Sleep

FINALLY, for the first time in over a week, the baby slept through the night again.

No calling out. No dummy-putting-in-again. No tucking in.

Nothing.

Aaaaaaaaand, the husband let me sleep in, so I was able to sleep until 10 (after getting home from a friends place at 1am!).

I could use more of these days!!

Shopping

The baby's first birthday is in a week. ONE WEEK. (It's crazy that this all feels so new, but I'm nearing in on a year of it now).

This morning, we headed out to pick up a present for the baby - she's getting one of those multi-phase bike things - basically, we'll be pushing her on a bike with a handle of the back on it, and it will transition through to a little trailer-wheeled trike in a year or two.

There's a few more small things to get, and I still have to (start) planning her party next Saturday. I can't really wrap my head around the fact that this is the first birthday of the baby that we made.

Much the same

This morning, the baby woke in a better mood.

Yesterday afternoon she was whingy. She could be distracted slightly, but then would do something to upset herself. By the time the husband got home for me to go swimming, I was ready. I passed her over with 'I'm outy!' and I left.

After my lesson I sat in the car, took a breath and realised that having that one hour break was enough to give me the strength to dive back in to the babies mood.

Luckily.

Because as soon as I got out of the car at the husbands parents house, I could hear her crying. She had cried for almost two hours (since I left for swimming) and hadn't eaten much at all. And there were no dummies in the nappy bag.

The poor husband had already driven home and back again after he'd forgotten the nappy bag, but he quickly volunteered to head out to get the dummies and some panadol.

By the time he got back, she was thankfully quiet - I'd managed to distract her with a Jatz biscuit and some mummy cuddles (though not too many, because that also triggered her off). Over the course of dinner she probably swung through her mood extremes five times.

We were all very happy to have the day behind us, and I was double glad to see her smile at me from her cot when I went in to get her ready this morning.

But.

After a morning at the shops (including a nap), a (two hour!) nap at home and then a drive out to the city, she was back to her old self. I carried her through the shop while I ran my errand. She whinged her way through some floor time. Whined her way through 'dinner' (more on the floor, only a few mouthfuls of pasta, a few peas, a tub of yoghurt and half a mandarin for dinner). She carried on in the bath, and double time on the change table.

She was asleep in bed by 6:30.

I read that there is another wonder week between 49-52 weeks. I hope this passes - I think I am the gladdest I have been in a long time that tomorrow is Friday and 'daddy daycare' day - though I don't think I'll be getting out of it scot-free!

Feelings

I have the tv on in the background while I get ready for mothers group, and a show was reviewing a movie about a French child protection unit. The scene included a baby crying, and it showed the mother picking it up and shaking it to be quiet (it didn't get quiet). A female police officer runs across the road to question and arrest her.

Just watching it, I feel sick.

You know, you go through pregnancy and all it's crazy hormones, then you have the baby, and you would expect that everything would return to how it was before, just with an extra person in your life.

But it just doesn't work like that.

Of course, I would have been shocked to see it at any stage (although I would have been at work if I didn't have the baby), But I don't know that it would have brought on the sick drop in my stomach, the tightness in my chest, the light-headed pang and the start of tears in my eyes.

Hard days night

So, yesterday didn't get any better.

Her naps would have been maybe half an hour long. She ate only a little breakfast, a few bites of lunch and not much dinner. EVERYTHING was being pushed on to the floor. No to rice milk (I'm trying a few different things to try and get milk in to her) and NO NO NO water. No to cuddles. No to sitting on the floor. No to not banging her head on the coffee table but yes to whinging. Yes to little whingy whiney peep noise all. after. noon.

It got to the point where I left early for family tea because I didn't know what else to do with her and had told her more than once in a happy voice that she was really being a turd and she was trying mypatience.

Then, last night, she woke up at 4am, with that whinge. And I got up three times between 4 and 5 to try and resettle her. I popped the dummy in and tucked her in. I popped the dummy in and took her second blanket off and gave her a (unwanted) hug. I popped some nurofen in and the dummy in and turned on her music box. And then of course I lay awake thinking that now I couldn't hear her so something must be wrong.

It really was a day like the early days - the exasperation of not knowing what to do with her when nothing seemed to work. While I had the benefit of an okay nights sleep the night before (this is the third night in a row I've had to get up for her), it's almost harder because you have more of an idea of the things that usually work (that aren't working) and because she has the control of movement, her pushing you away is actually her pushing you away.

But, I guess it will get harder in a year or two when she's a toddler and understands more and pushes my buttons. Or when she's a child and she'll do things without understanding risk and consequence. Or when she's a teenager and she understands danger but goes back to pushing my buttons.

I guess it's all hard!

Teething again?

Gawd I hope so.

The last few days, the baby has been a bit whingy and clingy. And then tired, but not taking longer naps. And drooly. And still snotty. And not eating as much, but throwing lots on the floor.

Lots of fun.

Her cheeks had that darker red look yesterday, but it's hard to get in there and have a look.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease be teeth and pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase come quickly!

Party night

Last night we headed out for a friends birthday party - we'd been bowling in the afternoon, then dropped home for a baby nap and to get ready, then the baby was heading off to my parents for dinner and a sleep while the husband and I headed out for dinner, drinks and dessert.

I dropped the baby off just before 6pm and we picked her up close to midnight.

For those few hours, we we were able to switch off and just hang out with our friends. And not only was it good for us, but it was good for our friends (who haven't yet started a family), and it was good for the baby (her first real babysitting night in my family home) and good for my parents (who got to dinner and bath and bed with her).

It was so reassuring to see how easily she settled for my parents and how much they seemed to enjoy having her - there's going to be a few things coming up towards the end of the year where the baby will need to stay with family overnight...!

That? Yes?

I think we're getting closer to 'yes'. Or 'that'.

I'm not sure what it is, but there's a short word that is currently starting with a 'd' noise.

PLEASE BE 'YES'!

Weigh in

I took the baby in to be weighed yesterday, now that we're pushing it out to once a month or so.

She weighs 9.435kg (50th percentile) is 76cm long (75th percentile) and a head circumference of 50cm (50th percentile). That's an increase of 200g, growth of half a centimeter, and head gain of 5cm in a month.

Her head has followed the average course, but her height and weight have dipped a bit in the last month (but still fine). But since the last appointment, she has dropped both her breastfeeds and learnt to crawl, so it's pretty fair.

The nurse suggested we try her on soy milk, seeing as she is not liking the cows milk, so I'm going to head out and get her a few different types. She also suggested a soft tip cup for the milk, but maybe one that is different to all of her water ones - I had been giving it to her in a hard tip cup so that she wouldn't get it confused with water and stop her water.

She didn't seem too worried about her milk intake as she is still getting three dairy serves a day, and she said the same thing that the last nurse had - it's our job as parents to offer it, and her job to take it.

Turn around, bright eyes

I got the baby's carseat turned today.

She was on the top shoulder strap of her seat, and the set up of the rear-facing seat meant that the taller she got, the more the passenger seat had to be pushed forward.

I knew that we were nearing the point where she would need to be turned, and I knew that I would have no idea how to do it - I  knew I would have to get the husband to do it, that there would be some swearing, and that I would then have either drive her in a seat we weren't sure was correctly installed or stay home bound until a Friday when the husband was home and I could head out with out her.

We drove from Kidsafe down to the clinic to get her weighed and measured, and I think she enjoyed it. She doesn't have the sun randomly shining straight on to her face (win!) and she can see a lot more.

It was also odd for me - I'm used to be able to look at the rear view mirror and see her reflection in the little mirror we suction capped to the rear window - now I need to turn my head more, and I'm actually looking straight at her! It did make me talk to her more in the car, so that's probably a good thing too.

Doctor Doctor

The visit to the doctor went well.

The baby was overtired (she had only had her morning nap and efforts to get her to nap in her bed and in the car had failed) but cheery as usual. Her ears were a little red, but nothing to be worried about. Her chest and back were clear. Her throat was all good (I didn't think she would let the doctor have a look, but she did!). Her temperature was fine - she thinks that she may have had a fever that broke around the time I was giving her a bath.

She does, however, have a sacral dimple. I wasn't sure what it was, but knew when some babies are born, it kind of looks like there is an extra hole near the top of their butt. I raised it with the nurse the last time I was in there, and she didn't think it was serious but suggested we get the doctor to check it out next time we were in. It can be a symptom of a spina bifida, but I refused to even google it because they had said it seemed unlikely. The doctor is happy that it's fine and nothing to worry about (*phew!*).

The doctor said she had beautiful little teeth and that she was moving really well, especially considering her time in the harness.

Beside the fact that she didn't have an afternoon nap AT ALL after that, she was definitely looking and sounding a bit chirpier than she had been in a few days.

Still not well

Last night (after three naps), the baby was unhappy before dinner time - making a little raspy whingy noise every so often - so we sat on the couch and she ate a rice crusket and seemed pretty happy just to be held. I felt her head and it was hot, but when I got out our thermometer the battery had gone flat. Awesome.

After dinner (and lots of water), she had a bath. And I noticed her skin felt a bit rough (I'm not sure if we're still meant to be moisturising her after every bath?), then realised they were tiny little goosebumps. I kept the bath nice and warm and kept washing it over her back and belly.

Then when I got her out to dry her, she was shivering.

And she went down pretty quickly and quietly, with the occassional sad little cough coming through the monitor.

Last night, I woke up with a super sore throat - that explains her raspy whinge.

She's not hot today, but she's still snotty and has been grabbing her ears, so we're going to the doctor this afternoon.

I'd probably just feel better getting her ears checked just in case.

Little things

- managing to get one hand out of the baby's grasp, then she grabs on to my pant leg and walks beside me.

- walking the dogs and the pram down to the shops, listening to her sing nonsense.

- her hair is growing and curls on the back left side, not so much on the right.

- changing her nappy, getting a nasty surprise and saying 'blerch!' - she copies your face and sticks her tongue out.

- watching quietly from a room behind as she powercrawls through the house.

- watching her kiss her reflection in the mirror.

- taking up her offer of her drink bottle, pretending to guzzle it to make her laugh.

- rocking like when she was a baby and watching her eyelids get heavy.

- packing things in a bowl and watching her pull out each item, study it, then discard it with a fling.

- asking her to pass me a bath toy, and watching her eyes crinkle as I make it slide down the edge of the bath.

- the cheeky way she stops at the laundry door and shakes her head 'no' before she tries to get to the dogs water bowl.

- standing in front of the tv and trying to touch the balloons through the screen.

- sneaking in kisses when she's on my lap and distracted.

Drip drip

The baby was whingy earlier than we expected last night, bringing her dinner and then her bedtime forward a bit - the husband noticed she was rubbing her ear a bit. She was asleep before 7pm, but around 9pm she was unsettled enough that she took a lot of settling (and some panadol) to get to sleep. We thought she sounded a bit sniffly, so we had the humidifier running in her room, which might also have made it a bit warm.

We woke up just before 9am this morning, and when I went in to check on her she was sitting up in bed - so almost 14 hours sleep for her!

We headed out to the markets and rugged her up super warm - she had a 45 minute nap in the car on the way home, and then another 90 minute nap this afternoon. Again, she got whingy early (it was the first time in quite a while that she has 'refused' to be left on the floor), so another early night (with panadol again).

However, for the first time in many, many, many months, the husband had to nurse her to sleep.

So far it's not been too bad - her mood is generally fine - but she is dripping a lot of (clear!) snot. And she is coughing a bit. And she is scrunching up her face and rubbing her hands all over her ears and eyes (not so awesome while she is eating/before I can get a tissue in there).

I'm hoping it doesn't get to the point where she is really sick, but this is the 'sickest' she's been yet. Not too shabby for almost one year old, but still, not awesome.

Poor baby!

Ball pit

We went to two birthday parties today - one for our 2 year old goddaughter, and one for our friends first birthday.

The first party started earlier so we stopped past and watched the older kids play. The baby was on the floor for a little bit, but a boy pushed her over when she got too close to the toy kitchen he was playing with, so we scooped her back up and entertained her with foot (grape! kiwi fruit! watermelon! pineapple! rice chip!).

The second party was a bit more packed out, and the baby was easily entertained at first with some food (pizza! fairy bread! caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!!!!!!) but we managed to hustle over to the toys just after the cake was cut.

And she had a ball in the ball pit!

The last time we went to one, she really wasn't impressed with it. She kind of balanced on it with uncertainty and just kept looking at me to get out.

This time, she kept trying to crawl in (we had to keep her out until the older kids were out). And when she was in she was making noise like we'd never heard her before - it sounded like she was trying to be the centre of attention - and flapping her arms around and 'throwing' balls.

Looks like we might be getting her one for her birthday!

Walk walk run

The baby is getting closer and closer to walking. You could easily keep her entertained for hours, walking through the house holding her hands. We also had a go this afternoon of holding one hand each, the husband and I, walking a lap as a little family.

She's getting faster with her walking.

She's walking more with her walker trolley, rather than just holding on and trying to keep up as it slips away.

She is crawling around more, faster, with more intent and direction.

It's going to be amazing.

Month end

As the baby has clocked over each month, I've found myself getting really excited about her next month 'birthday'.

Except for this one.

While I'm excited that she'll be one in just over three weeks, she's due for her hip x-ray a few days before her birthday.

And I want it to be all fine and all clear and no problems. But this time I need to be prepared for the fact that it might not be. That she might need night splinting. That we might need to head up to Sydney to see a specialist. That she might need surgery.

Playing

I'd read somewhere that babies don't really start to 'play' with each other until they're around 18 months old.

This morning at mothers group, the baby certainly looked to be playing with another girl! They had a water bottle filled with rice (a toy I would emulate here if I could trust the dogs to not chew it up and get rice everywhere) (I can't) and were taking turns.

Funnily/sadly, the game was that the baby would snatch it over the other girl, and then the other girl would whinge. Then the other girl would reach to take it back, the baby would pass it, and then the baby would whinge and flap her arms like she does when she's cranky. And then she'd snatch it back. And they repeated over and over and over.

It was pretty cute.

It was also pretty interesting that the baby would pass it before the other baby would steal it, but would still give the same reaction.

Empathetic soul that she is.

Tooth

Sometime in the last week, the baby's eighth tooth has finally broken through.

There has been a white dot in the corner for months and months and months, so I'm not sure what took it so long.

Scarily, molars will be next. And apparently they are the pits.

Standing

On Sunday afternoon, while hanging around the coffee table as she is prone to do, the baby turned to me and let go of the table.

For that brief second or two, she was standing unassisted.

Of course, then she fell like a plank of wood, narrowly missing banging her head on the tv unit.

But she stood!

Until that point, if you tried to get to her to stand one handed, she would just freeze or slooooooowly lower herself down to the ground (we've been quite lucky in that she taught herself how to get down almost straight away, so haven't experienced any stretch of time where a baby learns how to stand and then just cries and cries and cries until you help it down).

Just like me

We ran in to a friend at the markets this morning - her son turns 1 on Tuesday (How time flies!!! Argh!!!). She told us that they finally managed to get their son in to childcare, so she will be returning to work.

I asked her how she felt, and it was a bit of a relief to know it was pretty much the same as me.

That she knows she is ready.
That she knows he is ready.
That she is just at the point where you do the same thing day after day after day and it's a bit much.
That she thinks she will treasure the time more that she does have with him once she gets back to using her brain.

(Perhaps this means our childcare acceptance is only weeks away...?)

Nose and Mouth

Over breakfast this morning, I asked the baby where my nose was.

And she touched my nose.

She also got my mouth when I asked her where my mouth was.

One of the baby's slightly older friends has been able to do this for a while, and one of newsletters I received this week ("Your baby this week...") pointed out that if you ask them, they will probably be able to do it.

I think we'll be following my dad's demonstration and start on ears next. And helping her to work our what is hers and what is ours.

Lunch with friends

One thing that I definitely will miss once I am back at work will be long lunches.

I know I'll have to put my head down in order to get my work done, because I just won't have the 'luxury' of working through until 7pm to catch up on things.

The baby is a pretty good lunchmate at the moment - she gets in to her food. And even if she's getting tired, she gets wriggly and silly rather than feral (straight away).

Dear baby - Month #11

Dear baby,

This is the last time I get to write to you before you turn one. And then I guess you're not technically my baby anymore, although you'll always be my baby. I'll be spitting on my finger and rubbing your face and you'll be telling me off because your employees are looking at me funny, but you'll be my baby and it will all be okay.

This has been your biggest month in many ways - you started crawling, and then you started doing it a lot. You pulled yourself up using the coffee table, and then you started doing it on anything you can, including trouser legs and the big dog. You started sitting up on your knees and doing a lot of bouncing and singing. You stopped breastfeeding and started taking occasional small sips of milk. You slept through every night (I love you!) and worked out how to open sliding doors. You started spending more time away from me as your daddy started taking full responsibility for you on a Friday when he is home from work, and as I had two days back at work. You got baptised and you started saying 'Nan' and 'Gr' (for Grace the dog) (obviously these two aren't related).

I spent equal time marvelling at how much you're growing and trying to ignore it. It's a constant balance, slightly affected by seeing other babies at your age - some seem so much older, and some do seem so much younger. But either way, I managed to get a decent hug this morning when you were ready for a nap earlier than I expected, so my silly hug and baby rocking was actually really really nice.

You are pretty easy care these days - you're always happy when you wake, and you help me as much as you can when we change and dress you by not trying to roll off the change table (at least not fully), by straightening your arms and bending them, and by helping when I ask to you to put your hands up so we can pull your singlet over your head. You're eating all of your breakfast, you knock over a full banana without any problems, and you're up to two pieces of cheese/mushroom/ham/capsicum toast for lunch - although you always manage to get a few pieces to the dogs, shaking your head 'no' when I tell you off, then grinning at me such that I can't help but grin back...

I'm trying to take you out each day that we're home alone, to make sure you get out and see things and hear things. When we're home, we spend a lot of time listening and singing to music - I do sometimes worry that when you learn to speak properly, you'll sing. You do have a real singing voice though, we can usually hear it in the car, just quiet high notes as the car stereo plays. Maybe you'll be a singer when you grow up, and you can honestly say you were singing before you were even a year old.

You're a dancer too - even when you hear break music in a podcast or the radio on at mothers group, you start to wiggle. If you're standing up, you do the thruster that one of your uncles is particularly well known for. If you're sitting up, you bounce on the spot, lifting your butt off the ground. If you're in your highchair, you shift around so that your chair scoots along the tiles. If you're on the floor, you drop to your belly and do  your own kind of 'worm' that always makes people laugh. We only have to say "Dance! Dance! Dance!" and you're off, with a big smile and proud look.

You're an entertainer and you love attention. When you're sitting with us at a family dinner and the attention isn't all turned to you, you'll be sure to let us know you're still there with a big yell. You're not shrill, or even overly loud or shrieky, but just enough to let us know that you need to have all the attention.

You're starting to point, so I'm trying to make sure I up my talking and explaining to encourage this behaviour. I want you to know what things are and to know that curiosity is great and to not be afraid to talk and ask and question. I also want you to work out your place in the world - get an understanding of what's going on around you and how you fit in.

You're also displaying your emotions more. You reach out for who you want to hold you, but quite often it just ends up in a game of 'pass the baby' as you want to be moved from person to person. You're very amorous and have started giving kisses to more of the family, as well as the highchair table and all sorts of random things. You still hold your mouth open to the dogs, and I think it is for kisses.

You are the best of friends with the dogs, even the little dog is getting better with you. I did see him snap the other day when he was cranky, but he wasn't going to get you (I was right there), and I know if he did he wouldn't actually 'get' you. He likes to pretend play with you to make you laugh, he loves to dart past with a sneaky lick (or a more serious one if I'm not right there), and this afternoon he ran straight to the sliding door near your room when you started to cry from your cot. The big dog continues to be your ever faithful companion - she follows you and you follow her. You still grab her collar, but now it's to pull her head towards yours... although you've been doing it less often.

You're a good fit in size zero clothes, although a lot of the winter stuff I bought you are ones so that you can grow in over winter. Your hair is growing and is a light mousy brown, with tufts at the top and mullety feathering at the back. Your eyes are still big and blue and get you lots of comments from strangers, but they are taking on a greenish-grey tint. While you're definitely slimmer than you used to be, you still have a fold in each forearm and multiple rolls and folds in your thighs. You have nubbly little fingers, chubby little toes and roly-poly feet. You still have your seven teeth, with your bottom left one still peeking through the gum but not moving. You have a delightful pudgy butt made for playful smacks when your nappy is changed, when you roll over in the bath, when you're crawling away.

You start dinner at 6pm and have become really good at picking up those little microwaved veggies. You can work your way through a piece of steak without much hassle. You still love your bath, although you're trying your best to make it hard for me to wash you because you want to get straight to the point where you just get to sit and roll around and play with the floating toys. You like to reach for the pages in the book, but you mainly like to open and close the front cover. We can usually only just make it through one book before you get cranky, but I don't want to muck up your schedule by switching things our or earlier.  By the time I've gone back in the bathroom to put away your bath stuff, your room is quiet until the next morning.

And then we start again.

You'll always be my baby, and I'll always be loving you that much more each day.

Sick days

The husband stayed home from work again today - though not to 'babysit', but to deal with his (googled) case of gastro. Ew.

It did raise an interesting point though - he slept in until after 1 (the baby and I went to mothers group) and then he sat on the couch and watched tv. He was hesitant (understandably) to do much with the baby as he doesn't want to make her sick. That said, I had swimming lessons tonight, so he had to do her dinner/bath/bed.

But what would or will happen if/when I get sick? Would he take a day off work to look after her while I'm also at home? Is it reasonable to expect it?

On the one hand, at it's most basic level, there is a sick adult and a well adult to look after the baby (and the sick adult).

But on the other, it's pretty much 'part' of being a mother that you (get to?) do the whole martyr thing...

Stay tuned on this one - the husband commented that she didn't each much dinner, so we might find out sooner than we had hoped to...

More on work

Another day down, another day of win!

All yesterday I had people asking me how I was feeling, how was I going, how was I coping, how hard must it be. In fact, the only hard thing was thinking that I should feel worse.

I have (almost) always enjoyed my job. I have been at the same organisation for almost 10 years now, and I have worked in a few different areas. We've been going through quite a bit of change, so the last 2-3 years have been particularly eventful, and have also let me work to my strengths and learn a lot. I worked hard, and it was always appreciated - in fact, even when I wasn't working that hard, I would still get a lot of positive feedback. That's not to say that there weren't bad days, or days when I stuffed up, but overall I have found work to be very fulfilling.

Leading up to the birth of the baby, I knew it would be hard to be at home. I knew how much of a people person I was, how much I enjoyed working with the people I did, and how much I needed (?) the validation and positive feedback. I was a do-er and I had a great reputation and I gave it my all.

Then all of a sudden I was at home and being yelled at by a tiny human that needed me for everything. All day. Every day.

The baby is in a great place. She sleeps more than 12 hours a night. She only gets a bit whingy on the slide towards dinner time. She eats well. She laughs. She can entertain herself and she can play silly little games. She is happy and fairly easy to cart around. She is a lovely and delightful little bundle of love.

But I've been away from work for over 12 months now, and I know I am ready to come back.

Training day win

I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

I slept terribly - partly because I didn't know what to expect, but also our heater was playing up and at 2:30 in the morning it was set to a balmy 21 degrees.

I was ready to leave before she even woke up, so when she did she was wooshed out of her pyjamas, in to some warm clothes and in to the car for a day with the husbands mum.

She. had. a. ball.

As soon as we got there, she had her arms out for nanna cuddles. And when I walked in the door at the end of the day, I didn't even get a smile or a second glance! That said, I did hear some whinging when I left the room to pack up her things, so she may have missed me a little.

I think a big part of it was knowing that she was in good hands. I knew that even if she got upset, she wouldn't be upset for long. I knew she would have 100% undivided attention and lots of fun and giggles.

And I had a great day back at work!

Training day

Tomorrow I start my gradual return to work.

Following a succesful application process earlier this year, I start a new job when I return to work in August, so I need to do 7 days of training to actually have the qualifications to do the job.

It was hard enough to get my brain in to gear to write the application, heaven help us for actually doing work.

I'm sure it will be fine. I'm sure I'll be okay to get up on time and get dressed and get her fed and then get her to the husband's mum for the day. I'm sure she'll be happy as ever as she gets totally doted on.

But I have no doubt it's going to be an interesting and interesting day....

Donk eye

Oops.

The baby's fascination for drawers continues - there's almost no point us having put velcro on the drawers to keep them closed, as she's worked out how to use velcro (my new strategy is having the less dangerous stuff in the lower drawers).

Last night as I was drying her hair after her bath, she was very insistently rifling through the bottom drawer in the bathroom. I haven't yet gone through and restorted these drawers, so heaven knows what is in there. It took me until today  to realise that when I sit and dry her I can just jam my foot against it to keep it closed, so she was the victim of her own persistence - as she was fighting to get her head away from the towel and see in to the drawer, she threw her head at it and donked her head.

I got to sleep in this morning, so I had a guilty looking husband ask if I had seen her black eye - while he was sitting with her on the couch yesterday afternoon she had rolled and donked her head on the arm of the couch.

It's not a black eye, but she has a little mark there. And I told him that it was likely from the drawer, as I hadn't seen exactly where she donked her head last night. And I told him she wouldn't be our daughter if she wasn't looking neglected (she has a noticeable bruise on her forearm that I have no idea where it came from).

Moving quickly

It's only just been a fortnight since the baby first crawled.

Last Wednesday when we were playing in the husbands parents loungeroom, the baby would only do a few 'crawls' a time. I remember the husbands sisters partner commenting on it as she started - it was a pretty rough crawl.

Cue forward one week, same room in the same house - she is crawling everywhere.

Having her in the same place one week later really demonstrated how quickly she is learning and developing,

She's already shown she can do a short sprint too, so we definitely need to keep a close eye on her.