Times are tough for hubby and I at the moment…
Aron may have started teething already, but as this is our first experience with a teething baby, we’re not too sure what to look for apart from red gums and rosy cheeks apparently. Without really knowing what to do, when Aron looks seemingly uncomfortable, I place my little finger in his mouth, so he can bite down really hard and try to gnaw my finger off. We ended up buying Aron a couple of [easyazon_link identifier=”B00IN8OJU8″ locale=”US” nw=”y” nf=”y” tag=”motherho0d-20″ cart=”y” cloak=”y” localize=”y” popups=”y”]teethers[/easyazon_link], so that he can use something completely detached from me anytime he wants and I get a break! Unfortunately, he is not quite competent at grabbing objects with his hands and putting them in his mouth yet. So, when he makes a yelping sound, we bring the teether to his mouth and chomps away for a good few minutes. I do wish that Aron could talk sometimes, just so he could tell me what’s bothering him because I can’t tell whether he’s having tummy trouble or he is suffering from raw gums, which don’t look that inflamed, to be honest. I am keeping a close eye on them anyway.
On top of the possible teething trouble, my marriage has taken a bit of a beating too. I feel like I’m not factoring in anytime to spend with hubby, who has been pushing for us to spend one night a week alone together, to recapture that spark that seems to have faded in our relationship. But, at the moment, all I can think about is how I will find the time to work on my blog or do my exercise? What’s wrong with me!? My husband blatantly wants to do something nice for me – most women would wish to have such a doting and attentive husband, yet I don’t seem to have the time for him.
At the moment, hubby and I are on totally different pages. He has to commute to and from work and then he doesn’t get home until about 8 pm. He’s so tired that all he wants to do is crash out in front of the TV. 8 pm, for me, is allocated to my website and exercise, as I have no time during the day to do either and I end up lagging behind on the website and/or getting flabby. It’s not important, I know, but somehow I have decided that I need to look after Aron, clean the house, go to playgroup, type, work on the website and exercise, all in a day’s work, otherwise I feel like some kind of failure. I don’t know why I do it to myself, but I have allocated absolutely no time for my husband. It’s not that I don’t love him – on the contrary – I am so comfortable and happy with him that I feel I don’t need to work hard at the relationship.
In all the haze of motherhood, my new found health kick and burning the midnight oil, I decided to arrange a meeting with my best friend this Saturday. But, it had later transpired that hubby and I had already planned to do something together on that day. I had totally forgotten about it! The whole kerfuffle ended up with hubby pouring out his feelings, about how he felt neglected and that I never factor him into my life anymore. This outburst really made me think hard about my priorities. He was even understanding enough to urge me to not change my plans with my best friend, as I hardly see my friends anymore and that just made me feel super guilty. So, I made a mental note to work much harder at the relationship to make hubby happy. He deserves so much more attention from me!
On a lighter note, Aron is growing up really fast. He may not be completely competent at grabbing things and putting them in his mouth yet, but he is developing the motor skills to do just that. If I dangle toys in front of him, he will slowly, but surely, reach out to grab them, and he will successfully hold onto them for a few seconds, but then he ends up dropping them onto the floor. He laughs when he sees my face close up and stares open-mouthed at me when I speak. I can see that he is starting to understand English and Swiss German now (hubby speaks to him in Swiss German when he comes home from work).
We also went to Aron’s weigh-in clinic again and Aron weighed a whopping 7.88kg! He’s grown another 500 grams in two weeks and I am really happy with the steady weight gain, even if he is placed in the 98th percentile in terms of weight for a baby boy of his age, i.e. two babies out of every hundred weigh more than him.
I have also given exercising a real shot again this week and noticed a reduction in my milk supply. I don’t think that exercise has got anything to do with it, but I think it may have something to do with a nasty stomach bug that I had caught the week before and the effects of my milk supply are starting to show now. I wasn’t able to eat for three days and, in turn, reduced the calories I had taken in, which probably impacted on the amount of milk I produced. I tried to feed Aron more than usual and let him suckle at the breast for longer, so those chemicals that tell the brain to produce more milk would kick start again. I really hope it works because I really don’t want to stop breastfeeding now.
A fun fact – Your baby may be eager to stand when s/he is on your lap.
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