Random musings while Rosemary chases Christmas decorations

Rosemary has very kindly allowed me to catch up with some household paperwork. Not that it's all out of the way, but some letters I've been wanting to write for a long time have been written. They just have to be posted now, of course. The computer is busy saving 230 PDF pages to JPG, so I can't do much with it, therefore it's time for a mini-update.

Falling asleep

On Thursday night, Rosemary fell asleep in my arms, but not nursing. To many people this would not be particularly momentous as many babies do this all the time from birth, but it hasn't really ever happened before with Rosemary. She's fallen asleep on Chris once and she falls asleep plenty in her buggy, but never on me without nursing (except maybe when she was only a week or two old). It hasn't happened since, so I don't know if it's meaningful in any way, but it did feel quite strange and actually a little sad. Logically, Rosemary being able to go to sleep at night without nursing could mean that Chris and I could, some time in the reasonably near future, go out for the evening, which theoretically would be nice. But emotionally, it means that it's the start of her not needing me. I let her out my sight (reasonably happily) during the day for an hour or two. That was a pretty big step. Leaving her at night time may take a while longer and so I'm quite happy (mostly) if she wants to continue nursing to sleep for a little while longer, thank you.

Sugar rush

Yesterday, I (finally) made a trifle. We had dinner a bit earlier than usual and then Chris bathed Rosemary, while I cleared up the kitchen. Rosemary didn't go to sleep straight after her bath as she would normally do, so she got to have some trifle. And that's the last time she's having pudding so near bedtime again. She was really hyperactive. Chattering away, crawling at top speed all over the bed and bouncing and wriggling all over the place. She did go to sleep, pretty exhausted it seemed, at 10.30 (about an hour/hour and a half later than usual), thank goodness. Of course, it might just have been having something to eat after her bath that confused her and woke her up. But I think it was the sugar.

Tot groups

We've now been up to Parliament Street Family Centre 0-2 morning twice and I think we'll be going regularly. Rosemary is really quite interested in the other babies/tots now, which is lovely to see. It's important to keep an eye on her, though, as sometimes her desire to hug/stroke other babies can get a bit overzealous and lead to an exploration of eyes and noses that can't be very pleasant for the babies concerned!

Both times we've been, she has fallen asleep just before snack time, though last week she woke up in time for some of the songs. Last week she made a beeline for the book corner almost as soon as we got there, though she just wanted to get all the books out, not actually sit and read any of them. She then played with a shape sorter (which involved putting the pieces in her mouth) and said hello to a little boy who she met when she was very small.

Most of the mums and staff were quite surprised at how mobile she is for her age, though there was one 8-month-old little girl who was as mobile as Rosemary and could even stay standing with no support for a few seconds. There was also a little boy who was quite a bit older than her, but apparently had been that mobile at her age as well. The thing all three of them have in common is that they're small babies (on the bottom centiles), which is interesting. Anyway, we're going to try to go every Thursday morning, if we can, as it's a really nice group.

Shoes

Rosemary has some shoes. Unfortunately, her feet are still too small for proper shoes, so she can't really wear them very often. I bought them so that she has something to wear if she needs to walk outside and can't do so in bare feet. That's really the only time she should wear them, as bare feet is still best for learning to walk. But they are so very cute, that it's difficult not to put them on all the time! Chris had to remind me the other day, when I was taking her out in the buggy, that I could just take them in the rucksack. I didn't have to put them on her 'just in case' she needed to get out and walk at any point.