positive reinforcement

The baby and I went to the shuk today, to pick up a few necessities and a few non-necessities. One of the first stops we made was to buy me some juice. The guy was selling half a litre of carrot and orange juice for 7 shekels, so I asked what that amount looked like. He pointed out a cup and said “there, 500ml, but you would know all about mls!”; I said that I wasn’t really in the bottle business, at which he said “much better, he’s getting the original thing” … and went on to lecture me about his daughter-in-law’s lack of breastfeeding and told me not to ask about the illnesses and allergies that were surely the result of her bottlefeeding, and that people don’t feed because they don’t know … and so on and so forth. And it was very nice.

Our last stop was to buy some delicious chocolatey-cheesy snacks that are called ‘fingers’, but that doesn’t begin to describe them. As I was waiting in line, I noticed that the woman in front of me was wearing a Bravado bra – which from advertisements I knew was a breastfeeding bra. She saw my naturessway sling and asked where I got it, but I only had the bad news that my sister sent it to me. I commented on her bra, we wished each other luck, and each went our separate ways.

Somewhere in between the juice and the chocolatey-cheesy treat, on our way to the olive stand, a random fruit-seller asked “doesn’t he take a dummy?”. I told him that he does, but if it falls out, there’s always the thumb stand-by. Because that’s a new-ish thing, in the last week – he’s properly sucking his thumb instead of his middle fingers. He started by chomping on it, but now he’s discovered its true use. And for now, it really doesn’t bother me. And although I didn’t get any positive reinforcement in particular at the olive stand, the last time I was there he was very impressed with the sling and said that it must be just like being back in the belly.

three new things

Our lovely boy did all of the following on Tuesday 11 March, at the ripe age of three months: 

1. Grabbed his foot
2. Turned from his back to his front
3. Started blowing raspberries

a very basic salad

Cut the following into fine strips (I use a mandolin, if you’re capable of making julienne strips without such an aid, good for you):

• carrot
• cucumber
• red capsicum
• fennel bulb

Mix together the following in quantities that seem sensible:

• canola oil
• sesame oil
• apple vinegar
• rice wine vinegar
• brown sugar
• soy sauce
• ginger (powdered or grated fresh)
• chilli powder

Cook some three-minute noodles, toast some sesame seeds, put everything in a bowl, EAT.

12 and a half weeks

I’ve been noticing lately that our lovely boy:

• Has very active and expressive eyebrows – even if they are somewhat sparse
• Is still a very patient and calm little person
• Can go 4.5-5 hours after his morning feed before getting antsy for more food
• Only eats for about 10 minutes when he’s hungry … much longer if he’s sleeping like during night feeds, or if it turns into a comfort feed; I’ve been pulling him off once in a while but only after reasonable amounts of time (according to me, that is), and for the sleepy feeds he usually continues sleeping so I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind
• Grabs toys in a fairly determined way
• Stuffs things in his mouth, mainly his fingers – either a selection of two or three, or all four (haven’t graduated to a thumb yet) – but also his blankets if we let him
• Laughs and talks all the time and smiles readily at strangers – sometimes those who talk to me but mainly those talking to him

simple pleasures at 10 weeks

Today my lovely boy and I went for a big walk, halfway through which I bought pastries and sat down for a coffee and an almond croissant. We went to a few parks: one where we walked down an olive tree lined path, one where we lay under carob trees, and one with a big sculpture dedicated to Herzog.

At home, worn out by all the parks and fresh air, he fell asleep and I managed to do a load of laundry and paint my toenails – something I’ve been waiting to do for about a month, if not longer.

Other things that our gorgeous boy is doing:

• moving his legs at the same time
• lifting his legs up in a not-related-to-gas way – apparently it’s the beginnings of thinking about turning over
• batting and grabbing at toys in a more organised way
• lifting himself pretty high on his arms, and on Monday February 18, at 10 weeks and 3 days, he rolled over from his belly to his back
• sleeping more! Friday night and Sunday night he only got up to eat ONCE in the night

He also let me make eggplant involtini last night (I have another recipe to post! it’ll happen eventually) and allowed us to eat chocolate croissants and coffee this morning.

9 weeks

Lately, people have been telling me that they don’t remember what it was like when their own babies were as small as ours is now – even a woman the other day whose son is only one year old. I don’t know what to write to help me remember what he’s like now, I can’t begin to imagine. But here are a couple of things:

• My hand is the length of his back
• When he’s feeding and I put my hand one his waist, I’m holding half of the circumference of his entire body
• When he’s relaxed and we have eye contact when he’s feeding, he’ll smile at me; since I can’t see his mouth, I can tell by how his eyes get smaller and his cheeks get bigger
• He smiles, but not at just anybody
• When he drops his dummy and I try to put it back in his mouth, he gives me big smiles that also mean that the dummy won’t stay in and he’s completely adorable
• His pinky toes are long and curled in a very primate-like way
• He gets fluff between his fingers
• He seems to complain only when there is something wrong that even I can identify and usually solve - I feel like this might be a special time in that respect: his needs aren’t really a mystery to me, and it’s not something totally out of my control like teething, which is yet to come
• He’s always adorable, and usually fascinating

Maybe I’ll think of other things later. He’s already 5.8 kilos and feels heavier every time I feed him.

2 weeks and 5 days

Friday 7 December brought the official end to my ability to write pregnancy-related posts, and provided me with an excellent excuse not to write anything at all here for a while. The latest news – I’m starting with the new stuff first, I’ll get to the past two weeks in my next post – is that our baby is lifting his head enough to turn it from side to side while lying on his front while sleeping.

In terms of my life in food, this morning I had a breakfast of a white cheese omelette, olive and caraway bread, white cheese with smoky eggplant mixed in, and slices of kachkavel on the side … my mother-in-law is insisting that I need to eat lots of dairy, and she’s making sure it happens. For lunch I had vegetable soup and a lentil dish – also care of the mother-in-law. Soon I’ll heat up some of the shepherd’s pie she made.

40 weeks and 5 days

Yesterday I went for a different kind of follow-up, at the medical centre. Usually I just go to the neighbourhood branch and the nurses check some basic details, ask some standard questions, wish me luck, and send me on my way. Yesterday’s follow-up, however, involved a monitor. Exciting. The nurses sat me in a recliner and strapped a couple of discs to my belly, turned up the volume and left me to listen to the baby’s heartbeat … and the heartbeats of the babies of the two women in neighbouring cubicles, too.

At various points, various nurses came in to check the results, and invariably made comments such as “it’s all over the place”, “it’s really going wild”, and other encouraging(?) comments. Eventually – after an hour on the machine – I was told to go out, walk around for 20 minutes, and come back so they could try to get a baseline heartbeat. When I sat down again and got hooked up I tried singing a bit, too, to calm it down. I realised that the only stuff that would be really familiar would be Zohar Argov, since I’ve been blasting him in the car throughout the pregnancy. I felt a bit silly singing him, but did it anyway … quietly.

Whether it was that, or the walk, or my concentrated meditation on the yellow and blue flowers on the curtain separating me from the other heartbeats that did it, something calmed the baby down and they got a 135 beat.

They want to see me again today – I guess they want to get it right first time, so I’ll have a walk and a sing before I go in, and will hope for the best. On the referral letter that they gave me yesterday, it’s written that I must keep track of the baby’s movements (I have been doing so: it’s still moving), and that any drop in movements may require a visit to the hospital. Which all seems a bit contrary … it was the moving that they considered problematic yesterday; then they wanted it to be still, now they want it to move, what’s a baby to do?

Anyway, I know that too much moving is also supposed to be a sign of foetal distress, so I forgive them for interfering, and I’ll play nicely. Last night the movements were very strong for almost three hours, I might ask them if they condsider that to be normal. I didn’t feel much through the night apart from that, though. Then again, I was sleeping.

Later in the day I went to buy sheets for the bassinet but got flustered by the not-so-pleasant shop assistant and ended up buying a set made from 50% cotton and 50% polyester. It included a fitted sheet, a protector to tie to the slats, and a blanket. When I got home and discussed it with hubby (who I had also called about four times during the purchase), we realised that the fabric didn’t feel all that nice, that the blanket was totally unnecessary, and that it had basically been a mistake. I’ll be taking it back and will likely only receive in return a store credit, but better that than keep it. One thing that must be said for the set – it was pretty.

eating for two

 

Although I haven’t noticed any major increase in my appetite lately, this morning proved to be an exception. When I got in to work this morning there was no fresh fruit or Milkys in the fridge, but there were some little containers of tinned-style fruit. I added some granola and 1.5% yoghurt for a nice breakfast, and made myself some coffee. About an hour later, I returned to the kitchenette and took two mini-serves of cottage cheese (each about 20g) and two triangles of cheese. An hour after that, I was hungry again, so attacked the second kitchenette, scoring a sliced cucumber, three more cottage cheeses, and a big cup of frighteningly bright orange juice. Without bread it is harder to fill up, but usually this quantity of food is not necessary to keep me satisfied. It could be related to the fairly disturbed sleep I had – maybe since I didn’t regain all my energy in sleep, I’m having to compensate with massive amounts of food … or, at least, multiple tiny amounts of dairy food.

freezer food

Whether it’s the nesting instinct kicking in, or just practicality, I have been cooking food for the freezer lately, in the hope that we can continue to eat decent food even when there might seem to be no time in the day to cook. Having the food will be more important for me than hubby, since he’ll still be going to work and eating nice big lunches.

Two weeks ago I made about 2 litres worth of split pea soup, and a batch of meatballs – a first for me. I’m already looking forward to heating them up in some tinned crushed tomatoes, but I guess I can wait until the necessity really hits. I also made a walnut and date loaf, to have something a bit sweet on hand.

The following Friday, I made a recipe for chicken tajine that used about 2.5 kilos of chicken pieces. I divided it into four separate meal-sized portions, in freezer bags. Later in the day I made a very simple leek and carrot soup. On Saturday morning, hubby went to the club to swim and go to the gym; I stayed at home and made chicken shnitzels.