There seems to be a while now in-between each post, which hasn’t been intentional. Last weekend Jessica’s morfar (maternal granddad) came over from Sweden to visit and before then I was busy trying to get Jessica’s room reasonably ready, so that she could move in there and Ian could move back into the bedroom (now minus noisy baby), thus leaving the living room floor for my Dad to sleep on. I’m pleased to announce that the walls in Jessica’s room are now a nice matte, soft and grey-ish purple, instead of the glossy and slightly garish blue they were before, and that she has moved in and successfully slept in there every night for a week now. If she wakes up during the night she resettles herself most of the time – I can still hear her cry from our room but if she’s just making little sleepy noises or chat to herself I don’t.
Shelves, curtains and all sorts of other bits and pieces still need to be sorted, which might take a little while, but I’ll post some piccies of Jessica’s room when it’s more or less ready.
Some mornings she has woken up as early as 4am, though, so I’ve changed her nappy, given her a bit of formula, kissed her and put her back in bed. She’s complained but gone back to sleep after about 20 minutes or so. I don’t want her to get in the habit of expecting to get up and play at 4am (even though that seems to be what she wants to do…!), as it would very likely drive me mad in the long run…
She does get me out of bed at 5.30 – 6am, when she starts to cry (quite possibly from having laid there awake for a while and got bored) and I fish her out and bring her downstairs. If she can tolerate it, I change her nappy and clothes and give her a wash before breakfast. Breakfast is still formula and not solids – I haven’t got that far yet. Firstly, I decided to defer it until after my Dad’s visit. When I did get up slightly earlier than Jessica to make oat porridge a few mornings ago, I foolishly decided to give Jessica a change and a wash before food, at which point she was too hungry to have the patience to eat from a bowl and spoon… This morning I was slow off the mark and didn’t get up until 6am, so resorted to the bottle again. Did make her porridge with cooked apple for second breakfast, though, so at least I’m introducing the idea of having cereals at the beginning of the day rather than the end of it. (Thought I’d try to give her some dinner-style food instead of porridge early evening instead.)
I’m happy to report that Jessica’s sleeping during the day has notably improved since I started putting her in her cot for her morning nap. When I took her for a walk in the morning her nap got shorter and shorter, until it was only 20 minutes. It was just a case of facing the fact that she wouldn’t get properly rested this way. What happens now is that most mornings I still put Jessica in her push chair but we only walk Ian to the station and then walk back home – at least we get a bit of fresh air almost first thing, but I’ve stopped expecting her to sleep. When we come back we play for a while before second breakfast, which is around 9am, and then she starts rubbing her eyes and/or getting cranky again around 10am, when I put her in bed again. She sleeps 1-2 hours there, which is great, as it gets her nicely in the mood for proper lunch at around 12. She usually has a nice nap in the afternoon too: 1.5-2 hours (in her cot again).
She still doesn’t like having her naps, but the association between cot and sleep seems pretty well established, so that even if she cries when I close the door around her she’s usually asleep within 2-3 minutes. If she isn’t, I go back at five minute intervals, pick her up and hold her until she calms down, give her a kiss and put her back down. I’ve never had to do that more than twice.
Jessica trying to walk is really exciting! She wants to stand up almost all the time, grabbing hold on our fingers to support her, but she’s started to walk between pieces of furniture now, relying on us to keep her steady by one hand or both, but more often letting go of us completely to grab hold on to the sofa, a chair, her control panel toy or even us. She can support herself holding on the above for a fair while now, without wobbling too much, and does adjust her grip to steady herself successfully more and more. Sometimes she’ll bend down to reach for toys or muslins on the floor to try to pick them up without holding on to anything and then she wants to straighten herself up with the toy in her hand (or mouth), which means a steady grip around her waist is needed… Generally, she’s pretty fearless: if she sees something she wants to reach she sometimes just lets go of both hands and launches herself forward, so we have to keep on our toes to keep her from falling flat on her face…!
We haven’t got her a walker, as we have carpeted floors and not enough floor space, which means she wouldn’t get very far in it… Also, I read somewhere that walkers where the baby sit and walk don’t tend to strengthen their ankles enough, which doesn’t sound too good, if that is the case. This obviously means that until she’s a bit more steady on her feet, we (and especially I) have to spend that bit more time with her to give her opportunity to practice. I’m already looking around our house with a slight feeling of dread thinking of all those things we’ll have to move or make baby-proof for when she’s properly mobile…!
Going back to my Dad’s visit, which is where this post started, Jessica really enjoyed herself having him around and was in a extra-special cheerful mood all weekend. Must have been getting all that attention…! Especially as her farmor, farfar and faster Wendy (the latter bearing gifts, a fantastically fun set of stacking cups!) came over for coffee and cake on the Sunday afternoon (23rd Sep) and played with Jessica for hours. We took a few photos, of course:
Gabriella