9 month baby update

I can't believe this little man has been in our lives for 9 months already! As someone very eloquently pointed out, the 9 months out go a hell of a lot faster than the 9 months in!  And dare I say it, a week today, I go back to work :/  It's just one of those realities most of us must face... but at this point, I can't imagine leaving him for 3 days a week... we're even going to have to wake him up in the morning to leave as we'll be leaving so early.  Anyway, lets not dwell on all that, and lets see how he's been getting on this past month :)

CLOTHING

He's now officially out of 6-9 months clothes and is in 9-12. However, some of the trousers for 9-12 are still a bit big and fall down (thanks to him being very slender!), so now and then I still pop him in 6-9 trousers.  His head is massive though and is growing out of everything first... in the pic above the outfit is all 9-12 and all from John Lewis and it was his first time being sat in a trolley (he bloody loved it!).  Because of the heatwave recently I've mostly had him in romper suits, or just a short sleeved vest as it's been so warm in the house.

TEETHING

They're there!  The first one has *just* broken through (on his left) and he's had lots of trouble with it, his gum has gone really sore around it and he's been chewing things/fingers/dummies/anything, loads.  I've been giving him Nelsons teething powder, and Dentinox... but needless to say, his teething issues have really amped up recently and taken on a whole new level of evil. His top two front teeth are looking exactly the same, I've said for a long time I think we were going to get all 4 teeth through pretty much together and I still think that's what's going to happen.

SLEEP

His sleeping has been mostly great! This was the first nap he's had on me in months - he's got to the stage where he'll almost only sleep in his cot, and the occasional nap in the car or buggy... so I'm trying to get him to be better at sleeping in other places by having the odd rare nap on me (I've missed it so much!).  Each night we take him up to bed at about 6pm, he has his last bottle in his room and is usually asleep by about 6:30/6:45 and sleeps through until about 6:30/7am, so a good 12 hours. Recently he's had a horrible cold though and did wake up in the night from about 3am until 4am.  We gave him lots of cuddles, some Calpol and rubbed some Snuffle Babe on his chest and he eventually went back to sleep.  

As for his day naps, he's down to about 2 a day (occasionally he'll have a 3rd nap too around 11am). He typically has one about 8:30/9am for anything from half an hour, up to an hour and a half.  And then he'll have a late nap about 4pm for a good half hour or hour - I think it all depends on whether his teeth are keeping him awake, or if he wakes up to poop.

FEEDING & WEANING

He REALLY hated this cheesy salmon pasta, lol

Weaning is going really well, but it has changed.  We haven't gone down the BLW route, we've always given him finger food like cucumber, to have while we're spoon feeding him puree, but that's about as far as we went.  Just recently, he's actually started rejecting puree (even lumpy textured ones), what this means for me is spending about 2 hours cooking after he's gone to bed, ready for him to eat the next day... fun times! I know he could have some of what we're having, but so much of what we have he can't have, like tonight we've had fajitas (it has chilli in it - jar mix), so I make him special baby finger food like the croquettes and fritters above.  If anyone has any recipe suggestions just let me know!

PROGRESS MILESTONES

Where do I begin! Holy smokes, this has been THE month for progression!  He was quite behind a few months ago, it took him a long time to get rolling and we really had to help him with it, then all of a sudden this past 2 weeks he's coming along in leaps and bounds.

He started pulling himself up from sitting, to kneeling, to standing, while on the sofa.  His crawling has amped up - from dragging his body to full blown speedy commando crawling, as well as normal crawling (as of this week).  He's also trying to climb stuff, like the back of his grandparents sofa, our sofa... me! Whatever he can he uses like an assault course.  What's really cute is when he pulls his toy basket over to get toys out - he's choosing what he wants and what to play with, amazing!  He has also learned to take steps while holding on to our hands, and if he pulls himself up on the sofa, he can walk along it (albeit not well and very wobbly!).

OTHER BITS

* He no longer wakes up happy in the mornings, he wakes up screaming and crying ;(

* He still loves being sung to

* He's started saying Dada and Dad - and even saying it in Chris' direction

* He learned to wave (and high five), and subsequently stopped, pretty much

* I think it's linked to his teething, but he likes to do the loudest high-pitched screams possible, a lot

* He's learned to use his index finger to press buttons (xbox on, xbox off, xbox on, xbox off...)

There's loads more, but there's too much to remember!

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8 Month baby update

I honestly cannot believe as I'm writing this, that Squidge is 8 months old... 8 months! Where has the time gone? What's more, I'm now on a countdown for going back to work, I've got just over 5 weeks to go, and over the next few weeks we're super busy, meaning it'll fly by faster than ever.  Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful that I've been able to have this time with Squidge, and that I have a job to go back to (and part-time) at all - but I just want to spend every waking day with him - as I'm sure most mummy's do.

CLOTHING

He's still in 6-9 months clothes, but some of them are getting a bit small for him, like his sleep suits (legs and feet are too short/small) and some of his tops barely go over his head.  In the picture above, the trousers are 6-9 and still fit really nicely and the shirt is 9-12 (we didn't have a smart shirt for 6-9 and I had this waiting for his next size, so we put him in this - we were going for a nice Sunday lunch and to a 3rd birthday party). Just in case you're wondering, the shirt is from Next, and the trousers and socks are from John Lewis.

TEETHING

Still no teeth but an awful lot of teething! He has developed two tooth-shaped bumps on the front of his gums (top and bottom sets) and they're getting closer to the top, so I think any day now we'll see them make an appearance.  We've certainly had our fill of excessive drooling, fist chewing and general grouchiness. 

SLEEP

What a mixed bag it's been.  Generally he's sleeping much better - he typically sleeps from about 7ish until about 5am, he wakes for his dummy and then is ready to get up around 7/8am.  However, since he started going through his latest leap (about a week ago it started) it's turning into a nightmare to get him to sleep - his bedtime is 6, but we're lucky if he'll fall asleep by 8pm - those two hours are filled with him screaming his head off... nightmare.  His day naps are different too - his first nap which is around 9am often lasts for 1 - 1.5 hrs now, but then where he used to nap at about 11am/12pm he's pretty much dropped that.  He'll have his lunch at 1pm and then go down for a good nap, and maybe if I'm lucky, he'll have a third nap around 4pm after his next feed.

FEEDING & WEANING

Weaning is going great! We're definitely not going down the BLW route.  I am feeding him more pouches than homemade food at the moment, which I'm not overly comfortable with - and it's so much more expensive this way... but I honestly don't know where anyone finds the time to cook the food... just recently he's gone nuts if I've left him to go into the kitchen (the rooms are tiny and joined so I can see him at all times) so it's really hard to find the time, and pouches are just so easy.  I really should make more of an effort and plan better, he does love my homemade food.

PROGRESS MILESTONES

So the last couple of days have heralded some big progress!  He's been commando crawling for quite a while but in the last week he's really gotten good at it! He'll see something and be able to navigate the room to be able to get it.  On Thursday morning the hubby was up with Squidge and saw him crawl! He said he moved about 2 steps forward using both hands and knees at the same time (I haven't seen it myself yet though).  He's also gone from sitting, to kneeling, to standing!  He's sitting up really well too, only falling over if he wants to lie down or get onto his tummy.

OTHER BITS

* Still no mama or dada - but lots and lots of babababababababa :)
* We've had a big proper giggling fit from him, he was pretty much in an infectious laughter fit
* I think we're ready to sell his Jumperoo - he barely goes in it now and when he does it's not for long
* I've taught him to high-five and wave - early days, but he holds his hand out :)
* He cries when we leave the room
* He throws proper tantrums when we stop him rolling over when we're changing his nappy - he does an explosive scream and slams his legs and feet down as hard as he can

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7 Month baby update

Today Squidge is 7 months old - officially more than half a year! It's so crazy how quickly they grow and develop! I feel like for the most of the month I don't have much to say about his development, but in that last week or few days before his month birthday, he progresses loads!

CLOTHING

He's still in size 6-9 months clothing, and after a weigh in with the HV yesterday, he's now 17lb 4oz, sitting just under the 50th percentile.  While the clothes are fitting him quite well, I am struggling to get some of his tops over his head, lol. But yeah, in most of them he still has quite a bit of growing to do before being in the next size up.  Most days he's wearing short sleeved vests and tops too - so nice to see his arms and his super soft skin :)  I've also bought a few pieces from the Jools Oliver Little Bird collection in Mothercare (pictured above) - it's a gorgeous retro-70's-esque collection of baby & kids clothes, all very nice quality and not too expensive.  I love that outfit he's in above :)

TEETHING

Well, isn't teething a barrel of laughs! Still no teeth, but we do have some progress. So his front bottom row of gums now has several white dots, and the gum right in the middle has dipped (i.e. in between where a couple of teeth are going to pop up). Also, his top gums on the right have gone all white and changed shape to be very flat, like the underside of molars.  We've had some day's of utter hell where he's needed Calpol, Dentinox, Ashton & Parsons, the whole shebang. 

SLEEP

I really need to touch wood before I write this.  I think we've turned a corner.  When we put him to bed at night, he's generally going to sleep with no help from us at all.  We put him down when he's wide awake, after a bit of time rolling around in his cot or looking around the room, he rolls onto his side and falls asleep.  His day naps are better too, he's not sleeping on me at all.  I put him down in his cot for about 3 naps a day (sometimes 4) each lasting about 30-60 mins - he usually settles himself to sleep, sometimes he needs a cuddle from his mummy :)

As for night waking - he still wakes at night, but he seems to be doing better.  Whereas before he was waking like, 5-15 times a night, now it's more like 1-2 (not including him waking lots from about 5:30am).  He often wakes up when we go to bed which is about 11:30, we'll pop his dummy back in, move him back down the cot and he's fine.  Then he often wakes some time between about 3-4am too - again same thing dummy & move.

FEEDING & WEANING

I'm actually writing a big weaning post which will hopefully be live towards the end of the week, but until then - it's going well :) He's dropped a milk feed and replaced it with food and he's loving lots of flavour, he's not a fan of the simple flavours.  I actually blogged about our routine recently which covers when he's feeding, what and how much he's having etc :)  I love that picture of him in his Babymoov high chair, feeding himself some water :) Firs time he's done that, my clever little boy :)

PROGRESS MILESTONES

I feel like he's coming on leaps and bounds at the moment.  He spent a few days in his Galt toys blow-up donut ring thing around the time he was learning to sit up and it really helped him nail it. Now he sits up by himself really well.  I've retired his Fisher Price Rainforest play gym as he wasn't able to roll around on the floor, instead I bought a large 1m x 2m play mat from Taf toys (this one) so he has some room to move around.  We have wooden floors, so no padding for his head!

He spent a few days rolling all over the place, but then learned to sit up, now he sits there surrounded by cushions to break his fall and surrounded by toys :) 

He's right on the verge of crawling too.  He can push himself right up and be on his knees.  Yesterday he even brought his one knee forwards for the first time, if he just puts those two motions together, he'll be off!  He can sort of commando crawl, he manages to crawl his way up in the cot every night, several times over by pushing himself up on his face :P

OTHER BITS

• He still loves standing
• He's starting to get stranger danger and randomly does scared cries at people
• He's still in Size 3+ nappies (Pampers ActiveFit)
• Giraffe's are his favourite toys
• He goes to bed about 6:30 each night
• He's got my slightly wonky eyes and ears :)

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6 month update

Today the little man is 6 months old, it's so hard to believe 6 whole months have passed since he entered our lives, it really is incredible how fast time goes when you have children, they grow SO fast.

It's also time for me to start getting myself in the frame of mind for going back to work, I think my first day back will be the 30th June and hopefully I'll be going back part-time - it's just a shame we can't afford for me to be at home with Squidge full time, but that's life.

CLOTHING

I've posted a couple of big clothing haul's recently, he's grown out of his 3-6 month clothes now and is in 6-9 months, although they're quite big on him, they do fit him a lot better than the previous size - lots of the older ones stopped being able to go over his head and his legs were too long for lots of the trousers.

TEETHING

Still no teeth, but he has been sporting some pretty red cheeks, a hell of a lot of drooling and chewing his fists - and there is a lot of white up on his top sets of molars, strangely enough.  So there's definitely movement there, enough to cause him upset, but nothing actually through as yet.  This last week I've given him the Sophie the Giraffe I bought for him when I was pregnant and he's loving it!

SLEEP

Where to begin!  He was sleeping through like a trooper, until the 4 month sleep regression hit... I've actually blogged about it so you can read that here if you want to read more detail about it.  But basically, he wakes between 2-15 times a night - with the hubby and I each getting up on average 4 times a night each just to put his dummy back in.  The health visitor suggested weaning him off his dummy, however since he's teething she thought that would probably be a bad idea as he might need to soothe on it.  She also suggested at his 4pm food feed, to give him more, so a dessert too, to help fill him up. Then at his last feed (about 6:30) give him some porridge as it will help him to sleep. We've been trying that and I think it probably has helped, since then we've had 2 nights of him sleeping right through, most nights he's waking up, but more like 5 or 6 times, instead of 8/10 - so some improvement.

He's also started sleeping on his side, I'd say at least 50% of his night is spent on his side now and yesterday morning he even woke us up because he was on his tummy :)

FEEDING & WEANING

At the last update, we'd been weaning him very slowly mostly on just baby rice, but since then we've stepped it up and have been introducing him to meat, fish, different flavours from vegetables and fruit to textures and small lumps.  

He's done really well and we're realising he really really likes lots of flavour - so potato, carrot things like that he absolutely despises by themselves - however, mix them together with parsnip and chicken and he LOVES it!  We add some of his milk to the food to help - it makes it less thick and adds a familiar flavour he likes.  Today he had fish (cod) with broccoli, carrot and potato (mashed not blended) and he devoured it - the fish was still a bit flaky which didn't put him off too.  He's even started chomping in readiness to chew - it's very cute, and VERY funny :)  I've been loving making up proper food for him too, and seeing what he likes and dislikes. 

Unfortunately we have uncovered a food allergy too - I didn't realise until a newsletter/email popped through from 'What to Expect' on foods to avoid feeding your baby - it mentioned Strawberries, and how they can cause allergies, especially if there's a food allergy history in the family, which there is thanks to me (I'm allergic to banana, and intolerant to things like eggs, pineapple, avocado etc).  He developed a nasty rash all over his chest and tummy - it went within a couple of days, but it started after I gave him some fresh strawberry, and then he had it again and the rash got worse.  I've cut strawberry (in any form) out of his diet and he's been fine since, so I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

PROGRESS MILESTONES

By 6 months he should be able to do things like turn towards sounds, rolling over in both directions, reaches for objects and mouths them etc and in fairness, he's doing all of that.  For rolling over, it all happened at once.  About 4 weeks ago he rolled over for the first time, then a couple of days later he did it twice, and then for about 2 weeks he didn't do it again.  Then about a week or so ago I put him on his play mat and he rolled straight over, and every time I rolled him back, he rolled straight onto his tummy again (then screamed down the place as he hates tummy time and couldn't roll back).  A few days ago, he managed to roll himself back and he's done it quite a few times since but he's not as competent with it as he is rolling onto his tummy.

He's also done a tiny bit of commando crawling - he's tried really really hard to crawl and to get to a couple of toys when he's been on his tummy, he's pulled himself a long using his elbows, very cute and scary at the same time!

We've also ditched the play gym as it's just too restrictive with him rolling over, and instead he has a big Taf Toys play mat that's 1.5 metres wide by 1 m.  We have his toys on different sides of it for him to roll to - the mat is great, it has different colours, some squares have squeaks and noises they make, and one has a mirror on - he loves to look at himself in this when he's on his tummy :)  It's really nicely padded too.

PHYSIO

While he still as a wonky head, it's definitely getting better, which is great.  He had another check up with the physio about 3 weeks ago - they were happy that he's turning his head to the left more easily and that his wonky head is now 'mild', but they wanted to see him rolling over more - so we're off back there on the 15th April for what should be a final check-up - huzzah!

OTHER BITS

• No first word yet - but he has started babbling by saying 'ba ba ba ba ba' so it's only a matter of time before he says 'ma ma' or 'da da' - it's felt like he's been on the cusp of saying 'hello' for ages too - you can really hear him trying to say it
• He's obsessed with pulling my hair, touching my face and grabbing the cat's fur - she's been great so far and hasn't retaliated
• We're going through bibs like there's no tomorrow!
• The pampers nappies we switched to (from Aldi) have been amazing, not one leak of wee-wee since we changed, whereas with Aldi we were needing multiple daily changes of clothes thanks to wee-wee leaks
• He's pretty much grown out of his Shnuggle bath - it's up to 6 months and he barely fits in it now :/  So now we're looking for another solution - both hubby and I have bad backs etc so can't be bending down, so we'll see what we find

I've also started creating the paintings for his nursery, the ones I wanted to get done when I was still pregnant! Useless I know! Well, the Totoro one is nearly finished - I just need to add a bit to the bottom right and it'll be ready to hang.

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5 month baby update

I honestly can't believe Squidge is now 5 months old! What's more, I'll be back in work in the next 4 months, and that's something I'm finding it hard to come to terms with.  If we could afford it, I wouldn't go back, not that I don't enjoy my job, I just want to be here all the time for the little man.

We've had a good month, but at times it's been really hard.  All in all every day he brings me pure joy, whether it's in a high-pitched squeal, or seeing him bouncing in his Jumperoo and loving it, or having a nap on me and seeing his serenely calm face.

CLOTHING

He's still in 3-6 months clothes and think he will be for a few more weeks.  I am surprised just how much these clothes differ in sizes in different stores though - I know they do for adults, but hadn't thought about them doing that with baby clothes too.  He's got some 3-6 which seem a bit small for him, and loads which are still really big on him.  I'm about to get him some of the next size up just so they're ready and waiting, but I think we'll be a little while off putting him in them, maybe another month?

TEETHING

This seems to have eased off, although in the last week we have noticed how now everything he holds goes into his mouth, and I mean everything!  He's drooling lots too.  So far I haven't been reaching for the Ashton & Parsons or Nelsons, although one night we did need to give him some Calpol as he was crying a lot when we put him into bed, and they were horrible pain cries - it really helped to soothe and settle him, thank goodness!  The evening this picture was taken, Squidge was pulling Chris' finger into his mouth and chomping down on it really hard - so hard Chris could feel a bottom tooth just behind the gum!

SLEEP

I have to say, he's been a little trooper.  He's still pretty much sleeping through the night, just waking up and crying a few times for his dummy.  I run in and pop that in, and he goes back to sleep - this is typically between 2-5am.  He has been having some trouble getting to sleep when we put him down at night though - some nights we've been up there for 2-3 hours while he's having meltdown after meltdown, meaning our evening isn't starting until 10pm, an hour or two later and we're heading to bed, far too late.  I've no idea how to fix this, but we're open to trying anything! (other than controlled crying, we've read in several places not to do this before 6 months) - so any suggestions?

Oh and his day naps - these have changed and become tougher.  He no longer sleeps well in the day - on a really good day, he may nap for an hour at a time, but typically he'll get 20-30 mins 2-3 times a day, leaving him exhausted by the evening, and resulting in him pretty much sleeping through his last feed.  However, if he naps between his penultimate and last feed, he doesn't tend to sleep very well at night, all a bit of a mare at the moment.  Since he was born, he's had his day naps on the sofa in his poddle pod, but now he can roll over, and he's getting too big for it, I'm starting to give him naps in his cot, only problem is I'm lucky if he gets 10 mins in there... again, any suggestions?

FEEDING & WEANING

Such a sad photo :( It was taken after a 45 minute long meltdown (by him), hence the red crying eyes. Anyway, over the last few weeks, pretty much since the last update, he's become really unsatisfied with his bottles and get's bored while he's drinking them, typically leaving more than I'm happy with each feed.  Once he hit 17 weeks, we decided to very slowly start the weaning process, only giving him baby rice no more than once a day (and not every day).  Over the last week it's really come together and he's showing all the signs of being properly ready - he's interested in what we're eating, able to hold things and take things off us.  During the feeds he's taking the baby rice from the spoon really well, he's gulping it down and really enjoying it.  I'm taking him to the health visitor tomorrow and going to ask them about progressing weaning (introducing new foods and flavours) early.

We're going to be doing a mixture of baby led weaning and normal weaning - I'm happy to let him explore foods, but I'll be feeding him.  He'll be having baby porridge, puree's and things that I'll feed him, but I'll also give him cooked sticks of carrot and things like that - things that are mushy and safe, but not for a little while yet.

PROGRESS

The last update I'd mentioned about how he'd rolled over a couple of times, which seemed accidental, well he's doing it all the time now ;)  He hasn't rolled onto his front yet, but he can roll onto his side really well, and has also stayed there. - On Saturday he actually rolled over for the first time, the pic above was taken seconds after he did it :) A very proud mummy moment :)

He's really enjoying slamming his feet down too, something he's doing with more energy than he used to.  His cooing comes and go's, he has quiet days and loud days, same as us grown ups I guess.

Standing - he cannot get enough of this - if he's grouchy, this is usually what he wants :)  We also bought him a Jumperoo last week - he went on a play date and went in one then for the first time and LOVED it, so we found one on Gumtree for £25 (bargain!) and I might say it's the best £25 we've spent - I'll be doing a full review of it soon :)

He's also just learned how to blow raspberries and is doing it all the time, it's super cute :)

PHYSIO

We've been to see the physio due to his preference to look to the right.  They said that he does have a shorter neck muscle on the left, so we have to encourage him to look to the left as much as possible, and carry him a little differently to stretch the muscle.  They think this is what has caused his big flat spot on his head and weren't worried about it.  This angle on the picture doesn't make his flat spot look too bad, but it's a lot worse than that.

It's crazy to think that my next update is the big 6 month update!  Time is going so fast, it feels like he's changing by the day.

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4 month baby & mummy update

It's hard to believe 4 whole months have passed since little Squidge entered our lives, it's hard to remember what life was like before he was a part of it.  It feels like he's doing something new every day at the moment.  There was a point about a week or so ago where he seemed to all of a sudden be doing so much more, amazing to see.

CLOTHES

He's fully in age 3-6 months now and has been for about a week - trouser legs are still a bit long, and tops are a big baggy, but 0-3 months are just too small - he's also progressed to the next size of socks (0-6 months) - as much as he has big feet and long legs, I have to remember that he's a really small baby, still in the 5th percentile.  I've also discovered how much I love Zara baby clothes - I love how they're different from what you can pick up everywhere else, and such great quality.  I bought some navy blue corduroys the other day, they're so incredibly soft!

TEETHING

Yep, he's teething, and it's been horrific.  I won't go into it too much as I blogged about it here, but basically he's been chewing his fists, drooling lots, very grouchy and grizzly, and has very rough patches on his gums.  We've found that Dentinox has really helped, and Ashton & Parsons teething powder.  I've also realised I need to get some baby feeding spoons as the only spoon I could give him the powder on was a normal teaspoon, not ideal as it can't be steralised.

SLEEP

He's still sleeping well, he goes down about 8:30/9:00pm and sleeps through until about 8am - although he does grizzle a bit from about 6am - but it's usually when his dummy has popped out, so I just pop it back in and he goes back to sleep.  The last couple of nights, since the teething, he's been waking about 2:30am and grizzling, but again, just popping his dummy back in makes him go back to sleep.  After chatting to other mummies at the mummy club I go to I realised just how lucky I am that he is sleeping through the night already :)

FEEDING

His feeds have been going really well.  He's feeding every 3 hours (so, 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm & 8pm) and has about 5-6oz per feed in about 10-20 mins.  I tend to feed him on about a 45 degree angle (used to feed him sat very upright) as I find it's easier to burp him afterwards if I feed him that way.  I love how we have this routine now, it's so much easier for me and him knowing where we are

PROGRESS

Apart from smiling all the time (making my heart melt) he's also reaching and grasping at toys, he even held a rattle the other day and waved it around :) He's developed a love for his giraffe comforter, he loves how soft it is and how chewable it is :)  He's rolled over onto his side a couple of times when he's on something squishy, still early days though.  He loves sitting up, it's his favourite, although he can't do it unaided, he still loves being upright.  He's cooing like crazy, chatting away and making some very explosive sounds, some of which are very high pitched!  All in all he seems to be coming along great :)

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