The super-cheekiness has begun

I finally did it- I told the people next door to shut up. At 10pm someone was playing acoustic guitar and singing. That wasn’t a problem though, the songs were soft and actually lulled me to sleep. Then came the bongo (or similar) drums. They invaded my sleep and woke me from my wonderful slumber. Enough was enough. I pulled the blinds up and stuck my head as far out the window as I could, to see where the noise was coming from. On and on the badly played bongos went. Without thinking, I yelled. “SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Wow, I can’t believe I actually finally did it. To my surprise, they actually did. They shut up almost immediately. But then I felt bad. I should have been a little nicer about it. I should have maybe said “could you please quiet down, I’m trying to sleep.” Of course that might not have been so effective. Ahhh, I could go back to sleep. Or could I? Probable drunk and or high people had just been yelled at to shut up. Hmmm…would they try to do anything to me? I felt extremely glad at that moment that there are bars on all of our windows. I suppose they probably didn’t even know from which apartment complex, let alone unit, the shut up came from, but that is not what you think about at 11pm after being woken from your deep slumber to the sound of horribly played bongo drums, possibly by psychopaths. This time I really would have called the cops to make a noise complaint. loud tv and or music (the recorded kind, not badly played live kind) is one thing, but bongo drums?

How do you tell a 6 (almost 7) month old that they can’t sleep sitting up? Hannah will only breastfeed before she goes to sleep or has a nap. I know it’s not ideal, but she usually falls asleep while I feed her (I have tried many many times to feed her other times, but she is a stubborn determined little thing, and will ONLY breastfeed before bed no matter what I do), then I put her in the cot, she rolls over onto her tummy, and that is how she sleeps. Now though, after about 2 minutes, she wakes up. I’m sure she always has, but then she just repositions herself and goes back to sleep. But now she can get to the sitting position all by herself, so what does she do? She wakes after 2 minutes and then sits of course. The sitting then gets her all awake again, she gets over tired, she cries, I go in, lay her down, pat her back, she sits back up immediately, I lay her down, etc. I’ve tried staying in there while she plays around in her cot to get herself all tuckered out again. She will get tired again, but of course, the whole process repeats. I’ve tried letting her cry for 10 minutes initially, go in, pat for 1 minute, leave her for 3, pat for 1, etc. Nope, that doesn’t work either. As soon as I lay her down, pop! she’s back up. I don’t think she realises that she is only 6 months old. According to baby books, this whole sitting up from laying, crawling, etc. thing, is not supposed to happen until about 10 months. Needless to say, it’s been a long, tired few days, with mommy (sorry, I mean me. Once you have a baby, you start automatically referring to yourself as “Mommy” in the third person in hopes that sometime soon, baby will call you that too) going a little insane. She did get to 15 minutes this morning before she woke up. I guess we’re making some progress.

I’m glad Hannah doesn’t yet have top teeth, otherwise I would probably be missing a nipple right now. I tried to resettle her with booby (I know, bad habit, but I was desperate, the patting/sitting up cycle had been going on for an hour with no progress), but she wanted none of it. Instead of sucking, she decided to clamp down and not let go. Once I pried my nipple out of her cheeky little mouth, I could see teeth marks. That is something one never ever wants to see on their nipple. Ever. Lucky for her she hasn’t bitten me again. If she starts biting me regularly, or if she draws blood, I’m withdrawing booby from her permanently. I’m not totally cruel though, I’d still express and give it to her in a sippy cup. She would hate it though. She probably would refuse to drink it, and then after not eating anything for a while, I’d give in and she’d get booby again. Stubborn little thing (but oh so cute).

We have to find a new place asap. Hannah is getting into everything. She crawls all over the house, ripping everything off shelves, opening drawers and cupboards (and squishing her little fingers in drawers a few times. She is too fast, I’m right next to her, so I can see as soon as it’s going to happen, but by the time I get my hand between the drawer and it’s frame, she’s already shut her fingers in it), trying to climb the dishwasher when I’m unloading it, trying to open doors that I’ve shut so she can’t go in other rooms. The list is endless!! She much prefers random household things to her toys these days. At least she is easily entertained (even though it means I’m following her around the house, trying to make sure she doesn’t get into too much mischief!). Oh, and she is still being super cheeky at meal time too, giving me food showers and/or refusing to eat. Oh the cheekiness… (but we wouldn’t swap her for the world!).

Nipple biter

Time since birth: 11 weeks
Weight loss this week: can’t remember and since there is a baby on my boob I can’t go look….

“Ouch!” What the…. I looked down to see why my my boob was suddenly in pain. First in my line of sight: nipple. Below my nipple was Hannah, sucking away hungrily. Hannah is self latching, all i do is put her near the nipple and bang, she does the rest. Sometimes though, she does it sleepily with her eyes closed, resulting in the hickey below my nipple.

Aaron and i would really like to go out for the evening and let The Jess babysit Hannah, but Hannah absolutely refuses to take a bottle. We’re not even trying to give her formula, but expressed mommy milk. I tried expressing then giving it to her straight away. Fail. I got a special teat that acts and feels like a nipple. Fail. She screams if the bottle even comes near her. I guess she likes my boobies too much.

It’s the best feeling when your baby smiles at you. Sometimes she smiles so big she has to shut her eyes to accommodate her rising chubby cheeks. Hannah has also started giggling. Grandma was in Hannah’s room chatting with her (she answers back with her cooing) and i heard a very loud excited giggle even though i was in the living room. Yesterday i read her a very colourful baby book called “The magic bus” (not to be confused with the magic school bus. “The magic bus” is way better as it’s bus is bright purple) which she absolutely loved. She giggled at every page.

I was walking to the bus stop from the shopping centre when i spotted something odd in the window of the discount beauty products shop. Placenta cream. I really should have read the back of the container, there are just so many questions! Is it made from placentas? If so, human, or animal? Is it a foreign product that was simply lost in translation? What is the cream used for? Oh, how I should have checked….

If you have a baby, I highly recommend the book “What to expect in the first year.” It has a month by month guide, with FAQ’s, and also what your baby should be doing, what it is probably doing, and what it may be doing at that age. I’m happy to report that Hannah a clever little girl. not only has she done most of the things for her age, but also some of the stuff that older babies do as well (i.e. holding her head in place while I pull her up by her hands from laying down to standing up. Sometimes she even engages her little tummy muscles as well and helps me help her stand up in addition to holding her head straight). She can hold up all of her weight if I help her stand (all I do is balance her, she takes all her own weight). She is a very clever girl. She has also discovered her that her hands are indeed her hands. She loves to intertwine her fingers and hold her hands together, and then stuck on the intertwined fingers. She may not grasp toys yet (unless I put them in her hands, then she will hold them for a short period of time), but she grabs my clothes, fingers, hair, etc. She’s such a good little girl!