Pre-birthday sorting out

With Sue off today, we decided to do a couple of pre-birthday activities. These included getting some food and a cake tin. More interestingly, we also took Emily to get weighed and measured.

Having undressed the little tyke, we discovered that she now weighs around 24 lb (or 10 kg). Back when she was smaller she was hovering ever so close to the top of the chart in weight. I think now she's slightly more active, she's actually dropped down to mid 80s. When she actually gets to running and being really active I can imagine she'll drop even more. At 81 cm, however, she's off the chart for height in her age group. This bears out as she is probably as tall as kids 6-8 months older than her. We've been told that her face looks older as well.

On Friday we also took Em to have her first haircut. Up to this point we'd just been letting it grow from birth and it was getting a touch unruly.

The place we took her was very geared up to cutting kids' hair - they had the small seats, loads of toys, and Emily got a 1st Haircut Certificate as well as an envelope of hair which we can give as party favours tomorrow (I'm guessing).

The haircut's made her look like a proper little girl, as she now has a very noticeable fringe.

Mum managed to find the place as well so the three of us watched as Em sat and very happily (if not a bit fidgetly) let the girl cut her bonce.

Another first for Emmers then.

Emily's latest health visit

Sue took Em to the doctor's today for her latest check up. All things are normal.

However, we may not be giving her enough fat or food in her diet as she's not put on any weight as such in the past few weeks. It makes me wonder how much you're supposed to feed a baby.

When Em is breastfeeding she usually falls asleep - that's a good enough sign to me she's had enough. With normal food, if she could talk she could utter "please, can I have some more?" but as it is, she eats what we give her and then goes on to other tasks - playing, pooping, etc.

I've cottoned on, however, that when she cries now it's not neccessarily teething related. She may actually be hungry. A couple of times I automatically reached for the Calpol and teeth powders. In hindsight, I don't think that would have made her very full.

Other news from the doc is that Em is quite tall. 76cm. As 30cm is a foot, she's closer to 3 ft than she is to 2 ft, which is quite good. They say a child at 2 or 3 is half the height they'll be as an adult. Em is clearly on the way to being an amazonian 6 footer.

Other good news is her body seems to be growing into her head, which is now back on the chart (having been off it for a bit). hopefully her head continues to grow at a more chart-worthly proportion or she'll look like one of those odd shrunken heads when she's older.

In other health related news, Sue was told that Em shouldn't go to Aqua Tots tomorrow as her cough is quite bad, and the green groolies won't stop seeping from her nose.

We're still off to the NCT sale and Santa's grotto though!

L'il chubber

It's been three weeks and today Emily got weighed again!

After all the trials and tribulations of the last few weeks - cough, teething, weaning, etc. - I wasn't really sure what to expect, weightwise. All I know is that carrying her for any length of time makes my arms hurt.

Sue rang me after lunch to give me the official verdict - 18lb 4.5 oz. Last weigh in was 17lb 11oz, so she's gaining weight which is good.

Apparently she's dipped on the main charts, but this is due to her being more active and actually working off mummy's milk and the weaning grub we're giving her.

The health visitor also said to not mix food yet, and let Emily get single tastes for now (this will also help identify food allergies, if any!)

In other news, I found some wonderful shampoo I think we're going to get. This stuff promises to toughen your kids up and get ready for all that the real world has to offer.

No time like the present!

More jabs

We took her Eminence to get her 16 week jabs today... at just over 19 weeks. It was a three needle affair.

I managed to entertain her during the first one, but failed miserably during the second and third. She eventually regained her composure and we moved on to weigh her as well. 17 lb 11.5 oz!

One of the side effects from some of the many inoculations Em was given include upset stomach and copious sleep. When we got back home around 3p she nodded off and we had to really rouse her after dinner so she would sleep though the night. There's been no sign of upset tum yet though, which is good.

The weather's cooled down and Em movements have returned to normal colour, so the worry we had about their greenness was probably down to the heat and her sweating more. The midwife said she may have also caught a slight bug which would have turned it green.

All in all, another good day in the life of Em.

Today's measurements

Sue went to get Emily measured today down the clinic. From the facts and figures, she's growing quite well.

Having been born at 9lb 15oz, Emily is now weighing at a healthy 13lb 14oz, just shy of a stone!

She's grown in height by 5cm in 9 weeks, from 57cm to 62cm, so she's now officially over 2ft tall.

Her head circumference is apparently off the scale for her age at 42.5cm. She was born with a circumference of 40cm.

From what we've been told all is well and Emily is doing amazingly well, so that's good.

Growing Babies and Bottling a feeling

This week Sue went to get Emily weighed. In the last fortnight, the little remorseless eating machine has put on almost a pound. She is very quickly growing out of the "our little girl" moniker. Her weight is now hovering around a back breaking 13 pounds.

This morning around 5am, Emily was letting out noises like someone was punching her in the face or trying to cut her legs off... just a blood curdling scream. This was happening while Sue was trying to change her. I waded in with dummy in hand to try and soothe her screams, or at the very least shut her up. I guess I did the trick, because no sooner had dummy gone in then she cacked herself and peed all over Sue. Ah, the trials of being a new parent.

We eventually passed out around 5.45am, but I found a strange elation being rudely awoken so early in the morning. After the initial shock, it's like your body goes into some weird "Ok, so that was just a 5 hour nap, not a night sleep" mode. You feel awake, relaxed and refreshed.

It's only when your body realises what's happens that you begin to fade out, get a flushed feeling and wish you were dead.

If I could bottle that elated feeling, I'd be a millionaire!

Baby weight

Sue took Emily to be weighed today and she's clocking in at 10 lb 13 oz. That makes an 11 oz gain in a week.

All is on track which is good. Emily seems to be eating more and more often which is not good news for Sue, the milk machine. Speaking to my colleague, the new dad, his son's hunger got so bad they had to switch to formula to sate his hunger and give his wife something else to do during the day than feed.

Food, as they say, for thought.

Birth weight and other stories

The health visitor came round today and weighed wee little Emily. She's now 10 lb 2 oz. Anyone who's been following this will know she was born at 9 lb 15 oz and promptly shed 7 oz almost over night.

It's nice to see the little tike's relentless feeding frenzy is resulting in some of it staying inside her (and not all ending up in the nappy).

This arvo Sue met up with a couple of the NCT mums and unknown to me, the dads were there too (as they still have paternity leave, etc.) Sounds like they had a wonderful afternoon eating nachos and apple cake, basking in the spring time sun and listening to the choir of infant cries.

I woke up at 4am this morn when Em grizzled for a feed. As I enjoyed a couple of bevvies last night, I found it rather impossible to get back to sleep. I have to say, I just keep going from tired to even more tired.

Does it end?

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