Jessica’s blog.

A bit of a dull day today weather-wise, but quite refreshing. Went out for a walk with Jessica in the pram this afternoon but only down to the post office and local supermarket, so not that much fresh air for Jessica unfortunately. I had a bit more exercise myself earlier in the day – Ian’s Mum came over to babysit Jessica while I walked over to my post-natal Pilates class in Reigate. As I missed out on the whole class last week, I thought it was best not to take any chances… Also, as it had been a little while since Jessica and her farmor saw each other, I was hoping everyone would enjoy the arrangement.

And when I got back they seemed to have had a good time together. Jessica had been little bit cranky in the morning, possibly due to a slightly restless night – the night previous she slept through from 10pm to 6.15am (!) but last night she woke up for a feed at around 3am and was tossing and turning a bit in her cot from around 5am – but when she saw her farmor she cheered right up! Jessica isn’t yet at that age when only Mum will do – to be brutally realistic about it, she probably doesn’t mind much at the mo who’s feeding, burping and cuddling her, as long as someone does…! But I’m sure she still recognises people, voices and smells. And she’ll start having her preferences sooner than we know it.

Gabriella

April this year (Jessica’s first, of course) was said to be the warmest one on record. Doesn’t surprise me at all, as we had proper summer weather for quite a while. Made me unsure of how to dress Jessica when out and about. Felt fairly sure she should still be covered all over – though of course not too thickly – but should she wear a hat or not? Only had a winter-style hat for her until my sister sent a few lovely sunhats in the post. But as we’re not exposing Jessica to direct sunlight (my little vampire baby…) as she’s under six months of age, does she still need to wear a hat in the shade? Maybe not when it’s getting really hot. And then we probably won’t worry about covering her all over, rather it’ll be a case of trying to help keep her cool. Not really looking forward to those hot summer nights that seem to be more or less the rule nowadays, due to global warming…

I try to take Jessica out in the pram most days, either for a walk into Reigate, up on Redhill Common or over to the Memorial Park, sometimes to meet up with people and sometimes just to get out of the house. Great with fresh air for the both of us. Last time it was overcast part of the time, so I was able to take the hood down, hoping that she’d at least be able to see a few tree tops and clouds, but I think she slept through most of that. In general, though, she spends more and more time awake in the pram, so will hopefully be able to take in more of her surroundings soon.

And speaking of going out and about, already at barely three months Jessica’s fast approaching the length of the carry cot in her pram. If she’s meant to lie flat until the age of six months, we can’t see that the pram will last – there’s still enough space at the top and bottom at the mo, but we’re pretty sure that won’t be the case in another three months…

Jessica’s great fun in the baby gym – talking, gurgling and emitting little happy shrieks. She quite happily plays by herself, but if she’s starting to get bored, us joining her in playing renews her interest. She smiles at us so often, it’s incredible – she must be such a happy little baby! We both have little pretend conversations with her. (Just so wish we knew what ‘un-goo’ means – when she’s old enough to be able to tell us, she’ll have forgotten all about it…!) She’s putting her fist in her mouth quite a lot now, sucking her fingers – exploring her hand and mouth.

Gabriella

I’ve really enjoyed the last couple of weeks as I’ve been working locally. The luxury of being able to spend more time with Jessica in the mornings, come home for lunch to see the lovely ladies, then be home by half past five, is truly wonderful. Sadly, my secondment came to a premature end (it should have been for four weeks) and I’ll need to start commuting next week. There is a possibility that a permanent job will be available, but that’s probably a few months away, if it does happen. The brief two weeks has made me realise what I’m missing, so I’ll start actively looking for a job closer to home.

Jessica is making more and more sounds, her favourite being “un-goo”. Also, when we were in the hospital two weeks ago, both Gabriella and I heard her make a noise that definitely sounded like “Daddy!”. So, there we have it, Jessica’s first word… (We’re not going to be pushy parents, but if she hasn’t got her first in Astrophysics whilst becoming the world number one at tennis by the age of 14, then there’ll be trouble…!)

Her neck’s much stronger now and she’ll regularly look around her when she’s over my shoulder being burped – though the side-effect of this is that when she vomits, there’s a larger area covered. Floor, settee, Gabriella’s feet, you name it she’s covered it at some point…
On Thursday, Jessica met her morsmoster (great-aunt) Monica who’d come up from Frome to visit. The three of them enjoyed a pleasant day (I joined them for lunch), including taking Jessica out for a walk, which as usual, she slept through.

I’ve added a new link (Videos) to the blog, where you can watch some clips of Jessica being generally cute!

Ian.

Jessica certainly has recovered from her illness – I took her to the health visitor’s clinic today to weigh her again and she’s back on track and a bit above, weighing 6.38 kilos (14 lbs 1 oz). Obviously me breastfeeding her again isn’t doing her any harm. But it’s strange to not have a clue again of how much she’s actually eating. I just have to trust her to take care of that herself and also trust that I can read her signs for when she is hungry.

At ten weeks, I think she might be having a bit of a growth spurt, as she was feeding pretty much every hour for a few hours yesterday evening and also this morning. The latter was a bit inconvenient for me, as I had my post-natal Pilates class today: Jessica fell asleep nicely in the pram on the way there but about five minutes into the class, she decided she wanted food and I spent the rest of the class at the back, breastfeeding her… So that was a bit of a waste of getting all changed into my exercise clothes, rushing to get ready and out this morning. Well, I guess it can’t run smoothly every time. At least that gave me my first experience of breastfeeding in a public place (which was fine, of course, as the class consisted of other mums and a very baby-friendly tutor). When Jessica was nicely full she sat on my lap giggling for a bit and completely charmed the Pilates tutor by smiling lots at her. So at least she scored herself some points in the general PR area…!

Gabriella