Dear little Jett, you grow sweeter and smarter every day. This last week has been difficult for us, my milk supply has dropped for whatever reason, and see you weren’t doing any wet nappies today. On Tuesday you only did one with nothing, and you were very unsettled, and looked hungry all the time. I was worried and was thinking about taking you to the hospital, but decided to instead power feed you; breastfeed every two hours and pump to build up my supply and hopefully give you the milk you need.
Today is Saturday, and you did for wet nappies and two poos. I’m pretty happy about that. You are just full of surprises for me, I think this last week has been a big growth phase for you, because I see that you’ve learnt new skills over those few days. Today you are grasping things with your hands much more accurately.
When I change your nappy now, you like to put your right hand on your belly to feel the spot normally covered by the nappy.
You rolled today! I was very lucky to witness it too. Lao Lao had you on the playmat and I had just stepped out of the laundry to see you flip from your belly to your back. I was so excited. Not even four months yet and rolling. But you haven’t done it a second time on your own again today.
What you are doing very well is sticky feet crawling; you shuffle along by moving your feet and putting your body forward a little bit at a time. You have such sticky sweaty little feet! You aren’t even managing to do a half circle on the playmat, turning towards your right hand.
Today I noticed you are much more comfortable on your belly, happy to spend half an hour there as long as there are things to look at and I’m around, and you can do your sticky feet crawling.
However the frequent feeding is getting me a bit, particularly the 4 hourly feeds at night. It means an hour on the boob, then I put you to sleep, and then pump for about 15 to 20 minutes. When I go to bed after that I’m wide-awake and I can’t sleep for another half an hour to an hour. Which means I only get about an hour sleep after each feed before having to wake to feed you again, about four hours all up overnight. I’m really noticing problems with my short term memory. I’ve ordered more breastfeeding herbal supplements from the US and hopefully they help me regain the supply.
Sometimes after a feed you break away from the boob and then just stare up at me with those beautiful dark sparkling grey eyes of yours. Those moments are so special, so precious, I’m not ready for them to end. I just love cuddling you in my arms when you feed, you feel so small but is much bigger than the early days. And I know I’ll never hold anything this precious in my arms again because you like my last baby and you’re just gonna grow bigger and bigger.
I love it when you are sitting there with someone else and when I enter the room, you look up and see me and then your eyes follow me as I move through the room. That’s a fairly new skill too. I think it means you really love me.
Your brother still loves you to bits. Whenever you into the room, no matter who you are with, he will cry: “Mei mei!” He always wants to show you his toys and some of his toys are actually named after you now, there’s a Bubba Thomas train, and there’s a Bubba car. And he knows which are Bubba’s clothes and bubbas toys, and bubbas books, and bubbas blankey and he’ll bring them to you whenever he finds one that’s out of place.
The two of you together just fill my heart with joy, and as tired as I am sometimes there’s nothing more delightful and watching you two just sit there, or do simple, ordinary things.
