Wednesday, November 30, 2005

How beautiful it is

How beautiful is it when babies discover their hands? Romily has found out that the things on the end of her arms are useful! She can pick things up (eventually) and now sucks on one, two or all of her fingers at once. She turns her hand over to suck on her pinky and looks very impressed with herself.

The down side of this new discovery, however, is that Romily has also learnt to pinch. Usually my boobs when she’s feeding! Yee-ow it hurts. I pull her hand away but she always puts it back and grabs a handful of skin and twists. She also does this with my clothes, but hasn’t worked out it hurts me when she does it to my boobs. And she doesn’t understand the word ‘no’ at nearly four months old!

It’s lovely to watch Romily playing with her clothes, bunny rug, teddy and reaching up to grab the dangly toys on her play mat. She’s getting bigger and doing more every day and I think she’s so clever! And I tell her all the time. She’s my clever smiley girl.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Tummy time

When your baby is born and you take them home, a maternal and child health nurse visits you at your house after about a week to weigh and measure the baby and to ensure your house is set up for a baby.

The nurse explained to me that ‘tummy time’ is very important for all babies, as it helps them strengthen the muscles they need to sit up. Romily hated being placed on her tummy so I tended not to put her there very often or for long.


At her next check-up, the nurse asked how tummy time was going. I said Romily didn’t like it and the nurse suggested I get down on the floor with Romy so she could see me when she lifted up her head. I tried it and Romily liked it much better.

I also bought her a stand-up mirror so that she could look at herself when she lifted her big noggin up. She now thinks she’s pretty clever being able to see herself in the mirror!

I can now see why tummy time is so important. There’s no way Romily is strong enough to sit up at this stage but she gets so frustrated lying on her back all the time. So we’re doing a lot more tummy time now and she’s getting much stronger and better at it. You will have seen from the previous update that she has worked out how to roll from tummy to back. I think learning to roll from back to tummy is some time off yet!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Three months and counting...

Well Romily is now three months old and she’s wonderful. We had a big day today – she rolled for the first time! She was having ‘tummy time’ and I ducked downstairs for a moment and then heard wailing. I raced back upstairs to see what was up and lo and behold Romily was on her back. She looked quite shocked but I made a big happy fuss over her and she looked very pleased with herself!

I put her back on her tummy and she rolled straight back onto her back for a second time. Clever girl!

She’s so lovely!