Success and failure

Today was our last session at baby gymnastics. It was sad to say goodbye to Lillith and to the other ladies that I have followed through both pregnancy yoga and baby gymnastics. I hope to keep in touch with some of them, but as I live well outside Amsterdam I won't be able to make it into the city as often as I would like.

I got some very useful advice from Lillith on offering solid foods to a baby. She suggested that offering it when the baby is on your knee is less intimidating and offers more encouragement. Since Michael has seemed to hate solid food so far, we gave it a try this evening with some puréed apple. It worked a treat and he was willingly opening his mouth and trying to feed himself. I was thrilled. It makes a lot of sense, when you think about it, as his only experience of nourishment for 6 months was nestled up against my chest. The only down-side is that Michael likes to share his success by leaning into me for a cuddle and I ended up getting covered in apple purée too.

So... that was the success.

Now for the failure.

It took two hours to get Michael to go to sleep this evening. We followed his usual bedtime routine and he simply would not settle. Initially he wasn't crying or obviously distressed but he was wide awake. We told him a story - "Goodnight Moon" - and he lay happily on my knee alternating between leaning into Phil for a cuddle and then doing the same with me. After a while he started to cry and chomp on his fists and I gave him some Dentinox. That had no effect whatsoever and he became really distressed. About an hour and another breastfeed later he finally fell asleep and I carried him up to his cot.

For the last 24 hours he has been periodically nestling into me, closing his eyes and then sucking his thumb furiously. He does this for a moment or two and then rouses himself and bounces back into action. Then a few minutes later he is back nestling into me. I think he is getting quite overtired because we have been rushing around a bit and the teething has been interfering with his naps. He doesn't nap when we are out and about unless we are in the car. For the next few days I'll keep activity outside the house to a minimum and will encourage him to get as much rest as possible.

Now that the baby gymnastics class has ended, I think I will enroll us in a baby swim class in Hoofddorp. The 0-1 age group have a 15 minute session in the pool once a week and I think that we would really enjoy it. The times are quite good so I hope to persuade Phil to come along with us.