Tuesday 7 November through Thursday 9 November

Apologies for not managing to post daily over the last few days. It's been quite manic with the work, so every spare minute has been spent working. I quite often write this blog while feeding Rosemary, yet even much that time, has been devoted to one-handed working.

So, Rosemary is now sleeping through. Seems to have happened pretty much on the dot of 3 months, which is interesting as it's widely reported that this is when babies tend to start sleeping through. In our August babies club on Babyworld some of the women who were already mums said that it was very likely that this would be the case. It's nice to get decent chunks of sleep and I still have the closeness of the late night and early morning feeds, so I'm not feeling as sad as I thought I would.

She also seems to be sleeping more in the day - more along the lines of what's considered 'normal'. She seems to be tending towards a total of around 14-16 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period. She's tending to sleep for a chunk of between 5 and 8 hours in the night. I think it depends on whether she's been snacking a lot in the evening or has saved it up for a bit feed last thing (seems to sleep longer with the latter), though it could well have nothing to do with that, and just be a coincidence. She then sleeps for another chunk in the morning - usually back in her crib now. How long that is for depends on how much she's managed to feed at the early morning feed. If she manages 30 minutes then she seems to be able to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours, but if she only manages 10 minutes or less, then she's likely to wake up after 1 or 2 hours.

She then seems to have a very alert, playing with mummy period for between 1 hour and 2 hours. She gets dressed then and has some time on her changing mat, then some time under her play gym, time in her chair singing, reading, talking with me and sometimes some time on my lap/the desk/table talking more closely. She'll then have a good big feed and go to sleep for a while in her chair. (I haven't tried putting her in her crib for her daytime sleeps really, so don't know if she would be happy there or not.) How long for can vary. Sometimes she'll have a shorter (maybe 2 hours) nap and then have some awake time around lunchtime. Other times she'll sleep for 5-6 hours and have a long awake time in the late afternoon and evening.

We've not been managing to get out until quite late most of the week and so only managing a stroll round the park and visit to the Co-op. (Although, we did go to postnatal group - the last one - on Tuesday morning.) Unfortunately, it's getting dark quite early these days and she's not hugely keen on the dark. Though perhaps I need to try taking her out in the dark more, to get her more used to it.

It's also getting a lot colder, of course, and I'm having to persuade her that a hat is a good thing to wear and that mittens should stay on her hands. She does seem to be happier in a jacket or something with a hood, rather than a hat, actually, so I might see if we can get more of those. Going to try her in one of her snowsuits soon, I think. Think they might be particularly useful for going in the carrier, rather than the buggy.

Developmentally, she's rolling onto her side on her changing mat, though hasn't rolled all the way yet. She has picked up Nellie the Elephant a few times now and held her above her head. We have this on video and hopefully will upload it soon (I may ask Chris to do it, actually, as my time is so limited) so you can see it. She's increasing her range of sounds and seems to be at her most vocal in the evening.

I decided to use baby bath and shampoo when bathing her last night, as I was concerned that her hair might be getting a bit mucky from all the times she possets (spelling?) while on her changing mat and it dribbles round the back of her head. She also seems to trap dirt in between her fingers, because she often holds her hands in very tight fists. Anyway, I wasn't planning on going with the soap and shampoo until she was crawling, because that's when they tend to start sweating and also (obviously) picking up lots of dirt. But I caved in now, instead. She hasn't had any adverse reactions that I've noticed so far. So I may well continue with that. I'm also tempted to increase the number of baths she has, but we'll see about that.

Anyway, all in all it's been a good few days for Rosemary. I'm exhausted, though, and do wish I could be a 'normal' mum sometimes and not have the added responsibility of working. It's not much fun when every moment of Rosemary sleeping during the day has to be used for working. It would be nice to, oh, I don't know, play a computer game or something (hmm, why would I use that as an example?). Do some studying (somehow don't think I'll be doing any more OU courses for a long while!) maybe. Of course, I do get to do relaxing things like watching TV or reading while she's feeding and can (at the moment, anyway) watch TV while I'm playing with her, so I do get some 'leisure time' then. And I get to go out walking and meet people for coffee or lunch, which I never used to have time to do. So I have a much more varied life than I used to. I'm much, much fitter too. All this pushing a buggy is great. Still have the tummy flap of flab, though. Don't know how to get rid of that.

Anyway, I might not do any work today. (Already finished something off this morning and got it uploaded, I mean for the rest of the day.) I might go back to bed for the hour or so that she's going to continue sleeping and read or get some more sleep. Then I might go into town with Chris this morning and wander round the market and maybe have lunch. And use Rosemary's sleeping time this afternoon for me. (Or perhaps for housework - :P)