Jasmine and I went to the V&A yesterday. It was lovely. We met Neil, who has been at a conference all week, and we had lunch en famille. Jasmine had a spinach, parsnip and basil puree followed by milk. I had an avocado, aubergine and pesto sandwich and Neil had a salmon galette. Then we had cream scones and cups of tea.
After Neil went back to his conference Jasmine and I were wandering about the plaster casts and the religious imagery minding our own businesses, Jasmine was in my arms enjoying aeroplane rides and cuddles, when a lady stopped us and this was our conversation:
Lady: “What a gorgeous baby, what great big eyes like saucers, so lovely.”
Me: “Thank you.”
Lady: “What is she called?”
Me: “Jasmine.”
Lady: “Lovely. Oh dear what is that on her face?”
Me: “Err, ah, mmm.”
Lady: “What is wrong with her?”
Me taking a deep breath: “Err, I just don’t want to talk about it, if you don’t mind.”
Lady: “Of course you don’t, I am sorry for asking.”
Me amazed: “Thank you.”
And went back to gorgeous-babyness talk. And she waved at Jasmine who sort of waved back. And I was relieved.
Looking on this blog, I have discovered I have a total Friday meltdown about once every two months. So that isn’t too bad. This time I tried to fix things as I was going along to avoid meltdowns in the future, so it only lasted a couple of hours. Last time it lasted 48 hours. Progress all round. I did feel a bit embarrassed today when I got out of bed and thought of me moaning on down the phone to Baxter. Our paper towels were short (they usually are, but we don’t ever say anything), but Friday I phoned them back again and left a message and now I wish I hadn’t.
Jasmine has been receiving lovely things through the post: A very cute red New York body/onesie (thank you, Dara), a lovely blue bolero style cardigan (thank you, Nicola), a flashing musical fly and curling snake (thank you, Lucy), and a funky trouser suit (thank you, Sally). Jasmine loves all of them and chews in appreciation. She is very good at chewing.
The other day Neil was changing Jasmine’s nappy when she started tugging on his hair. She tugged for ages, and Neil said that it was very good and like an Indian head massage. She is so talented our girl!
Her other talents include: lying with her head in one place and moving her body round and round like the hand on a clock, clockwise; leaning forward in her buggy; making a noise that sounds just like yes, and if you sing to her she tries to copy you and burbles back in the same key.
Jasmine’s feeding abilities are starting to come back. She had half of each of her feeds yesterday and I put the rest down her tube. She was only sick at 6am, 9am and 6pm yesterday and didn’t even posit the rest of the time. So that is encouraging. She enjoys her food and boiled water but of course doesn’t eat enough of that to get fat. She is nearing the 5kgs mark so we are seeing progress, it is slow, but it is there. We just have to be patient whilst on operation grow the baby.