What's a Rusk?

~ dedicated to my Mother, who taught me always to be brave enough to ask, "huh?" ~


Generally speaking, it's a baby cookie! Britishly speaking, a much loved biscuit commonly associated with childhood.

Mark remembers Rusks fondly and had to explain to me what they were. He wasn't impressed when I later told him that the Childsmile Dental Visitor imformed me that Rusks were a big no-no, and that Jessie wasn't going to be allowed any. (I caved of course. As long as she's not getting them all the time and only as an occasional dessert food then I can't see the harm, besides it makes both her and her Daddy happy.)

Even before we'd brought home the first box of Rusks, the word itself had taken on a life of its own in our home. The phrase "Bringing home the bacon" has long been replaced with "Earning the Rusks." ie. Daddy has to go to work now to earn the Rusks.

Here's the blurb from the box:
[Heinz Farley's Rusks are a unique food suitable for all ages from weaning through to toddler years and beyond. (They have to say this so parents don't feel so bad about munching on their baby's rusk!) Heinz Farley’s Rusks easily dissolve in the mouth, making them an ideal finger food for babies who are able to start feeding themselves, usually from around 9 to 10 months of age. They can also encourage hand to eye coordination, biting and chewing as your baby develops. Heinz Farley's Rusks are nutritionally tailored for babies and toddlers, as they're enriched with Vitamins A, C and D and with added prebiotic which helps support healthy digestion and immunity.]

And this is a picture of a baby with a Rusk

Here, There, Food Everywhere!

The weaning adventure has begun! We're not really following one school of thought here. We're taking a bit of Baby-Led Weaning and combining it with what we like from traditional weaning and just throwing in a mishmash of whatever seems to work for us as a family. (However, I've recently read that if you're spoon feeding and giving finger foods then that's really just conventional weaning. Meh! Too many terms, we're just doing what feels right for Jessica.)

Saturday Morning: a bit of banana in her net foody thingey (a what? yes. that's why there's a link) went down a hit! We have a little bit of video footage. I'll see if there's anything super adorable to share when we get the video camera hooked up. We were late leaving for Gran and Grandpa's but it was an acceptable delay, everyone agreed.

Saturday Evening: We had dinner at Gran and Grandpa Smith's, they treated us to pizza and Jessie had a bit of pear. She wasn't that impressed. I think eating on her Daddy's knee in a strange place was too much too soon.

Sunday Afternoon: A rusk in the car. Big mistake! No bib, no tray.. rusk everywhere! But she loved it.

Monday Morning: Steamed apples for breakfast!

Monday Afternoon: Apple baby cookie.

Monday Evening: Mushed carrots! Pictures are still on Mark's phone, definitely more messy than the apples. She went straight into the tub post-dinner.

Tuesday Morning Opening a box of baby porridge with a baby in one arm is not recommended. Baby porridge all over the floor. She wasn't even interested in it when I finally got it prepared so breakfast was banana again. The girl adores banana.

Tuesday Afternoon Baby rice cake - apple flavoured. Gummed into submission but not really eaten.

Tuesday Evening Broccoli and mushed potato. Another messy adventure. I'm not sure much went into her belly but she did enjoy the experience and right now that's what matters most. (Straight into a post-dinner bath again!)

Teeth!

I'm sure one day my daughter will look back at these posts and roll her eyes at me.
"A close-up picture of the inside of my mouth? Come on Mom! Was that really necessary?"

It's amazing that she's been in such a good mood recently. (Quick find some wood to knock on!) The teeth just keep on coming and she hasn't showed any signs of distress yet, just lots and lots of chewing on anything she can get her hands on.

As promised: pictures of her very first tooth coming through!



Kinda looks like a mollusk doesn't it?

Dentistry!

Despite a distinct lack of teeth, Babybear had her very first dentist appointment yesterday. why I hear you ask? It's a new governmental program called Childsmile, aimed at preventing childhood tooth decay (apparently we need extra help because there's no fluoride in the water in Scotland.)We had a dental health support worker (what a mouthful!) visit when Jessie was about 4 months old. She gave us some toothpaste, a toothbrush, a tooth-friendly sippy cup and a few other bits an bobs. While she was here she registered Jess with a local dentist, Frederick Dental Practice.

Oddly, the practice Mark and I are already registered with aren't participating in the Childsmile initiative. Or more correctly - they were participating but weren't following through and were thus dropped from the program. I've never been thrilled with our dentist. In and out in less than 10 minutes and that includes a scale, polish and checkup. I always felt a bit like a car in the pit at NASCAR... so after a really nice meeting with Jess's new dentist, Joanne, I switched us all over. She was really friendly and helpful. We'll see how the actual check-ups go next month!

I'm not sure what kind of mystery magic the dentist used, but after examining her mouth and declaring "No signs of teeth yet," Jessica actually has tiny tooth buds showing through her bottom gums today! She's been her normal happy contented self all day despite the new teething progress. Still munching on her hand, my hand, and anything that gets anywhere near her mouth though. The picture we took turned out rather vague. I'll upload it tomorrow so check back then if you feel like seeing an amorphous blob of mouth with a tiny patch coloured ever so slightly different.

5 months and a day

Once again time is acting in that peculiar fashion where it moves fast and slow simultaneously. It feels like Jessica's 4 month vaccinations were ages ago whilst I also feel like she was just born. Perhaps it's the gallbladder. When I'm in pain time always seems to act funny.

I had my consultation with the surgeon today. It was a case of being put on a waiting list to wait for a waiting list. I waited over a month for this appointment only to be told it will be roughly 2 more months before anything is done. He didn't really ask me any questions other than:

"Do you want it out?"
I said yes.
"Okay. Government guidelines say we have to promise you a surgery date within 9 weeks of telling you that you'll have surgery. I'm busy this week and on holiday the next, so it will probably be more than 3 but less than 9."
I quickly attempted to count in my head, "middle of September...noooo! just when I was planning on going home to Florida for a bit... argh!"

It's strange how much doctors vary. I've met a few that discount everything I say and often diagnose without listening to me, but then there are those that seem to let me self-diagnose, nod and ask what I would like to do. This one fell into the latter category. I mentioned how my symptoms seemed to suggest a stone getting lodged in the bile duct- so he's arranging an MRI to scan the area and make sure there's nothing there that would need to be removed. Apparently, they are two different procedures entirely. I like that he listened to me, it just comes as kind of a shock after you deal with so many who don't care what you say. At first he mentioned doing the scan after the surgery but when he realized how far off it would be he decided just to order one now. It was done in a very much "What the heck, there's nothing else to do while you're waiting to get cut open." kind of attitude. Slightly odd, but at least it's getting done.

On the lighter side of life: Tonight Jessabear pooped in the bath. Not before the bath, not right after the bath, but IN the bath. It was oddly akin to yellow play-dough coming out of a play-dough press. Mark wasn't impressed, well maybe he was,but in that strange way where you can't believe something is really happening. I've got to give him credit, he did not run screaming from the room. He held it together and we managed to get her from her bath into the proper tub with no further incident.

Letting us know what she thought about the doctor's office.

Exhausted after choosing a new toy at Tesco

Where have I been?

It was brought to my attention this morning that is officially been more than a month since my last post. I keep meaning to write something but I'm sure as all of you with offspring know... things never go according to plan!

The first big blip was my gallbladder. I told you I'd had my first gallstone attack on the 14th but what you don't know is that over the next few weeks I had at least 12 more attacks, saw the out of hours doctor twice, regular doctor once, had three phone appointments and eventually wound up in the ER. I can't take the strong painkillers because I'm still breastfeeding and they think the ones they did give me made me itch all over. (It was either the codine OR the high bilirubin count in my blood making me want to tear my skin off. They can't really tell me which because I stopped taking the painkillers as the bilirubin count went down because there was no longer a stone lodged in my bile duct!)

I can honestly say I'm being conditioned to HATE the month of June. I spent most of June 2009 throwing up, June 2010 I spent throwing up, doubled over in pain and itching. I preferred 2009 because at least I knew it was for my baby... I feel no such love for my gallbladder.

It's been a week since my last attack and I managed to go a whole week pain free before that one as well so it feels like I'm getting my life back. I have a surgical consult Monday afternoon and they'll tell me what the plan for taking my gallbladder out is. I'm of two minds; I can't wait to have it out ant live in fear of another attack, but it's surgery, I'll be in the hospital away from my baby girl for the first time. I won't be able to feed her because of the drugs in my system, I'll have to pump and dump to keep up my supply, Mark will have to convince her that the bottle can be her friend and figure out someway to get her to sleep. I see it being a very stressful few days. The doctor in the ER said they might be able to make some considerations and arrange for a private room so I can have the baby in more often.

Speaking of the precious little one. She's awake. She's decided that instead of an hour she only wanted a 20 minute nap. *laughs* Hence the reason I haven't updated this blog in a month!

I have lots more stories for you, adventures in real diapers, her first 4th of July, attempts to crawl and more. I'm hoping I'll get a chance to write them up soon. For now, enjoy the new pictures on Picasa.

Finding her feet and other ramblings

She had her 4 month injections today. I was dreading it for days. Instead of just one in each thigh she got 2 in the left thigh and 1 in the right. It was horrible and I hated it. She cried and it took everything I had not to. It's only been about six hours but other than taking a much longer nap than usual she seems to be fine. I'm not looking forward to tonight though. It's already 23°C (73°F) in the bedroom and likely to get warmer as the day goes on. (I know it doesn't sound that warm, but she's used to a room that's normally 19°C (66°F.)

As for the - mostly - in the first paragraph. I've been diagnosed with gallstones. Brilliant. I'd been having a cramping/queasiness in my stomach for the past month or so and when I finally saw the GP she sent me for an ultrasound. Lo and behold.. gallstones. Less than three days later I have my very first gallstone attack. It was unbearable. As they say, worse than childbirth. I had to see an emergency out of hours doctor to get something for the pain. I was completely incoherent with pain but I do remember the doctor asking me if it was worse than childbirth. At the time I was offended. When we left, between gasps of pain, I asked my mother in law what he meant by that. (It felt like he was saying, "If you could handle that, you should be able to handle this.") She assured me that that wasn't what he meant. It turns out that people often say that a gallstone attack is worse than childbirth. It's just the common way of referring to the severity of pain involved. I didn't know that. I do now. And yes. Worse than childbirth because while it feels A LOT like a contraction, contractions fade for a minute or two so you can breathe. This was a constant pain. A constant pain without the knowledge that it's for something wonderful. A trapped stone doesn't invoke the same sense of "I can do this!" that a beautiful baby does. So today we're taking it easy. Lots of naps and no heavy lifting. :) Hopefully we'll both make it through the day without any incidents. I even bought a nifty new Forehead Thermometer so I could keep an eye on her temperature and make sure she gets any meds as soon as she needs them.

Jessica's monthly weigh-in: 6.4kg (14.11 lbs) That's more than a pound since last month. I'll try to get her measured later and see how much longer she is. :)