8 Month Baby Update

8 Month Baby Update – It was scary when Freddie hit six months and now we’re hurtling forward and he’s now the grand age of eight months.

His personality is really coming through now. He’s a happy, smiley little boy who only cries if he has a genuine need. He’s very inquisitive and is at his happiest in the centre of what everybody else is doing. I’m loving that he’s a Mummy’s boy but this could just be because I’m his Mobile milk bar!

This past month has been totally tainted by the following sentence “When are you going back to work?” With the accompanied head tilt to the side. It’s driving me nuts. I know I have to go back to work but I just want to enjoy the time that I have before that happens. I’m enjoying being with him every single day. I’m also enjoying being able to pick Isabelle up from school as well as being available for all the school events and after school play dates.

New stuff:

Pulling himself up on his toy box

Rocking backwards and forwards on his hands and knees before launching himself forward
Making kissing noises
Shouting
Yeah! – shouting this (think Tom Jones)
Saying Be-be – as in Belle-Belle (sister)
Five teeth. He has two top teeth and three on the bottom.

Loves:

People. He loves when he’s surrounded by people and other babies.
Peek-a-Boo – it’s his absolute favourite thing to do.
His Daddy – Chris works long hours so when he’s home Freddie can’t get enough of him and grins from ear to ear.
Food or more specifically putting so much in his mouth so he looks like a hamster and then spitting it out.

A bath – we went through a rocky patch where he would scream when he had a bath, and it was just a case of get him in, wash him and get him back out again. These days he loves it and enjoys having his bath toys to play with.
Drinking bath water – he gets the sponge and sucks all of the water out of it. Yum!

Hates:

Having his face wiped
Putting sleeves on – oh the drama!
Broccoli

Teething:

He now has five teeth which explains the last couple of days where he’s been chewing and dribbling like crazy. He has two top teeth and three on the bottom.

We have teethers all over the place, and I’ve been wearing a teething necklace which he seems to like, and it also gives him something to twiddle whilst he feeds instead of pulling my hair.

He’s chomped down hard on toys a couple of times which has really hurt him. He tends to go off solid food when his gums are sore and will only accept cold fruit and cucumber.

Play:

Freddie’s a lot more fun now and loves to play with his toys. He sits up without support but we still put a cushion behind him just in case he gives up and flops back.

He likes to take toys out of his basket himself and always makes a beeline for certain toys. He likes his squeaky eggs, ring stacker and a little wooden toy where the little coloured people pop out of the top when you press them down. He likes it when you build up his bricks so that he can knock them down and his musical instruments which were Isabelle’s when she was a baby.

He finds things amusing and will join in laughing when other people are laughing at stuff.

Growth:

I had Freddie weighed a couple of weeks ago and he’s currently 18lb 4oz. He’s wearing a mixture of 3 – 6 months and 6 – 9 months clothes and this very much depends on the clothing brand.

Weaning:

We’re well underway with weaning with lots of different flavours and textures. We do mostly Baby Led Weaning with the odd purée and Freddie much was refers being able to feed himself.

He’s such a messy eater and has worked out that if he chucks it on the floor, the dog comes flying over to gobble it up which he finds quite amusing.

I think that he probably throws more food on the floor than he’s actually eating, but I’m happy with the amount that he is getting.

I totally forgot how much mess a weaning baby makes so we’ve had quite a few times when he’s gone straight from the Highchair to the bath!

So far the fruits are winning but root vegetables come a very close second. He also really likes hummus!

Feeding:

Freddie is still breastfeeding but seems to have his days and nights muddled up. He doesn’t feed that much during the day, but at night he’s feeding like a newborn, every 1 -2 hours some nights.

I’m finding this really hard and exhausting. Chris wants to try giving him a bottle at night (formula) but it’s been so hard to get to this point that I would hate to add formula back into the mix. I know that he’s only thinking that it might help with Freddie’s sleeping but I really don’t want to go back there.

Sleeping:

well as you’ve just read that he’s feeding like a newborn you’ll have guessed that we’re not getting a lot of sleep and the sleep we are getting is very broken sleep.

Freddie is co-sleeping with us and this is working for the little sleep that I am getting. I would like to start putting him in his cot for the beginning part of the evening instead of having to go to bed with him each night so that I could have a bit of an evening to myself so am going to persevere with this.

Next month I’m guessing he’ll be mobile and it will all be about stairgates and having eyes in the back of my head.