Toys for Hand-Eye Co-ordination (0-6 months)

I found an article about toys for new babies to help develop their hand-eye co-ordination which I thought was interesting and useful. :)

Baby's first few weeks
Baby's hands and eyes don't work together, baby just watches.  His favourite things are bright / colourful and things that move.  Some toys and games for baby are . . .

• his reflection in the mirror
• the toys on his gym or a mobile
• shining a torch on the ceiling of a dark room, and flashing lights

6 weeks +
Baby is more ready to swipe at things with his hands, so he'll have fun with:

• the toys on his gym, bouncer or stroller
• a rattle that you hold for him

2-4 months
Now baby will start to grab things and shake them, so . . .

• get him toys that have small enough section for him to grab and hold onto

5-6 months
Baby's grasping is more deliberate and he'll reach out for stuff without constantly monitoring his hand, and he may like to pass things from one hand to the other, so toy's he'll like are:

• toys that he can pick up, take to his mouth and pass from hand to hand
• toys that make noises when he grabs them
• toys with textures
• soft toys that he can cuddle
• toys that he can bat with an open hand

Well now at least I can buy (the correct) toys with a purpose in mind. :D

22 Weeks 4 Days

Finally, my first official baby bump pic, hehe,

I went shopping today trying to find some nice tops that will be flattering to wear, but I couldn't find any. :(  But then I thought, summer has just begun and I have quite a few nice tops that could easily be worn by a mum-to-be, so even if I don't find anything nice I don't really have to worry about it, I think I have some tops that can last me all through this pregnancy.  It was more a case of that I didn't have much winter pregnancy-suitable clothes - but I think winter is over now.  Except I don't have some cute pg dresses!  Still need some of that. :D

Anyhoo, while shopping today I was naughty and bought more baby clothes than I did anything for myself.  :O  Which I shouldn't be doing because my mum says she's bought bags of clothes for baby and so I have NO idea what she's bought, so hopefully there won't be too many identical outfits, hehehe. 

I just got over a really nasty and annoying cold, but I'm still coughing my lungs out now and then, *sigh*.  I didn't take any meds for it (except some tissue salts which I only remembered to do on day 3 of said cold), but I didn't have a fever and so it wasn't a cause for concern as far as baby is concerned.

I've also made an app with my newest doc (ob/gyn)early next month, the one who will be delivering baby.  I haven't met him yet but my sis-in-law was happy with him (he delivered her baby this July just past) and Noob Dad's female relatives have been going to him for YEARS so I thought I may as well use him too.  So hopefully he's likable!  :O  This will be the 4th doc I see relating to this pregnancy.  So I think once I get there we need to book a date for delivery and we need to register the pregnancy with our medical aid too, and apparently the medical aid sends us a hamper of baby goodies or vouchers or something when you do this!  Cool!  :)

Well I have some new baby clothes to hang up, let me get on with it. :)

Heart Palpitations & Pregnancy

This is one of those (apparently common enough) pregnancy "things" nobody really mentions in the "common pregnancy symptoms" lists that you find all over google!  I never saw it and I googled a lot.  So I'LL tell you about it. :P

This refers to rapid or skipped heart beats and apparently it's quite common in pregnancy.  Unless you have a pre-existing heart condition, heart palpitations are usually not really something to worry about, but just to be safe DO mention it to your doc and ask them to check it out if you're worried about it.

You'll know you're having heart palpitations when you get a feeling like your heart skips a beat and then gives a big thud and then carries on as normal.  Well chances are good that if you're pregnant and this is the first time you experience this not-at-all-frightening (pffft) heart experience, then you can possibly expect to get more of them soon.

Another way you can experience heart palpitations is when it feels like your heart is racing and pounding in your chest for no reason - in fact you usually notice it most easily when you've just become comfy on the couch or are just about ready to doze off - ie when you're being calm and peaceful and relaxed.  But it feels sorta like you've just done some sort of vigorous exercise before lying down.  And you'll probably find it hard or impossible to snooze or take a nap while this is going on.

Since I've experienced a couple of skipped heart beats here and there in my life before pregnancy, I didn't immediately think that I was dying because I knew what it was and that it was harmless in my case since I have no heart condition.  For me it started during the 14th week of pregnancy and carried on until somewhere around the 18th week, and it felt like it was often getting worse and more frequent as the weeks went by.  And that's when I started getting worried, because sometimes I'd have a pounding heart beat combined with frequent skipped beats continuously for hours at a time.  Then it started tapering off again and now, at just over 21 weeks, it mostly seems to have disappeared.

I had no idea it was a pregnancy thing, so I just googled irregular heart beats to see what I could find out about it, and that's when I by accident saw an article about heart palpitations during pregnancy.  It seems to be caused by your crazy pregnancy hormones and the fact that you have an increased amount of blood to pump around and so your heart is working a little harder.  I mentioned it to my doc anyway and he also confirmed it was normal and nothing to worry about.  But then he said it usually only happens when you lie down, and then I was worried all over again because MINE were there whether I was lying down or sitting up.  But I rode it out because I didn't have any other symptoms like dizziness or lightheadedness or pain etc, so I was hoping for the best, and slowly they started to get less and less and now I don't know when last I've actually noticed that I had one.

SO!  If they don't bother you and you have no other symptoms and your doc has cleared that you're healthy, don't worry about 'em!  They're just a temporary annoyance.  Bottom line is, they're not harmful to you or baby.  :)

21 Weeks 4 Days & More Nursery Decor

Yesterday we had our 21w3d scan and everything shows that all is good. :)

Heart beat's at 139bpm (the heart beat is that graph thingy at the bottom) and apparently he weighs about 512 grams.  I think that little blob at the top right is his left hand and the big blob in the middle is his chest viewed from the top (he's been bisected in half by the sonar, hehe).  So far the expected date for natural delivery is around 18 Dec, but I'm having a C-section so it will be about 2 weeks earlier.  The further away from Xmas the better, haha!

The other day he really started to squiggle around a LOT more, not just kicking like usual but something that feels like he's doing summersaults or something. :D  Feels weird.  I'm not sure when he snoozes, but it feels like he's awake most of the day and moving around, but I haven't noticed yet that he's moving around in the middle of the night when we're snoozing - or at least he's not kicking hard enough to wake me up. :)

I haven't really gained weight yet - I'm more or less now what I was before I became pregnant, so hopefully this is a good sign that I won't pick up unnecessary weight during the rest of the pregnancy!

And I think I may have exhibited a few instances of what they call "pregnancy brain". :O  The other day I see that my bottle of water is standing in the TV room (when it's supposed to be in the fridge) and I ask Noob Dad if he put my bottle there and he said no.  I have NO memory of taking it out of the fridge and putting it in any other room!  And I know he wouldn't have put it there because HIS bottle of water always stands on the kitchen counter because in winter fridge water is too cold for him so he doesn't drink from my bottle.  How weird . . .  And in the nursery we bought a chest of drawers and Noob Dad opened the draws so that we could air them since they smell of new wood and stuff.  One day he mentions that he noticed I closed the drawers and I said "no I didn't!" and he said well neither did he.  So whether that one was me too I have no idea!  lol  I mean, I'm sure we all do stuff sometimes that we don't particularly remember doing, but nothing as weird as this water bottle incident.  Oh well. :D  Apparently this pregnancy brain thing is your hormones messing around with you and having a laugh at your expense again, combined with the fact that you may be a bit more tired than usual so your brain isn't always as "optimally functional" as it should be, hehe.

And I've made some more decor for Aidan's room. :D  I painted little wooden tray thingies and used them as frames.  Then I remembered that I had the cutest little animal keyrings (and I just happened to have 4, a zebra, leopard, lion and giraffe), so I made them sit in the frames and I think it looks too cute! :D

 

 

I have another wall to decorate so I have to think up something interesting and different again.  Weeeee! :D

Also, we have a HUGE-ass fabric shop that sells not only TONS of fabrics and curtains but just about EVERYTHING else related too . . . yet we couldn't find ANY nice fabrics for the nursery, booooo.  :(  In this post I have a pic of the colour scheme I want, but all the shop has is these nasty bright green fabrics or dark greens that aren't really nice for a baby's room.  *sniff*  So I'm hoping we can find something nice and cute in Pretoria.

RE the curtains, I thought of an idea just in case we don't find nice curtain fabric - we could use white curtains with green net curtain behind it, and on the right and left sides we put some more net curtain over the white curtain and keep them tied to the sides with curtain tie-backs so that it's only the white curtains that open and close - that could work, eh?  But ALL-white curtains, ish . . . can we keep the white, that's the question, haha.  But it's very dusty here so I think even without any help from ourselves, these curtains ain't gonna remain white.  *sigh*  What to do, what to do . . .

Baby Crafts - Name for Door

I made the first piece of decor for Aidan's room. :D  I decorated some wooden letters and put his name on his room door:

And in sticking with my green and yellow and cute bugs and cute animals room theme, I added some cute things to the letters.  Cute!  Hehe.

 

 

 

I have a couple more crafts waiting in line, so let me get started! :D

The Nursery - Part 1 & 2

Here's what's been happening with the nursery since June:

20 June 2012
Today we officially started preparing the nursery. :D  We're actually a room short - our third bedroom is used as a home office / study, so that has to move out to *somewhere* 'cause it has to become the nursery!  So today we were clearing out the cupboard in the study and moving the stuff over to my craft room-slash-guest bedroom cupboards (before which I had to make some space for the office stuff first!).  What a JOB, and needless to say I had to throw some stuff away to make some space, but luckily nothing that'll be missed really.

So here's the nursery BEFORE photo:

 

And this is where everything in the study has to move to . . . somehow . . .

I was thinking that I want this colour scheme for the nursery, except I'm going to add some yellow too, so pastel green, yellow and white - I think the colours are nice and cheery!  And neutral.  :D

We're just not gonna paint the walls green, I'm going to leave them the almond-white they are now - that makes it easy to change the colour scheme later, especially if future-baby wants it's own colour scheme.  So always leave the walls neutral I say.

And I think I'm gonna have green curtains made for the room too.  Here comes more work for you mum-in-law, hehe!

Here's the cupboard that we cleared out (mostly!) in the so-far-still-a-study, so I finally had place for some of baby's stuff that I'd bought already (on the right):

5 August 2012
And the nursery's been set up! :D

Everything's (well almost everything) been moved out the office and Aidan's furniture is in. :D

We still need to get rid of that broken office chair, get some green curtains and get the fabric for the bedding.

And we need to get rid of that office stuff on the wall too - I'm gonna make some cute wall decor for the walls!  Oh, and that table in the back corner there has to be painted white too.

And we had some fun buying some clothes already. :D

Noob Dad decided he rather wanted to move his office to the TV room and not my craft room, so instead we had to move our exercise equipment out of the TV room to make space for the office - my eliptical bike thingy went to the other TV room and his gym stuff moved to my craft room . . . which meant we had to get rid of one of the spare beds in my craft-slash-guest-bedroom.  And the office bookshelf was put in my craft room too:

My craft section of the room is out of sight on the left behind the door, but nothing changed there.
And here's his office now!

There in the back, see?

In fact, now he's got a better view - he can look out onto the garden and pool and he still gets all the warm winter sun too, so, considering the space constraints, all in all I think it worked out well enough! :)