Samantha and the next four weeks

Fifth Week (27 June to 3 July)

I received my new Baby Beehinds this week. They are a cloth nappy in the shape of a disposable which you wash and reuse. They come with bamboo inserts that you insert into the pocket to absorb all the liquid. While I’ve had a few pee leaks while they were being broken in, I’ve not yet had a poo leak. I declare them a success.

The local community and family health centre sets up a new mother’s group starting every seven weeks and runs them for six weeks. At the end of the six weeks, the contact details of all the members are distributed to all the members and we then arrange to meet on an independent basis. Samantha went to her first mother’s group this week, and she was a little angel, which is good as my biggest fear was that she would scream the whole time.

Sam started reaching out to touch things, and when she’s put on her tummy she’d do a couple good push ups before getting tired. She also self settlings rather well when she is put down for a nap. She was sleeping 5 hours stints at night after 11:30pm, and was feeding 7 times a day.

Sam and I had our first bath together this week, and I was delighted to discover that babies naturally float.

During the daily nappy free time in the morning this week which Sam spends on the change table, she decided to try out projectile pooing…all over the cream carpet. The stains are still there, because I have not had time to really try and remove them. Unfortunately, the incidents happened two days in a row (and on the second day I also got peed on while cleaning the poo from the carpet). On the first day I attacked the first stain with generic carpet stain remover (the type you spray into the carpet and vacuum out as it turns white), and it did a good job of fading the stain, although it wasn’t removed completely. I feel it would disappear if treated further in this manner, however, the room must be ventilated well for this to happen, which means keeping the baby out and having her entertained elsewhere for a period. I treated the second and first stains with vinegar and warm water, however it really did little to remove the stain.

Sixth Week (4-10 July)

Sammy was immunised this week. The poor little chicken suffered a few side effects as a result. She immediately became very drowsy, despite being overdue for a feed. A few hours later she became inconsolable. The next morning, she got a fever and started vomiting. The only side effect she didn’t get was diarrhoea and a lump.

Seventh Week (11-17 July)

Sam started sleeping through in this week, from 11:30pm to 7:00am. I started to regain my sanity in earnest, and found I could actually get stuff done. She started “talking” to us, copying the noises we make, and making all manner of squeals, grunts and coos. She started smiling in earnest, delighting us with her big grins. When she reached out to touch things, she would sometimes grab hold of them and pull (particularly when it came to Daddy’s chest hair).

Eight Week (18-24 July)

Sam started waking us up between 4:00am and 5:00am, screaming her little lungs out. As she had been struggling with some pretty painful looking nappy rash, I assumed she needed a nappy change, so I would get up, turn on her lamp and go to the toilet. Several times, by the time I got back to her bedside, she’d be fast asleep, so I’d turn off her lamp and go back to bed until 7:00am. However, one morning, Brad was kind enough to offer to do the nappy change as he was getting up to go to work anyway. He pointed out that she was in fact fast asleep during the whole time she was screaming, and actually didn’t wake up until after he finished changing her nappy, at which point she looked terrified and became inconsolable (nothing a little feed didn’t fix). She did this a couple times during the week, during both the night and midday sleeps, and then it stopped as suddenly as it started. Who knows what the reason was…

She also decided that she was too old to be swaddled this week. I had been putting her down for her day sleeps unswaddled, and I forgot to swaddle her one night during the week. I remembered the next night, however she screamed until I removed it, so she has been unswaddled ever since. Because her cot head is higher than foot, I put two rolled up cloth nappies either side of her to stop her squirming sideways down the cot, and then I use another two to make sure her blankets are tucked in snuggly at the sides. I use her swaddles as ground sheets to catch any accidents during the night so that I don’t need to change the sheets.