Too close to our visit for mother-in-law jokes...?

It seems a lifetime since Alice and I set sail on the good ship "Orkney" on Monday. This can mainly be attributed to the fact that we have been awake for most of the time since then.

Sleeping at night has always been Alice's party piece. As per her mother in secondary school art classes, she would be described as "diligent" on a school report card when it comes to day sleeps. She does OK and is quite enthusiastic, but there's really no flair; her heart's not in it. Night time - now that's her thing and has been since she was about 9 weeks old.

Therefore, since she has been awake several times each night for most of the week and at times, crying inconsolably by day and generally quite fed up, I took her to the doctor. We had already taken steps to eliminate the factors we could think of (bought a baby sleeping bag, since it has been FREEZING at night; offered extra feeds in the day in case she is hungry and ready for solids; administered mothers helper Baby Panadol in case she is teething and in pain) etc. As a long sufferer of earache as a tyke, I wanted the doctor to check her ears as well. A couple of hours before our appointment, she suddenly blossomed, became all smiles and was too busy singing to have her final sleep of the day. However, you may call me a Munchhausen by proxy sufferer, but we decided to go anyway. There was a coffee at Gusto down in Coogee in it for me, as well as a bit of reassurance. Besides, everyone else seems to take their bub to the doctor all the time and I was feeling left out.

So "we" had "our" coffee and then popped to the docs nearby to see a locum who confirmed that her ears looked "great" (am assuming on the inside and not by appearance, as they sadly resemble my own), that she has bulging gums (ie the teeth are coming) and that she should be on solids "by now". The disparity of advice across books and from health professional to health professional drives me crazy but we dutifully set sail to the local pharmacy and bought baby rice aka baby gruel and yummy bonjela, with the implication that I was starving my child ringing in my ears.

I would rather eat the bonjela than the baby rice, which really looks horrible, but this morning I excitedly got out all my "starting to eat solid food" toys (lovely bowls, matching spoons etc) and Alice sat down in her pretty new bib-smock, which matches her eating utensils, to a cold bowl of baby rice porridge. Her face was a picture. Total disgust. I retreated and returned with warm porridge (I had been so excited with my spoons and foons that the food had gone cold) and she wolfed down a couple of teaspoons of it. It was all a bit puzzling for her and she mithered a bit at being sat down in the bumbo chair after waking up, rather than being snuggled up for a feed, but will see how we go tomorrow. I've already ordered organic carrots in the supermarket delivery so that I can make her a nicer tasting meal when we've had a week of gruel and know that her little tum's taking to it OK (I have a recipe even - it goes something like 1. Cook carrots, 2. Drain carrots, 3. Puree carrots, 4. Serve). Still, wanting your porridge to be warm is not really that quirky, so although she ate a relatively big breakfast after pulling faces, I won't ascribe her Granny's eating habits to her just yet.

So fingers crossed for a bit more sleep tonight, ahead of Mummy's "night out with the girls" tomorrow.