The biggest news we have is that Kathleen has finally learnt to self-settle (i.e. fall asleep by herself after being put to bed). It wasn't until week 10 or 11 that this happened but since then she does it almost every time she goes to bed. It literally happened overnight - I had begun putting her to bed and letting her cry for five minutes before going back to rock her, and then one day she cried for 2 or 3 minutes and then stopped and went to sleep. I was so surprised. The first night it happened, Peter and I were both sitting in the living room saying "now what?" and "what's wrong?". I think there were several things that contributed to her learning to sleep - the fantabulous curtains from Tina that keep her room dark, the basinette I bought that hangs inside her cot and swings, but mostly I think it was just part of getting older and learning how to sleep. It sure has made our lives a lot more pleasant and easier to cope with.The only issue we now have with Kat sleeping is that quite often she will only sleep for around 40 minutes at a time and then wake up. I will usually try and rock her back to sleep when this happens, which can sometimes be a frustrating and fruitless task. You can usually predict when you put her to bed when she is going to wake up, as she is very consistent with her 40 minutes. The reason for this is because a sleep cycle in babies lasts for around 40 minutes. In adults this is around 90 minutes (ref Wikipedia - Stages of Sleep).
So now that Kat is getting plenty of sleep when she needs it, she is a lot happier whenever she is awake. She will play with you or by herself for short periods of time. She loves watching TV. She is now getting to the stage where she will reach out for things if you put them in front of her, and if she gets hold of them they go straight in the mouth. She's really good at holding thin things like bibs and sleeves, but anything bulky like toys usually gets dropped.
She went through a stage of being very chatty, but this stopped when we went to Wellington at Easter. Now she has started gurgling instead and sometimes squeals (which is SO cute).
We thought for a while that she may have had reflux which was causing her unhappiness. We tried her on Gaviscon for a while but I don't know if it helped or not. I think the biggest improvement came from me changing my diet. I never knew so many foods could affect babies - the breastfeeding diet is even worse than the pregnancy diet. Most fruit and vegetables are off the menu, which makes life very boring. The hardest thing to give up was tomatoes, but since I stopped eating them I have noticed an improvement in her. It is very hard not to eat tomatoes though - go to a foodcourt and have a look at how many meals contain them - just about every sandwich or salad, all hamburgers and kebabs, most pasta dishes, all Mexican food. And I love tomatoes!
Kathleen is growing up well and life is getting easier for Peter and I. My days are no longer filled with trying to get her to sleep and I can actually get things done (so why no blogs for ages? you ask). I go out with two different coffee groups and its good to exchange ideas with mothers of babies the same age.
Peter, Kat and I went to Wellington for Easter, and Kat and I also went there for a week in March. Both times were to visit Peter's family but were also beneficial for me to observe Kat out of her environment and I learnt more each time about how she behaves in different situations. It was also great to be able to leave Kat with her grandmother and go out with friends for a change (thanks Marty & Tania).We are still wanting to move to Wellington but Peter has yet to find a job there. He has had a couple of leads but no offers yet. So we continue living in Auckland in the meantime.
Photos on Flickr have now been organised into sets ... photos of Kathleen can now be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/repete/sets/72057594123678289/
-Megz
PS: Here's an addictive little game to keep you busy for hours: www.planarity.net
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