My Giant Baby!
Posted on September 15, 2007
Filed Under muski the monster |
bubblebub!, originally uploaded by katefb.
When do you stop measuring a baby’s age in weeks and start using months? I am never quite sure if I should tell people Muski is 12 weeks old (almost 13) or almost 3 months? Which sounds older do you think? Because if I make him seem older people might not freak out so much about his size!
So this is not the greatest photo but it is one of the few of late where he is not red and flaky so I am going with it. I think it does show how long he is. My giant baby!
Some interesting stats…
Muski was 52 cms at birth.
56 cms at 2 weeks
58cms at four weeks
63cms at 8 weeks
So in eight weeks he had grown more than 10cms…. does that sound like a lot??
He was 4.62kgs at birth (10 pounds 3 oz) and at eight weeks he was 5.82kgs. To me that doesn’t sound like a really huge weight gain in eight weeks but it seems like a big growth in length?
I am so not used to ‘normal’ sized babies. The girls were not as heavy as Muski is now until they were almost one. Muski was wearing clothes at 8 weeks that they wore at 11 months, so there is just no comparison!
When we were in hospital with Zoe the number of people who would look into the pram and ask how old he was and then exclaim how HUGE he was just cracked me up! In one breath they’d say how skinny Zoe was and then how huge he was. It seems like I never do things the boring normal way - first I have teeny tiny babies really early and then, not to be outdone, I have a huge baby a bit late! At least life is never boring.
Muski is a pretty cruisey young man. He loves to chat and will go on and on if someone will sit and talk back to him. He giggles in his sleep just like his sisters did when they were little. Actually the girls still do that. While we were in hospital I woke up to hear Zoe giggling in her bed and Muski giggles in the pram at the foot of her bed… they must have been having the same good dreams!
He doesn’t cry much, only when he is angry about something, and then he roars! He mostly just grunts to get my attention. He has recently discovered the joy of spit bubbles and has almost mastered the intentional raspberry. He’s trying hard to sit up, though he is still working on having head control 100% of the time. He can also roll from his back onto one side and almost the whole way over… I think it is just what happens when he kicks about rather than intentional… how old are babies when they roll? I have forgotten all of this stuff, plus the girls were behind on all of those mile stones.
He loves to have a ‘free day’ and kick around with no pants on. It’s taken me a while to come to terms with his fountain abilities though. A little while ago he was lying on his rug kicking away and trying to make his arms reach for the toys, all happy and chatty. I’d put a really big towel under him so figured we’d catch any wee without any dramas. I pottered about doing ’stuff’ came back a few minutes later to find a puddle on the floor over near the couch. I asked the girls who had wee’ed on the floor and could they please clean it up (yep the girls still make puddles… don’t ask!). They both blamed Muski…. I got a little cross at them for blaming their baby brother just so they didn’t have to clean up, but they still insisted it was him.
A few days later I walked in just as the fountain started and suddenly realised the girls had been telling the truth! Fountain boy has this clever ability to pee straight up and out in a perfect arc, leaving a big puddle far away from where he is lying and not a drop near by to give a clue as to who the real culprit is. Amazing - he is already getting his sisters in trouble!
He’s eating really well…. though some days (and nights) I feel completely drained - literally. It is certainly much easier to feed one baby, and to not have the dreaded shields to contend with. We have almost mastered a decent cradle hold and feeding in public but he still is an on again off again feeder in this position which drives me nuts.
He has days where he power chucks a lot… though thankfully it doesn’t seem to bother him as much as it did his sister so I am crossing my fingers he is one of those ‘fat happy chuckers’ our pead talked about.
His skin is awful at times… very dry and flaky and red and itchy looking in all the classic eczema places. He doesn’t seem too bothered by it but I am. So we are greasing him up a few times a day and trying to find something to bath him in that won’t dry him out… so far the oats are doing the trick. I am also going to try cutting back on dairy…
I can’t cut it out all together or I may die (ok yeah that is melodramatic but if you knew how HUNGRY I was and how much I crave cold glasses of milk you’d understand) but he was so good while we were in hospital -slept well, chucked less, nice skin despite being in that dry air conditioned place with no greasing up - then as soon as we came home his skin got really bad, he had some huge spews and some really unsettled nights. It made me think about what was different and one big thing was the milk… I came home after 5 days without any milk and pretty much no other obvious dairy and pigged out… HUGE glasses of milk, heaps of cheese, yoghurt and custard… mmmmm…. I am hungry just thinking about it…
So I figure it can’t hurt to try cutting back a bit… I am just going to stop the milk and cut back on the other obvious dairy - I still need to be able to eat cheese in cooking (we eat a lot of cheesey things YUM!) and the odd dairy based desert (ooooh my Mum made this totally kitch and very tacky trifle thing with crushed biscuits and custard and jelly… drooool!) and I am not going to worry about all the hidden dairy in processed foods… so you are probably all sitting there thinking why bother at all… but will see how we go and if it helps it helps.. if not.. bring on the milk!
So that is the boy in a nutshell. He is a very happy little chappy and everyone loves him… especially his sisters. Ah… it is so nice having one, laid back, bubba to enjoy!
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14 Responses to “My Giant Baby!”
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Gosh I luv your blog! Your life is like mine in a lot ways! Prem twin girls 1st up, then a baby boy over due. My boy isn’t as big as yours though. Muski does sound VERY long! Solomon at 12mths was 9.5kg. Even then people still say “Oh isn’t he big”. People just love to comment, even when they have no idea LOL. Solomon quiet often gets “blamed” for things, like DRAWINGING on a wall. My girls love their brother, but now he has hit the toddler stage they are getting rather frustrated with him. Enjoy your little man before he turns into a toddler.
What a relief that Zoe is better and out of the hospital. Your “big” boy is such a cutie. It is interesting to hear what a different experience it is this time around. Love the layout of the girls too - such cute photos!
Oh Muski sounds like such a cutie ! And my kids laugh in there sleep too, isn’t it just gorgeous.
He does look very long! You know my boy started out very long and quite sizey too! I just looked in his book to see what he was at those ages and he was very similar - 5.84 kg and 64cms at 2 months! FTT fixed that up though, at 4 years old he is 12.5kg and 101cm!
I had to cut down on the dairy too, like you I noticed if I had a fair bit, Jordan’s excema would flare up. I never cut it out, though in retrospect I probably should have, we realised much later that part of Jordan’s eating problems were caused by silent reflux and other things that may have been worsened by my dairy intake. I do think that cutting out the actual glasses of milk would be a good place to start though.
Speaking of reflux, I have been meaning to say to you, have you looked into the link between reflux and asthma with your girls? Reflux can both cause and worsen existing asthma, might be worth looking into.
Ok Kate, I admit it, I’m stalking you! Or at least your blog!
Your blog is such an enjoyment to read - and has been a huge inspiration for me getting my own back up and running and wanting to keep up with it.
It’s comforting to see someone else going through similar things - like “power chucking” (Brodie projectiles a couple of feet quite regular and constantly “overflows” other times), people commenting on the size of your baby (Brodie was only 3000g born but was 4700g at 5 weeks.She is quite short though, which makes her look even chubbier) and trying to work out the triggers that made them settled one day and unsettled the next. It’s also a comfort to hear about Muski being up to enjoying things a little more and being a little more entertainable and makes me remind myself that Brodies only a couple of weeks behind him so we will be at that next step soon too.
Someone, who is from our parents generation, told me recently that when she was breastfeeding her babies many years ago, she was told she had to drink 2 litres of milk/day in order to make milk! How crazy is that. Compare us to the average dairy cow for a moment - they don’t need to drink milk…LOL!
Thanks again for the read - and for your blog in general!
Nah, he’s not big. He’s just a cutie and I’m glad you have a happy baby.
Eli was always ‘too big’ and now at almost 7, she’s in a size 10, sometimes a 12!
If I hear one more time, oh, she’s very tall for her age, I’m going to say something sarcastic - LOL.
Kate - how funny about the comments regarding how lovely it is to read your blog, because I was just about to write the same thing! :o)
Muski sounds deliciously gorgeous and I really do adore reading about him and the girls and how your family is doing. I would love to catch up next time we are down in Melbourne!
Cheers, Cass
i CAN’T WAIT to see him in the flesh!!
I will now stop complaining about having a baby and a toddler! You have got your hands full! My baby has eczema, too, and it’s all about colloidal oatmeal! Here in the states we have Aveeno, which has all kinds of soaps and lotions with it in. I use oatmeal on her, and I don’t bathe her too often, just twice a week or so. In between, I just wipe her off with warm water.
Your blog is great to read. SO glad I stopped by!
OH and I make homemade tortillas, too, and polenta. Cheap and yummy!
Congratulations on your big boy. People often think oh no having a big baby but I think they are more contented. Mine were all above average size when they were born but didn’t grow quite as fast as your boy - LOL.
He is adorable! :)
Ok, at birth Erik was 4.5kg, and a three months he was 6.95 (basically 7 kg).
Lengthwise, at birth he was 53cm, and a three months he was 65cm, so that’s about on par with Muski…
Now, Erik didn’t maintain the weight gain, at 4.5 months he was 70cm and 7.79kg, so basically on the 97th percentile, but at nine months, he was 75.5cm and 9kg, so you can see he slowed right down (but this had a lot to do with the poor advice I got from my MCHN about introducing solids to my VERY BIG HUNGRY boy at four months…
Oh my gosh is he cute! He looks long! I don’t know my cm from my mm, but he looks long. And 10 lbs + at birth! You are the woman! Woohoo! I had a 6 lb 11 oz son, an 8 lb 13 oz daughter, and a 8 lb 5 oz daughter who was 3 weeks early. They said if she would have gone term, she would have been close to 10 lbs.
Oh, remembering the days of the fountain. LOL those were crazy days. My nephew can wizz on his own face if they aren’t quick enough with his diaper. ROFL
And I had a problem eating dairy when I came home with my youngest. She would get so collicy and gassy when I drank milk, I had to cut it out completely for awhile. Drove me nuts! Now she’s 9 months old and I can drink milk without her having any problems.
Have a great weekend!
oh bugger- I had a whole comment, and POOF it went!!!!!
muski looks like a total spunk - when Heinz is out - I’ll have to come over and do a photo shoot!!