A couple of milestones...

Mabel was 3 weeks old yesterday and there are a couple of points I thought it worth noting:

- Her cord has finally fallen off (it should have done much earlier, I fear that our lack of washing did not help the cause, strangely Gary 'cleaner than clean' Kisby is not a huge fan of bathing her. Think it was the trauma of the first time? Having just read this part of the blog he has asked that I don't make it public that we don't bath her)
- She will now sit in her bouncer for at least 10 minutes - result!
- She has continued to pile on the calories and is now 8.2lbs, having put on a whopping 9oz in just 6 days. When I text Gaz to tell him this happy news his reply was, verbatim, "fat git" - too harsh man.

And on a very positive note, from my perspective anyway, she has completely mastered the art of latching on and my nipples are finally feeling o.k. I am now able to have a shower and not have to cup them for protection - hooray.

I am feeling much more confident out and about with her now. On Monday we did a whole load of errands no problem. Evenings are continuing to be a challenge, so much so that the health visitor suggested she may have a bit of colic. On Friday someone is coming round to teach me some massage strokes we can do to help with her wind. It is hard since G Kisby and I have just  a couple of hours together on an evening and they are often spent walking around trying to get her to settle and eating tea with one hand. However, currently nights are quite good with her feeding around 1-2am and then not again until around 6. I think I would take an easy night given the choice and you can't have everything. Tonight we tried a different approach and at tea time she came in the bath with me which she seemed to like much more (even though I must have said, "argh I'm going to drop her" about 50 times. G Kisby is going to do it next time). This was followed by some nappy free time and skin to skin feeding in a nice calm environment upstairs. Needless to say she has been much happier so far tonight so fingers crossed...

Today we had a lovely time over in Manchester. The day was cold but sunny and we went for a walk at Dunham with Granny, family Bryce-Clegg and family Bryce Yang. G Kisby and Mackenzie were the only ones not there - and we did really miss moral compass and mini moral compass. I didn't have my camera but Fee did so photos to follow. Mabel didn't wake up but if she had, and if she could talk, she'd have said, "what a lovely day I've had!"