Sleep Training...

So about 2 weeks or so ago, Andrew and i decided that it was time to start training Aidan to sleep in his cot, as he is too long and wriggly now to stay in the bed with us...

So this was how bedtime in the Bevan household happened, mommy and Aidan went to bed and Aidan would have his last feed and fall asleep, then later in the evening daddy would come to bed however by this time Aidan has almost successfully pushed mom out the bed and has laid claim to pretty much every inch of our queen size bed , mom and dad ended up practically sleeping on the seams of the bed whilst the smallest body of the lot, stretched out ,proud as a peacock with this feat that he managed to pull off once again! Now this was getting out of hand so we decided that it was time to train him to go down in his cot, we decide to put his camp cot into our room(so that he still has the same sights,sounds and can still smell his mom and dad's presence (nooo, I'm not talking about fart smells!)
Anyway night 1 was a complete disaster he nearly screamed the whole complex down when we tried to transfer this presumably sleeping baby into the cot...well that didn't work... anyway we waited a couple of days before we tried again, but this time mommy pulled out her DIY skills that she tends to hide, and totally disassembled Aidan's proper cot moved it through to her room and reassembled it next to her side of the bed,(now i didn't think that this would work either as he hates this cot just as much as the camp cot!)
Well that night we tried again expecting another sleepless night and after his feed next to mom, we rolled over and went into our cot! now the only time he comes into our bed is just before his bedtime to have his feed then again when (still sleeping - i might add) he climbs back in bed at round about 3-4am for his morning feed then low and behold he goes back into the cot after that...

Now this makes mommy so proud when she puts him there and he is content but last night he decided, "well OK I'm full of milk i think I'll just crawl into my cot on my own thank you very much!" that almost made my heart break because it made me feel like he didn't need my help anymore, he could now do it himself...
well anyway the point is, now all three of us have a decent chunk of bed to ourselves...

I was a GOOD boy this year, Father Christmas...

"I was a GOOD boy this year, Father Christmas... Now give me my present!" Not quite the words coming from Aidan as he sat on the FAT mans lap, it was more of a case of, "DUUUDE! I have never seen such a big grey beard like that before, are you sure it's real? if only i could reach it and give it a pull... But alas, my arms aren't long enough to get over this Fat belly!"
Oh well i guess i'll have to take his word for it!

Anyway besides not feeling totally 100% of my normal self we still had a great time at daddy's work with all the other children, even my friend Tyrone was there with aunty Gerry and uncle Kevin and his granny and grampa... there was so much food and things to see but my favourite part has got to be my funny bloon doggy that the nice fairy lady made for me, it looked like Aimee, ooooh yes and when i opened my present and saw a cool truck...
Man, it's sooooooo cool, its a blue tow truck with a red bumper and green tow hitch, but the reason it's super cool, has to be the tinted windows, i think i'm so cool cause i have a car, Wah wah wah wah wah!
well bye for now i'm going to go and have my nap and then when i wake up i'm gonna play with my truck... VROOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Some cool breastfeeding facts

Found on: http://www.kellymom.com/writings/index.html

Did you know....

1.Human milk has over 300 ingredients, including interferon, white blood cells, antibacterial and antiviral agents, while formula has only 40 ingredients.

2.Human milk has been shown to kill cancer cells in a laboratory dish and has been used in oncology.

3. The human breast "custom-makes" antibodies to fight whatever pathogen the infant is exposed to in the environment.

4. Breast milk has been used to treat eye infections, ear infections, pimples, cold sores, and nail fungus and prevent infection in scrapes and scratches.

5. In some parts of the world, donated organs are bathed in breast milk for the protective factors.

6. There were 22 "significant" recalls of formula for potentially life-threatening situations.

7. Human milk lactoferrin is patented for use in killing E. Coli in the meat packing industry.

8. Donor milk is being used to treat malabsorption and short-gut syndromes, renal failure, inborn errors of metabolism, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, immunodeficiency diseases, burn cases, cardiac problems, and infectious diseases such as intractable diarrhea, gastroenteritis, infantile botulism, sepsis, pneumonia, and hemorrhagic conjuctivitis in both children and adults.

9. Adoptive moms, grandmothers, and yes, even men have been able to lactate for an infant.

As Thomas would say: " I'm a WEEEENA"

My Winning Picture!!!!

So this morning mommy got an email for Mommalicious Mamma's saying that 'I' (yes that's correct) 'I' won their Summer photo competition.
How cool am i? But let me not get a big head about this, i mean the other babies that entered were also very cute, anyone of them could have won it- HA HA HA but I DID!-
So this means that i have won the first of many contests to come...(as long as mommy doesn't enter me into those naffy beauty contests I'll be fine- please daddy, tell me u have my back on this one!!) because if i know anything about my mom, she will use anything to show off how good looking i am...
I don't know it's almost like she thinks she had some hand in my gorgeosity!( my new word- oxford dictionary will be calling soon)PHU-lease, i was the one doing all the hard work in the belly- i put in the hours!-ME!who do you think was up and busy working on my looks when mom was trying to sleep? HUH?! it was ME! the slacker was sleeping while i was busy!!! she dare not try take the glory with this one, i WILL fight for it, even if it means i must bite...oh yes, hold on, it doesn't take much to get me to bite, Wait for it... "CHOMP!" see i told you, any chance i get to sink these chompers into anything i take it!

So there you have it folks,as my friend Thomas always says: "I'M A WEEEENA!!!!"

All the things that have been keeping me busy

So i have been away for awhile because i have been very busy learning things...
i have learnt how to sit properly so now i don't roll all over the show and sit still and watch my Baby Einstein programs.

I have also learnt how to talk so mommy gets a big earful all day long, she is supposed to understand English... howcome she doesn't have a clue what I am saying when I keep saying LA LA LA LA LA all she responds with is : Yes Aidan LA LA LA LA, you such a clever boy! - YES! mom I know I'm a clever boy!! And they say mother's know everything... YEAH RIGHT! anyway that's that I can also say baba, dada,nun num(that is when I get food) I can also say ninganing which mom also has no clue what it means, but to be fair neither do I, I don't think, its just fun to say!

I can share now too, I learnt how to do that the other day, i like to share with Aimee, I have a bite of my biltong then i offer some to her, then i have more, then her again, she also shares with me... the other day she bought her bloody meat filled bone to me and left it there for me to chew on, when mommy realised it was Aimee's bone, she nearly flipped, naturally i thought it was funny when mom took it away from me and threw it outside and Aimee thought she was playing fetch and bought it back in...
I have also found a way of getting her to follow me when i'm in my walking ring,(which she normally runs and hides from because i chase her so much)i just drop a piece of my biltong in my walking ring seat and sit on it, then we go round in circles following each other, wow that is so much fun...

But man, have i been busy! not only mastering the sitting and talking, i have also learnt how to(well kinda) crawl,it just seems to take me forever to get from one place to the other and mom also sits and claps and says yay alot when i try,well forget it, i have also discovered that i can pull up and stand so now i have been 'cruising ' a bit it seems cool, but am i ever impatient to walk and run for real. That way i can play with Tyrone and Thomas and join them in running down the passage and not have to sit on moms lap- i can tell you how BOOORING that is!

But how cool is this, with all the standing and cruising i have been doing i had my first real ooops when i fell off the the small step into the pantry, now although i bit my tongue and bumped my head, it was mommy that nearly had a heart attack, (yes i did cry, but once mommy put me in the bath and i was surrounded by my toys i could have cared less)besides i think my bruise on my forehead looks kinda cool!
and i certainly think it impressed my little girlfriend, see aunty Candice had a baby on the 26th Oct- and she is my girlfriend! her name is Kyla- Lee and wow she is pretty, mommy said i must be gentle with her because she is small, and that when i touch her i must be soft with her Because of her soft baby skin...
anyway this is me signing off and saying sweet dreams to my girl! Mwah! ( yes mom that includes you too)

A little tip…

So the other day i came across a great website whilst looking for tips on making and storing baby food, this site is wonderful, not only does it show you how to make and store your own baby food but it also gives a chart on which solid foods should be introduced to baby at their different age’s and eating abilities, its also gives the nutritional info that all the foods have and goes through all the veg, fruit , protein etc for baby as well as going into food allergies and what causes them.

Just go to:

www.wholesomebabyfood.com

It’s great i have it bookmarked and refer to it all the time!

Me and my pool

So we went out and bought the me a new pool to enjoy my summer in, because the week before the i had to swim in my baby bath…

Anyway Mommy set it up for me and i really seemed to enjoy it, nana and granddad came over to see me and how i used my new sitting skills whilst i played, i almost gave them a heart attack when i dove head first towards the water, then bounced back up like i had been doing the whole "swimming underwater ” thing for ages. A little while later granny and grandpa and noona and goompa arrived and saw me in my pool too, and they were very impressed at how nicely i was playing.

On Monday, i also spent some time in my pool as the weather was lovely it was sunny and warm and Aimee and mommy were outside with me, Aimee was running around chasing the butterflies and mommy was watching me and taking some photos, most of the time i was just way to busy playing and splashing to bother smiling for the camera, i mean really i have more interesting things to explore than to look at the camera! However i was kind enough to smile for at least one( which seemed to get her off my back and allowed me to continue playing!)

Well i instructed mom to put up two photos one of me playing in MY pool, and the other is of my BEAUTIFUL toothy grin( if you look carefully you will see the tiny two front teeth, But look carefully because if you miss those teeth I'll be SAD ‘cause it took me forever to grow those things!)

Me in my cool pool!!

 

There mom are you happy?

My take on my new teeth

It's saturday the 26th of September and i have been teething for a total of about four months now, with very Very little to show for it...

But now after all this time i will pull the rabbit out of the bag( or at least the teeth out of the gums)and i shall make my BIG reveal at dinner time, wait for it wait for it, ok NOW! BITE!Ohh hang on this is quiet funny, i bite and mommy squeals hmmmm interesting, let me do it again, come on, that face you just pulled, mommy was just priceless, i HAVE to see it again!
Ok new plan... because i just know she wont willingly put her fingers there in my mouth, now think Aidan think, hmmm i know i'll scream like i want something to eat and when she hands me a little bit of bread or a piece of broccoli, i'll pounce on her hand and gnaw,gnaw,gnaw, like my life depended on it, i'll take her fingers and grip them with such strength that she'll squeal(again) for me to let her go!

I'M A BOY!

Now I have discovered a few things about myself that I'm sure I never knew before, things like how I now find it the funniest thing in the world when someone farts, I mean I finds it so funny that even when half asleep when someone farts I will burst out laughing(now if that doesn't scream "I'M A BOY!" i don't know what does...) but not only does that make the giggles come spilling out of me, it's also the fact that I have now found the Lost ark... " Mom, Dad, i have news for you... i have a... i have a WINKY! YAY ME!!!" i just want to play and play and play, even when mommy tries her hardest to keep my hands away- particularly when my nappy is being changed, because that's when my fingers end up with more nappy cream than my bum and bits do... the other day when it was sooo hot, mommy and aunty pip (i mean Robyn)got my old baby bath- i say old because now I'm a big boy and my legs are to long to fit so i use the big boy bath- and put some water in it for me to swim in- Yes i said swim, you see my mommy and daddy don't love me enough to buy my a pool, those cheap skates- Anyway so now I'm sitting outside in the nice sunny weather in my "pool" but I'm to busy discovering all that i can about my new appendage that i don't care about splashing and enjoying the cool water over my Buddha belly! but then the thought goes through my head, "if i stare at it too much will it fall off? Hmmmm these are the things that haunt me! anyway i think I'll have to just check up on it at the next nappy change..." Hey hey hey mom guess what... it's still there, woohoo woohoo woohoo, I'm gonna play with it, and I'm gonna stare at it, and I'm gonna name it, i think I'll call you 'Stealth Ninja Man' why you ask? well it's because he disappears when mommy puts my nappy on but is there when she takes it off again, so there you have it... 'Stealth Ninja Man'

So pain here we come...

Captains Log: 26/09/09 7.30pm

So we have discovered uncharted territory in the crevice that is my mouth, there are two white sharp formations on the mounds of pink fleshy stuff, i think they call them teeth??? (don't ask me, i have no idea) but they really really hurt! the tip of my finger was nearly lost into the oblivion, OK OK i know it's only a finger tip but in its defense it is one of the top ten in my favourite finger tips category...

Anyway i know that most people would say that at least it's not mommy's nipple, but HA HA i laugh in your face... I haven't bitten it- YET!!!(mommy says- "TOUCH WOOD...then reminds herself not to go and jinx it now you dumb ass!!")

Well now that the little meilie munchers have arrived i guess it means that moms furniture is not as safe as it used to be... oops sorry forgot I'm not the dog!!

I am just getting so big now, i don't think I'll get to the piggy back stage with mommy quick enough, i'm so heavy as it is( or at least that's what she always say...), mommy doesn't want to break her back now, maybe she'll be the one getting the ride soon... after all at seven months i am almost already past half mommy's height!
"Gee mom what a shorty!"- oh and not the rapper kind either, just the plain old short kind!

Aidan changes his tactics

Now i really don’t know what is going with this funny little boy of mine…

i seriously think he is trying to decide which stage he would like to go through first he has the whole squeak like a Guinea pig thing going but at the same time he has the whole caveman thing going for him too, i don’t think he is too sure whether he wants to squeak or grunt… come on boy make a decision!

Anyway if it’s confusing me what is it doing to my poor bug? But anyway he is still getting all the things that he wants and needs, at least he still getting dinner on time( we all know what stage he will pick if he doesn’t…)and he wont be happy with that, his new favourite thing to chew on? well a piece of cucumber of course, his sharp little gums peel through the thicker outer skin and then he sits gobbling up the softer inner flesh and the pips are all across the face, eyelashes and all.

so with all the teething that is happening in our house we gotta tell you Aidan is not the only one who’s hurting… i mean yes Andrew and i hurt because we feeling bad and just as frustrated as Aidan is, but the point is mommy is hurting more, lets just put it plainly, Aidan is like a pit bull that has a piece of meat hanging from his jaws, he bites down and shakes his head side to side for all that his little life is worth…. and we all know just how much he is worth, I'm just surprised how a nipple has such a strong will to survive… It just refuses to let go, sometimes i just wish it would cause something's gotta give and i know for certain Aidan is stubborn just like the rest of mommy’s family.

Anyway now that he has got to the caveman stage and has decided that if something comes in to reach and it doesn't get thrown on the floor or taste tested first he then needs to see if its  going to make a noise so he needs to pull on it, this is why i don't go to the hairdresser anymore (i have one at home, but he doesn’t do a very good job he neglects the left side of my head) and also the reason I had to get rid of the pet guinea pig, he kept pulling its hair which made me quiet sad, it hurts you know… this is how it makes me feel about it!

 

Say yes to the drugs

See now I’m an advocate for drugs, now I’m not talking the heroin and cocaine variety, (as Whitney said, CRACK IS WHACK!) No, no, no I m talking the Voltaren suppository kind...if someone offers it to you, my advice? TAKE IT! You’ll regret it later, I know I did! I thought I was brave, I thought I was strong, man was I wrong... when my spinal wore off damn I thought I was sliced in half(OK OK so I had been, but no-one told me the drugs would wear off so quickly) alright so I suppose sitting bolt upright ½ an hour after a c- section's not the smartest thing to do, but in my defence I wanted to cuddle my new dolly, I mean baby....(oops), anyway the phrase sweating bullets well meant nothing to me, it was more a case of sweating bricks...the 5 min it took the nurses to get my drugs for me seemed like 5 hours, bet Aidan never thought his mom would be playing Hot Potato so soon after he arrived but dad was almost caught right off guard as I passed Aidan off to him. Lucky Andrew has huuuuuge hands! Anyway the meds eventually get to me after I think I’ve died and that there is no way anyone can bring me back from the light, alright alright so I’m exaggerating just a bit but damn it was raw...
Now after the catheter is taken out they break the news to you that you now have to put the suppositories up your butt yourself... I can tell you now that sticking a torpedo shaped blob of medicated Vaseline up my naught is creeping me out round about now, so I do what every self respecting person would do... pretend I don’t know how! So I flash my sweet smile and cute dimples and inform Constance of my unfortunate predicament, lucky for me she smiles and says she would guide me through it, so off we go to the bathroom for my suppository insertion 101 lesson, now half way through telling me the ins and outs of the matter, Constance decides to just do it for me anyway- “YES I got out of doing it”
Little did I know that was to be the last time she would be doing this for me... Mind you I did have to learn sooner or later, it wasn’t as if I could just take Constance home with me(wish I could have though, she was lots of fun always had something funny to say and always smiling.)
But six months on and I still remember the pain as clear as daylight-take the damn drugs you wally!

Hospital maddness

Now when you go into hospital like i did, it's with excitement and exhaustion. so i get wheeled down to theatre must have thought that if they allowed me to walk i would've ended up rolling down like a bowling ball i mean i certainly was big enough... and my anaesthetist gives me my spinal and go instantly numb,now the dreaded catheter, i was hoping for my doc to do it well since she's the only other person that knows my nether regions personally.... but noooo! i see this masked man heading for me with my pee tube... and lo and behold he's Austrian or German or something like that,(now my mind is screaming at every nerve and muscle in my body to run) well that's fun i have the terminator sticking tubes into my bits... when he's done he stands to one side and pretty much uses all his body weight to push this being from my belly. And all i keep thinking is "this is way to much alien for me!" My loving husband then disappears, leaving me with my thoughts of the terminator and how he just squished my baby out, i thought things couldn't get worse but the "Arnie" came to chat, yes that's right, CHAT? this is the guy that has just acquainted himself with my area 53 and now he wants to chat, seriously now? "no sir i don't feel Uncomfortable at all, you have just seen parts of me that not even my closest friends have" and " no i will probably be spending the weekend at home with my new baby,yes i suppose i do feel like i constantly need to pee now..." -WEIRD!!! But now it's six months on and i think the hospital caught me out, i don't have a human baby they gave me a guinea pig that's a human lookalike, because the sounds out of that child's mouth i have only ever heard a guinea pig make?! Whats up with that?

Aidan chooses to play

So Aidan decides that it's time to eat so i whip out the boob as quick as i can so to avoid any anger and screaming, only to find that he isn't really hungry, he just wants to play, but just you put that boob away and see what happens... meanwhile in this cold weather he'll suck once or twice just to get the nipple wet, then much to my disgust pull away... yes pull away can you say cold? BRRRR!! The little rotter thinks this is funny as hell and giggles with delight!

The rules and regulations that babies follow

So this morning Aidan and i had a long chat about the things that babies are required to accomplish before mommy and daddy cotton on... Little did we know that children have rules of manipulation set up right from conception. The rules are as follows: (please remember that i got this straight from the horse's mouth) 1: As you grow inside your mother try make her feel as sick as possible- morning sickness- good, morning and afternoon sickness well that's great, but morning, afternoon and evening sickness-YOU ROCK! 2: Try grow as big as you possibly can, reason? Well so that you can squish as much air out of moms lungs as you can... 3: (is a continuation from 2) So you can also giggle with daddy every time mom needs to get up off the couch.... It's HIL-AR-IOUS! Another thing you could use this rule for is laughing at her as she rolls over from side to side in bed, she sounds like some farm animal being tortured...oh yes and keep all the weight distributed in the front so she looks like she'll topple at the first sign of a slight breeze! 4: (This one is all about timing!) Wait till mom is ready to go into a meeting with her boss, then quickly give a sharp kick into her bladder, and watch as everyone around laughs as she TRIES to run to the loo,(ever seen a fat penguin try run?) 5: (This one is for when we have entered the world in the most dramatic ways) when mom tries to breastfeed, latch on nicely then when she tells everyone how great the two of you are at this new skill, just STOP! let her boobs get full and leaky, just because she jinxed it... 6: Now as you get older and have learnt how mom and dad react to your voice, SCREAM, SCREAM and SCREAM some more until it looks as though their heads are ready to explode then just stop and look at them as if they were hearing things and give them a BIG gummy smile! 7: Now when starting solids, make it look as though you have been doing this for ages, then all of a sudden when mom and dad thought they had this down, start eating like a monkey, try with two fingers in the mouth to start with then gradually move to the whole fist, so as to make as much mess as humanly possible! 8: Chew on absolutely everything make sure nothing has gone unchewed, so that when mom or dad touches something it's coated with juicy saliva... Mmmm! and one of my personal favourites... 9: throw your toys far and wide , and every time they are picked up do it over again so it looks as though mom has done no housework for the day.