Update at 2 months of age

Well, David is now two months old. He weighed 4.5kgs as at Wednesday 23 November. Extremely hard to believe that it is now two months since the birth. David is progressing well and due to have his next lot of immunisation injections tomorrow. Hopefully it will go without any problems. The GP has suggested injecting him in his buttock as he has long lean legs (generally the injections are given in the thigh).

David is developing every day. Most of the developments are not noticeable unless you area parent or spend a great deal of time with him. For example, David is now blowing bubbles.

More interestingly, he is paying more attention to his toys and everything else. When David goes out in his pram, he has pram toys - a rattle shaped like a teddy, a small soft teddy and the white mouse (doudou). Now David reacts to them all quite strongly, and often moves them around in the pram, or falls asleep hugging them.

David is also very vocal - making lots of new sounds every day, and imitating us. He also reacts very strongly to new sounds - and we have been rolling our "rrr"s at him for the last few days. Today he was working on imitating the rolling "rrrr"s. He often imitates Paul's intonation, even if he can't get any words out yet.

David wakes up happy and smiling and is basically happy if there is nothing bothering him. He is sleeping more again, after having almost a week of only having catnaps during the day. Interesting to see if he is growing more. Last night he slept for 5 hours and then went back to sleep after the feed for another 2 hours. Much better than the 4 hour (in total) nights earlier in the week!!

This is a photo of David being bathed by Dad, and showing how tough he can be. We keep telling him that his kick is a weapon, and that he must use his powers of karate for good, not evil!

Update at 8 weeks plus

Well, it has been over a week since the last post, so an update is due. Exciting things from the last week - David has visited the paediatrician, and gone to his first party!

The doctor's visit confirmed that all is fine with David. He was born a little under average weight and remains a little under the median. He is also a little longer than median, and continues to be long and lean. David behaved perfectly for the doctor, even giving her a lovely smile- he tends to behave perfectly for all strangers, who believe that he is perfect. (We agree!)

Other things of note are that David's work on developing his neck seems to be paying off. the doctor remarked that he was strong and that his neck muscles were well developed - he may start to try rolling any time now. (Note: external, expert confirmation that he IS very advanced for his age!).

Also noteworthy this week. David has started blowing bubbles. Just enough to be cute and not enough to look as though he is frothing at the mouth. He has also learnt to "tear up" when he cries. Only his left eye as yet, but it does add another dimension to the anguish. He is a little heavier - he weighed 4.50kgs (clothed weight) on 23 November 2005.

David has also attended his first party - Phil Hurley's birthday drinks. David appeared to win hands down as the most attractive man in the room, based on all the women clustered around him. Again, he appeared to really enjoy meeting new people and enjoyed being nursed by Sue and Grace. Later he had a small snack and then went off to sleep in his pram in Patrick's bedroom, thus avoiding upstaging the birthday boy, and establishing a reputation as being perfect, as well as cute. I think that the big feed of milk he had before he went to the party may have also helped.

David has had his first bottle feed this week, of expressed breast milk. The most exciting part was that this time Dad was able to feed David. David took to the bottle without any trouble, and in fact grabbed it with both hands. He certainly can drink it more quickly from the bottle. This allows us to practice for when his mum may not be there for demand feeding, and for travelling.

Also noteworthy is that tonight (25 November) David had his first giggle, to dad (or at dad, we're not quite sure). I think dad was even happier than David.

I haven't been able to upload the photos to go with this blog - not sure why. Please refer to the blog with the party photos.

Quick update at seven weeks

This is just a quick note - David was weighed today and is now 4.450kgs, clothed weight. This has increased from 3.680CW on 20 October 2005.

He is progressing well (as you can see from the other photos). While we don't really notice it, because we see him every day, it is noticeable that he is also getting longer. David is wearing the Safari suit again today, as we have had a cool change in Sydney (max temp 21C) and his legs now stick out the bottom of the suit! His legs are still slender though.

I wish I could say that he is sleeping through the night, but he isn't. On the bright side though, he is generally sleeping for at least 4 hours at a stretch. He is also generally happy, and we haven't had any more screaming fit days, so it is all good!

More about David - six weeks plus

Well, we arrived back in Sydney on Thursday 10 November. After being very tired (like his parents) on reaching home, and having a day recouperating, David has recovered well after the excitement of visiting another State and meeting lots of family for the first time. The photo of David resting on Paul's arm is showing how satisfying it can be to recover from travelling - and how a new position can be just perfect. On Saturday afternoon, this was the only position David felt was comfortable!

We should note a major milestone - David slept through the night for the first time at exactly 6 weeks, on Tuesday 8 November - which means 7 hours straight! While it hasn't been repeated, David has slept for 5 hours on a few nights and is having more short naps during the day. David is getting bigger and longer. David is also getting more interesting - more definite in his reactions, bigger smiles, lots of kicking, (particularly when happy or excited) and he is showing signs of being ticklish. David also has more co-ordination in his arms - he waves and bashes away and rings the bells in his toys more strongly every day, so it is intentional, just not yet smooth and controlled.



On the weekend, David received a parcel (after we pressed Australia Post they found the parcel) containing a new puppy soft toy from the Robert family in Perth - and this is a photo of David, on his changing pad, "monstering" the puppy, and then deciding that he liked to nuzzle him. It was remarkable just how excited he was to see the puppy - he knew that it was new and reacted to the puppy's softness. Lots of fun.

David and his grandparents

David is extremely lucky and has three lovely grandparents, Reg, Josie and Jan. They all think that David is wonderful, very clever and very advanced for his age! Also, that David is beautiful (how could anyone disagree?).

So far, David's Nana (Josie) has made him beautiful crocheted pram rugs and muslin/gauze wraps and knitted caps and cardigans for him. His gran (Jan) has also made him lots of lovely things, such as embroided sheets and pillow slips and lovely quilts.

Jan arrived in Sydney the day that David was born and stayed to help his parents for five weeks.




Jan had a lovely time and got to see David both at his perfect best, and when he is grumpy. We all love going for walks, including David. David slept through all of his walks up to the age of six weeks - the best settling routine ever! The photos of David and Jan were taken when David was three and five weeks of age respectively. You may have difficulty seeing David in the shot outside in the pram, but rest assured that he is in fact hiding in the pram, out of the sun.




Nanna and Pop (Reg) met David when he was almost 6 weeks old, on 30 October 2005 on his first trip away, to Melbourne. David handled the trip in the car from Sydney to Melbourne (and return) with great aplomb - did I mention that he is very advanced for his age?


These photos were taken during his stay in Melbourne, and at 6 weeks of age. The photo of David and his Pop is a photo of the oldest and youngest Haselhursts getting to know each other.