Anyway, this Christmas felt much more festive than our first one in Istanbul. I decorated the plants in our sitting room with some cheap baubles and fairy lights. We got a couple parcels with chocolate and other goodies from Richie’s mom and sister and we’ve been enjoying stuffing our faces with those and drinking hot chocolate (and the occasional sip of brandy!) while watching Christmassy films like Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life. I also found shows like the Grinch and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer on youtube.com, so that was great too!

On Christmas Eve we went to a party at our friends Sara and Amanda’s apartment, which involved delicious cookies, some mulled wine, festive music and they even had a lovely Christmas tree! Although I think the best part was the light-up Santa hats. On Christmas morning Richie, Liam and I hung out at home and enjoyed a relaxing start to the day, while watching It’s a Wonderful Life and eating yummy stuff from our local bakery. And Liam got his first presents from Santa! It was fun, although obviously, he didn’t really know or care what was going on. In the evening we went to Dan and Kathleen’s place for an amazing pot-luck, vegetarian Christmas feast. It was delicious and I was appropriately over-stuffed at the end, in proper holiday fashion.

So, here are some photos and videos from it all:

favourite photo ever!!!

I think he gets more fun and cuter every day. I loved him as a newborn, but it’s so much fun to watch him change and interact with people and the world more and more. He’s rather serious much of the time, but he certainly does smile lots and he’s very chatty which I absolutely love! His baby babble vocabulary is growing all the time. He also now likes it when I blow raspberries on his cheeks and belly. He’s just about to the stage where he can grab things and put them in his mouth. When I hold toys over him, he more or less grabs on to things and tries to get it to his mouth, although his success in that endeavour is still a bit sporadic and he gets a bit frustrated by it. I’m sure it won’t be long at all until he can do it properly.

He’s still a very calm baby. He doesn’t ever just have a random crying fit. I think we’re getting pretty good at figuring out what he wants when he’s fussing, although I’m sure sometimes it must annoy him to be mistaken for overtired when he’s hungry, or vis-versa! We sure got lucky with him having such an easy-going disposition!

Our EC experiment is going pretty well too. Just about every day Liam get’s some diaperless time on the floor, and I continue to try and figure out his signals and timing for pottying. I must admit I’m not so good on the signal side of things, but every now and then, when he suddenly fusses or something like that, I hold him over his potty bowl and he does, in fact, go. But mostly we have a routine of me changing his diaper right after each feeding and offering him the potty. He does just about all his poops at these times now and he often pees too. He is a very frequent pooper (I can’t believe it when I read some babies only poop once every few days!!!), so while we’re catching most now, sometimes there’s a sneaky one that gets by us. Anyway, it’s been great because he’s hardly ever sitting in a messy diaper, he doesn’t have any diaper rash, I scarcely ever have to change a messy diaper, and we are running the washing machine less which is great for our electricity and water bills! And besides all that, it’s just kind of fun to help him go to the potty. He does look pretty funny/cute, with his bare butt dangling over a bucket!

Obviously, the difficult thing about having Liam here is that we’re far away from both our families, which is no small thing. However, I’m so glad we went for it, because in so many ways, our living situation is ideal for having a baby. First and probably most importantly for me, I’m able to take an extended maternity leave without much financial stress. Also, Richie is home frequently, which means I get breaks (beautiful breaks!!!) and he gets to spend more time with Liam. Even if it’s just a short time he has at home in the middle of the day, it’s so amazing that Richie can hang out with Liam, and I can just have a while when I can do things like go to the bathroom, make a cup of tea, eat some food, or do some household chores- all at a normal pace instead of rushing around before Liam cries or wakes up or whatever. Also, since we’re in the middle of a city, with friends nearby, it’s easy for me to meet someone for lunch or coffee out in town, which completely SAVES MY SANITY. I love hanging out with Liam, but regardless, I’m not the kind of person who can stay at home for more than about two consecutive days without feeling stir-crazy. Plus Liam get’s to see the world and spend time with other people too. I love that he gets to be held and talked to by other people, and I feel good that he’s getting that socializing in early. And when I do go back to work, after our winter travels, I’m so so so happy that Richie and I will be tag-teaming the childcare. I know lots of people have to do it, and it’s not the worst thing in the world, but I still just hate the idea of having someone else spending the whole day with my baby. I especially hate the idea of day care! So, when I’m back to work part-time, Richie will have more time at home with Liam, and we should still be completely fine financially. At least for Liam’s first year, I’m happy this is the arrangement we’ll have. After that, who knows, but at least he gets a good year in first.

So anyway, it’s been a fast and slow and certainly FULL three months. Liam’s a great little boy and I’m so glad we get to keep him!

And finally, here are the latest videos of the little man:

I don’t have much time to write now, but here are a few photos of Liam from the last week.  Hopefully I’ll be able to post another video soon too, but for now, I better get some dinner going!

Last week my lovely friend Jen came to visit, and we had a great time. We were out and about every day, basically eating our way through Istanbul. There was a little shopping involved too, and a few films watched at home, but mostly just eating and talking. Perfect visit. And through it all, Liam was calm and happy and amazing! I could hardly believe it. Last Wednesday we had a busy day, getting out early-ish in the morning, and then he had his 2-month doctor appointment which involved 4 vaccinations, and even having gone through that ordeal, he was in a perfectly happy mood the rest of the day. Unbelievable. He’s awesome.

He’s still on the lower end of weight gain but he’s grown enough over the last month, so I’m not worried about him. Just seems like that’s the way things will go for him. He certainly eats all the time, so I’m not starving him! He grew a few centimetres too, and now he’s too long for most of his 0-3 month size clothes. It’s been fun to dress him in some cute hoodies and fleeces as the weather gets colder. I also love wrapping him up in this fleece blanket he has for naps, and holding him while he sleeps in that is so cozy. It does make me a bit jealous though, because I want to be all wrapped up in fleecy blankets too, but at least I get to snuggle him to feel warmer.

Well, he’s been sleeping on Richie’s lap but is starting his stretching and wriggling wake-up routine, so my time here is probably about to run out. But here are a few photos of Liam over the last few weeks.

Well, I started out pretty much right away with cueing Liam when I knew he was pooping or peeing, which is the first step, but when he was so small, I felt too awkward holding him over something to go to the bathroom in. He just felt to floppy and fragile, so I didn’t really go beyond that. I tried having diaper-free time with him on a water-proof mat on the floor, but wasn’t really getting any clear signals about when he needed to go. I felt a bit intimidated by the whole thing and also just a bit afraid that if I tried it he’d just make a bit mess everywhere. So, I just stuck with a bit of cueing, and left it at that.

Then a couple of days ago, I was looking at the book again and talking to Richie about us giving EC a proper go. Over the past couple of weeks Liam has become so much easier to handle, not such a fragile little newborn, and he’s also a bit more communicative. Also, last week there were a number of occasions where, when I changed his diaper and let him air out a bit on the changing table before putting a new nappy on, it’ would be obvious he needed to pee again, so I was just sort of waiting for him to do it, and sometimes trying to cover him with the old diaper to avoid wetting and having to change another brand new one. A good few times, as soon as I’d get the clean one on, he’d pee, so I figured, I can tell when he needs to go in these situations, so rather than waiting for him to go in a diaper I might as well hold him over something and see what happens.

So, on Monday, after talking about it, suddenly I just switched gears and gave it a shot. On the first day, I caught 3 pees. Then the next morning, after his first feeding, I caught a pee and a big poop. Richie came over to help me with the logistics of clean-up while I was holding Liam, and little Liam just gave a big smile which was great! Yesterday we caught a good few pees and poops, especially right after he fed or during changing time before putting on a clean diaper. Again, last night and this morning, we’ve caught a few and Liam actually seems to like it. Sometimes he fusses and gets really fidgety during feeding, and a couple of times I’ve tried taking off his diaper and holding him over his little potty-basin, and he calms down right away. Then after a minute or so, he’s gone to the toilet and seemed happy as can be.

I’ve been quite excited about how things have gone so far and it’s kind of addictive! Catching a few makes me want to catch more! And we’ve already avoided quite a few messy diaper changes and that’s also fewer diapers to wash, so I’m happy about that! Anyway, we’ll see how things go and try to do a bit each day. It sounds like the key to the whole thing is to not take things too seriously or expect too much. So, I’ll just enjoy helping Liam when I can and make it a positive and pleasant experience for all of us.

Richie’s mom and sister came for a short visit earlier this week, which was great fun. I’m so happy Liam got to meet a couple more members of his family while he’s still a tiny baby. By the time anyone else meets him around Christmas and New Year, he’ll be over three months old and a whole different baby, I’m sure. The first night, when they arrived, he was a bit out of sorts and didn’t want to be held by anyone, but it seems he was just a bit over-tired. I was a bit worried that he’d be particular about who held him during their visit as a result, but as it turns out he was perfectly sweet the rest of the time and spent ages sleeping in both his granny and auntie’s arms and laps, looking completely peaceful and content with himself. It was great for him to get the extra dose of love and snuggling! They also brought loads of goodies for us all- rashers, sausages, chocolate, tea, etc. for Richie and me, and some cute clothes and things for Liam. It was a short visit but it felt like a small holiday and I’m so glad they got to come!

Well, we’re currently in the process of getting Liam’s passport and it’s proving to be a bit bothersome. First it took a couple of tries to get his photo done correctly and it delayed us turning in the application. Then we forgot to get a certain part signed, so I had to take it back to Liam’s doctor who signed as a ‘professional witness’ sort of person. Then we sent in the application to the Irish consulate in Istanbul. Yesterday Richie got a call from the Irish embassy in Ankara to tell us that we need to get a sort of official birth certificate, different from the birth certificate we got for Liam at the hospital where he was born. After sending a few text to people we know here, it turns out Richie will have to go over to the Asian side to the part of the city where Liam was born and get this more official birth certificate from a kind of births registration office. Then Richie’ll have to take to the Irish consul to be sent on to the embassy and then everything will be sent on to be processed in Dublin. It’s all been a bit complicated and more annoying than I thought it’d be. And the really annoying thing is that I’m not sure if we’ll get it in time to travel for Christmas. We’ll still take our trips home in January if we have to, but obviously Christmas would be much more fun and especially with Liam, I’d love to be at one of our homes for the holidays, even though of course it’ll make no difference to him! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

So, that’s our current drama. It’s certainly been a learning experience anyway!

And to finish up, here are a few photos of little Liam!

At the moment he doesn’t like to be in his swing for very long, or on his belly. I’m trying to give him some time in his swing every day so he gets used to it, and if he’s drowsy already, he might stay in it for a while and sleep. But it seems that if he’s more awake, he’ll only be content for a few minutes and then he cries. Pretty much the same when I put him on his belly. He’s okay for a few minutes, and he’ll turn his head from side to side a few times and then he’s over it. I also need to give him more diaper-free time each day, to keep him from getting nappy-rash, and I also have intentions of trying to figure out some of his cues for going to the bathroom and giving elimination communication (EC) a shot. However, I must admit that I’m finding the logistics of it all a bit daunting. Trying to hold a small baby over something so he can pee or poop, then cleaning him up, etc. – not exactly sure how it’ll work, but I should just bite the bullet and give it a try. The worst that’ll happen is that he pees or poops on me, but then that can happen any time! In fact, it happened last night at about 4am during feeding time, so there you go!

Well, bodily functions aside, we’ve also been getting out for the occasional walk. Last week there was some terrible wintery weather, with lots of rain and wind and cold, so we didn’t get out at all really. But the weather has greatly improved so we got out a bit yesterday and today. I did realize though that there are definite limits to what I can do on my own with Liam. It dawned on me that if I actually went to a cafe or somewhere on my own with him, what would I do if I needed to go to the bathroom? And then lots of places wouldn’t be very accessible with a stroller. Hm, problems. I guess I’ll have to be content with walks for the most part when I’m by myself and save the other stuff for when I meet friends or Richie and I can both take him out. It feels a bit strange to be limited like that.

Well, Liam seems to be quite a calm baby overall. He has his fussy moments, but with a soother, some swaddling, a bit of rocking or bouncing on the exercise ball, etc., he’s pretty easy to settle down. I don’t want to jinx it, but he hasn’t had any crazy crying fits yet (touch wood). He’s just sweet and snuggly, and likes to be cuddled and held lots during the day. It’s a bit hard for me to get much of anything done aside from just taking care of him, but he sleeps well at night for decent lengths of time, so I’m happy with that.

Well, that’s about it for the update for now. He’s starting to stir so my time here is about to run out!

Here’s Liam’s waking-up routine. He usually takes a while to wiggle and stretch himself awake, especially if he’s been sleeping in his Woombie.