Jessica’s blog.

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