Immunisations & Teething

John Geoffrey was so very fussy this last week. He didn't want to nap, he was all over the place with his feeding, he was sooky and wanted to be held a lot. Check out that sooky face (so cute!):

He was chewing on his arms and fists and hands all week. When we went to visit Meredith, his cheeks were so red, and he was so slobbery that I thought that maybe, just maybe he had started teething.

So I gave him the teething ring and he loved it.

But, the truth is, he is not teething. He just had a fussy week. Cute though huh?

John also had his 4 months immunisations last week. I still remember the 2 month ones, and was really not looking forward to it. John came with me this time, and it actually wasn't too bad. Bubs still cried when he got the needles, but he sucked his fingers in between the jabs to soothe himself. He loved the oral immunisation, but got upset when that all ran out. He had some nice cuddles with both mummy and daddy afterwards and settled himself very quickly. Boy am I glad he likes to suck on his own fingers!

"That" kind of a mother

On Sunday, I realised that I have turned into 'that' kind of mother.

You know the kind. The kind that can't talk about anything but their child. The kind that thinks their kids ability to slobber all down their front is national news. The kind that talks publicly about their child's bowel movements. The kind that thinks everyone else finds their son/daughter as adorable as them.

Yes it's true. I noticed it when I was talking to a family member at my parents house and made the mistake of looking into their eyes while talking. They couldn't hide that look of bordem that flashed across their eyes while I droned on and on about John Geoffrey.

So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to all those mothers I judged before for doing this. I'm sorry for all the conversations I didn't get involved in because I couldn't bear to hear about nappies and loads of laundry and vomit and teething. I'm sorry for not being more patient or interested or kind. I'm sorry. And I get it. Now I get it.

And while I never wanted to be 'that' kind of mother, now that it has happened, I'm not sorry about that bit at all. I'm not sorry that I'm completely delighted by my child or by my life, or that I want to talk about him all the time. I love being a mum and I love my son, and I love all the little milestones and things we are experiencing and learning together.

I'm so very very grateful for the life that I have. It is amazing to think that just a few years ago I had thought that marriage, let alone motherhood, was not going to be part of my plan, even though I wanted it to be. And then the love of my life came along and bam, everything changed. I'm very very lucky and I know it. I love my husband, I love my baby and I'm so very very thankful for them.

And now, if you'll indulge me, I'm going to continue to be that kind of mother :)

Little Link

Last Monday my brother's wife, Elissa gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Lincoln Neal Fitton.

I'm so excited that John Geoffrey has a cousin so close in age and little Link is just so adorable.

We went to the hospital on Monday night to meet the little guy, and seeing that tiny little bundle made me a little nostalgic for my own baby - John looked huge in comparison. It is amazing to see my own little one's growth - Link was 6 pound, 14 ounces, John was 7 pound at birth. Link was 53cm long, John 50cm at birth - so quite similar in size - now look at him!

This may be wishful thinking, but I'm hoping that our boys will become the best of friends, and get into all sorts of mischief together (the good kind).  Best friends are great, but there's something about the bond of family/relatives which is amazing to me.

Elissa's birth experience was a lot tougher than mine and it made me very thankful for the relatively easy experience that I had. I was very lucky. She is an amazing woman and will be a wonderful mother. I'm also very excited for my brother becoming a Daddy, and that we are going to have all these wonderful new experiences at a similar time.

Neal and Lissy let me hold Link quite a bit at the hospital, and again when we visited them last night. It is strange to think he is going to change and grow so much while we are away visiting John's family in the US. He is just the most precious little one, and was already sucking his thumb at the hospital. Can't wait to see what sort of young man this one is going to turn into.

Photo Update - October

Here are some more pictures of John Geoffrey from October:

Enjoying some tummy time on Daddy's lap

Another action shot (kicking his legs like crazy)

We had a warmish night, and when I woke up in the morning, John Geoffrey had managed to kick his blankets off and unwrap himself - cheeky little monkey!

His first trip to school (visiting his cousin Will's classroom)

John and I were proxy grandparents for my nephew's Grandparents Day. As "great-guests" William gave us a tour of his school, listened to me talk about what school was like when I was his age, drew some pictures, and watched him dance with his classmates. It was a freezing day, but really fun.

After Grandparents Day we went back to my brother's place to visit with Aunty Sarah, and cousins Noah and Kai. Kai loves babies and wanted to keep kissing John Geoffrey.

A cute pic of the cousins together.

Noah really wanted me to get a picture of him tickling John.

Happy boy practicing his sitting.

Asleep in his bouncer - we laugh when he has his hands underneath the seat pouch - looks like he has his hands tucked into his pants.

Rolling over by himself

I don't normally do mean things like this, but heck, it was halloween and as John said "There's no Halloween candy in the store, no pumpkins to buy (there are only limited places to get pumpkins and they were all sold out),  no scary movies on TV, we can't go trick or treating (again, not many people do it here, plus I had scheduled a Primary Presidency meeting that night), no Halloween cookies (I hadn't made them yet) and no costume for John Geoffrey".  Had to do something to cheer us up. Sucks being in Australia for an American Holiday.

Four Months!

John is now four months old, and looking back at my beautiful boy, it is amazing to see how much he has grown and changed already.

Weight - he has grown a ton. When he was born John was 3.155 kgs (7lbs) now the little fatty is 6.110kgs (13lbs 7oz).

Height - well, I can't really tell you this one as I didn't get him measured. But, he was 50cm long when he was born and he was bigger than the weight scale we measured him on today (which was 60cm long) so he is obviously a lot taller now!

One Month Old

Four Months Old

John is still fascinated by his hands and I can often find him staring at them, and he still loves sucking on his hands and his fists.

He can hold toys now. We have this round teething right thing (with different coloured balls on it). It's quite heavy but he can hold it up and suck on it. He plays with the toys on his playmat. We have added some new ones and he's great at grabbing them now.

He likes to pull his dummy out and hold it. He looks at it for a while and then tries to put it back in his mouth...usually back to front. When he can't get it back in, he'll pull it out in front of him again and stare at it, as if to say "now why didn't that work?" and then try again.

He still wiggles himself around on his playmat on his back, but the most exciting skill he's developed in the past week has been the ability to roll! We have caught him before when we have given him tummy time rolling himself onto his back, but last week he started rolling himself over from his back to his tummy. He loves to do it. It took him a while to work out how to do it. He's been rolling to his side for a few weeks now, but hadn't worked out how to get right onto his tummy. The first time he did roll right onto his tummy, he pinned his arm underneath his belly. The next time, he worked out he needed to have his arms up a bit more to avoid that, and so now he rolls all the time. I'll put him on his back, turn my back for a second (usually to get my drink) and when I turn back around he's on his tummy. He has a couple of times then rolled back onto his back, but not always.

Roll one way

Roll the other

Look mum, I made it onto my tummy all by myself!

He plays with us and giggles.

He has really discovered my face in a tactile sort of way. Just lately when I am having a cuddle he will reach up and touch my face, especially my lips and mouth, as if it's the most interesting thing in the world.

Our cutie in his baseball outfit from Grandma Keaton. Check out those cute socks!

We had some hot weather lately so he finally got to wear some summer clothes (before he gets to big for them)

I just think he looks so funny in this outfit.

Gorgeous Boy

A friend of mine has recently started up her own photography business, and John Geoffrey and I went and had a photo session with her at the beach earlier this week.

It was a beautiful day and Meredith took some gorgeous photo's. You can check some of them out here.

I really enjoyed the whole thing. Meredith made me feel very relaxed and that made it easy to just enjoy the time with my baby boy without worrying about the camera. The best bit was that John had his first dip in the ocean (well, it was just his tippy toes, but I'm still counting it!)

So, anyone looking for someone to take some photo's for them, at reasonable prices, I would highly recommend Meredith's services. Check her out at meredithwattphotography.blogspot.com and like her on facebook!

More of what we have been up to

We went to Aunty Elissa's babyshower

My sister-in-law is due to have a baby in the next few weeks, and we went to her baby shower the other weekend. As much as it was fun playing the games and eating delicious (and I mean really delicious) food, what I really loved was being able to catch up with some of my relatives that I hadn't seen in a while, especially my Aunties Kaye and Gill, neither of whom had gotten to meet John Geoffrey yet. It was also funny to me to notice the definite "Fittonisms" that I share with those Aunts as the shower progressed - especially our certain "brand" of Fitton humor. I love that our family is getting bigger and as it does I just feel so connected to the women around me, my mums, my sisters, my aunts, my sister-in-laws, my nieces - I just love my family.

John Geoffrey seemed to enjoy the shower as well - he certainly got plenty of attention. There were quite a few babies there, and not that I am biased or anything, but John was the cutest one there :) He eventually fell asleep towards the end, and here is a photo of him with my niece, Sarah and two of the other younger girls that were there - they were hovering around him mezmorised by his cuteness (who can blame them really)"

One of the games we played at the shower was one where baby photo's of ALL the attendees went around and we had to guess who they were. This was the photo I submitted of me, and I decided to post it here as well, as it really does remind me a bit of John Geoffrey. It might just be because mum had me in a blue suit (she said she was anti-pink when I was born).

The other funny thing that happened at the baby shower was that I managed to spray milk all over my clothes towards the beginning of the day. John wanted a feed, but decided to pull off before I could get myself properly settled. So I went the rest of the day with a huge milk stain on the front of my top. Lucky I was with a bunch of mum's, no-one even blinked an eye.

We went to the Hairdressers to get Mum's Hair Chopped

I have pretty much always had short hair. I like it, and it's much easier for me to do. But when I got engaged to John I decided that I wanted to grow out my hair so that I could have one of those really cool up-do's for the wedding. We have now been married for over a year and I've kept the long hair - mainly because people have told me I shouldn't cut it, or make drastic changes when I was pregnant (as I might regret it) but more importantly because I was too lazy to do anything about it.

Since John Geoffrey was born, my hair has been perpetually up. If it's down John Geoffrey always manages to get his hands on it and hair pulling is not my most favourite thing. I've spent next to no time looking after it, styling it or doing anything with it. Eventually my head started getting sore from having my hair up all the time, and my hair was so knotty. On the days I decided I would try to do something with it, I would spend 10-15 minutes just brushing knots out and by that time I was over it and too sick of my hair to bother styling it. So, it had to come off.

Here is the new hair. Still a bit longer than I would normally have it, but short enough that John can't get his hands on it when we're feeding. I really like it. I like that it takes less time to wash it in the shower, that it takes 10-15 seconds to brush the knots out and 10 minutes max to blow dry and style it. I can't begin to tell you how much better it makes me feel knowing that my hair is easy to fix each day - maybe I won't look so grotty all the time now!

John Geoffrey came with me to the hairdressers and enjoyed himself. Once again he was a hit with the ladies. I was happy that he was so well behaved.

The only problem with the day was that it was raining on and off. I had planned on walking to the hairdressers (as we are so close) but when it came time to go it was pouring - so I had to put the pram and baby in the car (in the rain) and drive up to the hairdressers. By the time we got there it had stopped, so we managed to get into the hairdressers without getting any more wet. But, of course, when it was time to leave it was pouring again. I went to the supermarket in hopes that it might ease up, but to no avail. With my freshly cut and styled hair I then had to stand in the rain to get John Geoffrey into his car seat and pack up the pram. By the time I got into the car I looked like a drowned rat. I have to admit it put me in a pretty bad mood - especially because it stopped raining while I was driving home. One of the perks of going to the hairdresser is that you are supposed to look good when you come out - the rain saw to it that I wouldn't get to enjoy that perk. To add to my mood John Geoffrey decided to cry, and then pooped through his clothes as I was carrying him inside. Daddy took care of John while I went and fixed my hair (which didn't take long) and then I was ready to be in a happy mood again :)

We had Sarah and Jaiden come over

John's cousins, Sarah and Jaiden came over to visit during the week, as Aunty Carla had to go to mutual for a mother's appreciation activity. They brought tim-tams (yum) and High School Musical to watch. Actually I asked them to bring HSM as Addy (John's niece) had posted a song list for this movie on instagram, and ever since I had had a burning desire to watch it again. Ridiculous I know, but I love musicals and I love cheesy family movies. I think my husband wanted to gouge his eyes out the whole time we were watching it. Let's just say, he didn't stay in the room long and when we decided to get pizza for dinner he offered to walk up and get it, and dismissed my idea to ring up first to pre-order.

Anyway, John's cousins are totally in love with him, Jaiden is especially smitten and just wanted to hold and play with him the whole time he was here. It was so cute.

Jaiden also decided that he really liked my feet seat and was playing with it all night long. He worked out in made a pretty good hat. I think it made him look like a mushroom.

Aunty Carla also brought over some things for John Geoffrey, as she had been cleaning out and found some books, toys and clothes that Jaiden wasn't using anymore. I was most excited about this puzzle she gave to us:

The reason I was excited about it was because I actually remember playing with it as a child. This was a puzzle that my mum bought for Carla when she was a baby and of course myself and all my brothers and sisters have played with it as children. Mum kept it, and when Carla had her first baby, she passed it on. And now it's coming to me. I know it's really sentimental, but I'm excited to have it and that John Geoffrey will get to play with it to. I'm surprised it has lasted so long and is in such a good condition. I guess it really is true, they really don't make them like they used to.

We continued to be cute

John is just the most handsome baby ever (in my opinion). He gets cuter every day. When my mum came over for a visit this week, I decided to get her help to go through all the clothes we had been given. Because John was just a little bub when he was born, a lot of the clothes we had been given were too big and so I had put them away to use later. It was great to go through them again and get them into size order and find a few new outfits that he was big enough to now fit into. We have so many clothes for him, I don't think we will have to buy much more for him until he is at least one:

Oh my gosh. He is too cute!!!!!!