The night before yesterday (Thursday 10th to Friday 11th) Jessica slept an amazing 9 hours! Straight through from 9.15pm to 6.20am…! That’s her longest sleep ever. She was a bit restless in her cot for the last hour and a half in the morning and at 4am she cried out in her sleep (which woke me up though she seemed to carry on sleeping unperturbed). Nights of solid sleep are not the norm, though: last night Jessica woke up for that more rare 2am feed and took a little while to settle again afterwards (though I’m happy to say she managed to go to sleep herself in the cot and not in my arms) – possibly partly due to the fact that she slept for a few hours during the early evening, something we normally try to avoid: we actually had to wake her to put her to bed, which felt kind of silly…! Though, to be fair to us, we still needed to change her nappy and clothes for the night and give her that last feed, so it wasn’t a completely pointless exercise.
We’ve done the bedtime routine twice more now, and both times she’s taken only about 15 minutes to go to sleep after being put in the cot and both times she’s gone to sleep about 9.15pm. Yesterday evening I didn’t stay by Jessica’s side to watch her fall asleep but after a few minutes I said goodnight, kissed her on the cheek and left her in room with the nightlight on. I’m not sure whether my presence distracts her and just makes her want to chat and play instead of going to sleep.
Another thing I’m not sure of is what to do after her last feed before I put her in the cot… I need to keep her on my lap for a while – hold her sitting upright for ten-fifteen minutes to help her food not bouncing, and also because I’ve read that if you put the baby to bed straight away after a feed they might make the association food/sleep and start to become dependent on having something to eat in order to settle every time. But the ‘problem’ is that I then risk her drifting off in my arms and I don’t want to put her in the cot already asleep – apart from that I’ve read that it can be confusing and distressing for a baby to find herself alone in her cot when last thing she remembers she was with her mum or dad, I also don’t want her to start becoming dependent on being in someone’s arms to go to sleep. So I probably have to avoid, say, siging a lullaby while she’s still sitting with me. But at the same time, I can’t do anything too excite her too much…
Oh, there’s so much to ‘worry’ about, isn’t there…? I’m sure we’ll work it out.
Yesterday early evening Ian’s Mum was babysitting again, while Ian’s Dad drove Ian and I over to Horley to view a flat. It was nice enough, all the white goods and floors seemed new and we met the landlord, who seemed friendly and helpful. But it was too small, not enough storage space (including absolutely nowhere to put a pram) and without that small garden/patch of grass that we so wanted for Jessica. So it had to be no and we’ll have to keep looking.
Just a final note for today: in the last week Jessica has started grabbing things between her fingers. I’m sure it’s not really deliberate, but she’ll often grab hold of the edge of a muslin when I feed or burp her, her bib (and flap it up and down a bit, which is quite funny), the neck of my top while I’m breastfeeding, and I’ve also seen her grab hold of one of the tentacles of the soft toy octopus in the baby gym.
I mentioned before that her fist will go into her mouth quite a lot – sometimes as part of the message ‘I am hungry’ and sometimes after she’s thrown up (perhaps to try to take away the nasty taste…?) but mainly, it seems, just because she fancies it – but today she was very chatty for a while, and persisted in talking whilst chewing her fist at the same time… Full marks for effort, and she was absolutely adorable too (when isn’t she, though…?).
Gabriella