We’ve all been down with a cold: Jessica first, then me and now Ian. Jessica is better now, only an occasional cough and a few sneezes now and then. But she’s not coughing or sneezing in the night anymore and is sleeping much better – while she had a cold she woke up a few times in the night and cry, needing a cuddle and a lullaby to go back to sleep. Last night she stirred a couple of times but it was normal stuff and she resettled herself fairly quickly each time and slept until just after 6am.
Apart from extra grisliness, due to being extra tired and waking up in the night, Jessica didn’t seem troubled by her cold at all. She was her usual cheerful self: giggling, smiling and being very active. (I guess she didn’t know she had a cold and was supposed to be ill…!) She is incredibly keen to stand up now and wants to do it all the time. She reaches her arms up as a signal for us to offer her our hands and then she grabs our hands and pulls herself up to standing. She sways a bit but is getting increasingly steadier on her feet. She’s quite brave too, often lets go of one of our hands to reach down to the floor for a toy and then stand up again holding the toy – something she doesn’t yet have the balance for, so we have to provide a bit extra support there…
She’s also started putting a foot in front of the other to move herself about and has walked the entire length of our living room, holding Ian’s hands! We can temporarily let go of her hands now for her to support herself against the seat on the sofa, a chair or her ‘control panel’-style toy, only for a few seconds but it’s great to see. She’ll grab our trouser legs and the bottom of the sofa, etc., but hasn’t actually yet tried to pull herself up using anything other than our hands for support. You can tell how chuffed she is about standing up when you see the look on her face: big wide-open mouth, eyes squinting with excitement and happy shrieks…!
Jessica’s eating has been a bit so-so the last week. I’m sure she’s had enough to eat – when she’s been too tired for solids we’ve given her formula instead. Some meals she’s had plenty of solids and other not very much, but fruit usually finds its way down into her tummy either way.
You may remember me mentioning at the beginning of weaning Jessica that she kept grabbing the spoon trying to feed herself. This stopped happening after a while – whenever I’d offer her to take the spoon she’d just launch her head forward to get the spoon in her mouth and didn’t seem interested in taking charge herself. Now she’s started reaching for the spoon again, often smearing food about her face before what’s left on the spoon reaches its destination… She’ll often drop the spoon once she’s done with it and she likes to dive into the bowl and grab a handful of food. Occasionally she gets distracted by the sight of her feet and takes a break to grab them for a bit. Needless to say, mealtimes can get very messy nowadays… When she grabs food with her hands, though, I should add, it’s to try and put it in her mouth, something that is less successful with all things puréed. But it was great to see her grab a small piece of bread only a few days ago and put it in her mouth, holding it very carefully between thumb and index finger, no less…
I’m hoping to introduce a breakfast meal soon. Was going to try oat porridge to see how well that goes down. (As Jessica is a vegetarian baby, I’m extra keen to see to it that she gets as many different types of nutrients in her diet as soon as possible.) Then the mid-morning meal can be a formula meal. Lunch will remain lunch, but I’d like to introduce dinner too, which is a bit tricky as Jessica gets tired fairly early in the evenings. She still ‘hits a wall’ at 6.30pm (6pm during her cold), when she starts rubbing her eyes, cries at the slightest thing and nothing can distract her from being grizzly. (She doesn’t have a very loud cry, but if it ever does get loud it’s at this time of day…) At that point all we can do is change her nappy and clothes for the night, give her her evening feed and put her to bed. Beyond 5.30pm there’s usually no point trying to offer her solids, as she’ll just start to cry at the sight of them. So we’ll have to try to squeeze in dinner as a meal halfway between the 3/4pm and 6.30/7pm formula feeds. It’s a lot of meals in a few hours but I don’t know how else to make sure that she has enough. So far we’ve given her baby rice with fruit or berries at 5/5.30pm and if I’ve ever skipped that, she’s woken up hungry early morning. All suggested baby menus I’ve seen include 6 meals (3 formula and 3 solids) for this age group but I guess her day just isn’t long enough.
Another solution is of course to bring all meals slightly closer together, but then it’d feel like there wasn’t time for much else but meals in the day. The main problem is that she doesn’t nap well during the day. She just doesn’t sleep for long enough – some days it has been as bad as 20 minutes in the morning and 20 early afternoon! As a result, Ian and I have unfortunately gradually gone from the ‘no tiptoeing around baby, it’s better that she learns to sleep anywhere with any noise going on’-approach to a much more cautious one, involving a partly closed door around Jessica if she’s in her cot and us being very careful about making any loud or sudden noises in the house while she’s napping.
We just have to face it that she’s one of those babies who won’t easily sleep wherever, whenever, and that she needs a bit of extra help to make sure she gets some decent daytime sleep. Even when she’s just about to nod off she won’t relax and go with it, but forces her eyes open or jerks herself awake… It’s lovely to have a curious and sociable baby, who wants to take part and know what’s going on, but unfortunately – those days when she doesn’t get enough sleep – this makes her a bit of a cranky baby, who isn’t enjoying herself as much as she could.
As it happens, she’s having a long, nice afternoon nap as I write this: she’s clocking up two hours so far… The swimming lesson must have really taken it out of her again this morning. She had about 20-25 minutes sleep afterwards in the pushchair as I was walking through Redhill and that was it until 1.30pm when I put her in her cot.
I fear that our barefoot days in the garden will be over very soon. September has been lovely – hot and sunny: summer came late this year. The hot and sticky nights I feared with a sleepless baby as a result didn’t happen, as nights have been cool for a while now. I’m sure we’ll go for a wander in the garden still but we’ll spend less time there and I’m sure we’ll all miss that.
Just wanted to say before I sign off that yesterday evening I finally finished the second coat of paint on the walls in Jessica’s room…! So as soon as the paint’s dry and Jessica’s furniture and other bits and pieces are in place she’ll be moving out of our bedroom. Hopefully this will improve sleep in general for all of us, as neither she nor we will be disturbed by the others in the room stirring.
Gabriella