Curtis goes to work!

...and about time too, the little blighter has been sponging off of us for a whole 4 months now. So, yeah, the wee guy had a day at the office today...in the main spent flirting with the ladies with his smiles and giggles. As well as spending time with my colleagues in the office, Curtis also had a trip to the uni canteen. He was transfixed by the place and loved looking around the room at everyone. He then offered us all a serenade of grumbles and tears as my cauliflower cheese lunch coincided rudely with his usual nap time! It was a good test to see whether he'd just doze off in the pram in a noisey room (rather like future nursery days will be) but nope...it didnt work that way! As usual when busy I forgot to take any pics of the people we went to visit..but did get one of Curtis standing on Lynne. He has taken quite a shine to Lynne and has invited her over with her wee girl Molly next week. We are very much looking forward to that.

Once home we just chilled out sitting in the back garden and playing in the house. Curtis was on very good form and quite vocal. He had a battle with his toy donkey and growled and snarled at it which was very amusing! he then repeated this when playing with me later...biting my fingers and shaking his head and making growling noises like a dog does with a toy! Is it a full moon tonight?? What is he up to?? I take it this is normal behaviour for a 4 month old, yes??

Back In the ol' Routine & a date with Mags and Erin

This afteroon baby Erin and her mum Mags hosted the Wednesday afternoon meet up of the massage mums...we may soon all be challenged by trading standards as we havent done a single massage since the class finished but yet again much food and chatter was had by all! All babies were on good form, doing as babies do...Milly pooping on her socks, Isla showing us her latest rolling over moves, Logan squealing with delight and Zoe giving out some super big smiles.

Curtis really does seem to be back to normal now with his feeding which is a huge relief to us. We do seem to have back-tracked a little with his night time sleeping as he now wakes for an earlier feed at 10.30pm as well as 1-2 more through the night...but this is better than 2 hourly so no complaints here.

tuesday, 27th may

Curtis, not so Hungry


What appears to have been one almighty growth spurt has finally come to an end after 4 days and nights of non stop feeding. The assumption that he needs solid foods and as much of it as possible seems to have been slightly premature as today he was more than satisfied with his usual milk supply.
The 4 day "growth spurt" took so much effort however that he set a new personal best for day time sleeping. An unprecedented 3 hour day time nap today. Some achievement from Mr. Curtis "20 min max nap" Hughes.
With 4 days of non stop feeding and 3 hour naps we half expected a growth spurt of incredible hulk like proportions and that we'd wake up in the morning with him bursting out of his clothes.








monday. 26th may

Just Standing Around

Curtis has been putting weight on his legs for some time but he really seems now to notice that he's doing it and gets quite excited and almost looks quite proud of himself whenever he is helped to stand up. Quite strange how whe they do thsi they really stop looking like that little squished and small baby you thought you'd been carrying around too....ah, he looks so grown up!

He's also doig so well at sitting that we can now use the wee bath seat we bought him a few weeks ago. He does now however have to wear scracth mitts in the bath (and when he sleeps, and when we change him) as he just cant stop scratching himself on his head, legs and chest whenever he gets the chance to attack his naked skin. His dry skin really irritates him now poor thing and we have to be very vigilant to prevent him from casuing himself any damage :-(

What's this all about Curtis?

Despite trying to fill him him with food through the day and giving him some hungry baby milk b4 bedtime, little guy still woke us every 2-3 hrs after he went to bed at 7pm. By 3am we tired letting him cry a bit as we couldnt believe he was hungry again, after about 45 mins of this Gareth then went out to the kitchen to try more hungry baby milk and in my tired state I suggested he leave Curtis with me in our bed until he got back to feed him. No sooner did the little guys head touch my pillow he was asleep and he stayed that way right there for about 2.5 hrs, even then when he grizzled it took one gentle pat on his face from me to get him back to sleep for 2 more hours. Hmmmmm.....is someone not hungry at all and just wanting some bedtime company!

It was a sunny day in Glasgow and as a belated happy birthday for Gareth we spent the afternoon having some drinks and food with pals Claire and Jamie and even got to sit in the garden.


Saturday 24th May: Clowning around in town

I thought Curtis had spent too much time at home lately and to give him some new things to look at I decided to take him to the Gallery of Modern Art in the city centre. With his current feeding (and subsequent pooping) schedule however it took us until 2.45pm until we were ready to leave the house. En route to the gallery we watched the pan pipers playing and then watched a clown. Curtis enjoyed being lifted out of the pram to watch these and I think he'll be a lot happier when soon he can be in a forward facing pushchair. Again due to his horizontal vantage piint he didnt get to see many of the exhibits at the gallery without my assistence but he did have a pretty cool ceiling to look at.

This morning for breakfast I tired Curtis with soe mashed up banana. I was so looking forward to the quizzical or disgusted look on his face and had to camera ready but found that just like the baby rice he was perfectly happy to wolf it down and only grizzled when feeding time stopped.



Friday 23rd May: Baby rice is oh so nice, injections are not!

Im doing this retrospectively I just cant remember what happened on Friday, but I do remember he liked the rice! Ah, I remember - it was his 2nd set of immunisations. Poor wee guy was stabbed in the legs again but didnt yelp quite so much as last time. He seemed unaffected by it all until about 4 hours afterwards when he began to get very upset and cry a lot, even whilst feeding and that's unusual for him. He then fell asleep for an hour after I gave him some Calpol and so we just took it easy until bedtime.

S.C.R.E.A.M

Curtis would like to make public notice of his new campaign against sleeves....S.C.R.E.A.M (Scottish Childrens Resistance to the Envelopment of Arms in Material).

Just SCREAM to join his campaign against the sleeve! He does every morning and every night! Short sleeved or long, this wee boy just hates them and sure lets us and everyone on the street know about it.

After the first scream session of the morning when it took both G and I to wash and dress the wee man things settled down and we set off to Maxwell Park with our SWAG bag. The gardeners have been digging up all the lovely spring tulips and hearing they were going to be dumped we thought we'd do our bit for recycling and brought a big bag of them home.

Later we just stayed in the house giving Curtis time to practise sitting up and being on his front. Just with 2-3 days practise he now sits fairly well with me just holding onto the edge of his sleeve or with him resting on my leg. When he is sitting on my lap he does it pretty much by himself. What a guy! We also did some singing and watched Deal or No deal....after another restless night last night I wasn't fit for much more.

Nightime feeds last night were something like...8.30-9pm, 11.30-midnight, 3-3.30am, 5-5.30am, 7am and then 8.30am then exactly 2 hourly through the day. Its like having a 6 week old baby all over again and has been really tiring. He also wolfed down a helping of baby rice at 6pm. I think he would have eaten steak and chips if it were offered. We'll see what tonight holds!

Me and my buddies

It being Wednesday it was time again to catch up with our buddies from the massage group. Today it was Lynne and baby Logans turn to host and a great afternoon was spent catching up on news and all the babies getting the chance to play with Logans toys. Much of the news was that several other babies had been ill this week, both Erin and Milli also havin the poops, Logan having a cold and Isla having a temperature. I fear that we passed on at least some of this illness from our bug caught at the nursery, so our apologies for that. Luckily tho' by 2day all tots were well again just in time for a photo shoot - as I finally managed to both take the camera and use it. Luckily Mags had bumped into Zoe and her mum Laura in the week so the whole group were reunited.




Since Curtis has recovered from his illness he has still been waking a lot in the night, only now looking for feeds. Last night he woke hungry at 9pm, midnight, 3am, 5am and 7am and so we figure it may be time for weaning. He meets all the criteria even tho he's only 4 months so in an effort to get back to some kind of night time sleeping he had hsi first baby rice tonight at 6pm. He wolfed down about 6 baby spoonfuls and seemed happy enough with that. He has however woken at 8.30pm and just now at midnight already tonight so fingers crossed this improves with time.

Watch out watch out, theres a stomach bug about!

Haven't been able to up-date the blog lately as we've all had a stomach bug and cold. Steph and Curtis went to visit one of the nurseries on our shortlist last Tuesday and like every other time after such a visit, ended up with a cold the next day, but this time it also came with a stomach bug too, or so it seems. So here's a quick run down of the week we missed...

Tuesday - visited nusery

Wednesday - spent afternoon at Louise and Islas house. Isla is another wee friend from baby massage. A calm and fun afternoon was had by all, though sadly I didnt get round to taking photos again.

Thursday - Daddy's G's birthday. It was Gareths birthday but we all woke up ill and he had to stay off work. Steph hadnt even got him a present or card so it was lucky that Curtis made one himself (see pic). All Steph managed to make was a rather rubbish (but diary free) birthday cake. We intend to do a birthday re-run to make up for this later in the month.

Friday - all ill again. Curtis now has a bad cold and cough, the poops (getting through about 2 nappies per hour!!) aswell as the usual reflux and dry skin problems. Most of Stephs clothes, the bedsheets and Curtis's outfits have ended up in ther wash each day...mmmm..nice! and the fact that Curtis cant be laid flat too often due to his relfux problem means that nappy changing has to be done whilst in his bouncer chair...not easy! Nothing to photograph today, so here are some of

Saturday - still ill! Curtis has been waking every 2 hours for the past two nights and feeding more often since his losing so much fluid. Steph is feeling pretty tired from it and Gareth is feeling quite unwell, but as usual little man is quite cheerful about it all. Sadly have to cancel seeing Lisa and Jamie today as dont want to infect them but Nannan and Taid brave the house of germs to catch a stop over with the cutest guy in Glasgow.

Sunday - lovely sunny day, which we began by watching the womens 10k at the end fo our street. Curtis was mesmerised as he watched the ladies go by. We also saw Mark, Moira and the girls whilst there. Later Curtis played in the garden with Nanna and Taid.

Monday - G is back in work as he is recovered. Curtis is back to his normal pooping and feeding schedule but skin problem and reflux have worsened today...just when Steph thought it was all over.

New games

For the past two days we have tried to introduce Curtis to some new games around the house. We've been putting him in his new BUMBO seat which allows him to strengthen his neck and back muscles in prep for sitting unaided. This is especially good as it prevents his reflux problem causing too much trouble as his body is kept upright and it must be great for him to see the world from a new perspective (instead of staring at the ceiling).



We've also tried to spend more time physically interacting with him again to help strengthen his wee muscles and this involved flying on mummas legs which he seemed...erm...puzzled by...by I'm sure he'll get to like it in time.



He also had a splash about in the big bath with his mum which he seemed to really like.



and we've also been holding his hands and pulling him up to a sitting position. He appears to anticipate this as soon as we start as he tenses his wee shoulders and opens his mouth with his efforts...makes Gareth laugh every time!



He's also been exploring some of his new toys, such as this cool 'skwish' toy which was a gift from Mark, Moira and the girls upstairs.



Both last night and tonight he seemed to be really happy with his new playtime and gets quite excited every time he sees Gareth or I.

This afternoon we also spent 45 minutes with our sing-a-long cd belting out some all time classics such as 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' and '5 little ducks went swimming one day'. Using one of his toys for the actions or squeezing his 'knees and toes, knees and toes' at the appropriate point was apparently quite hilarious! Looks like G and I will have to start getting to know the lyrics of these songs, which Im sure we'll be singing for the next 4-5 years! Hmmmm....wonder if he'll be happy with Johnny Cash or Elvis instead!

Sunday, sunday...

Quite a chilled out day today hanging out at home. Gareth was off work so he got to see the wee man too but we didnt do anything more exciting than walking in the park, hanging out the washing and tidying up the flat. Curtis was in good spirits much of the day with smiles at the ready when he saw our neighbours Anne and Alison. He's just dozed off to sleep and I'm hoping that he wont get me up as many times, or for as long tonight as he has done the past 3 nights. This must be one very extended growth spurt he's on. I'm off to set up my ipod with some audio books to get me through the tedious early hour feeds.

Saturday 10th May: Day trip with Jamie, Dan and Milli

It was a warm day today and Curtis was in chilled out mood allowing me time to do some gardening, well ten minutes gardening - but that was a treat. We then headed off to Rouken Glen garden centre (along with it seemed, half of Glasgow!) to buy some more plants and met Jamie, Dan and Milli there afterwards to go for a walk. They'd never been b4 and were very impressed with this little southside gem. Curtis was having a bad time with reflux tho' and I had to carry him for much of the one hour walk. Roll on pushchair days when he can sit up by himself!

Visit from Uncle Ryan

This morning Curtis had had enough of sleeping in his cot by 7.30am but Steph managed to grab an extra 45 mins sleep by putting him in the big bed and giving him a cuddle. It's not something they recommend in the baby books but it's good for us and great to get some much needed sleep after 3 night feeds. Once up Steph and baby C got ready to go to B&Q to get some plants for our hanging basket. Since Steph hurt her back she is no longer carrying the car seat, so wee man tried out one of the B&Q baby trollys....he looked so cute and it was good to have him at eye level to chat about which plants to buy.

In the afternoon Uncle Ryan came to visit and Curtis couldn't have been more delighted. He was mesmerised with Ryan from the minute he arrived and was full of smiles. His good mood continued after Ryan left as he and Steph played a game of peek-a-boo (see below).







8th May 2008: What a scorcher

Curtis had a good dose of daddy time this morning before Gareth headed back to work today, most of which involved Gareth havig to hold Curtis in front of the mirror so that he could smile and laugh at himself...or whoever he thinks he reflection is! It was yet another scorching hot day in Glasgow so Curtis again spent much of the day in fewer clothes than usual giving his little legs a good airing and hopefully clearing up some of the sweat rash which has been troubling the skin behind his knees. Having made the discovery of his own hands some weeks ago, Curtis has now moved on to stretching out his legs, lifting them in the air and playing one foot against the other...so much that its hard work trying to keep both his legs in the pram. With this and the fact that our new parasol snapped in half...we went out to get some baby factor 50 sun lotion and our way we bumped into Linsey, baby Milli and friends and on our way home we popped in to see Professor Paul and his fishes. This was C's first trip to the fish room since he was born and he really did seem to enjoy watching the fish. I forgot the camera so have uploaded a pic of some of the bigger discus fish that he saw - another new addition to Pauls collection.