Cooper has never had his dummy in bed at home, and during the month discovered the taste of his fingers. Whenever he is tired his fingers go in his mouth, with a loud sucking sound – pretty impressive during the quiet times at church! When we put him into bed or if he wakes up early, you can hear his loud sucking noises. His favourite fingers are his middle and ring finger of his right hand, but he’ll suck on any finger that is close, and often has red marks on his fingers from sucking so hard. My mum keeps trying to take his fingers out of his mouth saying "You can throw a dummy out, but not fingers", but we'll figure out how to stop him when he's a bit older - not just now. Not long after his fingers, he found that if things were close enough to his mouth, he could lick them, including toys, clothes, and his favourite – bibs.
Sometime during the month Cooper stopped crying as much on the change table, partly due to a Noah’s Ark mobile that we borrowed from Aunty Beccy. Bath time is also more pleasant, where Cooper very rarely cries, and he only cries afterwards because he is hungry. He also stopped ‘bobbing for a nipple’, something that he used to do on the shoulder of an unsuspecting person who happened to be holding him when he was hungry.
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| Cooper - October 2008 |
We have started to babysit our niece Liana every so often, and I occasionally have to rescue Cooper from his loving one-year-old cousin. One time Liana crawled over to the A-frame play gym that Cooper was lying under, stood up and straddled Cooper holding onto the frame, and I could see what was going to happen and was able to drag Cooper out from Liana as she promptly sat down where his chest had been. When I took the photo of the two of them that you can see in the album, all Liana wanted to do was push Cooper of the couch!
Cooper talks, screeches and coos a lot more, especially when he first wakes up. Sometimes when I put him to bed after his 10.30pm feed he is smiling and talking so much that I worry that he’ll start crying when I turn the light off, but so far, so good. He still hasn’t woken between 11pm and 7am since he was 7 weeks old, and is having three breast feeds and two formula/breastmilk feeds a day.
Cooper started to giggle about halfway through the month, and made everyone smile who heard it in real life or on the camera. It is so funny to hear.
Cooper and I spent more time visiting Poppy in hospital, and Cooper was a real gem. He made so many people there smile, which is what he is best at. One week at church one of our favourite grandmas sat behind us and giggled loudly through most of the service because Cooper was smiling at her – it was so heartwarming to hear!
A great highlight of the month was meeting Aunty Sarah, Uncle Bardie and baby cousin Alison, although it wasn’t under the best circumstances. Cooper loved talking to them and smiling at them, and looks monstrous next to Alison. When we took photos of the two of them, Cooper was so patient while Alison squirmed quite a bit, but it was great to see them together at last.
