A Picnic and Sitting Up!

Today (well yesterday really) was awesome. First of all Zeke only woke once overnight at about 3.30am for a feed and went straight back to sleep, and then did the same again at 7am. I was so ready for him to want to get up after that 7am feed, but he dozed off again and so did I! Then at 8.30, I woke up and he was still out to it! I even managed to get out of bed and get some stuff done for an hour before he woke up... in a lovely mood! I hope he repeats this again tomorrow.

We also had a picnic with our mum's group today for Christmas, we went to this gorgeous park and stuffed ourselves silly on yummy food, chatted and played with the babies. Was such a lovely day, the weather was beautiful, and Zeke was in such a good mood! Took some pics, nothing fantastic though, Zeke needed to be held for most of it, so it was hard for me to take anything really good.

Zeke also surprised me today by being a total show off. He was propped leaning on my leg then all of a sudden pushed off my leg to sit up straight without support at all! He stayed like that for a good 5 minutes, and probably would have kept going but I had to get up, so I laid him down again so he wouldn't fall and bonk his head (the way he usually finishes sitting) while I wasn't there to catch him.

My baby boy is getting soooooo big. Choosing to sit up all on his own... he'll be crawling before I know it I swear!

He also tried yoghurt a couple of days ago, just the plain stuff, but I added fruit, and he LOVES it. He even eats it plain, which surprises me, the all-natural no-sugar plainer than vanilla stuff can be quite tart.

He also tried some chicken tonight, I just poached it with a little garlic (he LOVES garlic... tries to steal anything with garlic in from me!) and he really enjoyed it minced up finely. I mixed it with his veggies and he spat out the bits after that, but if I hand-fed him the peices he swallowed them... what a funny boy. When this government Xmas bonus comes in, I'm going to get him a highchair and then he can really give finger foods a go.

It also turns out that he likes gingerbread, he had some at his aunty Kyla's Christmas party last weekend, and with most foods he did his little 'hamster' trick of eating some, but stashing some in his cheeks to ooze out about 20 minutes later on! Cheeky boy!

He got to try some hommus this evening as well, but I didn't really have a say in that, he just kinda swiped at it! As you can see, with gingerbread, hommous, garlic and yoghurt on the menu my little boy has quite an advanced palate!

Speaking of tastes, he's also decided my shoulder is quite yummy, I'll find when I'm holding him in a short-sleeved top he'll often start gnawing/sucking on my shoulder. Don't know what that's about, but it sure is slimy!

Anyway, we're going out again tomorrow, and relatively early for us, so I'm going to head off to bed... but first a couple of pics of the picnic!

Zeke eats his bells, dummy chain and chicken from Aunty Jane all at once!

Time out for Zeke in the pram!

More interested in the wrapping paper than the lovely gift from Mae & Isabel! (He loves the stacking rings though, he played with them all evening!)

MRI Appointment has been booked!

We have an MRI date booked for Zeke! This is what having the surgery scheduled has been waiting on, so this is great that it can be done so soon, so they can do the op around Feb-March like they planned. The MRIs were booked till June 09, so we were on a cancellation list with high priority, and we've been booked!

The MRI is booked for Jan 5th at 10am, I'm so relieved that it can already be done, but so anxious about it already because he has to have the contrast stuff and a General Aneasthetic. Because of the GA I cannot BF him after 1am, and cannot give him anything to drink after 5.30am... and it's summer here! My poor poor baby! (And my my poor poor boobs not BFing for at least 9-10 hours!)

I'm very relieved that it is booked and his surgery can go ahead as planned (it's not yet booked, but will be once the MRI is done) but I'm already nervous about the GA and him not being allowed to have anything to drink... hopefully I won't go mad before then!

6 Months old!

That's right, Zeke turned 6 months old last Wednesday! I would have updated sooner but we've all been sick with a horrible flu virus that made everyone totally miserable. Lots of runny noses, fevers, aches & pains, sore throats and general misery.

My poor baby boy was feeling so bad. He wouldn't nurse properly because his throat hurt, then he wouldn't burp because of it - you could see him grimace and swallow the burp when he tried because it hurt - then because he had air in his tummy he'd vomit what little he had eaten. Meanwhile, I'm feeling like death and trying to look after Zeke and give him all the extra TLC he needs while doing everything else as normal... it was not a good few days.

Wednesday (his offical 6-month birthday) started out awesome! I can't believe he's so big already... what happened to that soft beautiful little boy who'd snuggle on my chest and not move for hours? The morning started out great, I took him to have his picture taken with Santa, and it turned out beautifully. (I have to go get it scanned, so I can't show you just yet) He was so awesome, he didn't cry a bit! I got heaps of spares of photos so I can give them to the numerous rellies who will no doubt want one! We had coffee with a friend who I haven't seen since before I was pregnant, and generally had heaps of fun.

On Wednesday night Zeke got really hysterical, SCREAMING, running a fever (even an hour after a dose of paracetamol) all flushed and sweaty, he hadn't eaten in about 3 hours, and was throwing up a little, so I decided to take him to the ER, nothing I was doing would soothe him, and the GPs were closed. He screamed there for the first hour and a half, although he wasn't running a fever by then, and finally fell asleep. He was so deeply asleep that we had to wake him by the time the Dr saw us. (4 hours after we'd first gone in) and of course he was fine. The doctor was lovely and said it was just the virus getting a bit worse and to keep an eye on him.

We went back to the GP again the next day (Thurs) who told me to keep giving Zeke paracetamol every 4 hours thru Thurs & Fri so that he wouldn't realise his throat hurt and get all worked up again,, which seemed to work, and now we're both feeling much better!

On Friday we had a checkup with our new pedi, who is at the Children's Hospital where Zeke will be treated next year. It was more of a meet & greet than anything, but she said he was doing 'perfectly'! We also had him weighed and he is now 15lbs even, which is double his birthweight! He's absolutely stacking it on now that we're supplementing him. He's still 10%, but he's ON the line, rather than just touching the bottom of it.

He can help hold his bottle now too - if you let go for a few seconds he will even hold it himself if it is the thin ones. The fatter bottles are too big for his hands still. He eats apple, peach, pear, mango, canteloupe, apricot and banana for fruit, potato, sweet potato, carrot, zuchinni, broccoli, spinach and pea for veggies, and rice and oats for cereals. I'm planning to introduce a little bit of chicken and plain yoghurt over the next couple of weeks as we still want him to gain as much weight as possible and having some protien or dairy will really help him do that. He also LOVES LOVES Baby Mum-mums, which are a rice biscuit of sorts, he will eat two in under 5 minutes!

He's gotten rolling down to a fine art, and if there's something to the left or right of him when he's on his tummy, he can spin around so quickly to get it! "That's not where Mummy left you!" is becoming a frequent catch cry in this house! He can also sit up for a few seconds if you put him there, and he tries to sit up by himself, but doesn't get far, even when you pull his arms, because the size of his head means it is very heavy for him and difficult to lift, but he is still doing awesome. He's chatty, and loves to coo, squeal and generally make a lot of noise... I'm trying to convince him that he wants to say "Mama" but he's not doing consonant sounds regularly just yet!

Here he is a couple of days before 6mos in his ROCKING Metallica onesie Ryan bought!