The Speckled Goat

I am feeling very proud of myself this morning. On our last trip to the Health Visitor I was told 'In the next two weeks you need to allow her to sleep in her own room' I was understandably horrified and the look on my face clearly belied this as she followed it up with 'You will need to ask your partner for help, tell him that you will need support through this'. I knew it was coming. I had made several excuses as to why she shouldn't, all of which the HV had disputed and undoubtedly recognised as excuses.All week I had been preparing her, putting her to sleep in there during the day and watching the webcam closely. As I put her down to sleep last night I looked at her in her crib and realised that she had outgrown it, she couldn't move freely in there any more, not in the same way as she can tour her cot. So I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and go for it. We put her down in her own room, she fell asleep quickly and we went about our evening.

The tricky time for me was when we went to bed ourselves. Her little crib lay empty next to my side of the bed and the room seemed oddly quiet. I had placed the laptop by the bed so that the camera was on-hand should I have minor panics during the night (of which I had several) but I resisted the temptation to sweep her up and bring her back to the crib. Both Ruby and Nick slept soundly, and Ruby stayed sleeping for an hour longer than usual in fact. I am sure I will get used to not having her there, the same as I got used to her being there. I just missed her.

We captured this image from the webcam as she slept. Her blanket lays discarded at the foot of the cot and she seems oddly comfortable with her bottom in the air!

Posted by Kary at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I apologise in advance for the content of most of this Summer's posts. I am going to make the most of the fact that I have a whole Summer with my beautiful girl and a platform where I can gush as much as I wish.

Today's gush is due to the fact that Ruby has now managed to work out that she can travel wherever she wishes to go by rolling. She mastered the turning from back to tummy a while ago, she has now caught up with flipping the other way and has been all over the floor this afternoon. So much so that she has actually fallen asleep on the playmat mid-roll . The delight on her face everytime she flips over is plain to see and she has been pausing only to smile, accept her praise then roll on again. She is a tenacious little thing and the days of our stationary baby are now gone. No longer will I be able to pop out of the room and find her where I left her on my return. She has so much mischief in her, I can see nothing but trouble on the horizon!

She has also decided to start dancing. When on her tummy she will rock from side to side with a huge beaming smile lighting up her face. Oddly though...it appears to matter not if there is actually music to be dancing to...perhaps there is music in her head...Oh God let's hope it isn't Girls Aloud!

Posted by Kary at 5:09 PM | Permalink

Ruby just did something amazing. Perhaps not amazing to you out there but to me, it was amazing. She played merrily on her mat until she spotted her teething keys just peeping out from underneath Farm Tails. She pulled herself over to the book, threw it to one side and picked up her keys! She knew what she wanted and she went to get it. She realised that they were underneath the book and had figured out that she needed to move it to get to them. As I said, probably not amazing to you out there but to me - amazing!

We went to the clinic today. She now weighs 12lb 9oz and has made it off the bottom line on the graphs, she is doing really well. It is such a relief after the previous worry about her weight. She seems to have a new favourite food today too, carrot. She could not get enough this afternoon! Her appetite seems to grow every day at the moment.

Posted by Kary at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ruby was six months old on Friday. I can not quite believe it. Half a year has gone by since I held the tiny 5lb 9oz bundle in my arms for the first time. It seems like yesterday but at the same time, it feels like it was a whole lifetime ago. She is such a different little being now. She has a personality all of her own, things she likes, things she doesn't like. She rolls and creeps along the floor, she can press buttons on toys to make the music play and she can work really hard to reach something that she wants. She can eat solid food; she loves her baby rice, really quite enjoyed her first taste of sweet potato and pulled some fabulous faces when confronted with broccoli. She has outgrown her baby bath and now splashes in the full size one. She talks incessantly and laughs all the time. She loves to swim. She loves to pull her blanket over her head and play hide and seek, chuckling all the time she is hidden. She loves to read books and hear stories. She enjoys singing songs and has particular favourites (Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer, This Little Light of Mine and The Grand Old Duke of York to name just three) I watch her in amazement, her contented happiness is infectious and I could just stare at her for hours, taking in every ounce of her fascination with the world.

More new images here, including a rather fabulous short film entitled 'The Dummy'
We have a weight check with the Health Visitor tomorrow. Last weigh in was 6 weeks ago and she was 11lb 1oz. I hope she is still on track...fingers crossed!

Posted by Kary at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)