Jessica’s blog.

Just a quick update following Gabriella’s most recent post, there is a short clip of Jessica playing with leaves in the Video section (just click on the link to on the right-side of the page).

Enjoy!

Ian.

Forgot to mention in the last entry that Jessica has been to her first Bonfire Party, which she seemed to quite enjoy. It was at our friends Richard, Cara and Daisy here in Horley on Saturday 3 November. We made it as easy for ourselves as we could, going there with the car, so that we could settle Jessica for the night in the car seat (the party started at 6pm and Jessica’s bedtime is usually 6.45/7pm, so it meant she could take part in some of it) and then later hopefully sneak her out into the car without disturbing her sleep to much when it was time to go home. Jessica enjoyed seeing Daisy again and was quite ‘chatty’ for a while, then mesmerised by the big bonfire at the back of our hosts’ garden. Fireworks were going off all around but the bangs didn’t seem to startle either Jessica or Daisy, which was a relief. By all account, Jessica did notice the fireworks too – she turned towards the sound and then seemed to follow the cascades of light and colour on the night sky with her eyes. Later she seemed to settle well in the new surroundings – didn’t make much of a fuss at all and went to sleep quite quietly. We didn’t stay late but said our goodbyes at 9pm. Jessica stirred when she was put in the car and sat awake and excited (nowadays she always gets excited when she’s put in a car seat, regardless of whether she was cranky before) all the way home. It took a little while for her to get to sleep in her cot but she wasn’t crying, only chatting away to herself – possibly about the strange events of the evening…

On Friday the 9th, Jessica and I met up with a larger group of mums and babies from the post-natal group we’ve been seeing, for lunch at one of the mum’s house. It as great to see how much more the little ones interacted with each other: looking and making noises at each other, grabbing for each other and each other’s toys. Jessica took the opportunity to show off, too – there was a little trolley standing near her, similar to the one she’s been walking with at home. Jessica was standing up on the floor holding on to my hands but simply grabbed hold of the handle on the trolley and started walking with it across the room as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to do (without any prompting or encouragement from me). At which point she received lots of praise and admiration from the other mums – she may be the last to get teeth, but she is the first one getting this far learning to walk. Some of the other babies crawl very well indeed, but I guess Jessica’s just skipped that bit, and saved herself some time…

Just to overcompensate for the lack of pictures recently, here are a few from our little family walk in Outwood last Sunday (11th November):

(And, yes, she did try to eat the leaves – almost first thing when on the ground she bent down to grab a big wad of them and shove them in her mouth…!)

Jessica and I will be flying to Sweden tomorrow, to stay with my sister for a week over Jessica’s cousin Isac’s birthday – very exciting! Will report back with photos (though probably a few days after we are back at the soonest).

Gabriella

You may have noticed there haven’t many photos lately – unfortunately the flash on Ian’s otherwise brilliant digital camera has stopped working, so not many photos are being taken at present. Will have to dig my own (slow) digital camera out to remedy the lack of imagery…

Since three days ago, Jessica turns over to her front to sleep, which isn’t going completely smoothly. I’m not sure why she does it, as it more often than not seems a source of frustration for her. She’s not confident at turning back over again, so it partly puzzles me why she voluntarily gets herself ‘stuck’ that way and partly it worries me that she’ll end up face down in the mattress and not be able to breathe properly. Unless she’s half asleep already, as soon as I put her in her cot she sticks her left leg out and uses it to pivot around to her front. After a while though she starts to cry. Before, I’ve been able to leave her to herself and after perhaps a bit of crying, some chatting and general noise, she’s nodded off to sleep. Half the time now the crying seems to go on and on (even though I have a peer through the door to check that she’s not stuck or in any pain) and she’s taking longer to settle.

I get up at regular intervals anyway (just don’t seem to be able to sleep properly anymore…) and peer in at her every time. She seems to stay pretty much in the same position all night, on her front, but she always has her face to the side. I guess this is just one of those developmental stages that she has to go through. So far she hasn’t shown much interest in rolling over, as she’s preferred not to be lying down at all in the first place, so I guess she hasn’t got much practice in moving around that way. Quite often now she grabs the bars in the cot and tugs at them. Perhaps this is part of her learning to get up from the floor herself: grabbing hold of things to pull herself up. For her walks about the house (still with our help) or along furniture (on her own with increasing confidence) she’s till relying on us to help her up to standing.

Monday Jessica stood by herself without support for a whole 9(!) seconds and since she has done it again a couple of times for a similar length of time. She was holding on to a toy with both ands each time (different toys) – perhaps she was just so focussed on the toy she forgot to wobble… She walks around a bit with the trolley every day now (she didn’t use to be very keen but has warmed to it a bit more now, realised it can take her across the floor to another ‘anchor point’) but she still needs us to put her at the handlebars. We don’t really have that much furniture or other things for her too pull herself up on, so I’m not sure how she’ll get sufficient opportunity to practice that (apart from maybe in her cot, if that is where that’s going..).

Jessica has noticed the fruit and veg on the corner shelf in the kitchen now and often stops there to grab a satsuma or occasionally a sweet potato. When she’s got hold of a satsuma, she likes to carry it with her as we continue walking, so I can only hold one of her hands – on the other side I have to support her under the arm while she proudly holds the satsuma high. Everything goes in her mouth still of course and so does the fruit and veg. I left her sitting on the floor in the bathroom one day, happily sucking a trophy satsuma. Only minutes later I heard her spitting and coughing and hurried back to take a look. She was sitting on the floor still, but with her face all screwed up and in her hands the satsuma was split almost in half…! I certainly hadn’t expected her to be able to break the skin, seeing as there’s no sign of any teeth yet. The experience didn’t put Jessica off satsumas, though – later the same day she was at the fruit and veg shelf again grabbing for another one.

Gabriella

As expected, Jessica didn’t set her clock back when everyone else did last weekend. On the Monday, she decided to wake up at 4.20am…! Although, as we had been out the previous afternoon and early evening (more about that later) combined with slightly bad planning on my part, Jessica hadn’t had any solids for dinner, only formula. As she because of that might be hungry sooner anyway, I gave her a bottle of formula and put her back in bed. She didn’t grumble for long and, by the sound (or lack of…) of it, went back to sleep. I later gave her her usual breakfast at 6am and then we carried on from there. I’d decided to stick to the ‘new’ times as strictly as possible to help Jessica adapt. But, as it seems, she was very happy to go along with it straight away and it has taken no effort: every morning since, she has woken up at 5.30, 6 or even 6.30 am, seemingly not troubled at all by the fact that it has all been shifted one hour compared to before.

Jessica is getting more confident on her feet still. She’ll walk the length of the sofa, the coffee table (which is lined up next to the sofa at the moment) and then on to the dehumidifier (yes, we have that one up and running again…) and back again several times in a row now, without any support from us and seemingly without too much effort. She’ll also walk around the high chair and onto the chair opposite again and again (they’re fairly close together) without us lending her a hand too. Yesterday I watched her standing at arms’ length from the dehumidifier, only her fingertips touching it, contemplating whether she should risk the distance to the back legs of the highchair – it was just that little bit too far away and would have required a couple of steps without no support whatsoever. I was so chuffed when she went for it – as it happens, she lost her balance but Mummy was there to catch her mid-fall. She’ll pick up things from the floor herself quite readily now, supporting herself on a low table or the sofa, and I’m very pleased to say that she keeps her back straight and bends properly at the knees – that’s more than most adults manage…!

I was going to bring Jessica to the health visitor weighing clinic already on the 17th but completely forgot, as Ian’s parents were here that day. Instead I took her last Wednesday (24th October). We were having a quiet day at home just the two of us, so it was nice to be able to let her spend a little bit of time somewhere different, watching other babies and toddlers. They had lots of toys as usual, so I put Jessica on the floor near some of them. Smiling at everyone as she always does, she soon – separately – attracted the interest of a couple of boys at about 2-3 years of age. They were quite similar in their behaviour, though: at first they wanted to take some of the toys away from her (especially a bigger car and a fire engine), but in her usual chilled out way Jessica didn’t mind, just found herself a new toy, and after a while of the boys’ mums going “give that toy back, Josh/Adam, these are not your toys and you have to share”, the boys instead started to go and find toys to bring back and place in front of Jessica for her to play with. It was quite fun to see.

Finally it was our turn at one of the sets of scales. It’s now easier to sit Jessica up on the scales rather than laying her down on them, but she still moves around lots (excited about the relatively unfamiliar environment and people) so it takes a while for the digital display to decide what to show. It eventually stopped at 10.2 kilos (22lbs 7oz). When we left, the little boy called Adam waved and said “bye, bye” to Jessica. Ian and I got the tape measure out a day or so later and made her length 73 centimetres. She’s certainly growing…!

Something strange that Jessica has started to do in the last couple of weeks, although she was absolutely fine with it before, is to start to cry whenever Ian or I blow our noses. We have no idea why this is. It doesn’t seem to be the noise of blowing our noses, as just wiping one’s nose makes her cry just the same. So we’re thinking it must be the act of moving a handkerchief up to the nose, partly covering our faces. When we do, she stares at us, then the corners of her mouth turn down, her bottom lip starts to tremble and then she starts to cry. We’re really puzzled! We can’t think of any association she might have made that could explain it. We now take great care not to do this within her field of vision, as she sometimes takes a while to comfort – I’ve had to lift her up and then she’s buried her face in my shoulder and cried for a fair while. When we sneeze, cough or yawn she’s not troubled at all – actually she smiles quite widely both at me sneezing and yawning. Has anyone else come across this before…?!

Back to the afternoon and early evening (Sunday 28th October) out that I was going to tell you more about. We drove over to Heathfield, about an hour’s drive, to see a couple of friends that have bought themselves a house there. Last time we saw them it was in the evening past Jessica’s bedtime and we’d settled Jessica for the night in her car seat at home, then taken her with us in the car and re-settled her in our hosts’ bedroom to sleep their during our visit. This time, we’d originally been invited to a house warming party on the Saturday evening but then our hosts suggested the Sunday afternoon for just the three of us instead, to make it a more sociable hour for Jessica, and this worked out great. Their new house was lovely and huge, and Jessica really enjoyed walking around exploring it. She reached for a few things, especially the plates with snacks on the coffee table which were nicely just at the right height, but not too persistently – she was too preoccupied with taking in her new surroundings in general, I think – and played happily for quite a long while on a rug at Daddy’s feet with some of her toys that we had brought with us.

The most exciting thing for Jessica, though, was perhaps meeting a cat for the first time! Ian’s parents have a cat, Sheba, but she tends to be hidden away when we’re around, as I’m allergic to cats (not too badly but I get wheezy, my nose starts to run and I feel uncomfortable). So Jessica hadn’t seen a cat close up before. Millie was lying on a bed while we were given a guided tour of the house, so I lifted Jessica up on the bed too and she got very excited when she saw Millie. Nowadays it’s a case of holding a hand on Jessica’s arm when she reaches out to touch babies, toddlers and animals – she likes to grab hold when she explores but doesn’t, of course, realise that she can hurt others. I let her touch Millie’s fur with the palm of her hand but then she tried to grab hold, so I held her arm back just out of reach. Millie was very calm, though we could tell she was watching Jessica intently from the corner of her eye. Later, when Jessica was walking up and down the kitchen and Millie came in to get some food, Millie made sure to keep just that extra little bit of distance.

One of our friends said a while ago that babies are at their cutest at about 9 months old – that’s when you need to be aware because you’re very likely to go “oh, he/she is so cute – shall we have another one?”. I thought Jessica was the cutest baby ever already before but I must admit that now, at 8 1/2 months, it’s getting a bit ridiculous: she’s so adorable I sometimes don’t know what to do with myself…!

Gabriella

First things first: Jessica was 8 months old yesterday! Wow, I can hardly believe it…

So, a week since the last entry – what have we been up to? We have been to the playground in the park across the main road a few times. Jessica loves going on the baby swing and just generally walking about looking at things and people. We’ve tried her on the small slide, which she seemed to quite like, but she seemed a little underwhelmed by the roundabout.

Another place Jessica really likes is the library, especially the children’s section at the back, because there they have cut-out paper animals dangling from the ceiling and lots of colourful books in boxes that she can lean against and touch. (She’s not too interested in what’s inside the books as yet…) Most of all Jessica enjoys running back and forth in-between the shelves – exhausting for me who has to lend my index fingers for support here as well as at home, but at least a change of scenery…!

When we were at the library last, Thursday afternoon, a little girl (2 years and 3 months, her Mum later told me) came up to Jessica while were walking around, took Jessica’s hand and stroke it very gently and patted Jessica equally gently on the cheek. Then she started waving to Jessica in an encouraging motion (“follow me”) as it seemed she wanted to show Jessica a tunnel with padded seats inside, for kids to sit and look at books in. Jessica was more than happy to get the attention and I was quite impressed with how careful the girl was when approaching and touching Jessica – most toddlers seem to have a slightly more ‘rough’ way of dealing with babies and other toddlers.

At home, when were walking about, we sometimes end up doing ‘circuits’ – a particular walk about the house that she repeats a few times. For example: through living room stopping at highchair to grab hold of with both hands shrieking from delight on approach, then to the radiator at the bottom of the stairs banging the right hand against the radiator itself and then bending down to twist the knob (It’s quite loose so this is easily done – I do try to remember the setting before she starts so I can discreetly twist it back when she’s not looking…), then into the kitchen to bang on the top of the kitchen bin with the right hand, then over to the cupboards where we keep saucepans, baking trays and the like to open and close the doors a few times, then turn around and on the way out of the kitchen stop at the fruit rack and touch the clementines in their little red net bag. After this out in the hallway to touch her shadow on the wall and then grab hold of the push chair and roll that back and forth a bit. The different stops vary every day but she certainly has a few favourites, plus things I’m surprised she hasn’t spotted yet and dread when she will…

Jessica is more and more confident on her feet. She will bend down to pick up things only holding on to one of our hands and no other support. She also now walks in-between the sofa and table without any assistance, only holding on to the furniture. And – ‘stop press’ – today she pulled herself up from sitting to standing all by herself! She held the handle of a little wooden trolley / baby walker that Ian had bought her to practise walking with, so that she could become a bit more independent – Ian held the main body of the trolley so it wouldn’t topple over her.

When it’s just me home with Jessica, Jessica so far hasn’t walked with the trolley or walked along the sofa much – she seems a bit ‘mumsy’ at the moment and wants me to hold her hands most of the time. But when our friend Cara and her little girl Daisy came over to visit last, Jessica got so excited she walked with the trolley all along the sofa and then walked along the table supporting herself on the tabletop – just to show off, I expect…!

Weather’s definitely colder now, especially at night and in the early mornings, so it’s a case of wrapping up warm for our walks:

Gabriella

As always, we’ve been busy, and I’ve neglected the blog – apologies! Feels like a lot of things have happened, although when I sit down at the PC to tell you about them I forget at least half… Jessica is well, though, and is still VERY keen to practise her walking – still with our support but getting more and more confident. She stands supporting herself for longer now, has pulled herself up on things with one hand supported a bit by Ian and I’ve been putting chairs together with strategically placed toys to encourage Jessica to move in-between furniture. She’s enjoying it so much: emits the cutest high-pitched shrieks of delight when she’s on her feet and especially if she’s heading for, or standing at, the highchair – we haven’t figured out why that one in particular is so fascinating…

Ian took a couple of days off at the beginning of the week, so that the three of us could spend some time together. On the Monday (8th October) I had arranged to go and see a nursery we’re thinking about registering Jessica with for when I go back to work in February. We’d seen it before, but on a Saturday when there were no children around. This was the opportunity to see the place ‘in action’. On the Saturday, the lady who looks after the babies (6 to 18 months) hadn’t been there, so I was also looking forward to meeting her. “I’ll bet though”, said Ian as we were walking over there, ”wouldn’t it be typical if she phoned in sick?”. And guess what? Almost the first thing the manager told us after our arrival was that this very lady unfortunately was ill today…! Which means, of course, that I’ll have to arrange to go back again. Even if the rest of the staff, the premises and the other children (there were no other babies there at the time, although they currently have three on their books) seemed great, I do need to see the lady who would be directly looking after Jessica.

After going home to change a nappy and get stuff together, Ian drove us in to Woodhatch, as I had a meeting with my two managers to discuss my return to work. Ian took Jessica for a stroll into Reigate while I had my meeting. I wanted to discuss the possibilities of cutting down my hours and working some of the remaining ones from home, as priorities naturally have changed for me now – I need my work to fit around Jessica’s needs and I also want to spend as much time with her as I can. At this point it was more a case of me letting my bosses know my preferences; I will still need to wait a couple of weeks before I can find out what the company is prepared to agree to (and hope that the nursery doesn’t get booked up in the mean time…!).

On the Tuesday (9th October) there were no meetings booked, just family time. In the morning, after Jessica’s second breakfast, we went over to the local swimming pool. Ian hadn’t been with Jessica in a pool yet and I had only been with her in a pool during lessons, so we decided it’d be fun to just splash about a bit. As it was early on a week day, the big pool had school classes in it and the small pool was empty, so while she was splashing about there weren’t any other toddlers or babies for Jessica to look at. She was very happy moving her arms and legs, though, when Ian and I took turns supporting her so that she could ‘swim’ from one end of the pool to the other. We braved it and dunked her under water a couple of times too, which she didn’t seem to mind.

In the afternoon we drove over to Tilgate Park, a nature centre with different animals, which we thought Jessica might enjoy seeing. Unfortunately it was chucking it down; there was only one car in the car park when we arrived and only a few members of staff about. Bravely we decided to go for a stroll around anyway. Under a little roof there were a few hens walking about, so we got Jessica out to chase them around for a bit. In a little house there were tanks with fish, snakes and lizards, so Jessica enjoyed looking at fish there for a while. But that was about the extent of what could be looked out without getting soaking wet… We got Jessica out from under her rain cover to look at some impressive, big cows, but she was much more interested in the brolly I held over our heads. As it was nearing Jessica’s afternoon milk feed, we went over to the café to see if we could grab a coffee and feed her there, but they were closed (due to the weather) so we gave up at that point; fed Jessica in the car and headed back home. It was nice to have done something new, even if it wasn’t a roaring success. We’ll just have to go back some day when the weather’s better.

I’d said before that it didn’t seem like Jessica was noticing animals. She’s improved a lot in that now – apart from the swans at Earlswood Lakes (see September 6th entry), her farfar (paternal grandfather) told me a few weeks ago that Jessica tracked one of the robins (there are two, I’ve noticed) with her eyes as it flew across our garden at some speed (Jessica’s farfar was impressed with how well she could follow it). And last weekend, when we went over to our friends Phil and Anna to give a birthday present to one of their kids, Jessica studied the fish in their tank for with some time and when she spotted Bramble, the family’s springer spaniel, she started walking towards her (holding on to my hands) with a big grin on her face. It was quite funny to watch the dog back of a few steps every time Jessica took a few steps towards it… Anna and Phil told us that Bramble was wary of little children, as in her experience those don’t always have the gentlest of approaches.

We’re still waiting for that first tooth. Speaking to a few of the mums from the post-natal group, who were here with their babies on Wednesday afternoon, most other babies in that group have at least a few now. Still, that’s one of those inevitable things, isn’t it, that will happen sooner or later. Jessica’s gums must have been sore yesterday, because she didn’t really want her lunch or dinner, both solids. She opened her mouth as if she was hungry and keen but cried when she had the food in her mouth. It was all things she’d had before and been happy to eat. And to show that it wasn’t that she’d suddenly gone off the flavours, she could after a while be persuaded to open her mouth again but only with the same result. I’d hoped that the fruit, being cold straight from the fridge, might be more pleasant to eat, and she had a bit more of that but not much. I gave her a rice cake afterwards, which she gnawed at with a different attentiveness than usual. Later in the day at times she chewed her hand and cried, so I gave her baby paracetamol and teething gel, which did seem to help.

Jessica claps her hands quite often now – has done so maybe for a week now – sometimes just for her own benefit, sometimes looking at us and smiling. It doesn’t make any sound, really, but the movement is that of a proper clap. We tend to smile at her and clap too when we see her do it; maybe our appreciation is part of why she enjoys it. For also about a week or so, she occasionally says ‘bababababa’, ‘dadadadada’ and blablablabla’ quite loudly (though loud for Jessica isn’t always loud by other babies’ standards) and enthusiastically. It’s great to hear her expanding her vocabulary. She’ll talk to us, say ‘bababa dadada’ as if she’s having a conversation with us – it’s adorable! Ian of course every so often tries to encourage her: “Say ‘daddy’, can you say ‘daddy’?” whereas I go: “ma-ma, ma-ma” in a prompting voice…

Gabriella

We’ve had a few summer days again, when it’s been sunny, and warm in the shade too – though nights are cold. Have put shoes on Jessica and ‘walked’ her around the garden a few times now. It does take a bit of effort, though, as she’ll stop and tug at things and, as it seems, preferably the dirtiest ones that she definitely shouldn’t put in her mouth… This includes small pebbles, dry leaves, weeds and grass covered in mud. It’s a lot of taking things away from her and going “No, Jessica, not in your mouth”. Feeling a bit like a spoil sport but I guess that’s partly the role of a mum…

She’s become faster and more confident on her feet, and has a few times been standing all by herself for a second or two without any support when she has let go of our hands and she’ll stand steadily for a fair while holding on to only the highchair, the sofa or her control panel toy. Unfortunately, we don’t really have much furniture that are a suitable height or steady enough for her to pull herself up on. And as she’s not crawling, she isn’t able to get herself to those few pieces of furniture that might be helpful. Saying that, she’s getting better at shuffling forward on her bum.

Jessica walks around the house several times a day now, holding my hands for support, and is finding more and more to explore. There’s not too much need for toys at the mo, as all sorts of things are interesting. Shoe laces, buckles on bags, the push chair in the hallway, the shelves in the bathroom, all the little tables in the living room and everything on them… We’re getting even more urgently aware of the virtue of putting things on shelves high up.

Jessica likes peek-a-boo now, a game she didn’t seem to understand the concept of only about a month ago. Especially the version Daddy plays when he hides behind Mummy’s back and then pops his head up over Mummy’s shoulder. As I’m holding Jessica at the time I get a front row seat to the fantastic expression on her face, when she leans over to the one side in expectation (and sometimes get caught out as Daddy chooses to appear over the other shoulder instead) and her lovely laugh when Daddy does appear and goes ‘peek-a-boo!’. But she giggles lots too when I put a muslin in front of her face and then pull it away and say ‘tittut!’.

Everything is great fun, though there’s a bit of a problem looming. We’re looking at the clocks changing soon, of course. And as Jessica is still waking up at 5.30am, sometimes 5am, I’m dreading this turning into 4/4.30am starts… Even those evenings when she stays up a little bit later don’t seem to make her sleep for longer the following morning, so I’m at a bit of a loss regarding what to do. Anyway, I’m sure it’ll sort itself out somehow.

Gabriella

Proper autumnal weather today – it’s chucking it down… No plans for me and Jessica today, apart from hanging around the house, with her playing and practising her walking, and me trying to do chores in-between Jessica practising her walking… Yes, I’m still holding her hands as she walks around the house and she’s so keen – it’s all she wants to do most of the time now…! She’s speeded up now and is more confident: she spots something at the other end of room (if it’s something that gets her a bit excited – usually something that I don’t want her to play with, like a remote control or a stack of photos or a glass of orange juice – then Jessica opens her mouth wide and starts to breathe loudly and rapidly, it’s terribly cute) and off she goes…!

Another way of showing excitement that Jessica’s started to use is bending her knees so she bounces up and down whilst stamping one of her feet. She can only do this standing, of course. As an example, she did this when she spotted Daisy when Cara and Daisy were over visiting last (this was last Friday, 28th September). She’s ever so adorable when she does this – she reminds me of a little chimpanzee…! Especially when she does the breathing bit (see above) at the same time… I noticed Isac, Jessica’s cousin, doing this when we were over in Sweden for Midsummer (and he was about the age Jessica is now), so it must be a baby thing.

She walks alongside things now, like the bath, hand over hand without any support and she has also grabbed at my trouser legs to try to pull herself up. She’s started to realise that she can reach all sorts of things now, like the stereo, leads, all sorts of bits and pieces on shelves and tables, the phone… I gently steer her away from certain things, but as soon as she doesn’t need me for support anymore, we will of course have to have tidied all the things we don’t want her to hurt herself on, slobber over or tear well out of the way.

Jessica hasn’t made any serious attempt at crawling yet: she’ll lift herself up slightly, so her bum leaves the floor, and rock back and forth until she’s leaning forward, but just as she’s putting her hands on the floor in front of her and you think “excellent, she’s just about to start crawling now” her arms give way and she collapses in a little heap on her tummy. If she’s in a good mood she doesn’t mind for a little bit but sooner or later she starts to complain and needs lifting up. We reckon now that she’ll skip the crawling bit and go straight to walking – after all, once she’s mastered it, it’ll take her places faster and more efficiently.

About 4-5 days ago I noticed Jessica banging two objects together for the first time, two rattles, and she has done so a few more times since. She has also brought her hands together in a soft ‘clapping’ motion. She has quite enjoyed it when I’ve clapped my hands in front of her (wanted to grab hold of my fingertips and put them in her mouth) so maybe she is consciously copying that.

Generally, she still likes whacking things with the palm of her hand – still at the ‘bam bam’ stage, as Ian puts it.

Jessica likes holding things against her mouth, with her mouth wide open but her lips sealed against the object, and blow – this includes Mummy’s cheek and it tickles…! It’s really lovely though, feels like a sign of affection. I kiss her on the cheeks a lot, and sometimes I blow a bit of air on her or make smacking noises – again, she might be copying my behaviour, I guess.

She’s now able to pick up fairly small or thin objects by pinching them between her fingers. She’s got quite a strong grip, actually, as she’s able to pick some of her bigger toys – like the rainmaker rattle, the larger stacking cups and a foam football – up by pinching them with the fingers on the one hand. She can even shake the rainmaker rattle while holding it this way.

Regarding foods, Jessica had her first ‘grown up’ breakfast last Friday (28th September): Weetabix and full fat cow’s milk. By all accounts, it was a success. She had about two thirds of it the first morning I served it and has finished it almost every time since. We give her two Weetabix biscuits and then soak them in milk so it turns porridge-like. This has worked out quite well in the last few days, so that she’s had the above for breakfast at about 6am, then a bottle of formula at 9am, then solids for lunch at 12 noon, another bottle of formula at 2-3pm (depending on when she has her afternoon nap), solids for dinner at 5pm and finally her last bottle of formula at bedtime, which still is 6.30/7pm.

I’d like to keep her up for slightly longer in the evening to try to get her to sleep for longer in the morning as a 5.30/6am rise does feel a bit harsh some days… But when she gets tired in the evening she’s so miserable – tired and crying and nothing can amuse her – that we just don’t have the heart to keep her up any longer. It wouldn’t be fair on her. And somehow, at the moment, I doubt that it’d make much difference. Just dreading when the clocks go back soon: does that mean she’ll be waking up at 4.30/5am…? I’d have to do something about that, if that becomes the case. Maybe a nappy change and then back to bed.

With Ian home in good time most evenings nowadays, he plays with Jessica pretty much as soon as he’s in the door (oh, you should see her face light up when she spots him…!) and then when she’s starting to have had enough of the day, Ian changes her nappy and clothes while I prepare her room (draw curtains, bring nightlight through, fold back clankets) and her bedtime feed. Then Ian follows me up the stairs with Jessica in his arms. When I’m sat in the chair that we’ve put in her room he puts her on my lap and kisses her goodnight and then I feed her. As soon as she’s done feeding, she’s normally sleepy. I put her over my shoulder to see if she needs a burp and then put her in her cot and kiss her goodnight. Sometimes she starts to cry as I leave the room but normally that only lasts for a minute or two. She’s generally very good at settling herself, including during the day.

Finally, before I sign off, I need to tell you about what Jessica did yesterday lunch-time. She quite enjoys drinking water from glasses and bottles without any teats or sippy lids on, just sipping it carefully straight from the rim, but I have to help her of course so it doesn’t go everywhere. Yesterday after she’d had a couple of sips from a mug she got a bit carried away and yanked the mug towards her – the way she does with the bottle of formula or her sippy mugs when they have their lids on – and splashed herself in the face with about a third of a mugful of water…! She drew her breath fairly sharply and looked stunned, but to her credit she didn’t start to cry. Think she was a bit in shock…

Gabriella

There seems to be a while now in-between each post, which hasn’t been intentional. Last weekend Jessica’s morfar (maternal granddad) came over from Sweden to visit and before then I was busy trying to get Jessica’s room reasonably ready, so that she could move in there and Ian could move back into the bedroom (now minus noisy baby), thus leaving the living room floor for my Dad to sleep on. I’m pleased to announce that the walls in Jessica’s room are now a nice matte, soft and grey-ish purple, instead of the glossy and slightly garish blue they were before, and that she has moved in and successfully slept in there every night for a week now. If she wakes up during the night she resettles herself most of the time – I can still hear her cry from our room but if she’s just making little sleepy noises or chat to herself I don’t.

Shelves, curtains and all sorts of other bits and pieces still need to be sorted, which might take a little while, but I’ll post some piccies of Jessica’s room when it’s more or less ready.

Some mornings she has woken up as early as 4am, though, so I’ve changed her nappy, given her a bit of formula, kissed her and put her back in bed. She’s complained but gone back to sleep after about 20 minutes or so. I don’t want her to get in the habit of expecting to get up and play at 4am (even though that seems to be what she wants to do…!), as it would very likely drive me mad in the long run…

She does get me out of bed at 5.30 – 6am, when she starts to cry (quite possibly from having laid there awake for a while and got bored) and I fish her out and bring her downstairs. If she can tolerate it, I change her nappy and clothes and give her a wash before breakfast. Breakfast is still formula and not solids – I haven’t got that far yet. Firstly, I decided to defer it until after my Dad’s visit. When I did get up slightly earlier than Jessica to make oat porridge a few mornings ago, I foolishly decided to give Jessica a change and a wash before food, at which point she was too hungry to have the patience to eat from a bowl and spoon… This morning I was slow off the mark and didn’t get up until 6am, so resorted to the bottle again. Did make her porridge with cooked apple for second breakfast, though, so at least I’m introducing the idea of having cereals at the beginning of the day rather than the end of it. (Thought I’d try to give her some dinner-style food instead of porridge early evening instead.)

I’m happy to report that Jessica’s sleeping during the day has notably improved since I started putting her in her cot for her morning nap. When I took her for a walk in the morning her nap got shorter and shorter, until it was only 20 minutes. It was just a case of facing the fact that she wouldn’t get properly rested this way. What happens now is that most mornings I still put Jessica in her push chair but we only walk Ian to the station and then walk back home – at least we get a bit of fresh air almost first thing, but I’ve stopped expecting her to sleep. When we come back we play for a while before second breakfast, which is around 9am, and then she starts rubbing her eyes and/or getting cranky again around 10am, when I put her in bed again. She sleeps 1-2 hours there, which is great, as it gets her nicely in the mood for proper lunch at around 12. She usually has a nice nap in the afternoon too: 1.5-2 hours (in her cot again).

She still doesn’t like having her naps, but the association between cot and sleep seems pretty well established, so that even if she cries when I close the door around her she’s usually asleep within 2-3 minutes. If she isn’t, I go back at five minute intervals, pick her up and hold her until she calms down, give her a kiss and put her back down. I’ve never had to do that more than twice.

Jessica trying to walk is really exciting! She wants to stand up almost all the time, grabbing hold on our fingers to support her, but she’s started to walk between pieces of furniture now, relying on us to keep her steady by one hand or both, but more often letting go of us completely to grab hold on to the sofa, a chair, her control panel toy or even us. She can support herself holding on the above for a fair while now, without wobbling too much, and does adjust her grip to steady herself successfully more and more. Sometimes she’ll bend down to reach for toys or muslins on the floor to try to pick them up without holding on to anything and then she wants to straighten herself up with the toy in her hand (or mouth), which means a steady grip around her waist is needed… Generally, she’s pretty fearless: if she sees something she wants to reach she sometimes just lets go of both hands and launches herself forward, so we have to keep on our toes to keep her from falling flat on her face…!

We haven’t got her a walker, as we have carpeted floors and not enough floor space, which means she wouldn’t get very far in it… Also, I read somewhere that walkers where the baby sit and walk don’t tend to strengthen their ankles enough, which doesn’t sound too good, if that is the case. This obviously means that until she’s a bit more steady on her feet, we (and especially I) have to spend that bit more time with her to give her opportunity to practice. I’m already looking around our house with a slight feeling of dread thinking of all those things we’ll have to move or make baby-proof for when she’s properly mobile…!

Going back to my Dad’s visit, which is where this post started, Jessica really enjoyed herself having him around and was in a extra-special cheerful mood all weekend. Must have been getting all that attention…! Especially as her farmor, farfar and faster Wendy (the latter bearing gifts, a fantastically fun set of stacking cups!) came over for coffee and cake on the Sunday afternoon (23rd Sep) and played with Jessica for hours. We took a few photos, of course:

Gabriella

We’ve all been down with a cold: Jessica first, then me and now Ian. Jessica is better now, only an occasional cough and a few sneezes now and then. But she’s not coughing or sneezing in the night anymore and is sleeping much better – while she had a cold she woke up a few times in the night and cry, needing a cuddle and a lullaby to go back to sleep. Last night she stirred a couple of times but it was normal stuff and she resettled herself fairly quickly each time and slept until just after 6am.

Apart from extra grisliness, due to being extra tired and waking up in the night, Jessica didn’t seem troubled by her cold at all. She was her usual cheerful self: giggling, smiling and being very active. (I guess she didn’t know she had a cold and was supposed to be ill…!) She is incredibly keen to stand up now and wants to do it all the time. She reaches her arms up as a signal for us to offer her our hands and then she grabs our hands and pulls herself up to standing. She sways a bit but is getting increasingly steadier on her feet. She’s quite brave too, often lets go of one of our hands to reach down to the floor for a toy and then stand up again holding the toy – something she doesn’t yet have the balance for, so we have to provide a bit extra support there…

She’s also started putting a foot in front of the other to move herself about and has walked the entire length of our living room, holding Ian’s hands! We can temporarily let go of her hands now for her to support herself against the seat on the sofa, a chair or her ‘control panel’-style toy, only for a few seconds but it’s great to see. She’ll grab our trouser legs and the bottom of the sofa, etc., but hasn’t actually yet tried to pull herself up using anything other than our hands for support. You can tell how chuffed she is about standing up when you see the look on her face: big wide-open mouth, eyes squinting with excitement and happy shrieks…!

Jessica’s eating has been a bit so-so the last week. I’m sure she’s had enough to eat – when she’s been too tired for solids we’ve given her formula instead. Some meals she’s had plenty of solids and other not very much, but fruit usually finds its way down into her tummy either way.

You may remember me mentioning at the beginning of weaning Jessica that she kept grabbing the spoon trying to feed herself. This stopped happening after a while – whenever I’d offer her to take the spoon she’d just launch her head forward to get the spoon in her mouth and didn’t seem interested in taking charge herself. Now she’s started reaching for the spoon again, often smearing food about her face before what’s left on the spoon reaches its destination… She’ll often drop the spoon once she’s done with it and she likes to dive into the bowl and grab a handful of food. Occasionally she gets distracted by the sight of her feet and takes a break to grab them for a bit. Needless to say, mealtimes can get very messy nowadays… When she grabs food with her hands, though, I should add, it’s to try and put it in her mouth, something that is less successful with all things puréed. But it was great to see her grab a small piece of bread only a few days ago and put it in her mouth, holding it very carefully between thumb and index finger, no less…

I’m hoping to introduce a breakfast meal soon. Was going to try oat porridge to see how well that goes down. (As Jessica is a vegetarian baby, I’m extra keen to see to it that she gets as many different types of nutrients in her diet as soon as possible.) Then the mid-morning meal can be a formula meal. Lunch will remain lunch, but I’d like to introduce dinner too, which is a bit tricky as Jessica gets tired fairly early in the evenings. She still ‘hits a wall’ at 6.30pm (6pm during her cold), when she starts rubbing her eyes, cries at the slightest thing and nothing can distract her from being grizzly. (She doesn’t have a very loud cry, but if it ever does get loud it’s at this time of day…) At that point all we can do is change her nappy and clothes for the night, give her her evening feed and put her to bed. Beyond 5.30pm there’s usually no point trying to offer her solids, as she’ll just start to cry at the sight of them. So we’ll have to try to squeeze in dinner as a meal halfway between the 3/4pm and 6.30/7pm formula feeds. It’s a lot of meals in a few hours but I don’t know how else to make sure that she has enough. So far we’ve given her baby rice with fruit or berries at 5/5.30pm and if I’ve ever skipped that, she’s woken up hungry early morning. All suggested baby menus I’ve seen include 6 meals (3 formula and 3 solids) for this age group but I guess her day just isn’t long enough.

Another solution is of course to bring all meals slightly closer together, but then it’d feel like there wasn’t time for much else but meals in the day. The main problem is that she doesn’t nap well during the day. She just doesn’t sleep for long enough – some days it has been as bad as 20 minutes in the morning and 20 early afternoon! As a result, Ian and I have unfortunately gradually gone from the ‘no tiptoeing around baby, it’s better that she learns to sleep anywhere with any noise going on’-approach to a much more cautious one, involving a partly closed door around Jessica if she’s in her cot and us being very careful about making any loud or sudden noises in the house while she’s napping.

We just have to face it that she’s one of those babies who won’t easily sleep wherever, whenever, and that she needs a bit of extra help to make sure she gets some decent daytime sleep. Even when she’s just about to nod off she won’t relax and go with it, but forces her eyes open or jerks herself awake… It’s lovely to have a curious and sociable baby, who wants to take part and know what’s going on, but unfortunately – those days when she doesn’t get enough sleep – this makes her a bit of a cranky baby, who isn’t enjoying herself as much as she could.

As it happens, she’s having a long, nice afternoon nap as I write this: she’s clocking up two hours so far… The swimming lesson must have really taken it out of her again this morning. She had about 20-25 minutes sleep afterwards in the pushchair as I was walking through Redhill and that was it until 1.30pm when I put her in her cot.

I fear that our barefoot days in the garden will be over very soon. September has been lovely – hot and sunny: summer came late this year. The hot and sticky nights I feared with a sleepless baby as a result didn’t happen, as nights have been cool for a while now. I’m sure we’ll go for a wander in the garden still but we’ll spend less time there and I’m sure we’ll all miss that.

Just wanted to say before I sign off that yesterday evening I finally finished the second coat of paint on the walls in Jessica’s room…! So as soon as the paint’s dry and Jessica’s furniture and other bits and pieces are in place she’ll be moving out of our bedroom. Hopefully this will improve sleep in general for all of us, as neither she nor we will be disturbed by the others in the room stirring.

Gabriella