The last month has flown by. While we were in Estonia during her last mini-birthday, then now I'm thinking about this as a dear memory already in the past. We've already settled in our ordinary family and work life.
This month we needed to survive one of the hottest heatwaves in Dutch history. Little M did very well during the first days, but when sun heated the house so much that we couldn't cool it down at night, her mood and sleep also worsened. As I do especially bad with the heat this year (maybe due to breastfeeding), I spent almost a week inside with a water bottle next to me, my feet in a cold water bowl and a wet towel around my neck. I only went walking with M early in the morning so she could be outside at least a little. This sadly meant that M's father had to do a lot this month - at first, I had mastitis and then struggled with the heat.
Viimane kuu on möödunud linnutiivul. Kui eelmise sünnipäeva ajal olime veel Eestis, siis nüüd mõtlen sellele kui kallile mälestusele. Oleme end jällegi tavalisse kodu- ja tööellu sisse seadnud.
What have we done this month? First of all, travelled - M is such a good little traveller! When we were on holidays, she started to practice grabbing and now is pretty good at it. Her favourite toys are a doll in Estonian traditional dress, an Oball and her furry animals (especially the Crocodile and Bert the Bunny). She is practicing rolling over, but can't do it yet - she can turn on her side, but not further. Our daughter can be on her belly longer (about 15-20 min with breaks in between) and wants to move when on her tummy. It doesn't even resemble crawling, because she moves maximally a couple centimeters. All that action is supplemented by a good dose of happy screaming.
When we've gone on walks outside of naptime, she has spent a lot of time looking at trees. We see that she's more and more aware of the world and doesn't want to miss out on anything. This becomes especially visible with her feeding and sleep. The latter is still a point of concern but we have made some progress. M has a pretty strict schedule according to her awake times and bedtime at 7 pm and I feel that it suits her well. We've consulted a nurse and a specialist about the sleep and most of what we hear is that we need to stick to what we are doing and just keep ongoing. She is very-very alert and can't self-settle yet but I certainly hope that she will soon.
Our daughter is very social, she likes to chat with people but at first, she is comfortable doing that when she's in her Mommy or Daddy's lap. When we time visits well - after a feed and before a nap - she's a great companion. During this month we visited people in Estonia, then our neighbours here and also went to see M's little friend who lives close-by. On her mini-birthday, we went swimming with her and although she was a bit scared of a new situation first, she did very well. And after that, she was so tired that she slept 2,5 hours in a carrier, had her breastfeed and fell asleep on the couch on her own. That was a first!
M is still receiving breastfeed and gets formula as a supplement. I've started weaning the daytime feeds, but it is going very slow. I'm taking my time with it and if needed, will be able to pump when I need to be outside of home working from September.
This month, she got her first vaccines. On that evening and at night, she ran a little fever and was sleepier than usual, but this passed quickly. Her measurements at 16 weeks were 5,92 kg and 63 cm. Since 2 weeks, she's wearing clothes size 62. She's already growing up so fast!