Sleep, feed, seaside

The baby sleep cycle is becoming more apparent now, the precise opposite of PP's, including waking at about two or three a.m., presumably for the equivalent of a feed.

Seems to me that humans have a significant evolutionary disadvantage in having such helpless infants, which need feeding so frequently. How did our ancestors roaming the savannah cope with noisy, waking infants at night? Did cro-magnon and neanderthal humans follow Gina Ford or Tracy Hogg when Bringing Up Baby?

Vexed questions. I prefer the littoral theory of human evolution. See http://www.sondela.co.uk/ and http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/pseudoscience/aquatic_ape_theory.html a truly fascinating site, with a beautifully clear description and analysis of the acquatic theory.

On being the right size

Apparently Toblet is now about twelve ounces. One and a half packs of butter. If he or she hits a fairly standard eight pounds at birth, that's a staggering ten-fold increase in weight in the next 20 weeks. (In new money, 360g becomes 3.6kg)

I weigh 200lb (91kg); the comparative growth rate would be reaching slightly less than a ton (910kg) in twenty weeks, adding an average of 90lb (41kg) a week. The world's heaviest person, Jon Brower Minnoch, weighed in at a feeble 1,400lb (635kg).

Pic of Jon Brower Minnoch from http://www.dimensionsmagazine.com/dimtext/kjn/people/heaviest.htm There's something on the web for everyone, I guess.

EASY feeding before birth?

It is quite clear that there is a link not only between PP's need for food but also the baby kicking.

The EASY theory of baby routine (Eat, Activity, Sleep, Your time) says that after feeding, the baby should be active before sleep. There is no question that Toblet kicks like a mule after Priti eats, which I guess corresponds to Activity.

What I wonder is, if PP were to follow the EASY routine - or at least the EAS part of it) before d-day, then would he or she follow the EASY routine more, well, easily?

EASY is from The Baby Whisperer: http://www.babywhisperer.com/

Topped off with chocolate buttons

Right as rain today, guzzling a healthy mix of feta cheese, baby spinach leaves, hummous, pitta bread and macaroni. Topped off with chocolate buttons.

Naturally, the decreasing sickness and improved appetite is entirely down to the mix of homeopathic remedies (phosphorus) and acupuncture (a needle in her back and two studs stuck to the insides of her wrists).

Or could it be that she's firmly into the second trimester and her body is adapting?

Definitely the acupuncture and the homeopathy. To say otherwise would be a Man's Point of View, which is generally not what's wanted right now. In fairness, the care and attention that goes into an acupuncture session or homeopathy consultation must produce a powerful placebo effect, and if that's what it takes, that's fine too.

The pregnancy is turning out to be great fun, particularly with a definite feeling that her nausea is lifting. It must be hideous to feel seasick for three months, and frankly I am surprised that she has not been snappier. Very much now looking forward to the swelling bump that represents Number One Child.

http://www.cadbury.co.uk/EN/CTB2003/

blind panic and desperate tiredness.com

A mate, Tom, who is four months ahead of me (his daughter Katya Grace was born on 14 September), wrote:

"I did have a look at it [this blog] when you first mentioned it. I think I was the mint choc chip ice cream day. I think it is more of an expurgation than catharsis - an intellectual form of shouting it out of the window, telling your parents or blabbering to your mates after too many pints.

However a very useful and admirable device. I must say that I could do with some form of regular unloading called 'God I have got a lot on, it's really exciting but I alternate between blind panic and desperate tiredness.com.' I think it is called being alive, a by product of taking on responsibility but it does flag up the lack of support structures in our world for the average bloke who doesn't have mates or family nearby, doesn't play football or support West Ham - or is obsessed about fishing.

So, houses, wives, babies, businesses, ageing parents, occasionally difficult siblings, employees, accountants, middle aged spread and being ginger! Let's acknowledge ourselves for what fine fellows we are and commend ourselves for taking everything that Landmark had to offer and using to produce the most amazing lives possible.

Cheers - and I will read your blog regularly but only if I get a mention once a month. This could be the Bridget Jones of blokes!!!"

Thank you Tom. Does this count as your mention?

Bouncing baby? Not quite

Not good at all yesterday: sick sick sick sick sick. She managed to eat half a banana (bounced), a slice of toast, half a smoothie (bounced), a tiny portion of broccoli quiche (bounced) and another half a banana (bounced).

Can Mint Choc Chip be an inherited craving?

Last night's request: the tub of mint choc chip ice cream... I used to love it, too!

Description
Dairy mint & chocolate flavoured ice creams rippled with chocolate sauce and topped with dark chocolate flakes.

Suitable for vegetarians.
Ingredients
Partially Reconstituted Skimmed Milk, Chocolate Sauce (12%) (Water, Sugar, Plain Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Cocoa Butter, Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin), Whipping Cream, Partially Invert Refiners Syrup, Skimmed Sweetened Condensed Milk, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Thickener: Modified Waxy Maize Starch; Salt), Sugar, Butter Oil, Glucose Syrup, Double Cream, Plain Chocolate Shavings (2%) (Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Butter Oil, Cocoa Butter, Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin; Flavour), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Whey Powder, Plain Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Cocoa Butter, Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin), Emulsifier: Mono- and Di- Glycerides of Fatty Acids, Stabilisers: Carob Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Natural Vanilla Extract, Colour: Copper Chlorophylin, Natural Peppermint Oil.

Cravings - mint choc chip ice-cream

Now here's a perfectly good craving for you: mint choc chip ice-cream.

This was at about mid-night last night, and the good news is that she knows that by the time I have actually got anything she happens to crave, she will probably have gone off it anyway, with the result that I haven't (so far) had to go chasing around south London looking for strange foods. To-date I think the list has been pizza, chips, oranges, big Macs and chicken (she's vegetarian). The degree of difficulty depends only on the timing!

More than anything else, though, she has been anti-vegetables, switching from a very healthy organic veggie diet to coke, crisps, chocs - you name it.

It must be a boy.

PS Still can't quite come to terms with the scan pics being of *our* baby.

Cravings

I'll come back to this again, I am sure: cravings.

So far, she has had little by way of cravings for strange foods, and when she does, I find it hard to take seriously.

Unfortunately, being pregnant at this stage is impossible to detect from where I am (does she look pregnant? not really) and I take everything at her word - sore breasts, pains in the fanny etc.

She is a vegetarian, and suddenly wants to eat chicken. OK, a sure sign that something's up.