Our talkative little princess is thirty seven weeks old this week! She has started to copy sounds you make and some facial expressions. We say “Mama” she says “Mamamamama”, we say “Cat” she says “Ca”, we say “Dog” she says “Ca”, we say “Bella”, she says “Ca”… we’re still working on it but hey, you poke your tongue out, she will too! We’ll take it as a win this week! She will laugh and giggle when you say “Woof, Woof, Woof” but cries when you say “Roar”. This week was definitely a challenging one.
So far, here is her tally:
Nappy Changes: 48
Sleep: 99 hours
Feeds: 102
This week felt like we were back in the newborn phase because Kenzie was fighting her sleep. We got too comfortable with her consistent sleep pattern of a night time sleep for up to 10 hours straight, 2 hours awake, 1 hour nap, 2 hours awake, 2 hours nap, 2 hours awake, 1 hour nap, 2 hours awake and bed time again. Although she still sleeps between 9-11pm at night for her bedtime, she has been fighting her sleep during nap times. This results in 5-6 hours awake time and a very tired and frustrated baby who pinches my skin and pulls my hair because it helps soothe her. I feel terrible for wanting to scold her about fighting her sleep but some days when we have tried everything we thought would work, we don’t know what to do but ask her “why aren’t you sleeping” and hope she will miraculously tell you bluntly. We go through the “list”… Is she hungry? Does she have a wet nappy? Does she have a sore tummy? Does she need to poop? Does she need to burp or fart? Does she want to listen to music? Does she want a dummy?… and when it’s none of those, we take in 3 deep breathes and go through the list again.
I was finally able to visit the dentist and I have been so blessed that I’m only in need of 2 fillings (after a 3+ year gap since my last visit). As we’re a single income family, we are limited to only visiting no-gap dental clinics and use our private health cards as it can save us $1,000! I was quoted $350 for 2 fillings… it’s robbery! We’ve got to prepare ourselves for Kenzie’s future dental bills.
Kenzie is finally accepting my dad with arms wide open, legs kicking and a big wide smile on her face. She’s also accepting of my brother! She’s almost out of her “stranger danger” phase which has helped us so much as now there is a handful of people who can take her off our hands for a few minutes at a time without her kicking and screaming.
Ramon celebrated his first birthday as a dad! He wanted a very very simple celebration with lunch some place locally and a dinner at home. All he asked was for a whole day of game play; hence the “Player 1” and “Player 2” matching outfits my sister bought them were absolutely perfect for the pair to wear on his birthday. I am trying to cherish all the moments where Kenzie is clingy towards me as I know it may not last very long as a father/daughter can be so strong, I know later down the track, I’m going to miss her being my clingy little princess. She’s already mastered how to bang on a keyboard and smash the buttons on a control pad! With all birthdays, you get to eat cake and Kenzie had a try of her very first cake and loved every bite of it! All 3 bites.
This week proved to us that Kenzie is sometimes too smart for her own good (also, it highlighted that I must have my eyes glued to her and not my phone at all times – sometimes, we slip and have a bad parenting moment). To keep her distracted, I gave her a bucket of M&M’s to bang on and shake and rattle about. Little did I know, she knew how to open the bucket! Next thing I know, she was on her tummy, clothes, face, hands and bedsheets stained blue! I quickly grabbed the M&M in her mouth fearing she would choke. Her tongue was bright blue and she definitely did not like the M&Ms taken away from her but we are so thankful that nothing bad had come from that incident. Something as small as an M&M can cause choking and I should have known better. Every week, I suffer from at least one bad parent moment, some I wish to share, others, I’m still coming to terms with. It’s hard being a parent, some make it look so easy! Sometimes, I need to take an extra few minutes in the shower just to compose myself. It really helps that I’m not alone in my parenting journey.
As we feel like we are on a rollercoaster of wins and losses, this week Kenzie learned how to drink from an adult water bottle without spilling or spitting out her water which we count as a small win! We bought one of every sippy cup for her to try and she skips the straw/sippy cup phase.
I took her for a swim again this week. I get nervous that she would forget she loved the water or all of a sudden develop a fear of water. Every week, she is different so I’m always open-minded about what will happen. However, she still absolutely loves the water. She gets so excited and we have parents coming up to us telling us how happy she is and how they watch her enjoying splashing and kicking about. She made a few friends in the pool this week, it’s so adorable watching them all play together. It was a lot busier as it’s school holidays this week but Kenzie didn’t mind. She loves seeing other kids.
We discovered Kenzie has fallen in love with books and felines; cats, tigers, cheetahs, leopards etc. She will listen when reading and look at all the pictures in the books. She loves her touchy-feely books and interacts with it. When she sees any type of feline in a book, she smiles and reacts by trying to speak. I read at least 12 books to her every day and because we have been consistent, she has learned to love reading time. So much so, she doesn’t like it when you interrupt when we haven’t finished the book. She is a bookworm and although she still tries to eat the book, she has finally learned how to flip the pages (in between trying to rip the pages).
Leap 6 has stuck around longer than we would have liked and we hope next week would be a little better. We learn more and more each and every week (more of what NOT to do) and we try to be a better parent. We’ve started planning her first birthdays (yes, she is having two parties, lucky girl!) and we are so excited!