9 Month Baby Update

9 Month Baby Update

9 Month Baby Update – Nine months of this yummy little boy whose personality is developing into the cheeky chappy to match his cheeky face.

Every month that goes by he’s becoming more fun even though I’d love him to slow down so that we can soak up every bit of him as he changes.

New stuff

  • Pulling himself up to standing on everything
  • Saying ‘Ta’ I wasn’t sure that I’d heard him right, but he says ta when he wants something and will say it when he wants to keep the thing that you’re trying to take off him like a random bit of fluff or something else he shouldn’t have
  • Crawling – there’s no stopping him now.
  • Clapping
  • Splashing in the bath
  • Another three teeth so eight now. Four top and four bottom
  • Copying – Isabelle has an awful cough and he mimics her cough and claps to himself
  • Nappy struggle

Loves:

Eating things he shouldn’t like his bath sponge, random bits of floor fluff or anything else that he shouldn’t have.

Strings – ties on trousers and tops. He likes to twiddle them and put them in his mouth.

Being outside – I think he’s definitely happier if we’ve been out and about than just staying at home.

Fruit – we have another fruit bat. His favourite is pear at the moment.

Climbing – he’s not for sitting still now that he can move. He prefers to be up on his feet so he uses us as human climbing frames. Hair makes for a great rope!

Hates:

Getting his nappy changed. Already he’s trying to flip onto his back, refuses to put his legs up or down and generally squirming away. We’re using a changing table at the moment, but I think we’re going to have to start using a mat on the floor now that he’s so wriggly.

Getting dressed or undressed – it’s a total battle to get him dressed now, especially putting his arms in things.

Sitting still – he wants to be up and about and is as fast as lightening when you’re not looking so we’ve had a few bumps when we haven’t been quick enough.

Teething

I think he’s coping quite well with teething. We know the signs when he’s teething now. He refuses most foods by putting his hand over his mouth, his nappies change and he gets really red cheeks. He’s pretty good at using his teethers to chomp down on, and we just know that he’s gearing up for a couple of grumpy days and rubbish sleep. He has eight teeth now, and although we have a rough couple of nights it’s not as strung out as when Isabelle was teething which seemed endless.

We dose him up on Calpol and use teething granules as well as making sure that he has access to teethers at all times and lots of cuddles.

Play

Freddie loves to play. We set him up on his mat with a variety of toys and get down to play with him. He loves stacking bricks to knock down and loves the basket of shakers and bells that we had for Isabelle when she was little. He will play for a little while before wanting to just climb all over you.

Growth

I had Freddie weighed and he now weighs 19lb 9oz which at first I was a bit worried about as he’s only put on about 1.5lb in about two months, but he’s so active and is eating as he should. They don’t seem to measure babies in the clinic I go to and trying to do it myself would be like trying to wrestle a chimpanzee.

Weaning

Freddie loves his food. He’s up for new flavours and will try everything he’s given. We do give him the odd purée which he’s not so great at eating because he doesn’t really like opening his mouth for a spoon. He’s tried such a wide variety of foods already and it’s fun seeing his reactions to different flavours.

He does seem to store his food in his cheeks though, so the other day I removed a piece of orange that he’d been given two hours before, so we now know to look out for things he’s got stored in his hamster cheeks!

Feeding

Feeding during the day is good. We have a good routine which times in well with his eating and the school run.

Night time is just a nightmare. Freddie feeds every hour and a half, sometimes less. It’s starting to take its toll now and it’s hard because nobody can help me with this. I’m being advised to ‘just give home a bottle’ BUT he’s breastfed so we won’t be taking this unhelpful advice!

Sleeping

we’re still co-sleeping and it’s fine since I don’t have to get out of bed for the multiple night feeds.

Even if we wanted him in his own bed, he currently doesn’t have one as he’s too big for his crib and we’ve yet to put his cot up. I’m happy with the sleeping situation and it’s not going to be forever.

It’s scary to think that we’ve started to think about what we’re going to do for his first birthday.

What did you do for your little ones first birthday?

Lisa x

7 Month Baby Update

7 Month Baby Update

7 Month Baby Update – We had the best first Christmas with little Freddie. He loved the lights and decorations and even got stuck into unwrapping presents on Christmas Day.

7 Month Baby Update

You can definitely see his little personality shining through now. He’s the smiliest baby and is so pleased to see people and be involved with his surroundings.

He’s quite grabby and a bit rough with it. Poor Isabelle has her hair pulled on a daily basis.

New Stuff:

  • Four teeth
  • Sitting up unaided
  • Getting on his hands and knees
  • Clicking his tongue
  • Growling
  • Chuckling

Teething

He now has four teeth, two top and two bottom and has started to grind them which is a horrible sound. We all have awful nights when his teeth push through but it’s only a couple of nights so not as bad as it could be. He really loves his teethers which we use in combination with teething granules and Calpol when needed. His to teeth seem really wide for baby teeth so he’s really suffered with these and they aren’t all the way through yet.

Play

Freddie loves to play and we have a couple of play sessions a day where we get lots of toys out on the floor where he can sit up, roll around and generally shuffle his way around. He loves this and it’s a great way to give him some independence out of my arms. He loves things that make noises (of course). We bought a bumbo just as a back up for when he just gives up on sitting up and falls any which way. It was a total fail since he stretches out and rolls to one side to escape. I think we may have left it too late for this to have been any use to us. We do have a jumperoo which he loves and at the moment we’re just deciding on whether or not to get a baby walker so that he can come and find me if he wants to.

Growth

I plan to go and get him weighed this week but i think he’s growing just fine. He’s quite long so some of his 3 – 6 month trousers are too short but size 6 – 9 months are a bit too big around the waist. He’s in both 3 – 6 and 6 – 9 month sleepsuits and the same with tops. He still has his scrummy baby rolls which I love.

Feeding

Freddie is still breastfeeding and I don’t see this changing for the foreseeable. At the very least I would like to get to a year but ultimately I’m going to let Freddie lead the way as to how long he wants to feed for.

He’s bitten me quite a few times now which really hurts, and when he first got his bottom teeth he was scraping them on my nipples which lasted for a few days. I thought this might be the end but we’re still going strong. It would be nice if he slept a bit longer at night as he’s currently feeding around five times a night.

Weaning

We’re loving this. I love the look on his face when we put him in the Highchair and he eagerly waits to find out what he’s getting. So far we’ve tried:

  • Toast
  • Pear
  • Banana
  • Cheese
  • Breadsticks
  • Melon
  • Strawberries
  • Scrambled egg
  • Soft boiled egg
  • Pasta
  • Sweet potato
  • Potato
  • Carrot
  • Parsnip
  • Green beans
  • Organix wotsits
  • Kiddylicious wafers
  • Baby rice cakes
  • Peas
  • Pita bread
  • Baby porridge
  • Broccoli

So far so good with only broccoli being the only thing that I’m not sure he likes the texture of. It made him shudder.

I’m going to start putting together some little meals soon, but for now he’s enjoying all the different tastes and textures.

7 month baby update

Sleeping

Hmm the sleeping isn’t going so great. He co-sleeps with us at night and I don’t mind this at all, but he is waking for feeds around five times a night still which is exhausting.

I need to look into this a little bit more and see if I can get him to go down on his own at the beginning part of the evening so that I get a little bit of baby free time, even just to sit and watch TV. He only sleeps with my arms around him which means that I have to go to bed quite early.

During the day he will nap in his pram if we’re out and about or in my arms which doesn’t really give me a lot of time to do things around the house. Again, now that Belle is back at school I’m going to try and get him in his crib so that he gets a decent chunk of sleep and I can get on and do the washing etc instead of trying to do everything one handed when he’s awake.

Maternity Leave

When the New Year hit, so did the return to work dread. At the moment the thought of leaving Freddie fills me with dread. I don’t want to leave him AT ALL!

I’m due back to work in May so we need to start thinking about childcare and the logistics of having two children in different places. I’d like Freddie to go to nursery, but the thought of having one at nursery and one at school is making my brain ache trying to work out the drop off and pick up.

I also know that I need to work on his naps so that he will sleep during the day wherever that may be.

If you have two kids going in different directions I’d love to know how you work it all out and how long you work for.

Lisa x

5 Month Baby Update

5 Month Baby Update

5 Month Baby Update – Our little Freddie is five whole months old today! He’s such a loving, smiley little boy. Of course he’s a total Mummy’s boy which I love, but equally the look of love on his face when Daddy comes home and calls him ‘Sausage’.

A baby dressed as a pumpkin sat with inflatable pumpkins

Teething

No teeth as yet but we’ve had lots of teething and dribbling. He has a couple of hard bobbles on his bottom gums at the front but nothing has broken through yet.

We’ve had so much dribble that he now wears several dribble bibs a day. It doesn’t help that he likes to blow raspberries which adds to the wetness.

We had a few days last week when he was chewing like crazy, had red flushed cheeks and would not settle enough to sleep. I used both Neurofen for babies as well as homeopathic teething crystals to try and give him some relief as well as having his teether permanently in his mouth. These have been the worse days we’ve had with him so far. The look in his poor red rimmed eyes as he had no idea what was going on.

A five month old baby asleep in a pram holding a yellow teething toy

Play

Freddie really loves playtime which we do several times a day. He likes to be able to grab things on his own so we’ve pinched one of Isabelle’s fabric boxes to put some of his things in so he can take them out.

All the nursery rhymes are now flooding back such as ‘this little piggy’ and ‘row your boat’ and he likes those. Luckily he isn’t able to complain about my singing yet.

Peekaboo is, I would say his ultimate fave. Whether it’s your hands, a muslin or the covers when making the bed. He loves it!

We had a pumpkin themed baby sensory session last week with inflatable pumpkins, ribbons, leaves, shakers and pictures which he loved despite it being the start of his few days of teething misery.

A five month old baby boy sat smiling in his pram

Growth

Well what can I say. He’s a scrummy boy with yummy baby rolls, chubby cheeks and the squishiest baby legs ever.

He’s really strong with a good grip, particularly on hair and my necklace. He likes to sit up but he’s not doing it on his own yet. Oh and he’s started doing that great thing of going completely stiff when your trying to put him in his seat which is always fun.

Much to my upset, he is now in the sitting up part of his pram. I had no choice but to do it. He was holding onto the bar trying to stomach crunch himself up desperate to see the world AND the bobble hat that we bought him made him actually too long to fit without the bobble squishing into his head.

He loves it! He can see me and he can see everything going on around him. The first time I took him out he didn’t know which way to look, and he just grinned at anything and everything.

He weighs 16lb 4oz now.

He’s wearing 3 – 6 months clothes and his every day clothes are fine, but I’ve noticed that his toes are right at the end of some of his sleep suits. We bought him a snowsuit which we had to change for 6 – 9 months which was sensible since it hasn’t been cold enough to wear it yet.

Feeding

Feeding is the same. We’re still breastfeeding with a bottle of formula at night. He has a good routine of timings for feeds during the day but night times are still hit and miss.

He’s started pulling at my clothes when he’s hungry which is a good indicator, but he is still feeding for such a long time which is quite restricting.

Sleeping

Argh we really need to work on this. He sleeps with me be it day or night. He hates being put down! I’ve tried, Chris has tried but he doesn’t last longer than an hour before realising that he’s in his own bed.

So we’re co-sleeping which I do and I don’t mind. I’m happy for him to sleep with me but if he’s restless or keeps snuggling into my armpit then I can’t sleep. Not to mention the fact that I’ve now started to go to bed with him just so that he will sleep which leaves me no baby free time unless you count my speed-wee breaks.

I need to get this sorted for all of our sanity but mostly so that Freddie knows it’s ok to sleep without Mummy, and that he’s safe.

Until next month.

Lisa x