Baby diary: 11 months (48 weeks)

[petronia]

Major sleep regression period, later than the book. For a week or so Alan would go to bed at a normal time but wake up every hour and need milk or comforting, until I went to bed myself, at which point he would stand up and insist on coming into the big bed with me. I actually wouldn't mind cuddling with him at night, now that he's big enough that I'm not afraid of squishing him, but he's so restless! Rolling here and there, head-butting me in the chin, bumping into the headboard, kicking the pillows onto the floor. It's actually a wonder he hasn't fallen off the bed.

Anyway, he slept until 4am last night in his own crib, so here's hoping.

Games-wise: can now bat a plush ball around merrily with my dad or me. Will hand me a ball or top in invitation. Carefully un-nests nesting cups using his front teeth. Turns on and off light switches and the old radio set. Practices walking by pushing a plastic stool around, if we set him to it, and very interested in standing on tip-toe (for "practical" reasons eg. to try and reach a door handle by himself), but not in taking steps while holding my hands. We've been looking at baby shoes, because he doesn't have a good pair to wear at daycare for walking practice, but this being Shanghai, the ergonomic ones are eye-searingly expensive imports.

I don't know if I mentioned that I bought a stroller here, an ultra-light Joie model that I'm very happy with; but Alan has become unreasonably afraid of strolling, and shrieks in teary anger, even if we only go downstairs to take the air in the complex's courtyard garden... if he doesn't get over it soon he won't be strolling again until next spring, as it's already snowing in Montreal.

(It's always hard to qualify in retrospect how the baby's crying changes as he grows older, but it's become yet more modulated, like tantrum shrieking. :P He's now very decided about things, for instance shaking his head violently at certain suggestions and making batting-away gestures with his hand. Something has definitely unblocked recently, and I'm sure he understands and is trying to say some words -- in Shanghainese, not English.)

Today we went to visit and have coffee with the cousins on my mother's side. I kept Alan in the baby carrier at first so he didn't freak out at all the strangers wanting a piece of him, and eventually he loosened up, gave everyone his hand to kiss, went and stood next to my great-aunt's knees and ate half an apple. The photo op was nice. XD; Took a similar approach on Friday when we took him for his first haircut at my mom's usual salon here, where a young fellow gave him a nice trim look, neat around the nape and ears and still fairly tousled on top (I was afraid they would try to buzzcut him like most Chinese baby boys). Alan hasn't seen a TV for weeks and was so absorbed by the fashion show they were playing that he didn't struggle until the very end. But it did mean I and the baby carrier got covered with hair trimmings. A small price to pay -- he really was getting very shaggy.

Oh, and: the pooping five times a day was getting tiresome, so I started him on probiotics drops and that fixed it. (So it was a side effect of antibiotics, probably.)

Comments

[karalee]

What a cutie! Congrats on the first haircut. We eventually buzzed Bean's hair twice and called it tradition. (It just looked so bad because her hair grew in very unevenly. Honestly it's STILL doing that--there is so much baby hair on her scalp.)

And congrats on getting the diaper situation under control XD I know the pain.

[petronia]

Oh man, I wouldn’t call it under control for various reasons. But every little helps. XD;