Becoming a big sister

Jessica is now a big sister!  Baby Sophie Elizabeth was born in the pool at home this morning and weighed in at 8lb 10.5oz – a whole 3lb heavier than Jessica was when she was born.  Jessica was three months old before she reached her little sister’s birth weight.  Jessica came to meet her new sister within minutes of Sophie’s arrival and was utterly fascinated by the new baby – she kept saying ‘baby’ over and over again and wanted to give Sophie kisses and cuddles.  

She has had a little cuddle with her baby sister and was very pleased with her present from her baby sister – a dolly in a Moses basket with clothes and accessories.  She has also enjoyed playing with Nanny who came down to look after Jessica whilst Sophie was on the way.

Sophie’s arrival has been well-timed from Jessica’s perspective – she managed to go to all her regular groups last week and it is now half-term so we can all have a week at home without Jessica missing out on any of her usual activities.  Jessica has been doing well over the last week – she has started putting words together so we get ‘bye-bye Mummy’, ‘bye-bye Daddy’, ‘no more’ and things like that which is delightful.  She has also discovered the word ‘no’ which seems to have become a bit of a favourite (from her perspective but perhaps not from Mummy and Daddy’s!)

A trip to A&E

We had a little trip to Wexham Park Hospital today after Jessica tripped over in the park and fell flat on her face, resulting in a nasty looking cut on the inside of her lip.  One of the things we worry about with something like this is the risk of Jessica getting endocarditis (an infection in her heart) and so we called the cardiac liaison nurse at Oxford to check whether we should be concerned.  She felt that it would be best to get it checked out as it might also need stitches.  Although we have open access to the children’s ward, the team there advised us to go to A&E instead and so our little trip to the park turned into a trip to A&E!  Thankfully, the cut doesn’t appear to require stitches and the doctors don’t feel that Jessica needs antibiotics although have advised us to go back if Jessica does show any sign of fever or infection.  In the meantime, she has a very bruised little lip but other than the initial upset when she first fell over, doesn’t appear too bothered, thankfully.  Hopefully it will heal well without any further concerns.

Other than our trip to A&E, life has been fairly quiet over the last week or so as we await Pod’s imminent arrival and make the most of still being able to give Jessica lots of one-to-one attention before she becomes a big sister.  She has been going to all her usual groups and enjoying herself, continuing to be a very happy little girl as always!

Two year review

Jessica had her two year review with the health visitors today and they were very happy with her progress. Although some of her developmental milestones were reached a little later than usual, she seems to have caught up very well with other children of her age and is doing pretty much everything that is expected of her which is very good.   Her speaking vocabulary is slightly less than expected but as she is learning new words rapidly and her hearing appears to be absolutely fine, this is not a cause for concern. Her signing vocabulary is quite extensive now anyway and she certainly has no problem communicating with us using a combination of speaking and signing. One of her new words since our last update is ‘mummy’ (instead of her usual ‘mum-‘mum’) which is so wonderful to hear. ‘Daddy’ has been attempted a couple of times but she still prefers ‘Da!’ at the moment.

Jessica has been weighed today and is gaining weight beautifully – up to 11.8kg today (25lb 15oz) which is very encouraging particularly with her having a little bit of a picky eating phase lately. We have learned that these phases are usually very short-lived anyway particularly if we don’t make any fuss about them.

Jessica took another little step in showing what a big girl she is becoming when she used the potty for the very first time the other day. She isn’t yet at the stage of telling us regularly when she needs a nappy change (although has done so once or twice) so we are not trying to actively potty-train just yet (particularly with Pod’s arrival being fairly imminent!) but we have just been sitting her on it for a moment before her bath-time just to get her used to it.  She also showed what a big girl she is when she recently had a haircut and sat still on the stool all by herself without having to be held on Mummy's lap.

Auntie Maxine came to stay for a couple of days last week and Jessica loved spending time with her. We also had a day trip to Liverpool to keep Daddy company as he had to set up some equipment for an event there and Jessica enjoyed having a walk around Albert Dock with Mummy while Daddy was busy working. She loves to walk as much as possible now and has started to object to being put in her pushchair. She is certainly a very active toddler now and although she does occasionally get a little breathless after a while, she is generally coping very well with being constantly on the move.