At One!

Just where did the last 12 months go? It’s Millie’s 1st Birthday tomorrow and I can’t quite believe it. I’m not really one to get too sentimental and emotional about such things but I must admit it has hit me more than it did Callum and makes me go ‘gulp’!

With Callum, I hurried his baby days along always pushing him towards the next milestone & looking forward to the next phase of Callum. I wasn’t a fan of the baby phase and longed for more interactive stages. Looking back I was more stressed about doing things correctly and not getting into bad habits. I guess so many people are with the first child.

However, this time with Millie, I’ve relaxed into it and gone with Millie’s lead. Because my attitude has been different, I’ve enjoyed the baby stage so much more. Although I can’t wait to see what Millie is going to learn to do next I still look back with nostalgia.

But enough of that, lets look at the now!

Millie is still very quick to dish out the smiles at all & sundry and most of the time she is quite easy going but she is beginning to get a bit more of a spirited personality. She has always known what she wants but now she can get stroppy if she doesn’t get her way. This is especially true when it comes to walking around while holding our hands. Should we dare to ignore her desperate grabs for our hands as they pass by because we are busy with something else, or we tire of activity after the 14th cycle of the downstairs of the house, while rubbing our sore backs, she will cry like you’ve just taken her bottle away after the first taste of milk! Like I say above, she knows what she wants and while walking her around….I say walking her around but what I really mean is while she is walking you around because you really don’t get much say of where she goes.

We’ve tried persuading her the walker is a good independent way to practice her walking skills. She has use of a few. One which she sits in which she likes at first but gets frustrated with its size as she gets stuck occasionally and prefers to run me or the cats over with it! We also have one of those VTech walkers, the ones where you have lots of buttons to press & a phone on the front then a handle at the back which they can use to push it around. Similar to this, we have Callum’s old wooden blocks trolley walker. If we try to get Millie to walk with either of these latter types she freezes and cries.

Millie loves to dance and I think she is going to be the more musical out our two children.

She can clap and she can wave and just within the last week she can pretend to talk on the phone. Not that she says any recognisable words as yet but she holds it to her ear and babbles into it.

Millie now has 4 definite teeth and a 5th one has just broken through the gum and I believe there are a couple more that will be close behind.

She is rather speedy at the bum shuffling now and can be guaranteed to make a beeline for the top of the stairs giving Stuart and I many a heart attack as we don’t have a stairgate and she refuses to go down backwards! Think it is time to accept we need a stairgate with this one!

Mille still loves lights like many young babies do – we have several lights with dangly things on (crystals on the downstairs ones, stars on Callum’s light and butterflies on hers) and she looks up at them and makes a herrrr noise (like when you breathe on a window) to indicate she wants you to blow them to make them move and she’ll smile and giggle when you do.

Like Callum was at this age, it feels like she is on the verge of learning so many new things.

It’s hard to imagine that over the next year she’ll be walking and talking and moving from baby to becoming a proper toddling little girl.

Here’s a little montage of her past year:

		Millie's First Year VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

I think I must’ve blinked…could we do that again? Ha! Nah! No chance! Trot onwards please! Eyes forward!

40 Weeks, 5 Days Old (plus 5)

I’m a little late in writing this post as I wanted to write it on 1 June. Why? Because then Millie would have been outside in the real world for exactly the same length of time as she was inside my tummy growing. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to provide an update on my beautiful girl!

Moving

Still not much actual moving happening at the moment except in circles. If you lie her on her back, she finds it hysterical to roll straight to her front. Which is great! Except when she is in her cot and is meant to be sleeping or in her sleep as she then gets stuck and cries for help.

She isn’t crawling or bum shuffling forwards yet…or backwards…but she has mastered doing the 360 degree bum shuffle. She’ll sit amongst her toys and start rotating around as if she is sat on a Lazy Susan picking things up and putting them down again as she gets to the next toy of interest.

She is itching to walk and to be able to pull herself to her feet. If there is anything in grabbing distance she grabs on and starts pulling. It is definitely time to drop the base of the cot to the next level! If you hold her hands while she is sat down she pulls herself to standing, or if you try to sit her on the floor she refuses and stiffens her legs to stand, then just starts marching her little wobbly legs and grinning from ear to ear! If she wants a cuddle she tries to walk up my legs!

Eating

Millie is doing so well with her eating. We haven’t officially dropped any bottles yet but think we are in the process of doing so. She is eating (or drinking, always think eating milk sounds weird) less of her milk and doesn’t ask for her milk as readily around her typical 3 hour slot. I would say she is actually eating at least one meal a day if not two, in total. Some days that may incorporate snacks but not always. This week she is particularly interested in protein by way of fish or meat. What were her favourite foods at the start, such as red pepper, are of little interest to her now, but she is still keen to try new foods. I finally managed (remembered) to purchase some low salt & low sugar baked beans the other day and she couldn’t get enough of them.

Sleeping

She is consistently sleeping through the night now. There is the occasional 5am wake up, like this morning, but she is generally waking up between 6 and 6.30am. Even when she wakes at 5am she tends to go back to sleep again.

Her nap times are usually (there is no real always with Millie, as is the same for most babies I imagine) around 8.30-9am for about an hour and then we have an early lunch about 11.30 then after that she will nap for about 1.5 hours.

Other Developments

Millie has 2 teeth and I’m certain there are a couple more on the way.

I think she might be learning to wave…it’s early days so not sure if it’s just co-incidence yet or she is actually trying to wave.

Lots of lovely babbling noises, too many variations to document, but she likes trying out different sounds and volumes as the below video shows. The video itself, I believe, is her first realisation that the reflection she sees in the mirror is herself and not another Millie. I’ve been told I need to give a ‘Utter Cuteness’ warning before you watch. Ensure you have a baby, child or pet to squish, failing that, grab a teddy (everyone still has a teddy right?).

Final Word

Although Millie has been a bit under the weather this week with a rotten cough (and those pesky teeth) she is still such a happy and contented baby. Unless you try to wipe her nose or give her calpol – she really doesn’t take kindly to anyone attempting either of those.

Callum is still wonderful with her though has started to slip into ‘typical brother’ mode by making her hit herself or goes charging her around the house when she is in her walker (the latter of which she loves).

Now for the next adventure – we are about to go away on holiday to Tunisia. Cases full of nappies, formula milk, wipes, bottles, toys, etc! How they think its fair to give a baby just 10kg for luggage is beyond me! Hoping Millie’s first holiday abroad will be more successful than Callum’s more testing one.

Sleep! Oh How I’ve Missed You!

It has taken 8.5 months, 2.5 months longer than her brother, but I can now confidently say (*bites lip & frantically searches for wood*) that Millie is sleeping through the night! For the past week, Millie has slept through from about 6.15-6.30 until between 6.15-7am every single night with just one stir around our bedtime for her dummy…in fact, she stirred last night then settled herself back to sleep without the dummy!

WOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOOOOOO! I FEEL HUMAN AGAIN!!!!!!

Forgive me but I feel that deserved to be shouted from the rooftops! With my search for work having begun, I was nervous about struggling to get up at the crack of dawn for work while still getting up in the night!

Strangely, it is now like my body has gone into catch up drive! Wanting to catch up on all that missed sleep from the last 9 months. I struggle to wake up and then feel exhaustingly tired around mid-afternoon! I can even go back to sleep if I wake up early – I never used to be able to do this; once I was awake, I was awake for the day.

Dreams are also on catch up. Not sure if you know this but when you don’t sleep much, you have less REM sleep (which is when we dream). Dreaming is our minds way of processing what has happened during the day and storing new things we have learnt etc. It is important for us to dream. So when we do get a good solid night of sleep, we tend to dream more to make up for the lost dream time before. So I have been dreaming lots of weird and wonderful things but nothing of interest to blog about (you really don’t want to know about how I couldn’t shake poo off my hand do you?!).

Anyway, back to Millie! Other than the sleep, not much else is new. She is eating with vigour, trying everything (EVERYTHING!!!) in site…well as far as she can bend in double & stretch to reach. Still no moving by way of roll, crawl, bum shuffle or commando crawl! Apart from the odd occasion when she rolls back to front in her cot & then complains because she is stuck! For the time being, I am enjoying being able to plonk her somewhere and for her to stay there so, although I don’t want to hinder her moving progress, I am happy for her to do it in her own time.

We have 2 teeth! Two teeny weeny but very sharp little bottom teeth! This is already making a difference with her eating. She actually uses the teeth to rip food off a bigger piece now.

            

Her babbling has a range of dadadadanananananalalalalalagagagagaga now and sometimes she sounds like she is trying to sing or have a conversation with you. So cute!

I feel she is on the verge of clapping. She loves watching what you do with your hands and occasionally brings them together but that’s as far as it goes.

She is at that age where everyone wants to talk to her! Supermarket shopping can double in time as we get stopped by every other person who wants to talk to her. I love it and feel so proud but it does make shopping to a restricted time-limit rather challenging!

Callum is lovely with her and apart from wanting to take ownership of all of Millie’s toys but not so keen to return the favour with his own, he really does love her and looks after her. I really hope (and I can see that it might) that stays with them throughout their lives as they grow up. Seeing them together I know we made the right choice of trying for a 4 year age gap.

I feel so very blessed!…and human!

BLW: Chairs and Chomping

I really feel like Millie has made a bit of a leap forward with the baby-lead weaning in the past week. She is gagging less and less, she hasn’t lost any enthusiasm with trying new foods, if anything, she is even more enthusiastic and enjoying foods she has previously dismissed. As I type she is happily sucking the life out of a rehydrated apricot – her first try of this.

Her nappies are turning from a bright yellow to a woody brown colour with added lumps! (gross I know, sorry!) This tells me she is definitely swallowing some of what goes into her mouth! Whoever knew nappy watch could be so exciting (its not – I’ve not seeped that low…yet!).

Although we haven ‘t tried her on anything particularly spicy yet, if something has a tiny bit of heat (like a mild chilli) she hasn’t refused it…or burst into tears like Callum did making me feel just awful! She is another lemon lover though! No idea where either child gets that from but certainly not me! I hate lemon…even as a slice in a drink!

Her dexterity progress is slow. She still can’t really control a cup of water (with or without a sippy lid) and spoons, unsurprisingly, are still pre-loaded…and often whacked on the table top or chair until topping is removed!

I did have a lightbulb moment yesterday with medicine. Why, if I’m encouraging Millie to take a spoon in her own hand and eat off it, am I surprised when she gets upset or rejects medicine when I spoonfeed her it or inject it into her mouth with a syringe? Instead, I tried filling half the 5ml side of a medicine spoon (2.5ml being the correct dose for her age) and then carefully handing the spoon to her. It worked, she was much more agreeable to it though did get a little excited and flicked the last bit off the spoon at my mum & her glasses. I’d still call it a success!

We have had to get used to feeling like a celebrity when we are eating out with Millie as she gets lots of attention. Obviously, for being so goddam cute (in my unbiased opinion) but also because they are so surprised to see a baby her age eating proper solid food. Most of the attention is from grandparent aged people “wow, look at her chomping into that piece of celery – my grandson is older than her and he isn’t on that sort of solids yet and he is such a fussy eater!” was one amazed exclamation. Its not uncommon, these days, for parents who start weaning their children to also offer finger foods from 6 months (whether they started weaning at 6 months or before) so it surprises me that they are so amazed – perhaps its because she is a petite baby too so looks even more surprising. Or perhaps even when parents offer finger food when out it is less obvious.

I think we have won over my parents more this time than we did with Callum. Though think Mum disapproves of our reluctance to offer chocolate until Millie is 1 year old. She even bought her a chocolate Easter pressie, I think intended to sway us, but I’m staying strong. I’m not mean but while she doesn’t know what it is, I’m hesitant to introduce her. I’m not restricting her from anything else – if I was eating a bit of cake and, although I wouldn’t necessarily offer it, if she went for it I’d let her have some. I do believe no food should be taboo as it just creates a bigger attraction to it but I don’t want foods like chocolate to replace nutritious food while she is eating such little amounts of actual food (as opposed to milk). By 1 she should be on 3 meals a day so the occasional chocolate treat wont then be a big deal. The rest of us all eat far more chocolate than perhaps we should so there’s no harm in delaying her chocolate addiction! I think that’s it – we eat cake occasionally but chocolate frequently. While she is meant to be eating what we eat, cake is less of a frequent issue.

Once more (as with Callum) we have gone for the booster seat over high chair route. Mainly because we wanted something Millie could use both at the breakfast bar and at the dinner table. The only high chair that gets to both heights is gorgeous but also £400!!!!! But, to be fair, the booster seat is completely adequate as she is over 6 months and sitting up strong and we would want her pushed up to the table rather than using the tray anyway. We’ve gone with a cheapy, easy to clean, £15 booster from Mothercare. If your baby is over 6 months I’d actually recommend it over a space-taking cumbersome, sometimes expensive (unless from Ikea) highchair – it will last them right until they are ready to sit on a normal chair too! My sister said, after having 3 children, if there was one thing she would have changed for number 1 it would’ve been to not bother at all with a highchair – she only used it for consecutive children because she already bought it for her first. I’m inclined to agree with her having not bought a highchair for either Callum or Millie.

Here is the seat we bought.

Here is Millie enjoying a Hot Cross Bun & some cucumber on her chair at the kitchen breakfast bar.

I really like these too and because my parents kindly gave us some money towards a highchair, I’m going to get one as they are really handy to put in the car to take to restaurants and for when you visit family or friends without children/with older children.

One thing was for sure, Millie had definitely outgrown the Bumbo and it really wasn’t safe for her to remain on top of the breakfast bar or table instead of on a chair.

My Dad loved seeing her joining in as part of the family pushed up against the table while we were enjoying our Sunday roast. I think Millie rather likes it too!

Millie at 7 Months

 

As Millie is approaching 7 months old (in 2 days) I thought I’d give a bit of an update on how she is doing, aside from the weaning.

Millie has been sitting up well now for about a month, first sitting up at about 5.5 months. She still has the occasional fall so I do still protect her but she is much better at correcting any over-balance.

I feel like we’ve been at the are we, aren’t we teething stage since forever! Second guessing every grump or symptom. Every week is a different teething symptom. Last week was the acidic dribble causing her a sore mouth, particularly where her dummy rubs (she only uses it at night) and crying out randomly in sobbing tears (Millie doesn’t really cry, just sort of grunts when she is tired or hungry so this really breaks your heart), this week is the snotty bum! Still no sign of those blasted teeth though! She has been particularly unsettled today leaving me confused an hour after waking whether she wants to go back to sleep as she only had a short nap last time or whether a couple of hours after her last feed she wants feeding again and only having a couple of ounces.

One thing that I have noticed, where teething is concerned, that is different to Callum is the acidic dribble. Callum wasn’t much of a dribbler at all really but he had the most awful nappy rash. So red raw that it was close to bleeding and took ages to clear up*. Whereas Millie is a dribbler. Millie gets sore around her mouth with dribble rash but doesn’t suffer from nappy rash (*quickly touches wood/forehead*, not so far anyway). I guess that’s it, Callum swallowed his dribble so it caused the rash at the other end.

Back to Millie progress!

One thing I’m loving at the moment is her babbling. I noticed about 10 days ago that she was saying a kind of “dadadadada” which I was most excited to tell Stuart about…and immediately started to counter with saying “mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm” back at her to no avail! But now she also says “lalalalala” and “blablablabla”. I love it, its adorable!

Things that make her laugh are squealing or screaming at her; whispering into one ear or nuzzling her neck. She also loves Round & Round the Garden done on her tummy and then tickling the right side of her neck getting excited as you walk up the fingers to her neck. Oh, and of course, Row, Row, Row the Boat with actions!

She has rolled back to front, properly with no assistance, just the once but yay, she has done it!

Callum is so good and lovely with her. He’ll have cuddles with her and try to get her to hold his hand. He asks to kiss her goodnight when she is going for a nap. He is still quite protective over his toys…just he wait until she starts crawling!

Lastly, to finish on my favourite point, when I pass Millie over for someone else to hold her, she looks at me as if making sure I’m not running off anywhere. The love I feel she has for me at that moment, in that one look, just makes me feel so warm inside and melts my heart.

* Click here for what I tried & what worked on Callum’s acute nappy rash