Conrad’s blog

Two nights on, things have been going better than probably Ian and I feared. Conrad and his sister went to bed at the same time, after both of them had had their evening milk downstairs, and fell asleep without much fuss at all. The first night, Conrad was awake between 1 and 2am – I went in to straighten him and his bed clothes three times after he cried (and, remarkably, his sister didn’t wake up). Then he stirred again at 5am, but went back to sleep and slept until after 7am. This morning, I heard Conrad mumbling at around 5.30am (I keep the baby monitor on the floor by my side of the bed now) and went in to fetch him and Jessica was awake too, both happy and ready to get out of bed.

Today Conrad managed to pick up his water mug and drinking from it all by himself. He’s been playing with it a lot mealtimes, and as it’s not a non-spill one or anything fancy like that, it’s created a lot of puddles on the table of his highchair and the floor, as well as filled the trough of his pelican bib up quite nicely… I try not to interfere too much to let him work things out for himself, but do turn the mug over as soon as I can when it’s upside down – why the underside of the mug should be so much more interesting beats me…!

Conrad also took two steps without support. Admittedly, it was by accident – he was holding on to Ian’s hand but his grip slipped, and he carried on his course taking two steps without holding Ian’s hand until he reached a chair. Generally, though, Conrad is so confident walking now, holding on to only one hand and without relying on it too much either, that I’m sort of expecting those first, proper and intentional, independent steps to happen any day now.

As it’s the Easter holidays now and Ian’s off for four days in a row (including the normal weekend, of course), we decided we should go for at least one outing. We drove over to Tilgate Park, as it’s not very far (nor expensive) and the kids enjoy seeing the animals there. Conrad was starting to notice the bigger animals during our last visit, but this time he was even more alert: watching, and often giggling, at what was going on around him. His sister was running around with Daddy, so I took the opportunity of putting Conrad in the front seat of the double buggy. He seemed to really enjoy that – when he’s in the Quinny on Wednesdays, our single buggy, he’s always looking around him with such keen interest – otherwise he unfortunately mostly sees the back of Jessica’s seat when we’re out and about…

Conrad fell asleep in the car literally just a minute or two before we arrived at Tilgate Park. I tried to move him really carefully into the back of the pushchair, hoping he’d carry on sleeping for a while, but of course he woke up. As soon as he was lifted up so that he could look around and see the pens and animals, he was perfectly happy. He ended up not having a nap until after lunch. We put Jessica in bed after him again, and when he woke up I was quick to fetch him.

He seemed pretty wide awake and it was time for his afternoon bottle, which I had prepared not long before. I fed him in the sofa in the living room – and after he’d finished the bottle he fell asleep in my arms! I was a bit chuffed, actually – I had thought those days were long gone, but was so happy just to sit there with him in my arms and watch him sleep (he was so adorable…!). Had I been more comfortable and confident that he was safe, I wouldn’t have minded falling asleep too, but, alas. After half an hour I had to shift one of my legs as I was getting uncomfortable and then he stirred, happy and fully rested. I obviously had fished him out of his cot a little bit too soon, but it was great that he could catch up resting on my lap.

Gabriella

Today – the day after Conrad became 10 months (!) – we took the big step of moving him out of our bedroom and in with his sister Jessica. I took the kids out for our morning visit to the playground in the park and then a bit of food shopping, while Ian stayed behind to shift Conrad’s bed, swapping it with a bookshelf, which is now back in our room again. Late morning we brought both kids upstairs to show them the result. When Jessica spotted Conrad’s bed, she smiled, and when Ian pointed out that Conrad now would be sleeping in the same room as her, she started shrieking happily, bouncing around the room. So he was certainly welcome! Conrad himself displayed more of a poker face, so were not sure what his feelings were about it (but we guess we’ll find out in the coming days/nights)…

Conrad has now had his first nap in his new room, anyway. The easiest way, it turned out, was to let him settle for his nap first, as he tends to cry for a little while before he settles (he’d much prefer to keep going until he falls over), and Jessica turned out to be quite concerned about his crying and jumped up in her cot to talk to him to try to comfort him, and then let Jessica come in the room for her nap when he was sound asleep. Her chatting before settling didn’t seem to stir him, which was a relief! (And when he’d finished his nap and started to stir, I was able to whisk him out of the room without her waking up.)

With our bookshelves back in our room, we can finally sort the kids’ room out properly, which feels fantastic. Unfortunately, it has been used as a bit of a ‘dumping ground’ for storage boxes, and with the damp proofing works going on, we’ve not felt inclined to put anything up on the walls. But now we’re going to go ahead and make this a proper room for the both of them. After we’ve sorted it out a bit more, we’ll post some photos of the result.

Keep your fingers crossed that Conrad and his sister don’t disturb each other too badly now…!

Gabriella

Conrad’s having a nap at  the moment. He woke up early today (5.15am) and was acting tired during the morning, he did go to sleep in the pushchair coming back from Waitrose but only for 15 minutes. I think probably his farmor and farfar arriving at the same time, with several chatting voices as a result, made him stir. Hopefully he has a nice, long nap now. If he wakes up in time, the plan is to take him to be weighed at the health visitor clinic this afternoon, as he is 10 months tomorrow, but they close at 3pm and if he hasn’t woken up in time I won’t worry about going.

Yesterday we had another first: Conrad stood up in the bath all by himself! Jessica was standing in the bath and then suddenly Conrad was standing there next to her. This was also the first time he has pulled himself up to stand using an object rather than a person.

At the moment, they are understaffed at our surgery, and instead of inviting Conrad to the otherwise standard 10 month check, we had a letter, explaining that they didn’t have enough staff to undertake these checks at the moment but here was a questionnaire with some questions regarding development – would we mind filling this in and contact them if we had any concerns? One of the questions was whether the baby is pulling himself up on items of furniture, so I guess we can tick yes for that one now… Otherwise the questions were a bit rigid: “does the baby crawl yet?” but no box to write “no, actually, he’s at the verge of walking all by himself”…

Gabriella

PS Conrad slept for quite a while, so we didn’t make it to the clinic to weigh him. It was more important that he slept properly, though – I’ll take him next week instead.

We had decided to go to Clarks in Crawley mainly to have Conrad’s sister’s feet measured, as she hadn’t had a new pair for a while and we thought her feet might have grown since last. But we decided to get Conrad his first pair of shoes too, as he is cruising so well now. We got to the shoe shop at 5 to 11 and were the first ones in the shop when it opened. Conrad’s feet both measured 4 1/2 G (G meaning that they are slightly wider than average, which is F). Out of the four pairs in that size we were shown, one pair got disqualified straight away for being white and the two I preferred seemed too narrow to fit properly on Conrad’s feet (he tiptoed a bit when wearing one of them, although he didn’t complain, of course). But the fourth one slid on his foot nicely and easily. ‘He has a slightly high instep’, the sales assistant said. Of course we needed to get him what we thought would be the most comfortable pair possible.

It was a bit odd seeing Conrad in shoes for the first time, as if he really is turning into a little boy… But he seemed to walk comfortably in them, and much more confidently in our garden than with his wellies. While I was hanging up washing (and Ian popped down the shops to get some bits for dinner), I opened up the sand table and Conrad and his sister happily got stuck in. Conrad was standing so confidently, seemingly just casually leaning against the table, that I was quite chuffed. It does seem likely he’ll be running around the garden before the summer is over.

At lunch and dinner today, Conrad started shaking his head from side to side in a happy sort of way, stopping every so often for another mouthful. It made Jessica giggle, and want to copy him of course, which she did. Which made Conrad giggle in turn. This carried on throughout the meal – so cute!

Gabriella

Summer has been back with us for a few days now, and today – after e had all been out in the garden for a while – I brought Conrad’s highchair outside to let him have his lunch under the parasol in the fresh air. He seemed to really enjoy it, giggling away at his unusual lunch-time view and the antics of his sister.

Gabriella

Conrad and I had our weekly day together and it turned out quite a relaxed one. After we’d waved big sister and Daddy off through the living room window we played for a bit, then I gave Conrad his morning bottle and then took him out for a walk in the Quinny (single) buggy. He made tired noises but as, I am guessing, he can see so much more of his surroundings when he’s not staring at the back of Jessica’s seat, it took him a while to go to sleep.

It was a very sunny day – another summery one, with only a lightweight jacket required in the early morning (and none later) – so I draped a muslin over the front of the hood to protect Conrad from the sun. Or that was the intention. He quickly grabbed hold of the corner of it and then we had a little tug of war, with him giggling away as I tugged at the muslin from above. A bit later I decided to lower the back of the pushchair, which got him nicely out of the sun too, and it wasn’t long until he drifted off.

When we got back home, I wheeled the pushchair out in the garden and left Conrad to carry on sleeping in the shade. He slept for about 3 hours, looking very comfortable. I had the backdoor open and kept an eye on him while I was running around changing bedlinen (watching him through the back bedroom window) and hanging three loads of washing.

The clocks changed to summer time on Sunday (29th March) and since then Conrad has woken up slightly later, still going to bed at 7pm but not having an afternoon nap for various reasons, so being very ready for bed at that point. It would be nice if that could stay the same – I’d much prefer Conrad to wake up at 6am rather than 5/5.30, which he seems to prefer…

On Sunday (29th March), my Aunt Anette and her husband Yngve came over from their stay in London to meet us for lunch. We went to Ye Olde Six Bells, a pub over 700 years old, only about 10 minutes walk away from us. Conrad had woken up a bit sooner than he probably should have from his morning nap, before I took him and his sister over to the pub to meet Daddy, Anette and Yngve, but he perked up being out and about. At the pub the only two highchairs available were both taken, so I kept Conrad in the pushchair for his lunch – unfortunately out of jars, but I’m not sure about bringing home cooked food out and about, at least the stuff in jars is vacuum packed until open. I had brought my camera but, unfortunately, being busy chatting I completely forgot to take it out of its bag and use it… After Conrad had finished, a highchair became free. His Daddy brought it over for him to sit in while the rest of us were finishing our lunches and he was quite happy to just sit and dangle his feet, having a look around.

Conrad hasn’t got bored of walking around: it is by far his favourite pastime. Now he holds on to only one of my hands most of the time, and likes to bend down and fetch a toy that he can carry around with the other hand. He likes to walk around us now too, and he’s been walking between my legs several times today, which makes it really hard to keep hold of his hand (but is very cute…)! When Conrad and his sister are both awake and playing in the living room, I spend most of my time either steering Conrad away from those of Jessica’s toys that are her favourites and that she’s protective of (her teddy Pinky, her comfort blanket rabbit, her Pippi doll) or that really aren’t suitable for him to put in his mouth (her colouring pens, Mr Potato Head accessories, the candles for her wooden birthday cake), or trying to draw babies and rabbits and moons for Jessica with the one hand while trying to keep Conrad upright but away from Jessica’s bits of paper and crayons with the other. It’s quite knackering!

But they so enjoy each other’s company. The latest game that Jessica has thought of is that the two of them lie down with a pillow each and a blanket or duvet over them and pretend to be asleep. Preferably in Mummy and Daddy’s bed, but the cushions in the sofa and a blanket will do too if it’s in the living room. Jessica plonks Pinky and rabbit on each side of her, then pats the pillow/cushion next to her and insists “Dada” (Conrad). He giggles almost hysterically when I lie him down, waves his arms and kicks his legs, and grabs for Pinky or rabbit (depending on which one is next to him). Jessica isn’t keen on him grabbing her favourite toys of course, and cries “Nej, nej, nej” but still insists on putting the toy back in the same place, where he obviously can and does reach it again. Conrad does get bored of the game after a little while – a baby that’s in the process of learning to walk usually doesn’t have much patience with lying down, especially if they can’t get back up to standing by themselves – and prefers to sit on the bed, patting it and shrieking with laughter.

What else have I got to tell you? A few days ago, Conrad started smacking his lips a while into his meal. I smacked my lips back, he smacked his again and started to laugh, and it turned into a game. He looks at me and smacks his lips and I copy him, or I smack my lips and he smiles and starts copying me. (His sister Jessica copies him too and giggles, she’s so delighted with all sorts of things that he does.) With mealtimes in general, Conrad doesn’t cry anymore when eating, and seems to like more different kinds of foods now (maybe because he’s got used to a wider range of flavours now), although he will pull a face if there’s something he doesn’t like, even though he most of the time still carries on eating it. Fruit is still a hit, with or without yoghurt. (Jessica’s really keen on yoghurt now after seeing Conrad having all of his fruit pureed, she now wants to eat hers out of a bowl with a spoon too.)

Almost a week ago, when we were looking in a lift-the-flap book before bedtime, Conrad started lifting each flap after I had lifted it once, opening and closing it and opening it again, with definite intent. He has done this several times since with “Ha ha Maisy” and “Dear Zoo”, where there’s an obvious flap on each page. He pays close attention to the page and what he’s doing, and suddenly it seems like he might be growing an interest in books, even when there’s not a crinkly, glittery patch to touch on the page. I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember, so it makes me really excited (all the adventure’s he could have just reading when he gets older…!).

Since the clocks changed, mornings are darker again, of course, but the evenings so much lighter, and our bedroom (where Conrad still sleeps, though the idea is that he should move in with his sister soon) is fairly bright when I give Conrad his evening bottle in there before bed. This doesn’t seem to have affected his going to sleep though, at least not yet (we have, after all, almost three more months of evenings getting lighter ahead of us…).

Gabriella

Conrad loves rummaging through buckets and boxes, so to keep him entertained for that bit longer it’s a good call to put him on the living room floor with the big toy box or on the bathroom floor with the box of bath toys. He’ll dive into it, pick a toy, bring it out and turn it over in his hands, put it in his mouth and maybe chomp on it for a while, until he drops it to the side and dives into the box for the next thing. It leaves the floor pretty messy with toys to clear up, but it’s worth it to see him enjoy himself (and to get a bit of time for other things oneself).

I move Conrad around between the rooms depending on what I’m doing still (bathroom if I’m having a wash or brushing my teeth, kitchen or hallway if I’m cooking), though he is becoming more mobile on floor level too. He can shuffle his way between toys and I have to watch out so I don’t step back onto him because he’s not where I put him anymore. He moves around because it’s fun. Today he was spinning around and around in a circle on his bottom in the middle of the kitchen floor, steadily and at quite a good speed with a wooden spoon in his mouth, and was giggling away. He’s getting more and more adorable every day…

Every day at some point we do our rounds through the house, him grabbing me firmly by the hand and pulling me along with him. We usually do the same favourite ‘circuit’ a few times every day: starting in living room (by the big windows where the toys usually are), then out in kitchen to pat the bin and the chopping boards that are on one of the shelves eye level to Conrad, then up to the oven to pat the buttons at the front (he can’t switch it on as we always turn it of at the wall and the outside of the oven door only gets warm, never hot), then back out in the hallway to tear the shoes down from the shoe rack and the up to the front door to pat it for a bit and try to reach the keyhole. Then back into the living room again, only to turn around on the other side of the treshold and start over.

Gabriella

So Conrad’s been nine months for a few days now – time’s running away and I’m not keeping up…! We had another day just the two of us yesterday, with Jessica spending the day over at Ian’s parents in Redhill, but unfortunately it ended up being a lot of running around and poor little Conrad didn’t get to do much but sit in his pushchair for most of it…

Started off going on the train to Crawley to get him a couple of new pyjamas. He’s only got one pair in his current size (86, or as some brands label it: 12 to 18 months), which obviously isn’t great when wash day comes. Gave Conrad his morning bottle at home and watched the painter, who was going to paint the outside of our house now that the re-plastering of the side of it has dried, turn up and set up for work. Conrad and I caught the 9.36 train (the fare is cheaper after 9.30) and he was giggling away during the journey, at me and the display scrolling information about the journey. I think the woman sitting on the opposite side of the aisle to us noticed Conrad’s happy temper, because when we got off the train she was just ahead of us but turned around straight away with a big smile: “Let me help you with that” and helped lifting the pushchair down on to the platform.

To get to the right side of Crawley without having to cross the bridge over the tracks at the station (tricky with a pushchair as the stairs are pretty high and steep) one has to go out the back and a fair bit down the road to cross at a level crossing. It adds another 10-15 minutes to the walk to the shopping area, during which Conrad fell asleep. The rest of our time in Crawley – a couple of hours of me running in and out of shops – he spent asleep, occasionally waking up for a brief, bleary-eyed look around and then drifted back off again. His cold has got a bit worse, his cough is noisier and his nose even runnier, and he’s been a bit extra tired the last few days, though I think that’s mainly because coughing keeps him stirring in the night. Last night it didn’t disturb me much, I had earplugs which allowed me to still hear him but not to get woken up by his coughing. He cried once, which woke me up, but the cry had been in his sleep and he drifted off straight away again.

Apart from a pyjama, I had to get a couple of presents suitable for 2-year-olds. Conrad’s had his first party invite, a joint one with his sister, for a birthday party for a couple of the kids from the post-natal mum group and a couple of friends of theirs. This is on Saturday, and Ian and I are looking forward to another kids’ party, without us having to organise anything this time.

Conrad woke up when we were back in Horley, and very patiently waited for me to sort his lunch out. We had time for a little bit of play afterwards, but then I wanted to take him to the health visitor clinic, just to get him weighed at as close to nine months old as possible for his baby book. He clocked 11.61 kilos (25lb 9oz), eventually – he’s sitting on the scales now since a couple of months and keeps turning to look around himself, which means the scales find it hard to settle on any one figure. As he’s quite big for his age, the health visitor had made a note to measure him again at nine months, and after some wriggling the verdict was 81 cm (2ft 7.9in). His weight is very high on the chart, but his height is off it – he’s a very tall little boy!

Actually, so tall that the health visitor nurse (yes, her again), who checked him got a bit concerned. She tried to explain, that if a boy grows very fast when he’s little, when his bones fuse in puberty there’s a risk of him staying short. I hadn’t heard of that before, I had only assumed that Conrad was growing at his own pace, which just was a bit faster than the average baby boy at the moment. Because Conrad’s been happy and his normal self, not had a temperature and eaten normally, I hadn’t worried about his noisy cough. But the nurse said that I should take him to the doctor’s to have it listened to. “Because we don’t want it going into his chest, do we?”. And if I was going anyway, she suggested showing the doctor Conrad’s position on the height chart, to see if there was any cause for concern.

I managed to book an appointment for an hour later. So it was back in the pushchair for Conrad, going to the shops to stock up on nappies and then home for his afternoon bottle before heading out to the surgery. Dr Stanley was the same one who had done Conrad’s 8 month check, when I’d thought he had a really good and funny way with babies, looking at and chatting to Conrad directly about every part of the examination. He did the same now, and Conrad was watching him intently and curiously. Conrad didn’t mind the stethoscope, but when the doctor had to listen to his back, he was straining to turn around to face the doctor again. Conrad’s chest sounded fine. The doctor said that there was no need to worry unless anything changed; if Conrad got a temperature or didn’t want to eat, etc.

When I mentioned the nurse’s concern about his speedy growth, saying I hadn’t understood what the issue was but that she’d thought it was worth looking at, the doctor just frowned in a puzzled way: “So, he’s growing – what’s the problem?” And then he asked my height and Ian’s, and sat down to work out Conrad’s predicted adult height, reaching the conclusion that Conrad probably would end up being somewhere near Ian’s height. “He is just growing and he’s in proportion, not overweight or underweight, so it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

Conrad had been a bit restless on my lap and I explained that unfortunately he’d been stuck in the pushchair most of the day. When I strapped him in again as we were leaving, the doctor lent in towards Conrad and went: “Oh no, she’s doing it again! You shouldn’t put up with it, you know.”

I hadn’t been worried but it was still good to know that my instincts had been right. That’s not to say things can’t change, of course, but it’s good to know they are fine for now.

Gabriella

Gabriella

Saturday the 21st February was a lovely, sunny day, so we all went properly out in the garden for the first time this year. We put Conrad in his first pair of wellies (blue ones with dinosaurs that he’s inherited from his sister), which he wore briefly on that fantastic, snowy day at the beginning of the month, but only to stand in – this time he was walking around, holding on to my hands, of course, stumbling every so often, slightly stepping out of his boots and on to them at times, but very keen. A plastic football, originally red but faded, which had been left in the garden over winter, attracted his interest almost immediately. As it was slightly deflated, he could easily pick it up with one hand – and put it in his mouth… (There are no prizes for guessing what Conrad’s favourite activity in the garden will be in the summer – I can already picture all the soil, various types of leaves, pebbles, etc., that we’ll have to fish out of his mouth…!)

On Sunday 22nd February, Conard’s farmor, farfar and auntie Wendy came over for afternoon tea for Jessica’s birthday. As always, it was nice to have some family around to play with the kids, who were in a brilliant mood (but then they are most of the time anyway). Conrad was itching to get on his feet and run around though, of course, when everyone else were sitting around chatting, watching his sister opening presents or having birthday cake.

Now Conrad goes on a swing too every morning we go over to the playground in the park. Before I even get a chance to fetch him out of the pushchair, his sister goes ‘Da-da’ (her word for Conrad) and points to the swing next to her. Then they both giggle away as take turns pushing them (or Ian Jessica and me Conrad if it’s at the weekend), Conrad not quite so high – he sits much more upright than he did first time, and holds on to the bar in front, but I think I’ll wait swinging him really high until he’s a little bit more confident holding on.

Jessica insists on her brother going on the slide every time after she’s gone on it – it makes her giggle to see him slide, though Conrad still seems fairly indifferent about that one. And she wants him to go opposite her on the see-saw too, though that one has to be kept for weekends when Ian’s around, as Jessica needs holding on to too.

Gabriella