Sitting up

Brendon is now sitting unsupported, but you still need to be sitting with him as he isn't very steady, and hasn't worked out how to go from sitting to lying down yet.

7 months

I took Brendon to the clinic today to be weighed and measured, as it has been a month since he has been there. He is now 9.46 kg (in the 75th percentile) and 74 cm tall (almost in the 97th percentile). He spends all day blowing raspberries and commando crawling. The other day he did sit unsupported for about 10 seconds or so. We had Mother's Group here on Monday and he got upset at the other babies playing with his toys. It is the first time he has done that.
He is really enjoying his swimming lessons now and doesn't even cry when he goes underwater.

Getting about

On Tuesday I went to the dentist to have a filling replaced. I asked the dentist about breastfeeding after having an anaesthetic and got the impression it would be ok. When I got home it was Brendon's bed time. My mouth was still numb and I fed Brendon and put him to bed for the night. Well, he slept until 6:15 the following morning! I don't know if the anaesthetic had something to do with that or not? It would have been even better if I hadn't woken at 3am as I couldn't get back to sleep. Since then he has been back to waking once or twice per night.
His cheeks are very red and everyone who looks at him says "He must be teething." These teeth seem to take forever to come through!
Brendon has now discovered that he can drag himself along the floor boards. The other day he must have moved about 3m around the loungeroom floor chasing his toy car which kept rolling further away everytime he touched it.

Easter

Mathew, Brendon and I went away with the Moke Club to the Black Cockatoo Bush Camp at Naracoorte. It's a campsite set up in a paddock and is the third time we have been there. For Brendon's first camping trip, he handled it really well. It took us a few nights to figure out how to make him warm enough at night. He seemed to enjoy it, especially discovering grass and dirt, but wasn't happy that I wouldn't let him eat any of it!
We borrowed a camper trailer that we were considering buying as we are selling our caravan. However, we found that this particular camper trailer was a bit small, with room enough for a portacot, but no room for a growing boy.
There were plenty of volunteers to give Brendon cuddles or mind him, especially Barb, who was willing to grab him at any available opportunity.
Brendon is really trying to crawl. He has figured out he can move forward and around, and is trying hard to perfect the technique. The only bit he needs to work out is that it works better with his stomach off the ground.

Sleeping through the night

On Thursday, Brendon reached his 6 month birthday. He celebrated by having his 6 month immunisations. One of the side effects is that it makes them sleepy. He was asleep sometime between 7:30pm and 8pm that night, and slept until 6am the next morning! This is the first time he has slept all night. Unfortunately I woke at 3am with a sore back and couldn't get back to sleep! Since then he has gone back to waking once during the night for a feed.
On Friday he had his 6 month check up and got ticks in all the boxes. He spends all day rolling over onto his stomach, and has started rolling over in the cot. He now weighs 8.86kg and is 72.5cm tall.
At 8.86kg, my chiropractor says it's no wonder that I am getting a sore back!
We have our caravan for sale and have had a few people come and look at it and even a few offers. It is in today's paper as well,so will wait and see what happens. We want to get a camper trailer which will be easier to tow and more family friendly.

24/3/10

Started rolling over from back to front this afternoon.

Swimming lessons and a trip to the Zoo.

Brendon went to his second swimming lesson yesterday. He really doesn't like having his head put under water as he cried and cried afterwards! Last week I was really nervous about making him swim underwater, but wasn't so nervous about it this time. Nonetheless, I felt really guilty as a mother when he surfaced and looked at me and started crying! He swims with his eyes open, so I think maybe the chlorine is stinging his eyes. Mathew suggested getting him some swimming goggles. I might need to talk to Helen to get her professional opinion on that.
He is 6 months old tomorrow! Going through labour now seems like a lifetime ago.
This Friday we start having a volunteer from Children and Family Health Service come and mind Brendon while I get some gardening, housework, food shopping, etc done. The program goes for 6 Fridays. We qualify for a volunteer because we don't have any family in SA. We met the volunteer yesterday and Brendon really seemed to like her, he even gave her a hug. She seems really nice. It should give me the opportunity to tidy up the garden before Winter sets in.
We went to the Zoo on Sunday. It was a mini club event, but we were the only members to turn up. So it ended up being a nice family outing for us. The weather was perfect and we got to see lots of animals, including the pandas. The highlights of the day were the giraffes, sea lions and hippos. Brendon seemed to enjoy the day but spent most of his time looking at all the other people and kids instead of the animals. At the entrance to the Zoo we saw Chinese people in a Dragon costume dancing to drums as there were some Chinese officials visiting the Zoo that day. It was quite a treat.
Brendon and I went to the Pregnancy, Babies and Children's Expo on Friday. Thank goodness we went there early, there were heaps of people and prams. There were a lot of stalls and products to look at. I bought a hand made Helicopter mobile for Brendon's room. I'm sure the last thing Mathew wants to look at when he gets home is helicopters, but it was so cute I couldn't resist!