Teeth
This week OB got his FIRST tooth! Yay. I am surprised that he didn't make any of the usual 'teething fuss'. - Although he has been making lots of 'teething fuss' over the past few months. The night it came up he went to sleep at 6.30pm as per usual, and woke at about 4am absoloutely screaming. I thought it might be teething pain so I gave him some panadol and put him back to bed. When he woke at his usual 6.30pm there it was - a tiny little bud of a tooth. I put my finger on it and gee it was sharp!! I had no idea how sharp babies teeth were!!
Travel Sleep Training!
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| My beautiful OB ringing his bell... |
Next weekend we are going camping with some good friends. OB has never lasted a whole night in his port-a-cot (except when he was younger than 4 months and didn't know any different). We are VERY nervous about how he will sleep when we go away for the two nights. So we have decided to sleep train, but in a port-a-cot. A few friends had mentioned that I should do this - sleeping him in the port-a-cot in his room and in different rooms of the house to get him used to sleeping anywhere. Today I set up the port-a-cot. OB had the time of his life playing in it whilst I was setting it up!!! BUT when I put him in it (and zipped up the side) - boy did he scream (and is still screaming). He has had one 10 minute stint in there - then I went in and lay him back down, gave him a few pats and told him it was sleep time. I don't think he listened. As soon as I was out with the door shut he started up again. But a bit softer than at the start. It might be a looooong afternoon!! Now hes having little spurts of crying with about 20 seconds of quiet, which for him means hes winding down. Hopefully by next weekend we will have had at least one full nights sleep in the port-a-cot. I should have started this earlier (and then we could have tried sleeping outside in it). I don't know how we will go in a TENT putting him down at his usual time of 6.30pm (with no black out blinds of course) in the LIGHT! Might have to put him down later....when the sun is actually down. Ps hes being very quiet in his room...if I had to guess i'd say hes down for the arvo (he got put down at 2:25 and its now 2:42). The plan is to give him one sleep a day in the port-a-cot until next Friday (when we leave). I'm hoping to have at least one night in it too, but will wait and see how the day sleeps go.
Playpen
In Simone Boswell's amazing book "Calm baby, confident mum" she talks about the benefits of playpens and puts playpen time into her routines.
I LOVE the playpen. For a few reasons.
#1 - Its safe. Everything in the playpen is OB safe (a lot of things in the rest of the house are not).
#2 - It gives me time to do the things I need to do (cleaning, cooking, washing, quiet time, book reading, bubble bath, etc).
#3 - It teaches him to have time by himself - to amuse himself and to be independent from mummy.
#4 - Gives him ONE place to make a mess (especially helpful if people are coming to visit and i've just tidied up).
When we moved house (August-ish) it took me a little while to set up the playpen (and find an appropriate place for it) and to actually put OB in it. We have lots of doors in our house so we can shut off different rooms which is great (and reduces the need for playpen time). This last week I have realised that OB has had barely any playpen time since moving and as such i'm re-introducing it into our everyday routine (for all the reasons mentioned above).
I am starting with 15 minutes a day. Its not too long if he cries the whole time (hasn't happened yet - he usually cries for 1 or 2 mins then enjoys himself) but not too short that he doesn't spend any time in there. He's catching on again quickly! I just put him in there and he whined (not even a cry) for about 20 seconds and then turned around and started playing!
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| OB crawled into my lap and had a nap before lunch (first time he's ever crawled up and fallen asleep). |
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| About 25-30kg fit in our freezer |
This week we got 40kg of meat from a friend (who also runs a bull stud). We have SOOOO much meat! Not only do we know EXACTLY where it comes from, but its such great quality (barely any fat) - even the mince is delicious (and not disgusting like store bought mince). Its also really economical at around $10 per kilo (even for the eye fillet, T-bone, sirloin, etc). Yesterday I made rissoles with the first batch of mince. They were SO yummy!!!! And so easy!!! I got the recipe here.
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| Home made rissoles |
