Sunday 29 October 2006

So, Rosemary was up at about 7am new time (GMT). She had a naked wriggle (have nicked this term from Clare (ratbiter) on the Babyworld August Club) on her changing mat. She only had a really damp nappy. In fact, so was the one the night before, after her big 5.5 hours of sleep. This is a good thing (unless she is showing signs of constipation, of course, which she isn't), because it indicates that a lot more of the breastmilk is being absorbed and used. Don't know if that means I'm making better milk or she's just getting better at absorbing it, but it could mean she puts on weight a bit quicker.

Anyway, she had a wriggle about and chat with Nappy Monster, then we came upstairs to have a feed while I looked at things on the Internet and drank my tea. We then had a little sing along with some songs that came free with an old issue of Mother and Baby Magazine. It's all action rhymes, which are supposed to be really good for babies/young children. Obviously, she's too young to actually do the actions herself yet, but she seems to enjoy the music and watching me do them. It does seem that she enjoys songs more if they have actions with them - stimulates more senses I suppose. Anyway, we sung If you're happy and you know it, The wheels on the bus, Row, row, row your boat and The Grand Old Duke of York. And we also did a bit of nonsense gurgling and cooing!

Then she had a 10-minute feed and looked ready to drop off, so I put her down in her chair and she fell asleep, at about 8.15am (GMT). I'm getting quite good at sensing when to put her down in the day time, and so avoid her only ever falling asleep on me/attached to the boob. She's still falling asleep while feeding at night time, though. I think that might be more to do with the fact that it's difficult for me to see when her eyes start drooping, plus I'm usually half asleep myself, so not as reactive as in the day. I also think that the vibrations on the chair really help lull her to sleep when she's ready for it, whereas she has nothing like that in her crib.

I think she's really going to need to move out from her crib soon. She likes sleeping with her arms stretched out to the sides and she is frequently waking herself up by hitting them on the sides of the crib. She will usually go back to sleep but, I think if she's a bit hungry, she'll stay awake instead and ask for food. Which may be why she seems to be going 3 to 3.5 hours in her crib, but slept a full 6 hours last night in bed. She did have her arms fully flung out to her sides - so much so that I was almost falling out of bed! Of course, the other possibility is that she would have slept 6 hours regardless, because she was making up for not having slept much on Thursday (she seems to sleep a lot the day after she has trouble sleeping during the day - making up for lost sleep, I imagine). Or it could be more to do with the comfort of being next to me/us, rather than the space to stretch out.

I think we'll see how she does over the next couple of nights in the crib, before drawing any kind of conclusions. If it is the space that she needs, though, I think I'll buy a travel cot from Asda (apparently they have them for £25, which are good quality) and use that as an interim measure, between now and when she's ready to move into her own room. I think we could fit a cot in our room, but it would be quite difficult and lead to obstacle courses for getting into and out of bed, so a travel cot would give her the extra space, without taking all of ours. It's quite possible that she'd be fine going in her own room now, but I don't want to do that until she's 6 months, because of the higher risk of SIDS. I know it's just a question of reducing risk factors and that there's no definitive cause of SIDS, and no absolute guarantees even with doing everything that is recommened. But I'd still prefer to follow the guidelines as much as possible in this instance. Plus, I'm not ready for her to be in another room! Not sure I'll be ready at 6 months, but we'll see. I feel like I won't be ready until she wants to go off to university, at the moment, but obviously there will have to come a time when she goes in her own room.

Anyway, she slept until 9am, then had some chatting, a change and some food and went back to sleep at 10.40am. She then, if I recall correctly, slept until about 1.30pm. Her Granny, Grandad and Auntie Eva were already here by that point, having arrived (to have a day-before-my-birthday day with me) at about 12.30. She then had fun chatting with and playing with them and watched me open my presents. She got changed by Eva and then by Granny (the latter change requiring a change of clothes, as it involved a rather huge explodey pooh). And she had a feed while they were there. They left at about 4pm, as Granny and Auntie Eva had to get the last bus home.

She then had a bit of a nap, while I lazed about watching TV and Chris sat at the computer. Then we spent the evening in the living room too, watching TV and chatting away to her and reading her her new book about a Granny with a bright red motorbike and sidecar.

We had a bath together at about 9pm, then retired to the bedroom, where the lights went down and I fed her, while watching One Hour Photo. She went down in her crib at about 10.15pm and stayed asleep until 3.40 am, then fed for half an hour, but wouldn't go down in her crib (at least, not quickly enough for my liking!), so came in with us and slept until 6am.