A bit of an overview of the routine (or lack of…) in our lives almost 7 (!) weeks on:
It has been a while now since we ruled out tummy ache as the cause of Jessica’s occasional grizzliness. The fact that she hasn’t been pulling her legs up to her tummy for a very long while, coupled with the fact that she can fall asleep very soundly and peacefully just after a short bout of crying, would indicate that she isn’t in that much discomfort… She’s windy sometimes – like all babies, I would assume – so we take care burping her a few more times during each feed, which also has reduced the amount of food she throws up. In addition, we have started to notice a difference when she cries because she needs further burping or when she wants more food. She has plenty of signs for the latter: fist/fingers in mouth, one arm agitatedly going up and down (which makes a thumping sound against her mattress during the night – a very useful indicator for me, as she so far hasn’t cried for food while in her cot during the night, when I have to go by visual signs mainly), craning her neck whilst turning head to the one side with mouth open as if reaching for imaginary nipple, nozzling in against one’s face/cheek when held over one’s shoulder and then, of course, the red, screwed up face to complement any combination of the above and highlight the urgency…!
With regards to feeding patterns, we’ve had the odd ‘text book’ day, when Jessica’s asked for food six times during 24 hours at pretty much spot on 3-hour intervals. Other days have been frustrating, with Jessica wanting to snack constantly, then falling asleep or growing disinterested after only a small amount of food, which in turn ‘spoils it’ for the next feed, which subsequently isn’t that substantial either. Those days we’ve tried to distract her from thinking about being peckish but there’s only so many different things one can come up with (waltzing together around the room, Mum pretending to be a makeshift fun fair ride or Dad using Jessica as a ‘dumbbell’, shaking multi-coloured rattles in front of her, guided tour around the windows of the flat, rocking her on one’s lap whilst singing, etc.). And most of the time she still keeps crying for food until we give in and she gets some…
Jessica’s nights tend to be fairly predictable with a feed around 2 am and one around 6 am, but she has slept through the night twice now recently: a few days back she slept from 11pm to 5am (while her Mum didn’t sleep much at all, since I kept checking if Jessica was okay from about 2.30 am…) and only last night she slept from midnight until just after 6 am. Ian and I had got the impression from baby books, midwives, etc., that babies were meant to nicely fall into a routine by themselves, but we’re still to see evidence of this…! No matter. Jessica didn’t come with a manual, neither for her reference or ours, so we’re all learning together.
Another first took place on Good Friday: Jessica had her first babysitter around, Auntie Wendy, for a few hours, while Ian and I walked over to Reigate to watch a film. Ian and I found it quite a strange experience being out together without Jessica for the first time in 6 1/2 weeks…! I’m proud to say we didn’t sit on edge all the way throughout the film nor text or phone Wendy every five minutes to check that everything was okay. When we got back to the flat, after three hours away, all was well, the house was still standing and both Wendy and Jessica were still sane, so the experience worked out quite well for the four of us. (Must do this again as soon as Wendy comes back from her African adventure…!)
What else has happenend since last? Well, Jessica’s been sitting in her ‘baby bouncer’ or ‘bouncing cradle’ a few times now. I tried to put it together it during the week, hoping to put her in it as a distraction when she was crying, but the assembly instructions didn’t seem to make much sense with Jessica wailing in my ears, so I abandoned that project pretty swiftly… (Don’t knock Mums as people capable of working under extreme pressure – they’d do excellently in the SAS…!) Ian put it together the following day (and very kindly said that the instructions hadn’t been of much use as they confused the issue), strapped Jessica in and reported back that she seemed to really enjoy it. Jessica’s neck muscles are getting stronger (she’s always lifting her head up high to look around when we hold her over our shoulders) so of course we’d like her to sit upright more so she can take in more of her surroundings.
Another fun thing is Jessica’s extended ‘vocabulary’: she’s making more and more different types of noises and it’s great to hear. Her laugh – a happy, gurgling sound – is fantastic!
Gabriella