I have been informed by M with increasing regularity that my posts are somewhat unrelentingly negative in tone. Thus, to diversify a little, I will post in a chirpy tone, about a few nice things. I’m sure I can do it. OK. Yesterday, as my world now revolves around the sleeping habits of a little person, I was fairly horrified to find she had only slept for 30 minutes.

Thursday mornings, Z and I hit the pool, and it is best if she has got in a Big FAT nap beforehand. I drove off with her in the back with some trepidation, and was completely ready to turn around and come home if we couldn’t do the car trip without angst. Right. So, I hesitate to say that we may have turned a corner, but we had a fantastic time! Z loves the pool - I pull her around on her tummy in front of me, so we are eye to eye and she splashes like a little freak and thinks it’s huge fun.

She has been dunked a few times (meaning that all of her, including her head, goes underwater) by the swim instructors, and has been fine with it. Fine as in not crying, but merely surfacing with a slightly horrified expression that turns into resignation as I dote on her and tell her how excellently fishlike she is. So, after seeing another mum dunk her own baby (called Sienna - one of the many Sienna’s that I keep discovering) I had a go at submerging the Z. She had a bit of a splutter when she came up, but I was happy to see that she responded just the same as she had done the other times.

We got out of the pool and jumped under the showers. It’s after the showers that Z tends to start losing the plot, as swimming really tires her out, but she was an angel. We got dressed, I gave her a feed and I was feeling so cocky that I stopped at the supermarket on the way home. We walked around looking for kangaroo mince and some leeks and she fell asleep in the sling.

Of course, as it was blowing a fucking gale outside, it was impossible to get her into the car without waking her, but we drove home without any angst from the backseat. At home I spent 20 minutes on the phone to the now New York based Small Brother, while Z cackled on her change mat - I put her on speakerphone and she gazed at the voice of her uncle as he said “Hello! Hello?” in bemused tones across the other side of the planet.

Whispering her to sleep was easy - we have been putting her down while drowsy (rather than asleep) during the day. It was all good. I will leave a gap for where trying to get her down at night goes, and say that today was a lovely day as well.

M took off a half day to help me out - Z and I went to my alterna mother’s group and he filled the car with diesel (which cost about a million dollars). After my group he took Z for a walk while I went in and had an ultrasound done on my wrist, which has been cactus for months and doesn’t seem to be improving in the slightest. I had blood taken this morning to check my iron levels for about the fourth time in the last eight months - am feeling very medicalised all of a sudden - and Z, who was seriously overdue for a nap was still a vibrant and smiley little bug.

She loves being out and about; she has been stuck inside a lot lately because of the crapness of the weather and I think it benefits her to go for big walks, which M is very good at. So today was pretty good as well. It does seem as the days improve, the time between six and eight at night gets worse, but everything changes so fast that I refuse to angst about it. Listen to me! Is my glass half full, or what? Huh? Ha. HA!