Thursday 20 December 2007

The Caterpillar Look Is In


After a couple of troubled nights earlier this week, when Lara just wouldn't settle when we put her down in crib at night after a feed, we might have worked out a solution. On Tuesday night we ended up bringing the cot up from downstairs at 4am, as we knew Lara sleeps OK in that during the day, and we tilted it slightly at the head end, the way she was tilted in the bassinet in hospital. Lara dropped off straight away until her next feeding time at 7am.
Bearing this in mind, I checked the crib, and found that it was ever-so-slightly tilted the wrong way, and when we tucked her blankets under her mattress to keep her snug, this just accentuated it, so her head was slightly lower than her hips. So I've put something under the head-end of the crib to raise it up so she tilts the right way now.
We also decided that we'd try to wake her up more during the day so that she might be more tired at night, and finally Olga also thought she'd swaddle Lara up using some blankets Luda brought over in September precisely for that job. She does look like a white caterpillar though!

Anyway, whether it was one of those things, or a combination of them, she slept almost perfectly last night, waking only for feeds and even then they were three hours apart and lasting for a reasonable length of time (including a personal best of 27 minutes) rather than waking every 30-60 minutes for 5 minutes of feeding like on Monday & Tuesday nights.
So, we learn something again - each day there's something else that experience teaches us.

Lara had a visit from the midwife this morning, and she has regained the weight she lost last week, she's now upto 2.82kg, only 0.02kg under her birth weight. We seem to be doing well enough that the midwife has officially dismissed us from midwifery care now. We have a health visitor coming tomorrow morning, but this afternoon's big adventure is our first trip to our NCT Post Natal meeting with the other people from our NCT group. I've not heard that any other babies have been born other than Lara, Alfie and the twins, but we'll catch up on gossip today.

Bet I'm the only Dad there.....

Oh, the football last night - the less said the better, but Lara's reputation as a lucky mascot for Liverpool is in danger. And as for the cricket, well, I'll not even mention it. OK, just a little. 81 all out! I confidently expect to be playing against some of those England players next summer in the Morrants Chiltern League Second XI Second Division!

Tuesday 18 December 2007

Gotta love Picasa


Picasa is a great tool for organising photos, and this "Collage" option is pretty good too. As soon as they allow you to move each photo around within the collage, it'll be perfect.

We went to the supermarket at 10.30 last night - there seemed to be a lot of invisible children in there, given the number of cars parked in the Parent & Child spaces. Actually, there were more toddlers around than I expected - Lara doesn't know what time it is (we've not bought her a watch yet) but it must have been way past these kid's bedtime. Now I sound like a judgemental parent, oops!
Anyway, we did get a Parent & Child space, and we got the carseat fixed on to the right flavour of trolley, and it was all quite civilised in Asda at that time.
The trouble is that we only got home at midnight, and by the time I'd put the shopping away and Olga had fed Lara, who was a calmer in the supermarket than she was at home, it was well after 1am before we could try to get some sleep. Between Lara's grumbling and Olga possibly coming down with a mixture of overtiredness and a cold, it was the most disturbed night we'd had so far.
I went back to work this morning, but not before I'd stuck photos of Lara up around the house to surprise Olga and put a smile on her face. By 9.30 she'd found the two in the bathroom (I was particularly pleased with the one stuck to the underside of the toilet seat lid) and as I write now, before I go home again, I presume she's found the 6 others (one on the cans of Guiness in the fridge, another on the back of the cupboard door under the sink, and so on).

An experiment with Skype and a webcam worked last night, as Grandma and Grandpa were able to cooo over Lara; hopefully by the New Year we'll be able to get a video-conference going between Wycombe, Radcliffe and Bristol for family gatherings!

Another minor miracle happened yesterday too - a mere 9 months (or more!) after we inherited a wardrobe from a colleague at work, I was able to put it together in the right place. It's been in 6 pieces in various sheds and rooms since we brought it home, and has been taunting me everytime I've stubbed a toe on it or had to move it from one room to another to get at whatever it was leaning against.

OK, off for a haircut then home to the girls. Olga better not have done the washing up, ironing, or hoovering, she's under strict orders that the most energetic thing she had to do this morning was channel surf during the adverts in Jeremy Kyle's programme (I love that!).
On second thoughts, I'll let her off if she's done one of those three...
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Monday 17 December 2007

Monday morning and all's well

We had a visit from the midwife this morning, and she's very happy with Lara's and Olga's progress, and was very pleasantly surprised with how soon Lara could come home considering she was premature.
We're thinking of having our first trip round the supermarket this afternoon, making sure Olga's got enough food in the house for when I go back to work tomorrow, albeit I'm only going to do half-days in the office for the next few weeks. It's all complicated because of Christmas Week next week (when I'll probably go in for full days but Ola and Lara will come in too), so I'll do half-days for the first week of the new year. Which shopping trolley to use?! We're looking forward to using the parent and toddler parking spaces with clear consciences, and annoying those selfish gits who use them unnecessarily.
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Weekend catch up - Sunday

OK, ok, so Liverpool lost, I really must wake Lara up next time to bring us luck. The sooner she grows into her LFC baby grow, the better.
I was back in the study after the football, again trying to finish it off so we can empty the storage boxes that are in there and make it into a usable room.
Lara had no social engagments today, it was a quiet day in, apart from perfecting her projectile poo-ing over Olga's lovely white fluffy dressing gown. She had been wondering why she had so many bathrobes - now she knows!
Olga did take some photos of Lara, as it had been a day or two since we'd taken any!:

Weekend catch up - Saturday

We had an appointment at the drop-in clinic at the hospital on Saturday morning. Lara had some blood taken for testing - her reaction to the midwife pricking Lara's heel was to fart forcefully in the midwife's direction.
Everything was OK, Lara had lost some weight, down to 2.66kg, which is fine.
After that it was off to Wycombe town centre for a shopping adventure around Mothercare & Woolworths. Given that I was driving the pram with the carrycot for the first time, 2 Saturdays before Christmas, I only clipped one shopper with the pram, and that was out in the street and not in the crowded aisles of Woolies.
Lara had her second social engagement on Saturday night, when we took her to the Prince of Wales in Marlow so I could meet up with the football lads, who were on their Christmas Night Out. Of course the real reason was just to show Lara off!

We started getting Christmassy today too, we put the tree and some decorations up. I did expect Mishka to either pull the tree down or mark it as "his" tree by the time we got back from the pub, but he'd behaved himself. We'll have our family portrait taken by the tree as soon as all four of us are looking presentable at the same time!

Lara's still being good during the night, Olga is sensing when Lara needs a feed before the tears start, so I'm getting reasonable sleep, and Olga's getting a little more than she was expecting, I think. On Saturday night Lara was particularly good, having a feed around midnight, then again around 3.30am then again around 7am.

Weekend catch up - Friday

As you might guess from the lack of posts, it was a busy weekend Chez Armstrong.
On Friday afternoon we ended up attending the Tigress Christmas Meal in the nice Italian restaurant next to the office. Lara was asleep in the car seat, and the staff gave us a table for two, next to the big Tigress table, where we could put her on the floor, next to the table, safely out of the way of passing waiters. She only began to stir as we were having our dessert, and Olga took her off to the office for a feed.
In the evening I popped back to Marlow for a Christmas & Baby-Head-Wetting drink with the guys. Arriva buses stole half an hour off my time with Lara because the bus I wanted to catch was early. It's more frustrating that buses are early than late, at least there's probably a good excuse for being late! Anyway, enough of the Victor Meldrews.
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