Eggshell Green

Abby Update at 32 Weeks

Abby is now seven months old! Wow, has time flown. I’m due back at work in three months – eek!!

At 30 weeks

• Went on her first plane trip to Auckland. Not so fun when she got tired and had her usual bedtime cry!
• Moves around in her walker in all directions. She only used to be able to roll backwards but she’s all go now.
• Moving onto lumpier solids – gradually.
• Sits up well and can rebalance herself most of the time.
• Can hold her water bottle by the handles and drink by herself in short bursts. She likes to chew on the teat and fling the bottle around though.
• Plays in the bath.
• Shakes her toys.
• Plays with Fez.

Abby's first plane ride

Mmmm tasty dog-chewed rag...

At 31 weeks

• Caught a cold – boo.
• Likes dropping things to watch them fall.
• Bangs her toys to make noise.
• Can “give you five”, but only down low.
• Noms on rusks.
• Sits and happily plays with the toys in her toy box. Still needs cushions around her because she likes to jerk backwards without warning and she has a flat-enough head as it is.
• “Chews” food with her gums.
• Has breakfast and lunch with mum at the table. Her dinner is earlier than ours though so she ends up watching us gobble our food while she has to make do with a rusk.
• First tooth requires brushing. Ridiculous task – how do you make a baby spit out toothpaste? She just eats it. I put water on the brush, lean Abby over the sink and hope gravity does most of the work.

It's all smiles with her rusk

Bouncing in her slippers

At 32 weeks

• Over the worst of her cold, and just needs to blow her nose if only she knew how…
• Might be teething again as the red cheeks have reappeared.
• Has outgrown her 3-6 month clothes and mummy is sad to be putting them away.
• Zooms around in her walker – mind the Fez! (Sorry about the cellphone quality of the video.)

Tags: baby, fez

How to: Make a jumper bed

If you have an old jumper lying around and your dog has outgrown his current bed, you can make a quick bed out of a jumper and a rolled up towel.

It’s easy peasy.

Round off the bottom of the jumper

1. Turn the jumper inside out and round off the bottom of the jumper. You may need to bring the arms together to measure how much you need to cut off the bottom. Sew the cut bottom edges closed.
2. Turn the jumper right side out. Position the arms along the bottom edge of the jumper and stitch the bottom edge of each arm to the base of the jumper.
   

   Attach arms to base, and ends of arms together

3. Stitch the ends of the two arms together.
4. Roll up an old towel and stuff the arms with it to make a raised edge to the bed.
   

   Stuff with a rolled up towel and you're done

5. Put your dog in its new bed. If you’re dog is like Fez, he’ll jump in by himself before you’re even done…

To wash, just remove the towel and chuck it all into the washing machine.

You can also stuff an old cushion, pillow, or folded up blanket into the jumper for an extra cushy bed.

Tags: craf, fez

Abby Update at 6 Weeks

So the magical six weeks has arrived…

In her sixth week Abby got chicken pox and her first lot of jabs – what a lucky girl! She also found out her hands are super tasty and has gone through yet another growth spurt. She is now 5.5 kilos and managed to grow two centimeters in a week – imagine the growing pains!

Abby finds her thumb

My weekly email from Kidspot tells me about a thing called the Arsenic Hour, where young babies are extra fussy in the early evening and only having light sleeps (usually in your arms). Abby had one of those evenings yesterday keeping mummy and daddy busy for about four hours. It didn’t help that she was probably in pain from her immunisation. I tried giving her Pamol and she threw up all over herself. I tried giving her Pamol again after her next feed and she threw up all over herself, me and the bed. I don’t think she likes Pamol.

Getting big and cuddly

Expressing milk is becoming harder as I have to keep adjusting to the increasing volumes that we should be feeding her. I’m going to make an appointment to see a lactation consultant to see why breastfeeding is so traumatic for Abby (she screams as soon as you hold her close to try and breast feed). Sometimes she latches and suckles and I think “Yuss!” but after a few sucks she pulls away and the screaming fit starts. Breastfeeding would be better for the both of us as she’ll get what she needs as soon as she needs it and I save hours each day, and have more sleep, if I don’t have to express.

Abby sleeps as Fez looks on

Fez is extremely good with Abby, as he is with all kids. He’s however beginning to show signs of jealousy such as snuggling up close and getting his face in the action too when we are playing with Abby. At the same time he also seems protective of her and sleeps next to her when she’s on her bouncer, and sometimes sits at the bedroom door when she’s crying as if to say “Do you know she’s crying??”.

This is the last week that the hubby is on holiday. It’s back to work for him next week so I’m not looking forward to being on my own during the day again.

Fingers crossed that by the end of this week she’ll be right as rain and be a good settled baby with a firm routine – yeah right!

Abby at 6 weeks 4 days

Tags: baby, fez, puppy