Africa is eleven weeks old

I've realised that I haven't really written anything about what Africa is up to, and when she's older she might wonder why her early weeks weren't as commented upon as those of her big sister. So it's time for an update. At eleven weeks old Africa is starting to show her personality. She's lovely and smiley and likes to coo and gurgle a lot. She definitely likes one to one attention, so she'll always cheer up when she's having her nappy changed (one of the few times in the day when she does get undivided attention) or when I give her a massage before bedtime. She also gets quite cross if I chat while she's feeding. She doesn't like me to be distracted. Having said that she's very easy going and even when she's upset she doesn't get very upset (read "loud"!). She's wonderful at sending herself off to sleep when she needs to during the day. A few squawks and then she's gone. She happily kicks under a mobile or the baby gym, just like Stella used to do at this age. She's fascinated by light and bright things and will often prefer to stare at them than into the face of whoever might be trying to capture her attention.

Most of Affy's days are spent fitting in with Stella's routine, so she comes in the buggy in the morning when we drop Stella off at Little Buds and she comes to the playground when we take Stella there too. Basically she is either in the sling with me or in the buggy as we rush around doing all the chores that our daily lives are full of at the moment. She doesn't seem to complain too much about this, so hopefully she's enjoying such a wide variety of experiences. I am still amazed at how much she sleeps during the day (I really didn't appreciate this so much with Stella). She's often asleep for six or so hours of the day, at least, and then she's still exhausted when it comes to bed time!

Affy had us all worried for a week at nine weeks when she caught one of Stella's colds. All the coughing made her regurgitate all her milk for a week. She was so small that we couldn't give her any medicine. It was a nightmare and I haven't ever seen so much washing in my life! We really missed our lovely pediatrician from the US. We were in the Lakes and my parents doctor was hopeless. Fortunately though, she's better now and her appetite is fully restored.

So, Affy is getting big fast, and we're trying to enjoy it as much as we can. Everything is going much faster second time around!