The Fourteenth Month: December
5th
A hard week last week. You had a fever of 39.9C last Sunday, after many weeks of coughing, and you continued with a nightly fever and wheezing for 5 nights. The first 3 nights you woke or were disturbed every 15-30 minutes, wanting to sleep upright with your head on my shoulder. My third night, I was exhausted and let you sleep with Papa. Amazingly I had 5 hours of unbroken sleep – the first for ages. Poor love, your days were filled with crying, a sad face and constant miserable bleatings. Hard for me to understand and know just how bad you were feeling. You wanted to be cuddled and held all the time. On Tuesday I tried to make bread – a foolish and futile activity as it took about four hours because you were so needy. Amazingly, you perked up in an instant. We'd had 2 visits to the doctors and a prescription of antibiotics. First doctor confirmed bacterial chest infection but said wait and see for a night. You were just as bad on the Tuesday, but we waited till Friday, because you seemed to be better – started eating lots of fruit after eating nothing for 3 days, then relapse on Friday – complete crying and misery and drowsy floppiness, your vigour and fighting spirit completely subdued. 'Time for antibiotics' I thought. Papa and I agreed on this at lunchtime, but you would have none of it, and I couldn’t get the pipette thing near your mouth. Later you breastfed and slept for 3 hours. At 6pm you woke in our bed and pointed at a 'ook', so I started reading stories to you. Suddenly you were like a new being, fresh faced. We brought you downstairs, and soon you were haring around, laughing as you fell into the beanbags, and curling up with the cats, nuzzling your head into theirs. A miraculous recovery Theo, it was a delight to see your verve and spirit return so suddenly. You slept from 10.30 that evening, until 9ish the next day, waking once, only briefly. Amazing for me to have so much sleep! The following 2 days, Sat and Sun, still not quite yourself. And today you have been crying and throwing yourself around more than usual. I wondered if it was teething or tiredness – and you were completely uninterested in food.
Your words these days:
'ook' / or book occasionally
'oof' – dog
geese – said many times a day and often at birds flying overhead
'moo'
It seems you so understand so much more than a few months ago. Tonight when I said 'do you want some mama milk?' you were sat on the bed about 2 feet away from me, and you looked up and came immediately towards me. These days of crying and frustration you seem to experience have been hard for me, have tried my patience, but still I wonder at you; we still laugh and I feel so lucky that you are in our lives.
I walked from Tesco's car park to Mothercare today, carrying you on my hip in the Ergo sling. You had a scrunched ball of paper in your hand. We played a game where I surprised you by swooping my hand down with a sound and catching your hand, it made you laugh every time. Such delightful pleasure on this grey winter day.
16th
Theo, you seem suddenly more grown up. You are walking loads, tottering, but confidently, and occasionally walking towards us fast, laughing as you grab Papa or me. Today I noticed how flexible you are. You can stand, but lean right down, head touching ground, like downward facing dog. Then sometimes you rest in the 'little warrior' pose; one knee bent, the other on the ground. After the bath tonight we had such fun. You were in really good spirits, giggling and doing odd sideways somersaults. I would chase you, biting your thighs, blowing raspberries on your belly and you giggled with your raspy, chesty giggle. Your cold continues, as does slight wheezing. You played peepo, hiding under the towel, as you did yesterday behind a barrier in the playground in Fishponds, thinking it hilarious when I poked my head round the side and surprised you. You are really amazing, and I love it when we play together like that.
You love to: drop things into the bath when you're not in it (toys and towels) and play with bits of string. You spent ½ an hour unravelling a ball of string at Kelly and Jimmy's yesterday, tangling it all round the room. Today you found my apron strings and were waving them about. And of course you're still into the vacuum cleaner and broom, pushing them along the floor, and cloth wiping. Today, in the bath, after I'd wiped your face, you took the facecloth from me and wiped my mouth: priceless!
Sleeps: 9.30-10am sometimes (most days) and 12.45 or 1.30/2.00 for 45m – 2 hours.
(That's when I frantically catch up with admin/phone calls/cooking – it's never enough time – and sometimes resting and reading). In the summer I read loads, you were still breastfeeding a lot, and I used to feed you to sleep while reading, but that doesn't happen so much now.
You do sleep better in the evenings and wake less. Though most nights you share the bed with me, and from 5am I seem to be your comfort dummy, which is hard if I'm tired. I lie still and try to rest but don't really sleep then. Papa sleeps in the spare room.
These days you seem to nurse more often, I think when you feel like a cuddle. Still, when you wake from a nap and are crying inconsolably, and at midnight before I've made it to bed, when you stand in your cot crying, sometimes sounding quite distressed. I take you to bed and we cuddle up, I have to say 'mama's coming' as usually I need to go for a pee or quickly put on my nightclothes. In the day now I pick you up sometimes when you're needy and you jump up and down on my lap with a whingeing cry, then I know you're after the boob or mama milk, or booby as we say. Sometimes though you just lift up my jumper, or as the other night after swimming, you moved towards me in the bath. I think it took a while for you to register that naked mama meant boob opportunity.
A hard week last week. You had a fever of 39.9C last Sunday, after many weeks of coughing, and you continued with a nightly fever and wheezing for 5 nights. The first 3 nights you woke or were disturbed every 15-30 minutes, wanting to sleep upright with your head on my shoulder. My third night, I was exhausted and let you sleep with Papa. Amazingly I had 5 hours of unbroken sleep – the first for ages. Poor love, your days were filled with crying, a sad face and constant miserable bleatings. Hard for me to understand and know just how bad you were feeling. You wanted to be cuddled and held all the time. On Tuesday I tried to make bread – a foolish and futile activity as it took about four hours because you were so needy. Amazingly, you perked up in an instant. We'd had 2 visits to the doctors and a prescription of antibiotics. First doctor confirmed bacterial chest infection but said wait and see for a night. You were just as bad on the Tuesday, but we waited till Friday, because you seemed to be better – started eating lots of fruit after eating nothing for 3 days, then relapse on Friday – complete crying and misery and drowsy floppiness, your vigour and fighting spirit completely subdued. 'Time for antibiotics' I thought. Papa and I agreed on this at lunchtime, but you would have none of it, and I couldn’t get the pipette thing near your mouth. Later you breastfed and slept for 3 hours. At 6pm you woke in our bed and pointed at a 'ook', so I started reading stories to you. Suddenly you were like a new being, fresh faced. We brought you downstairs, and soon you were haring around, laughing as you fell into the beanbags, and curling up with the cats, nuzzling your head into theirs. A miraculous recovery Theo, it was a delight to see your verve and spirit return so suddenly. You slept from 10.30 that evening, until 9ish the next day, waking once, only briefly. Amazing for me to have so much sleep! The following 2 days, Sat and Sun, still not quite yourself. And today you have been crying and throwing yourself around more than usual. I wondered if it was teething or tiredness – and you were completely uninterested in food.
Your words these days:
'ook' / or book occasionally
'oof' – dog
geese – said many times a day and often at birds flying overhead
'moo'
It seems you so understand so much more than a few months ago. Tonight when I said 'do you want some mama milk?' you were sat on the bed about 2 feet away from me, and you looked up and came immediately towards me. These days of crying and frustration you seem to experience have been hard for me, have tried my patience, but still I wonder at you; we still laugh and I feel so lucky that you are in our lives.
I walked from Tesco's car park to Mothercare today, carrying you on my hip in the Ergo sling. You had a scrunched ball of paper in your hand. We played a game where I surprised you by swooping my hand down with a sound and catching your hand, it made you laugh every time. Such delightful pleasure on this grey winter day.
16th
Theo, you seem suddenly more grown up. You are walking loads, tottering, but confidently, and occasionally walking towards us fast, laughing as you grab Papa or me. Today I noticed how flexible you are. You can stand, but lean right down, head touching ground, like downward facing dog. Then sometimes you rest in the 'little warrior' pose; one knee bent, the other on the ground. After the bath tonight we had such fun. You were in really good spirits, giggling and doing odd sideways somersaults. I would chase you, biting your thighs, blowing raspberries on your belly and you giggled with your raspy, chesty giggle. Your cold continues, as does slight wheezing. You played peepo, hiding under the towel, as you did yesterday behind a barrier in the playground in Fishponds, thinking it hilarious when I poked my head round the side and surprised you. You are really amazing, and I love it when we play together like that.
You love to: drop things into the bath when you're not in it (toys and towels) and play with bits of string. You spent ½ an hour unravelling a ball of string at Kelly and Jimmy's yesterday, tangling it all round the room. Today you found my apron strings and were waving them about. And of course you're still into the vacuum cleaner and broom, pushing them along the floor, and cloth wiping. Today, in the bath, after I'd wiped your face, you took the facecloth from me and wiped my mouth: priceless!
Sleeps: 9.30-10am sometimes (most days) and 12.45 or 1.30/2.00 for 45m – 2 hours.
(That's when I frantically catch up with admin/phone calls/cooking – it's never enough time – and sometimes resting and reading). In the summer I read loads, you were still breastfeeding a lot, and I used to feed you to sleep while reading, but that doesn't happen so much now.
You do sleep better in the evenings and wake less. Though most nights you share the bed with me, and from 5am I seem to be your comfort dummy, which is hard if I'm tired. I lie still and try to rest but don't really sleep then. Papa sleeps in the spare room.
These days you seem to nurse more often, I think when you feel like a cuddle. Still, when you wake from a nap and are crying inconsolably, and at midnight before I've made it to bed, when you stand in your cot crying, sometimes sounding quite distressed. I take you to bed and we cuddle up, I have to say 'mama's coming' as usually I need to go for a pee or quickly put on my nightclothes. In the day now I pick you up sometimes when you're needy and you jump up and down on my lap with a whingeing cry, then I know you're after the boob or mama milk, or booby as we say. Sometimes though you just lift up my jumper, or as the other night after swimming, you moved towards me in the bath. I think it took a while for you to register that naked mama meant boob opportunity.
posted by f at 8:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home