An 8 month baby update

OK, so I know this post probably isn’t going to be even the slightest bit interesting for anyone not currently immersed in the land of baby, so I’m sorry about that. But one thing I love about blogging is that it gives me a chance to document baby milestones. I have this vague idea that I might print these off for Baby Girl one day and say “Look! Mummy may have been rubbish at filling in your red book, but I did this instead!” Or something. I guess this is my way of trying to avoid poor second child syndrome…

So, 8 months. Baby Girl turned 8 months old nearly a week ago. With every day that passes we get another glimpse into her personality. She’s fun-loving, affectionate, laid back and mischievous. She’s SO physical, in a way that her hypermobile big sister never was at this age. While it’s fun, it’s also exhausting! Baby Girl has been crawling for just over six weeks now and, this week, she’s learned to pull herself to standing against furniture. I have a feeling it won’t be long before she’s cruising around the sofa, so we’re going to get the baby walker out of the loft this weekend. It will be the same walker Frog used at 18 months.

Baby Girl is always laughing. You only need to look at her and she’ll crack out a big grin…

I have a feeling that she’s going to be a bit of a mischievous joker. Already, she doesn’t have the serious thoughtful thing going on that Frog did at this age. Instead, she’s gung ho! about things, bashing and climbing and laughing all day long. She’d far rather try to demolish the TV or empty a cupboard than play with her toys, for example.

Baby Girl loves swimming. We do a weekly swimming lesson and she can now hold onto the side on her own and, this week, started trying to pull herself out of the water. She’s also started launching herself into the water when she’s sitting on the side, which she finds hilarious. She has no fear.

I spend my days running around after her, moving things that she could potentially hurt herself on or break. We need to get a stair gate for the bottom of the stairs, after I found her trying to climb them yesterday. She’s eager for an adventure, always.

I’m constantly surprised that she’s not bigger, considering the amount of food she packs away. I think she’s probably burning up so many calories being so active though, which would explain how she can eat a whole banana, piece of toast and bowl of porridge for breakfast and still be hungry for a breastfeed an hour later.

Sleep-wise, we’ve got into a bit of a new routine this week. Up until recently we were co-sleeping, as from around 10pm Baby Girl just wouldn’t settle in her cot. We have a huge super kingsize bed that she snoozed in with us all night and it was rather lovely to have those nighttime cuddles. But a couple of weeks ago she wouldn’t settle in the bed either, trying to crawl all over us, bite our faces, pull our hair etc. So I put her back in her cot where she promptly fell asleep. Since then she’s stayed in her cot all night. It’s weird how babies decide they’re just ready to do something, huh?

She’s still waking up for milk in the night, but we’re getting longer stretches. For a sleep-phobic baby I feel like we’re making progress, as she goes to bed and tends to sleep from around 6.30pm until 10.30pm, wake up for a feed, then go back in her cot and sleep until around 3am or 4am, when she wakes for another feed. She’ll then sleep until around 6.30am – 7am, when she wakes ready to take on the day. It means that I’m getting woken once in the night, although now she’s in her cot I have to actually get out of bed and feed her sitting in a rocking chair in her nursery, which means I’m still pretty tired.

I’m still breastfeeding on demand, but she’s started dropping her milk feeds now, having one first thing (around 7am), one just before she goes down for a nap at 9am, another one just after lunch around 1pm and then she might have a bit after the school run or she might skip that one altogether and just go through until the 6pm bedtime feed. Of course this might change from day to day, but if we’re at home and doing what we usually do then I can predict when she’ll want a feed almost to the second.

In my quest for more sleep I’ve started giving her a bottle of Goodnight Milk when she wakes up around 10.30pm and she guzzles down 6oz of the stuff. This is all on top of three meals a day and plenty of snacks. I had her weighed a couple of weeks ago and she was nearly 17lb, bang on the 50th centile on the growth chart. I think I’ve been a bit more relaxed about everything baby-related second time around. I haven’t been hung up on routines or “bad habits” in the way I was with Frog. But, equally, I’ve been quicker to try new things (like offering a bottle of formula for that late night feed, for example) if there could be the chance it leads to more sleep.

As she gets bigger the bond between her and Frog is growing ever stronger. Baby Girl actively searches out her big sister first thing in the morning and will crawl into her bedroom and try to climb into her bed with her. Frog finds this funny or annoying, depending on what mood she’s in.

Here’s a photo I took of them this week, when Frog had a “Best of British Day” at school and went in dressed as Queen Elizabeth I. It made me laugh, because it kind of sums up their relationship at the moment – Baby Girl crawling around on the floor, getting on with her thing, while Frog sits regally above her, sometimes deigning to play with her, sometimes not…

And that’s it for another month. Slow down baby, you’re growing up far too quickly.

Anyone else consumed by babydom at the moment? What’s up with you and your bubs this month? 

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