It’s been all go this week with appointments here and there for both girlies.
On Monday, Isla had to visit the hospital to have her hips checked. This was a routine appointment for any babies who were breech late into the pregnancy – she was only breach up to 36 weeks and then turned, but I was still referred. We were literally in and out of the hospital in less than 5 minutes, consultant checked her over, said all was fine. She barely woke up!
Tuesday’s appointment was a bit more traumatic – Isla’s first jabs. I was dreading it! In reality it wasn’t too bad, the poor thing did cry, which was awful, but she got over it fairly quickly with a compensatory bottle in the waiting room afterwards and was fine for the rest of the day – if anything she just slept lots.
Yesterday (Thursday) was Lilly’s 2 and a half year check-up with the Health Visitor. Our old HV has retired, so we met our new one for the first time. She seems fine, and mentioned that she once had three children under three, so at least she has had children of her own so might talk some sense (occasionally!). Again, all was fine, she just asked me whether Lilly could count, recognise colours, name body parts, walk up and down stairs, that kind of thing. Yes, yes yes, was the answer. Lilly also demonstrated her more “willful” side by having a lie on the floor tantrum at the prospect of being measured against the height chart. Cue me climbing on there myself giving a demonstration (fail), attempt at distraction technique (fail), promise of trip to the park (fail) followed by threat of confiscating crayons (success!!) I was starting to sweat a bit at this live demonstration of my parenting skills while HV sat and “observed”. Was SO glad when Lilly piped up with a butter-wouldn’t-melt “Sorry mummy, I won’t do it again” and took herself over to the height chart good as gold (aaaand relax…). After all that palaver I noticed this morning that HV didn’t even write the height into Lilly’s red book – seem to recall it was about 99cm but I wasn’t taking that much notice!
Aside from all our appointments, yesterday morning I took Lilly swimming. It has been a long time since she went (probably our last holiday to Center Parcs, which was November, I think) and it was just so strange to be swimming with a little girl and not a baby! Wearing her new waterwings, Lilly was able to float in the water just holding onto my hands, instead of needing to be held in a cuddle or around her waist. It has made me think about how I begin teaching her to swim. I managed to encourage her to kick her legs but not sure where we go from there? Anyway, she really loved the pool experience and said she wanted to stay “for ever and ever”! It took a chocolate button bribe (the ultimate bribe which is only used in the most desperate of situations) to get her out!
I was also very proud of her because half way through the swim she said: “I need a wee wee. We get out and go to the toilet, and then we get back in”. So that is exactly what we did, and Lilly went on the “big” toilet without needing her seat adapter or anything. What a good girl!
I had also been thinking about taking Isla swimming. I was too scared to take Lilly on my own when she was a baby because I worried about all the logistics. But lately I had been thinking “what was I worried about, it can’t be that hard”. But having a quick glance around yesterday I realised why I had been reluctant. What do you do with the baby while you are getting dressed? How can you carry a baby and operate a locker, let alone put all your stuff in or out. There are only two “family” cubicles, the others are the size of a kitchen cupboard. If somebody’s using the family ones, where do you go? And, how do you get in and out of a pool on your own while carrying a baby? I continue to have a lot of respect for those mums and dads who do complete this amazing feat on their own week in week out – think I am still not quite brave enough and Isla’s first swim will have to wait for a few weeks until we are at Center Parcs again.
And, on the sleep front, Lilly has been a little better the last two nights. She has only had one or two small wakeups, although she has started getting up at about 5am, which isn’t too great. And, two nights out of the last three Isla has been asleep for the night by 8pm, which has given us a couple of more relaxing evenings to ourselves. Great!
