#36 Catch You!

I’m home alone with Jay today. Greg is working in Chunghua. Right now he (Jay, not Greg) is in his walker and zooting all over the place. I’ve just fed him his cereal so in a few moments I’ll give him his bottle. Usually after his breakfast he actually has some rooibos tea in his sippy cup. I just make it the night before and then put it in the fridge and he drinks it cold, without milk or sugar and he loves it! I was so surprised at first. He likes it more than his juice which surprised me because babies usually like sweet things. I just thought I’d give it a try and he couldn’t get enough, although he only has a little at a time. It’s very good for babies, too, and helps with things like colic.

He also likes to drink my regular tea, but I know that’s not really healthy for him so I usually just leave a tiny sip for him at the bottom of the mug and help him drink it. He still doesn’t like to eat that much, but this week has been better than the last and Stella said that he actually ate his vegetables whereas he absolutely refused to the week before. We find, though, that he accepts his food much more easily if he is busy with something else. We put him in his walker because it’s impossible elsewhere and then make sure he is busy with something before we feed him. It does usually require us bending down the whole time which is rather tiring, but at least it gets the food in.

This week hasn’t been too great in terms of morning sickness. I just can’t seem to be able to kick it for good. Even now as I write I’m nauseas and I hate feeling this way, especially when I can’t just go lie on the bed with a book or try and nap and actually have to take care of the little one. I puked twice this week and gagged quite a bit. I also felt nauseas during the day more and I have no idea why. I thought the hormones would have calmed down by now, but I seem to have received a fresh batch this week. If I don’t eat often, it gets worse and it’s worse when I’m tired as well. I’m teaching a lot of hours at the moment – 18 a week, and I’m there for longer so I have to be honest, I’m feeling quite exhausted.

I went to see the doctor on Thursday and he still can’t tell me the sex! The legs are tightly shut each time. Actually, this time the baby was sleeping and he had to wake it up by pressing on my belly to make sure the heart beat was normal. When the baby sleeps it slows down quite a bit so he just wanted to be sure everything was fine. I still have that swelling on my placenta so I’m on antibiotics again, but he said it isn’t severe which is good. As long as it doesn’t get worse, I don’t think it’s something to worry about.

Now Jay is in his room playing with his toys. I’ll only leave him him alone for one sentence at a time because he really wants to climb up on everything. He does seem more interested in his toys now, but his attention span is short so he always wants to look at something new (or something he isn’t supposed to touch). He loves it when you let him hold onto your fingers and he walks with you, but lately he starts running immediately. He really is quite an active baby. I’ve noticed that he likes his books more and if you give him one while he sits alone, he’ll page through it and look at the pictures which he never did before. His absolutely favourite game at the moment is “Catch You”. I guess it should be called “Catch Me”, but he can’t say any words yet so right now he listens for us to say “Catch you” and off he goes tearing down the passage in his walker. He actually gets into quite a frenzy and waves his arms about as well, shrieking as he runs along. Sometimes he looks at you and then he starts running and he turns around to look at you to make sure you’re going to catch him. Once I catch him, I tickle him, but then sometimes I turn around and run around the corner and say, “Where’s Mommy?” He comes looking for me and then I jump out and give him a fright. He loves it though and laughs and laughs. Once, though, as I was about to give chase this chair fell down and made this loud crashing sound. He burst into tears immediately.

Speaking of tears, he often cries now when you say goodbye. As soon as he realises you’re going out the door, he starts crying. Even when Greg walks the dogs he starts crying and once when Stella left he also started up. He cries when I leave for work, too, which is actually quite heartbreaking. At the moment he also likes kicking his little ball. He pulls himself up on the railing along the bed and then I roll the ball to him and he kicks it back to me.

The other day Greg was watching him in the room and I went to the kitchen to make another bottle. He was looking rather tired and Greg was hoping he’d fall asleep. I made the bottle, but while I was busy Greg came into the kitchen carrying Jay, who was awake. I asked him why he had picked him up and he said that Jay had started to get all wriggly. Then he picked up the bottle which was on the counter. I hadn’t shaken it enough so I said, “Just needs another shake.” For a split second Greg looked puzzled, so I clarified, “The bottle, not the baby.” We both thought that was pretty funny.

Okay, let me be off. Jay has finally nodded off and is sound asleep in my arms. Only problem now is trying to move him or myself to somewhere more comfortable. It’s really something not being able to just pick him up and move around. If I put him in the stroller he’ll wake up, so luckily this is a swivel chair. I’ll wheel myself to the fridge, take out my dinner, heat it up and eat it and then wheel us to the bedroom and get on the bed with him where hopefully he’ll continue sleeping and I’ll get a chance to read my book.

Lots of love

Em x

(snippets from April 2010)