the wash up

or just "the washed up" might be closer to the truth.

percy cried when i left her at child care on friday. it was dreadful but i turned my back and left her. she hadn't ramped up to full out howling which i think is the only thing that got me safely out the door without scooping her up and fleeing.

picking her up in the afternoon is so much easier- surprise, surprise! she held her arms out to be picked up and hugged. once i've got her she bounces so excitedly she's in danger of falling out again! she also looks about in a very commanding and delighted manner- almost as if she is saying to the other babies "nah, nah, my mum is here and yours isn't!" she won't being doing that for too much longer. i left work each day this week at 3:30pm to pick her up at 4. next week i'll make it 4 for 4:30pm, eventually getting back to working a proper full day. however my current priority is percy, luckily work is flexible.

the staff advised me that she hadn't slept a lot yesterday (friday) nor had she eaten much. the sleeping i don't think there is much we can do. it'll just be a matter of her gradually getting used to sleeping in this different environment. with the eating tho i'll have to tell them that distraction and persistence is the key. we always have on hand a lid from one of percy's bowls or a second spoon or something equally handy for her to manipulate and chuck repeatedly to the floor. this allows me to get lots of spoonfuls of food in her mouth rather than her eyes, ears, up her nose or in her hands as she reaches for it. without the distraction you'd be forgiven for thinking she's full or not interested after three bites. with the distraction we'll get thru bowlfuls of prepared dishes, steamed vegies, chopped fruit, cereal, yoghurt, etc. she pretty much eats anything now. we've not followed the advice of only introducing one new food every three to four days. it started out that way but got too onerous and boring. so far she hasn't shown a reaction to anything.
she had her first raspberry today. seemed to like it very much so i think they'll get added to breakfast tomorrow.

the other thing child care has provided us with is a cold. brill! poor mite's had a tough week. her teeth started to come in last sunday; there are two on the bottom now, she's gone to day care and now she's got a head cold. she was very snotty and a bit run-down today. he morning sleep went fine- asleep in ten minutes and slept for 1 hour 15 minutes but her afternoon sleep took an hour and 20 minutes to get her to sleep and then she only stayed that way for 50 minutes. crap. last nite was awful too. she woke and cried at 8:30pm until paul went in and straightened her up, then she woke again and i breastfed her to sleep at 9:30pm. paul gave her a bottle at 11:30pm, i breastfed at 3:00am, another breastfeed at 5:30am and then up at 6:50am. phew!

let's see how tonite pans out....