Our boy is 7 months old

With all this rolling practice, our little boy is becoming more and more mobile, making it difficult at nappy change and dressing times, but exciting knowing that he could be crawling anytime soon. Matt and Jas brought Elizabeth over for our weekend catch up and pasta bake on Saturday night, and it was so much fun watching the babies play together. They are becoming so interractive with each other now.

I think I have come to the conclusion that our daytime sleep issues will never be sorted, sometimes he will sleep and sometimes he won't so we just have to go with the flow. He was particularly tired after his swimming lesson today but just refused to sleep, so I got him out of bed after three hours of trying and these are the smiles he gave me when I did his 7 month photo shoot. I have a thing for black and white photos of Austin at the moment, can't you tell?!

Other than that, all is well here. Austin missed swimming lessons last week as he developed a bit of a cough on Monday and we wanted to keep him warm and dry. He's much better now though, loved his lesson today and will do a make-up lesson next Tuesday, so will go to swimming two days in a row. Zarn has said she will come and watch on Tuesday.

We are off to the golf club for lunch with Pop tomorrow, so hopefully Austy will behave and have a sleep beforehand.

Austin becomes a BIG cousin!

On Saturday at 12:26pm Austy's newest little cousin Zachary John entered the world, weighing 8lb 1oz. Austy's Aunty Katy was fairing quite well when we visited her and Zac on Sunday morning, despite having a cold and an ear infection as well as having only just given birth less than 24hr earlier. Katy is a tough one, I'll give her that!

Katy was beaming from ear to ear and proudly proclaimed that she dilated all on her own this time without the need for syntocin (like she has had with each of the other three) and as her epidural had worn off by the pushing stage, she pushed without much pain relief after the midwife talked her out of an epidural top up, another thing she was quite proud of, this being her last child for her little family.

Zac was in the neonatal ward, but only as a precaution. He was being given a drip of antibiotics through his arm, just like Austy had as he was "a bit grunty" at birth and they were worried that he had Katy's cold and may also be prone to ear infection. When I saw her though, she was waiting to talk to the doctor, who was going to perhaps let her take him to her room and he could be given the antibiotics there.

Little Zac has a cute little chin, which I think is very similar to Austy's. Other than that he is Katy all over, with short, blonde eyelashes (clashing with his dark brown hair) and her frown!

When Ausy and I got to the hospital, Tom, Alyssa and Jake were there and both the kids rushed over to Austy's pram while I gave my lil sis a big hug, some chocholates and pressies for Zac. Jakey suprised us all saying "Austin!" for the first time, very loud and clear and he blew us both lots of big kisses when he went home with his Dad.

On Austy news, the poor little tacker has a bit of a colkd himself this week, with a nasty cough. Andrew thinks it's from going to two hospitals in one week (also visited Nanna Merit at the Lyall McEwin onThursday evening). So unfortunately we missed swimming yesterday in preference of keeping him home, warm and dry.

Austy on the move

Well Austy has finally done it! He rolled from his back onto his tummy all by himself on Monday and has been doing it all week. He will not stay on his back now and prefers to play on his tummy, while he used to only put up with that position for just a minute or two. I think it helped that he had just learned how to "have a rest" (lay his head to the side) when he was on his tummy before he learned to roll, and every time we had helped him to roll we cheered him anyway, so now he rolls and pushes up on his hands looking for a cheer and thinks he's the bees knees.

However not only has he learned to roll, but he also seems to get from A to B seemingly easily with a bit of a commando crawl motion. He won't go up on both knees like Elizabeth does, but does one knee at a time. This morning I turned away for 30 secs to turn on the bath and when I came back to the lounge I found him lying a metre away from the rug I'd left him on! So we think he just didn't want to roll until he could use the new skill to motor around!

He's noticing EVERYTHING at the moment and tries to spin everything now that he knows how to do that. He has spinny things on his aquarium toy on his cot and on the bath seat, which have put the idea into his head along with that red FP key. But Mummy's har does not need spinning... it's also hard to read him books when he tries to spin the pages. Oh well.

This week has seriously flown by, but perhaps because Austy has been a little bit more difficult than usual. He's getting back to a full night's sleep (YAY!) but has been fighting us for day sleeps and being grumpier than normal as a result. I miss how happy he normally is, so hope to sort out those day sleeps again soon too. We managed to get three sleeps in today and I missed mother's group in preference for a sleeping baby, but he still wasn't his normal self this evening and acting very overtired. CYH would tell me it must be a "wonder week" where you wonder what the hell is wrong with them (actually supposed to be a week of lots of growth and mental development but I joke that they tell you it's a wonder week whenever things get a bit difficult). Although, he has been developing alot this week, and really taking an interest in things, and understanding what comes next. We can't keep him out of water, and he screams as soon as we remove him from the bath or take his wash down water away at the end of the night, so I am trying to prepare him for it by telling him "last splash" before he is taken away from water. Works for the bath, but not after wash down. Thought the house was going to collapse tonight with the tantrum he threw when I tipped out his water bucket! Oh well, he'll learn, there's more water again tomorrow.

I have also been a bit snap happy this week as a few of the mothers I know helped me to work out how to take better pictures with the digital camera. I have been practising heaps and Austy (of course) is my favourite and spunkiest subject (sorry Andrew!). So now we have so many photos of Austy at 6m. I have posted a few of my favourites in the album, but also a couple here for those who can't see the album.

Okay, time for bed, and time to get out of this baby spew jumper...

A week of whispers!

Austin has developed his whispering skill after many a whisper in his ear that it's time for sleep! He started whispering on Thursday saying "Bababa" with and without sound and then finally working out the whisper. "Bababa" is by far his favourite word (make that sound, I can't find it in my dictionary!) and when I took him to buy some buttons for his new handknitted stripey jacket yesterday, he was whispering it over and over so I gave him a tube of buttons to shake as I carried him in the sling and told him "Yes buttons". This kid will be chatting away in no time!

He's also trying to learn a new sound at the moment. Currently every thing he says has an ah sound on it (Mamama, Bababa, Dadada, Vavava etc.) but he's been watching me very intently as I say "Ah Boo" He's got the "ah B" bit right but he's still working on the "oo". His favourite new game is peek a boo, and he now pulls his sheet (in his cot) or the rug he is lying on (on the floor) over his head and whips it down again with a huge smile waiting for me to say "Ah boo" or "There he is" after asking him "Where's Austy?" when he has his face covered.

He still watches everything we do, and after a trip to see Aunty Katy on Thursday, learned how to spin his red Fisher Price key after Jakey showed him. Before that I was blowing it around so he'd pout it to his mouth and blow a raspberry, but now Jake has showed him to hold it in one hand and flick it with the pointer on the other hand. He thinks he's ever so clever, and the red key has now taken over as his favoutite toy.

On the topic of Austy's Aunty Katy, his newest cousin is ready to enter the world any day now, as Katy is 37w pregnant. She has never lasted this long with any of her other babies, so is very excited that the babe is nearly here. She's looking very healthy, despite her illnesses and increased medication, and is definitely ALL baby! This one looks like it will be competing with Asuty as far as size goes, looking very healthy tucked up inside her belly. I had to remind Katy that Austy is almost as heavy as Jake (who is nearly 2 already!!) so if she can't pick up Jake, she shouldn't try to pick up Austy. She had to get her Austy fix though and gave him lots of cuddles.

More news: Austin has finally rolled on his own! At 6.5m he was found on his tummy at the top of his cot after Andrew popped him back to bed yesterday morning. We haven't seen him do it again, except for immediately after when I put him on the floor, and while he gets close, it seems like such an effort to haul those kgs over to get all the way onto his tummy. He often rolls to his side and then rolls back to his back again. We suspect he "cheated" and used the cot bars to pull himself the whole way yesterday, as he has rolled several times by pulling himself through the final bits of the roll by grabbing onto my fingers.

He's still a pro at eating, and his mouth has this solids bizzo worked out, but unfortunately his tummy isn't keeping up. Last week he was waking with tummy pains, and a tummy as hard as rock until I massaged it and settled him back to sleep. Against the helpline's advice we took the rice cereal out of his diet (they told me to just feed him the cereal but I was sure that was what was causing the problem) and have just fed him fruit and a little bit of veg this week, and his tummy problems have gone away. (1 point to Mum, 0 for the helpline!) I know he needs the rice cereal for iron, but I will introduce it very slowly as of next week, and no rice cereal after 10am - one of the lovely girls at my mothers group gave me this gem of advice after she had similar issues with her daughter. In the mean time, he tucks into his baby spinach mixed with sweet potato, so we know he's getting his iron there. Personally, I'm not a fan of powdered foods, and would rather feed him natural stuff like fruits and vegies which don't bloat him, but apparently all babies should have rice cereal...

On the sleep issue - now that we've resolved the waking with tummy pains, for some strange reason he has started waking hourly until midnight, crying until I pick him up then settling the instant he is close to my chest. I cuddle him for 5 minutes and then he goes back in the cot, but it has made it hard to get anything done as I'm constantly going back to his room, and then am exhausted in the morning because ther'es no point in going to bed until midnight and then he wakes again at 4am and 6:30am. I think I have kissed his beautiful 12-13hr sleeps goodbye with the onset of solids... I will be cheering when he sleeps through again.

Okay, time to go and grab the little tiger as he is again refusing his day sleep... I'll get this housework done one day, and maybe finish making Elizabeth's nappies, if I'm lucky.

Austy starts swimming lessons...

Despite not having a morning nap prior to the lesson start time of 10am, Austin was keen to jump in, with arms and legs wriggling all over the place as we approached the "big blue bath". I had to hand him to the instructor while I got in myself for fear of him jumping out of my arms and diving in! He is definitely a water baby through and through... who knows, he could be the next Thorpedo... he definitely has big enough feet!

Unfortunately the camera lens was fogged for half the class, so Austy's Dad could only manage to get a few pics of him with a tired grumpy look on his face, when the novelty had worn off and the tiredness set in.

We passed a ball from baby to baby (it was a struggle to make Austy let go and pass it on, but the balls kept coming around the circle so saved us a tanty), snag songs, splashed lots and swam in a floaty ring through a tunnel. Austy also had a ride on a floating mat and we submerged him with the other babies who had been coming for a while. He didn't cry with the submerging but it seemed like forever that he was under and I scooped him through pretty quickly - the instructor said that I needed to slow down or I'd scare him. I tried, but it's hard not to automatically grab your baby when their head is under water. Better luck next time, eh?

Hopefully Austy will wake a little earlier next week so we have time for a morning nap and he will enjoy his swim alot more.

Austy's photo album

You will now see Austy's album in the top right hand corner. Click it and type in the password to view. Contact us for the password (this album is only for family and friends).

In the Leaves

By popular demand.... Austy's first Autumn experience taken 27th May 2006

Check out the toasty warm new boots! Austy won these with his gorgeous 4m old smile. Click the "Austy Wins!" link to check out his winning photo.

Austy In Print is born!

Intro

Hi all, hope you are well. I am new to this blogging business but found it easier than starting a web page form scratch, hence the web page I started working on while Austin was waiting to arrive still being only half finished! Hopefully I'll work this all out soon enough and Austy In Print will grow to give you lots of news and photos about what's going on in the Austy Household.

Austy Log

Straight from Austy's chair...

This week has been a tough one, especially for me as sleep has been the last thing on the menu, and we hardly ever get that far down. Austin had his 6 month needles on Tuesday, and while he didn't cry at all for the first one and harldy let out a grizzle for the second one, they messed him up a bit and by Wednesday he was not a happy chappy. The baba sling and my home made mei tai became my best friends if I was to get anything done. At least he loves being carried in the sling - I wouldn't know what I'd do without one. He would only sleep in our arms and not in his cot and also was waking in a cold sweat when we did manage to get him into the cot. Thankfully, our happy boy is back again and we are getting lots of giggles. Now we just have to work on getting him to sleep through again!

Asleep on Dad's shoulder

Other big news on the Austy front is that he started solids on Monday and has been eating lunch all week. His appetite is just as big as it has been on my milk alone, and he gobbled 100mL of food in his first sitting. He loves his tucker (just as much as my milk!). So far he has tried apple and rice cereal, apple and banana (with rice cereal to thicken), pear and apricot (again with rice cereal), pear and carrot and potato, sweet potato and pumpkin. So far his favourite seems to be the pear and apricot - he couldn't get enough!

Austy eating his first solids (Apple and rice ceral) on Monday


Messages

Austy's Poppy and Zona:
Hope all is wonderful ovber there in sunny Perth, and that little Charlize is thriving as much as Austy is. Also send my best wishes to Grant and Wendy as the birth of their much awaited precious lil one is approaching. Thinking of you.

Austy's Grandma:
Hope you're feeling better soon. Thought you might like this as a great way to keep up with Austin's millions of photos! Will still send you the monthly ones in hard copy for your little Mother's Day album.

Austy's Nanny and Grandpa:
Still winning lots of money David? Hmm, that American dollar is sure to drop when you guys return from your holiday, as you'll be bringing all their money back to Oz with you! Missing you both. Zarny is doing fine.

Austy's Friends:
We hope you enjoy reading this at your leisure, this way we won't bombard you with photos, as you can come here and check them out when you need and Austy fix, rather than getting your email overloaded (sorry, we just think he's gorgeous!). Also, when I forget to call until it's far too late at night, you can still find out what's been happening by checking out this site. Hopefully I'll remember to update it :)

Now, off to the shower before the little tacker wakes again and prevents me from doing so! Woops too late. Sorry about the editing, I can't get it to work...