February 1999

Amber seems to be enjoying becoming a person in her own right. She is begining to ammuse herself when she is on her own kicking and playing with her toys. She is also begining to learn about her hands - doing the classic staring at them whilst they move about. She is becoming more smiley. She smiles "on demand" when I am playing with her, she enjoys having her tummy tickled and also having her cheeks stroked. It is really rewarding, as I don't remember Matthew smiling like this.

Amber had her 8 week checkup. She is 11lbs and 59cm tall: that 50th centile for weight but 92nd for height! She also had her first lot of DTP immunisations. I have been more worried about giving them this time, but I really do believe in immunisation. Amber was fine -and I didn't even need to give her any calpol. I have made sure Amber's name is down at Matthew's nursery so that she will have a full time place available from July.

We seem to have some good days and some more difficult days with Amber. For several days she seems so settled, and then for two ar three days she will feed and feed. This pattern has been repeating for a couple of weeks, I know this is the normal way babies increase their mothers milk, but I never imagined it would be so intense. Amber is, however, in a very good routine: She wakes at 7am, plays for a bit and then feeds at 7:30. Matthew and I have breakfast whilst she is settled and happy to lay on the kitchen floor kicking. The next feed is around 10 and then she sleeps. We can usually have lunch before she wakes. In the afternoon she is usually awake and feeding on and off, by 5pm she will fall asleep unless she has slept during the last couple of hours. I feed her at 8pm, then bath her around 9 so that she is ready for another feed at 10pm before bed. She is waking once in the night.



For Valentines night Granny and Grandpa babysat whilst we went to the cinema. Amber didn't like being left much. She was also very sick in the night, this is the second time she has been so sick after being given formula milk. It is kind of scarey because she was sick like Matthew used to be... and he started being sick when I decided I had to give him formula.

A week on and Amber has started sleeping through the night, from 11pm to 6:30am! I feel very refreshed from being able to sleep uninterupted. I usually bring Amber into bed for her 6:30 feed and snooze until Matthew wakes up at 7:30. She is also becoming more fun to play with. She has smiling matches, and gurgling conversations I certainly don't remember Matthew being sociable like this at such a young age.... but as a trade off she is less settled during her waking times. She needs more attention now, and she has a tendancy to snack feed, so looking after her is demanding, but still a pleasure.

It is about time I stopped using disposables on Amber. I had decided to use them for a few week initially until I got used to looking after two, but now Matthew is ourt of nappies I have no excuse! Amber has always suffered from nappy rash - which I kept down to a minimum by alternating different brands of nappy at each change. I am hoping the cotton nappies will be kinder on her skin, and stop it completely.

With Karl, and in particlar Matthew, away for the weekend I have had the chance to really get to know Amber, and she is delightful. I hadn't really understood her personality before. She is great fun and very rewarding to play with as she is so responsive. She is quietly intelligent, thoughtful and very sociable. She likes to play for a bit, then feed for a bit and then sleep for a bit. She only has about a half hour attention span for playing with toys, but then she wants lots of hugs. She also like to play games with me, she laughs when I pull faces at her or make funny noises. This goes in roughly three hour cycles. Amber is obviously very fond of being with "her people", I have seen her affection for Matthew, and now I hve seen her affection for me - I also understand that she has a real separation anxiety.

Amber had her BCG, which went fine: she had a really red arm for a couple of days but thats all she has to show for it now. She is now able to hold her head up when she is lying on her tummy, and she can roll over from her tummy onto her back. (but not the other way). She can also manage to push herself across the floor crab-like on her back.