(nearly) THREE MONTHS OLD

I keep waiting for James to suddenly turn into a monster child... he continues to eat, sleep and smile, and very little else. He's making it so easy, which is just as well as his big sister makes up for it!

 

He's had a sleepy couple of days after having his second set of jabs - but they didn't bother him enough not to enjoy his second swimming lesson, just an hour after having them. He seems to have taken to the water just as his sister did - getting those big, beaming smiles through both lessons he's had so far.

 

Fridays has become Mummy and James day, and I'm really enjoying it. with Charlotte in nursery, we do Baby Massage in the morning and swimming in the afternoon. Although I can remember all the massage stuff from when I did it with Charlotte when she was tiny, it's really nice to have some bonding time with James and meet some more Mums with similar aged babies.

 

It's funny though - because I keep catching myself talking about his big sister when we're discussing things like feeding, sleeping and behaviour. It's supposed to be just about me and James, but she still dominates much of our time even without being there. I guess I'm just bringing up my experiences from both ends of the spectrum.

 

After a couple of really good weeks (including one down at my parents' for a 'holiday') Charlotte's back in a non-eating, bad behaviour phase. Assuming it's teething once again, and we know it will pass, but it's so frustrating just days after she was merrily eating my home-cooked food for once, and been an absolutely hilarious, entertaining angel for her grandparents.

 

We also had a glimpse of what her sleeping through would be like, with three full nights last week. But coupled with the loss of appetite, sure enough the bad nights returned too.

 

All the tough stuff aside though, I do keep catching myself recently marvelling on how lucky I am to have two such beautiful, amazing, (mostly) happy children. James is definitely bringing out the best bits of the maternal me that I didn't know existed - buried somewhere beneath the constant battles to discipline and get his big sister to eat and sleep.

A couple of holiday snaps - a day by the seaside...

... and lunch out with the grandparents

BABBLING BABY

I got a bit of a lie-in this morning while my OH gave Charlotte her breakfast. As I awoke, all I could hear was "Dadadadada" - in varying pitches and intonations. Out of nowhere, Charlotte has properly started babbling away.

The "Dadadadadada" did not stop all day - not that I wanted it to! It's such a lovely sound. Occasionally it would be interspersed with the odd "Rarara" or "Bababa", what sounds a bit like "Yeah", and the old favourite "ahhh boo". But there was no mistaking her new skill that she spent the day practising. "Dadadadada" all day long!

It co-incided with a busy day of me throwing myself into all the local baby groups - NCT Bumps and Babes in the morning, and - ironically - Baby Babble in the afternoon. As I'm new to the area it's the best way to meet other Mums, and Charlotte also seems to thrive among other people.

We've also started another baby swimming group after the success of last term in London. Unfortunately there's only one other baby in the class, and she's a second time Mum, so there's not all the comparing notes in the changing rooms that we had last time, but Charlotte loves it in the water and it's good fun for both of us nonetheless.

ACTIVE MONKEY

It's been a busy week for Charlotte. On Monday she totally surprised us by lifting her head and shoulders while on her tummy. It came totally out of nowhere, given that for the past three and a half months she's hated being on her tummy for any more than about 30 seconds. I just rolled her over to do up a dress and she was up, looking around, happy as anything for a good few minutes.

So she's been practising that all week - and we tried her in her door bouncer for the first time, too. She took to it straight away, seemed to really enjoy it - kicking her legs in a walking type motion and spinning round. I think she's still a bit too light to actually bounce yet, but it bodes well that she tried to use her legs to walk.

Shouldn't be too long before she's heavy enough to bounce properly - her latest weigh-in with the Health Visitor was a success. A nice healthy 5.5kg (12.1lb) - a steady gain of 500g in three weeks, heading further towards the 25th percentile and away from the 9th. The only change we've really made to her feeding has come in the last week when we've introduced a formula feed before bed. Not necessarily to 'tank her up' - but because she's so exhausted by 6.30 (I don't need to remind regular readers of her poor daytime naps/sleeping), she just keeps falling asleep on the breast before getting a decent feed. She falls asleep less easily on the bottle, and I'm happy to start introducing formula just once a day at this stage. In fact on Tuesday night she slept right through from 7.30pm - 6.50 am, so something must be working.1

And if all that wasn't progress enough, she had her first swimming lesson on Wednesday too. She was absolutely fantastic. Not a single grizzle, even though she was tired, and seemed quite at home in the water on her front and back. We're doing Aquatots lessons, and I really enjoyed it and enjoyed meeting some more new Mums as well. No photos, as with the sad state of society we're forbidden from taking pictures of our own children in a swimming pool, so I'll just have to wait until we're on holiday.