My toothless grin is gone!

Chewing on a cold banana with my first toofie

Six months (Week 27) and it is for realsies now! Time for pancakes!

After many false alarms assuming because of his extremely swollen gums or moody ways he would definitely have a tooth the next day, but come the morning he would still have a toothless grin.

All the chewing, drooling, biting and moaning and after weeks of teething, our little man finally has his first tooth...praise the Lord!

It has been a TOUGH week! Not only did our little man have gastro, he was cutting his first tooth, this explains a lot.

Although we were so excited to see and feel his little tooth this morning, I felt a sense of sadness because his ridiculously adorable toothless grin is now gone and soon he is going to be sporting his own set of tiny chompers, my little boy definitely isn't so little anymore ~ where is the time going.

If you search on the net most websites tell you that your baby will experience the following symptoms while teething

Increased drooling: Camden has been doing this since he was a few weeks old so I couldn't tell you if it has really increased or not. It is a daily occurrence that he soaks through about 3 bibs in the first few hours of the day.

Gum sensitivity: For sure! Our little guys gums have been super swollen and sensitive for weeks now. Sometimes he starts crying when biting on his little thumb or one of the many teething toys he has.

Irritability/Fussiness that comes and goes: Really?! I would never have noticed, NOT! Camden has been super fussy the last week and on/off in the months leading up to his tooth cutting.

Biting/Chewing: On EVERYTHING he is able to get his hands on. Today he was chewing on my finger and his little tooth is rather sharp - his poor bottle teats are going to get a beating!

Refusing food: I wouldn't say this has been a major problem. Last week he was ill with gastro and he wasn't eating or drinking much besides his rehydrate, when he started feeling better he was eating again and then just yesterday he started getting fussy and refused his food and today it has been a battle to get him to eat again.

Restless/decreased sleep: No, you don't say...his sleep over the last month has been really up and down with random wake-ups at 2/3am where he just screams and screams and not much helps him calm down, just last night he woke up at 3am and he was screaming, you can just hear its a painful cry, poor boy.

Messy nappies: Oh yes! Ok fair enough the poor little guy did have gastro but just today alone he had a few messy nappies and he no longer has gastro.

Mild rash around the mouth: YAY! We have escaped this symptom

When a baby cuts teeth it is apparently tradition to eat pancakes in my family ( and a few other families here that I know) no one can tell me why and I have researched the origin of this but haven't found much information on it. Many other cultures have traditions for this event, for example an Irish tradition is whoever discovers baby's first tooth buys baby's first pair of shoes.For the Irish, that first tooth signifies that the child is thriving - a safe time to anticipate his first steps.

My gran and mom both excitedly asked "so are we having pancakes today" but Wayne and I have decided to wait for Camden's tooth to be out a little bit more before we celebrate with pancakes and then he can join in and enjoy the pancake celebration with us. We gave him a cold banana to chew on instead today (Mommy is also on diet and is holding out for cheat day lol).

I tried all day to get a picture of this little tooth but Mr was very miserable today and made it rather difficult. As soon as I manage to get a quick shot I will be sure to post his new look grin.

When your little one cuts a tooth, celebrate with pancakes!

Here is a recipe that I have used plenty times in the past, enjoy and congrats on your little one's first tooth.

African pancake recipe:

Recipe from africanbites.com

 

My struggle is real.

Six months down the line and I am embarrassed to say that I am not even close to where I wanted to be regarding my post pregnancy body.

I had all these hopes and dreams.

1. I would not be a fat pregnant lady
2. I would train my heart out while pregnant
3. I would eat healthy for the entire nine months
4. I definitely would only gain the recommended 12-16kg during my pregnancy and drum roll
5. ANY of the small amount of baby weight that I gained during my pregnancy I would definitely lose within the first four months!

Needless to say most of the above didn't happen. Yes I trained when I had the energy, when I didn't feel sick and then the training had to come to a stand still due to increased blood pressure and pubic bone pressure. I refused to walk with crutches so I walked through the pain but in turn I was not able to train like I had set out to.

For the first 20 weeks I packed my meals and ate spot on during the week and even ate healthy on the weekends. The second half of my pregnancy is when I gained most of my weight simply because over the weekends I was out of control. I ate well in the week and pigged out over the weekends, I became depressed, nothing really fitted me and I was hating my pregnant body and ever growing belly.

I felt HUGE, not pregnant. Each day I got on the scale it climbed even more and that simply depressed me even more. Why, why was I not able to keep it together and why was I letting myself down AGAIN. Being an inspiration to many in the past with my previous weight loss story, I started to feel as if I had failed the people that looked up to me

Remember:
–       Nothing in life comes easy, if you really want to make the changes you will but you have to work for it!
–       Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing to do but to keep moving forward and progressing regardless of the hurdles you face on your journey, that is the mark of a true champion…as the saying goes: fall down 7 times but stand up 8.
–       Never be too hard on yourself, you are human and there are going to be moments where you feel like there is no point…oh…but there is and the day you reach that point/your goal weight, you will understand why – just like I did!
–       Live by the three D’s – Desire: You have to WANT to lose weight, become healthier. Discipline: To be successful in anything you do in life you have to be disciplined to do what it takes day in and day out with putting in loads of effort and hard work and then lastly you have to have the Determination to never give up!
–       Last but not least – Have fun, eat clean, be active and make health your lifestyle!

And just like that, he is a half a year old ~ Camden Kingsley Loxton

Life has been so busy. I haven't had much time to blog or even think about blogging to be honest. I feel as if I have had no time to escape the reality that surrounds me....THIS is my life right now.

Enough about that, I am here to write Camden's 6 month update.

  

 

6 Months old. Half a year!

Camden officially turned 6 months old on Saturday the 17th of January and this past month even though tough and emotional at times, it has been fun and full of improvements!

It is crazy to think how 6 months have just flown by and it is even more crazy to think he has been in our life for this long! I tried to remember what it felt like being pregnant and my memory has already failed me. I feel grateful to have gotten the opportunity to watch him grow from a newborn baby to a 6 month old little boy and I am hoping that in the next few months leading up to his first birthday I don't miss out on too many firsts. I am holding thumbs that he holds out until the evenings when I return from work or the weekends when I get QT with my boys to crawl or cut his first tooth!

Returning to work just before his 6 month birthday was tough but I have adapted and accepted that as much as we would like for me to stay home we just cannot afford for me to be a stay at home mommy just yet and well as much as I love Camden, I kind of enjoy what I do for a living and I won't apologise for that...he is in good hands during the day. I miss him loads and his absolute excitement and massive grin, sometimes followed by a shriek when I get home totally makes up for the day that I have been away from him.

Camden has really become such a happy baby and that has made life a lot easier for us, well as easy as can be while we navigate through the teething phase and the nights when he wakes up 2-3 times for no real reason - that can be tough on a mommy who gets up at 4:30am to be at the gym by 5am and then have to try concentrate for a full days work or for a daddy who has to wake up to feed him his morning feed while mommy is at gym! That cute smile with his cocked head though, makes the exhausted mornings all worth while.

I love watching Camden grow day by day and make his transition into a little boy, just today Wayne said, " He looks more like a little person"...lol,not sure what he looked like before but I get what he was trying to say. Each day he wakes up I think he looks bigger than the day before. He has already developed the temper of a toddler at the mere age of 6 months old. I just love his laugh, he has the cutest smile that just melts your heart, I am pretty sure he is going to use that on plenty of girls in his lifetime, he already does and to top it off he now has this cute little thing that he does, if he looks at you or you talk to him, he cocks his head to the side and smiles his skew little smile...I am afraid to think he might have picked the head movement up from our dog, Marley hahaha.

After 6 months I have realised that I could simply have asked people to purchase Camden a simple Bonaqua water bottle, a TV remote and his own mobile phone because those are the "toys" that fascinate him the most. He has his own bottles but he want mine and I must let him drink out of it, we have even given him his own remote but he still wants the one out of Wayne's hand, switches the TV on and sits back and relaxes to watch whatever channel he has managed to put the TV on. It amazes me, all the toys in the world but he wants the simple things or our things...that'll do mom and dad, that'll do.

"Whatever you have in your hand, I want it"

Happy 6 months to mommy and daddy's little champ, we love you!



How Big?: His check up has been scheduled for the 28th of January only so I unfortunately have no accurate weight and height measurements but I have weighed him and according to our scale he is around 9.3kg give or take 200g. Camden is quite a big boy. At the last casting I took him to he was towering over the 9 month old babies, I had mothers asking how old he was and looking at me in shock when I mentioned he would be 6 months in a week or so.

Clothing Size: Nothing much has changed in this department, he is however wearing some 12 to 18 month clothing and his pants still hang on him, they just seem shorter. I have had all his leggings taken in so they can fit around his waist.


Eating: We definitely have no issues here. He is still on roughly 80ml of fruit in the morning, 80ml veg in the afternoon and porridge in the evening with 4 bottles in-between. Camden isn't really a fussy eater, he loves his food...just don't give him pureed roasted veg, this is definitely not his favourite LOL!

I have given him some more textured food, like mashed up avo and banana to teach him how to chew instead of just swallow. It takes a bit of getting used to it but he sure loveeessss AVO - mothers child for sure.

Sleep: Very up and down this month. One night he will sleep from 7pm to 6am and then the next he wakes up every hour on the hour. when it comes to sleep, this child has zero set routine. It is very strange, we have a few great days and then the wheels come off and we have no idea why. For now we are blaming everything on those swollen gums of his.

Movement: Still not crawling and I am not sure what to call it really, scooting? He does this thing where he rocks on all fours, puts one leg forward and then the next...he isn't sure how to move his arms forward so instead he launches himself like a rocket towards the object he is after and most of the times face plants the object spot on. Another move he has is when he is on all fours he scoots both legs forward at the same time and this seems to get him where he wants to be, who knows what is going through his little mind when he face plants poor Sophie or the floor when he misses the object. He also straightens his back legs while on all fours and then moves his legs forward but that almost always ends up in his legs crossing over and him getting stuck. He flips himself over with ease and rolls or scoots to wherever he wants to be. I can no longer leave him on our bed unattended for even 5 seconds. I turned my back the other day and he was airborne almost off the bed onto the floor, I caught him just in time.

Loving his walking ring and he is all over the house grabbing stuff off tables or poor Marley's tail and opening drawers and mostly trying to touch stuff that doesn't belong to him. If you see him coming, run or cover your ankles. It is like a bad game of bumper cars where Camden is always the winner.

Milestones:

Sitting totally on his own while playing with his toys, no falling over unless it is to fling himself back in a temper tantrum fit if a toy he is playing with is not cooperating with him.

Walking like a champ in his walking ring, forwards and not just sideways like a crab.

Grabbing at everything in sight, especially Wayne's face. We are yet to understand what is so fascinating about his daddy's face.

So inquisitive, if he hears a noise he must investigate.

He put his arms out to go from his gran to his grandpa  the other day and that made my dads year lol...my dad has been trying to get him to do that since the day he was born and even though we kept telling him, " he is too young", he carried on doing it - YAY for Oupie getting it right eventually.

We have reached a massive milestone - this child loves water! We can now refer to him as a water baby. He absolutely loves his baths and the pool.No matter how cold that pool water is, he wants to be in it. From a child who screamed blue murder if you bathed him the first few weeks of his life.

Sitting in his high chair and trying to feed himself. He wants to hold his own spoon and when you say open then he puts his own spoon in his mouth - half the time too far down his throat so he starts to gag

Some firsts for Camden...

His First Christmas
His first family holiday to JHB to visit his daddy's family.
First time on a plane
First time in his own blow up pool


Excitement this month: Our family holiday to JHB. It was so nice to get away as a family and to meet some of Wayne's family and friends that I had not met yet. We set our official wedding date!

Six months post-partum: Eating plan is on track, training is on track. In the full swing of things being back at work full time. Finally some weight seems to be shifting. My new coach and I have set some goals and I am SO keen to reach them.

Yes I am not where I was hoping to be at 6 months post partum but unfortunately my hormones have not allowed me the opportunity to lose the weight I gained and fit back into my skinnies but I won't give up hope, I will get there.

Emotionally I am good, struggling with my lack of patience but this is something I need to manage on a daily basis.

Physically I am feeling better, my knees still ache but it is ok. I am choosing to focus on what is good in 2015.

    

Happy New Year

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month.

I cannot believe that last year this time I was pregnant and we were celebrating NYE with one of my best girlfriends Jenna and her other half Tommy at Charlie and Jenna's house ~ wow so much has changed in a year ~ mind blowing to say the least. I am a mom...I still struggle daily to wrap my mind around that but Wayne and I are so blessed to have our little boy in our lives.

This NYE we decided to celebrate as a family, in doors, having a braai - what better way to go into the NY, celebrating the past year with all its ups and downs, with the two most special people in my life. MY BOYS.

Probably a good thing we had decided to stay home as Camden wasn't feeling himself, those teeth I tell you. I was hoping for teeth for New Years just so I could have my boy back, he has not been himself the last week and it is so sad to see him this way and so frustrating that there is nothing much we can do.

Wayne lit the fire around 6pm while I fed Camden his last bottle. We sat in the braai room with daddy and watched him get the fire going. Camden went down just after 7pm and it was then that we cracked a bottle of champagne and toasted the year that was about to come to a close and boy what a great year it was. I honestly wouldn't change any of it.

When the braai was done Wayne dished up all the salads and meat and we ate together on the couch, the same couch where we sat on our first date night that we had at my place watching movies almost two years ago.This time around we ate and watched movies together just like that first night and waited for the clock to strike midnight.

It was by far the best NYE I have ever had!

HAPPY NEW YEARS to all ~ I wish everyone ENOUGH this 2015!