Early teether!

Here you go!
Felt something sharp in his mouth when he bit me yesterday, only to find a little pearl popping out from his gum.

Went to the pharmacy to get teething gel, just in case, and got confirmation from the pharmacist when she saw Oli's gum. And she said, "My boy didn't get it until 12 months!"

It's a day of neverending screams today.

Fly me to the moon - Oli's first big trip

Mummy's diary

21 Jul 07

(Lesson #1: Do not pack at the last minute to avoid overpacking (baby's stuff) and/or underpacking (mummy's))

We're taking the 2pm flight to Queensland. I knew I should have packed at least the night before but that would be unusual of me to do that. It was just unbelievable but there was so much to do! I was so busy that I literally didnt have enough time to sit down and had my breakfast before we left. I wasn't sure what he needed, couldn't make up my mind on what to bring - I ended up prety much taking almost the whole nursery. Packing for him took forever and I just threw some of my stuff in the suitcase at the end of it. In the end, the only thing I probably didn't bring was his cot.

(Lesson #2 - for daddy: Do not say "What would you do if we leave early this morning instead of the 2 o'clock flight?" while you're sitting down having a nice cup of coffee and your breakfast while your wife is running around getting things organised for YOUR boy. It is not very nice and your wife might not want to talk to you for the rest of the day.)

Milestone #1 : Oli tried to sit up without support in the morning on his rocker after breakfast

The flight was suprisingly quite easy - though it would be a different story if it was 5 or six hours flight. The passenger sat next to us moved to another row so we had next seat empty - very very helpful. Oli couldn't get comfortable to sleep but no problem with his ears during take off/landing.

We got our rented car - v annoyed because instead of the baby capsule we got a child seat, facing forward instead of rear facing. Aaargh.. Have to put rolled rug to support Oli's head and sit at the back to make sure he's ok. It is secured in the middle seat so Oli just staired right at the road and too fascinated to fall asleep even though I know he's very tired.

Arrived at poppy Bradley's at 6pm - Uncle Bob & Aunty Carol were there too. Oli went to bed straight away,thinking we should give him a power nap before he said hello to everyone, but we ended up letting him sleep until the morning. Too bad that uncle Bob & aunty Carol didn't even get to say hi!

22Jul

For lunch today we have: Daryl & Ann, poppy's best friends, Karen (Scott's sister) and Shawn & the kids, Paul (nanna Marg's son) and Janelle & the kids -rrrr... that's 15 of us. What a nerveracking time !

Just couldn't believe though that Oli actually had good naps all day, wasn't even bothered by the noise or overstimulated by the crowds. Phew.

Milestone #2: first tickle giggle - not with me or dad, but uncle Shawn.

23 Jul

yawn. Oli woke up twice this morning. Suspecting teething as he began to pull his ears as well as drooling (a garden sprinkler, Scott calls him).

24 Jul

Mummy & Oli went for a walk to the conservatory, looked like a jungle that we turned home halfway.

We went out for dinner with Murray & Marg (poppy and nanna) - the first time! Yay. He slept the whole time. Looks like we'll be having more dinner out from now on!

25 Jul

Oli and mummy were just having a boring day at poppy's place. At least mummy's got her new Harry Potter book. Not reading it as fast as I like though.

26 Jul

Scott's working from home. But Oli and I were going out with Janelle, sister in law, Paul's (Marg's son) wife. Went to the movie - not a baby session though, so when Oli started to get uncomfortable and started to make noise, I got so nervous. Had to put him down in his stroller and move him back & forth while watching.

Milestone #3: degree 'spinning' (very slow spinning!) on his tummy

Milestone #4: Roll over to his tummy. But of course we missed it. He started crying so I put him on his back and then i went to make a cup of tea. Scott was working just next to him, and the next minute he was on his tummy!

27 Jul

Had lunch at the Southbank and walked along the river with Scott in the afternoon.

Last night in Brisbane - we were having dinner with Marg & Murray, Janelle, Paul and the kids at the Thai restaurant not far from where we lived. Again, Oli slept well in the stroller. Yay!

28 Jul

It's funny what happened today. We flew out today , the flight was ok too. Except the nappy changing part in the small lavatory because I thought his nappy was soiled. Little did I know he then really soiled his nappy during landing - and his jumpsuit. He was really smelly, but couldn't change him until we landed.

got in the first parent room we found, but in the middle of changing nappy he decided to go for a wee, and spoilt his spare jumpsuit. I haven't got a spare of spare jumpsuit, we hadn't got our luggage, the only thing i had in the bag was my top that I packed just incase he leaked on me. So here he is, in mummy's top, happy as can be!

New pictures are uploaded on: http://home.exetel.com.au/bradley/baby_album/my_pictures.html

A Handful Oli

with cousins Nic, Chloe & Ben

Mummy's been pigging out.

It started with Oli being very fussy during the day lately, and when I took him him to see the nurse at the health centre, we found out that he hasn't been gaining enough weight (can't tell if you look at his chubby cheeks & creases on his legs though).

The nurse recommended me to start cereal on him. But he's only 4 months old!


Desperately trying to increase my milk supply (hence a lot of food, water, milk and beer!!! We don't have guiness but apparently normal beer helps to increase milk production as well - good enough for me) because I really need him to have good immune system & antibody at the moment:
1. I am catching flu (not looking forward for his first head cold), but this might actually mean that my milk will decrease
2. He's getting his second jabs on Thursday
3. We're going to Queensland to visit poppy Bradley & nanna Marg for a week on Saturday.

So far I'm sick of eating and drinking and not sure if my milk supply increases.

Would be an interesting (and dreading) to see what happens. He's a handful already even when he's not cranky. He's doing half roll now when put on his back on his babygym, trying so hard to roll over until his face turns red and he gets really upset that Mummy needs to step in. The other day he's trying to crawl with his face down dragging along on the baby gym - oouch - that mummy needed to step in as well.

His naps are generally getting better now that I take time to do proper wind down. I'd pick him up when he's whingy and start singing to him (Unfortunately Scott said the only reason Oli goes quiet everytime I sing is because he's hoping that maybe mummy would stop singing? Very funny, dad.) His favourite song is 'over the rainbow' but mummy can only sing the first verse (over and over and over).

what's in the name

Lots.

Apparently, these days parents get a lot of pressure in naming their babies. They want their chidlren to have names that set them apart from the rest of the pack, but also not so unusual that they will be target of the bullies at school.

(In my opinion, people -no matter how famous they are- who named their children Apple, Shiloh or Suri are as weird and nasty as what Michael Jackson did to his sons - just different approaches)

Anyway, some parents are willing to go the distances by hiring a baby-name consultant. Yes, a baby-name consultant.

For $95, BabyNames.com will set you up with a half-hour phone consulting session to find that perfect name for your little one. If that’s too much time and money, you can pay $35 and they’ll suggest 12 names based on a list of preferences you can check off on the site. Do you want ethnic, biblical, trendy, traditional? How about a name of your favourite place? (Sidney? Wiena? As long as it is not Paris).

Or you can shell out more to pay a numerologist to see if your favourite name has positive associations, or get the expert to make up names from the combination of your and your partner's name combinations.

Oh boy, talking about spending money. My suggestions would be that you go to the library and borrow some babyname books or find them on the internet, and spend that $35 or that $95 for coffee and cake or dinner with your partner, before the little one arrives (you can also talk about baby names with him!)

The mind game

I am soo tired. Our little angel has turned into a nightmare this week. He's very moody and cried and cried and cried and unconsolable - and we (I) don't know what we did wrong or if something wrong with him.


I threw soo many theories on him already. Maybe he is an early teether since he is a bit of a drooler now and bites my finger when I offer it to him - not to mention always sucking his own fingers now? (Oh this is funny. He sooo drools now that when Charlie, a 2 years old son of Scott's friend came over and we told him to give Oli a kiss, his first reaction was, "Yiiikes... he's smelly!" And Oli wasn't smelly that time, and believe me, I know how smelly smells.)


Maybe he's catching cold because of the winter weather? He woke up last night during our dream feed or rollover feed or whatever you want to call it, and cried his lungs out when we put him down, which is very unusual of him. So much worries that I decided to give him some panadol infant. The second we squirted that panadol infant on him, he suddenly went quiet and we didn't hear a single squeek after that. Obviously the drug wouldn't work within that 30 seconds, so it was the shock - shock therapy does work!!! For all he knows we could have just squirted water into his mouth.

Maybe he's getting older and he needs more activities? Maybe I misinterpreted his boredom with sign of tiredness?
Who knows.

It is like playing a charade really. Except he can't tell me if it is one word or two words, no cues whatsoever. The only cue, the repetitive cue is that same looooong wail. It is taking so much energy to guess what he wants. And so this little devil makes soo much impacts on my days. When he's happy, I am happy. But when he's cranky, I am even crankier.

"What do you want, Oli?"
"waaa waaa waaa"

"Are you not feeling well?"
"waa waaa waaa"

"Right, if you keep crying, I am going to put you on ebay. As new - very well trained, generally contended and already sleeps through the night."
"waa waaa waaaa" (maybe this one means: hmm not a bad idea, mum!)