Joaquin is sick

Today we have stayed at home and Joaquin did not go to family day care nor I to the uni. Instead I stayed with him and took him to the doctors as he is sick. He has a rash on his legs, arms, and a few dots on his ears and other parts of his body. He has not been eating well and does not want to bf at all which makes me feel slightly bad. The doctor that saw him was the same one that saw him when he was born from around the corner. She did not recognise him but did say something along the lines of "Time has gone quickly".
The doctor looked at his mouth, his ears, listened to his heart, took his temperature, looked at his dots or rash and said he was just sick because of a virus. He did not have a temperature just a bit red at the back of his throat. I think he has some small sores or ulcers on his tongue as he does not want to eat or suck his bottle or bf.
Yesterday i managed to feed him some cereal for breakfast, a few bottles of milk, a piece of cheese, a yoghurt, 2 bites from a bread stick, some chicken soup with bread croutons and some more bottles of milk plus water.
He was acting happier though and wanted to play all day, he did not cry much nor get upset when i left the room. He smiled at strangers at the doctor's and smiled a lot at me. He came up to me throughout the day during his play to hug me.
He woke up a few times last night and each time I wanted to bf he got upset, Jas was able to calm him and get him back to sleep in his cot. I think he woke up 3 or 4 times throughout the night crying, poor little thing.
He had two sleeps about an hour each sleep but did not bf. I hope he gets better. I am not feeling too crash hot as well and feel I have ulcers on my tongue too. Must be all the bad food from all the parties we have had and been going too.
I do not think it helped that I gave him hot "salty" chips last Friday and some of B's chocolate brownie.

Joaquin is 4 months today

Today Joaquin turned 4 months old (17 weeks old).
I am now at home and he has had a little sleep. He still only sleeps 20-30 minutes at a time and today he has slept once down at the pub with the mothers group, the second time in the pram when I was walking home and the third from 5.30 to 6pm. Now he on the play mat, he is a bit grumpy grabbing the hanging mobiles and the toys. He gets frustrated but he can grab things quite well now and gets frustrated when he grabs them and can not put them in his mouth.
He is wearing his dinosaur tshirt that my mother got him from Esquel that is for a 6 month old.
I went to the mothers group down at the beach and he was a bit grumpy there as well but overall he was well behaved and alert and looking at the other babies.
We mothers talked about everything from baby fat on our bodies to baby massage.

Joaquin up close

cutie pie

cat naps for the little man

I am sitting here on red lounge with Joaquin who is asleep in my arms.
I actually got him to have 2 cat-naps today one was for 20min the other 35 min. He usually does 20 min sleep cycles. So today he ate, played and slept. Not much crying just a bit before falling asleep on the bouncer.
So with him asleep on me now that is his third nap of the day.
I am getting to sleep small naps as suggested by Jason. We tried it out on the weekend at Scone and it works well. He does not like to sleep throughout the day but with small 20 min cat naps it is better than nothing and he is not as grizzly!

So Today with a little bit if order in my day I was able to have a shower at 7am when he was still sleeping, make the bed, do a load of washing and hang it outside, , make and have lunch, steralize bottles, and also write and send an important e-mail in spanish.
All this with limited crying!!!
It is 5pm i still have to do another load, feed him, give him a bath, make dinner, have dinner, organize my day for tomorrow.
Tomorrow I want to go for a walk and finish off both my papers. One I have to fix some changes and the other finish of.

Joaquin does not want to sleep

Just got Joaquin to sleep.
It is hard work, he is very alert and awake but with signs of tirdness:
unsettled behaviour, moving arms and legs, hands clenched tight, and small cries and shrieks.
So here is what i did to get my little active 10 week old to sleep during the day.
1) made sure he was fed
2)let him play a bit on mat
3)changed wet nappy
4)wrapped him (here is where complaints started)
5) Walked the living room floor up and down
6) sang to him an argentinian lullaby "Duermame me ninio)
7) he began to cry and cry and struggle and get upset
8) I patted his bum
9) then after 5 min of cries began to say shhhhh
10) This stopped his crying and he began to look at me in the eyes for 4 min with no blinking then began to blink and close eyes and finally sleep.
So then i sat down on couch with him he slept for 15 min.
Now he is awake again!!!!

breast is best

I just got up to have breakfast ( a good hearty bowl of oats/porridge) and say goodbye to Jas who is up early and is now going to work early so he can come home early and help out with Joaquin. He does not have time to have breakfast so he grabs some wheatbix and a bowl with a spoon and eats at work. In a way it makes me feel bad.

I will go back to bed and probably get up to feed the little on in about 30 min. I am a bit tired but thankfully after Joaquin's transition to the cot in our room he is still sleeping well throughout the night. Last night he slept from 9pm to 4am. I had to pump at 9.30 and 1.00am but he is asleep throughout and I would rather him sleep as he does not sleep through the day.
He is still in the baby moses but we place the moses in the cot, so when he has totally grown out of the moses he will automatically adjust well in the cot. Jas measured him last night and said he is at least or more than 62cm long, which is quite long for a little 10 week baby.
I wonder why he is so long. Maybe that is why it has taken me a while to get breastfeeding right as he needs to so much for his long size.

I am happy that I am breastfeeding and finally after all my problems and adjustments I am getting a hang of it (cross my fingers). My problems were flat nipple, using a nipple shield, low milk supply?, thrush, urinary tract infection, and a big fat case of hives or allergic reaction to all the medication I was taking. Medication included fenugreek, motilium, (doperidone), Weleda mothers milk tea, antibiotics, acidopholous tablets. I am so happy to be off medication as the truth is that there is no real scientific studies about motilium and its effect on children that are breastfed. I do not want to take any more drugs. I tried to do something natural and ended up having to take heaps of drugs to make this "natural" thing work. The funny thing is now after 2 weeks of cutting out the drugs my milk supply has established well and I have finally cut out the extra formula top ups we were giving Joaquin.
I think the helpful part for me is expressing at night while he sleeps, thus increasing my supply and spending a lot of time with him during the day letting him feed if he wants or suck if he wants.
I do think breastfeeding is best but if not possible then mother's should not worry and try other alternatives such as expressing milk or formula.
Here is a list of reasons why breastfeeding is beneficial to mother and baby.

Ok I am going back to bed to wait for the little munchkin to wake up and want a feed!

our day

I am so glad it is friday night and Jason does not have to work tomorrow and hang out with Joaquin and I all day and all weekend.
It has a been a full on day, I have been up since 6.30 am and had breakfast with Jason. He then left for work and I pottered around the house. I also fed Joaquin at 7am till 8am and put him back to sleep in his moses bed and I can't believe it that he stays there and falls asleep by himself. He is such a good little boy.
I was able to have a long hot shower which is the first time since I have been pregnant that I have been able to do that at home alone (well I was not alone Joaquin was asleep). I also tided up a bit, rang my brother, sterilized some bottles, and wrote in this blog. At 9.30am he woke up and I fed him and got him ready and walked down to the beach to meet a friend Gaby and her 6 week old baby and we walked to the Palace hotel where we have the mother's group. I don't know really anyone's names but i recognize them all. There are many mothers and many babies of all different ages. Our group has babies between 10 and 12 weeks. I also met a chilian lady called Gimena and a mexican lady called Clara. Both have sons Gimena's son is 3 months and named Lucas, and Clara's sone is 4 months and named Daniel. That is great as we can start a spanish speaking mother's group.
I had a pot of tea and just sat around with the mothers talking and our babies sleeping or eating. Joaquin slept a bit, he ate, he looked around and is quite relaxed around the other babies and people, I think he loves the noice and all the activity.
After that Gaby and I walked to Randwick, we had lunch at Subways and then went to the Randwick Early childhood Community center and breastfed. Joaquin was ok he was hungry all the time. We met a Japanese lady there with a 7 month baby who was trying to find a mothers group to attend, by coiencidence her husband is from Argentina (he was born in Australia but his parents are Argentinian from Bariloche). I told her about the mother's group at the Palace in Randwick and told her to come along or if she ever wants to go for a walk. Her little boy was is cute. She sent me an sms saying "thanks for my kindness today". That is nice.
Well after that we went to Coles and Joaquin was crying and then fell asleep in the baby bjorn. He then woke up while we were getting ready to leave Coles and he cried and cried, loud cries and cried all the way home, all the way up the hill. I could not or did not want to try to put the pram in the car and just tried to get it in the building and him home. I placed him on the mat then went back upstairs to get the pram. He was still crying until I picked him u p and fed him. Then he was better, but afterwards had some reflux so I think he may have been upset by something I ate. maybe the raw onion in the subway sandwich.

At 6.30pm Jas finally came home and played with him and then bathed him. I fed him more and he seemed happier but had reflux. The Jason gave him an ebm top up and he was better. Even though he cried when Jason coughed and got so upset he stopped feeding. After his bottle of ebm Jason wrapped him and put him in his moses and started to read some nursery rhymes to him. Joaquin knows it is time for bed and starts to get upset and cry when Jason begins to wrap him. However he only cried a bit and fell asleep 5 minutes later. He must have been tired.
While this was happening I made dinner, left over chicken curry from yesterday and a greek salad with feta, olives, tomato, avacado, baby spinach leaves. It was great to be able to sit and enjoy a yummy meal.
Now as Joaquin sleeps Jas is using his laptop and I am writing about my day. I am so tired now and will go to bed very soon.

Joaquin is 9 weeks old

Joaquin is asleep and I am trying to set up this blog again. I am sure he will wake up by 11am and I will feed him again.
He has been a great little boy and yesterday I was able to do some work on a paper with a coleague from the University.
Jason took Joaquin for a walk and came back 1 and a half an hour later with some Hungarian cakes from the Hungarian coffee shop on Clovelly road and we had tea.
Today is a cloudy day and I would like to go for a walk to the beach with my brazilan friend who also has a little baby girl Isa who is 5 weeks old. But as it is cloudy I do not know if she will want to come. I should walk every day as it is good for both of us.
Jason is at work now and I chat to him every now and then, we are always connected. I think he likes to be a dad and had fun with him taking him in the pram to Clovelly beach. He told me that Joaquin smiled at him when Jas put him in the pram and was watching all around him as Jas took him for a walk. Joaquin has large eyes and he has always been observant since birth.

This post by Naturally Carolicious sums up what it is like having a two month old to a T

2 month vaccinations

I took Joaquin with the baby bjorn to the Doctors today. It was drizzling with rain outside so I walked as quickly as i could around the corner and he fell asleep in the bjorn.

Once I got there of course with me stopping and not moving he woke up. He looked around the doctors surgery, there were other babies there I think for vaccinations too. Then after about 10 min he got restless, I rocked him, he was more restless and cranky and wingy and so I breastfed him and he calmed down, ate and fell asleep. By the time it was our turn (over 30 min late) he was asleep and I took him upstairs and then he woke up.

The doctor did a double take on him and said " He is a big baby, I thought he may have been here for the 4 month vaccination". I just said well he is lean really but very long. He is also strong and holds his head up and very alert all the time.

The doctor gave him 2 injections in the leg and he cried a bit. I was breastfeeding during this time and so he kept on feeding after the intitial shock of the pain and his cry. He also had a oral vaccination for gastro and he seemed to like that and gulped it down.

The immunizations that he had now at 2 months are:

• Hepatitis B (hepB)
• Diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (acellular pertussis) (DTPa)
• Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
• Polio (inactivated poliomyelitis IPV)
• Pneumococcal conjugate (7vPCV)
• Rotavirus (the oral one that is a new vaccination given now since May 2007 for free).

• This info is from the Immunization site
• Hepatitis B vaccine should be given to all infants as soon as possible after birth. The greatest benefit is if the vaccine is given within 24 hours, and it must be given within 7 days.
• A total of three doses of hepB are required following the birth dose, at either 2 months, 4 months and 6 months or at 2 months, 4 months and 12 months.
• A total of 4 doses of Hib vaccine should be given (2 months, 4 months, 6 months and 12 months) if using PRP-T Hib containing vaccines.
• Here is another link with Facts on Immunization for Australian children
  

His next injections are at 4 months of age. And then at 6 months, but we will be in Argentina then so he will get his 6 months when we are back in Early February 2008. The vaccinations are free under Medicare and I think that if your child gets all the vaccinations the parents get some money back from the Australian government.

This is Joaquin's stats:
Weight: 5.3kg (50th percentile) He is still a lean machine and this is with clothes on and without a poo.
Height: 61cm (90th percentile) I think he may even be more than 61cm as he was 59cm at 6 weeks of age.
Head circumference: ? don't know but over 40cm (75th percentile). He was 39cm at 6 weeks of age.

After the Doctor's visit I went to the chemist and bought infants panadol just in case he had a fever in reaction to the injections (this is what the doctor recommended) and I went to the local corner deli and bought an eggplant, celery, olive sourdough bread, milk and a croissant.
I guess the croissant was my treat as the doctor had told me now he will start to feed more and require more breastmilk and so i must make sure i was eating well. I mean a croissant is not a healthy option but I new that once i got home I would have to feed him and comfort him after his vaccinations and had no time to make a quick bite to eat.

So at home i heated the croissant and had it with jam and made a cup of milky tea and just breast fed him all afternoon. he was very tired and hungry and upset i think after the injections.
He cried all afternoon and then fell asleep in my arms as I paced the room and had "The Beautiful girls" on the myth tv.
Jason came home at 6 and he bathed him. I fed him some more and then Jas gave him an ebm (expressed breast milk top up of 50mls) and I started to make dinner (stuffed eggplants).
Jas put him to bed and miracously he slept from 7.30pm to 5.30am and then had a feed. I checked him all night to see if he had a fever or not but he was fine.

5 week home visit

A nurse came from Early ChildhoodCenter came for a home visit. It is for his 4 week visit but he is really 5 weeks old. She is pregnant and really happy.

It was cold, wet and miserable outside. She said I am doing well as a mum with a newborn as I was not in my pyjamas but dressed. The house was cleaned and Jason was home. I had visions of a strict nurse checking up on everything, making sure we were good parents and I ws a good mother. But not so...

She just talked to me casually and told me about mothers group at the childhood center and how they meet on friday morning. She also set up the scales to weigh him and filled in my blue book.

She did all the newborn tests and he passed with flying colours.

weight 4.2kg nude (has gained 400 grams since birth weight 3.82kgs)
height 57.5cm
head circumference 39cm

Jason's mum came over at 5pm to stay a few days to help out!

5 weeks old

Our little son is already 5 weeks old. I do not know where all this time has gone.

He is asleep now and we started some sort of routine to help us all keep our sanity. By 6pm I am breastfeeding and he is hungrily eating away at both boobs, then Jason gets the baby bath ready and places it in the living room.

We bath him and he is enjoys this, as he looks around wide eyed and does not snicker or cry and just enjoys the warm water on his little body.

We have noticed he is gaining more weight and his little legs are becoming robust. Today we weighed him at 4.2kg so he is gaing about 200 to 230grams a week which is quite good.

However for a time there we were panicking about his weight gain as he had lost more than 10% of weight coming out of hospital. He weighed 3.3 kg when we left hospital and he was born with 3.82 kg so now he has past his birth weight and growing steadily.

I love him to bits and love to kiss his little face, he always wrinkles his eyes when I kiss him and I feel he does not like it. But other times he looks at me and when I look at him he looks away. He is very observant and looks always is looking everywhere, on the ceiling, at the lights, at the television at my grandmothers Sara’s painting of Bondi, and the Indian cushions. He loves to look at the painting of Bondi when I breastfeed him, my grandmother would have been so pleased.

First day at beach

Today we met Erica, Oliver and Tracey at Coogee. Walked down with Jason and he took Joaquin in the Baby Bjorn and I think he liked it straight away. He did not cry and had his eyes opened and alert.

Also saw Robin and Rachel at the beach as they were going with Robin’s guitar to catch a bus to get his guitar fixed. The weather was nice for the first time in a long time.

So today we walked to the beach for the first time with Joaquin in the Baby Bjorn. Joaquin heard for the first time the sound of birds and a dog barking as Jason walked him around. He had his eyes opened. I took the pram and took him on the board walk in the pram but he cried at northern end as he was hungry and we put him back in the baby bjorn and walked home quickly.

We were quite nervous. We hurried home to feed him.

Going Home

Tuesday 12^th June

We had stayed in our little own room at hospital (Jason had slept the night) and we were trying to feed the baby and get him to weigh a big more to be able to go home. he finally weighed 3.3kgs and was allowed to go home. He had lost more than 15% of his body weight and the doctors could not tell us why (even after they had probed him and taken his blood from his little hand). But they finally let us go home and we in our hearts had decided enough was enough and it was time to go home.

Nikki, Lola and Rueben (5) (her children came to visit) and we finally felt the urge and need to get out of hospital and go. This was a big step for us but a necessary one. So we left at about 12 to go home, we got in the car and put the little nameless one in the car capsule and Jas drove us home. I was in shock still, not moving to my potential but the drive home was great and the baby did not cry and slept. It was very cold and windy outside but when we got home we got the heaters going. Jason had cleaned the flat up and it did not look like a pigstye from the labour with towles and clothes everywhere, with the kettle and chair in the bathroom and wet sheets (from the waters breaking on my bed)

At home

We were in a shock when we got home and had so many things to do and learn.

Jason went and hired a electronic pump and bought bottles with peristaltic pigeon nipples and formula and food for us. I was left alone with the little one for the first time at home.