Dear baby,
Eight months!!! No way!!!! Craziness.
First things first - you finally got to come out of your harness. I'm so happy. I didn't realise how much it was weighing on me until it finally came off. And it's not like it was making you unhappy, it was just a relief.
You've come forward in more leaps and bounds. Because you're freer with your legs, you're enjoying tummy time more - you could spend ten minutes down on your belly, I reckon. You're sitting up really well (although we put you in a sit, you don't get there yourself) and you're starting to put more weight on your legs again. You get to have a bath most nights (each night apart from Mondays and Thursdays at this stage) and you love to sit in the water reaching for the toys, or lay on your back and kick your legs like a demented frog.
Your feeds have gotten further and fewer between - in fact, yesterday you fed at 4:30am, 1:30pm (at my suggestion), 5:30pm (at my suggestion) and 8pm, just before you went to sleep. You could well be down to three feeds a day - but that's no surprise really, based on how much you like to eat. I'm still wrapping my head around this - I don't need to rush so much if we're going somewhere during the day, because I don't need to factor in your three-hourly feeds, but then I do need to work hard to ensure I've got enough food packed for you to have three solid meals and your two snacks!
I've started trying to branch out with the foods I offer you, so you can learn not to just shove it all in to your mouth and try to swallow without chewing. You had spare rib on Monday night at my brothers house, and you made your Pa laugh, the way you crammed that rib bone in your mouth like you are a cannibal.
We (finally) got to meet your cousin too! So exciting. She is beautiful. Of course, you are beautiful too, but the two of you are like opposites already - she is petite, with a full head of hair and darker skin; you are chubby and fluffy and fair like your daddy. You're 7.5 months apart which seems like an age now, but it's not going to mean much for long. I'm so excited to picture the two of you together with us at family tea on Monday nights, running around together at family functions, playing and napping and giggling together as your aunt and I take turns in looking after the two of you.
That's right - because as of today, I've been informed I'll be returning to work from the 1st of August, working Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. Pa will look after you on Mondays, I'll look after you on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (and your cousin will be with us for one of those days), your aunty and cousin will look after you on Thursdays, and Daddy will look after you on Fridays. I hope it's not too much change for you, and I have no idea how it's all going to play out. I am hoping that your easygoing and fairly sociable nature will work out with this, but there's also the part of me that freaks at the thought that it might be the one thing to change that. I just don't know. I've also got a call in to the childcare centre to see if they'll ever have space for you. It looked like a lovely place when we visited, and it will be good for you to hang with more babies, more often.
We might be signing up for swimming lessons soon too. Your daddy is deadset on this happening sooner rather than later, it will just be a matter of getting organised. If we were able to sleep all the way through the night, then I might not balk so much at commiting to be somewhere early on a Saturday morning (hint hint).
That said, I don't feel so bad at the moment. Your daddy very kindly let me sleep on Sunday, so I got 10 hours sleep (with wakeups at 4:30, 7:00 and 9:00), and I think that will keep me powered for a while! Yesterday you slept until 9:30, and I lay in bed in the quiet, thinking how 'wrong' it felt for it to be quiet so 'late'. Usually, I wake up to you mmbling to yourself - sometimes, you'll be on your belly! We're pretty lucky in that the only time you seem to really cry is when you wake up in the middle of the night - we don't get random screaming cries at any other time.
You are getting closer and closer to speaking. I still think that your first word will be 'Hello'. Of course, it was silly to encourage this, as it could be years before you work out how to make an 'l' noise, and I'll always worry that I've called it too soon. Your daddy and I spend a lot of time exagerating our speech to you, saying "hullo bubba!", "dadadadadada" and "mummummummum - we'll see how it goes. I know it will come all in it's own time. That said, I think you're starting to understand "ta" and "gently" - but that could just be wishful thinking.
In the same way I can't wait to see what comes next, I am sad to see how quickly this time has flown. When I was bathing you this evening, it made me a bit sad to think about how there will be a time where you will lock yourself in the very same bathroom, probably surly (like all teenagers) and so protective of your space and time and self. But all that is yours is mine at the moment - your space and time and self are mine - and it's sad to think about how as you get older, we will get both closer and further apart.
I love you, baby girl.
*kisses!*
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