Hooray, we’ve made it past the fifteen week fussy stage. I’m still telling people Luna is “about three and a half months” because in my head I’m pretending she is still one day old, and saying “four months” is a milestone I am just not ready to accept yet! Besides, her official four calendar month birthday is October 22nd so I can get away with it.
Last week was really hard because I went from having the most content, happy baby I’d ever known, to having a whiney little octopus who pierced my eardrums through screaming so sharply. As she occupied most of her time seeing how much of her fist she could shove into her mouth, I knew it must be more gum movements, and this was confirmed when half a sachet of that magic teething powder stopped the noise within minutes.
But just knowing what the problem was didn’t make it any easier. My usual routine was thrown completely out of the window and I couldn’t even pop to the shops. Then, on one of my baby group Facebook groups, an infographic was posted detailing the weeks at which develepmental milestones take place within the baby’s brain. Fifteen weeks was one of them. At last, a proper explaination and a huge sigh of relief that I wasn’t suddenly doing something wrong and Luna didn’t suddenly hate me.
Another worry from last week is that Luna hasn’t been as interested in her milk as usual. Feeding on demand, I rarely pay attention to when she last fed or how many hours it has been between feeds. And as she has been putting on weight well, I’ve just been getting on with it, feeding her whenever I see the cues. (Oh dear I just tried to spell that ‘queues’ and thought something didn’t look right – almost bedtime). But I noticed I hadn’t really fed her much all day, and then she slept well all night, and then still wasn’t bothered about feeding for long in the morning. This lasted a couple of days and it really upset me because I was dreading hearing a health visitors voice say “put her on formula”. Luckily, I have a really great support network in the form of a breastfeeding group and Daisy, and I worked out a few reason why she could be off her feeds including having a cold (no-one would enjoy drinking with a runny nose), and the developmental activity causing her to get distacted every time she latches on. Anyway, she’s back to her greedy self and hopefully will still be on the 51st percentile when I get her weighed tomorrow so I’m back to being positive about the feeding.
Now we are past the fifteen week fussy stage, I can certainly tell that whatever wiring was taking place in her brain has been done excellently! Just a couple of days ago, tummy time was best avoided, but yesterday whilst changing her, I put her on her tummy to do a button up on the back of her top (who designs these impractical baby clothes?) and she pushed herself up smiling. Then just a few hours later she rolled from her front to her back. And then, the same day she blessed my ears with the cutest proper giggle and has now spent today giggling every time I kiss her or jiggle her. She can sit up whilst holding mu fingers and also wants to stand up all the time but obviously I’m taking most of her weight. I think it’s time to invest in some kind of jumperoo and a door jumper.
My little baby is starting to get so grown up.
In other news, it was my birthday. I’m 25 but feel 75. 25 is definitely more than one year older than 24, it’s that age when you actually sound like an adult. Luna’s present to me was a big splurgh of sick all over herself, me, the sofa, the carpet, everywhere. She has only been properly sick twice before so it was a nice surprise for me – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
