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!

Aimee's first Xmas

Aimee just experienced her very first Xmas ever. She spent a week staying at the home of Grandparents Mac and boy did she enjoy it! Fussed over like a little Princess, Aimee had everything she needed and more. Nanna Mac had renovated the second bedroom into a complete nursery fitted out with everything a baby could ever need. New cot, new carpets, new toys, new everything!
Of course Aimee received the most number of presents this Xmas and the biggest! Causing her mum and dad the dilemma of how it was all going to fit inside the car. But no mind, Aimee responded to her copious gifts with almost a smile. Won;t be long before she smiles properly.
Aimee is now back at home and of course, without all the fun and excitement of Xmas - is taking some time to settle back into a more chilled pattern. But she has just had a bath with Mum in themain bath and obviously loves being in water. This has helped calm her down and hopefully, will sleep better tonight.

Cranium

Cat and Aimee are up in MK already leaving me back in London to go back to work for the few days before Xmas. I forgot how much attention, questions and quizzing from work colleagues went on before Aimee was born, but now, rather than shoulder shrugging and blankly responding that Cat was not yet in labour, now, I can talk endlessly about life with Aimee. In fact, I go on so much about it that I think people are now avoiding me. Especially since I do like to give colourful and incident-filled reports about how tough the birth was and how gruesome the nappy changing can be. But I love talking about Aimee, and my new audience is other parents - who also love talking about their kids so now, I am in this totally new club.

Whilst Cat was in MK, she saw her osteopath and he gave Cat a clean bill of health concerning her hip bones. But when he l examined Aimee he noticed that her skull was slightly compressed on one side (the side she had her fist held as she was born) which could be the reason why she is exhibiting some tantrums during feeding and not sleeping well. This field of cranial osteopathy is new in the UK. Whilst it is not tree-hugging hippy medicine, it is something not really known about by midwives and doctors. My friends Charles and Liz also went for treatment with their baby daughter, and can attest that it works. Aimee is due for a couple of cranial treatments this week so I am keen to keep track of how it affects her behaviour.

One thing we did learn was a pressure point just on the left side of her belly which could be massaged to encourage wind to pass through the system, either as a belch or a fart. Aimee is quite a trooper with the wind, she either selfishly harbours her wind until it causes her pain, or she lets off with the most embarrassingly loud parps. Either way, we welcome any help with getting the wind out of her system fast.



Anyway, for me, it is great to finally get a full night's sleep. But Cat is already making sure that I make up for it when I go up to MK with a full quota of nappy changing duty.

My next report will be on Aimee's first Xmas - in MK with the family Mac.

Bitty

The past two days has seen Aimee feed with the appetite of a Tyranosaur. Every 1.5-2 hours she is demanding her breast milk and she must be fed within two minutes of her getting agitated or she'll wail the house down. Poor Cat's boobs barely have time to recover. Aimee is draining one breast and trying her best to empty the other, before finally succumbing to fatigue and falling asleep. We hope this is a growth spurt, as usually happens with babies, and will settle down to a more boob friendly schedule in a few days. Ironic though, that for three weeks, the boob was rejected, and now, she can't get enough.

We went to the baby weighing clinic yesterday. Aimee is now a whopping 4.33Kg (9lb8oz). In just four weeks she has put on a kilo of solid Aimee mass. This, according to the chart, is slightly above average. Oh no, I fear we are rearing a blimp. But her appetite is insatiable. Maybe we are weak, but we dare not ration her feedings since she is big enough to beat us up now.

Message in a bottle

Well, it's been four days since Aimee last touched the bottle and I'm happy to say that she is breast-feeding with gusto now. It is not all plain sailing, sometimes she protests so much she goes onto fits of hysteria. We now know that she is actually not always that hungry and she needs simply to sleep for one hour, so we papoose her. One hour of close-contact swaying later - blissful suckling. We are also learning that complete peace and quiet is actually a bit annoying to Aimee. She loves the buzz and excitement of new places, new faces, outdoors, cold, warm, bright lights, flashing colours, music very loud. This cacophony actually calms Aimee into a peaceful lull. Amazing!

This morning we attending a breast-feeding clinic. Actually it was more of a mother's social gathering where they chatted about life with a young'un. I felt initially a little self-concious as the only bloke there but it was very friendly. The woman running it was incredibly impressed that Aimee could breast feed now especially after three weeks of bottle. She offered some interesting tips about improving positioning, including an unusual down on all fours version I have never seen before. Surreal, but refreshing to talk about these things with someone who is not a midwife or health visitor (they perhaps unintentionally do make you feel slightly useless).
Anyway, there were dozens of babies of all ages there and all the mums offered very sueful personal experiences and advice about all sorts of things.
I was most impressed with a young toddler (maybe a year old) who was dipping in and out of his mother's breasts like you would snack on a packet of peanuts! At one point, he was standing upright, extending his neck to suckle on his mother who's breast drooped to just the right height for him - all the time, she was chatting quite unperterbed.

Amazing Aimee

Something amazing happened today. Aimee breastfed for the first time. Not just a dabble or a lick - proper full on thirty minutes a go breast feeding just like all the propoganda those leaflets from the NHS show. It's a bloody miracle and I can;t beleive it has actually happened.

It started this morning. Aimee had her feed from the bottle but only finished three quarters. She seemed happy but not sleepy so as Cat began her usual slog of expressing nilk inthe other room, I was playing with Aimee. I noticed after a short time that she began rooting with her mouth. Unusual I thought since even a 3/4 feed would normally stop her from feeling hungry so soon. I placed my finger knuckle close to her mouth and she reached out with her mouth to suckle on it. Blimey, I thought, what if my knuckle were a nipple instead?
I ran over to the other room and made Cat present her nipple. With Aimee held vertically under the arms like a floppy kitten, I put her to the breast....Darn! It worked. Soon she was gulping down milk like a seasoned breastfeeder. You cannot imagine the feeling we had watching this phenomenom when we thought all hope was gone. I nearly cried.

Then, this afternoon we tried again, with semi success, we still needed the bottle to finish her feed. Then, tonight, she protested quite a storm, but after a lot of calming, she eventually took andfed for 40 minutes. Really gulping too. We need to learn the best time to do it. Too early and she is too asleep, too late and by the time she is crying, we need her to calm down. The silicone nipple protector helps too as it fools herinto thinking itis a bottle teat. Other than that, it is persistence I guess that will eventually turn her into a permanent breast feeder.

It is only the beginning and it won't be easy, maybe it will never happen again, but it has given us hope to continue trying her on the breast. This is truly a significant breakthrough and I am only too happy to continue reporting in the next few entries Aimee's progress from bottle, to breast (surely a minor miracle after 3 whole weeks bottle feeding).

Timing

Aimee is getting good at timing her wee-wees. She'll do it the minute you take away her old nappy and place a new one on. On a good day, she will release an arc of baby wee about two inches into the air, and just powerful enough to coat your hand which is holding the new nappy, plus it wil also leak onto the towel beneath her, hence requiring yet another item to add to the laundry bin.
But she is pretty calm during nappy change since we are beginning to suss out that we can pretty much do what we need as long as we feed her before hand. We are now adopting a new strategy of dosing her up on an extra ounce of milk just after her nappy change to ensure a full tummy and sleepy baby. So far this has not worked as planned since her wind is too painful for her to get any length of sleep.
Yesterday we all ventured out on our biggest excursion yet. Cat, Aimee, me and MIL travelled to the BBC to see Cat's work colleagues. You can't imagine the logistical nightmare that preparing that trip involved. Since we are bottle feeding, we needed to pack all the pre-chilled bottles, nappies, changing mat etc etc, but also we needed to bring the electric breast pump and all the accessories for that. But we managed it. And clearly, Cat's work colleagues enjoyed seeing little Aimee, who put ona charm offensive worthy of an Oscar.

Come on feel the noize

Little Aimee exhibits a startling array of vocal grunts, groans, wheezes, whimpers, yells, screams and cries. We dub her the Pterodactyl since we imagine she kind of sounds like a baby dinosaur. At night,she is more like a 'Terror' dactyl as she can scream her face off for no apparent reason. Her signature wail is the undulating high pitched cry after a prolonged bout of normal crying. This usually signals the end of one period of crying, as she takes a breather ready to begin the next round of wailing.
Cat and I, whilst not enjoying the crying, are at least managing to view this as simply something Aimee does and after we feed her, change her, check she is ok, there is not much more we can do other than soothe her or rock her.
I asked the health visitor if she had colic, and the reply was that this was nothign compared to colic. Gulp! God forbid she develop colic. At the most, Aimee wails for about 40 minutes - usuallyt cos she wants feeding earlier than usual. Once fed and changed, she is generally fine, though refuses to go to sleep. Colic babies wail despite all attempts to find a solution. They wail for hours and hours and hours. The pain must be unbearable. No one knows the real reason for colic. I hope Aimee doesn't get colic, pleeeeeease.

The other day, we did manage to step outdoors for the first time together. It was a bright winter's afternoon and we ventured the buggy out and ate lunch at a nice local restaurant. The was quite an adventure for us and Aimee seemed to fall instantly asleep in the pram, despite the cold. The whole trip lasted amybe 1.5 hours but exhausted us. That afternoon, when we got home, we completely zonked out and slept for 3 hours. Luckily, Mother in Law was on hand to look after Aimee while we rested.