Nudist

Spring is here. I know this, not because of the very pretty daffodils which are just emerging into bloom by the front door, nor even by the very London way of knowing it's spring - 'when you come out of the tube from work it's still light!' says my excited husband, but because of the nudist.

Opposite our house is another house with a very large bay window, with no curtains at all. In the room within, clearly visible to anyone passing (and especially to us) is an old lady nudist. When we first arrived I thought she was wearing a nude-coloured sarong before we realised no, she was actually naked. In winter, perhaps feeling the cold a bit (as you do in  old age), she covers up, but today is a warm day and there she is, all naked again.

My baby would like her. He, too, is a nudist. He is very happy to be undressed, delighted to wear nothing but a nappy, ecstatic at bath-time when he gets to wear nothing at all, and utterly livid when we dress him again afterwards. He grumbles at the nappy, starts to complain more loudly when we put on the vest, screams when the babygro goes on top. The very first photo of him, newly snatched from the womb, shows him lying on a hospital table, wearing only a nappy, his first ever clothes waiting by his side. He is howling, face scarlet with rage, hands in fists. He will be delighted when warm days arrive and he can wear nothing at all in the garden.

Until then, he will have to be jealous of the old lady nudist.

Here we go round the - cot

Our baby can now move quite a lot. In the daytime, we can only leave him safely for a few minutes on the floor on a mat - the bed, sofa and changing table are all too risky. He's also taken to leaning perilously out of his bouncy chair to try and retrieve fallen toys. Even on the mat, you can go and answer the door, take the parcel or wave off the salesman and come back to find he has mostly left the mat and is now lying with just his head on it, while the rest of his body is on the wooden floor. He doesn't seem to care that when he lifts up his legs and then whams his feet down it's a lot harder than the mat.

At night, though, his moving about is getting him into a tight spot. In his cot, he gradually wriggles until he is lying diagonally, feet lifted up and propped on the slats on one side, head against the other slats. Then he whams his feet down, which shoves his head back against the slats... and cries. I recall being at a friend's house and listening to the baby monitor as her one year old baby girl drifted off to sleep. There was a lot of snuffling and wriggly noises. This, apparently, was the baby creeping round the cot until she found a good corner to squash herself into and go to sleep, ignoring the vast expanse of soft comfortable mattress and blankets available to her in the rest of the cot. Perhaps it's something to do with finding a little cave or a safe spot and a big cot seems too exposed. It must take years before instinct gives way to the bliss of stretching yourself out fully in a kingsized bed.

I say he moves a lot, no doubt I will look back on this and laugh when he starts crawling/standing/walking. Probably this is a golden era of stillness.

Message Received

Three nights ago I made a new rule. The baby, now a strapping five month old, gets one feed between 9pm and 7am, and one feed only. This feed happens after 1am (so that the night is reasonably evenly split up). So the rule goes: not before 1, not before 7. I know he is able to go at least six hours without a feed and so any other time he can just be soothed back to sleep without feeding. I hope over time this will make him sleep better and move towards longer stints without feeding. I repeated this rule to him each night, usually at bathtime.

Bizarrely, since then he has not woken up before 1 and has willingly accepted just one feed, if he does wake up at other times he has meekly gone back to sleep with cuddles alone. Considering that the nearest thing he had to a pattern recently was to wake up at 11.30 or 12, and that he usually demanded about three feeds a night, it's very odd, almost as if he could hear me. This sounds silly but it's happened a few other times, nights when I say 'I can't bear another bad night, he has to sleep well' and he then sleeps beautifully or nights when I've said 'why don't you sleep until 2?' and he does. Even my husband noticed. "Can he hear you?" he asked, "Because when you say something like you really mean it he does it." I'm not sure if it's just random, or whether something about my intent rubs off on him or....? Who knows.

Anyway I'm thinking of asking if he could start potty training next.