Thursday 2 November, 2006

Thursday was Rosemary's non-sleeping day this week, it seems. (It's been on another day for the last few weeks, as I recall.)

Rosemary woke at 7am. I managed to let the dog out, feed him and bring Rosemary's chair up to the office, while she gurgled happily in her crib. Then she came upstairs and I fed her while catching up on Babyworld posts. We then went and let the dog out again and then changed her and put her day clothes on.

We came back upstairs and sung some nursery rhymes. We need to get Tia Eva to teach us the actions to some of the songs, as I don't know them all!

She then had another littlish feed and went to sleep at about 9am. She only slept until 9.30am, though. She then had a chatter and a giggle for half an hour or so and seemed pretty wide awake, so Chris came and played with her while I showered. They talked, played with her rattle (which she was reaching out for, though not actually managing to grasp) and then listened to some music on her toy bar.

She then had another feed and slept from 11.30am to 12 noon (another half hour nap). She was pretty wide awake again, so we went into town to get some shopping - though mostly just for the walk, fresh air and stimulation. It's quite good for Chris and me that Rosemary and I go into town pretty much every day, because it means we can get our vegetables and other food when we need it and fresh. This means we are a lot less wasteful than we used to be.

She was awake all around town. She got a bit upset and wanted food shortly after we got in, so I went into Costa Coffee to feed her (of course, that might have been more a case of my subconsciously interpreting her cry as needing to feed so that I could have hot chocolate and chocolate cake - though, to be fair, we did try a circuit of town first, to see if she would go to sleep or be interested in chattering to me, which didn't work, so I think she did want a feed). She fell asleep while feeding, but only lasted a couple of minutes before waking up again, and seeming pretty awake, alert and happy! She got a little grumpy again in Somerfield, but only really when we were standing still at the till, she was happy again as soon as we were moving.

She had a change when she got home, which was her poop for the day (she does seem to have settled into one big poop per day) and she had to have her vest and tights changed, but fortunately, it hadn't had time/strength to go through to her trousers, so they were still OK. I think we could do with a few more long-sleeved vests. She has two drawer-fulls (her little canvas drawers, not adult-sized drawers!) of short-sleeved vests, but really needs the long ones now the weather is so much colder. I'm going to have a little root around the clothes we have for the next size up to see if any of them will do and, if not, I'll buy maybe a pack of three. Don't think any more would be a good idea, as I think she's likely to be moving up to the next size in the next month or two. (Which reminds me, if anyone is thinking of buying her clothes for Christmas - 3 to 6 months size, please, or even the next size up, that she can grow into, just in case her growth speeds up even more.)

She then sat in her chair while I had a Lemsip and chatted and sung to her. She also had another smallish feed and fell asleep but, again, only lasted a few minutes. My cold had really come on strong by this point and I was feeling pretty horrible, so decided to go down to the bedroom (around 3.30 or 4pm) and watch TV and see if she might be more inclined to sleep in her crib. We spent a good few hours in there going from smallish feed to very short (2-5 minutes) nap, to smallish feed... interspersed with a little bit of chatter, but mostly she was just very grouchy and I was pretty sure she needed to sleep, but I think I may have been wrong.

I decided to come upstairs around 7pm (after changing her and putting her night clothes on), so that I could have some dinner while feeding her and so that I could try her sleeping in her chair, in case that's what she needed. Chris brought my dinner up to me - vegetable stew, and I had two largish bowls of it, so definitely a cold not the flu - while I was feeding her. I then put her in her chair and she was really happy and chatty. We sat there for a couple of hours chattering away, singing, and so on. Chris was working in the office, so he came over and joined in now and again, too. It was really quite pleasant, apart from the fact that I really wanted to be lying down!

Anyway, we went back downstairs at about 9.30pm and I watched the last half of Tru Calling and the first half of Bones. She had a good long feed and went to sleep at about 10.30pm. I transferred her to her crib and she stayed asleep with no problems at all, until her early morning wake-up for food at about 4am (fed for about 45 minutes then back down until 7am). So, it was just one of her days to not sleep. I feel guilty now, for taking her down into the bedroom and trying to get her to sleep. She clearly just didn't need it yesterday, and if I wanted to be somewhere where I could lie down, I should have gone down to the living room and taken her chair with me. She could have sat in her chair or on her mat under the play gym and been stimulated and chatted to me and so on, instead of being bored in the bedroom. I think it's also quite possible she would have had more of a sleep if I'd done this, as she would have perhaps been more tired from the stimulation.

I need to try to learn to recognise when she's having a non-sleeping day, so that I can adjust things accordingly and not get all het up about trying to make sure she sleeps.