That’s it, the fourth trimester has officially ended! Maia is a big girl now, or at least a big baby, three months old and not a newborn anymore (sob sob!). I feel so proud of how well she has grown and how she’s developing into a little person, learning new things every week. I’ve had mixed feelings about her newly found independence – gone are the days when all she wanted to do was to cuddle with mummy. My mini wants to look around and observe the world and not just stare at my face, haha! When she isn’t tired or hungry she actually prefers to sit in her rocker chair watching us or looking outside the window (our living room wall is made of glass). This is actually very convenient because I can sit with her and have my coffee and breakfast, or fold laundry for example, and she’s perfectly happy. Today I even polished my toenails for the first time since she was born! About time…😊
Sometimes I go and pick her up even though she’s happy, just to give her a cuddle. I had gotten so used to her being attached to me at all times that now I miss it. I know I was complaining about not getting anything done when she wouldn’t be put down – how ironic. If I’m ever blessed with another baby, I’m going to just leave the laundry and cuddle her/him as much as possible now that I know how quickly that phase passes!
I don’t know how much Maia weighs now, probably around 5kg (~10lb) but she’s mostly wearing 0-3 months size and fills them up well! She had her second round of immunisations this week but apart from crying because of the awful injection (one injection and one oral vaccination this time) she was fine, no fever or anything. I know it’s for her own good but I’m already dreading the next round at 16 weeks when she’ll get three injections again…
Our nights are still going very well, especially since she has finally gotten rid of her cold and stuffy nose. I’m trying to stick to the following routine:
- 7pm bath and change into a sleep suit
- 7.30pm evening feed
- 8pm bed time
- 10.30pm nappy change and feed (I wake her up gently if she doesn’t wake up on her own)
- 11pm back to bed (this is when I go to bed too)
- 4/5am night feed swaddled
- 6/7am wake up, nappy change and feed
This schedule gives us 5-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night as well as a few hours of “adult time” in the evening which feels rather luxurious! Sometimes I end up taking her next to me into my bed in the morning especially if she’s up already at 6am and I’m too tired to get up. Then I just feed her in bed and we snooze together for another hour or two. My goal is to have her take two longer naps during the day, one mid morning and one in the afternoon (longest), napping maximum of 3-4 hours in total. As mentioned last week however, currently her naps are pretty random and vary depending on our day plan. Maia tends to rather have several shorter sleeps instead of two longer ones but I think eventually I’ll get her used to longer naps (not sure how though). This week she hasn’t been as irritable as last week (Perplexing baby behaviour ) although we are still doing daily activities but I think in the long run we’d benefit from a bit of structure to our days. Luckily as long as she is not sleeping after 5.30pm her night rhythm seems to be unaffected.
Maia is also getting very chatty and her range of sounds and volume has been increasing which is so funny! Her chat is more interactive now too, although obviously I don’t know what she’s trying to say (“I love you mummy”?) but she’s clearly responding to me. Her dad says she’s noisy whatever she does whether she’s sleeping, feeding, awake or having a poo. Won’t be a wallflower this girl! Thankfully she still doesn’t cry much. In addition to tiredness and hunger, boredom or attention seeking seem to be the main reasons and even then it’s more of a demanding squeal rather than crying.
Another recent development is that she has started chewing her fists and drooling – it feels a bit early for teething but what else could it be? Maybe she’s just discovered her hands and that’s her way of getting familiar with them? She has also learned to wave her arms at her mobile to make it move, at least it looks deliberate. She can’t just yet grab things but I think that’ll happen soon. A few weeks ago I started reading baby books to her and she is now getting more interested in them. We do need to get some more inspiring books though, mummy can only read “Where’s bear?” so many times…
This week has been the coldest in London since I moved here four years ago and we’ve had heavy snowfall which actually stayed on the ground! This has of course meant that the traffic and trains are a mess but luckily I can walk to most places I need to go to! I’ve been so happy we decided to get a big pram with proper wheels although I never actually expected to be pushing it in the snow! Wrapped up warmly, shielded by the hood and rain cover, Maia has been cosy in it and we haven’t been stuck indoors despite the weather!
Happy weekend all!
xoxoxo,
Sini