On Our Own!
Today Amelia has been left to the sole charge of her mother as Jon has gone back to work. I’m not sure who I feel more sorry for… Jon, who for a few hours a day can swap the three Ps (pee,puke,poo) for catching up on email and dealing with what he usually has to at the office. I suspect that he would rather be covered in semi-digested milk. I know I would ;-)
Thankfully though, the prospect of dealing with things now without that handy extra pair of hands isn’t as daunting as it was just under 3 weeks ago when we brought her home, at which point we didn’t even want to think how we’d have coped without my parents around to help with shopping and cooking. We are now quite adept at changing and with the recent purchase of a molded bath chair - bath times aren’t so fraught as they were, as Amelia can still move those legs in at least 3 dimensions, and I wouldn’t put her past 4 at a push.
As one would expect we have been peed on - well I was, but it was a heart shaped stain because she loves me, obviously. Pooped on - me again, while we were changing her. And puked on - this time it was Jon who got the force of this one, he let her have her bottle all in one go, not a great idea. She is very good a throwing up in her own ear, but we seem to have improved our winding technique, this is to hand her to me.
Her weight is now steadily rising, which makes me feel alot better and I’m not at all guilty about bottling her, SMA gold was good enough for her parents. The problem is that she gets too cosy at the breast unless she’s been let cry for a very long time, and conks out after 5 or 6 desultory sucks and then the feed follows a suck -nap pattern that can last for 3 hours. And at 3am this isn’t fun. Now instead she has “SnackyBoob” while we boil the kettle and if she’s sucking well we let the bottle cool on its own. She also gets EBM if I’ve had a chance to express a decent amount - I got an electric one last week as I’ve had a dodgy left wrist ever since I had her. It sounds like a Dalek when its running and I swear to goodness that that is what that plunger attachment is… “Lactate! Lactate!” She’s also reasonably happy to sit in the bouncy/loungey chair which is handy as it means I can sit her in it while I work and also feed her while she is in it, it keeps her vaguely upright so the winding is easier. I suspect winding is to new parents as “the drains” are/were to English householders. While being changed she likes listening to Classic FM, although the reception isn’t great in the loft, and Jon tells me that while changing her once she didn’t really like The Flower Duet from Lakmé but did enjoy the music form the Great Escape! She has also raptly watched 3 episodes of Doctor Who (I was catching up having only seen the first episode of the new series) while having lunch.Not sure what we are going to do today, I have a pearl necklace to finish knotting and I am tempted to introduce her to more BBC Radio 4/7 , probably the News Quiz. Last night we listened to Core Coren. Part of me is glad that I am mostly bottle-feeding. Listening to BBC Radio shows, like the Now Show or Clive Anderson’s Chat Room has the effect of making me laugh a lot, and I do worry about her when she is breast feeding and I am laughing that she will develop shaken baby syndrome from it…