Yesterday we went to a baby massage class at a local clinic with some friends from NCT. It is a six week class. This can apparently help with colic and encourages better sleeping as well as bonding. I went along with my baby posse but also because we thought it could help with Olivia's purple rages (so called because she screams till she is purple in the face) which she sometimes has in the evenings. I really want her to be more relaxed at this time of day as it is the main time that F_ gets to spend with her on week days and at the moment she seems to spend a lot of it screaming.
The Health Visitor came round today for Olivia's six week check (although she is only actually 5 weeks and a few days...) I haven't yet worked out the point of health visitors. I guess they are a point of contact to make sure that the parents and child are all coping well and that there isn't any need for additional support of one kind or another. In reality the visits seem pretty pointless and they just ask you a load on inane questions and write stuff in the baby's red health record book. They also jot useful things like 'parents show attachment to baby' in their notes - Oh no! parents in 'actually loving baby' shocker!
Today we also did the Edinburgh Test , which assesses for postnatal depression with such statements as 'In the past week I have been able to laugh and see the funny side of things'. Postnatal depression is a serious business and I am not belittling the condition but rather think such tests are unreliable as there is a tendancy to answer what you think the answer should be so as not to appear to be a loony. Also surely someone who is answering 'yes, quite often' to statement such as 'In the past week the thought of harming myself has occured to me' would already have clues that all was not well without having to take this test? I guess it is a way of communicating that there is a problem to a health professional when it may not otherwise be easy to broach the subject. Anyway I had a low score but then I knew that anyway...
Miss O is now 54.5cm long and weighs 9lbs 6.5. She is starting to feel heavy when I carry her around!Her hair is still rubbing off on the side she puts her head when she sleeps but she seems to have blonder fluffy new growth under her darker hair. I still cannot decide what colour her hair is eventually going to be. Her eyes are also changing and at the moment they look green, although they are likely to end up brown in the end.
Olivia getting down with her bad self - Ole!
Spending some quiet time with Daddy
