This is it. I survived the fourth trimester! But I no longer have a newborn. I have a baby diva with a full blown personality. She knows I have magic under my shirt now and will turn her head to it if I am holding her a certain way. If she doesn’t get what she wants or God forbid we try to substitute a teat for a tit she will scream the flat down until she gets what she wants. Sometimes even when she gets what she wants she will still try to finish her complaints before she latches on. After all she is my number one customer and she hasn’t been too happy with the level of service she’s been getting.
Without trying too hard, I feel as though we have a routine. I stick by the 10 am and 10 pm nap/ sleep ultimatum. If she ain’t down before then I stop all activities and will focus on her getting to sleep. Her feeds now coincide with our meal times. She always has her 6am, 12pm and 6 pm feeds. And loads of feeds in between when she tells me off, after all I am raising a proper fatty here, doubled her birth weight already shy of the three month mark and wearing the same size diapers as the eight month old boy we saw yesterday ( his mum looked incredulous when I offered her a right sized diaper when she had run out).
By now I know her a bit better. I know she can self soothe when I am not there and will call out to me when she needs us but she chooses to regress sometimes and want mommy sitting by her side with her holding on to my finger. Mostly she wants cuddles, hating her car seat which we introduced when her daddy got his new car because I sit next to her and she doesn’t want to be strapped in but rather held in my lap. Made our first road trip to Cotsworld that much more interesting.
She’s started to like distractions albeit us tongue-clicking parents still being her best toys. She likes looking out the window on a train, bell rattles, watching the French Open (ok and Made in Chelsea) on TV, kicking the water in her bath and I am not sure if I imagined it but I swear I’ve seen her reach for her toys once or twice. I also notice her imitating us when we eat and we tease her by pretending we will share our food with her although she wasn’t impressed by how cold the Magnum shell felt when pressed against her cheek.
Last weekend she only wanted me and not daddy (broke his heart), but this week she’s all toothless smiles throaty laughs and babbles for her daddy when he comes home from work and I get all the cranks. She certainly is precious and knows how to wrap us around her little fingers.
But we know this is just the beginning of a long journey as parents. We’re looking forward to many more toothless smiles and imploring gazes from her yet as we explore her first summer together.
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