Maia and I have spent the last two (long) days at home because frustratingly for what is already the second time this winter I’ve caught a cold… There are no sick days from being a mum though so all I’ve been able do has been to keep activities to the minimum and sleep when Maia sleeps. Thankfully this time Maia has been fine and it’s only me who is sneezing. It was quite a challenge when we were both poorly about a month ago. I’ve read that my breast milk should automatically have antibodies to any bug I catch and prevent her from getting ill – pretty amazing right?! Let’s hope it works.
On the bright side, I feel like it’s been good for change to just stay at home and spend time with my baby without any distractions. Having observed her for two days I wanted to write a little update on her development since so much has happened in the past few weeks. She’s now nearly 15 weeks old and learning new things all the time!
On Tuesday, before I started feeling sick, we took our first baby massage class at a nearby yoga centre. It was such a nice thing to do with Maia and we both enjoyed it. She loves to be naked (I smell trouble haha!) and the warm massage room was perfect for it. On a side note, nappy changing is such an event nowadays as she gets very excited about being freed from the nappy (size 2 now) and kicks around like she’s trying to run or jump. It’s so cute! I try to give her a chance to have a good kick without a nappy every day. I just need to be very careful when she’s on the changing table so that she won’t fall off and also to remember to put a towel under her as little wet accidents have happened during this joyful kick about…
Overall I would highly recommend taking a baby massage class even if just once! You can then use the techniques at home if your baby enjoys it. That being said, I will probably go back as I don’t trust myself to remember the correct moves, not that it was very complicated. Massage is said to help babies to sleep better and feed for longer, as well as with indigestion or gas. I also felt like it was nice bonding time with her – I could massage that warm squishy little body all day long and watch her happy face!
Something unexpected and very exciting happened during our class: When I turned Maia on her belly to massage her back and legs she surprised me and herself by rolling over to her back! She has had a strong neck and pretty good head control since she was very little and she’s been able to raise her shoulders from the floor (like a “mini push-up”) for a while too but this was her first time to roll over! Or it actually has happened once before, on our bed, but I wasn’t sure if that was more of a fall on the soft mattress rather than an actual roll over.
Another thing I’ve noticed Maia loving to do is to stand supported. The massage teacher showed us a safe way of practicing standing with babies. I was sitting on the floor with my legs straight in front of me, slightly parted. I straddled Maia on one of my thighs and held her lightly from under her arms. I didn’t lift her but waited for her to stand up on her own with me supporting her. This way she could sit back down when her legs got tired. She loved it!
Yesterday as we were playing at home I was placing toys in front of Maia and another exciting event took place – Maia grabbed a toy and brought it to her mouth! Until now she has only sort of patted her toys, for example the ones hanging from her playmat arches, but yesterday was the first time she grabbed one. She then repeated her new party trick with other toys I gave her. Her coordination needs a bit of work still but she has clearly realised she can pick things up. Recently she’s been in love with her fists and chews them nonstop and so I was not surprised to see the toys end up in her mouth as well. I need to get her some more teething toys to chew on. I don’t think she is teething just yet but she seems to have fun chewing on things. My clever little girl, you are growing up too fast!
Hopefully I’ll beat this cold soon and we can get back to our activities. I haven’t been a very entertaining mummy while feeling under the weather and staying at home all day can’t be that interesting for Maia. Or perhaps she doesn’t mind and it’s just me who is getting the cabin fever!
xoxoxo,
Sini
PS. It’s so unfortunate that while breastfeeding I can’t take almost any cold medicines – oh what wouldn’t I give for a Sudafed right now!