Happy Birthday Jonah! -27.09.11

Today Jonah is One! What an awesome year we have had with him. He is the joy of our lives. Of course Jonah didn't know what was going on, though i sensed some excitement - especially being allowed to unwrap and rip all the paper, eat chocolate cake and chips till his heart content (well till i thought he had enough :), and play with all his friends!

Jonah you are growing up big and strong and we pray you will also grow up wise in spirit and win the favor of man and of God! You are a delight and we pray that God will protect you and give us wisdom in raising you! I pray that you get all the opportunity that you need to develop the God given gift inside of you. God will provide everything you need to be of service to him and of service to others! May your heart only need him! And we pray that joy in your heart is not quenched but allowed to grow and flourish, touching many!

Love Mummy and Daddy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

7 Months old!

So i thought i better keep this going...its a cool place to jot down memories and other random things that happen in the world of parenting! Today Jonah is 7 months old! Niki and I are both seeing the changes in him, he is getting so big! and as if it was on Que, Jonah decided to enter the world of attachment bonding! Just in the last 3 days, whenever we leave the room, Jonah cries. This has extended to the dreaded night times also...so now its not just the dummy he wants, its mummy! If i had my own place and the neighbors were just outside hearing distance, i would let him cry and go in occasionally. This will teach him to fall asleep without mummy, but unfortunately we live in a complex and we have neighbors above us and beside us. I know how annoying it was when there baby was up screaming half the night, so even 5 min of my one crying and my heart already goes out to them. This puts me in a  difficult situation, how do avoid Jonah developing a reliance on me to go back to sleep and avoid the neighbors getting upset at the same time? ... I think the neighbors might loose on this one!
Beside the sleep issue, Jonah is absolutely lovable. His smile makes me forget the night times! And he is such a boy, loves to play rough and rumble with mummy and daddy and thinks its so funny when we 'hurt' ourselves lol!
Jonah is eating 3 solid meals a day, with 4 milk feeds ... he has no teeth yet and they look a long way off...Jonah is also slow at crawling, but he loves to sit! Maybe by 9 months he will figure the whole crawling thing out!. Jonah also is demanding so much more, like if he wants more food, he will cry...if doesn't want to get out of the bath, he'll cry....he'll also cry when getting changed!!! In all these area's he is fussy! His winds are also still a little difficult to get up, sometimes his midday nap is cut short because of them.
We are going away on camp this weekend to swellendam...the overnight temps will be 4 degrees, and thats hoping it won't drop below that! Im nervous about Jonah...i can dress him warm, but still his little face is bare:( ...God please make it warm!
Anyways, i'll finish there...jonah at 7 months...just think in 2 more months he'll be 9 months old...a new milestone, hopefully he will have his first tooth by then and he will be crawling! the real parenting begins!

3 Months Old

Tomorrow Jonah is 3 months old!!! Wow, we survived! Yesterday and today Jonah seems to have come alive. Although he was smiling and laughing before, now its 10x more. Yesterday niki was making him laugh so much just by pretending to eat his toes:) And today he will laugh even at the weird expressions i make on my face! He has also found his voice. Today he was talking so much in his own baby language. Yesterday, Christmas day, he went into the pool for the first time. Though it was cold and he did protest but eventually endured it it seemed, but today while having a braai with 2 couples from our community, their pool water was warm and he loved it! He is also outgrown his newborn baby carry bed. I couldn't believe how well he slept at a friends place on their bed. So there is now one thing we can give back that we have borrowed. Our little flat hardly has room for all Jonah's accessories:)
Jonah in the last week has also been reaching out and touching things. Though still with limited control, he at least  doesn't pull back when we try to hold his hand. The other day I was stroking his hand as he had it up in a high five position. This is a very big step:)
On another topic, everyone has conflicting ideas about who Jonah looks like. I can definately see that Jonah has my face shape. Though i think his features are very much his dad. 100% Daddy's lips, 100% Mummy's chin, not sure about the nose and i think he has Daddy's eyes, though people say mine. And hopefully he has inherited the Mackenzie height! He is definately a big boy. Very long. I met a 2 month old girl yesterday. O my word, half the size of my 3 month boy:)

Jonah I'm looking forward to the next 3 months. Just think, by 6 months you'll be double in size, you'll be sitting, eating solids and maybe even have a few teeth! Thank you God for this blessing in my life. You've given him to me to love and nuture and we give him back to you.

Busy week!

Well Jonah has had the biggest week on his social calander for whole 2 months he has been alive! Monday, tuesday and Wednesday we were at the church for a special teaching on a very interesting topic to say the least ;) He slept through it all. Thursday he had a night in while Niki and I went to our very first movie together since he was born! We tried to go to a movie last week with him though they wouldnt let us in with the baby! Niki noted to them that the baby was asleep and wasnt going to watch, however rules are rules apparently. Friday night Niki's parents were down from Joberg and we all went to a German restaurant at the V&A waterfront. It was very loud with live music and lots of singing, Jonah slept through it all! On Saturday we had a wedding on in the afternoon which extended to the evening. By this stage he was getting a little niggely but managed to pull through, falling asleep at his bed time and allowing his parents to enjoy some handsfree moments:) Sunday morning we had church. It was a breakfast bri outside with everyone bringing scottles and food. However it was so windy and sunny that I ended up spending most of the time in the mothers room. The times we attempeted to join our community were pure anguish as the wind blew blankets off, annoyed Jonah and forced us back inside! By this stage i had had enough and went home to put Jonah to sleep. He slept all of 40 min of his 2.5 hours nap and then i spent the next 2 hours trying to attend to his different needs which included, wind, poo, wet, hungrey, wind, tired - sleep 20 min - hungry again! After a long week, not only for Jonah but for mummy too, i was at the end of my rope. Lucky Niki came home and took him off my hands so i could have a short nap:) Then back to church at night! This week will be very very quiet :)

Routine at 6 weeks

I'm following Gina Ford's the contented baby book. She explains in detail the inner workings of baby's sleep and eating patterns and sets out a routine for the baby from the first week of life to toddler years. Im finding it great having a routine. However there are certain things that i dont quite understand. She says that if the baby wakes up around 6am, put him back to sleep till 7 after giving him half his 7am feed. It seems so simple, yet when Jonah wakes up at 6am (which is everyother day) he is wide awake! I do try and put him back to sleep, though it takes around 45 min and then its 7am. Gina ford will say this is ok. The thing is, Jonah is then so tired he can't stay awake till 9am his next sleep. I find he is falling asleep at 8 which then puts the whole day out by an hour. Normally people say, oh just let him sleep when he wants. But this presents the danger of him oversleeping during the day and then not sleeping at night. If i bring his routine foward buy an hour, he goes to bed at 6pm and may probably wake at 5am not to mention his feeding schedual is off which actually sets the entire course of his nap times. Gina Ford says that by sticking to his feeding times, he will adapt his sleep paterns accordingly. So there we have it, i should just stick to his feeding times and trust that he will adapt his sleep patern, which should fall in line with what the routine says! I wonder why i am getting so stressed over this. He needs his sleep and i hate to neglect him of it by trying to keep him awake till his recommended nap time. ahhh the joys!
His routine is as follows:

7am: wake/feed
9am:sleep
9.45am:wake
10.30- feed (though he is still struggeling to get to 10.30. I normally start feeding at ten and give him the remander at 10.30
12pm sleep (though he hardly gets here, i put him down at 11.30 normally)
2pm - awake
2.30-feed
4.30-sleep
5pm -wake/half feed
6.15- rest of feed
7pm -bed (though he rarely gets to 7. more like 6.30pm:)