Wednesday 27 June 2012

Week 23

Its been an interesting week in my little household. It would seem Morgan has a sensitivity to tomato. I've drastically reduced the amount of tomato he eats and his eczema and reflux have calmed right down thankfully. He's also become more settled at night and less windy, there was a few days he was waking up screaming and pulling his legs up, he only settled if I rested my hand on  his tummy which allowed him to trump loudly and violently eventually. The reduction in tomato has also allowed us to reduce the gaviscon back down and he's poo-ing again! Yay! Never thought I'd be excited over baby poo I have to admit. 


I've managed to finally come up with a non meat dinner that he will eat lol, I made him a lentil and aubergine curry and he really enjoys it. DD won't touch it yet, but one battle at a time. 


The muesli I mentioned last week has been unceremoniously kicked out of the house too, I tried little man again and he threw it up. I suspect its the hazelnuts but difficult to prove it without making him puke again so I'll leave all nuts until he's 1 now.


Meal times in general are becoming more interesting. I find that Morgan will eat better if he can feed himself, so breakfasts are now things like toast, banana bread, dry cereal or mini pancakes just so he can help himself. Naturally I'm sat with him worrying he isn't getting enough and encouraging him along by popping bits of toast, etc, into his mouth, but he is enjoying his bit of independence. I've always made sure his snacks are finger foods so there was no change there but I've had to re think lunches and dinners. Wherever possible, I give him some of what we're eating as finger food and if thats not possible I dish out breadsticks, rice cakes, veggie sticks or whatever I can think of/have in the house. It seems to be working as where sirs interest in food was starting to decline, he's suddenly not phased at being in his highchair and will watch what I'm doing as he seems to know that something interesting is coming his way!!


I'm still waiting for him to cut those teeth I mentioned before, 1 is so close to coming through. I just wish it would hurry up, poor child is suffering enough. I also want him to stop biting me! He seems to cry cos the teeth hurt, so I pick him up and he bites down on my shoulder. He feels better until I yelp and then the tears start again, really is a vicious circle!!!


The rest of the week has been dedicated to the impending house move, I am now dodging around boxes to get through the house and I've barely started. I can see cabin fever kicking in soon, especially once the boxes start to block out the telly/windows/doorways. Oh well, hopefully we'll be going in a couple of weeks. 



Tuesday 19 June 2012

Week 22

I'm having to change how often I blog, I don't really want to but at the moment I'm struggling to keep it up and I really don't want to stop blogging. I'm falling behind because of the impending move, which with any luck is only 3 weeks away, and we have the entire house to pack. Hard enough to do with a toddler and a baby under your feet but add in a husband that took a full 5 minutes to decide whether or not to keep an ancient secondhand Transformers manual (it's now at the local charity shop!!) and you can imagine what state our home is in... For now I'm going to blog about the high and low lights of our week and hope I manage to get organised enough to blog daily again.


We've had a busy week, we've been to my mums for the day and she encouraged me to try a 10 month plus jar while we were there, Morgan ate virtually all of this mammoth sized jar and didn't seem to notice the larger chunks of veg and pasta that were in it. Bit of a result really, means less work when I make his food at home lol. I've also tried him on my first muesli, which is also 10 months plus. He really loved it and ate all of it the first time he tried it. The next day he had virtually all of it again, but an hour later he was a bit sick. I know his reflux has been flaring up, but I thought we had it back under control. I suspect it may have been the ground hazelnuts in the muesli as its the first time he's had nuts. No signs of an allergy so maybe they are just a little rich for his tummy. I will find the courage to try him again soon and see if he reacts again.  


Sir has also become a cake monster! Any type of cake will do, fairy cakes, marble cake, angel layer cake, chocolate cake, whatever. Just don't offer him a muffin as he'll spit it back at you, as I found out after lovingly baking banana choc chip muffins yesterday lol. 


I've been keeping a closer eye on his eczema too as it has been worse the last week or 2. I think the weather hasn't helped but I've also realised he's having quite a bit of tomato in his diet. Virtually all the jar food I've been giving him on the run has tomato in it and I've started using tinned tomato more in his food. I'm trying really hard to cut it back again, difficult with a freezer full of tomato-ey baby food. I've had to make a few different tomato free batches to try and even things up again. Good news is it seems to be working, his eczema seems a bit calmer since.

Morgan is teething once again. I can see at least 3 teeth just under the gum that he should cut any day now. He's been hysterical with the pain of it, really not sleeping well, bright red and hot cheeks, chewing everything including his own arm and quite bad tempered. Can't say I blame him but it is a nightmare to deal with. I've kept him dosed on pain relief and teething gel. It's not made too much of an impact on his food intake but he does refuse to eat when he's really suffering.

Just to round things off, we've had to up his gaviscon again so he's on 4 sachets a day. The inevitable result is the poor child is constipated on top of everything else. I will reduce the gaviscon down again now as it's just not fair on him.

My poor little boy :-(

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Day 145

Not the greatest of nights in all honesty. Little lady had a bad dream at 5.15am and woke up screaming and little man fed at 11pm and 2am, he then woke up soaking wet at 6.30 meaning the tesco nappies have now let us down. Great.

For brekkie, little man had the last of the strawberry and banana porridge. Its the last of the first stage cereal I had so I've got a 10 month plus cereal to try him on now. I feel odd about him turning 10 months. I'm immensely proud of him and love him so much my heart could burst, I just keep remembering that when my little lady was 10 months I found out I was pregnant. She was so little!!!!! It keeps washing over me how wonderful they both are too, I am such a lucky mummy to have my 2 amazing babies.

Enough sentiment! (They are yummy though lol.) We went out to the toddler group this morning and I realised how glad I am for half term to be over so the regular toddler groups are back. I missed the mummy chatter and madam missed having loads of children and toys to play with. Sir wasn't so thrilled, he refused to go to sleep and ended up having a melt down just as we left because he was exhausted. He fell asleep on the way home and slept for about an hour in the end. When he woke up I fed him ham and pasta in tomato sauce and he had quite a bit. Pudding was refused.

After such a late nap I wasn't sure how he'd be this afternoon. I hoped he would go through till bedtime without another sleep but Morgan had other ideas! At dinner time he fussed over the salmon, sweet potato and spinach, but did have 3/4 of it then half his rice pudding. I put him up for a sleep as he was so tired and he had a half hour nap before bathtime.

He's gone to bed about half an hour later than normal but at least he settled himself for a change.


Tuesday 12 June 2012

Day 144

Bit of a horrid night with the little man, he woke up about 11.30pm and couldn't settle so ended up downstairs watching tv with daddy till just after 1am. Woke again at 3.30am for a bottle, so I changed his nappy at the same time, then at 7am he woke up soaking wet. He started the night in a tesco nappy which was fine, then was changed into a huggies which left him soaking in less than 4 hours, ridiculous. Think I'll just bin the huggies.

Once we were up, sir wasn't really interested in breakfast. We tried him on weetabix, pancakes and cheerios with no milk and he just picked at it all, so we gave up. I thought by lunch time he'd be really hungry having only had half a rich tea finger since brekkie but I was wrong. He very slowly ate some curried beef, he had maybe half of it before clamping his mouth shut and turning away. A few bites of marble cake was his pudding. So unusual for him to refuse food so something isn't right.

Morgan went for a nap just after 2pm, shockingly, so did our toddler girl. I sent DH up for a nap too as he'd been up till the early hours with sir. That just left me, so I swept the kitchen floor then had a better idea and went to sleep as well! Next thing I knew it was 4pm, blimey!!!

Morgan was a hungry, cranky boy by then so I fed him a jar of vegetable and chicken risotto and he ate really well at last. Afterwards I thought I'd try him on some angel layer cake but he'd had enough and threw it on the floor.

Bedtime was a mare, he refused to have his bottle then refused his dummy. Once I managed to wrestle him into his cot he refused to go to sleep. Arghh! In the end I lay him down on our bed and lay next to him reading a book till he dropped off, it took half an hour. He has been chewing anything he can lay his hands on this afternoon so I've dosed him up on pain relief as I can see the tops of 2 more teeth just under the gum, would explain why he doesn't want to eat too. Fingers crossed he has a better night.

Monday 11 June 2012

Day 143

He slept in his cot all night! No screaming for mummy, a bottle or because he was soaked from a dodgy nappy. I'm probably going to have a few rough nights just to make up for it lol. I thought I'd try tesco nappies after the last 2 brands failed and I'm amazed they may be the solution. I had to buy active fit ones for the day and ultra absorpbant for overnight but whatever works I suppose.

Once I was woken up by a little man giggling because his toes had disappeared (baby sleeping bags are my saviour with my wriggly little sleepy baby), we went downstairs in search of breakfast. Sir had banana porridge, dry cheerios and managed to get his hands on one of my hot cross buns, so he ate really well!!

He slept well before lunch and woke up hungry as he had missed snack time. I gave him chicken curry with rice and some popadoms. He did really well, possibly because he was distracted with crushing popadoms and sprinkling them everywhere.

After lunch my babies treated me to half an hour of hysterical laughter as they played peek a boo with each other. It was gorgeous watching them. They really do love each other, until one takes the others toy, its all out war after that lol.

Dinner was chicken pasta bake and he had it all. I offered him apple and blueberry puree afterwards but after a few spoons he gave up. His little tummy was bloated where he was so full :-)

With any luck the change of nappies will help him to sleep a bit better again tonight. I'll soon find out though.

Saturday 9 June 2012

Day 142

Sir didn't wake for a bottle, instead he tried to get me up at 6am so guess where he ended up sleeping for 2 hours. 6am is just an offensive time to be cried at!

Breakfast today was mini pancakes and strawberry and banana porridge. Morgan really took to the pancakes, he actually ate them this time instead of screwing them up and throwing them on the floor. He also ate about half his cereal.

Lunch was lamb roast. I think he found it a bit bland as he just wasn't interested in it, he very slowly ate less than half the bowl but was quick to eat all his rice pud afterwards. I can see myself having to tweak the lamb roast recipe now his tastes have changed, good thing I enjoy cooking!

After lunch the 3 of us went to see a hairdresser, only my toddler girl and me actually had our hair cut can I stress! Morgan decided halfway through he wanted a nap so I ended up with him on my lap while the poor woman tried to work around him pulling handfuls of my hair and wriggling around on my knee. All credit to her, she managed it somehow!!!

I made a roast chicken dinner but it all went wrong. The yorkshire puddings were soggy, DH insists his carrots were hard although everyone elses were fine and madam refused to eat anything other than 1 roast potato. Morgan did well, I blitzed down some roast potato, chicken, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and a spoon of gravy then gave him some finger food too. He really enjoyed it. The cauliflower on his tray was immediatley thrown on the floor but he happily tried the rest and ate the puree. He had half a fruit pot for pud.

Day 141

Mini man had an awful night, he didn't wake up but kept crying in his sleep. Is it possible for babies to have bad dreams at this age???? He isn't poorly and doesn't seem to be teething so not sure what was wrong. By 1am I had enough of getting up to him every half hour so brought him into our bed. He slept better with us but still kept crying out every hour or 2. He finally woke up at 7am and seemed happy but tired.

We have changed his gaviscon to being in his bedtime bottle instead of the 11pm feed and if he has a night feed  we put some in that too. It seems to have helped yesterday as he had no hiccups or any telltale swallowing/gulping noises. Fingers crossed it carries on although I wish I knew what had triggered it.

Breakfast today was banana porridge. He ate virtually all of it despite trying to duel with me using a spoon! 
We popped over to see another friend of mine who has a little boy 5 weeks younger than Morgan after brekkie. Her son is so sweet, he's also a chilled little fella compared to my feisty boy. Morgan wants to get up and run around/grab hold of anything nearby/pull my hair/smear soggy biscuit over me, whereas her son is happy to sit down and play. I get the impression Morgan is going to be a handful of a toddler very soon!!! It was lovely catching up with her, it's been a while since we last met up so it was amazing to see how much the boys had changed.

We left at lunch time as sir had refused a sleep and was kicking up a stink! He sparked in the car and slept for an hour. He woke up very hungry and ate all his chicken casserole plus half a fruit pot. 

For dinner, little man had some of the chicken pasta bake I'd made earlier in the day. I have tweaked my recipe and he loved it. I gave him a huge bowlful but he had a good go at it. He was a bit full afterwards so only had a few spoons of his custard. 

He was ok after his bedtime bottle again, so we'll keep up the gaviscon for now and see what happens.

Day 140

Another good night for Morgan, he slept till 8am with just one wake up for a feed. His reflux seems to be flaring up again though as he had violent hiccups just before bed last night and again after his night bottle. He also seems a bit uncomfortable when he lays down, preferring to be propped up slightly particularly in his sleep. I think we'll adjust his gaviscon again and see if it helps.

Breakfast today was toast and a fruit pot, he wasn't too fussed with the toast but did eat about quarter of a slice. The fruit pot was gone in seconds.

Mini man had curried beef for lunch, he had about 2 thirds of it before demanding some pudding. I gave him chocolate semolina but he wasn't really interested, he had a few spoons before he wanted to get down and chase his sister around.When I say chase, I mean hang on to my fingers to balance himself while he sprints after his sister roaring laughing and she tries to ward him off by using any toy that comes to hand while also roaring laughing. They have me in hysterics some days but it really doesn't do my back any favours!!

Dinner was pork and rice, he was really quite hungry by then so ate loads of it along with some apple and rhubarb crumble with oat cream.


Day 139

My gorgeous boy did so well overnight, he slept in his own cot all night and woke up just once for a bottle. He woke up a hungry boy and had almost all of a weetabix then had a handful of cheerios too. He really loved picking them up, twisting them around in his little hand before munching on them.

We disappeared to my friends house for lunch so I took a jar of vegetable risotto with chicken and a fruit pot with me. He did really well, eating most of the jar and half the fruit pot. He loved watching our girls playing together, he was giggling, trying to join and pull himself up using my hair while we were there. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and ended up having an hour and a half nap.

Dinner was salmon, sweet potato and spinach. He hasn't had it for a while and seemed to love it, he kept reaching for the spoon and crying out if he wasn't fed quick enough lol. He had a slice of marble cake afterwards and demolished it! He then managed to lay his hands on his sisters piece of cake, she had left it within reach without us knowing, and within seconds he had ripped it apart and was stuffing chunks of it in his happy little mouth. Any one would think I never feed him.



Tuesday 5 June 2012

Day 138

I fell into the trap at 1am, little man decided mummy's arms were the safest and cosiest place to sleep and would not settle again anywhere else, so guess where he slept the for rest of the night... I cannot wait for us to move so he has his own room, I'm hoping that I will actually stick to my guns if he's not in the same room as us. We seem to be quite a way through the process so I feel a little easier mentioning it now! We currently live in a 2 bed and are buying a 3 bed. I'm still afraid of the whole process will go belly up, but the new house is the only place I could picture our furniture and we viewed about 15 houses in the end.

Anyway, once I was woken up by a gorgeous little man pulling my hair then grinning at me, we had some breakfast together with my beautiful little lady. Morgan managed half a bowl of banana porridge and quarter of a crumpet, not bad really.

He went down for a nap earlier than I expected so I used the opportunity to get myself, my girl and the bag ready to go out as soon as he woke up. Madam had other ideas though and managed to wake him up early with an almighty tantrum. She's just not her usual happy, cheeky self at the moment, I have an awful feeling she's coming down with something but time will always tell.

Once Morgan was awake, we went dashing out to the health food shop to stock up on dairy and soya free yogurts, cheese and chocolate. We got back just in time for lunch and little man had half his pork and apple roast dinner and a choccie biccie afterwards.

To make up for this morning, he had a really good nap, waking up just in time for dinner. I heated up some chicken curry, which he had almost all off, followed by rice pudding. Needless to say he ate really well and was full of energy, chatter and giggles afterwards!


Monday 4 June 2012

Day 137

I must be the only person that finds bank holiday weekends a complete bore. For me it's usually a long 3 or 4 days where DH is at work and I have my 2 babies to entertain with nothing to do and no one around to see. Thankfully this one has been broken up quite nicely as yesterday we had our friends over, our girls are the same age and both are comedy geniuses. Today one of our neighbours has decided to hold an impromptu get together on the green to mark the jubilee and everyone in our close seemed to turn out. It was nice finding out who's around us, shame we are just a few weeks away from moving lol.

Anyway, onto food. Sir had toast and a fruit pot for brekkie but didn't have a great deal. He was the same at lunch, despite having lamb roast which is usually a firm favourite. Pud was yesterdays untouched custard and he did ok with that.

Having realised the cupboards are looking quite bare again, we went out and got a roasted chicken for our dinner. I boiled up some potato with apple, carrot, shallot and thyme then blitzed it down with some of the chicken and he ate loads. I handed him a few carrot slices and some strips of chicken as finger food but he wasn't too impressed. He also ate 3/4 of an apple and blueberry fruit pot afterwards. I'm just pleased he's finally eaten well.

The new nappies worked well last night, he did wake up at 3am again but that was from hunger rather than being wet through. Hopefully he'll settle at night again now.


Day 136

Stupid nappy leaked again so we had a 4am wake up call from a soggy, cold and uncomfortable baby. I've gone out and bought some Huggies but the price is absurd, twice what I was paying for Sainsburys own. No way will I keep buying them so once they're gone I'll have to try another brand. 

Once sir was clean and dry he slept till 7am. He woke up really quite happy and was extra smiley when we went to get his sister up straight away. They are so sweet together, little lady was full of smiles and giggles for him as she got out of bed and he had the first cuddle of the day from her. 

I fed Morgan weetabix for brekkie while I danced around the kitchen making pancakes for us all. He had a half a weetabix and 2 mini pancakes in the end. Little lady had about 9 mini pancakes with strawberry jam, she always seems to eat more pancakes when she's helped me to make the batter. I really can't wait to have 2 little kitchen helpers making mess with me!!!

I heated up some curried beef for sirs lunch, but he wasn't that interested in eating for some reason. I assume he was still full from brekkie as he had slept well, etc. He managed ok with his chocolate semolina though...

He was hungry by dinner time and had most of his chicken pasta bake. Only trouble was he hadn't slept in the afternoon so was falling asleep in his high chair, I didn't bother offering him any pud and DH put him up for a nap. Fortunatley he only had 30 minutes so wasn't up much past his usual bedtime.

Saturday 2 June 2012

Day 135

Morgan tried to get me up at 6am today, but he fell for my double bluff and went back to sleep in our bed till 8am, ha ha!! He did manage to successfully get us up at 3.30am as he was soaking wet where his nappy had leaked, he had a bottle at this time too as he couldn't settle. When he woke at 8am he was soaked through again. We bought nappies yesterday and noticed the design on his nappies has changed and they've come down in price so I'm wondering if they are no longer as absorbent. They've been ok during the day but if we have leakages again tonight I will go and get some different ones. 

This mornings breakfast was toast and an apple and banana fruit pot. I was really proud of sir as he fed himself about half the toast, the rest was kindly shared with the highchair and floor, and had all the fruit pot. He was full of energy and mischief after that and spent a good half hour making me walk him from the front door to the back door and back again. 

We went out to the library mid morning and little man had a sleep in the pushchair, he woke up desperate to walk up and down the house again so worked up quite an appetite. He had chicken curry with poppadoms for lunch, he did well again eating 3/4 of it. I gave him a slice of marble cake afterwards and he was very happy pulling it apart in between mouthfuls! 

I had a bit of an odd afternoon. I was fine all day until after lunch when I felt really dizzy, weak and lethargic. I couldn't get rid of the feeling so my lovely friend came over to look after us and I cannot thank her enough. She took us all back to her home and fed both my babies. Morgan had a third of a jar of vegetable risotto with chicken I think, I just picked up whatever was in the cupboard before we left so can't be completely sure! He also had some rice pudding I'd made yesterday. DH picked us up once he finished work and brought us back home but even now I feel odd, just wish I knew what was going on as its frustrating feeling like this. Hopefully some sleep will help so over to you little man! 

Friday 1 June 2012

Day 134

And today he slept till 7am! Woo hoo!! Please, please, please let him keep this up!!!! The world is so much brighter when I've slept well.

He was a hungry boy soon after he woke up but wasn't overly impressed with the instant porridge I'd made up. He had maybe half of it, but then spotted his dummy on the table and wanted that instead. I refused to give him it but he somehow managed to grab hold of it, I suspect there was a helpful toddler girl involved. Once the dummy went in there was no chance of any more food being eaten so I gave up.

I went out with my girl to try a new active toddler group in the morning, leaving Morgan asleep with his daddy. I received a message while we were out saying little man had woken up and was saying "da da da" through the monitor. I wish I'd been there as I just know he was pile of mushy love on hearing that!

I got back with little lady just before lunch so spent a frantic 15 minutes trying to prepare 3 different lunches (some days I really curse us all having different food allergies) while madam was pulling at my dress demanding snacks and sir was sat in his walker crying his heart out for some food. DH was merrily pegging out washing in the garden completely oblivious to the ear splitting racket the 3 of us were making in the kitchen, men! It calmed down once the babies were seated in their chairs with a few breadsticks. Eventually, I managed to give Morgan his beef casserole, he had all of it along with most of his apple and rhubarb crumble with oat cream.

Dinner was a bit less challenging, although I had spent 2 hours in the kitchen by then making bread, chicken curry, rice pudding, lamb curry and boiled and quinoa. I heated up some chicken pasta bake for his dinner, he really enjoyed it and kept trying to grab hold of the bowl to feed himself. I will be brave soon and put the bowl in front of him, honest... Pudding was apple and banana puree, well at least it was till he realised his sister had choccie drops. One taste of a chocolate drop and he was converted lol.

Even after his mammoth dinner, Morgan still managed to have most of his bedtime bottle. With any luck it will set him up for another good night.