So here are some pictures of Linden accompanied by requisite, funny quotes for you to enjoy.
I took Linden to the Early Childhood Centre yesterday hoping to find out a reason for his recent change in behaviour (e.g. difficulty settling & crying during sleep) and to confirm whether he is actually teething. The nurse mentioned that many other mothers experience similar things around the 4 month mark due to another growth spurt so as long as baby is feeding, gaining weight and not sick then all is normal. She said there is no miracle cure, I just have to be persistent and ride it out, geez tell me something I don’t already know. I was obviously not after a miracle cure, I just wanted to speak to someone for reassurance and peace of mind. As Ivan mentioned in his post, Linden seems to be sleeping better the last few days. Babies, they are most unpredictable and full of surprises! 
Unfortunately she can’t confirm whether he is teething because he seems a bit young but to not rule out the possibilities as he seem to be showing teething signs such as the flushed cheeks, chewing on fingers etc. I guess we just have to wait and see.
While we were there, Linden was weighed, had his length and head circumference measured. So at 15 weeks (approx 3 and half months) he is 5.75 kg (with light clothing), 59.5cm long and 39.6cm head circumference. It’s interesting to note that Linden is in the 25th percentile for both the weight and length category, so he appears to be very proportional overall 
Perseverance leads to success. Sweet, sleepy success. We’ve tried to put Linden into a routine of sorts especially around his sleep patterns. He naturally gets tired about 4 times in a day – mid morning, after lunch, afternoon and late evening. Now we’re starting to see some results: less grizzling, longer sleeps, less night waking, self-settling.
So the strategy is to consistently put him to bed at his scheduled nap times as well as bed time. We’ll prep him for sleep just prior to his usual nap times and get him straight into the cot when he shows signs of tiredness. We’ve also both watched each other put him to bed and agreed on a single routine for consistency regardless of who puts him to bed. Linden also wakes up crying usually 30 minutes into a nap and becomes hysterical. We’ve got a predefined routine to calm him also.
All of this combined seems to be working after 3 days. Yesterday and last night was SO MUCH BETTER. He was napping for longer, easier to put down for bed time, startled himself awake less and was easier to settle when he did wake.
Fingers crossed for the rest of this week and the weekend!
The title pretty much says it all for me. For Monica too. Last night Linden decided that he was only going to sleep for 1-2 hr stretches. Our sleep was punctuated with sudden wails and uncontrollable crying. Monica did most of the settling last night so I’ve got Linden for the morning while she catches some zzz’s.
He’s been waking at nights with sudden crying that is very difficult to settle for about the last week; maybe week and a half. The only thing I can put it to is teething based on the reading that I’ve done. We’re doing everything we can at nights to make sure he’s all right – feed, nappy, his temperature, environment temperature, the list goes on. Now I know why new parents look like crap at work
On the flip side, Linden is now consistently rolling from his back onto his front and propping on his elbows. He can also roll from front onto his back. All he has to learn now is to roll from front or back into a long, uneventful, freakin’ sleep! His kicking is really strong too and we sometimes find him off the mat of his playgym or on the end of his cot during arvo naps. One time I was changing him and he made a well-aimed kick to my nurries. No damage done though and fore-warned is fore-armed. Naughty Linden! Maybe he’s the jealous type and doesn’t want a baby brother or sister in the future
Linden has been crying a lot during his naps and especially at bedtime in the past few days. It takes a lot longer to settle him. When we put him in the cot he will sleep for about 5 minutes and wake up crying again. I’ve got no idea why he is suddenly so grumpy and fussy during bedtime, he has never been like this before so I thought he might be sick but this is not the case.
So Ivan did some research on bedtime routine and found the ‘gradual retreat’ method. This involves gradually distancing yourself from the baby during bedtime to teach them to fall asleep independently. We gave this a try on Wednesday during one of his afternoon nap. We let him cry for about 5 minutes before going in to settle him (but not picking him up). After 15 – 20 minutes or so of on and off crying he finally fell asleep. Woohoo!!
We tried this again during bedtime but was not very successful because he was crying louder and getting a bit hysterical. I couldn’t bear to watch him cry anymore so we took turn rocking him to sleep. Peace and quiet at last.
So the bedtime routine now involves a bath at 7pm to help relax him, then off to bed at 7:30pm. We’ve cut down the ‘crying’ time to just a minute or so and will gradually work our way up. It’s heartbreaking to hear and watch him cry. Fingers crossed we can keep this up.
Also this week, Linden has been rolling from his back to front (on his right side) whilst sleeping. I’ve found him sleeping flat on his face a few times so we’ve had to check on him often to turn him onto his back if he’s rolled over. I’m paranoid about the whole SID thing.
On Thursday night, I noticed that his right cheek was flushed. I thought maybe it was because he’s been sleeping on his right side but when the flushing was still there in the morning I mentioned it to Ivan to keep an eye out for any further symptoms. Ivan being the ‘nerd’ that he is, looked up ‘difficulty sleeping and flushed cheeks’ on the internet and discovered that these are possible symptoms of teething. So Linden might be teething? Hallelujah! This explains why he has been crying more during bedtime, demanding extra attention and overall grumpy. Our baby boy is going to get his first tooth. Hopefully it’s not causing him too much discomfort.
Looks like the 13th week is action packed with events and development.
Kit, Fui and the AmiGohs
We (Monica, Linden, my bro Jon and I) had the tremendous pleasure of seeing Kit and his lovely wife, Fui, last weekend. They took advantage of some ridiculously cheap airfares to have a short holiday in Sydney and Melbourne. An obligatory visit to Kam Fook in Chatswood for yum-cha was capped off by coffee and churros at San Churros. It was a really fantastic catch-up.
Kit is an old family friend from way back when I lived in Malaysia. I’m glad we have kept some semblance of friendship over these years even though the contact is infrequent at best. But such is the tyranny of distance. At any rate I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to meet up again and look forward to the next opportunity!
I’ve tidied up and uploaded a few more pictures into Linden’s Month 3 album. Time to start a new album for Month 4!
Here’s a sample – Linden’s wearing a strange looking hat:
Linden appears to have discovered his sense of taste. Either that or the world at large has developed a propensity to end up in his mouth. In particular he spends an inordinate amount of time sucking his fists and sometimes an index finger for a change. Whenever I put him down for some play-gym time, all I hear is periods of sucking.
Remember when you used to eat Funny Faces in summer? You’d finish just about all of it and have to suck the last bit of icy goodness out of the plastic sleeve. Linden sounds like he’s got a Funny Face with about 3 drops left that he’s persistently trying to extract. I’m so tempted to stick a Tim Tam in his mouth to see if he likes it. Better yet, a lemon wedge
Most people who have a play with Linden later discover a saliva patch where Linden has sampled some cuff, sleeve, shoulder or car keys. I’ve come to accept that I’ll have saliva on my arms and hands. When I kiss him, I will end up with slobber on my face. But I’m happy to pay the price – he’s so cute and absolutely worth it.
The 12 weeks growth spurt. They say it was going to happen and sure enough it did. Since last week Linden has been feeding more regularly, between every 1 – 4 hours. Any routine we’ve established is out the window. Hopefully the feeding frenzy will ease up and things go back to normal soon. It’s starting to get colder now and I want to avoid waking up more then once during the night.
I took him for a weigh in today and as expected he has crack the 5 kilo mark, woohoo! He currently weighs 5.2kg (with light clothing & a nappy). I’m so happy considering how far he has come along. Good boy Linden
Linden has a sporadic habit of not wanting to sleep at nights. He accompanies this with howling, wailing and ferocious wiggling. This happens at about 9 o’clock and as late as 10 o’clock sometimes. Unfortunately it’s daddy who has to put him in bed on weeknights and it’s got daddy on edge.
Tonight he was at it again. I only got him to bed about 30 minutes ago. He’s just woken up again but is quite tired so he’s not fussing too much and will likely settle himself and fall asleep. I hope this won’t develop into a pattern. Usually I have to rock him, walk him around the apartment or just carry him. Hopefully that doesn’t become a dependency because I’m not going to walk him around the apartment every time he needs to fall asleep!
