Jessica is developing more and more every day – lots of little things, really, but when we look at photos from a month or even a week ago, it seems like she has grown so much. Hard to believe that she is almost 10 weeks now…! She is much more vocal now and I don’t mean screaming, but making all sorts of noises as if she’s having conversations with us (or with herself, or imaginary friends…). She also likes to make the odd little delighted shriek every so often – usually she’s waving arms and legs at the time and looks generally excited and happy. Sometimes she gets bored in our arms or lying on the sofa – she’ll start complaining, craning her neck to look around her, and it turns out she wants to be put in the baby gym for a ‘kick & box’ session. It’s so nice to have an active little baby!
Sometimes when I hold her in my arms and sing to her, she’ll look at my mouth very intently and start to move her lips and make the odd sound, as if she’s trying to sing along. She also likes being carried around upright, looking at things around us over our shoulders – especially windows, light fittings and our book shelves seem to be of interest. Her head still wobbles from side to side a bit but her neck has got much stronger now. As she isn’t three months yet, I suppose she’s still meant to see the world in black and white, i.e. contrasts between dark and light rather than colour. (Wonder how on Earth ‘they’ worked that one out…?) In that case I can certainly see why lights and reflections can be fascinating.
She’s also still a very hiccupy baby… For some reason she seems to mostly be in the baby gym when the hiccups start, in which case she sometimes can keep playing for quite a while without being bothered, but inevitably the hiccups carry on for that little bit too long and she starts to cry. Taking her for a walk around the flat or a dance and song around the living room seems the best thing to calm her down in those situations. (She doesn’t seem to have learnt yet that the hiccups do go away…)
Whereas up to about 3 weeks back Jessica didn’t like having her nappy changed (clothes coming off and back on again, all those damp bits of cotton wool getting everywhere) and usually made sure to complain about it, she now seems to quite enjoy it as an opportunity for social interaction. (Sometimes we actually use it as a trick to get her back in a good mood again if she’s a bit grizzly…) She starts to smile and chuckle at us, waving her arms and legs about as if she’s determined to charm us (which she does completely, as she is adorable…).
The only things she really grabs at the moment are our fingers, or a piece of muslin or strand of hair if they just happen to be there, but none of it seems to be with the intent of grabbing that particular object. So naturally it follows that not many toys have attracted her interest yet – apart from noisy or dangly ones. The toys in the baby gym can keep Jessica entertained for 20-30 minutes. The stuffed toy cow with a music box inside that she got from Anna, Phil and kids attracts her interest when in her pram (I have tied it to the carry cot cover above her head). But the toy that’s really been a ‘lifesaver’ is the rainmaker rattle Jessica received from Auntie Wendy. It’s essentially a plastic ‘tube’ divided into three sections with holes in the walls in between and a load of multi-coloured beads inside: when you turn the rattle over, the beads run through the holes from the one end of the ‘tube’ to the other and the sound is reminiscent of smattering rain. If we turn this over and over about 20-25 centimetres (8-10 inches) in front of her face she’ll stare at it in true fascination, which can go on for a good ten-fifteen minutes (depending on when Mum/Dad gets bored or an aching arm…) – and this is even from a state of seemingly inconsolable crying!
Jessica is sleeping through the night every so often now; actually, she seldom wakes up for a 1am/2am feed anymore, more usually not until around 4/5 or even 6am. Hopefully this will settle and become the norm, so that her Mum gets more unbroken sleep too!
Gabriella