Friday, October 05, 2007

She smiles!

Smiling!
Lucy in her buggy this afternoon with Lucien Bunny.

Lucy has been smiling for perhaps a couple of weeks now. I got my first fantastic full-on smile from her in the early morning light as she lay on her changing mat. I asked her "are you going to give your Daddy a smile?" and right on cue she obliged. I could have floated all the way to work on the high.

Her sleep has (dare we say it) been going well. Since last week she has started to go 7-8 hours. Going to sleep at about 10.30 and rising at 6.30, it couldn't be any better really. Well, I suppose she could sleep in until after we've got Oliver up and fed but that would be asking a bit much! So her early moprning feed has moved to as late as 6.30am but is sometimes still as early as 4.30am.

She is always a little delight when I feed her in the early morning. I take her into the spare room and she lies there farly content as I warm her milk. Feeding her is a lovely experience. It is a quiet and tranquil time with her content and happy. I listen to 5 Live quietly as she feeds. (Even Hayley has started to do this. The other morning she enjoyed the excitement of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix!)

Hayley has now entirely stopped breast feeding. Lucy seems to have realised that the bottles require less work and she started to really complain when offered the breast. So it's all bottles from now on. But she had 7 weeks of breast milk (and I think we might still have a bit left in the freezer), so she has had a very good start. Certainly much more breast-milk than Oliver got. And it means I can get more involved which is nice. Maybe it's my imagination, but I seem to be more popular with Lucy since feeding her more often too!

The early morning feeds have come in handy as a way of me getting into work early. I've had a few 6.30am starts as a result. I've also been in at the weekend. It's a sign of how busy we are. It's not exactly welcome. After all, no-ones last words were "I wish I'd spent more time in the office", but it's a necessary evil right now.

Oliver has been showing more signs of the terriblw twos. More whinging and pester power than tantrums to be honest. But other times he can be a gem. And he is always good to Lucy so I think he's doing pretty well.

Yesterday some friends came round. When Oliver came down from his nap to find John and Iona in the living room he said "Hi John. How are you?" Hayley couldn't believe her ears. I've never heard him as "How are you" before.