Crawly Baby (9 months old)

Yup, it’s official, we have a crawler! Our little lady, at just over 9mths old is now well and truly on the move.

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When she wants to she can really go at a pace but actually for the most part she doesn’t want to crawl and much prefers to stand. So she will only crawl until she can find something (usually Mummy who she knows is a soft touch) to pull herself up on. She is so determined to stand and walk that even if there is nothing (or no Mummy) to grab onto then she will try and stand. As a result, much of the time she ends up like this, with bum in the air.

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She has even done a couple of steps like this but I think she hopes to push herself to standing and just can’t quite get herself there yet!

It’s a whole new world for us as Monkey never crawled properly and just did a sort of commando style drag across the floor. The speed that LM can go and the distance she can cover is a whole new thing so we are having to be extra careful about what is on the floor – especially some of Monkey’s smaller toys. It terrifies me even thinking about it to be honest!

It’s so lovely seeing her so proud of herself for accomplishing it, even though there is still just as much frustrtaion as she would rather stand and walk. I have a feeling that won’t be too far in the future though!

Love watching her grow into a little person 🙂

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Little Miss at 9 Months

Wow so our little lady turns 9 months old this week! Which means she has been in the world for as long as she was growing in my tummy! Her development seems to be coming on leaps and bounds all the time now and for the most part she is a joy to be around. She just beams with happiness when she smiles and melts our heart on a daily basis.

9 months

She is keeping us on our toes though. For a while we have been convinced she was going to be a crawler.. And she can do it… Or could if she wanted to. But she doesn’t want to. Nope, like her big brother she would prefer to walk, thank you very much!

crawling vs walking

So though she can crawl she more often is trying to stand and falls flat bless her… Unless there is something or someone to grab onto. We still had her on the highest cot level until this week but had to lower her after I came in to see her after her nap and found her on her knees, holding the side and about to stand. If she had stood up she basically would have gone head first out of the cot! Eek!

As she wants to walk around that also means we are walking around with her a lot. Not great for our backs unfortunately but I know it will only be in the short term as we did the same with Monkey and he walked pretty early.

Her sleep regression troubles have eased off a little thankfully. My Mum’s tip of rubbing her back helps if she is struggling to settle herself but for the most part she does get herself off to sleep quite quickly again. Phew! Less screaming does make the house feel a lot calmer.

She seems to have settled into a little bit of a routine for the time being… Where she sleeps from 10-1130/12 in the morning,3-4 in the afternoon and then 730pm-6am overnight. It is nice knowing a little bit what to expect but I doubt this routine will last long and, well, I know she can change at any given moment! She does so like keeping me on my toes!!

She is a chatty little thing and been saying dada or jaja indiscriminately for a while and it has been lovely to hear mama or maba come out recently too. I know she doesn’t know what it means but it is still lovely. She is getting more giggly as well and loves being tickled, which is obviously great fun.

She loves people, adores her daddy and still worships her big brother, smiling the second she sees him. She also likes grabbing him, which he takes in good spirits for the most part bless him.

This week we have had a some waving at people which has been lovely and is just another example of how we are entering what I see as the fun stage. Yes it is still hard work, but a little less so and with all of the learning and developments comes a lot of fun for all of us.

lm 9 mths collage

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The Twinkle Diaries

Stealth Shuffling & Sleep Regression at 8mths

We have been having a bit of an interesting time with our Little Miss of late. In many ways she has settled down, her teething and reflux aren’t bothering her quite so much and on the whole she is a very happy, sunny, smily baby and she can be a joy to be around. But she has reached a point where she very much wants to be on the move and that is making things interesting.

For quite a while now she has been really content to sit and play with toys. Honestly it has been amazing as Monkey never really did this. She focuses so intently on toys and can sit for ages and entertain herself while I play or craft something with Monkey or potter about with some jobs.

Now though, she so wants to explore wider surroundings. She is desperate to crawl and making slow progress towards being able to, with lots of rolling onto her tummy and pushing up. She also has quite an amazing skill, the stealth shuffle.

I mentioned a while ago that she liked to bum shuffle in the bath and she now does that in front of her eyes. But the interesting thing is that it is very difficult to detect her movement. She leans forward and sits back up and twists and turns around but seems to be in the same spot… but then all of a sudden she is on the over side of the room and we weren’t really aware of the move happening!

stealth shuffling

Nanny & Pops looked after her today and even they remarked on it. Our little stealth shuffler!

It won’t be long until she crawls either so we need to be even more vigilant about what is on the floor or within reach of little arms. A whole new world 🙂

Blurry shot... but you get the idea!

Blurry shot… but you get the idea!

She is also moving around in bed a lot too and as a result we are struggling a little at nap times and bedtime which, to be honest, is driving us potty. We sleep trained quite young and she has been a fantastic sleeper, as long as she is tired and nothing else is bothering her. But lately even when she is tired and we can find nothing else to be the matter she is miserable about going to sleep and gets very very unhappy.

She also moves herself all over the cot and we come to check on her and find her rolled over, turned sideways, back to front, legs stuck through bars and all over the place. I won’t go into details but it has been stressful and there has been lots of rocking to sleep at a loss of what else to do sometimes.

I’ve read that 8 month sleep regression is common, though again it wasn’t something we experienced with Monkey,and are hoping it is just a phase! Anyone else been through this?

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Once she is asleep she still sleeps well and wakes up very happy… we are just at a bit of a loss as to how we can help her remember how to fall asleep in her bed again!

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LM’s hairstyles at 8 mths

Our Little Miss’s hair is growing thick and fast these days but it is still wispy baby hair and is at that real in-between length where it is something and nothing. Hubs and I have slight disagreements over how we should “style” her hair (I use that term in the loosest possible sense – i.e. brush it or not!) so just for a bit of fun I thought I would share some of my hair styling experiments.

Hubs says some of them are plain mean (ahem the centre parting one) but I think she looks gorgeous in all of them 🙂

LM hair 1

Rough towel dried & unbrushed/Messy vs Cute side parting (the way it naturally goes)

LM hair 2

Brushed centre parting/ Brushed forwards (though it doesn’t stay that way and ends up messy)

What do you think?

I’ve also had a try with a girly bow – I am not girly at all so wasn’t sure about this. Of course, she looks gorgeous, but I am not sure exactly where it is meant to go or how to keep it on! What a cutie though eh?

LM bow

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Dr Brown’s Teethers

Monkey was an early teether and got his first tooth at 4 mths. Therefore it is no surprise that LM is also teething early, although no teeth as yet and her symptoms have definitely been up and down! I took to twitter for some advice on remedies people have used and received some really helpful info. Don’t you just love blogging and social media for that?

The lovely people at Dr Brown’s also replied and very kindly offered to send me a couple of teethers to try out with LM. They sent me their “Ridgees” Giraffe shaped teether and one of their “Orthees” which looks almost dummy shaped. Both are designed by Paediatric dentists and are suitable from 3 months up which is perfect for LM.

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Dr Brown’s Orthees

Developed by a paediatric dentist

  • Massages sore gums and relieves mouth pressure during teething
  • Ideal for front and back teething, Orthees® are easy for little hands to hold and help the jaw to develop as baby transitions to biting, chewing and speech
  • Freezer safe

 

TE445_Product_HDr Brown’s Ridgees

Developed by a paediatric dentist

  • Textured surfaces ease sore gums during all stages of teething
  • Reaches all areas of the mouth–including back molars
  • Firm edges massage gums while soft surfaces provide pressure relief for erupting teeth
  • Freezer safe

 

Both teethers are lovely and have different areas which are suitable for different parts of their little mouths. Both are also great for little hands to grab. Of the two LM definitely prefers the Ridgees Giraffe. Whenever I try and use the Orthees with her she gives me a very perplexed look and promptly spits it out. She always did the same with dummies and we never managed to get her to take one, she prefers sucking on her fingers. I would imagine that little ones who are used to dummies may take to it better… or it may just be that LM is particularly fussy and most other babies would be happy with it!

She loves the look of the Ridgees Giraffe and spends as much time looking at it as she actually does chewing it and it is a perfect size for her to grab hold of. It is harder plastic than I thought it would be from the pictures but I guess that is what they need for their little gums!

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I like the shape of it too as I think it will be easy for her to use as she grows and needs to chew on different parts of her gums. Both teethers are also freezer safe so we could pop them in the freezer to cool and help her little gums that way.

At this age (4 mths) she is a little fickle and doesn’t have preferences for anything or chew or play with any one toy for long so I can’t say that she has a particular preference for these but I hope that as she grows and continues to teeth that they will really help soothe her little gums.

For more information, or to buy any of the Dr Brown’s Teether range, please visit drbrowns.co.uk

We were sent the Dr Brown’s Ridgees and Orthees teethers for the purpose of this review however all thoughts, opinions and photos are my own.

We're going on an adventure

The truth about Making a baby smile

I love seeing our baby girl smile, it lights up my day and makes the difficult patches easier to bear. Honestly look at this gorgeous face!

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So we do whatever we can to bring out thse smiles. We grin, we coo, we gurn repeatedly. I am sure we all do it but behind every one of these smiles, is a whole lot of mummy and daddy looking like eejits. Just as a bit of fun I thought I would share some of the ridiculus faces we pull to bring out a smile 🙂 enjoy!

daft facesYep even Hubs’ grumpy face brings out a smile lol!

And then the fun began...
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Brilliant blog posts on HonestMum.com

Siblings January

Sometimes, during the difficult days with a small baby it is easy to feel guilty about the effect their arrival has on their older sibling. Monkey doesn’t get as much time and attention anymore, he has been snapped at and had two pretty tired and at times grumpy parents to deal with. It feels mean the way his world has changed. Then you look at the way he looks at his baby sister, and the way she looks at him and you remember why you did it.

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She follows him around the room with her eyes all the time and I wonder if she will always be so in awe of her big brother (I imagine not!).

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He still thinks she is “so cute” and always wants to wake her up (I am less happy about this) even when I try and explain that if she is asleep it means he and I can play together! He likes giving her toys to play with (not that she is old enough to appreciate them) and the other day when she was in the bathy came in and starting “giving” her loads of toys to play with, saying “here you go, here you go” – it was very cute though I was slightly concerned she was going to get bonked on the head. He is happy to include her in his games too, we were having a “picnic” the other night and he gave her a biscuit, though we did have to remind him to be gentle as he shoved it in her face!

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He also likes holding her hand, which is lovely, he keeps naming the four of us and calling us a happy family, making the four of us all old hands around the breakfast table 🙂

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He even came and held her hand while I was feeding her the other day, melted my heart!

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He can be a bit heavy-handed with her as I am sure any toddler can but I have not seen any real jealousy aimed at her. He sometimes get cross if he wants my attention while feeding her but it’s not too terrible and now we are doing better with her naps and sleep we are a bit less tired and grumpy and he is getting some more quality 1 on 1 time with us. Life has changed so much in the last 2 1/2 months since she was born, and their relationship is constantly eveolving. When I think about how much more it will change over the course of the year, well, I am just so excited to witness it :).

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dear beautiful

Breastfeeding in Public

I’m not a very big fan of breastfeeding in public and I feel really self concious about it. I feel like people are staring and judging me even when they probably aren’t. Stories like the ones in the news this week play a big part in making me feel like this. From the woman in Claridges who was told to cover up with a napkin to avoid making other customers feel uncomfortable (?) to MP Nigel Farage saying that a woman should sit in a corner to avoid being ‘ostentatious’ about it. His comments and the actions of the restaurant reinforce the idea that breastfeeding is somehow wrong or offensive and should be hidden away.

You are judged whatever you do as a parent and I know formula feeding mothers experience judgement too for the fact they are not breastfeeding so I know you can’t really win… But if you are bottle feeding, I’m sure no-one tells you to go and sit in a corner, or a toilet (as one mum was in another story I read) to feed your child. I don’t think anyone should be judged for how they choose to feed their child to be honest as everyone has their own reasons for doing things. But it seems so crazy that in a world where breastfeeding is rammed down the throats of every parent with the “breast is best” slogan, there is the flipside where actually you are judged for doing it in public. We should all breastfeed, but sit in a corner quietly, or hide ourselves away at home to avoid offending anyone! Barmy.

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The truth about life with newborns

It has been just over a month since Little Miss arrived and well and truly became part of our family. As gorgeous as she is though, life with a newborn can be really hard, and exhausting. For all parents to be, here is some of the things you should know about life with a newborn (and for those of you who are already parents, I wonder if this will ring any bells!)

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Colic? Reflux? An allergy? or just anxious parents?

In all honesty we are having a bit of a rough time with Little Miss at the moment. Sadly she spends a lot of her life, and most of her awake time, screaming, and in pain. There is something different about the cry of a baby in pain. Tired cries are a bit whiney, hungry a bit demanding, uncomfortable a bit angry, and in pain is, to my ears, very shrill. It is horrible and draining to hear for hours on end when nothing you do seems to help. It is hard enough during the day but in the early hours of the morning, when you have been attempting to sooth your child for 2-3 hours it becomes unbearable.
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