8 Weeks

Big news in this second month of Little Djinn's life: she's started looking at her hands and (drum roll, please), she rolled over! She rolled over for the first time on Thursday when I lay her down for tummy time and went to the loo. That's right, I was out of the room. I came back and she was on her back crying. Later, after she'd nursed and cuddled and was happy again, I set my mobile to record video, lay her down on her tummy and she rolled over so quickly I missed it again. Don't blink around this baby. I took a video which I can't seem to embed. I showed it to Chris (a few times) and Libby, on the bed before us, did a few corkscrews as if to say, "why are you so impressed? This is easy." We're over the moon. She's very close to rolling over from her back to her front and I was convinced she'd get that first but I didn't expect either to happen this soon. I really was completely floored when I returned to find her on her back.

We had our 6 week checkup after my last post and both of us are fine though the doctor wasn't able to hear Little Djinn's heart clearly so we're going back this week and on a different day we're going for her first round of immunizations. The Health Visitor will be out Monday to weight her again and check in. Little Djinn continues to like going for walks in her pram, though the grocery store and back seems to be too far for her patience. She's also lost patience for napping in her basket. She'll still sleep there at night, though she often cries for a bit before settling, but during the day she just won't do it, she'll only sleep on me. So I'm back to not getting much done during the day. On the plus side, she's sleeping 5-8hrs at a stretch and then going back to sleep for another 3hrs so I'm not too sleep deprived. Last week I was getting a bit worn down but she slept for 8hrs and then we took a nap together and my reserves filled back up.
Aged Parent is still in the hospital, no real change there. They think he'll be in hospital for 12 weeks from when they transfer him to the physical rehab hospital so that's a bit of a downer. No word on when a place will open for him.

I finally made Chris' birthday cake, a sticky chocolate pudding with coffee custard (I gave him a baby and he still wanted a cake). It was absolutely delicious, well worth waiting for, and it served eight not the suggested four. I also knit a little cabled hat but it doesn't quite fit over Little Djinn's head - it's big enough around but too short and of course I wove in all the ends before trying it on her. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to try and rip back the extant hat or just start over.

In book news, I'm reading the Shetland Quartet by Anne Cleeves after watching the drama "Shetland", based on the third book Red Bones, the book I'm on now. The adaptation is...curious in what it changed. Detective Perez' girlfriend, out of town in the book, is his dead wife and her young daughter is suddenly his teenage step-daughter. The girl's father is merely referenced in the book but they worked him into the show. They set they adaptation during Up Helly Aa, the fire festival at the end of January (which is when the first book takes place), instead of the spring, but how could they be working on an archaeological dig when the ground is still frozen? I'll find out tonight if they changed Whodunit. Mostly I wonder why they didn't just adapt the first book.

Mothering Sunday (Six Weeks)

Today is Mothering Sunday, my first as a mum, though it feels a bit weird as I'm used to Mother's Day being the second Sunday in May in the US. Little Djinn, clever girl that she is, ordered a few little presents off of the internet the highlight being a "Bestest Mum" mug and yesterday went tot he shop to buy a card for me, for her grandma, and a birthday card for grandma. She really does leave things to the last minute, doesn't she? I could have sworn we raised her better than that. Fortunately Grandma, whose birthday was yesterday, is in Israel right now so her birthday card should beat her home.

My baby girl is 6 weeks (and two days) old. I wanted to post at least once a month about her development and what we've been up to but until this last week she wouldn't let me put her down. The first two weeks I could (but didn't want to because I got endorphins from holding her and that's what kept me bright and chipper on little sleep and no down time) and then she became such a light sleeper that any attempt to shift her off of me resulted in her waking up. Leaving her on her back, no matter how tired she was or how long I left her, just lead to screaming. It was a lot easier to hold her during the day and let her sleep on me at night and work around the baby than to have her be so distraught.

This last week I said "screw it" to the warnings about never ever ever leaving one's baby on their tummy and lay her down that way and lo and behold, she'll sleep. She naps in her bassinet during the day and she sleeps there at night. These last two nights (of three sleeping this way) she didn't even fuss when I put her back after nursing, just fell asleep again. And for all of you nay-sayers, sleeping on the tummy is verboten because of a slightly increased risk of cot death, of smothering in the bedding. Little Djinn doesn't have loose bedding, just her mattress and fitted sheet and she's very advanced in the head-lifting and turning departments. She can already push herself all the way up on her arms and even in her sleep she can lift herself enough to turn her head. She's also sleeping through the night, or at least she would be if I wasn't waking her up to nurse. Chris ordered a breast pump for me so I can express rather than waking her up as I don't want to teach her to wake up every 3-6hrs the way I taught her not to sleep in her basket.

She's visibly changing week on week and almost day by day. She passed her six-week assessment early (the health visitor could see her performing most of the "tests" like staring at my face and smiling so she ran the rest). She spends a lot more time with Daddy and just today I think she started mimicking facial expressions. She likes it when I sing along with music and she's getting really good at grabbing and holding things, though not particularly on purpose. She's gained 2lbs and almost 3" and has started outgrowing her footie-pajamas in the 0-3mos size (purely a length thing, she's only 25th percentile weight-wise). We take her for walks, either in her pram or in our carry system. She sleeps when being carried, but looks around when in the pram which makes it a shame that pram-walks have almost always been at dusk or after dark. I have two slings for around the house, thus far the mai tai works best. She doesn't always want to be in it but for a while there it was the only way I could do things around the house with both my arms. Now that she's napping alone I'm catching up on much-needed housework and was able to bake a cake yesterday (what is Mother's Day without coffee cake?).

In less happy news, Aged Parent is in the hospital and has been for just over a week, after complaining about being short of breath. They diagnosed him with "water on the lungs" and put him on diuretics and then an IV drip and more recently found blood clots in his lungs so they're treating that as well. They're hoping to transfer him to a different branch of the hospital where he'd been going for physical therapy twice a week as soon as they have a place open. That'll be nice as it's in easy walking distance and it's not full of contagious people so Little Djinn and I will be able to visit as well. Within 24hrs of AP being admitted one of his neighbours knocked on our door to say he'd not seen him around and was he all right, and the next morning we got a call from his BFF saying he'd not been able to ring him on the phone. It's nice to know people are looking out for him.

In knitting news, I actually finished a 6 mos size cardigan for Little Djinn which hopefully I can blog about in more depth when I've finished weaving in the ends, blocked, and sewn buttons on. I'm working on the formerly-for-my-mother socks, having just turned the heel on the second one, though I need to rip the first one back probably all the way to the toe and re-knit it. I can work on that while my baby girl is sleeping on my lap or nursing (or most often, when she's sleep nursing, a skill I wish I possessed) and when she's napping in her basket I've been working on a cross-stitch project for her.