A week of new things

Parenting has a strange rhythm. Sometimes nothing happens for ages and then you get weeks like the last one when lots of interesting things happen all at once.

• In her own room! Last week was half-term and we finally moved Little Girl to her own bedroom. I felt emotional about it for about two seconds, until I realised that I could now turn my bedside table lamp on and read in bed again without having to rely on the night-light alone. Wonderful! Less good is the fact that she is just not a very good sleeper. She will fall asleep on her own or with a bit of hand-holding at the start of the night but her 3am wake-ups are a bit more difficult and long-winded. I keep telling myself it is just a phase, but I do feel a bit tired after getting up three times in 20 minutes to settle her back down. So far she has only had one good night in there but most nights I give up after about half an hour in the early hours of the morning and bring her back to her little co-sleeper bed.
• Fever! On Tuesday she had her first illness! I am not counting the thrush she was born with or the colds  or the nasty bogey eye she’s carried with her for 6 months because otherwise it sounds like she’s been ill all her life, which is not quite the case. So she started a fever on and off, possibly teething related or so I thought. Then on Wednesday the fever, still on and off, got particularly bad with a high of 38.7 degrees Celsius mid-morning. I still wasn’t really worried (at this stage I don’t know if I’m laid back or completely blasé about baby illnesses), concluded from reading her baby book that she wasn’t going to self-combust, gave her some Calpol and put a cold flannel on her head. Confirmation she wasn’t well (as if I needed more) came when I put her to bed in the evening and she was asleep as soon as her head hit the mattress. Still not worried.
• Pancake Tasting! We celebrated Pancake Day as a family one day late and had some lovely ham, egg and cheese ones first. Someone explain to me the secret for cooking eggs without burning the pancake please! I ended up putting the whole thing under the grill and it worked to a fashion but I doubt that’s how professionals do it. We had loads of sweet pancakes after and that’s when our first case of Really Bad Parenting happened. Badgerman was sitting next to Little Girl on the sofa and whilst he wasn’t looking, she took the pancake out of his hand and stuffed it in her mouth, Nutella and all. The plan for giving her chocolate and other addictive substances was to wait until she was at least a year old but what the heck, 7 months it is! She can’t fight her genes, that’s what it is. I am hoping she will forget how yummy it tasted because I have no intention of giving her any more for a while. I hope she isn’t scarred for life at how mean her parents are to withhold such goodness from her.
• Rash! Today, she has a rash on her back and the top of her head. I am told by reliable sources that it might be a post-viral rash informing me that Little Girl is well on the way to recovery after her nasty bout of fever so I Am Not Worried. I promise to go to the doctor’s if it’s not gone by Sunday.
• And Finally! If it wasn’t enough, I elbowed Little Girl in the face earlier whilst trying to sit her back up. She wailed like a banshee and I felt like a very bad mummy.

Thank goodness it’s nearly the weekend! Apart from the fact that it’s my birthday on Sunday and turning 32 is feeling much worse than 30 and 31 ever did. I look back on those days when I could still say ‘At least I’m still young!’ with envy.

The Nutella Incident

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