Team Newman / Ferme

It’s been a big week since I last posted, and I’ve been too lazy/busy to write about it. Now I’m at work with nothing much to do, so I’ll write a little post.

Last week, we took Daniel to the speech pathologist to be checked for his gagging and vomiting problem. He hasn’t actually vomited for a few weeks, but we had taken the foot off the pedal a little bit because we all needed a break from the stressful feeding times. We were half expecting him to show no problems while we were there, but instead he managed a nice little choke on a piece of biscuit. Basically, the results of the test are as follows:

• Dan does have a problem with swallowing, and we’re to take it easy with him and not give him chunks or lumps in his food.
• We are, however, to push the finger foods pretty hard – toast, crusketts, biscuits, cheese, fruit and cooked veges. He’s supposed to eat at least three serves of finger foods a day. We’re to monitor him closely when he’s feeding himself, and to also break the food up into small pieces and put them in between his gums to force him to chew.
• He’s not really too far behind, so we shouldn’t be too worried. He’s eating a really good quantity of food and both boys are looking really well fed.
• His lack of ability with regard to swallowing is somewhat related to the lack of strength in his neck muscles. Once he starts getting stronger on his tummy and crawling, his swallowing and chewing ability will also pick up. (However, reflux/vomiting may increase if he spends more time on his tummy. This will improve once he gets onto his hands and knees.)
• In summary, what we’re trying to do is strengthen his swallowing and also to desensitise the back of his throat so that he doesn’t gag so much when he gets food with a different consistency.

So we’ve been implementing these changes pretty successfully since the appointment. He’s quite good at toast, to which we add plenty of butter and vegemite to make it slippery; biscuits, which we dip in milk; and mashed banana. A few weeks ago he would have vomited on all of them.  Yesterday we introduced him to crusketts, which he really liked and he’s also managed to eat small pieces of cheese. Now I just have to find the time to cook some vegetables for him to try.

He’s also getting much better on his tummy and is learning to push up with his arms to get more height. He’s also seems to enjoy it more and more and we’re having to force him less and less.

In other news, yesterday he started clapping his hands which is so cute. He’s been fascinated with hands for months, and over the last few weeks one of his favourite games has been to hold my hands and clap them together. He also loves just holding a hand and flexing the fingers or moving it around. He then puts the hand over his face and plays peek-a-boo. Now he’s realised that he can clap his own hands, but he still enjoys it more when Richard or I do it. Last night he was in fits of giggles when Richard was clapping his hands and singing to him.

He’s also almost as interested in standing as Lachlan is. He’s not as strong or as well balanced, but he just loves standing and holding onto the cot rails (from the outside of the cot) or playing with the drawers in the bureau.

Another favourite game we play is to pretend to have a temper tantrum. Both boys have started to get a bit impatient and whingey when we try to change their nappies. With Lachlan it involves tears, back arching, yelling, rolling, wriggling and trying to crawl away. Daniel shows his displeasure by kicking his legs straight, stiffening his body and grunting. However, when I imitate him it sends him into fits of giggles. Now, sometimes out of the blue, he’ll look at me and pretend to have a tantrum to try to get me to imitate him again. Then for the next ten minutes we’ll take it in turns making each other laugh. It’s really so sweet.

As for poor old Lachlan, he’s been having a really tough time of it over the last weeks. He’s teething like crazy and it’s really making him miserable. He’s been so whingey, sad and clingy. He’s hardly ever really happy at the moment.

Over the long weekend we also started the move away from wrapping him when he sleeps. He had become really hard to wrap and was reacting with the same tears, back arching, yelling, rolling, wriggling and trying to crawl away that he displays when he’s getting a nappy change. This was fine when putting him to bed because as soon as he was wrapped, he’d relax and settle down. However, when he needed re-wrapped in the middle of the night, it was a real torment for both him and me. It was very hard to wrap him quietly, in the dark when I was half asleep. So we’ve bought him a gro-bag in the hope that he’ll remain warm enough and learn to sleep without his arms pinned down. So far, it’s been a bit of a rough time and we’ve had to help him settle 6-8 times a night. But hopefully he’s starting to improve and will sleep through the night soon – maybe when his teething settles down as well. (We are still pinning his arms down when we first put him to bed, because it helps him settle so quickly. I don’t think we’re going to stop doing that for a while.)

There are a few things which still make him happy, thankfully. One is his bath, which he looks forward to so much. He loves standing next to the bath while it fills and yells with his excitement. I think he also likes the way his voice echoes in the bathroom. He doesn’t last in the bath for very long anymore because he always tries to stand up, but he loves to do a bit of a nude crawl to the bedroom after he’s been dried. He’s so hard to pin down these days, that we just let him crawl around naked for a little bit. Then after we manage to wrestle some clothes onto him, he loves to crawl out to the corridor and play peek-a-boo with the curtain that hangs over their bedroom door (to block out the sunlight). He thinks he’s so clever!

Well, my little post has turned into quite an essay. I really should talk to the boys and tell them to stop being so cute!

I came home from work last night to discover Lachlan doing all sorts of things he’s never done before. I’m not sure what the nanny has been teaching him, but he’s developing very quickly now. He’s crawling on his knees instead of commando crawling, and he can go from his knees to sitting too. We didn’t even know he was trying to learn to sit, but he’s doing it over and over again. He’s been getting close to crawling on his knees for a while, but yesterday he really started moving.

Then when we went to put him to bed, he grabbed the railing and pulled himself up to standing, without any help at all. He’s still a bit shaky, but he’s so proud of himself. We’ve definitely started checking that the cot rail is up now!

On Wednesday we took the boys in to get their 12 month immunisations. The visit to the doctor wasn’t too bad – most of the time was taken up by the doctor’s preparations for the injections. The injections themselves went as per expectations with lots of tears and hysterics. And the boys cried a bit too. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) However, they recovered quite quickly and Daniel gave the receptionist a piece of his mind as we were leaving, which was really cute. I’m glad Richard was there though, partly because two distraught babies is very hard to handle, and partly because Lachlan is so physically strong that I’m not sure I could have held him still to get the injections. I have to say too, that it is really disappointing that the immunisation clinic at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital had to close. Not only was it free (as opposed to $116), but they had two people giving the injections, so it was less of an ordeal for the little ones.

Anyway, it all went pear shaped for me during the afternoon when both boys decided that I wasn’t going to get away scott free and that I deserved a double dose of hysterics after all. I was putting them to bed for their afternoon nap when they both just lost it. Screaming, crying, gagging, wriggling, kicking – thankfully no vomiting. I got the whole lot with both barrels. I wrapped them, I unwrapped them, I cuddled them, I left them alone, I sang to them, I read to them and yes, I yelled at them, but nothing worked. After about 25 minutes I gave up and called Richard to come home, because they just kept setting each other off. I thought we’d need to separate them to get them to calm down. But in the end, just as Richard got home, Lachlan passed out from sheer exhaustion and I was able to calm Daniel down. They then slept for most of the afternoon. <Sigh>

But it wasn’t over. Later that night (about 8pm) Daniel woke up with a high temperature. We had already given them paracetemol, which limited our options a bit, so I spent about half an hour getting him to go back to sleep in my arms. However, when I put him back in his cot he woke again. I was so tired then that I handed over to Richard so I could get some sleep. Richard ended up undressing Daniel and holding him in his arms until about midnight, when his temperature started to reduce after another dose of paracetemol. Apparently, it got up to 38.9 degrees, or something. Richard then went to bed about 1am after ensuring that Daniel was past the worst of it. Naturally, that was Lachlan’s cue to start acting up, and my turn to take over. I tried resettling him a few times, but then I just gave him some more paracetemol too, and he seemed to calm down and we were all finally able to get some sleep.

In other news, Lachlan has one top tooth through and the other is very close to cutting the gum. Yesterday, I also spotted some action on the other side, so it looks like all four of his top teeth are coming through at once. I guess he’s going to be miserable for a little while longer.

I meant to write this days ago, but I’ve been pretty flat out. The boys had their first birthday on Wednesday last week and we had a party to celebrate yesterday. They got lots of new toys and clothes and other things, and were pretty happy with most things. There were a couple of toys which scared the bejeezus out of them and sent them into screaming fits, but we’ve put those away for now with the hope they’ll like them when they get a bit older.

Their actual birthday was a bit of a trial to be honest. It started off okay, but spiralled into a steaming heap by the end of the day. I think they didn’t sleep well and got progressively more tired so by the time Richard came home from work he found two overtired, overstimulated babies and one frazzled mother who were all climbing the walls. The party yesterday was much better, and the boys were generally well behaved, slept well and were quite fun. We just had a small group of family and friends around to celebrate with a bbq and it was really very nice. I cooked their birthday cake, which I’m very proud of – mostly because it took three attempts and I only succeeded about 25 minutes before the guests started to arrive. Who knew that a simple sponge cake could be such a challenge? I have to thank Jamie Oliver for saving my arse!

It’s really amazing how much the boys have grown and changed over the year. When the boys were born we bought them a couple of toys for their humidicribs and have taken pictures of them almost every month ever since so we could measure the changes. Here’s a picture of Daniel in the NICU with his horse and another of him on his first birthday.

Unfortunately, for some reason, it seems we didn’t take a picture of Lachlan with his elephant until he was one month old. So here’s a picture of him at one month, and another of him at one year…

And here’s a picture of them with the birthday cake I’m so proud of…

And here are another couple of pictures which I think are just gorgeous…

I also wanted to update a bit of their progress. Lachlan is starting to occasionally crawl up on his knees, rather than on his belly. He’s also starting to pull up on things, like his cot rail, but he still forgets that he has to hold on, so has banged his head a few times when he’s lost his balance. Daniel hasn’t really moved forward so much with his crawling, but we didn’t really expect him too. He is “talking” a lot more and loves to interact with his animal friends. We have a gorilla called Bobo and a blow-up penguin he’s quite fond of and will squeal at them whenever he sees them.

The other idiosynchrasy that they’ve both picked up is a fondness for inserting their fingers into finger sized holes. This includes the valves on their balls, holes in their books, screw holes in their toys, and unfortunately, my nose, ears and mouth! Amusing, but a little unpleasant.

Today was my first day back at work and I think everything went well. Not perfect, of course, but not as bad as I might have expected. I was fine, though of course I missed the boys. Having said that, Richard was working from home today, so they weren’t really alone this time. Surprisingly, Lachlan didn’t have any problems today even though he’s been the most clingy over the last few weeks. Daniel, however, was a little emotional today and we’re not yet sure if it was caused by my absence or because he was just tired and miserable. When I arrived home, they were both playing happily with the nanny, then when Lachlan spotted me he got very excited and seemed really happy to see me. Daniel started crying though, and couldn’t stop. I don’t know why, but I’m wondering now if he was unable to handle the emotions he was feeling. Anyway, Thursday will be the first real test because Richard and I will both be absent then.

The nanny we have hired is working out really well. She’s a really lovely girl and she loves to cook baby food. So we now have a freezer full of really great food. Actually, I cooked some of it over the last couple of days, but it’s still great that I don’t have to worry about feeding the boys. She’s also really good with the boys, and they like her at the moment. She suspects that they’ll stop liking her for a while when they realise that her arrival means that Richard and I will be away. Hopefully, they’ll get to know and like her pretty quickly and forgive her for that.

The other big news today is that Daniel crawled for the first time! Even though I missed it because I was at work, I’m so happy for him! Apparently, he was trying to reach something in front of him so he just dug his knee into the ground and pushed forward to reach it. It wasn’t a fluke either because he did it twice. Hopefully he’ll continue to push forward with his development (pun intended). I think I’m really happy because maybe he’s not as far behind Lachlan as we had thought and is just taking a different path. Still, I’m happy either way, because he’s such a lovely little boy and there’s nothing sweeter than his infectious giggle and irrepressible baby babble.

At the moment, Lachlan is still pretty clingy though I’m beginning to wonder if he really wants me, or if he just wants to climb or stand all the time. Even though he’s just learned to crawl, and is getting pretty fast, he doesn’t seem to appreciate the independence that it gives him and would prefer that somebody support him while he stands up. He’s even taking a few steps while supported. He’s also teething like mad with his top teeth finally breaking through the skin. We’ve been forgiving a lot of whingy behaviour due to this, so hopefully he’ll get over it soon.

I’m also beginning to think we’re going to have to start disciplining them a little bit. I’m not sure how much discipline they’d respond to, but they’re both developing a couple of bad habits which we’re going to have to break. During bath time, Lachlan tries to climb and stand up and he really shouldn’t in case he slips and falls. Daniel has decided that it’s great fun to thrust himself backwards and fall over (both in the bath and on the floor). He’s hit his head a number of times, but it hasn’t deterred him at all. We still put a cushion behind him when he’s sitting on the floor, but he throws himself back with such force that sometimes it doesn’t stop him hitting his head. I have no idea why he’s doing this because he wants to sit up again almost as soon as he’s landed. Very strange! Anyway, it’s another behaviour which we’re going to have to discourage in the bath, not only because it’s dangerous, but because having to catch him really kills the back!

Tomorrow is their first birthday, and I have to say I’m pretty excited about it. I know that they’re not going to know the difference, but I will. We’ve got them a heap of new toys and books and I can’t wait to see if they like them. We’ve decided not to wrap the toys, but to bring them out to them a few at a time during the day (when Richard is home) so they’re not overwhelmed with everything. I think they’re desperate for some new toys as the old ones are getting a bit boring.

It’s really hard to believe that 12 months ago today I was in labour. At this time, I had just found out that the boys were going to be delivered within the next 24 hours, but the doctors were still trying to slow the process down to give the steroids a chance to help their lung development. They weren’t able to stall the labour for long though, because the boys were born just after midnight. I’ll post some comparison pictures tomorrow.