Julie's Boggle

As far as routines go, Jessica’s daytime sleeps are on the random side – particularly compared to Jon at this age who used to run on rails!

Some people have been asking how we’re getting on with our “routine” and two children, so for the curious, an ordinary day for Jess looks a bit like this:

07h05 – get carried through to the lounge in the Moses basket, do a bit of waking up and wriggling and then get a feed.  Jess is not a morning girl and this feed is usually a bit dozy.  (Most of the milk for the late-night bottle gets expressed during this feed.)

07h50 – back into the Moses basket to kick around while the rest of us have breakfast, and then Mummy showers and gets ready.

09h00 – all changed and dressed for the first nap of the day (which will happen some time in the next half-hour) which will often be in the pushchair; ideally for about 45 minutes but it’s a bit variable.

11h00 – another feed and then hopefully some awake time (this never works if Jess has to go back into the pushchair lying down!)

12h30ish – next sleep.  This is the bit where it can all go a bit wobbly – the lunchtime nap routine is not hugely popular with Jess and getting her to drop off around this time can be quite tricky.

15h00 – next feed, followed by a good long awake time, often spent watching Jonathan doing whatever he’s busy with.

17h30ish – niggles again; popping a dummy in at this point and giving Jess a quiet (or even not so quiet) spot will quickly result in her falling asleep.  This nap needs to be controlled though – ideally only 30 minutes – or she’s very wide awake in the evening.

18h30 – often getting quite loud while we’re having supper; if it all starts getting too noisy in the run-up to supper, Jess might get her entrée early.

19h00 – final feed from Mummy starts; interrupted partway by a bath with Jon every other day.

20h00 – usually Jessica is dozing on me by this time; on evenings when she’s very awake, she often stays in the lounge with us, listening to the TV while we watch. She’s always down by 21h00 in her carry cot – usually having needed a couple of dummy “reapplications” if sleep takes a while to come.

22h00 – carry cot gets transferred to the hallway so I can go to bed.

22h30 – woken by Daddy for the final bottle feed; all done by 23h30 and down for the night back in Jon’s room in her Moses basket.  Phew!

Jess is progressing nicely at three months. All sorts of exciting things for one so small – like some beautiful cooing and gurgling, and finally mastering enough muscle control to bat at dangly things on her playgym!

She’s also quite good at wriggling and has been observed to turn herself 90° while lying on the couch so that she could get a better view of the laptop beside her!

Favourite things to do (aside from feeding and sleeping) are watching Jon, and looking out the window from the change mat – for which she will now roll onto her side for a better view.

Jess is very rewarding to pay attention to – one gets all sorts of  little smiles and gurgles of appreciation – but she can also be fairly content just lying back and watching the world go by.  Thinking back, Jon was rather similar, but my daily agenda was very different in those days – I appreciate the quality even more now!

Overall, Jess is a real joy to have around.  She’s still fairly dainty as babies go (weighing in at just under 5.5kg), so the cuteness factor is significant.  Especially those blue eyes watching you from the flat bed of the pushchair like two bright little polished stones – one couldn’t really ask for more.