Hands

Phoebe is becoming increasingly aware of her hands, although she still doesn't seem able to do much with them. She likes to suck them but I'm hoping to get her to take a dummy instead. The dummy doesn't seem to be as tasty as her hands though and after a couple of sucks she seems to get this fearful expression as though she thinks she's going to choke and then she spits the dummy out. This suggests to me that she has a certain amount of conscious control over her hands and so prefers them to this strange alien object being shoved into her mouth.

I'm not too fussed about her sucking her hands versus a dummy but some of her middle of the night feeds have been very short and it occurred to me that perhaps she just needs the comfort of sucking something. I thought maybe if I give her a dummy instead of feeding her at that time that eventually we can phase out the 2-4am feed.

Often when she's on the change table, especially when she's nude, I place a small cuddly toy on her tummy so that she can feel the sensation of the fur against her skin. She will often grab the toy and cuddle it, especially if it's her teddy bear Billy-Bob. She grabs my necklace a lot too but she's always done that so I suspect it's more of a reflex. She hasn't quite mastered grabbing toys that we show her but she does reach out towards things she's interested in so I don't think it'll be too long.

She's been a bit upset this afternoon and seemed to have some wind pain or something. Most of her feeds have been short and unsettled with lots of squirming about. My boobies aren't feeling the best as a result. I have nipple vasospasm, which is where the blood vessels constrict as with Raynaud's which occurs in fingers and toes. It's intermittent but happens when my nipples get cold so when Phoebe fusses and spends a lot of the feed coming on and off the boob, the repeated exposure of the wet nipple to the air sends shooting pains down my breast. The nipple turns white and sometimes will end up purple before going back to normal. It's a bit uncomfortable but now that I know what it is I can keep it under control by drying and covering my nipple as soon as she detatches and also making sure I remember to take my vitamins as apparently B6 helps.

Phoebe is 9 weeks old today.