The baby woke up feeling extremely happy and rewarded me with his beautiful smile, stretching from ear to ear! But the day took a turn for the worse when he became a fussy eater, potentially showing signs of reflux, and worse still when we were hit by the loud symptoms of Ron's first cognitive leap! Milestone: Wide happy smile Milestone: First cognitive leap Parenting: White noise saves the night Friday 2nd NovemberI sat up in bed, propped up by pillows and fed my little Ronnie at 4 am this morning, as usual. (Before you ask - our bed is a futon, only 12 inches off the floor and I was seriously propped up by all the pillows from all directions. We were safe and comfy!). I then placed him upright on my chest waiting for the air bubbles to gather up and come out as a glorious happy burp - but I fell asleep instead! I woke up again at 8 am and realised how stiff I had become - sleeping upright was not the best idea after all. On the plus side - Ronnie was nice and calm there on my chest and was not at all bothered by wind! That was a win! Milestone: Wide happy smile Later in the morning, as I was changing a nappy, I was rewarded by an adorable wide smile, stretching from ear to ear. It was so magical - Ron looked me in the eye and smiled a little bit. I smiled back at him, saying "hello baby!" and then there it was - a massive happy toothless gaping smile! I have never seen anything so adorable and so happy in my entire life! It was a moment of utter joy, happiness and love. I was suddenly very happy that I had volunteered to do the nappy duty this time, despite my stiffness and discomfort. It was my special baby moment! During the daily "face game" (showing the baby facial expressions and trying to get him to mimic them) that we were playing later I noticed that Ron can now support his head on his own for a little while. I was laying in bed, propping him up with my thighs but mostly supporting him with my hands on his chest, underneath his arms and shoulder blades. I usually support his head with my fingers too, so he can easily see me, but today I found that I didn't need to hold his head all that much - he was doing it himself! He was also able to move it from side to side, looking around the room at various lights and the window - yes, his movements are still very jagged, clumsy and "wooden" but he was able to twist his head around and hold it in place! He is such a strong boy and I am so proud! Ron was a fussy eater all through the morning. He struggled to accept a feed, despite not eating in the night and once he'd latched on he are only a tiny bit and spewing it all up minutes afterwards. This continued all through the morning, getting me worried that he was not getting enough food right now, or may even have colic. We Googled the symptoms and it didn't appear to fit my boy, which was lucky - but I continued to read on various conditions relating to feeding the baby on the NHS website when I realised that he may have a case of reflux. . . I will continue to monitor the situation and mention this to the health visitor at her next visit. Later, once we returned from visiting the common again, the postman turned up bearing gifts that I ordered on Amazon earlier in the week - a cute little book, one of my favourites, called "The Little Prince" by Antoine de saint-Exupery. It is a wonderful story, one which I started reading to Ron straight away, as we were both having our morning breakfast (I am still multitasking ambidextrously). I realise that I hadn't yet finished reading The Alchemist yet, but I was really keen to read my new book, as it has been years since I last had it in hand! The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, I ate my dinner whilst feeding the baby and, later, holding him over the shoulder. Then he slept. I was working on my blog and James was editing a video. It was all calm, quiet and so peaceful. . . ". . . until. . . You fall in love! Zing boom. . . " - Sorry, couldn't resist a bit of Björk there! Until Ron woke up crying. It wasn't just a normal cry either, it was an extremely sad and very painful sort of cry. No, not quite a cry. . . More of a hysterical scream that begins as a shout and ens in vocal fry as the baby turns red and runs out of breath, only to scream louder and harder with the next inhalation. We quickly went through the checklist (nappies? feeding? tired? clean clothes? hat on?) and got everything in perfect order, but nothing we did would calm the baby - even bouncy with daddy or rocking in the chair with mummy didn't hit the spot for Ron. He screamed and screamed as if we were torturing him and it really hurt me to see him that distressed and I felt really bad that I wasn't able to help my baby! Milestone: First cognitive leap The I remembered that article I read a couple of days ago about the cognitive leaps and it suddenly struck me - the article said the first leap happens at 5 weeks of age! For some reason, at the time of reading the article I thought that Ron still has ages to go until he is there - but I just realised that he is already there! Today is already the end of Ron's 4th week, so this bound of sudden sadness must be his first leap! I was suddenly very glad that I have read the article and was aware of this. You see, a cognitive leap is a precious time for a baby, it is a time when their brain undergoes drastic changes and learns to cope with perception, thoughts, memory, language and physical coordination. It is a time when their world literally changes as they learn to see new things or perceive old things differently. Suddenly, what used to be nice and comfy becomes weird and alien again. This must be a scary and unsettling time for my little Ronnie, no wonder he cries so much! Understanding what was happening made me feel a lot better. Ron's crying was not a reflection on me being a failure or a bad mum, it was simply a process he was going through and there was very little that I could do to help him. I offered him comfort in a form of feeding and cwtches and I was there for him, but I understood and allowed him the space to adapt to his new perception and new world! As my "lullaby song" of choice says, "I'll catch your fall, whenever you call"! It was my time to be calm and strong for my baby so that I could "catch his fall"! . . . I have to add, however, that I was very glad our nearest neighbour is a cow farmer who lives some half a mile away! There was no-body else we were upsetting in the process - because there is not a sadder sound than the cry of a baby! The crying was becoming worse as the night went on and Ron became overtired, as well as fussy and cranky from the leap. No amount of rocking, feeding, bouncing, singing, dancing, calming, talking or lulling helped the matters, until I remembered another tip I learned in one of the forums. . . Parenting: White noise saves the night White noise! Babies like white noise - the sound of a hair dryer or a running tap, because it reminded them of natural sounds of the womb. Swooshing sounds. . . So I started rocking the baby whilst whispering "shuush shuush shuush" in his ear and that helped a quite a bit, but I couldn't sustain it for the whole night, so the following video was the hero of the night - we all slept with it playing in the background!
It was unusual, as we are so used to the peace and quiet, especially at nights - but as I put it to James, I'd rather have the sounds of digital rain and thunder than the screams of a distressed baby! We agreed to let the laptop run the video through the night and we slept. . . We slept really well!
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