A week in the life

Saskia is already a week old!

We've been told that time goes by quickly and before you know it your baby is a toddler running around, and this proving to be well founded so far. Having said that, being with Saskia 24/7 means like we feel we've known her for months already too.

Some of the top things we've learnt about our daughter to date are:

(1) She doesn't like sleeping in her cot (so far...) - being held by Mum or Dad is just fine, thank you very much, but within seconds of being lowered however gently into the demon cot, the siren wail kicks in and another night of fun and games is upon us.

(2) She's got crazy reflexes - particularly the startle one, whereby any movement, sound, change in ambient temperature, leaf falling a mile away etc. causes her to do a sudden kung-fu star-shape with arms and legs. We shouldn't be laughing at her, but it's pretty hard not to when this happens.

(3) She likes singing, even when it's out-of-tune humming by her Dad. It has even been known to send her to sleep if we're lucky.

The past week has been a pretty sociable one for our daughter too, meeting most of her relatives for the first time. Nana and Grandad Weiss (as they now shall forever be known) were first in the queue on Sunday to help us see in the New Year - and celebrate Xmas belatedly too! After nine months of virtuously avoiding half of her favourite foods, virtually everyone has had the same brilliant idea of giving oodles of cheese, seafood and other forbidden fruits to Wendy, so the house is awash with stilton, smoked salmon and other treats which feels fantastically decadent. Saskia now has a wonderful baby gym/activity mat from Mamas & Papas which we're sure will be a huge hit in months to come, although to be honest just for now it seems to provoke a similiar reaction to being in the cot...

Next in line were Aunty Diana and Uncle Matt on New Year's Day, so we managed to make some inroads into the cheese mountain while they met their niece for the first time. More great presents and outfits for Saskia to sport this spring - her wardrobe is growing at a rate of knots. She's very taken by all her new relatives so far, and seems to be happy to sleep in anyone's arms (just not in the cot, of course), occasionally being awake for long enough before she starts crying/feeding/pooping for us to see her big blue eyes.

The Larsen grandparents were next - Granny & Grandpa - the day after, to meet their first granddaughter and keeping Xmas going one day further with a marvellous extended picnic. Saskia gained another outfit, we got some new crockery and reading matter among other presents and a great time was had by all. Once again Sas convinced everyone that she's always brilliantly behaved and surely can't really spend the hours of darkness wailing her heart out. Video evidence is clearly required.

Since then we've spent the last few days trying (semi-successfully) to establish something of a routine in our day-to-day-to-night existence. After one night when she sleeps in the cot in two-hour stints, she will then decide this is too predictable a lifestyle and keep us up most of the night the next. So two steps forward, one step back.

But we're getting there steadily - with the big aim for Sas and the cot to make friends by the time Tim goes back to work on the 15th. To anyone reading this at the office, I will of course be brilliant in my new job. To anyone else, let's hope they don't expect any sentences longer than three words out of me before Easter. Next up is a busy weekend meeting Aunties Tracie and Naomi plus Saskia's cousins James and Ryan, and also Edmund, Em & Hannah who are stopping by.