooks St apartment). We had some chips for lunch and Elliott even managed a little cat nap in the sun. Perhaps we wore him out... keep your fingers crossed for tonight, we don't need a sleep though but it would be nice if he was a little more settled, time will tell.
The past week was a great one, Elliott was mostly the happy little boy he always seems to be and the weather was beautiful, which meant lots of outside time... fun fun fun.
Like most weeks Elliott past a number of milestones including:
1) He's had a bit of trouble with the pram, on two walks he just went ballistic and Kel had to finish the walks carrying Elliott and pushing the pram (I was at work). We're not sure but he has been a little more clingy and so we think that he misses us when he's up the front all alone. Having said all that they had a much better walk on Friday... no tears.
2) The past weeks Elliott has developed this nodding habit. We are not sure why but he gets on a roll and just nods and nods and nods. Any question you ask him he'll respond with a nod. We're sure he doesn't know what it means, but it is really cute. One theory Kel has is that is feels good on the back of his head... alternatively he may be just mimicking us (always telling him how much we love him, and nodding at him). Anyway, it caused us to start calling him Noddy for a while (not the washed up half back at the Sharks, but the jolly little fellow with the blue hat and red tunic). Check out the footage of him in action below.
3) Elliott was also a sleeping champion this week! He slept through the night from Sunday through to Friday... that's 5 in a row! Till this run he had only slept right though the night on 3 previous occasions (that's being strict on the definition, he's generally a good sleeper but I call sleeping though the night going to bed at 7pm and not waking up before 6am). Thankfully we appreciated it while it was happening but weren't under the impression it would go on forever! Low and behold he woke for a feed in the night on Friday night and then we had our worst night in a long while on Saturday night (a few stints of hard core crying that seemed to last forever)! We're not sure why the abrupt change???? We figure teething is one possibility (see the rusk picture below). It seems that with teething, though, it is only a retrospective explanation. You go through a couple of days/weeks of unsettled/unhappy times and then at some stage teeth appear and 'Ohhhhhh, he was teething!'. At least thats how I imagine it will go (I'll keep you posted).
4) As with the post on Food Glorious Food, he's continued to the try new things. Below are before and after photos of the mess he gets all over his face and then the cleaned up version... heaven help us when he feeds himself! The latest is prunes. This relates to the sudden change in sleeping habits - apart from teething, another explanation would be constipation, which we have some evidence of (I won't say any more). To help his problem we've been trying extra hard to get him to drink fluids (other than his milk), but he's just not a big fan. He's tolerated some dilute pear juice today and hopefully we can make some progress there. Anyway, fingers crossed the prunes and increased fluid will do the trick. The poor little man just has not been himself this weekend, very unsettled though the day as well as at night.
5) Despite the unsettled weekend we've still managed to get out and about and today was Elliott's first visit to the beach! He liked the sand but wasn't too crash hot about the water (we dangled his legs in) but who can blame him - It might have been a beautiful sunny day but the water is still pretty cold... I can vouch for that! For the record, it was at Bar Beach (Kel and my old turf... ahhhh the old Brooks St apartment). We had some chips for lunch and Elliott even managed a little cat nap in the sun. Perhaps we wore him out... keep your fingers crossed for tonight, we don't need a sleep though but it would be nice if he was a little more settled, time will tell.
Until next time, sleep well and keep smiling ;O)
Wednesday 12 September 2007
Food glorious food
It took a while, but here is the footage of Elliott's first try of apple, see for yourself what he thought. For the record, he has now tried:
Rice cereal - Mmmmm
Pumpkin - Mmmmm Mmmmm
Carrots - Mmmmm
Potato - Mmmmm
Sweet Potato - Mmmmm
Banana - Yuck
Pear - Yuck yuck
Oats/Fig/Sultana (jar) - Yuck yuck
Vanilla Baby yogurt - Yuck
Apple - ?????
Rice cereal - Mmmmm
Pumpkin - Mmmmm Mmmmm
Carrots - Mmmmm
Potato - Mmmmm
Sweet Potato - Mmmmm
Banana - Yuck
Pear - Yuck yuck
Oats/Fig/Sultana (jar) - Yuck yuck
Vanilla Baby yogurt - Yuck
Apple - ?????
Saturday 8 September 2007
Chin sucking ...
A recent thing Elliott has been doing is sucking on my chin ... When I pick him up sometimes he gives me this kind of cuddle where he likes to touch my face and he then starts to suck on my face - mostly my chin! It actually hurts quite a bit (those gums are surprisingly hard!) but there's no way I could stop him doing it because it feels so nice to have him cuddling me and touching my face!
Of course, this is in-keeping with Elliott's preoccupation with putting everything in his mouth (see blog entry "A few of Elliott's favourite things").
Step 1: Cuddle Mummy ...
Step 2: Go for the chin ...
Step 3: Really go for the chin (if she still lets you)
Of course, this is in-keeping with Elliott's preoccupation with putting everything in his mouth (see blog entry "A few of Elliott's favourite things").
Step 1: Cuddle Mummy ...
Step 2: Go for the chin ...
Step 3: Really go for the chin (if she still lets you)Visit from the Greens (and Grandma)
On Friday we had a really nice visit from all the Greens! That's Lisa, James, B and Abi. It was so lovely to see them all as we haven't for a while (everyine is just so busy!). Grandma (Angela) came too (although Kel's photography wasn't crash hot when taking photos of Grandma so we've left those off the blog - for Grandma's sake only!).
Both B and Abi thought Elliott was pretty great (he likes them a lot too). Abi was very thoughtful and kept giving toys to Elliott for him to play with. She was so adorable. B was very sweet with Elliott and gave him lots of kisses and cuddles. We finally managed to get some photos of James with the little guy (goodness knows why it has taken this long!!). Elliott thoroughly enjoyed reading a book with his Uncle (although I think Elliott thought the book tasted better than it read).
Elliott had a play under his play gym ... it looked like so much fun that the girls decided they'd have a go too. So all three cousins squished underneath (with no room to spare!) and played there for a while. I think Abi especially liked it under there with Elliott and was even quite protective of him when people tried to get too close!
Of course, no one was protecting poor B ... Elliott decided he thought her ears looked rather tasty and tried to pull them off!We also got the chance to update the artwork on our fridge with new pictures that the girls coloured in. We're loking forward to catching up with everyone again soon when the girls have a holiday with Grandma and Grandad in a week or so.
A few of Elliott's favourite things...
Standing up! ...
... Pumpkin ...
... Pookie (the spotty dog) ...
... Sucking his feet ...
... Rolling around with Mummy
... Pumpkin ...
... Pookie (the spotty dog) ...
... Sucking his feet ...
... Rolling around with Mummy
Sunday 2 September 2007
Daddy's first fathers day
Today was my first fathers day as a Dad and what a great day it was. Elliott got into bed with me and helped me open some presents (which mummy helped him buy... he doesn't have any money yet). For the record, I got an AM/FM radio (no workshop is complete without one), some undies (classic fathers day gift), and a CD (the debut Grinderman album- this is direct evidence that Elliott had a hand in selecting the presents as I am confident that Kel would never have chosen it in 100 years... she hates Nick Cave).
We had a nice morning at home, Elliott had a sleep while we had breaky and read the paper, and then we went up to Vacy for a fathers day lunch. It was nice to be able to qualify with the Dad's team (Pete, Ralph, and Paul) this year! Last Fathers day I was a Dad in training and it was only when James had to go look after Abi for a while that I got to stand in as a reserve Dad for dessert. We had a lovely lunch and afternoon, Elliott wasn't that keen on an afternoon nap so after letting him try to sort it out himself, I ended up going in and helping him to sleep. It was a really nice moment for me, nursing my sleeping son, he really is a beautiful little boy (unashamed bias aside). We came home and had a nice relaxed evening together... A perfect Day really.
To all my fellow Dad's out there (especially fellow first timers), Happy Fathers day to you, I hope yours was as good as mine!
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