Reflections of Weeks 43-44

Jack is 10 months now. Although adorable, Jack is becoming more of a handful, which is to be expected. These last 2 weeks have been a bit up and down. I thought he was getting sick as he was really temperamental and crying a lot, he wasn't eating very much, he was having longer sleeps and he was feeling warm. But, no actual signs of sickness have eventuated. We just have a very "delicate" baby on our hands.

Jack is learning more skills and interacting with us and his environment in a whole new way, which has been really fun. He's imitating us more and more now. When I'm rubbing cream into my hands, he'll copy me and rub his hands. When we clap, he'll clap. He's just starting to wave "bye-bye" now (although it's still very much hit and miss). When I was leaving mum and dad's I was saying good-bye and Jack waved good-bye to them (they were thrilled by that!), as if he does it all the time. I was very surprised. But he hasn't done it since! When I'm holding him and say, "kisses", he bends his head and leans his forehead towards me so I can kiss it (Dave thinks he bends his head down to protect himself from being kissed, but I think otherwise!). He's still shaking his head, which we still find absolutely adorable.

Jack has become really chatty over the last couple of days. He seems to have developed his own language, "gargle-gargle-ga ga-ga-gargle-ga...". When we give him something (a toy, food, etc.), he'll look at it and say, usually very quietly, "gargle-gargle-ga". He also makes other sounds, which seem to mean something as he usually says them to you or in reaction to something that's happened.

Mobility
I've now combined 'crawling' and 'standing' into the one category, to stream-line things somewhat. Jack is VERY mobile now. He can crawl quite quickly and he lifts himself up really easily now. Everything on the lounge chairs, coffee tables, floor have to be picked up and moved out of his reach. All the doors have to be closed so he can't go exploring into things we don't want him to. Jack can also walk assisted. He's pretty wobbly, but he'll happily walk whilst we hold his hands.

As a result of Jack's mobility, he is getting lots of bumps and bruises. He's often falling over and hitting his head on the ground. Usually when he falls, we suck in our breath and wait to see how bad his fall was by how loudly he'll cry. The longer the pause, the bigger the cry. He smashed his mouth on the coffee table the other day. His bottom lip had a nice mark on it and it was all swollen.

Sleeping
Last week, his day naps became shorter, but over the last few days, he's been having huge naps in the afternoon (2 1/2- 3 hours!). He's still having relatively short naps in the morning (he's just woken up now after only sleeping for 30 mins - gotta go!).

Jack's night sleeping is going well. We've had the odd night when he's woken up, but he's still sleeping well on the whole.

Playing
Jack plays really well by himself, but he does like us to play with him more now. He loves to chase a ball (or any other toy that can roll) around the living room. He hits it away and then chases it, gets it and hits it again. He also really loves books. He enjoys playing with them by himself. He particularly likes to turn the pages and lift the flaps on the books with flaps. He still loves being outside (we're outside at the moment). He enjoys crawling around, exploring, and putting things in his mouth. EVERYTHING goes into his mouth! He gets frustrated sometimes when he can't do something that he wants to do. He'll also have a whinged when we thwart him from doing something he was enjoying (i.e. playing with the phone).

Jack still loves bath time. But he tries to stand up in the bath quite a bit, which means that we have to be more 'active' in our supervision!

Eating
Jack's not eating very well at the moment. He will hardly eat any breakfast and he may eat a bit more for lunch and dinner, but it fluctuates. It's a battle to get him to eat more than a few mouthfuls and drink enough water. He'll often cry/whinge whilst he's eating and then refuse to have any more. I'm not sure what's going on. He's usually a very good eater. So, I'm not sure if he's going through a phase or if he's sick. I'm trying to offer him one thing to eat and if he doesn't eat it, I finish the meal, rather than offering him lots of things. He has no problem eating prunes, sultanas, cheese, yoghurt and crackers, and he'll eat them all the time if he had his way! For lunch, he had a few mouthfuls and then had a meltdown. I gave him a breastfeed and then he was instantly happy.

Jack is now at the stage where he'll look down after he's dropped something. Previously, he was oblivious of when he dropped something - totally unaware - but now he looks for the object (or food!) that he's dropped. He'll hang his head over the high chair and say, "ga-ga-gargle". This morning he deliberately threw his food from his high chair. Very annoying. I would have been more cranky if I wasn't already exasperated by his fussing and whingeing.

Is It Teething?
I'm sure this question has popped into your minds, as it has mine. I have often asked this over the last few days. I don't know the answer. His two front teeth are definitely ready to come through. They are bulging and you can see the bottom of the teeth, which look like faint white lines poking through. I noticed a small white fleck on the the right hand side of the lower gum, but I have no idea if it's a tooth or not. I'm hesitate to attribute his unsettle behaviour to teeth as teething seems to be blamed for a myriad of baby-related issues. But, who knows?

Routine
Here's what our days are looking like at the moment:

7:00am - Wake, feed, solids, play
9.00/9.30am - Nap
10.30/11.00am - Wake, solids, play
12.00pm - Feed
1.00pm - Nap
3.00pm - Wake, solids, play
5.00pm - Feed, play
6.00pm - Dinner with family
6.30pm - Bath and stories
7.00pm - Bed