Baby swimming

Mid-November, Magnus is 4 months old

We signed up a while ago, we were going to be participants to Flipper babyswim!
I was kind of surprised that Muna suggested it, but I definitely wanted to support it, it is supposed to be very good for the baby. But it would be mainly her show since it happens in the middle of the workday on Mondays.

The first time, however, Muna got her period (great timing!!) so I had to take time off from work to go in the water with Magnus. Muna had to remain poolside photographer for ourselves and for our neighbours.

I entered the locker room and got Magnus changed first. He had gotten special swimpants in which he looked incredibly smart. In order not to get cold he was wearing a brand new robe on top which was about twice his size, he looked cute in there.

I was surprised not to see any other babies in the locker room, and I wasn't even sure I was in the right place. But when we got to the shower another 2 fathers and 1 baby showed up, and we took turns watching the babies while we got showered. Upon entering the pool area I also found our neighbours; Thomas, Janne and Sivert.

The instructor was late, so we had to wait at the poolside for quite some time, and after that there was instruction, so some of the babies had started to get restless and some cried before we finally got in the water. Magnus, however, thought it was so cool with all the other babies, so he just looked around him and smiled to everybody. But finally we could get in. We were shown how to do breast-swimming and back-swimming, and a trick to calm baby down if it turned out to be worried in the water.

Magnus didn't know the meaning of the word worried - he was a dolphin. From the minute he got in the water he started swimming. Mostly with his legs, but also the arms started swimming. And there was no taking breaks! Even when he swallowed a small wave and I picked him up for him to finish coughing he still swam with his feet in the air!!

When he swam on his chest he was very excited, grinned and made high-pitched excited noises. When he swam on his back I suddenly noticed that he was singing to himself... ggrrrlll, grrrrllll, ggrrrllll...

When the whole thing was over (all too early), all the babies joined in a circle while we sang a traditional childrens song. When we got up, Magnus was very clear in his message: Food NOW! So Muna gave him milk at the poolside while I went down to shower and change again.

The instructor had promised that the babies would just sleep and sleep after babyswim, and at first it appeared to be true; he fell asleep on the way home, and did not wake up when I carried him in and upstairs, he even slept through me taking him out of his carseat and into the playpen, he even slept through undressing. But when I tried to take his clothes out from underneath him he woke up.
Muna fed him, but he was too tired to sleep again. Muna tried all her tricks, but to no avail. I had to consider asking our money back, the instructor had lied, the baby did not sleep!!

Finally I decided the way to go was to take Magnus out for an evening walk. It was pouring down, and I was soaked within minutes even through my rainjacket. However Magnus did fall asleep, and I just let him sleep in the stroller in the hallway. He slept for over 5 hours straight before wanting food again.

Anyway, this was such a gratifying experience that I will try and get time off for more babyswimming sessions.

In the office

Mid-November, Magnus is 4 months old

Magnus had a brief visit to my office the other day. He and his mama were visiting Asker, and he came to sleep a bit in my office while Muna ran some errands.
At first, he was just sleeping in his stroller in the hallway (there wasn't space to get him into my office). Everybody who walked past smiled and peeked in.

After 30 minutes I noticed increased kicking activity, and I came out into the hallway just in time to catch his wake-up call... (Lately he has started crying wildly when he wakes up - that is kind of new), trying to minimize the unusual sounds for the other office inhabitants.

I SMS'ed the mama that he was awake and that she had to come back and give him some food if I was going to get any more work done. For a while he sat on my lap while I was editing documents with one hand - he was really interested to see what was going on on the screen. Then I pushed some paper to the side and found space for him on his blanket on my desk, wedged in between a shelf and a speaker.

The first thing Magnus did was roll to his side so his head came outside the blanket and bumped into the speaker - it looked incredibly funny with him arced in a semicircle around the speaker in the cramped space. Magnus just looked confused. When I put him back in place again, he discovered my headsets. At first he tried to eat them, a rather funny sight, and then he appeared to put them on to listen to music !

A future IT-staffer has been discovered.

Snow!

Mid-november. Magnus is 4 months old.

Looks like winter has arrived. We were going to Kongsberg to celebrate the muslim Id-party with a lot of asians, and the snow just started falling until everything was covered in white.

Probably the most excited one was daddy, but Magnus was looking out with big eyes when he got out of the car and it was snowing so much. "What is going on with the world, it used to be green!!!!"


Prepared for the lower temperatures, Magnus has started using a fleece-suit (the "doggy") which is incredibly cute, complete with ears on the hood and all. The first time he used it was really fun, there is this feature on the sleeves where you can wrap the the fabric around the opening to close it, sort of replacing gloves (which just falls off anyway). Magnus has become accustomed to putting his fingers in his mouth lately, and when he tried and couldn't locate his fingers he got very, very angry! However, before we were home again, he had already figured out how to get a finger out so he could stick it in his mouth.

Relating to other babies

Early November, Magnus is 3.5 months old

Magnus enjoys to be with other babies. We've seen it several times that he shows a very high interest in relating to the others around him. Just like at the nurse station when he's around the other babies in our group - he is just grinning and grinning and looking at all the others.

When we first brought Magnus to visit Astrid & Einar Andreas, Anne-Klara, Ole Anders & Åse Ragnhild with Magnus, it was interesting to observe how eager his kids were to relate to Magnus. I was particularly nervous when the youngest one, Åse Raghnild, wanted to be with Magnus, touching him, shaking his hand, pulling on his finger, checking out his ear, but Magnus was just okay with all this.

When we were out strolling, the little 2-year-old insisted on pushing the stroller, we were hardly allowed to help. I think little Magnus brought out the mothers instinct in this little girl!


One day we went to visit Unn Gøril & Frode, which was great. Also little Solveig seemed ecstatic at having visitors, she really knew how to grin!

When we arrived, Magnus and Solveig greeted each other in the hallway, and when we got in, they both got to lie down on a big mat together.





Big sister Astrid wanted to participate in the party, but probably she was already too old for this baby-meet and quickly joined the grown-ups at the coffee table instead.

Nurse station 3month control

Late October, Magnus is 3.5 months old

It was time for 3-month control. Daddy was coming home from work to participate, but because of a misunderstanding of the start time, we were late. I don't know why I so strongly wanted to come, because only the mom's of the other babies would come, but I just felt like it. I feel very proud of my baby and like to show him off. And Magnus loves to come to the nurse station, so it is very gratifying to go.

Appearantly there were several groups present at the nurse station, so our group was in a tiny little room and there was only barely enough room for everybody. The 5 babies were all put on a rubber mat in the middle of the floor, all on their stomachs, looking at each other.

It turned out that Magnus was the biggest baby in the group, lengthwise, and the second biggest weight-wise. He had surely been growing fast (he is a bit chubby here and there). The other mothers also noticed that he was very strong in his body, and I bristled with pride. The nurse praised his early "talking skills", as he seemed to communicate much more than the other babies, and papa got still prouder when the nurse specifically praised this communication between papa and baby.

Magnus was incredibly excited to be with the other babies, so much so that everybody started to laugh, looking at him. He flirted with the little baby-ladies. Good thing I already had the serious father-to-son-talk about relationships and women!!

So the nurse talked abit and everybody said how it was going with their baby, and then she tried to start group conversations while she would take babies one by one to another room to administer vaccinations. One by one babies would be brought back into the room after loud crying in the next room and they all fell asleep. Magnus was still excited about the other babies and spent a lot of time on his stomach on the mat, but eventually got very tired. He ate a little, but was really too excited to concentrate on eating, before he, too, fell asleep on his mommy.

Meanwhile mama and papa was talking to the other mothers, discussing anything from rashes and sleep habits to diaper sizes and agreeing to go strolling together during the days.

Eventually, there was only Magnus left for vaccination, and the nurse sent all the others home. Magnus was still sleeping, so he had to be waken up. The nurse again noticed how happy Magnus always was, right after waking up he was already smiling and talking to his surroundings. That didn't last long, though; Papa held Magnus on his lap while the nurse gave first one vaccine in the first leg and then one in the other. Magnus cried very loud, this was not nice. Papa had told him he could kick the nurse if she was bad, but he didn't so probably it wasn't that bad, but there was some crying to be done. However with some daddy-comfort, soon the tears dried away and he was talking and smiling again.

Then we went over to weigh and measure Magnus, and we got some help with how to hold well to wash him directly in the sink, and Magnus enjoyed this alot and smiled from ear to ear. He was by now 64cm and weighed 7.1kg. Way to go Magnus !

Drowling and laughing

Mid-October, Magnus is 3.5 months old.

I think it is difficult to find out how to stimulate and activate Magnus, because he doesn't like to do things so much on his own, when left by himself he will play around a short while and then start complaining. He hasn't really taken to playing yet. He just looks at me with BIG eyes wondering "what are you doing" when I try to make funny sounds on his stomach, or wave teddies in his face or tickle him.

I have, however, had a little progress in the playing area. He now enjoys to "fly" over me (trying to hit me with droplets of drool while I try to manuever him in such a way that these hit the cotton cloth on my chest), and he also likes to sit on my feet while I direct his arms and legs in all kinds of simulated activities.

One thing he does like to do on his own, however, is what I have come to call "drowling" - it's a combination of drooling and blowing. He will sit for a long time and just say abhhoooo abhhhooo, of course building up a substantial amount of drool, with the effect that he is constantly blowing bubbles with a cool sound. Magnus doesn't appear to mind getting soaking wet from his own drool, however mama Muna is obsessed with wiping it off, so there is an ongoing drowling-contest, the battlefield consisting of Magnus' chin and objectives measured in wetness on Magnus' shirt-chest. Guess who is losing?

But suddenly one day a big milestone step... It was dinner time, and as usual in the afternoon Magnus was a bit grumpy (he doesn't sleep much during the day and thus gets more and more tired the last hours before bedtime) and demanded to sit in his chair in the kitchen watching the cooking process. On impulse, I thought I would give him a plastic spoon to hold on to, and he just grabbed it. HOW COOL! I just aided his development by just suggesting the next step and he followed up.

So he grabbed this spoon and he held on to it really tight for the longest time, waving it around and putting it in his mouth. But after about 20 minutes he seemed to tire of it, and despite being given it several times again, just dropped it.

The next day we observed him for the first time purposefully grabbing for the legs of his favorite octopus in the baby gym, so we took it down and put it next to him. And suddenly he grabbed one leg firmly and held on to it for a long time. He grabbed several times over the next hour, and then he started to grab and pull the leg into his mouth. We were SO excited.

Another thing he has started lately is "talking". He looks really serious in his face while making talking sounds, it really looks like he is conversing. And the cool part is that he wants two-way-conversation, so we can sit for long stretches of time and look each other in the eye and talk seriously. Magnus has come to discover his voice. Other times he likes to just talk to himself, and one day I got a distressed phone call from home: "Oh I am so tired. Magnus is so difficult today, he is just... shouting!!"

But the really big break started a couple of days later. Lately we had been getting more and more nice smiling pictures of Magnus (something which is difficult, because he always gets so serious when he sees a camera), but this day he was again sitting in his chair in the kitchen while mommy was cooking. Daddy was entertaining Magnus. I played with him having a multicolored hippo named Jippi fly in and touch his cheek several times in a row, and he smiled and smiled, and suddenly he started laughing. A gurgling staccato sound along with a huge smile. Oh my what greatness - my baby just laughed at me !!!

Mama in hospital

Mid October, Magnus is 3months old.



After her birth experiences, mama Muna had problems with hemmoroids, and they did not go away by themselves. The doctor prescribed hospital surgery, and suddenly the day was there for the surgery. SCARY! We had received letters in the mail indicating that it was a bigger deal than previously anticipated, but fortunately norwegian law allow for a number of days one can take time off from work without penalty when baby is sick or the other parent is unable to take care of the baby. So I took Thursday and Friday off to take care of Magnus.

The three of us drove together to the hospital, mama was nervous of course. But we were prepared, she had pumped out two bottles of milk so Magnus could get food even without any breasts around.

We had to wait a long time in the hallway because several nurses were sick that day so surgeries were running a couple of hours behind schedule. Eventually Magnus got tired and just wanted to cry, so I took him out to stroll around the hospital grounds and try to get a little nap. Meanwhile mama was taken in for surgery.

A friend, Yusni, came to meet us in the hospital lobby and played excitedly with Magnus for almost an hour, and Magnus smiled and flirted with everybody who walked past. It was fun to observer peoples faces, most people would light up in smiles at him as they walked past.

When we went back to the waiting room Magnus decided that he was hungry, and announced so loudly for everybody to know. Oh my oh my, I had never fed him before !!! It was... interesting. The milk had been frozen so it came in plastic bags. First I put the plastic bags in warm water to get it better tempered, and put the whole thing in a bottle. But whatever I did I could not get the bottle tight, it kept leaking! It was a terrible mess. So half of it leaked out and we had to eat the other milk bag also before Magnus was tolerabley satisfied. At that time there was milk on daddy's sweater, on daddy's pants, on the floor, the table, the chair, on Magnus' sweater, and his gulpling cloth was completely drenched... oh my oh my, not a big success, but at least he was happy. When I was done cleaning up mama came out of surgery, a little pale, but we could go home. All the nurses were excited to follow her out and comment on her very cute baby, they had all heard and seen him in the course of the day.

It was very different to be with Magnus all of the time during the day, mama Muna was sleeping a lot of the time and otherwise unavailable, so except for eating, Daddy handled everything else for Magnus. Although I already feel very close to him by this time, this experience brought me even closer. It is very nice to realize that I understand what he needs and wants and be able to help him, and it is really great in the evening to wash him and put him to bed, sing for him and see him just close his eyes and fall asleep. He is such a dear (with no horns...)

Since Muna was still not doing so well, I had to take Friday off as well, and I took care of Magnus by myself throughout the weekend as well. It felt strange to go back to work on Monday morning again.

Inlaws going home

Early October, Magnus 3 months old.

After the birth I have a admit that I have been somewhat depressed, to a varying degree. How big a part it has played that the inlaws has been visiting for 3 months is hard to say, but it was clear that I was very much looking forward to their departure while Muna was not. In fact, she was panicking, because she did not feel we would be able to take care of Magnus by ourselves. I guess most mothers get this panic when they first go home from the hospital, but we got it now instead, when Magnus is just about 3 months old.



They were departing from Gardermoen Airport on a Friday afternoon, we took them there. I was driving Magnus around the airport in a baggage stroller carrying his car seat, and everybody looked at us. Magnus loved the new surroundings, and was looking bigeyed around at everything going on, all the people.

After checking in, it was feeding time and we found a quiet corner. It was clear that grandma and grandpa did absolutely not want to leave Magnus, they kept holding him and kissing him and taking pictures, and only reluctantly chose to pass through security to go to their gate.

We had decided to establish new daily routines right away after they left, and we had the weekend plus two more days before I was going away with work for 2 days. By then we had to get Muna comfortable.

The night time routine was established, consisting of washing or bathing starting at approximately the same time everyday - 6.30, then eating, then a nighty-nighty-song, and then go to sleep at 7, and eventhough there would be a little crying, this was sleep-time. Magnus caught on right away and fell asleep beautifully the first day without any problem.

We spent Saturday at my sisters place, and Sunday we were home and tended to our garden before the winter. We learned a couple of things, such as that Magnus would be perfectly happy lying on a blanket in the middle of the room looking at whatever was going on, and he did not need to be carried around all the time. Also he could come along outside when we were there, and as long as he was given occational attention, he was happy! And what we have previously been interpreting as "he is fussing" or "just grumpy and unhappy" or "he just wants to be held" is in many cases tired, and if he's allowed to be quiet by himself a bit at these times he will most likely fall asleep.

Already by Monday it was not scary that daddy went to work and mommy would be home alone with Magnus, and when Tuesday night came and I was leaving for Grimstad, Muna was great and enjoying her time alone with the baby.

It is great to have helpers around, but it sure is great to find out we can do well on our own as well! Although Muna misses her parents around, fortunately panic is cancelled for now, and we're a happy threesome for the first time.