Saturday, February 28, 2015

Tweets - February 2015

February 1: 6 years ago I first called @robhu my boyfriend. Now he's my husband and the father of our baby. I love you my Rob monster. :-*

February 2: Team Zissou baby. http://campl.us/rV0s

February 4: I have an activity centre the size of my head but looking at mummy's phone is far more interesting.

February 4: Today my little monkey is 26 weeks old. Happy half birthday Phoebe! Today we saw some tiny newborns and you looked so big!

I have the sweetest alarm clock. She wakes me up with gurgles and pats and only the occasional finger in the mouth or eye.

February 5: Thursday's to do list. With annotations by Rob.

Cherubic sleeping baby.

Baby sleeping. I've had a shower, blow dried my hair, got dressed and now I'm eating breakfast. Luxury!

Sunbathing position.

Accomplished!

February 6: Phoebe likes chewing on muslin squares. Mind you, that's true of anything she can grab.

Things Phoebe is interested in chewing: hands (hers or mummy's), string of teething necklace, zip of mummy's fleece, her jacket sleeves.

Things Phoebe is not interested in chewing: teething necklace, Lamaze hippo toy with chewable ribbon knots.

Slowley family selfie. :-) Out at a restaurant to celebrate Phoebe's half birthday.

Phoebe behaved beautifully at D'Arry's. She had milk while we waited for the food to arrive and then sat on my lap and played with broccoli.

Baby's first cappuccino moustache.

February 9: Loving @beatonna's baby cartoons. Especially  So true!

That lovely moment when you pick up your baby and she's sick straight down your cleavage. :-/

February 11: Happy avocado smeared Phoebe.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Itchy boob! Woe! I want to go to sleep. :-(

February 12: I put Phoebe down next to me and she rolls closer to snuggle. Hang on, what's that warm sensation on my shoulder. Oh it's sick. Thanks baby.

Just below my chin, a sweet sleeping baby.

Got Phoebe from crying to giggling by singing Phoebe-be-be-be-be-be to the tune of the hall of the mountain king & bouncing to the music.

The problems of having small arms. Phoebe is very good at pushing food to the edges of the highchair team where she then can't reach it.

Phoebe has now given up on trying to eat the food and is instead playing with/chewing the sleeves of her oversized Wipe Clean bib.

Swoosh goes an arm. The pile of food which has accumulated at one side of the tray cascades to the floor.

February 13: Aaaaaaaaargh! Again. Extreme burning pain. I think I have ductal thrush. Hope I can see a sympathetic GP today. ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!

Sleeping baby transferred off mummy and still sleeping. Feel like a Mama ninja!

Flailing arms tipped with razors. Tiny fingers which hook onto nostrils. These are the means by which a tiny baby colonises a king size bed.

February 16: Valentines art by Rob. :-)

February 17: A day without Phoebe. I missed her, she missed me and was grumpy. But big smiles when she got me back and when we returned home to @robhu.

February 20: Dreamt I got stuck on a UKIP battle bus. They were friendly, but weird and kept trying to break my phone.

February 22: Phoebe is obsessed with sticking out her tongue and licking everything.

Rob likes giving Phoebe tiny amounts of things to taste. Today he gave her a little vinegar on his finger. She was not impressed!

February 23: When did all-in-ones/babygros become even standard wear for babies?

Mummy milk makes everything better. For Phoebe anyway. Wish it worked on other things/people too.

February 24: Tucking into bread and hummus. Yum!

February 25: Daddy's kazoo.

February 26: Phoebe has noticed there's another mummy in the mirror. She looks back and forth between me and the mirror with an air of puzzlement.

February 27: Signs of spring. :-)

Phoebe's gums squeak as she chews on the knobbly beads of my (teething safe) necklace. This one.

Phoebe and I are being serenaded with classic Nintendo tunes played on the kazoo by @robhu. I think that's his idea of a lullaby.

February 28: Hungry baby! Third feed since 8pm last night. Tired mummy.

Monkey is disinclined to sleep. She would rather babble, wave her arms around, chew my hands and stick sharp little fingers up my nose.

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

To Phoebe at 6 months

Dear Phoebe,

Today you are exactly 26 weeks old. 6 months have gone by since the day you were born. That tiny red faced little skinny baby has turned into a rosy cheeked, curious, happy monkey. You're still little, 9th centile, but you're growing all the time.

You're sleeping right now, or almost sleeping. We've been lying in the dark on my bed with brown noise playing on my laptop, both of us falling asleep. I can hear you sucking your thumb and know that it will gradually slip out of your mouth as you fall asleep. Or you'll wiggle a bit and settle again with your hands behind your head like a sunbather.

You're sleeping in your Moses basket. The one I slept in and so did your aunties and cousins. Unlike the rest of us, you still fit at six months old! But soon you'll be big enough to move into a cot and you'll be sleeping in your own room. I will miss you, monkey. I worry that you'll have to make more noise for me to hear you wake up in the night. Right now I can hear every little twitch and breath and hear you begin to stir when you're ready to be fed. I'll miss that.

Right now, you are mostly delightful. You are curious and interested in the world. Every new place you go, you want to look at everything, the people, the things in the room. You delight strangers on the bus with your smile. You're intrigued by the things grown-ups eat and drink, especially Mummy's water glass. I've given you a sip of water a couple of times, but mostly I think you wanted to bite on the cool rim of the glass. Soon we'll start giving you solid food. I'm a little apprehensive about getting it right. Milk is, well, not easy, it's been tough, but at least I know how to do that now. Solid food is a whole new world for you. I worry about giving you good eating habits when mine aren't always good or overwhelming you with new sensations before you're ready. I need to take a deep breath, offer you some food to play with and trust you to get on with it.

You like wiggling on your play mat. You even like tummy time a bit now, though it's taken a while and I don't always remember to do it. You've rolled a few times from tummy to back and we've even caught you on video. You've not rolled the other way yet, but whenever you're on the floor, you spend a long time grabbing your feet and rocking from side to side. Your feet are good toys. The other day you managed to chew on them!

You chew everything, especially your hands. Sometimes I think you're teething. Sometimes I'm not sure. No sign of a tooth yet, though at times you seem miserable and there's lots of frantic chewing. You've been a bit grumpy and clingy for the past few weeks. According to the Wonder Weeks, it's leap 5 and the grumpiness is because your brain is working out all sorts of new exciting things. I do hope so! I love seeing you learn.

Daddy can always calm you down. Sometimes I think he's more in tune with you than I am. You like to grab his glasses and pull on his beard. I think you're going to have lots of fun together. I can see his face in yours sometimes, your expressions are similar.

I love reading you stories. You giggle and kick your legs in delight. I don't know if it's the pictures or the words or just the sound of my voice, but it's lovely. You've not started grabbing the books yourself yet, but I expect you will.

Breastfeeding you has been hard, but we're still doing it. Your tongue tie was snipped twice and still isn't quite right, though recently we finally seem to have a decent latch. This week you've been refusing the breast when the flow isn't fast enough. That made me sad. Too many bottles when you had a cold and didn't want to feed with a blocked up nose or didn't want to feed for some mysterious reason of your own. But we're persevering with a supplementer to up the flow. Maybe it'll just be a phase and in a few weeks we'll be back to feeding without it? Maybe we won't. But I'm glad to be still giving you my milk, as much as I can, even if it hasn't quite been the way I planned.

Today we saw lots of little babies and you looked so big! You've grown so much, yet I only notice when I stop to think back. It does go fast, like they say. But it's wonderful. And stressful and emotional and worrying and exhausting and all those other things too. But wonderful.

I love you, my monkey, my Phoebe

Your Mummy