It ain't over til the fat baby sings

Aimee is in the full throes of teething.Of course there is no tooth yet, but her constant drooling, red cheeks and insatiable desire to bite on anything withingrasping distance are obvious symptoms. What's most unpleasant about this phase is that she sleeps for no more than about half an hour at night, causing both me and Cat much sleepless anguish.On the good front, Aimee is now very good with her hand eye coordination, she is able to reach out and grasp for eye-catching toyings that are dangled in front of her. She also plays her 'piano' toy by batting the keys very hard and gaining much pleasure at the result of her actions.But it is all very hard work. Aimee it seems is one of those babies that simply cannot survive without constant attention.
Our friend Catherine came round yesterday.


Here she is playing with Aimee.

Cath is 5 months pregnant and came round eager to learn about life with a young baby. Of course Aimee was on her very best behaviour and Cath left our house seemingly quite happy - despite our horror stories of the things that went wrong during Cat's labour.
We're experiencing a mini-rough patch with the Aimster. We hope it won;t last. I am sure there are parents out there with far worse situations (like my friend Greg's baby who had colic for 3 months and cried non-stop for 4 hours every night). Team Yang will just have to battle it out.

Bjorn Again

Yesterday, Valentine's Day, Cat and I were able to spend an evening out together for the first time since Aimee was born. Thanks to Cat's mum for taking baby-sitting duties. We enjoyed a nice meal and a great time - we felt like kids again. To cap off our great evening, Aimee managed to sleep 6 and half hours last night...sheer bliss.
Yesterday was also the day that Aimee was given the second of her scheduled three vaccine shots. Cat says she took the pain bravely and only cried for a little bit. Aimee's weight, at 12 weeks old is now 13lbs (6Kg) - so she has slowed down her previously phenomenal growth spurt, down to a more average level.
Cat and I were agreeing on how much our attitudes have changed. Before Aimee, we would baulk at the idea of buying needless toys, clothes and hip baby accessories. Now, anything goes. If it helps, we buy it, no second thought. Our latest purchase is a 'Baby Bjorn' baby carrier. These things are the Rolls Royce of carriers but their high cost is I think worth it. Soon as you pop Aimee in it, she is happy and content. The Mothercare one was pants and hurt our backs. This one, is like a second skin. Plus we get to look the part when we wander down Broadway market amongst the other aspiring middle class families with their Quinny prams and Baby gap fashion wear.

Cat just spoke to her friend, who is 21 weeks pregnant. The friend mentioned that her sister in law had SOLD her their second hand Moses basket (for nearly full price). She also tried to flog loads of other stuff, many of it originally given free. Now I'm sorry, but what sick fcuk sells on free second hand baby stuff to their own close relative? One of the things that amazed me and Cat was the sheer unprompted generosity of our friends and relatives in giving us gifts, presents and very useful second hand items when Aimee was born. We hope that we can pass on that goodwill to our friends and relatives with items we think are useful, but we would certainly not sell them our second hand baby gear, that would just be wrong.

Developmental recap: Aimee can now smile in response to your smile, or spontaneously, she can clasp her hands together, she can hold her head up without support, she seems to be teething, she can grip an object for a reasonable length of time, she can reach out and hit a dangling object eg on the Fisher Price toy piano.

Gripped!

It's one of those moments me and the missus refers to as a 2001 moment. You know like in the Kubrik film where the dramatic music in the background as apes first learn to use tools.
Aimee had a 2001 moment when she realised that her hands were capable of gripping and hitting something. so far, her hands have been something convenient to put in one's mouth. But now, Aimee is pulling, tugging, gripping, swiping away with baby abandon.
On the musical rocker, she knows to pull at the strings to get a melody. If you place her down on her back, watch out, she is still gripping your clothing! If you turn away for one second, there, she has gripped onto something which immediately finds it's way into her mouth. Yuk!

As with all things Aimee however, what one gains in one area, we lose in another. While her grip power is now that of a healthy 12 week old, her ability to sleep on her own is that of a nought month old. Perhaps we are to blame - ie no routine, too much stimulation, no sleep 'cues', too much rocking and slinging. No wonder she won't sleep in the cot on her own. She has got used to all the other things except just damn well closing her eyes on her own. But perhaps, she is still a little young and maybe in a month's time, she will be able to go longer at night without waking.
We shall see. I am conforted by the fact that we are not alone in this area, but I fear the controlled crying regime that many recommend for very bad sleepers.
But in the meantime, we shall continue to rock her, sing to her, sway her etc to get her to sleep so we can sleep.

Sleep tactics

Sleep - that precious commodity, so rare these days, so hard to find, but heaven when it happens!
Every parent must have gone through the same tactics and tricks that we have gone through to get Aimee to sleep. So far, we have tried rocking in arms, singing, pop music, swinging in the car seat, walking around in the sling, lullabies - the lot.
All of them work to some extent, but not all the time. You start with one, then guage the reaction. If the Aimee gets more agitated you move to the next one and so on. Until either you or Aimee conks out.
Last night was a new one - white noise. My white noise to be precise. I lay Aimee down and she was too excitable to sleep, staring at all and sundry. If you leave her alone, she'll protest so I stayed there and started making continuous hissing and gurgling sounds from my mouth. Weird I know but it seemed to hypnotise her - it took a long time though but eventually she fell asleep. That was it, off to bed and Aimee did not make a peep until 5am - hoorah!

Aimee has a new trick herself. She can put all her fingers in her mouth and make herself gag. I actually think she enjoys the sensation. No harm seems to come of it and she hasn't actually gone so far as to vomit, but it does look disturbing. She seems happy though.

Won't be long before the dreaded teeth come through.