Sleep YEAH!

Well I have been holding off writing this in case it jinxes things! LOL It seems master Kyan is now sleeping through. He has gone without a feed during the night for nearly a week now. YEAH!

I started off waking him for a feed before I went to bed and he would then sleep through till 5 or 6am. The last two nights I didn't do this and he slept through till about 4am when I gave him a quick cuddle and put him back down, tucked him in and sang him his goodnight song. He protested for about 30secs or so but by the time I was back in bed he was quiet and back on the way to dreamland!

So I have stopped feeding him during the night (YEAH) and he seems to go back down quite well now without a feed. (I tried this a month or two ago but he would not go back to sleep without a lot of work and then would wake up 40mins later still wanting a feed) So this means I will not always have to be the one to get up when he wakes, and Dean and I can take it in turns making it easier for us to get decent sleep... of course, Dean waking up on such occasions is a different story altogether! Ha ha, by the time I wake him up it is easier for me to just get up and do it myself.

Anyway, I digress! It seems the solids (since he has been eating more) have made all the difference with regards to him waking at night so I guess he was just a hungry boy!

Now I am a bit of a dilemma as to whether I should keep waking him at say 9pm for a feed to make him sleep right through or persist with putting him back down at 4am and hope that he works out there is no point in asking for a feed till after 5am as he wont get one... hmmmm'

Either way I am one happy woman and have been in the best mood this week.. I feel ALMOST brand new! Ha ha!

Frietessauce

Why have I got a photo of Fritessause?? Because I am a lunatic! Ha ha!

I am known to put whole egg mayonaise on my chips because I LOVE it. But what I love more, but have not been able to have since I spent a year in Holland was Fritessaus! It is kinda like mayonaise but not really, and it has been sooo long since I had it that I forgot what it tasted like. It does have a mayonaise base but doesn't really taste like mayonaise.

Anyway, the dutch are known for putting 'mayonaise' or rather Fritessause on thier chips and this is something I have also been known to do... or on potatoes, or mash potatoes. MMMMMMM

Ok, back to why the photo of the bottle of Fritessause! I did some grocery shopping the other night. Dean normally does it but thanks to his sore mouth he wasn't feeling up to it, and anyway, I checked out the dutch section as I love to do because our supermarket never used to have one and I love buying the dutch goodies there.

I was sooo excited to see that the dutch section had expanded and there were even more yummy goodies there and lo and behold... jump up and down for joy there was Fritessause. I got all excited right there in the supermarket aisle and I am sure the guy who was walking past thought I was a nutter! ROFL!

I came home and showed it to Dean who of course wouldn't even taste it but managed a happy dance at home as well! Ha ha!

Hmmm might have to have some oven fries for lunch today just so that I can use some of my precious bottle of Fritessause! YAY!

Artist Trading Card

The latest craze on the net at the moment is exchanging Digital Artist Trading Cards. Well for my ozdigiscrapping yahoogroup, the October Challenge is to design a Digital Artist Trading Card so I have made mine for the challenge.

If anyone wants to exchange cards with me, just let me know and I would love to trade printable versions! :-)

Anyway, here is my first attempt at DATC's! :-)

Ouchie!

Dean had to go to the dentist yesterday to have his tooth filled that he had a temporary filling in. He went in the morning and they removed the temporary filling (done as an emergency fill by another dentist) and discovered that there is not enough left of his tooth (molar) to build on and the only option was to have it pulled. Well he had to have needles of course and our dentist doesn't do extractions so they tried to get him into a collegue straight away while the anaesthetic was still active but of course they couldn't fit him in until the afternoon, so he had to have another whole bunch of needles.

So he had the tooth extracted in the afternoon and came home feeling a bit sorry for himself. I don't blame him really, it is not nice having your teeth pulled! I guess on the bright side at least we won't have to spend quite as much to repair that tooth (it was going to cost quite a bit!). When I mentioned it to him I think that did cheer him up a little!

He has been dosed up on painkillers to help with the pain and as he is on a soft food diet for 3 days I made him scrambled eggs and a non dairy smoothie for dinner. ;-) At least that went down well as he hadn't eaten since breakfast thanks to his two appointments.

Tooth Tickling

We just made our fifth trip to the dentist for Jasmine. She has/had three cavities. The dentist tells us that she has really deep grooves in her teeth which you will never reach properly with a toothbrush making her more prone than others to cavities.

We managed to get her first cavity at her first trip to the dentist but it frightened her so much that she now refuses to let the dentist do the rest of her teeth. We have been trying bribery, which has not been working. Each time I have upped the stakes a bit but today we still had no luck. The dentist says if we can't get her to do it we will have to get them done under a general as she needs those teeth (molars) till she is 12yrs old and by then they would be severly absessed.

The dentist wont force her to do it as he says, (and we agree) that she needs to learn to get used to the dentist, and forcing her will only make her more frightened. She needs to build a relationship with the dentist so that she is not petrified of going in years to come and as an adult will not avoid the dentist. (well too much anyway!)

We will have two more visits, one just for a look in a months time, to keep the pressure on her, and then in three months, when hopefully she will be just that much more mature to handle it a bit better. He thinks that is as far as we can stretch it without letting the teeth get too much worse. If she still wont do it she will be getting it done under a general in January.

As well as the bribery she was told beforehand that she is no longer allowed to have any sweets, that is lollies, biscuits, cakes or milkshakes and the like until she has her teeth 'tickled' and the germs removed. Lots of tears on the way home when I told her that she couldn't have the doctors set, or the Strawberry Shortcake friends that I got her for the occasion, but that she could not have Macdonalds for dinner, and no more lollies, biscuits etc. She really thought she might get by with just letting him put the camera in her mouth I think because she let him do that this time, but nothing more.

UGH! So no more treats for her until her teeth are done. It would be nice for her to not need to have it done under the general but I doubt we will be that lucky. If only she would understand how much easier (not to mention CHEAPER!) it was to just do it at the dentist, when she doesn't even need any needles as they are only minor cavities.

It is bad enough taking her to the dentist, I am so dreading the thought of having to take her to the hospital to do it!

Those Eyes!

I love this photo of Jasmine and given how gorgeous her eyes look in it I thought they were a fitting subject for this layout!

You can tell I am meant to be doing bookwork, I am suddenly all inspired and have done 3 layouts in 5 days, a new record since Kyan was born!

Finally a layout of Kyan!

I have finally gotten around to a layout of Kyan.. really must get some more of him done! The journalling reads as follows...

Reflux, dairy intolerance, eczema, croup and bronchialitis.
Your first six months have been tough, but then so are you!
And you still come out smiling!

You are a happy chappy, who brings a smile to my face. You LOVE your food and love your big sister even more. Your first two teeth are on their way, and you are quite simply a delight.

Cheeky
Happy
Adoring
Cute
Smiling
Inquisitive
Bouncy
Little Brother
Fun!

Jumping On The Bed

Here is my latest layout. I took these photos of Jaz recently when she was jumping on her bed. We had not long moved her into her new Strawberry Shortcake room and she had made up a song that she loves to sing about Strawberry Shortcake.

A lot of the detail in this was lost in the resizing and compression but if you want to see a bigger version just let me know and I will email it to you. :-)

The words go like this.... Strawberry Shortcake said I don't know, Shuka Shuka with a note!

Cute huh!

Sitting

YAY! Kyan is sitting! He has been sitting a little for a while now but just this last week he will go for 10-20mins without toppling over, so I think we can consider him a sitting boy now! He loves sitting in front of the crawl and cruize playground and of course Jaz loves to climb into the middle of it and play with him.

She really is so good with him and they love playing together. Jaz has a knack for getting him to laugh and she LOVES doing it!

He has started eating more and more solids and gets quite a belly after his meal. He is a good little eater which is great and there is not many things he doesn't like now. He has just started eating things with a bit more texture and copes with the 'bits' quite well now.

Dare I say it, since he is filling up a lot more on solids I do *think* his night sleeping is improving. Last night he went a whole 10 hrs before waking wanting a feed. He is still not very consistent with when he wakes but he is also teething so that might not be helping. He seems to be sleeping through a little more frequently which I am taking as a good sign! :-)

He is not breastfeeding as much but I guess since he is eating more solids that is to be expected. I haven't had him weighed yet as I was going to do it when he got his vaccinations but they have had some delays with the vaccinations at our doctors so we have had to put it off a couple of weeks. I might go and get him weighed by the health nurse on Friday. Judging by how much he is eating, I suspect he has put on a fair bit of weight! (which is not doing my back any favours!)

He hasn't done much rolling since he first rolled over but I am sure it wont be long before that happens, I am in no hurry because the quicker he rolls the quicker he is mobile! It was amazing how far Jasmine got just by rolling when she got the hang of it. She used to roll to get where she wanted to go!

Dean's Baby Pic

I came across this photo of Dean as a baby and decided to have a bit of a play to see if I could improve it a bit. At some stage I want to retouch all of the old photos I have here and scrap them. Of course, with all the photos of Jasmine and Kyan I still have to scrap that might be a while away!

Back to Obsessing About Sleep

Well Kyan has reverted to waking once a night again so I guess that is that idea down the drain... We may just have to accept the fact he is going to be one of those babies who will wake at night time for many months to come.

I think he is teething at the moment as he is off his food and has had rosey cheeks and lots of crankyness so it is possible it is that as well but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Oh well...

6mths!

Ok, so I am posting this one a little late, but Kyan is now 6mths! (10 Sept) We had some portrait shots done for Jasmine at 6mths but decided against spending more money on a photographer, so I decided to do his 6mth portrait myself.

I am not entirely happy with them, as they are not as sharp as I would like (you can't tell here) but will try and give them another go when I have better light. That little boy moves around too much!

I do love the smile on this photo tho! He is such a happy little chappy since starting solids! He coos and babbles away. You can tell when his tummy is full because he starts getting chatty. He he, it is rather cute. Eventually I will get around to having him weighed and measured!

Sleep Glorious Sleep!

I never thought in all my life I would be so obsessed with sleep! I am constantly counting how many hours I have had, and constantly trying to catch up on it and never dreamed it would take so long for Kyan to sleep through! I was so lucky with Jasmine who slept through on her own from 8wks. Even when she developed her reflux at 3mths she kept sleeping through.

I had no idea just how lucky I was! Ok, some idea.. but not how obsessed I would otherwise become with it!

Since starting solids, Kyan has become SUCH an easy baby during the day. He is sooo happy, very chatty and just all round a joy to be around. I started the solids a little earlier than planned in the hopes that it would help him sleep through. That theory does work for some babies, but not for Kyan, it seems that he was not waking from hunger, and when he woke during the night was exhibiting reflux symptoms, so it stands to reason that it was still the reflux that was waking him.

He is still on his reflux medication, so I think, ok, he needs it more at night and probably not so much during the day. I wonder if I gave him 2/3 of his tablet at night and 1/3 in the morning, instead of 1/2 at night and 1/2 in the morning if that would make any difference? I checked with my gp and she said it wouldn't do any harm to try it, tho she didn't think it would make any difference.

Well on Thursday night he slept from 6.30pm till 5.30am! HEAVEN! (well aside from Jaz waking at 1am with croup!) Ok, I was starting to get a bit excited here! Maybe this is going to work! Last night I gave him the medication the same way as the night before, and then he woke at 10.30pm. DARNIT! I thought he was going to do one of his 3 times a night stints that he likes to pull..... BUT........ NO! He slept through until 5.45am! YEAH! I got 6hrs straight! I must be feeling refreshed because I suggested that Dean stay in bed this morning instead of getting up with Kyan like he normally does.

Well after two nights of sleeping through... I am feeling hopeful. Of course, it could just be coincidence, it is not like he hasn't slept through at all before.. he does occasionally raise my hopes and sleep through once or even two nights in a row..but I am hoping this time it is not just coincidence, and that this might actually work, and that I might be able to function like a normal human being again...one that isn't obsessed with sleep!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy 34'th birthday Daddy!

With love from Kyan, Jasmine and of course me too!

Pulling Faces

I thought I would do a layout with some more of the face pulling photos Jasmine and I did. I thought I would try a different style to my usual, can't decide if I like it or not. I do love the photos tho! Such a drama queen! :-)

Two Fingers For Pointing

I took this photo of Jaz and thought it would suit a photography challenge being held at Digital Scrapbook Place at the moment. I have two other entries as well, throw em out and Friends The Two of Us.

Im a BIG SISTER!

This is the print for the second T-shirt, I will present it to her when she wakes up from her nap... I know she will LOVE it! :-) She is very proud of being a big sister and of her little brother!

Jasmine's T Shirt

Grandma bought Jasmine some transfer sheets for the printer for Christmas and it has taken me this long to get around to doing something with them. Well finally I have! Here is the first shirt! As you can see she loves it! I am doing another big sister one which I will upload once I am finished it...

A Rainbow

Here is a painting Jaz did the other day. She painted a rainbow! I thought it was quite clever myself! :-)

Rolling!

I can't believe I forgot to mention it yesterday! Kyan has rolled over for the first time! What a clever little man, he did it a few times yesterday with a teeny bit of help, from back to tummy and then not long after he did it on his own! YAY! :-) Go Kyan!

Best of Friends

Well here is a layout I did tonight. So nice to do one of the two of them for a change. Kyan's life is not quite as eventful as Jasmine's so he tends to get neglected as far as scrapbook pages go for now. I will have to make sure I do more in future! AND catch up on some for photos taken previously!

On a Roll!

Well it seems we are now on a roll. After trying fruit gel it seems Kyan has decided he likes solids after all! YEAH! He has now eaten and enjoyed, pumpkin, pumpkin and potato, pear and apricot, various fruit gels, as well as farex (finally!) and this evening he even had custard. He is no longer refusing foods he wouldn't eat before and it seems he has decided he likes solids after all.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be affecting his sleeping habits as much as I had hoped as he is still waking twice a night. I think I may have to work on his reflux some more as when he wakes he often coughs, which is a symptom of reflux. Admitedly I have been a little slack with my diet, not checking some foods properly for dairy products, so I will need to be a bit more vigilent, who knows maybe I will get lucky!

Fruit Gel!

Well it seems Master Kyan likes fruit gel! I am so pleased we have found something he likes, however I was kinda hoping it would be something that might fill his tummy a little more! Oh well, at least it is a start!

I made some pumpkin puree this morning so I will give that a go today. A friend suggested custard made with formula so I will give that a go soon also. I was going to try today but my custard powder is out of date. Bugger!

If I can just find something that he likes that will fill his tummy I am happy to give him that every day and then slowly build his variety from there...

I have given up on the formula for now, although if there are days when he wont eat solids I might still try again with it in the evenings.

He has been waking only once a night which I can cope with but last night he woke twice again... sigh....

When I Grow Up!

This is my latest layout which I put together this morning...shhhh...I am meant to be doing bookwork!

I had a really cute conversation with Jasmine the other day and so I thought I should scrap a page of it! The journalling reads as follows...

Jasmine called out to me from her bedroom when she was meant to be napping....The conversation went a bit like this.....

A distressed sounding Jasmine said, ‘Mummy, what can I be when I grow Up?’.

I say, ‘You can be whatever you like darling, You could be a Doctor, or a teacher, or a fire woman, or a shop keeper, or you could teach swimming classes.’

Jasmine says no to each of the options I give her and I ask her what she would like to be?

She tells me she doesn’t know so I offer more suggestions....none of these suit and she then promptly suggests that she be JUST Jasmine?

I smile and tell her, ‘Of course! Darling you can be whatever you want to be!’

So she tells me that she will be JUST Jasmine!

The drawn picture is a scan of a drawing she did of herself. :-)

For Keeps - My name is up!

Yay! My name is up on the For Keeps website as being a successful submission! Wahoo....
See the For Keeps website to see my name in the list...