A whole lot of firsts

I was beginning to wonder whether Janel would ever start to do normal baby things - it's been several weeks since her birth, and she still hadn't started really interacting with her world. I know, I know - she's prem and I shouldn't expect too much from her - but it's been really hard watching all the other new mums & their babies I'm in contact with interacting and playing, and not being able to do that with J...

Anyway, it's finally started to happen! She and I had our first giggle together a few days ago - I was so thrilled when it happened! She's also just starting to smile when I approach her - nothing major in the smiles range, but it's starting. Then, just yesterday (while waving her arms around madly as she does - not much conscious control over that yet...) she batted her bug's wings. They have a crackly inner fabric. She must have realised that it was her arm that made the wing crackle, because she then did it again, seemingly intentionally, several times in a row. I was gobsmacked!

Another first was her first injury. On Wednesday I noticed that she'd scratched herself pretty badly (the cut on her face was bleeding). (Because I tend to chew her nails while she's breastfeeding, and because she won't stand to have them on for long, I don't keep her scratch mitts on.) Anyway, I decided to cut her nails with a clipper as they were getting long again. Last time I cut her nails with a clipper, there were no incidents - all went according to plan. Not so this time!

We managed all 10 fingers, and had only 1 little corner on her thumb still to go, when she decided to let out an almighty fart and wriggle. I wasn't fast enough in anticipating it and cut her finger instead of her nail! Poor mite! I felt mortified as she howled and bled all over herself and me. Fortunately, it wasn't too deep, and nothing a little TCP, plaster and cuddle with Mom couldn't fix - although the ordinary sized plaster was MASSIVE on her little finger (covered the entire thumb and wrapped around it 3 or 4 times!). I guess I'll go back to chewing her nails for a while...

The bedtime routine is starting to take shape, although I'm still trying to figure out how much sleep in the afternoon is too much. It's morphed into a bath, feed and then sleep. Of course, she's still sleeping on her front, so sleep time is nerve-wracking and although the baby monitor works fine, every little while I go to check she's still breathing and alive, and hasn't succumbed to SIDS. When possible, I do try to turn her over, but she doesn't always sleep very deeply so sometimes that just wakes her up...

Here's our little cutie.... enjoying a bath.