Aimee's second Xmas

Aimee had a tremendous Christmas in MK surrounded and thoroughly spoiled by her grandparents, aunties, uncle and half the stock of ToysRUs!
The little one seemed to devlop a quantum leap whilst in MK. Aimee refuses to crawl now, no matter how many falls, she picks herself up and carries on walking. She is also 'chatting'non-stop. It might sound like squawking to our untrained ears, but in baby world, she is chatting.
Almost everything you do, Aimee now tries to copy. Including dance moves, drinking, brushing teeth, eating, and pointing, her new power tool. We saw the beginnings of her pointing at objects and demanding they come to her. Usually dangerous things banned to Aimee - resulting in a short spell of tantrums. Nevertheless, it is amazing to see Aimee go through this growth spurt. I feel I am able to communicate much more with Aimee in a two way process. Certainly it is a very exhausting but very enjoyable time.

WARNING TO XMAS SHOPKEEPERS

WARNING - A small hobbit like creature has been spotted lurking amongst electronic gadgets section of department stores. Be on the lookout but do not approach. Althought on the surface it is seemingly harmless and even quite cute, this creature is highly dangerous with non-stop dribble and possible foul odours emanating from the bottom end.

MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Aimee fame continues to reach a wider audience. Her photo was in the Daily Mirror on Monday and now, she will be used for a huge wall display in the reception to the Hong Kong office of the BBC. How impressive is that? I wonder if the HK office picked Aimee because she is half chinese? Or because she is the prettiest baby in the universe? No bias in that statement of course.

Just a virus

Boy, we thought we'd seen the worst an Aimee illness can bring, but this past week, Aimee has really been on form.
It started with a general bout of whinging and fussing during the day and refusal to eat or drink. Nothing we hadn't seen before. Then, quite without warning, Aimee prjectile vomited her entire stomach contents - a satisfying blend of cheesy curdled formula milk and flakey rice. The next 3 or 4 days were hell as she cried constantly and doubled up in pain. At one stage, when she started to act listless and eyes rolling, we took her to the hospital but they simply said she had a virus and she was not in serious danger. The GP, a few days later said the same. Both me and Cat took turns and used up our annual leave to care for Aimee. We also missed a handful of Xmas parties. But it was all worth it as of course, now, Aimee is now fully recovered and acts like before - only more hyper and more uncontrollable, with her incessant search and destroy behaviour. Welcome back to the land of the living, AimeeO.

Projectiles

Poor little Aimee is unwell again. Crying constantly, no interest in food or drink and barely making any effort to crawl or walk. When she projectile vomited and started acting all drowsy and listless we wondered if it was concussion from a bang to the head? So off we went to the hospital for an emergency check-up. They found nothing wrong other than a sore throat. The paediatrician said she suspected Aimee had a virus infection. This I know to be a euphemism for ‘I don’t have a clue, but if I say virus infection, it will impress the parents.’ So we’re back, at home, with a very upset and crying baby and still, no appetite for food or drink. Cat called her friend and they confirmed that they too had suffered similar – so obviously it is a bug going around. Poor Aimee, I hope it clears up soon, cos it is horrible watching her double up in pain.

STOP PRESS - Aimee can walk

STOP PRESS....Aimee can walk!
She took about 10-20 steps on Tuesday at nursery and since then, has been walking for longer and more often each day. Sadly, both me and Cat are at work so really only seen glimpses, as by the end of the day, she is too cranky to try. But hopefully, this weekend, I will have a full video report. Wow, how the little one grows so fast.

Doh!

~In honour of the Simpsons, Mummy and Daddy teach Aimee a very important gesture.



We love Youtube!!!

Aimee takes a stroll

Aimee takes a stroll. I'm trying out video links, let's see if this works. This was taken with my dad's cheapy digicam on Sunday November 26



Brilliant! It works
More to come then.

Mission Impossible

After the highlight of Aimee reaching one years old, this old man has been brought crashing down to the reality of child rearing. Cat decided finally, she would get a much needed rest and went away to her parents for a couple of days. This meant me looking after the baby entirely alone for the first time. WAAAAAAAH!

A 6am start on DAY 1 meant I had a headache by 8am. The day was not beginning well not helped by terrible weather outside killing off any ideas I had about easy pram rides. But after a while, Aimee and me got on with the important business of the day – namely – hunting down imaginary objects in the house and destroying all things in her path. Currently, Aimee seems obsessed with certain jewellery, Calpol bottles, hair clips and CD covers – Toy makers take note, these are the real things babies love. She crawls at such a pace that a small lapse of concentration on my behalf and she is already out of the room. Day 1 ended with a fairly standard routine but by then, I was ready to conk out myself and next thing I knew, it was 6am and same again.

On Day 2 – I couldn’t cope and drove down early to my parents for help. There she went about the same madcap hunt for objects of interest and destroying all in her path. This time though, she showed off her unaided standing skills with aplomb. We really don’t think it will be long before she actually can walk. Meanwhile, her musical stroller helps her get about the place with added comedy soundtrack. Anyway, so there's me after 48 exhausting hours fairly smug to have survived and confident that not many Dads could cope like I coped (ha!) and Aunt Catriona rings and after explaining my weekend, she off the cuff remarks that Oh yes, Donald (her son, Cat's cousin) had looked after Callum every Monday all the time! Oh jeez, humbled in one fell swoop.

Come back Mum , all is forgiven.

Birthday Girl

After a hellish night where Aimee screamed her lungs off and we were both reduced to sleepless tears, Aimee's first birthday went off without too much fuss.
Clearly, she was in some distress about some new teeth that have decided now to make their presence known. But she was too distracted by the noises, smell and lots of friendly faces at the Shanghai Restaurant where we all ate lovely Dim Sum. Cat invited her friend Jennifer, her husband and their little 13 month boy Luke. My Mum and Dad also came.



As always, Aimee loved all the attention, although she obviously has no idea why all the fuss today. Little Luke is very funny. He is actually very developed and is able to communicate with his parents using words like MAW (= more), NANNA (= banana), MUMMY, DADDY, HAWO etc. All this from a boy only one month older than Aimee. We gets lots of sounds and vocal noises from Aimee but they don;t seem to be directed with any meaning. But we're not worried.
In any case, why worry when your baby is an international star, as the screen shot from the BBC website shows:



Yes the Robert Winston program is now out and all the press release pictures have included several Aimee photos. So far only the BBC and the Guardian have chosen Aimee's picture.

Funny Aimee antic of the day - she finds it REALLY hilarious when we slap our foreheadds (don;t ask how we found out). But she laughs her head off, then, she copies us. I mean we try and try to teach her important things like how to use a spoon etc but she ignores our actions, then, we slap our heads and she copies us like a little mime artist and pisses herself laughing. Amazing!
If I can get the video thingy to work, I maybe able to post visual evidence of her head slapping skillz.

Hallucinations

There is a little talked about phenomenon – and maybe it only affects us – but most nights, Cat will truly believe that Aimee is in bed with us (even though she has NEVER slept in our bed). Each time, Cat reacts slightly different. For example sometimes it is just a gently pat on the shoulder from Cat, other times, Cat will leap up and go into panic mode frantically grabbing tightly onto me and yelling at me to NOT FALL DOWN. Of course I wake up in a state with Cat yanking on my arm/shoulder/ whatever is nearest.I used to think this was all due to lack of decent sleep, but it happened to me the other day. It was during the day and Cat was out and I was looking after Aimee. She went to sleep for an afternoon nap and so did I. Perhaps only 15 minutes had elapsed when I was absolutely convinced that Aimee had jumped, yes jumped, out of the cot and was lying helpless and unconscious on her bedroom floor. Still half asleep I leapt out of bed like my pants were on fire and madly ran into Aimee’s room bursting open the door. It took me a few seconds to see that Aimee was peacefully asleep in her cot just as when I left her. My heart was thumping crazily and I was just so scared, but calmed down eventually. But no, I didn’t get any further rest that day as I was haunted by my hallucination. It hasn’t happened again thankfully, but poor Cat is still bugged by her fears at night.

FEED ME SEYMOUR

Aimee got over the worst of her diahorrea eventually buther appetite remained stubbornly minimal for about two weeks. We wereboth very worried she wasn't eating anything, Cat even checked with the doctor but he didn't seem at all worried. Just said to come back if she carried on like this for another fortnight. A FORTNIGHT! She could waste away by then.Maybe he knew something we didn't. Almost immediately the next day, Aimee decided she was gonna eat. And for the past week now, she seems to be playing catch-up by wolfing down whatever you throw at her. Yoghurt, lentils, pasta, veg, porridge - even toast - she'll wolf it down with gusto.It's really great to see her eat so well after the trauma of her feeding strike. It is also a good op for me to experiment with new foods and Aimee seems to like everything at the moment. We still have avoided any meat though. The first time she tried chicken, she got diarhorrea. It may have been unlinked, but we weren't gonna take risks, so the nursery feed her veg. I plan to re-introduce fish soon. She liked it before, and I want her to explore with her hands more and feed herself. She is starting to do that with food I place on her baby table.

Aimee loves standing. She clings onto any handy object (playpen frame, door knobs, your trousers!) and just stands for ages. She then readjusts to a one handed show-off stance, then, sometimes, removes both her hands, but quickly plummets down onto her bum. I think she yearns to play like the bigger kids in the nursery. She's probably bored in the baby rooms cos the other two babies cry ALL DAY. I mean they cry when I drop her off in the morning and they cry when I pick them up at night. The carer has to cuddle them ALL DAY. So naturally Aimee is already thinking, this is boring! And stands by the gate looking out at all the fun in the toddler room. Sorry Aimee, but you'll have to stay there for at least another 6 months.



Aimee says three words so far: Mamamamama, Daddeee, uh-oh
I think the uh-oh is mean't to be Hullo, but she says it all the time so we just copy her and she loves it. She also loves being thrown around, upside down and spun around. We don;t do it too often, just in case we drop her, or she pukes on our heads, but it's a nice treat for her every now and again.

Hitting the fan

Shit, shite, poo, plop, brown stuff, "wing nuts" (that one from Cat) - whatever you call it we are up to our necks in it, literally. Little Aimee is still explodnig gallons of the liquid brown stuff and I am just sick of it. With her diarrhorea, the the nursery has a policy of not taking her in. So one of us has to take time off work. That in itself is not a problem. What is a problem is the not knowing when it will happen. Aimee gives off no signs of squeezing. She just sits there grinning and before you know it, there is a bad smell and all her clothes are soiled. Then there is the washing, scrubbing, soaking, disinfecting and literally shovelling off the litres ofpoo that covers her clothes. Poor Aimee, I guess it is not her fault. But it seems the nappies just can;t handle her explosive outputs.
The only plus side at least is that she appears to be completly healthy with no symptoms of dehydration of malnurishment. Her apetite is returning, albeit laced with an extreme degree of fussiness we have not seen before. But it is admitedly a struggle.
So, as usual with us Yangs. It is sleeves rolled up and all hands on the deck. I am swapping looking after my Dad shift with my Mum, sho is looking after Aimee, while Cat has to go to work. As they say, then the shit happens, it really happens big time. Let's hope Aimee recovers soon, or I will be buying shares in Biotex stain remover.

Bugs, TVs and Dummys

It's really true - when your kid gets sick, you get it too, with extra on top. This past week, the day after Aimee's night of hellish puking, both me and Cat ended up with constant vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps. Clearly, this 'bug' that Aimee caught from the nursery is very infectious. It was no fun being sick and looking after a poorly Aimee so I drafted in my mother, who was her usual saintly self and did everything in the house. We could not have coped otherwise. Aimee seems to have got over the worst of her sickness in one day but still has no apetite for solid food five days later. Me and Cat took much longer to recover, and are only now getting back into the swing of our routine.But today, the nursery asked Cat to come and pick Aimee up since she has been releasing some very runny poos in quick succession and they think she is still ill. Their policy is that any baby with diarrhoea is barred in case it spreads ot other children (how do they think Aimee got it in the first place?) This means a day or more off work for both me and Cat. A real pain but hwat canyou do? Aimee is actually fine and very happy.

New Aimee tricks - she stands very well and plays her piano standing up for ages. She can walk up stairs with assistance and, her favourite at the nursery - she crawls up to another baby to pull out its dummy. Aimee the highway robber! But the best is at home, she reaches out beyond her playpen and turns on the TV. Once it is on she turns it off and so on until she gets bored. Amazing,if slightly irritating if you are trying to watch TV.Me Mum claims Aimee can clap her hands and wave hello and bye.But I suspect these are just highly prompted but ramdom arm movements since none of us can get her to repeat these exercises.Not long now before she is one year old. What an amazing landmark that day will be.

Retching Time

Poor Aimee. Last night she got sick and vomitted non-stop all night. When there was nothing left to bring up, her little stomach was still spasming away and she was obviously in great distress.
We racked our brains thinking what could make her so ill. Was it our organic home-cooked baby food? Was it all the toys she stuffs into her mouth? Had she ingested something dirty from the carpet? Maybe all of these things, maybe none.
It was a tough night with calls to NHS Direct, then to the night doctor. But in the end, finally after 7 hours, the retching stopped and Aimee slept but we both kept guard all night in anycase.
Cat called the nursery to inform them of Aimee's illness and they said that she was the third baby to call in sick with identical symptoms. So, we found the most likely source of her illness - the nursery. Turns out there is some virus going around causing the kids to be violently sick, but are fine the next day.
Aimee is recouperating now, but still pushes out a little smile every now and again. That's what makes her so magic.

Go! Go! Go!

And she's off!!
Aimee can officially crawl - and boy does she move fast. Kind of like a very speedy young tortoise. Her target - anything dangerous on the far side of the room. It's really amazing to see, one day she was shifting in a semi-crawl maybe four steps, the next day, she was crawling properly on hands and knees. And she clearly loves it.
Aimee can now say 'Daddy' with alarming clarity. When I picked her up from nursery, she shouted out daddy. But ruined it by saying daddy to the nursery staff and even Cat. So obviously she doesn;t know what it means, but she says it lots which makes me happy.
Cat took Aimee to the weighing centre and, on the eve of her 10th month, she weighed 8lbs7oz which is plumb on the average for her age line. So we at least know she ain't starving.

Escape from Aimee-traz

Is it clever to be able to stand-up byyourself? Is it clever to be able to escape from a strapped down rocking chair? Is it clever to be able to crawl on your hands and knees?
It is when you are only 9 and a half months old. We Aimee has demonstrated the early steps in these essential skills. The photo below shows her escapology tricks.



Handful is too fine a word for it. Precocious would be better description. You cannot leave her alone for a second.

Luckily, we have enlisted the help of Nai-nai - my Mum. Today was the first day of her regular Monday baby-minding duties. To be honest, I feared that my Mum wouldn't cope and Aimee would have one of her really bad days where no food woul dbe eaten, no drink drunk and no cuddling or rocking would send her to sleep (erm, that's most days actually.)
I needn't have worried as Aimee enjoyed her most productive day ever, with full food, drink and sleep quotas completely satisfied. My Mum even had time to bathe her, take her out to the park and do some tidying and cleaning - wow! Clearly, we have much to learn in the Mum and Dad stakes.

Tomorrow, it's back to the day nursery where Aimee clearly also has a very good time. ME, well I have to make the mad dash to get to work very early so I can leave in time to pick her up in the evening. In October, I have requested reduced working hours so I can leave work early obviously with less pay :(

Addictive love

It is the eve of Cat's first day back at work and she has turned in early for the night. To ensure a good night's sleep, earplugs are in and Daddy is on midnight duty. Yes, the little one still does not sleep a full night and regularly wakes up crying. Is this normal? Who cares. It is normal for us now and we're pretty certain it won't be long before she growes out of it.



I have to say that right now, life as a Dad and as a family is wonderful. Each day with Aimee brings both me and Cat immense joy and satisfaction, more so now than ever before. She gives so much joy and fun back to us thatnot a day goes by without us breaking down in fits of giggles at Aimee's antics. Our friend Steve said that hanging around Aimee was addictive. That would be a very good explanation of things. Sure things aren't always that easy - especially at nappy changing time where she has the will of a tyrant as she struggles and fights to avoid the big clean-up. But boy oh boy, what a cutie she is.

I'll report on how my new role as daddy pick-up goes as Cat gets settled in to work and I add the nursery pick-up into my routine.

First day at the baby nursery

The day finally arrived that every parent dreads - the leaving of your precious little one to a bunch of strangers. Aimee's first day at baby-nursery was a a very successful day indeed. The nursery is quite large with three 'rooms' each containing children separated according to age groups. As soon as you open the door, there is a cacophony of noise - fun noise like laughter and yells and general racket. The baby room was very quiet and quite laid back. As we put Aimee down in the room and chatted to tha staff, Aimee just went about her usual routine of playing, observing everything, and playing. She was very happy. But not as happy as when the food arrived. She sat there all quiet and lovely at the baby chair and the staff brought in freshly cooked organic pasta and tomato with cheese. Me and Cat looked at it and then at each other. 'She ain't gonna eat all that' we both said. The portion was enough to fill a grown man let alone a baby, let alone a baby that is really fussy like Aimee. How wrong we were! Aimee finished the lot! I swear, it was the most we had ever seen her eat in one go. Plus she had pudding - although was visibly flagging mid way through the middle of her rice pudding. The other babies even looked surprised. Aimee just sat there and with each spoobful opened her little mouth wanting more.



Aimee even had a little sleep in the cot. A minor miracle considering the background noise. But she was soooo whacked out. Cat and I celebrated/calmed aourselves down with an Aimee-free lunchtime at Shanghai - the amazing Dim Sum restaurant in Dalston.
In the evening, Aimee ate all her dinner and drank all her milk. Could this be the dawn of a brand new Aimee?
Time will tell, but adding the nursery drop-off and pick-up routine into our daily cycle will take a lot of effort, planning and of course - lots of money.

Crawling, rolling, juggling

It is so hard to believe that nine and a half months ago, my life was about to take a huge leap into fatherhood. How innocent and unknowing I was then. Fast forward to now and I cannot imagine my life without this little bundle of love called Aimee.Aimee has developed in huge leaps recently. She now plays with toys and examines them rather than eats them or ignore them. She certainly has firm favourites - mainly a couple of furry toys she hugs at night. Yes, the dreaded night time. The pattern seems to be changing. She'll still wake up and cry at various points in the night, but I have put a firm foot down and insisted we do not attend to her needs. It so far seems to be working as Aimee will fuss for about ten minutes, but soon settles and doesn't stir until about 7am.
Cat has built a massive playpen out of TWO BabyDan cages. By linking them both up, there
is still (just) enough room to walk around the perimeter and switch on the TV. Inside, Aimee can roll around to her heart's content. Today, she even crawled for about a foot forward. Its the funiest thing. Her arms and legs were a frenzied blur but her belly remained rooted to the floor, but little by little, she inched forward to finally obtain the object she so desperately craved (some random toy).
With every positive, there is a negative. Aimee is still a massive fusspot when eating and drinking. We are convinced she takes in maybe a fraction of what she should be eating each day. But she has developed a whole raft of cunning techniques to avoid us getting the spoon into her mouth. We battle every day with this, and it frustrates us enormously. But, I guess somehow she does get enough to eat cos she seems healthy enough.On Tuesday this week, we put Aimee into the nursery for a few hours. This will be her very first time in the hands of strangers. It'll probably be me and Cat freaking out with nerves and hysterics rather than Aimee - who is more than happy with strangers. But it needs to be done. In a week, Cat goes back to work and thus begins a new chapter in our lives - the dual working parent juggling act.


A hyped Aimee inside the 'cage'

Sticky buns

A terribly long absence from the Aimee blog, apologies to all my three readers!
Well it certainly has been eventful recently. Firstly, Aimee’s Grandad (Ye-Ye in Chinese), my Dad, suffered a stroke and is recovering in hospital. Aimee went to visit him several times and seems to be quite excited with the hustle and bustle of hospital life. It certainly put a smile on my Dads face to see the little one. I especially adore his personal descriptive comments of Aimee. My favourite being the one where he likens her pudgy hands to Chinese dim sum dish called bao-bao – white puffy buns filled with sweet meat. Quite accurate.

Aimee now has three teeth with a fourth possibly about to appear soon – we hope, since each tooth brings at least 3 nights of painful crying at night and no sleep for me and Cat.
She is increasingly active and explorative these days. The front room has two padded play mats that cover the entire floor space – and still she finds nooks and crannies in which to wedge herself. All this from a baby who cannot yet crawl. The preferred method of locomotion is to roll sideways, or bum shuffle backwards. We cannot take our eyes of her for a second or some impending object will be grabbed or she will disappear down some cactus plant pot.

On a positive front, Aimee can pretty much go to sleep at night without the long drawn out routine of rocking, feeding, comforting etc that we have been doing for the past 8 months. After a generous bottle feed, a few words goodnight, we leave her in the cot to play with her toys (she loves cuddly animals now) eventually falling asleep. So far, only the teething pains have woken her.Aimee starts nursery next month. I’ll report on how she does in my next article.

Whispering Mee-mee

Things busy here chez Yangs. Baby Yang has a throat infection. Hence, Aimee is in pain and will not drink anything. As it is pretty hot weather recently, we were worried so the doctor gave us lots of painkilling drugs to give to her. They seem to work and she is sipping a few ounces here and there.
On the positive front, Cat checked out a number of local nurserys. Some are very professional and excellent - offering endless games and tests and a report sheet at the end of each day. Others are mere excuses for poor families to dump their unloved kids in unstimulating surroundings...very sad. Needless to say, you get what you pay for here.
Aimee also did her BBC photoshoot. She was of course a star and performed all her magic tricks, like sitting up, smiling, 'standing' and even 'flying,' right on cue. Pictures to promote the Robert Winston TV program should be on posters, magazines and newspapers in the Autumn.

Aimee's first holiday

Phew – we just made it back from a week’s holiday in Scotland. We decided to drive all the way from London to Arbroath and back again – that’s a lot of driving!
Luckily Aimee slept all the way in the car. Unfortunately, that meant she didn’t sleep during the nights and oh boy, how we needed the sleep. Still, she settled after about two days and got down to the important business of charming all those around her and meeting her cousin Callum, who was born in the USA four days before Aimee.
Just before we left, Cat got Aimee weighed and, for the first time, the health worker noted that she was dipping below her usual progress chart. Nothing to worry at this stage but she had dropped a centile on the expected weight chart. Cat and I dithered over what could cause this and concluded that her fussy drinking habits and copious diarrhoea meant she wasn’t gaining weight as expected. So we embarked on a more rigorous feeding regime with bottle/breast/expressed/spoon – whatever it takes to get that milk into her. It seems to be working as Aimee looks satisfyingly chubbier and feels heavier. She also is expanding her repertoire of solids – now loving the mashed banana and puree apple.
We had a very good time in Scotland. Aimee was exposed to a whole bunch of new stimuli – new faces, smells, sounds and sights. She obviously enjoyed herself as she smiled and laughed non-stop. At one stage, when I walking her in the pram into town, I couldn’t move for old ladies stopping me and saying how beautiful Aimee was! Guess they don’t see too many cute half Chinese babies in this part of the world.
The holiday was a good challenge for us. We proved to ourselves that we can travel with a baby in tow. It seems some days almost impossible to get anything done, but we managed it. Mind you, we did bring half a ton of baby accessories with us in the car to help cope. This compared with Callum, who came over with just a few essentials all the way from America.It’s a great thing that Aimee has a same age cousin, I hope they will meet often over the years and become close family, just like Cat is with her aunty and uncle’s family.

She's a model and she's looking good...

Poor Aimee is suffering from a bout of explosive diarrhoea. Well we think that’s what it is as she seems to be constantly squeezing out poops – up to 8 or 9 times a day. She doesn’t seem distressed by it, just mildly relieved after each evacuation. But feeding her is a bit of a problem as she doesn’t seem interested in anything we try, so it’s a matter of plenty of patience and perseverance in order to maintain her fluid levels.
Despite her non-stop popping, Aimee is smiles all round as she greets every new face and every camera lens with that big grin of hers. Last couple of weeks she’s met her cousin Alastair and our friend Volker.There must be something in her smile since the BBC now want to feature Aimee in a photo-shoot with none other than Sir Robert Winston – he of Child of our Time TV fame. Winston is working on a new series and they need some nice babies to publicise the program – step up Aimee Yang, cat-crawl model, celebrity in her own babyverse. The photo-shoot is planned for late june, before then, we need to get her to learn to sit upright without falling over. With a holiday in Scotland planned next week – we’ll have to get her to learn this trick while dealing with the totally new experience of Arbroath.

Sleeping Beauty

Aimee asleep during mid-feed!!


Aimee slept for a full night for the first time in her short but lively little life. We didn’t do anything particularly different, in fact just the normal routine of milk at 6.30pm, and lights out by 7pm. After listening to her fussing for about ten minutes, Cat fed her again. Then that was it. A couple of very sleepy moans at 3am which got me out of bed, but she did not wake up from them. Of course once I was awake, I could not sleep. Aimee then woke up about 5.30am, so all in all, she slept for 10 hours solid – ole Gina Ford would be very impressed.
The trick seems to have been Cat adding an evening meal of solids to her daily food schedule. Up til now, only lunch was on the menu. But this time, a couple of cubes of pear seems to have helped. She turned her nose up at pear at first, but after a couple of spoons, eventually wolfed it down like she does all the other foods we have tried. We are both really pleased with her progress on foods and I am keen to cook her more variety of vegetable and fruit. We are also beginning our preparation towards our holiday to Scotland. It’ll be a very long car journey – something we know won’t go down too well with Aimee, but there is no other option really. It will be a big challenge for us, but also a nice chance for a change in scenery.

Aimeeland

Aimee finally has a room of her own. After enduring months of procrastinating about the state of the spare room, I eventually found a good builder who fixed us a brand new ceiling. The new room looks so smart I half suggested me and Cat actually move in, and Aimee have our bedroom.
On her first night in the room, Aimee slept for a good 8 hours with one crying fit in between. Not bad and perhaps the start of a better sleep regime - well it makes a change for us from kipping on the floor.
It's been a very hectic social week for Aimee as she whizzed from one set of grandparents to another and met up with her Aunty Sylvie and great Aunty Margaret all within the space of a week. Luckily she has the fuel and energy to cope as she is wolfing down her solids now.
We moved onto a curous blend of organic carrot and apple puree. Not too watery, not too thick. A bit messy but she swallows more than spits out, which is a very good sign.



She is also feeding on breast milk slightly better during the day, but still relies on her late evening feeds to catch up on the fluid ounces.My next challenge, is to get Aimee to drink fluids from a beaker. But maybe in a month or so.

Good news on the job front, Cat has been offered a full job at the BBC (all jobs were up for renewal in the big shakeup). We are contemplating the idea of using their creche facilites at White City. Both our companies offer the childcare voucher scheme (tax free vouchers to use at nursery or childminding facilities), which we will probably take full advantage of.

Spring time cheers

It's nice to have some decent weather recently, well not awful cold of winter anyway. So it is much more fun taking Aimee out and about. Towards the end of April, Aimee's second tooth appeared:



And they sure are sharp little tegs! As Cat is finding out during feeding time, one can usually hear a very loud "OUCHHHHH!!!" at regular intervals during breast feeding as Aimee tries out her new weapons.

The sleep thing is still very hit or miss. I suspect the main factor is her teething, rather than dependency on feeding or comfort, since a bit of Calgel sometimes does the trick.

Aimee's Aunty Sylvie and Uncle Matt have popped over the the UK for a short visit and it seems Aimee is proving a big hit with them. Some of the photos on my Pbase site shows her grabbing a giant Tigger - this is quite a new thing, Aimee now wants to reach out and grab anything and everything that takes her interest. If she can't have it, she yells in frustration - a sign of toddler tantrum in years to come maybe?

Eating solids has been going very well, in fact she is an unstoppable hoover machine lapping up my organic veggie mush every day. So far we have tried baby rice, sweet potato and next in line is carrots. After a few more weeks, we'll move onto fruits. I think we already see the effects as Aimee is filling out quite a lot!

Finally, we're encouraging Aimee to sit upon her own and she is almost managing to stay inposition and using her hands on the floor to stay there. She usually falls to one side but we'll keep trying.

Aimee sure grows fast.
I think you notice it most inher hands and her head size. And yet other areas remain almost the same - like her hair, which is still only a fluffy covering.
Anyway, our new bedtime routine seems to be helping. A nice 7am wake-up call meant all could get some decent shut-eye.


"I can't hear you!"

Lucky Mum is getting her fitness back.

Head scratching

“What do we do now?”
Cat begged the question the other night as yet again, little Aimee’s nightly screaming fits had us both scratching our heads trying to work out a way to get a decent night’s sleep.
So far, we have tried controlled crying – which works in the beginning of the evening, but not during the day and not at 3am. We are now onto pre-emptive feeding – this is where you wake up the monster half an hour before her usual wake up call to dose her with milk and put her back to sleep. This has a limited but slightly better response than just leaving her to wake up by herself. We have also begun Aimee on solids and introduced formula milk late at night – both foods ease the hunger as they are slower to digest than breast milk. But Aimee still wakes up.

I guess at the end of the day, there is no instant answer, despite what the guide books suggest. This is something that Cat and I simply have to cope with. No amount of trickery or technique will give us the instant help that we need, so we just plough on. And we are not the only ones, as endless stories from parents of all generations testify that their babies nearly always cried lots at night for feeds until one night, like magic, they simply slept all through the night. This magic age is usually about 6-7 months. We’re crossing our fingers that Aimee does this sooner rather than later.
But it is easy to complain and moan. These ramblings are really a release from the strains of early parenthood. It is very hard, make no doubt about that. But there is a flipside. Each day Aimee grows, she discovers something new to grab, bite, observe, laugh, and it is amazing to witness. When complete strangers do a turnaround and grab you to say what a beautiful baby you have, it makes you feel proud. Cat and I are also closer then ever because of Aimee. We have shared amazing experiences together. We dream about what type of person Aimee will become. Cat wants someone to go shopping with. I want to train a kungfu kicking ninjarette. Just dreams really, but Aimee gives us those dreams.

Easter eggs

An eventful Easter holiday for the family Yang.
So far, the controlled crying has been going very well. A typical evening now consists of a 7.30pm feed and afterwards into the cot still awake. A few minutes of fussing and then she sleeps for anything up to 6 hours. Another feed at between 12am to 2.30am and she’ll happily go back to sleep until 5am. Then she cries and we either respond with more feeding or, and this has been our preference – we leave her to cry until she stops and wakes up again – so far not later than 6am. Not too bad and quite manageable.
We have also begun trying solids with a few teaspoons of very dilute baby rice. The first two days were just a messy game, but by day three, she did actually swallow three spoonfuls. According to all the guidebooks, this is very normal and in fact at this age, 2 teaspoons is more than adequate. It’ll take several more weeks of trying and then offering new tastes gradually. What we also found is that her desire for milk has increased also (probably since she now feeds less at night). I’ve bought a nice baby recipe book and am looking forward to the challenge of making new foods.
All was going so swimmingly that we were on a roll, so I thought we should try our luck with controlled crying during the day. Usually, this is a big problem as Aimee is used to being carried on her baby carrier all day or at least amused by a variety of toys and swings. If she sleeps, it is very short naps. But yesterday I put her down when I thought she was tired but the poor mite screamed for over an hour. Finally, Cat could stand it no more and checked on her, only to find a nappy full of poo. Oh boy, did we feel bad.
Not only that, but last night, she woke up at 2am and screamed until 5am, because (a) she expected a 2am feed, but got none, and (b) she thought we would pick her up since that is what we did during the day.
So I am at work, bleary eyed but in retrospect, a successful long weekend.

Fairy Magic

Wow!
Cat ran in to the living room with Aimee (where I am sleeping - or trying to if my neighbour isn;t having late night parties) this morning and shouted LOOK!
I looked at Aimee and sure enough, the tooth fairy had visited and produced a tiny little front incisor on her lower jaw. It was just visible enough to be sure that it had broken through the gum line. amazing - a real pivotal moment in Aimee's development. She also seemed most calm and fed from Cat's breast without any of her usual fussing and whimpering.
I tried to take a photo but it's too small and Aimee too unwilling to cooperate.

I guess out teething honeymoon will be shortlived as she has plenty more to pop through, with the accompanying tetchiness and discomfort. But it's lovely to see her develop so fast.

Cry baby - Day 3

Night 3 of our controlled crying experiment was far more successful. Aimee fed well at 7.30pm and Cat put her down in the cot around 8.20pm. A short spell of fussing and crying and she fell asleep by 8.40pm and calm silence pretty much all night. Apart from a brief spell of fussiness at 2.30am when Cat decided to feed her and Aimee’s gums must have played up as a result. But it was very brief and she fell back to sleep until 7am. So not bad really. If it weren’t for poor Aimee’s teething pains, I’m pretty sure she would sleep ever better, but we can’t complain. This is so much better than last week, where Cat would have to feed her to sleep practically every hour in the night.This morning, Aimee was alert but very distracted with her gums. I placed a cooled teething dummy into her mouth and she chewed on it with gusto. In fact she was smiling as she was chewing which makes a slightly odd face. But other than that, she seemed fine and dandy.

Weight Gain everything

Weight gain despite everything!
Cat just went to get Aimee weighed. At almost 5 months old, she is a goodly 15Lbs5oz (7.03Kg) which is average for her age, not too big not too small. This small piece of news is heaven to our ears. Because Aimee had been such a brief to almost non-existent daytime feeder, we wondered if her health was suffering. Clearly, those nightly feeds were enough to sustain her growth. Now, it is a matter of reducing the night feeds with controlled crying and hopefully, she will feed more in the daytime.
Three comments the midwife made to Cat:
One – she was amazed that Aimee was such a healthy weight for a purely breastfed baby – that’ll be Cat’s rich milk supply again.
The second comment was ‘Oh, your baby is teething’. Well we did kind of suspect that she was teething but the midwife spotted it immediately. She said that was why Aimee only fed for short periods during the day. The third comment was – we should start her on solids very soon. Don’t leave it beyond six months. Blimey – surely this was counter to what many books I have read have said. So we have decided to give a bit of baby rice over Easter and see what happens. A lot of mess I imagine!

Cry baby- day two

Day two of our controlled crying experiment.
We put Aimee down at 8pm, fed and drowsy but not asleep. She cried for about 10 minutes then blissful silence. Cat and I congratulated ourselves for a job well done. Aimee had other plans. At 9.30pm she woke and screamed the house down for one whole hour. We followed out 5,10,15…minute soothing intervals but it was so tough. Every cry, every yell, every scream tore at our hearts. We questioned ourselves at every second. But when she stopped, we looked in and she seemed so peacefully asleep.
We decided that she should still have a midnight top-up feed and I woke her up at midnight. She fussed a bit but fed well. When I put her down, the crying began again. I honestly could not do it anymore and almost at the point where I picked her up, she stopped. It took only ten minutes and she fell back to sleep for 6 hours.
But the instinctive feeling that it is cruel and horrid never leaves our minds. A scan on the internet this morning was didn’t help the guilt with endless debates by ‘experts’ both pro and against the practice. This morning she seemed a bit clingy and distracted but still smiley and ‘chatty’. I hope we have not done any lasting mental harm. I am reserving judgement at the moment about whether it is working. Tonight we’ll prepare for the same. Consistency is the key for any technique, we can’t back out now.

Wah Wah pedal from hell

It's been a tough few weeks for Cat and I.Aimee has been waking up every two hours during the night and we both have been walking around like zombies as a result.Part of the blame lies with me. Apparently I am a noisy sleeper, with my snores, grunts and turning around, it doesn;t take much and Aimee wakes up. So I have been relegated to the futon in the living room. I don;t mind if it means I and Cat get a little more sleep but no, Aimee still wakes up and cannot go back to sleep. So, in order to calm her, Cat feeds her. This was fine until the last week, when Aimee fed so much during the night, she showed no interest to feed during the day. Worse, she now associated her night feeds with sleep and could only sleep whilst on the breast.She would scream and fuss and whinge until she got her feed and then continue to fuss. Cat and I realised, that despite our best efforts at denying her the use of a dummy, she had the next best thing - Cat's nipple!
So last night, out of sheer desperation, we did something we thought we would never do - controlled crying. The nemesis of all parenting techniques. Basically, it means letting your baby cry until she realises she can;t have what she want and makes herself go to sleep. It is not for the faint hearted. Each five minutes or so, you go in to reassure her, but you do not pick her up. Some horror stories talk of 3hour stints of intense crying. Before, Cat and I could not bear to hear her cry for longer than five minutes. When it is your own, you are instinctively programmed to respond within seconds to your baby crying. Last night,we went for it, and after a good feed, Cat put her in the cot and left the room. Of course Aimee started fussing, which
turned to yelling, which turned to screaming, which turned into the final level - BANSHEE HELL CRY!!!! It is awful. But me and Cat looked at each other and vowed to keep a strong front - with her entering every five minutes to hush to her. We were almost at our wits end desperate to pick her up when, after fifteen minutes of heelish cries, she stopped, whimpered and then went silent. She was asleep. I couldn't believe it. Only fifteen minutes?? Surely we had been let off too easily. We sat in the kitchen, waiting for the next installment. But there was none, bar a couple of sleepy whimpers, which was normal.
We have to do this for until Aimee can fall asleep under her own steam without any aids (feeding, rocking, music etc). It can be done, the books lead us to beleive that it almost always works. But it takes resolves of steel. We are hopeful of it working in the average three days it takes most others. But it does warn that it could take seven.
But the benefits are plenty. Mainly, that both Aimee and us get a decent night's sleep. But also that she doesn't use the breastfeeding or anything else as a sleep aid, which could cause us
big problems later on. As a result, we hope that a good night, means a good day with less whingeing and fussing and more feeding.
Hopefully it will lead to a drop of night feeding altogether.
Fingers crossed and hands over the ears.xx

Grandpa Yang says something amusing to Aimee!

Miracles and mayhem

Been a bit slack on the blogging front so apologies first off.

Well, Aimee spent a week with Cat at her grandfolks in MK, leaving me to enjoy a whole week of proper sleep and evenings doing stuff I used to do before parenthood. In MK, it was a good opportunity to bond with her Aunties Janet and Sarah.

Aimee has been back for a few days now and unfortunately, is not sleeping very well - day or night. It could be teething, it could be hunger (she is currently going through a phase of breast-rejection), it could be anything. So far, we have tried every trick in the book and beyond. It is so hard to deal with a very wakeful but tetchy baby at 4am. Anyway, Cat and I think that my snoring is waking her up so I will try sleeping in the other room. In any case, it won;t be long before she is put in her own room and we begin feeding her solids - two things that may help change her bahaviour to more manageable conditions.

But it is not all hard luck news. Aimee is maturing cognitively at an astonishing rate. Her facial expressions and reactions to things - usually me - are a constant source of amusement. Last night, I put her on her belly and beckoned her to crawl. She was in hysterics with laughter and joy. Amazing!

In other news, Cat's mothers-group friend Jennifer called to say that the Gina Ford book (the one we hate so much) we lent her has worked wonders. He rlittle five month old used to feed every two hours - DAY AND NIGHT. This was causing her considerable distress and she asked Cat for the book as a desperate resort. Lo and behold, she called to say the routines it gives worked a miracle and her baby boy slept for 7 hours non-stop last night - the first time in five months he has ever had more than 2 hours sleep. So...miracles do happen. We might have to eat our words soon and resort to Gina and her 7am open the curtains routine.


Image courtesy of Janet's planet

Wide Awake Again!!!

The Little One decided to have one of her manic episodes last night. After a difficult feed, she slept on and off from 10.30pm until about 2am. Then, that was it, screaming, laughing, napping, crying, yelling until 9am. Poor Cat got zero sleep and I decided the living room couch would give me a few hours respite, but it was not to be, I could still hear her and was unable to sleep.It's hard to understand why exactly she does this. It did not help that her routine that evening suffered owing to Cat wanting to meet up with friends in the evening. But I don't think this was it. Possibly, a day since her final jab, her body is suffering with the after effects - although she shows no signs of fever or illness. It could be, that at 4 months old, her emotional development is growing rapidly and when she is overstimulated during the daytime (she finally got to meet her Aunty Janet and there was also a trip to Cat's workplace - all very stimulating activities) sometimes it manifests itself as a night of very noisy wakefulness. Cat and I are resigned to being bleery eyed and foul tempered for the time being until she settles down into the 'pattern' again.

Baby Love

An interesting couple of days recently. On Saturday we met up with my friends Richard and Adriana and their 10 month old daughter. It was really strange picking up their baby cos we are so used to Aimee that it came as a shock to hold a baby that is much bigger and stronger. At ten months, my friends baby can wriggle and fight and reach out for things you thought were metres away from her prying hands. It seemed like you needed to keep an eye on her constantly. But she is really cute and I loved the way she happily takes an interest in books and food and can react when you call her name. Aimee is still a long way away from that phase, but already she is smiling tons more and her laughter is also progressing away from the hoarse grunt to a short chuckle. She also cries and last night, she cried every two hours thorughout the night -it was tough.Today, my work colleague brought her 3 month old daughter in to the office. Again, I was amazed how different her baby is, even though there a only a few weeks difference in age between her and Aimee. This baby has a massive shock of wonderful long black hair. It made for an interesting image as the baby itself was quite small - smaller than Aimee I reckon. Anyway, I helped change the babies nappy much to the amusement of my other office colleagues. But I do adore babies in all their shapes and sizes, maybe I am a softie!

Getting back in shape

The newly installed routine seems to be doing its trick. Aimee has now followed the same sleep pattern for one whole week. After her 7pm bath, there is a cuddle, a feed and down in the cot. She fusses until Cat feeds her again. After a very short nap, she fusses and Cat repeats for a third time. By now, it is usually about 9.30 to 10pm. So far, she has not gone past the third feed of fussiness. She may require one or more nightly feeds, but these are short and no-nonesense. She then wakes us up with her impatient grunting (or is that me?) about 7am and so begins another day.

Yesterday, Cat began her new fitness regime - courtesy of our world champion kickboxing coach - John. He invited Cat to pop down and try one hour private kickboxing session. Poor Cat - no exercise at all for over a year has left her once taut muscles a but wobbly. But her kicks and punches were still there, so hopefully the new fitness regime will get Cat back to shape in no time (actually I think she is in fabulous shape anyway, but I am biased!)

At the gym, I chatted to one man who said his daughter refused to sleep at nights and he had to carry her in the papoose each night until she did. He did this for FIVE YEARS!!!!
So whatever hardship we feel we encounter, there is always someone else who can trump that - then you feel silly for complaining about such as minor thing.

Routines

The past three nights over the weekend were awful. we would put aimee down after her midnight feed
as usual and she would sleep for about 15mins and then scream blue bloody murder for hours!I mean really scream. She is not ill, but something clearly is upsetting her. This happened for 3
nights. Poor Cat was weeping at the sheer hell of not getting any sleep herself. Not only at night, but
at anytime you put Aimee in her cot she screams.A quick consult with the books and other parents and it was suggested that we alter our night routine. Babies apprently, must have routine, above all else. Otherwise you get what we just got.Last night, we started a new bedtime routine. Bath at 7pm, bedtime story (Aimee bizarrely loves
staring at the pages of books), long feed, put into cot, lights down - all of this by 8.30pm.Well, it didn't work - she slept for maybe 45 mins and woke up crying. But Cat comfoted her, fed her
again and put her in the cot. Eventually, Aimee fell asleep and, apart from a quick feed at 1am and
6am, she slept until 8am...Bliss!Clearly, we were letting Aimee get overtired and not enough sleep during both the day and the night.
We were happy to play with her and stimulate her until well past midnight. We realise this is now a
poor way to look after Aimee. We just thought she would sleep when necessary and wake when
necessary, but all the advice says, we must establish a routine to get her to learn to sleep by herself.So, every night, we will continue the routine until she has learned the sleep triggers. God I hope it
works. Both Cat and I could never deal with that kind of torture anymore!

It ain't over til the fat baby sings

Aimee is in the full throes of teething.Of course there is no tooth yet, but her constant drooling, red cheeks and insatiable desire to bite on anything withingrasping distance are obvious symptoms. What's most unpleasant about this phase is that she sleeps for no more than about half an hour at night, causing both me and Cat much sleepless anguish.On the good front, Aimee is now very good with her hand eye coordination, she is able to reach out and grasp for eye-catching toyings that are dangled in front of her. She also plays her 'piano' toy by batting the keys very hard and gaining much pleasure at the result of her actions.But it is all very hard work. Aimee it seems is one of those babies that simply cannot survive without constant attention.
Our friend Catherine came round yesterday.


Here she is playing with Aimee.

Cath is 5 months pregnant and came round eager to learn about life with a young baby. Of course Aimee was on her very best behaviour and Cath left our house seemingly quite happy - despite our horror stories of the things that went wrong during Cat's labour.
We're experiencing a mini-rough patch with the Aimster. We hope it won;t last. I am sure there are parents out there with far worse situations (like my friend Greg's baby who had colic for 3 months and cried non-stop for 4 hours every night). Team Yang will just have to battle it out.

Bjorn Again

Yesterday, Valentine's Day, Cat and I were able to spend an evening out together for the first time since Aimee was born. Thanks to Cat's mum for taking baby-sitting duties. We enjoyed a nice meal and a great time - we felt like kids again. To cap off our great evening, Aimee managed to sleep 6 and half hours last night...sheer bliss.
Yesterday was also the day that Aimee was given the second of her scheduled three vaccine shots. Cat says she took the pain bravely and only cried for a little bit. Aimee's weight, at 12 weeks old is now 13lbs (6Kg) - so she has slowed down her previously phenomenal growth spurt, down to a more average level.
Cat and I were agreeing on how much our attitudes have changed. Before Aimee, we would baulk at the idea of buying needless toys, clothes and hip baby accessories. Now, anything goes. If it helps, we buy it, no second thought. Our latest purchase is a 'Baby Bjorn' baby carrier. These things are the Rolls Royce of carriers but their high cost is I think worth it. Soon as you pop Aimee in it, she is happy and content. The Mothercare one was pants and hurt our backs. This one, is like a second skin. Plus we get to look the part when we wander down Broadway market amongst the other aspiring middle class families with their Quinny prams and Baby gap fashion wear.

Cat just spoke to her friend, who is 21 weeks pregnant. The friend mentioned that her sister in law had SOLD her their second hand Moses basket (for nearly full price). She also tried to flog loads of other stuff, many of it originally given free. Now I'm sorry, but what sick fcuk sells on free second hand baby stuff to their own close relative? One of the things that amazed me and Cat was the sheer unprompted generosity of our friends and relatives in giving us gifts, presents and very useful second hand items when Aimee was born. We hope that we can pass on that goodwill to our friends and relatives with items we think are useful, but we would certainly not sell them our second hand baby gear, that would just be wrong.

Developmental recap: Aimee can now smile in response to your smile, or spontaneously, she can clasp her hands together, she can hold her head up without support, she seems to be teething, she can grip an object for a reasonable length of time, she can reach out and hit a dangling object eg on the Fisher Price toy piano.

Gripped!

It's one of those moments me and the missus refers to as a 2001 moment. You know like in the Kubrik film where the dramatic music in the background as apes first learn to use tools.
Aimee had a 2001 moment when she realised that her hands were capable of gripping and hitting something. so far, her hands have been something convenient to put in one's mouth. But now, Aimee is pulling, tugging, gripping, swiping away with baby abandon.
On the musical rocker, she knows to pull at the strings to get a melody. If you place her down on her back, watch out, she is still gripping your clothing! If you turn away for one second, there, she has gripped onto something which immediately finds it's way into her mouth. Yuk!

As with all things Aimee however, what one gains in one area, we lose in another. While her grip power is now that of a healthy 12 week old, her ability to sleep on her own is that of a nought month old. Perhaps we are to blame - ie no routine, too much stimulation, no sleep 'cues', too much rocking and slinging. No wonder she won't sleep in the cot on her own. She has got used to all the other things except just damn well closing her eyes on her own. But perhaps, she is still a little young and maybe in a month's time, she will be able to go longer at night without waking.
We shall see. I am conforted by the fact that we are not alone in this area, but I fear the controlled crying regime that many recommend for very bad sleepers.
But in the meantime, we shall continue to rock her, sing to her, sway her etc to get her to sleep so we can sleep.

Sleep tactics

Sleep - that precious commodity, so rare these days, so hard to find, but heaven when it happens!
Every parent must have gone through the same tactics and tricks that we have gone through to get Aimee to sleep. So far, we have tried rocking in arms, singing, pop music, swinging in the car seat, walking around in the sling, lullabies - the lot.
All of them work to some extent, but not all the time. You start with one, then guage the reaction. If the Aimee gets more agitated you move to the next one and so on. Until either you or Aimee conks out.
Last night was a new one - white noise. My white noise to be precise. I lay Aimee down and she was too excitable to sleep, staring at all and sundry. If you leave her alone, she'll protest so I stayed there and started making continuous hissing and gurgling sounds from my mouth. Weird I know but it seemed to hypnotise her - it took a long time though but eventually she fell asleep. That was it, off to bed and Aimee did not make a peep until 5am - hoorah!

Aimee has a new trick herself. She can put all her fingers in her mouth and make herself gag. I actually think she enjoys the sensation. No harm seems to come of it and she hasn't actually gone so far as to vomit, but it does look disturbing. She seems happy though.

Won't be long before the dreaded teeth come through.

Year of the Dog

January 29, 2006 is Chinese Year of the Dog. To celebrate, the family Yang all gathered for a chinese feast.

My Dad's Bruce Lee and I'm Sitting on a JCB

Ok, I ain't no Bruce Lee and I don't drive a JCB. But a bit of both is needed when you go out and about with a pram. Where once you were free to roam the high ground and the underground with just a pass and some time, now you are laden with a four wheeled tea trolley and a backpack full of nappies, oh and a .And people don't necessarily move out of the way for you. No, you are expected to weave, bob and dart your way through a busy high street and negotiate steps and stairs by clunking your tea trolley one step at a time. You apologise for ramming into the heels of the person in front and you curse as you wait ages for the lift only for it to be full and the escalator is not an option.Rushing around with a pram is the nearest I will get to experience what it is like for wheelchair users to travel around. The connection between the two is even more profound when you realise that a lot of stores and public areas do not have changing rooms, and many mothers are left to sit on the floor of the wheelchair access toilets.Of course I realise that despite these hurdles, we are very fortunate in many ways. We have a car (though somewhat damaged since Cat took to the wheels and scraped a salt grit box) and as a couple, we can pretty much get anything we want organised and sorted, it just takes a little longer. Compare that to the many single mothers in our part of London who are very young, poor and often left to struggle alone.

Lookee Likee

Aimee, Cat and I had a hectic weekend of socialising. First off we went to visit my friends Dai and Lisa and their two year old Olivia. To see Olivia is maybe to see a glimpse of what Aimee would be like in a few months time. She is one lively little girl, full of energy and buzzing with the excitement of youth. Today, all Cat's girly friends came round for a coo and a cuddle. Then finally it was off to my parents for Sunday dinner.
Aimee clearly loves all the attention and thrives on company. When there is lots of laughter, chatting and fun going on, she wants to see it all. It won't be long before she laughs and chats on her own too, as we are fast seeing signs of her developing vocal skills. During one playing spell, Aimee was able to show huge signs of pleasure by smiling and gurgling. Her voice seems to be changing from a newborn whine, into a more baby-like yell. Great when laughing, ear-shattering when crying.
It is interesting to note who people think Aimee most looks like. Some people swear she is the spit of me, others can't see it at all. Many, who know my family well, actually say she looks a lot like either my Mum or even my Dad!
But I think she looks unique. Maybe a smidgeon of my sister when she was a baby - especially when she is crying, since that is my memory of her as a child (crying usually as a result of something naughty that I did!).

Smile secret no longer

Yep, here it is captured on camera for the first time, Aimee's smile. Ahhhhh:

In other Aimee news, yesterday she got the first of her proper vaccinations (the previous BCG was just a minor one compared to these biggie jabs). She seems a little drowsy and has disturbed sleep but so far has avoided the fever and high temperature that some babies get when they are vaccinated.
They also weighed Aimee and she is now 12lbs. So only an extra 1lb in two weeks, clearly her phenomenal growth spurt has slowed to a more normal rate.

Yin & Yang

Our topsy turvey world is getting more topsy and turvey. Especially at night where it is getting increasingly difficult to get Aimee to go to sleep. We have followed every bit of tactic and advise we can, rocking vs not rocking, letting her sleep lots during day vs not letting her sleep lots, singing vs no sound etc. But it seems a bit random. Some nights are fine and she'll sleep happily for four to five hours solid before her next feed. Most though are a mixture of grumpy feeds, with screaming compaints about wind or full nappies, or some other mysterious cause for her discomfort. Both Cat and I are finding the early morning tantrums a real slog and very hard to deal with. There can be few things more tortuous than sleep deprivation.
But for every negative thing, there is a positive. Recently, Aimee has started producing real smiles. If you time it right when sheis calm, if me or Cat plays with her and makes a silly or smiley face, she will respond with a smile of genuine pleasure. She can also push her entire head and chest off the ground when placed stomach down. This is most impressive as you can really imagine her in this posture and crawling (hopefully not for several months though!).All the while, Aimee just grows and grows.
We have dubbed her many nicknames, from Fois Gras, for her voracious feeding appetite, to Godzuki for her fearsome yells (for such a tiny body) as we both cower behind a chair.Finally, thanks to Barry and his wife Catherine for passing on their cot to us. The vast acreage of mattress space may be just what Aimee (who now seems too big for the Moses basket) needs.

Armed and dangerous

Little babies, I have read, have no sense of their own limbs. In that
they do not know what their arms or hands are and cannot reach out
to grab things yet. They soon learn of course, but at Aimee's stage,
the arms are kind of just flapping around. But I have noticed that it is
not entirely random and they show quite a range of different patterns
that give valuable clues to her mood and needs:
- There is the continuous one arm in, one arm out motion which
looks like a robot gone a bit haywire. She does this when she is a bit
distressed due to wind or reflux.
- There is the hunching up during nappy change - she brings her
hands together and quivers as if shivering - though I should point out
that I am not freezing her, the room is quite warm, it's just a reflex.
- There is the so sleepy and tired that I scratch my entire face to
pieces. This is the most disconcerting. No matter how well I trim her
nails, Aimee always finds a way to self-harm.
- There is the just waking up - arms held stiffly aloft and body arched
as she gives a big yawn to wake up.
- Finally the best arm and leg thing that Aimee does is when she
sneezes. Her whole body tenses up and then, as the sneeze sprays
out, all her arms and legs dramatically splay outwards in time.

Aimee caught her first cold these couple of days. Her poor nose is
bunged up and snotty and she is finding it difficult to breathe when
sleeping or feeding. A quick consult with the medical textbook (I
know, I promised to leave it alone) suggests saline nose drops and
squeezy plunger! Luckily, Aimee seems to have recovered all by
herself, albeit with a few sniffles.


That baby sure can sneek up anywhere

Weight gain 2006

In the anarchic cartoon South Park, the character Cartman famously
declares that he is not fat, just big boned - then proceeds to gulp
down weight gain liquifood.
Well, little Aimee is officially not so little anymore. After six weeks of
gulping down her own version of liquifood, she went for her 6 week
health check up and the doctors were impressed at her huge weight
gain - officially put down as 11.4lbs (5.17 Kg). This is an
astonishingly fast rate of growth (usual is about 0.5 lbs a week) and
well above the average on the weight chart. The doctor was
impressed but did not suggest cutting back - he simply concurred
that Cat had particularly rich breast milk.
Whilst at the clinic, Aimee got a complete all over physical and all
seemed normal. She also got a BCG jab, which caused Aimee to
probably break the world record for loudest scream by a traumatised
baby ever.
We're both pretty pleased that Aimee is doing so well health wise.
The night before had me consulting the baby medical textbooks to
see what could be causing her sudden bout of pained crying. I
concluded that she had gastro-oesophogeal-reflux. This is when the
stomach acid comes back up causing lots of pain. But then again, it
could be anything. The perils of self-diagnosis is that whatever you
read, you end up convincing yourself that you are a certain
candidate for that ailment.
On a brighter note, Cat says Aimee smiled the biggest (and possibly
her first ever) social smile when my Mum came round to visit. As I
did not witness this, I can only take her word for it, since Aimee has
not smilled at me yet :(
If she does...be sure that I will capture it on my camera soon.

Aimee the Pooh

Aimee has received a lot of gifts this Xmas - mainly clothes but also handy things like travel cots and bibs. Most of them seem to be branded with the Pooh Disney franchise. It's clearly a top money earner for Disney as it seems to be everywhere. They are very cute though and mostly very good quality. Shame that Aimee seems to grow out of most of her clothes on a weekly basis.

Speaking of Pooh, or rather, poo, last night Aimee did something quite traumatic to poor Cat. Whilst getting her nappy changed, Aimee projectile poo'ed all over Cat. Obviously the pressure had been building upfor some time as Aimee seemed tobe in discomfort all day. When it came to nappy change time, it must have all let loose with an explosive force. Unluckily for my parents, it was at their home and all over their carpet. Very gross! And a not very pleasant way to start the New Year.


Clinging on for dear life!