Sunday, March 27, 2011

Children of Men

Children of Men was on tonight. Not familiar with this movie starring Clive Owen, you can read about here.

I remember it being on here before and I was in the middle of an IVF cycle. I watched it not knowing what it was about and I was like sweet. There was only one woman on Earth who was pregnant, and all that infertility was too much at the time to handle.

And no, I did not watch it tonight.

Friday, March 25, 2011

23 weeks

Superbaby turned 5 months this week and man is he ever amazing and growing! All the pants I have for him are too long. That’s why I rock the onesies on top sometimes, to me they look cute. Not all outfits look “right” this way, but I have a few that do. I started putting his little shoes on sometimes when we go out, OMG waaay too cute! Boots, sneakers, its more fun for me than anyone. Superbaby could care less, so I have the fun for now.

He uses his hands a lot. He started holding up his hands and twisting them around sort of, just looks at them. When he does this I say “take me to your leader”, like he is sending communications to someone. His grip is getting better and he’s still rolling over just half way. His neck muscles are alot stronger too. And he laughs... boy is this kid happy!

Super S’s aunt was here the other day and she said we are crazy. Crazy in a good way, I hope. We always act and talk silly, dance and do stupid things with Superbaby and she got a kick out of it. I assume all parents do this, don't they?

Yesterday we bought him a walker. It has lights, music and turns into a rocker. Lots of fun dials and shift knobs, a speedometer like a car kind of. When we got home I put him in it and he was leaning his head over trying to eat the dials and buttons, LOL. So it may be alittle early for him. Super S pushed him around in it and was smiling, his sly smile. Probably thinking "what the hell is this thing guys?"

I started giving Superbaby a small spoon of rice cereal and a small spoon of yogurt every other day. He loves it! We tried some bananas from Gerber, not happenin'. Fresh will be better I think, but will wait until next month to try again.

He is breastfeeding almost every 2 hours. I read alot of babies at his age feed every 3-4 hours? I know all babies are different, but do you think I should be supplementing at all? Maybe more cereal? He seems to be gaining weight just fine though.

When we got back to Cairo we had to get Superbaby the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis, as they no longer give in the US, but it is required here in Egypt. It was given in his upper left arm. He has a raised bump there now, looks terrible really. It is normal and they say painless but man it looks awful. It is suppose to go away by one year old, we'll see. Every time he takes a bath I look at it and feel like it hurts him but have to remind myself it doesn't.

Superbaby is so observant. He takes in everything all the time. I mean he really seems like he is studying everything, always. He is so quiet when we go for walks whether he’s in his stroller or in the Lascal carrier. He just looks around and is so content. Like I said before, a genius in the making!

Have a great weekend!


 

Friday, March 18, 2011

22 weeks

Superbaby chilin' in the warm Cairo air...
And yes that IS a onesie over pants, don't hate.









Friday, March 4, 2011

20 weeks

Superbaby is 4 months and 11 days old today, 20 weeks. Still hard to believe that he's really here. I think I'll feel this way all his life and will never forget what it took for him to get here. He too will know what a special gift he is and his long journey to us once he's older. Maybe he'll say, "Does that make me an IVF-er too Mom?" Yes baby it does.

So milestones.... he is almost rolling over, he turns all the way to one side then flips back, that complete roll is just around the corner. Then yesterday and today we had him on his tummy, he rolled to his side and then onto his back, woo hoo.

He's holding his head up pretty well. He sits with our assistance and when we put him in the Bumbo chair his head is not shaking as much as it was last week, it’s pretty steady. I think in a few weeks he will sit holding his head up alone, we'll see.

The sounds he makes are changing... from you know that gah gah gah baby sound to more like he is trying to form "real" sounds. The other day he was lying down and instead of the usual crying/fussing to be picked up, he was like calling me, not crying but making loud, long sounds I loved it!

He laughs real laughs now. Super S really makes him laugh with silly mouth gestures and talking its so cute! His whole face smiles, not just his mouth but really his whole face shines when he smiles.... the best smile is that morning smile, once he focuses and sees us that first smile is worth more than anything in the world! Do babies usually smile this much? He is so damn happy all the time its awesome!

He may be teething, I think. I thought at first it was just hand eating and exploring... I give him teething beads and he chomps down on those suckers hard. He has starting being a bit fussy too, he turns his Soothie to the side and bites on it too. I read babies can start teething as early as four months even though the first tooth doesn't come in until about 6 months.

He started raising his hands up while he's on his back, like stretches them out to me and I put them in my mouth, he laughs and laughs. He also grabs my face with one hand and puts the other in my mouth.

Superbaby still sleeps with us, in our bed. Not using his co sleeper bed though as he's too big now. So where does he sleep... between us. Yup danger and all he sleeps between Super S and I and its awesome! We have a great system and have not rolled on him. If you thinks this sucks, that’s cool but we love it and it totally works for us.

He naps really well. I wouldn't say we have developed a schedule exactly, but he sleeps through the night. He eats when he wants, works out to be about every 2-3 hours and seems to be extremely happy. The reflux has passed, stopped having the bouts just before he hit 4 months. I give him what I call his herbal elixir every night. It’s a powder I mix with 50ml of water and it contains anise, chamomile, liquorice, and a few other yummy ingredients he loves it! He holds his bottle while drinking and even tilts it when he gets to the end.

Funny thing happen, about 3 weeks ago I tried to give him formula before bed. He is exclusively breastfed, but I had some formula from hospital and I thought I will try and see if he likes it, I will give him a bottle before bed and I only had a few to get rid of so I thought why not. The reason I had the formula, when we went home from hospital Superbaby lost weight so I had to supplement for a few days and of course I had so many sample cans from them too.

Anyway, you should have seen his face when I tried to give it to him, one suck and he was like wtf is this lemon or what? I know when babies taste something for the first time they make a face, but this was different, he did not like it at all. I tasted it and it was nasty as hell, I so don't blame him. God Willing my milk stays around.

We got his 4 month immunizations the other day. All the same shots as if we were in the States but the one for Polio was oral drops; I think in the US it’s an injection? He did great, a little crying, slept afterwards and was sort of fussy the rest of the night but the next day all good.

The other day we went to Toys R Us in Cairo (located in Roxy in case any people reading live here and want to know) for the first time. I must say I was impressed. The store was huge (which is not usual here, all shops are so small do to space) and they really had a great selection comparable to back home. One side was even a Babies R Us and had tons of stuff too. They had a really cool Stroller, which we don't need, but it looked awesome. It’s called Symbio by Graco. I wondered why I had not seen in my EXHAUSTIVE stroller search when we were in the States and I think this is only available in Europe and this region now. I'm still super thrilled with our purchase though (The First Years Wave), Superbaby sleeps the best in this stroller while in bassinet mode, but I bet for not much longer though as he's growing.

Here's something fun, I have Plantar Fasciitis. Sounds like its a fatal disease or at least some scary shit huh, but no, it’s like a heel spur and man is it painful! Good news is that it should go away or at least the pain will subside by doing these stretching exercises.

So life here with my Super’s is good. I can't wait until Superbaby can hug and us and kiss us and tell us he loves us, but it’s that first hug I’m waiting for...