Jessica’s blog.

It’s been a while since the last post, but as I think I mentioned previously we’ve been busy moving home.
Anyway, we’re in the new place, a two bedroom house in Horley. There are a couple of reasons why we moved. The first is as Jessica got bigger, it was getting harder to carry her up and down two flights of stairs. The second, and probably more important, is that there’s a garden (the only downside to that is that we’ve got to mow the grass – anyone know where I can buy a goat…?).

We’re currently surrounded by boxes, all waiting to be emptied, but this is slow progress as Jessica needs extra attention at the moment as she’s been upset by the move. I think it’s just that there’re so many new sights and smells, so she’ll take a while to settle in. She does seem to be settling back into her regular routine more and more thankfully.

Jessica is trying harder and harder to roll over onto her front. She gets onto her side and her top leg stretches out to help her pivot – it’s only the lower arm that is preventing her from completing the roll. We do help her sometimes a little bit, just to show her what she needs to do.

When we put Jessica on her front, she moves her arms and legs in a crawling action. She hasn’t got the strength in her limbs though (yet), to lift her torso off the ground, so we’re safe for a little bit longer knowing that she’ll still be where we left her…!

Jessica’s vocabulary is increasing too, with more and more variation to the various baby-grunts, squawks and chuckles. She’s also started to look at our food, a sign that apparently means she’s ready to start weaning. So it’s out with the food processor and blending anything and everything that we eat… Seriously, I read an article in a newspaper a while ago, where parents were making up food for their babies using gravy granules and blending the previous night’s takeaway. Scary!

We’ll be posting a few pictures (and possibly some video footage too) from our trip to Sweden in the next week or so. We can’t get to the PC at the moment because of all those pesky boxes!

Hopefully, normal service will be resumed on the blog front now.

Bye for now,

Ian.

Jessica has finally met her cousin, Isac.  We arrived in Sweden late on Wednesday so the two of them had to wait until Thursday to meet.  It went really well; Isac appeared fascinated by the smaller person and Jessica smiled, giggled then beamed at him in her own inimitable way.  They spent much time reaching out (Isac more so) and chatting to each other. There’re plenty of photos and video footage to mark the momentous event.  These, along with the many other photos that have been taken so far, will be posted in a separate folder on the main Photo Gallery. Although with the imminent move, there may be a bit of a delay on that.

Another first for Jessica was the trip here.  The journey itself went better than Gabriella and I had anticipated.  Other than major grizzliness standing in the queue for Security at Gatwick Airport, (if you ever want to fast-track, get a very hungry baby!) it went pretty well. Take off wasn’t too bad as Jessica was feeding, this advice we’d be given to help equalise the ears worked well.  As the flight was when she would normally be going to bed, we were hoping that she would sleep through most of the flight.  It didn’t quite work as shortly after take-off, just as Jessica was nodding off, we hit a bit of turbulance and it woke her with a real jolt.  It took Gabriella most of the rest of the flight getting her back to sleep.
We were picked up at the airport in Sweden and soon arrived at Malin and Norredin’s, where we are staying for a few nights.

Gabriella, Jessica, Malin, Isac and I spent the afternoon in Uppsala on Thursday looking at some of the sights (totally wasted on Jessica and also, I suspect, Isac) – still we have the photographic evidence that they were there!

Yesterday we all went to Hammarskog, a nearby mansion, to watch the erecting of a maypole.  Jessica cried her way through that, then promptly fell asleep so missed all the subsequent dancing.  Never mind, there’ll be other opportunities in the future and she WILL join in and have fun…!

In the morning before we set off, there was yet another first for Jessica.  She had her first non-milk food.  Yep, she tried eating mild rice porridge with banana.  I’m not sure how much she actually swallowed as a lot of it ended up all round her face. It’s going to take her some getting used to not pushing back out with her tongue.  Still, at least she didn’t hate it.   I think that’s going to have to be work in progress…

Today (Saturday) we had a gathering of some of our (Malin and Norredin’s as well) friends.  It was great to show Jessica off to so many people!  Similarly, it was good to see other people’s kids that we last saw at Christmas (including one then-unborn child).

I’m sure Gabriella will want to write things about the above events too, but I thought’d be good to write a post as I haven’t in quite a while.  I’ll make sure not to leave so long till next time…

 Ian.

Apparently there is a bit of a baby boom here in the UK the moment. (Well, we’re just slaves to fashion aren’t we…?) Something that’s especially different compared to the past is that lot of new mums are in their late 30s or early 40s. I’ve felt like an old first-time mum at 34, but I guess I’m not then… Will be interesting to seee what happens with schools, for example, when Jessica’s generation grows up: will there be enough resources…?

Jessica and Mummy:

Had our second baby massage session in Merstham yesterday. Jessica arrived soundly asleep again and had to be woken up for the massage, but she didn’t seem to mind at all – she was just thrilled about the other babies, mums and tutors. And once again she did me proud by being so alert, happy and chatty – it got commented on. She was craning her neck so much to see what was going on behind her that she rolled up on her right hand side and was lying there for a while. (I was hoping to see her actually roll but, alas, not just yet…) She wasn’t really taking any notice of what I was doing, apart from wriggling a bit extra when I massaged her feet (ticklish…?). Baby massage is meant to be an opportunity for bonding between Mummy/Daddy and baby, but I guess Jessica and I do a lot of bonding otherwise anyway and it’ll be easier to get her full attention when we’re on our own at home without too many fun distractions.

After the massage I put her on her front for a bit, at which she started to making lots of creaking noises in sheer delight. Then after a while she started to tip sideways and then falling on to her side, but that got her a bit frustrated – I guess because she seemed to be out of control of her limbs – so I fished her up. Her energy reserves were getting depleted at that point, and as the other babies started to cry, Jessica remembered that she should be hungry right about now and started to do the same…

For the last two nights, Jessica has been going to sleep around 7.30pm but then woken up for an additional feed around 3/3.15am. I guess she won’t be properly sleeping through the night until she has something more ‘substantial’ than breastmilk to keep her going. It’s made me feel a bit drained daytime – I guess I’ve been spoilt with her not waking up until 6/6.30 for a few weeks…!

The night before last, by the way, Jessica was wide awake and aware when I put her in her cot, but just lay there for a while, without a sound, looking at the ceiling and running her left hand down the bumper guard on the side of her cot, and even lifting the bumper guard slightly to peer behind it. And then, about ten minutes later, she was fast asleep… I’ve been a bit worried about her being able to fall asleep by herself at night, as for quite a while now I’ve kept her sitting upright for about 20 minutes after her feed, to help her keep her food down, and she usually falls asleep in my arms. For obvious reasons I don’t want her to become dependant on falling asleep that way – it would limit the options for both of us quite severely. At least now we know she can fall asleep on her own.

Gabriella

Jessica is so ‘chatty’ nowadays, she can sit/lie and hold lengthy monologues and it doesn’t seem to matter if anyone’s there to listen. It’s fun, though – she’s obviously trying out her vocal cords and it’s all happy sounds (and nothing too loud – as yet…).

Her farmor Diana came around this morning to help packing a bit in preparation for our move. We managed one big-ish box of crockery before Jessica demanded attention and then Diana looked after Jessica when a surveyor from a removal firm came around to view our place to quote for the move. Another firm came over yesterday and I’m waiting for a further one this afternoon – just to give us some comparison. Before Diana had to leave, her, me and Jessica popped over to the health visitor clinic to have Jessica weighed. Jessica was very happy about the whole experience, chatting away to herself/us throughout. She clocked 7.56 kilos (16lbs 11oz), which is just slightly above what she ‘should’ weigh. I wanted especially to weigh her today, as she was 16 weeks yesterday and will be 4 calendar months next Wednesday, when I might not be able to weigh her as we’re flying to Sweden that day.

Jessica’s sleeping has changed slightly now, with her bedtime moved forward. For most of last week, bedtime routine started just after 7pm with her falling asleep around 8pm (and after these nights she still woke up about 6am) but the last few evenings she’s got grizzly from tiredness and hunger already around 6.30pm, so we’ve started the last feed then with her falling asleep around 7.30pm. However, she woke up at 5.15am this morning and didn’t want to go back to bed – too busy chatting and giggling – so I plonked her in the babygym until she got tired again around 7am and it was time for a nap. I’m sure these times will change again, though…

Gabriella

The weekend was fantastic – summer again! – and we made a little family excursion over to Box Hill Sunday afternoon. First time for me and Jessica in the new car too. She seemed happy enough in her car seat in the back and spent most of the journey both there and back asleep. We didn’t worry about the pram but brought the Baby Björn carrier and at Box Hill Jessica seemed to enjoy herself looking at people, trees and the views from her elevated position at Daddy’s chest. We sat down on the slope at the view point while Ian and I had an ice cream, then Jessica decided that she wanted something too and started to cry, so we went back to the car to breastfeed in a bit of privacy… Afterwards we went for a little stroll before hopping in the car to go back home again. Only a few hours out and about, but it was nice to be able to. Looking foward to having our own garden, where we can sit and chill without always having to worry about the trip home.

This morning Jessica and I went by bus to the hospital again for the post natal group. Time for some baby massage this session (though a speed-through taster version due to the size of the group and the limited time). I had to wake Jessica for us to be able to do the massage bit – all the other babies were wide awake on their mums’ laps, so Jessica was noticed again for snoozing away in her pram… When she started to wake up properly, she seemed absolutely thrilled by all the babies around her, kept turning her head from side to side with wide-open eyes and a big smile, and every so often she’d chat or creak delightedly (yes, for a few weeks now she has got increasingly fond of making this noise, a type of creaking sound is the best way to describe it).

We happened to sit next to a mum with a baby girl born on exactly the same day as Jessica, and it was kind of funny because they were not too dissimilar in length and build, and at one point both Jessica and the other baby girl, Lily, were craning their necks to look at the other one, Jessica with her right hand in her mouth and Lily with her left – like little mirror reflections of each other…!

When we went to lay our babies on their tummies for a bit of back massage, Jessica got noticed for holding her head so high (“your baby’s strong!”). She doesn’t really hold it that high at home together with only boring old Mummy about, but she was probably so excited about all the other people being there that she tried to see as much as possible! After the baby massage bit, a paediatric physiotherapist spoke for a while about baby development, which was quite interesting, and I had Jessica on my lap with her back against me so that she could see as much as possible. But towards the end of it all it got a bit too much for her: she was getting tired, it was hot in the room and with one baby after the next around her getting cranky, she started to cry too. As soon as I had got her dressed and we were out in the fresh air, though, she calmed down and fell asleep.

With our trip to Sweden over midsummer, Ian not coming home until late during the week and me looking after Jessica, we don’t have much time to pack our things ready for our move the end of this month. We have started already (well, Ian mainly) and are looking to do it all bit by bit, but it means that I sadly won’t have much time to meet up with people for the next few weeks and also that I might not be able to write as much on the blog as I have tried to do so far. We will try to keep you updated regularly still, but perhaps not quite as often for a little while – just to give you some advance warning…

Gabriella

Jessica slept from 8.15pm yesterday to 6.45am today, and she didn’t want breakfast straight away either – we had a nice chat and a giggle as I changed her nappy and clothes before we went into the living room for the morning. (Usually I have a lie-in on Saturdays and Ian on Sundays, but we swapped this weekend.) It’s 8.50am as I write this, and Jessica is asleep again – after a short feed at 7am, we looked at a magazine and a book and then she played in the babygym for about half an hour before she got tired again. She cried at first when I lay her down but when I sang her a lullaby she started to doze off. She’s sleeping on the sofa now but I’m keeping a close eye on her. She’s at that age now when she could start rolling at any time, so we need to be careful (and she really should go back in her cot every time she sleeps – I just didn’t want to disturb Ian…).

Jessica in the gym this morning:

Early afternoon today we’ll be going over to Horley for a second viewing of the semi-detached house that we’ll be renting from 30th June. As we have Jessica now, we wanted a ground floor place with a garden, and this place seemed just right. We’re renting still, and have received the contract so the place is definitely ‘ours’, but we wanted to view it again without the furniture of the previous tenants to double-check some things and measure up some spaces to see how we could best fit our things in. Have found that I’m getting a bit excited about the fact that Jessica will have her own room and I’ll get to sort it out before she moves in some time in August…! (She’s staying in our room still until she’s 6 months old.) As we’re renting, I can’t make too many changes, of course. I seem to remember that the walls in that room are a nice blue, so that’s fine, though I’m thinking more and more that it’d be nice if I could paint them a bit more imaginatively – leave the blue at the top half but perhaps paint them green at the bottom half to represent grass, add a few trees and maybe a castle in the background on a hill… Maybe I’d be allowed to if we promised we’ll paint it a plain blue again before we leave.

I carry Jessica over my left shoulder as I’m right-handed and she usually watches the world over my left shoulder (with Ian it’s the opposite way around). But on Thursday (7th June) she decided to turn around and lean back slightly so that she was in front of me and could watch things on my right-hand side. That’s great for me, as I can then see where her gaze is aimed and the expression on her face without craning my neck too much or guessing. She also discovered me (yes, it wasn’t just some mode of transportation, it was Mummy!) and looked me straight in the eyes, seemingly slightly surprised at first but then smiling and chatting away.

Another thing, when I was singing to her with her on my lap this morning, he kept reaching out to grab my bottom lip and chin. Good thing I cut her nails this morning too (actually for the first time while she was awake)…!

Gabriella

Made another, different train journey yesterday, only 4 minutes this time, over to Merstham. My health visitor had signed me up for a baby massage course, arranged by the NHS. There are five sessions, all on a Thursday morning (of which Jessica and I will miss two, but never mind – I’m sure we’ll get plenty out of the ones we do attend). I was a bit worried about getting there in time – Jessica was snoozing away in her cot still at 8am (after having been up for a 5am feed, I must add), so I had to wake her up but she didn’t seem to mind. Managed changing her and giving her breakfast in good time and we were out the door with enough margin to catch the train I’d intended. It’s nice when things work according to plan. (But then I’ve found that if I just stick with trying to make an appointment, even if I start to think we won’t make it, Jessica will usually help me along and more often than not things fall into place.)

It turned out to be quite a small group, just me and two other mums with our babies. The other two babies were 17 weeks old, but one was 8 weeks premature (so should probably be regarded as more like 9-10 weeks old in development terms). I couldn’t help noticing that the other two babies were very quiet and not very animated – mainly just sat and stared – whereas Jessica (once she’d decided to wake up and I’d sat her on my lap) kept looking around herself and at everyone else with keen interest, ‘talking’ to the others and instantly smiling in response to anyone that talked to her. The two tutors seemed a little bit surprised by Jessica’s high level of communication and interaction. I guess I don’t know what babies normally act like – I’m so very used to Jessica being so communicative and had assumed all babies were pretty much like her in that respect.

We had a mug of tea and a biccie each (this is England, after all…) while the tutors talked a bit about baby massage, what one should and could think about and how it worked in general. Then us mums got our babies down on nappy changing mats and towels on the floor, a bit of organic sunflower oil on our hands and were shown how to massage feet and legs. It seemed fairly straightforward, but I couldn’t say whether Jessica enjoyed it or even noticed what I did – she was very busy ‘gumming’ one of her own hands and watching the tutor who was demonstrating the massage on a doll, probably drawn to her voice. I think I got the hang of what they were showing us, though, and will practise a bit at home, if Jessica’s agreeable to that. Next time they’ll go through the feet and legs again, and then add to it, so that we gradually go through the whole body.

Jessica’s getting stronger and can keep her head higher for longer when lying on her tummy. It’s still only a matter of minutes before her head starts to droop as she’s getting tired, so it’s not like I can leave her to play on her front, really. But we’ll get there, I’m sure.

Gabriella

Just a few short notes for today. Jessica’s in the baby gym right now, but recently she seems to be getting a bit frustrated in it – it looks like she’s trying to grab the dangling toys and put them in her mouth, but as they’re hooked onto the frame she can’t pull them close enough and maybe that’s the problem. Have tried sitting her in the baby bouncer (baby sitter), which I’ve then put on top of the baby gym mat, so that she gets level with the toys and that seems more successful. Everything goes in her mouth now: her own hands (since 3-4 days her thumb seems to get slightly preferential treatment), the muslins, her bib, soft toys, the rainmaker rattle, the soft cloth baby book, Mummy’s hand… She’ll open her mouth wide and then gently bring whatever close to her mouth and taste it, tongue first. It’s adorable – and I guess I shouldn’t worry too much about germs or I’ll go spare…!

The weather was fantastic at the weekend. I had my lie-in as usual Saturday morning while Ian got up early to take care of Jessica. They always seem to have such a good time together – I always hear her giggle or shriek delightedly when I bleary-eyed make my way into the living room around 11.30am. I think Daddy’s a bit of a favourite at the mo: Jessica always seem to brighten up when he comes home in the evenings. I guess she must get tired at looking at me all day, listening to the same nursery rhymes and repetitive, one-way conversations…

On Sunday afternoon, Ian’s sister came over to show us some piccies from her Africa-trip, but first she drove the three of us over to Reigate Priory Park, where we went for a stroll. Ian carried Jessica in the Baby Björn carrier, where she was nicely rocked to sleep.
 

Yesterday she blew a few soft raspberries during the day – seems that’s one of those inevitable baby things I guess we’ll be getting more of in future.

Gabriella

Jessica’s just had a couple of hectic days – new places and new people for quite a few hours each day – and I’m pretty impressed with how well she coped with it. It got a little bit too much for her at times but I don’t blame her for complaining about that.

On the Thursday (31st May) I took her over to Horley to see Cara and Daisy again. This time Jessica was awake for most of the journey and our visit (generally she doesn’t nap as much day time as I think she needs to…). She was really happy on the platform at Redhill station, so the day started off well: gurgling and emitting little happy shrieks every so often, pausing to listen to the tannoy and then carrying on chatting.

The weather was fantastic, warm and sunny in spite of showers having been forecast, so we sat out in the garden again, under a big parasoll. Jessica was a bit cranky for a while and me picking her up, sitting her on my lap and trying to entertain her didn’t help straight away. She was a bit more interested in looking at little Daisy feeding and then she really enjoyed watching the wind rustling the pampas grass and shrubs in the corner of the garden: the latter actually kept her giggling contentedly for quite a while…!

Cara and I decided to take a photo of the two babies next to each other and thought lying them on one of the sofas in the living room might be the safest way. Daisy didn’t seem to notice much of what we were doing – but then she’s only 4 weeks old. Jessica on the other hand was enjoying the attention: smiling and chatting away. (Maybe she recognised the camera in my hand.) Cara and I managed to snap a few piccies the two girls next to each other, but then Daisy got a bit upset and started crying – right next to Jessica’s ear… Jessica’s bottom lip started to quiver and a second later she was crying too, probably out of confusion. Cara and me dived in straight away to ‘rescue’ our little babies.

Time went quite quickly and when it was time to start thinking about going home, Cara suggested giving us a lift – since her husband Richard was home, she could leave Daisy with him and Jessica could borrow Dasy’s car seat. It took a little while, however, to work out how to fit the pram into the car (part in the boot and part in the passenger seat next to Jessica in the back) and Jessica was starting to get cranky. I’d hoped to be home by the time I needed to feed her next, as it takes a little while – and seemingly even longer when we’re not at home… Once in the car though, Jessica seemed soothed by being on the move and it didn’t take long to get home plus we didn’t have to fight the stairs at Horley station – a big bonus!

Yesterday (Friday 1st June) I’d planned to meet my friend Claire at work to then stroll into Reigate for a coffee – a chance for me to ‘show Jessica off’ to my colleagues… I walked there with the pram, as the weather again turned out to be lots of sun instead of predicted showers. Jessica was asleep when I wheeled her into the department and a while after being admired by some of my colleagues she started to stir. I thought I sensed a bit of trepidation in the air – perhaps in anticipation of a screaming baby – but when Jessica had finished stretching and opened her eyes, she first just looked at the new faces around her – and then started to smile. I can’t be completely sure, but I think she just might have won a few hearts right there and then. I was a very proud Mummy at that point, as you probably can imagine…

In spite of full days in unfamiliar surroundings, Jessica settled and slept well both nights – this morning she didn’t wake up for a feed until 6am, so she must have needed the rest…!

And to finish, a couple of photos of Jessica with her Mum and Dad:

Gabriella

Instead of unusually warm, the weather’s now been unusually cold for May for a few days. Have made sure to wrap Jessica up a bit extra (especially since our floors can get a bit cold) and not really ventured out much – a shame as this was a Bank Holiday weekend and Ian and I had hoped to go out in the car on the Monday on a proper family outing. We did, however, pop out for a few hours on Sunday with the raincover very securely tucked around the pram. Jessica slept through most of our walk and probably didn’t notice that we stopped by at her farmor and farfar’s for tea and biccies on our way home.

Jessica saw her reflection for the first time yesterday morning. Her reaction was fun to watch: big smiles, laughs and lots of chatter. She kept looking into her own as well as my eyes in the mirror and seemed very happy about the whole experience. I’m assuming she didn’t know it was her but thought it was some other baby. Speaking of which, she ‘met’ her first baby today (a 17-week old girl named Daisy, no one we knew) and they had a little ‘conversation’ from over their Mums’ shoulders – absolutely adorable! If Jessica’s awake at the next post-natal group session, I wonder what she’ll make of all the babies there…!

She’s really into this smiling and chatting thing now – sometimes when I feed her, once she’s got over the first ‘desperately’ hungry stage, I sometimes see creases appear in the corners of her eyes, then her dimple, then the corner of her mouth and at that point I know she’s lying there smiling at me and have forgotten all about eating… She’s such a wonderfully happy little baby, she really is great fun to be around (if a bit exhausting at times…)!

She’s grabbing things more and more, and sometimes manages to put them in her mouth. I got her a baby book the other day, one of those first ones for 0-6 month old babies with a lot of contrast and no story line. The one I got is made of fabric with crinkly pages and the pages show patterns and simply drawn faces in black, white and yellow. When I held it up in front of her, she seemed fascinated. Each spread lasted a good few minutes as she stared at the patterns, reached out and stroked the pages, grabbed the corners of the book and wrestled it around and then put the corner of the page in her mouth.

Jessica’s farmor came around to babysit again today for a couple of hours while I went to my last (at least this time around) post-natal Pilates session. Afterwards they met up with me outside the local surgery and we went to the health visitor clinic again. I thought I’d get Jessica weighed every other week – more often is probably unnecessary and less often wouldn’t be often enough as I’d be too curious on her progress… She’s now (at 14 weeks old yesterday) 7.03 kilos (15lb and 7oz), which is right on track.

Gabriella