QUIRKS & OBSTACLES

I'm pretty sure all babies have their quirks. Some won't sleep, some won't roll, some won't eat off a spoon, some refuse the bottle and some probably hate the water.

We have a few quirks making their appearance at the moment: #1. C refuses to sit. #2. He won't pick up and eat food, he will only be spoonfed, and #3. He refuses to stand in water.

#3 doesn't bother me, in fact I find it highly amusing. He LOVES his bath time but you have to put him down in the bath by lowering him onto his back. You can't put him in feet first because he will lift his little legs up as high as he can so he doesn't dip his toes in the water. Even when I lift him out of the bath and try to shake the water off him and lower him into a standing position, he refuses to put his legs down. Same thing at the beach. Except at the beach I made him dip his toes in the ocean which resulted in hysterical crying. Strange child.

As for #1 and #2, these are causing a few hazards. The no sitting thing is mostly causing him a headache. He can now climb up things (and does it at every opportunity he can get!) but then he doesn't know how to get down. Most babies would fall backwards onto their bums in a sitting position, but mine falls backwards onto his bum and then backwards again onto his head (or sideways from a standing position and onto his head). Needless to say we often get a few tears due to this. If I attempt to put him into a sitting position he will pull his legs back up against him and try to force himself up into a standing position. I'm not sure at this point if it's a case of can't sit or won't sit but being a paranoid first time mummy, I turned to Google (duh!) and read that by 9 months old they should be able to sit unassisted by now and if not then you should see a doctor. Cue a bit of panic. But then I spoke to someone in my IVF group who mentioned that their daughter was the same and didn't sit until they were 1. So I will try not to be overly concerned at this point and ride it out as one of his quirks. Albeit one that causes a few tears per day.

Then comes #2. He doesn't like touching food or any strange textures that he is not used to. This is where the obstacles of being a working mum kicks in. My MIL does all three daily meals so it's hard for me to be consistent on this particular quirk as I am not the one feeding him during the week and I can't expect her to let him get filthily covered in food and bathed every day to try and teach him how to feed himself. He will eat his biccies and rusks, but anything else (like toast, sandwiches or fruit) gets promptly screwed up or flicked off his hand. This is something I need to work on as he should be eating snacks by now and not just being a little prince who eats all food off a spoon! Although, I can see how that could be appealing! So this Easter, my goal is to get messy with him and introduce him to a range of foods and textures and see what happens. Except, we did try this last night and he would not even attempt to touch any of the food but happily picked up the plastic bowl, dumped the contents and proceeded to bang it on the highchair. Wish me luck!

Does anyone else have a baby with similar quirks? What are your bubs quirks?

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

It's been awhile since I shared any photos of Cohen so I thought being a  Wednesday,

it was the perfect time to share!

  

BAD MUMMY

Cohen has been a really easy baby so far (like, 'lull me into a false sense of security for if we decide to have another one' type easy) and apart from the breastfeeding which didn't go our way, he's been a dream baby. Now he's a bit older though I am starting to see the mischief in his eyes and thinking perhaps things are about to get more interesting in the 'easy' stakes. Lately he has been trying to climb things. If I sit on the floor with him he will try to climb me. If there is a box on the floor he will climb up it. He climbs the Bumbo, his grandparents dog, his toy box. He chases the cat (much to the cats unamusement) and generally looks for trouble. This has resulted in a few tears the last few days due to face plants and the other week I had my first 'Bad Mummy' moment when he fell tumbled down the steps on our deck and banged his chin. I have only just started adjusting to the fact the he is no longer just a blob who stays where I put him, and I completely underestimated the speed of which he can shimmy (commando crawl) and turned around for 2 second to hang a towel on the washing line and then heard a thump and a cry and there he was dangling feet on deck, chin on next step down. Big cuddles were all it took for him to get over it (phew!) but that was incident #1 (and I'm still trying to understand how they don't get the concept of edges!).

Then came the red bum. Cohen is currently breaking his top right tooth and we don't get teething pain here or grizzly waking through the night baby (thank god!) but we do get acidy type poop and dribble rash. So on Monday we had a bit of redness which I tried to counteract with all manner of creams and potions but he was pooping every single nappy (like, 7 times a day type pooping!) and it just kept getting worse. I felt awful about it and hated seeing his little botty looking like that so I started looking outside the box since the creams (I tried about 5 different brands!) weren't working and stumbled across the baking soda and warm water theory. Lots of info about this with rave reviews so I thought I would try it .... FAIL! Happy nappy free kicking baby turned into squawking in pain and crying real tears baby as it must have stung like nothing else. I felt like the worst mother in the whole world. Moral of the story: Don't always trust Google! Like Google will tell you that 'Sniffly nose = Pregnant' when you are in depserate need of googling pregnancy symptoms, they will also tell you the 2tsp on baking soda in one cup of warm water is great for nappy rash. They don't mention that it will cause them excruciating stingy pain! Never again!

But you know what? Next morning his little bottom was almost good as new!

OUR DECISION

The HG and I had a chat on the weekend about whether we want to go for #2. We concluded that we do want another child. We quite simply couldn't conciously choose to have an only without at least trying for another baby but we could both live with just having the one if that turns out to be the way it is (in other words, we could make the decsion to stop and be happy with just C if we got to a point where IVF was the only way forward). But that is now, not taking into account the emotions of TTC and failing and the burning desire that you get once you start. But for now, the decision is definitely not to close the door to future TTC efforts. We will try naturally for one year. If no luck after a year, we will return to the fertility clinic and use our frozen embryo (given it defrosts). If no luck with that then we will just let it go and let nature take it's course. Sounds good in theory anyway! Practice could be very different.

We decided at the same time to throw contraception out the window now and not try but not prevent. Yes, we are/were using protection. Crazy? Why use protection when you couldn't actively get pregnant after 3 years of trying and then resorting to IVF? Yes, maybe just a little bit mad but at the same time, good for the sanity to not be pondering the idea of a pregnancy every month (no matter how slim). However, I have now had a change of heart (potentially too late for this month though!). After telling the HG while walking through the mall on Saturday (random place for these kind of discussions!) and getting him to agree to throw it out the window and if a miracle happens so be it, I have now changed my mind. I've realised I am more preoccupied with the whole 'getting pregnant' theory than I am with the 'I want another baby now' theory. Quite simply, I don't want another baby yet. I love my life with C and I am enjoying where things are at now. Throwing another baby in the mix too soon would be chaos (financially and just for life in general) so I concluded that we will scrap that idea and go back to protecting until I know I am doing it for the right reasons. Because I want another child, not just because I am so scared that I won't get another one that I want to start trying immediately 'just in case' we miss the opportunity.

A BIT OF LIGHTHEARTEDNESS

So after some more intense topics over the course of the last week, I have concluded I need to lighten the tone a bit. Have you ever looked at your blog stats and looked at what people are searching/googling that lead to your blog? Well, I did this the other day and it was pretty funny! Here are the best ones:

Angelswingsloonyhard

(Um, this could be dodgy or it might not be - is it 'Angels wings loony hard', or 'Angel swings loony hard'?)

I had chocolate brownie, anxiety attack

(Did I once refer to having an anxiety attack while eating a chocolate brownie?)

Greek orthodox IVF baby

(ok, get the IVF baby part but Greek Orthodox? Pretty sure I have never used the words Greek or Orthodox in a blog post. Except perhaps I once mentioned that my name is Greek, hence the Greek, IVF and Baby referring to here?)

Dreams - my dead mom who appears in the loony bin

(Um ...)

What are some of the funniest googles that have led to your blog?

INSIGHT NEEDED!

Following on from my post yesterday, I would love some insight into your decision making when it came to this decision ...

If you did decide to have an only and not TTC again, what made you come to this decision? What things did you take into consideration? Are you still happy with this decision?

If you did decide to venture into the territory of trying to conceive again, did you decide to try naturally first? How are you finding it? Is it easier second time around or are you finding yourself slipping back into the same complex emotions and obsessions as the first time? Will you give it a time limit?

DO I EVEN WANT TO GO THERE?

Lately we have been thinking a bit about TTC#2. Blah. Ok, we were thinking about this before C even made his grand entrance into the world. I guess when you have been through years of infertility, even going through the pregnancy and having a baby doesn't stop you from thinking about it. A bit like the green eyed monster. Who knew that you could still feel jealous when you hear a pregnancy announcement after you have had your own. You would think that finally having your own would make you immune! But I think it is something that is so deeply ingrained in you that you can't help how you automatically respond to those announcements. Sure, it's not the lightening in the heart and tears type jealousy that it once was, but it's a bit of envy all the same!

So anyway, TTC#2. I'm not even sure whether I want to go there. Do I want to delve back into the world of TTC and the ache it carries with it? I'm of the opinion that once you start down that road it's hard to go back. It's like a craving that grows inside of you until it's all you can think about. I know having C will certainly make the journey a more bearable one and much easier to deal with than the journey to get him, but I can't help but think that emotionally the safer route would be simply to accept and enjoy a life with one child. We don't have the option of another IVF cycle. We have one frostie but that is our last resort. The 3 IVF cycles it took to conceive C were publicly funded so in the end it didn't cost us anything ... except for the hundreds of dollars (scrap that, thousands!) that I invested in vitamin companies and acupuncturists and on little balls of chinese herbs that I took in the handfuls for well over a year. But another cycle would cost us up to (if not over) $13,000. Can I juggle that risk when there are no guaruntees and we already have one child to support? No. We have already decided that it will have to be a natural conception or our one frostie or not at all.

But what makes me think that we can even HAVE a natural pregnancy after 3 long years of trying everything under the sun the first time around? So many people have said to me that 'Your body knows what to do now you've had one baby'. They have said that so many times that I start to believe it. Last month we didn't use any protection one time during ovulation and dare I say it, I was freaking out just a tad. Like I could have one little accident and get pregnant just because I had a baby. Who am I kidding!

So, back to the original question - do I even want to go there?