Jaan enjoying the sunshine.

Jaan and I were out in the park, me reading a book, Jaan snoozing and playing with his new buggy toy. Thanks for the sunnies and the toy Nayyar Nani!!!

Jumparoo Jaan

Jaan was a super bouncing baby today in his friend Morgan's Jumperoo.

Video below.

Jaan in his friend's Jumparoo from Nadiya Midgley on Vimeo.

Jaan in Morgan's Jumparoo. Look at him go! He was jumping about and laughing not long before I got my phone out to take this clip. March 12th, 2009.

Jaan in his Baby Walker - super DJ!

Jaan in his walker from Nadiya Midgley on Vimeo.

Jaan's a super DJ, eh? Look at him making music!! He certainly values his independence.

He loves standing in this thing making a racket, watching TV, watching us do housework, etc. Sometimes he makes it move (he 'walks'), sometimes he just bounces up and down. I can feed him while he is in it sometimes too.

March 2009.

Jaan at 5 and a half months +

Well the feeding situation is more complex now, and involves a bit more mess at times!

He eats a lot of fish, chicken, lentils, spinach, some rice cereal, quinoa and amaranth flakes, fruit and squashes/pumpkins/carrots kind of stuff. A lot of it is Plum Baby or Ella's Kitchen stuff ... he likes the tasty stuff! He adores the cheap and cheerful Orchard Chicken from Cow & Gate too though! His formula of choice is SMA, he has the White one now, for hungrier babies ... and he seems to like the Tommee Tippee bottles best of all - so much for the Adiri bottles I got for him ... he loves them, but to play with and chew on!! Not so much to drink from. I made him some rice pudding, millet pudding and quinoa pudding and froze it all in cubes. He has them, but definitely prefers the desserts made by Plum Baby. He like the Ella's Kitchen fruit range even less than my efforts! Go figure. A mashed banana in his cereal goes down quite well sometimes.

Jaan will eat 3 meals a day if he's offered them ... I try and encourage just 2 meals a day and extra breast-milk or formula ---- he's not quite 6 months yet and while he has the motor skills to eat even lumpy chunky stuff - meat off our plates, fruit, fishcakes and the like, his gut and digestive bits and pieces are still very young, who knows what they can and can't do. I can wait, and Jaan will have to wait. 

He looks at everything we eat and tries to have some. He looks a bit hurt when he is not offered any! 

On the teething front, he complains of gum pain (holding his gum and pointing and crying!!) for a few nights every week or so. Then settles down again. 

He's taking to his cot a lot better now in the daytime. He spends at least half the night-time sleep with us in the new super-king-sized family bed (yaay our first own bed ... we've always had a borrowed once since we got married).

TV is attractive to him - he loves Lazytown and watches the Tombliboos on In the Night Garden. We cuddle up together in the late afternoon and I feed him and pat him while he watches, hoping he will relax and then sleep. It normally works. Jaan is very intent on his latest project - mobility. He rolls from his back over to his front, but can't move back the other way. He tries and tries to roll and roll, he does it good naturedly. When he is tired, he stops for a few moments, drops his head, then when he has rested, raises it again and carries on trying. It takes quite a while before he gets so tired that he gets cranky and frustrated. I help him turn over then, but he often feels bad that he's not on his tummy anymore - hugs and cuddles and wiggle-wiggle action tends to sort the tears out though! 

Mostly though, Jaan laughs and smiles all day, every day, all the hours he is awake, and sometimes in his sleep. He does cry a bit in his sleep too .... perhaps he needs to pee, perhaps it is dream-related. Jaan likes to sleep through the night and have a long sleep in the morning too. His afternoon nap and late afternoon naps are now shorter, about an hour or so. He has a lot of playing to do all day after all! Plus he has a lot of 'walking' to do in his baby walker.

In terms of the kidney mystery - we now know he just has one for sure, and that is a good, healthy kidney, but that the pipework associated with it is dilated and needs to be watched. Every 6 months we'll have to take him for a scan, he'll have to stay on antibiotic prophylaxis indefinitely, and we'll have to keep a close eye on him as we have been doing. Iain is pleased as punch that it is nothing worse, and my parents urge me to be thankful to Allah. Personally I try not to think about it. Iain does the medication now. We found a manufacturer that makes the Trimethoprim without the strong taste. 

Jaan, Bobo & Mrs Jojo!!

Jaan really enjoys playing with some of his toys. He loves Leslie the Gender-Neutral bear a lot, and adores Bobo the rabbit - then I introduced him to Jojo, a bear who is a little like Bobo ...

Jaan took to her at once. Was happy to see her, sucked on her ears, her face etc ... screeched at her ... the works. He doesn't hang on to her the way he holds on to Bobo (latches on to the butt with his fingers and keeps hold of the bunny!!!), but they are definitely interesting to him now.

I'm encouraging him to use these soft little friends to help him feel secure and happy while he watches us, or has a rest on his sheepskin, or while he is having a little think. He is approaching 19 weeks of age now, and is definitely gearing up for an intellectual leap of some sort. I guess 6 or 8 weeks from now he'll be sitting, and trying to crawl and rolling about - these are pretty big physical achievements, a huge skill set. He's been thinking and watching things a lot. He is quite needy now, is obviously finding it harder to just sleep, or just eat. The world is challenging for him right now, it's very evident just watching him that this is so.

I'm glad he has his little buddies as well as us.

Incidentally, while my parents were round, we were enjoying the moment, and laughing and joking about Bobo and Jojo and so now it turns out they are Mr Bobo & Mrs Jojo, and their surname is Bear-Bunny Smith ....

So now Jaan eats solids. Most of the time I feed him while holding him in my arms breast-feeding-style. Seems to work well. We also feed him a lot while he is lying on his playmat or on his sheepskin - as long as is throat is nice and straight and free to function as it should, the food (still quite liquidey) goes down well.

We've been relying on Plum Baby, a lovely organic range which tastes nice (developing his palate) and allows us to provide him with a variety of things to try, even though I'm struggling a lot with post-natal depression, and am unable to prepare his food from scratch.

Look at him, little cheeky chops!!

We have managed to put him in his high chair too!

Jaan's having some time in his swing.

Jaan in his swing from Nadiya Midgley on Vimeo.

Taken today, the 22nd of January, Jaan's having some time in his swing. He has one of his favourite toys with him - watch to the end, he smiles!! 

He's really interested in everything around him now - specially toys with mirrors, toys that squeak, and his softest toys - he hugs them! He tries to taste everything - but does not like the taste of plastic, or the texture of a lot of his toys. He's still learning how to put things in his mouth effectively. He still loves looking at lights, except now he can reach out as if to touch them too. He wants to see different things, and complains if he has to look at one thing for too long. He yawns and rubs his eyes when he gets tired, and we wrap him up for a nap - and he smiles when we do that, happy that he'll get to rest.

Iain does his bit getting ready to wean Jaan

As we are 15 weeks into parenting Jaan now, our thoughts are starting to turn towards the next round of 'Firsts' - weaning (introducing solid food) and teething. I've been choosing what I hope will be suitable teething products, weaning spoons and stuff, and Jaan's high chair. I wanted the Stokke Tripp Trapp for the longest time ... then I realised the Little Helper FunPod High Chaircould really work for us - it will be the FunPod once Jaan is too big for the high chair, and the high chair itself separates into a chair for Jaan anyway. Super  - here's Iain making it.

He's too young for it, of course, but we needed to make sure we have all the parts!