Lucas has been having some better days but who knows why. Could it be that I'm not having milk in my diet? Or could it be that he is just getting bigger, his gut is maturing and he is coping better? I cant exactly say. I did try three days with milk in my diet last week ( I was missing chocolate and cheese. Not together, of course!) and by day three he had been crying almost all day, he'd not slept more than a few minutes at a time and was acting colicky. So the milk stopped again and three days later is a much happier little boy. Not saying he is completely cured. He does this angry little scream/cry which is at just the right pitch to tell you he is NOT impressed with how you are handling him either by trying to feed him/get him to sleep/how you hold him etc. Its a little funny when you think about it, just not so much so at the time. I am very proud of the fact that Im still breastfeeding. Thanks to amazing support from one particular person and lots of positive comments from others I have been able to overcome all the difficulties that had stopped me before and finally its starting to feel like second nature. It makes me sad that I didn't manage it with the others but at least I made it this time.
My plan to have more frugal parenthood with Lucas hasn't worked out too well though. What with sleepsuits, bedding, a carrycot we bought then hated so we sold it, pacifiers, steriliser, bouncy chair which we never use (and must get around to selling), its cost us a small fortune. Its silly, but when you have a baby who is unsettled you try ANYTHING to calm them down. Most recent of purchases are a baby sleep bag which he tried out for the first time last night, and a new sling; the Baba Sling which may be far more convenient to use than my Moby. Or I may hate it. I got it half price so its not a terrible waste if he hates it and I could sell it for a good price if I need to. Either way this is where he likes to be best:
I am standing my ground when it comes to buying toys for Lucas though. I have to keep explaining to dh (and everyone else) why I want Lucas to have wooden rattles and only nice natural toys. It's really a case of starting as I mean to go on because with Seb I always regretted getting roped into allowing things I didnt want him to have and far more than he ever really needed. This time I want toys that are nice and natural and not too many!
Speaking of not too many, Christmas will I think be a frugal affair this year. Each of the kids has asked for only a few things each and the cost of these items is around £100 or less. Still sounds like a lot but in years gone by they would write a list which totalled into the hundreds then Id have to whittle it down, tis far easier to whittle down £100! Not sure whether my parents are coming up this year. I would like them to but on the other hand I am not sure she or I could cope with her meddling. I have already had to suffer stupid comments like "Well if he is so unsettled, why dont you stick him on the bottle", "All the others did ok with bottles" "You're not going to breast feed him that long, are you?" "Other parents manage to put their babies down" "Other babies sleep in their cots" "Why dont you use disposables innstead of washing all the time" and to counter that "Why not use terry squares, I managed with them" *SIGH* Expletives come to mind but I am refraining.
Am I really ready for her to interfere with or criticise everything about how I am dealing with Lucas? I dont think I am strong enough and frankly feel like a stuck record when I repeat ad infinitum about choice, times changing, new research and different parenting choices. She doesnt seem to hear me at all.
Seb finally finished and assembled his lifecycles lapbook at long last. It's taken him far longer than Id hoped but it was nice to have it completed.
Next on the agenda is our Maps mini unit followed by our Building unit. Emma has requested to join in and do them too. This has a double benefit in that she can enjoy learning new things, and that I can rope her into reading to Seb so there is more chance of it actually getting done. Not sure if we'll lapbook or do a main lesson book yet, it'll depend on what the kids prefer though Im edging towards main lesson books.
We managed two nice days out at the beginning of the week. On Monday the kids and I visited my friend H who lives on a farm about a half hour from us . We all had a little campfire to cook sausages, paddled in a stream and wandered around the gardens. It was lovely and warm and we had a great time. On Tuesday we took Abi to Bicton, nipped to Exeter then picked Abi up early and we went to Bicton Gardens in the afternoon. It was cooler but Im glad as Lucas would have been far too hot in the sling otherwise. It has taken me the rest of the week to recover from it all.
On Friday at HEY Seb and Emma did a science workshop on 'matter' with the rest of the group which they seemed to enjoy. The lady who runs the workshops used to be part of HEY and this is her new venture. H cooked jacket potatos for the group so I didnt have to make lunch. I spent the afternoon walking with Lucas to keep him asleep, cooked tea then Em went off to scouts.
On Saturday Graham took the girls out to their French/Music/Maths lessons whilst Seb, Lucas and I attempted to go to town, gave up and came home. If you want to ask why, just ask Lucas. At 12ish we headed to Wincanton to collect the girls and Seb had his first piano lesson which he tried really hard with. S was very pleased with him. When we reached home, Seb wanted to drive around the new housing development which sounds like a fairly harmless activity if I hadnt had to do maneouvers in my new car. I had to turn around so I reversed back, unfortunately I had to reverse slightly down a steep hill and put the handbrake on to go into forward gear only to discover that our handbrake didnt work. So it required very quick thinking and lots of clutch control to get us going again. Eeek!
By the time we got home I was worn out so we hung out till dh got home, ordered chinese for tea then Lucas and I went to bed because he is unsettled again, whilst dh stayed up painting the kitchen. Hope I like the colour.
Christmas here is going to be more frugal too. I've got it down to £150 for the boys and £100 for the others. It's still alot given there are 8 of them but better then some years.
ReplyDeleteWhat gorgeous lap books! Seb's fine motor skills really must be impressive (or maybe my children's are even worse than I'd thought...)
ReplyDeleteLucas WILL grow out of this stage. Absolutely promise. Can't guarantee what stage he'll grow into, but this will pass.
As for Christmas, I've mutinied this year and we are meeting family at a pub with a soft play area in late November and then that's it. Madam can do it. Monster hates it, and, more importantly, I'm so tense trying to keep everyone happy that I hate it. We're now planning a Christmas with loads of long walks and have bought a big thermos for winter picnics.
IKWYM Ruth - Some years the requests have been bordering on extortionate. I can only blush when I think on several occasions we have run over £1000 on Christmas. Insane! Though in recent years we have gradually bought it down. I can only imagine how expensive it gets in your house.
ReplyDeleteAnne- Your Christmas plan sounds lovely and we may steal your idea.
Dont be too jealous of Sebs lapbook. I pre-print and pre-cut all the mini books, I usually write in the mini books first and he goes over it in coloured pencil and then we stick the mini-books in using double sided tape.
I regret only feeding the last two myself, I gave into pressure to bottle feed the first three. I was devastated when Cody stopped feeding at about 14 months. As for Christmas we're very frugal, I only spend about 70 pounds on each, it'll be less this year, I'm going to give them all money so that they can put it together with any other money they get and buy what they want. We spend a lot of time in the forest walking the dogs, you don't get invited many places when you got five children!
ReplyDeleteYour bit about 'other babies' struck a chord with me, because it reminds me of the moment I fell out with my health visitor. She went on about 'other babies' I pointed out that I hadn't got 'other babies', I'd got one particular one and the tactics she was laying down as gospel truth weren't working, so I was making it up as I went along. (Not much changed there then...) Then I researched and found she was optional, so opted out and got the development checks done by my nice GP who doesn't treat me like a pot plant.
ReplyDeleteRe breast feeding, mine were too early to have developed the suck reflex so it wasn't an option. I wish I could have done, but what matters is that they WERE fed and are now eating me out of house and home.
I breast fed S until she gave up at 8 months because she was too nosy to sit or lie without looking around the room. Sadly C could not suck hard enough (she was born with a syndrome giving weak jaw muscles) to get enough nutrition and went right off the bottom of the weight chart.My lovely health visitor let me decide for myself that she needed to be put on the bottle and only let on afterwards that she knew it would have to happen but wanted it to be my choice.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of Seb's lapbook. Was that a homeschoolshare one?
Thanks Karen. Its not really about 'how' they are fed; My older 4 all ended up bottle fed and are all fine. But it was something I really wanted to do this time.
ReplyDeleteThe lapbook was made up of several Homeschoolshare lapbooks, plus I googled "________ worksheets" or "________ mini book" for whatever topic I wanted