Fred - 8 and 9 month update

It has been two months since I last blogged. I can't believe it has been that long!

Fred has grown up so much, he is now non-stop.

He talks (babbles) constantly and all he wants to do is walk, unfortunately he cannot walk on his own yet.

It is back breaking wandering around with him hanging on to my hands. I am doing everything I can to teach him to crawl, he is nearly there though. I have been using a bubbles container as motivation.

Fred now weighs 21lb and has officially moved up a whole percentile since starting solids. His eating has now been further helped by the introduction of his two front teeth.

 Weaning is going really well,  he now helps himself to his dinner out of a bowl.

Some of his current favourite foods are; sweetcorn frittas, crumpets, bananas, pears, eggy bread and chicken tagine.



 We have done so much in the last couple of months.

We have had 2 visits from Grandparents and one of his Great Aunties.

We have started to go on more summer days out. We have been to the zoo, gone to longer walks and to the beach. Fred loves being out side, thankfully we have had so much good weather that he gets to play in the garden or go on the swings in our local park most days.

He really enjoys being in the garden exploring. He strokes leaves, pulls the heads off dandelions and regularly tries to eat mud.

Sleeping, over the past two months, has been very up and down. For a while he was reliably waking once a night for a quick feed - then teething happened in earnest. We had a couple of nights where he woke up 4 times.

 He seems to have settled back in to a good sleeping pattern now.

 Thank goodness.



Some of his current favourite things are; cleaning his teeth, having his legs massaged after his bath, reading books, bubbles, bouncy and rattling balls and of course practicing his pout, but it still isn't quite as good as his dad's.



Fred 7 month update

This month my little baby has turned in to a tiny boy. 

I am stupidly sentimental about the little baby we were blessed with 7 months ago but I am also really excited about all of the new things he is learning daily.

Fred is now continually inquisitive. He wants to explore everything, it is amazing to watch him discover his world.

Fred now weighs 19 lbs, he has put on an impressive 2 pounds in a month!

He has suddenly got a little belly and deliciously squidgy thighs. 

We have been having so much fun with food recently, some meals Fred doesn't eat much, more food ends up on the floor then in his mouth.

One of the baby led weaning mantras is 'food before one is just for fun' I try not to worry about how much solid food he is eating but some days I put humous on everything just to make sure he eats some. 

As you can see from the pic below, food is most definitely fun.

This month we have had a few 'firsts'...

Fred's first Easter and subsequent Easter egg hunt 

(we had our exploring hats on).

Fred's First Wedding, Which was also the first time he has been properly embarrassed by Mummy.

Yes we took his highchair but forgot his bib, that's just how we roll.

Fred continues to Dance and has mastered clapping. In the last few weeks he has found his voice. He screams and yodels really loudly just to experiment with his voice. It is fun but sometimes I worry what the neighbours may think. 

Sleeping is still only OK, we are working on making it better though.

Fred loves being followed, every time we go upstairs one of us holds him while the other follows. It gives him so much joy. 

He also now gives us proper hugs and has started kind-of kissing me. 

An unexpected and welcome bonus of Fred dancing is that Jamie now plays his guitar more often.

We are really blessed to have a generally happy boy who is easily entertained.

Fred 6 months update

So Fred us now 6 months old! 

He is fun now, he giggles and dances, and is learning to clap. 

(he hasn't quite got it yet, but he is trying)

We got Fred some sunglasses, he loves them!

I went and got Fred weighed last week, he is 17lb.

His current favourite foods are crumpets, asparagus, mango, and apple.

In the last couple of weeks he has grown his two lower front teeth, which has completely knocked his sleep off kilter. He still has two naps, one longer 2 hour nap in the morning and a half hour nap in the afternoon. He is generally asleep by half 7 but has been waking up 3 or 4 times before he gets up between 6.30 and 7.30 am. Its tiring but it isn't half as bad as it was!

This month as well as learning to dance and clap (sort of) Fred has learnt to sit up, grab his feet and pull his socks off. He is happier now that he can sit up and look around.

Swimming lessons are going so much better now,

 He even swam under water last week!

 My parents came to visit last weekend, it was so nice to have extra help. We took Fred in his first boat trip, and we all went swimming. 

This month we made up a new game called baby fishing.

Thankfully we haven't had any illness this month. 

Lets hope it continues!

Ordinary moments:- Getting to grips with food

For a couple of weeks now we have let Fred play with some of our food. He isn't yet 6months but he was almost snatching the food from out plates so we decided that he was ready to have a go at eating. 

We are doing baby led weaning, this means Fred feeds himself chunks of food and we don't use purees. It is comforting to know that because Fred is in control of what and how much he eats, he wouldn't be eating unless he was ready.

He is definitely eating! We have even found some food his nappy. So far his favourite foods are cucumber, crumpets, apple, tomato and porridge. He is not such a fan of broccoli and cauliflower, he pulls some great faces as he gets to experience we tastes and textures.

Although fun, food is very messy! This morning he managed to get weetabix inside of his coverall bib, as well as all over his face, high chair and floor.

I have linked up with Ordinary Moments over at Mummy daddy me again this week.

Baby Fred at 5 months

Our cheeky little monkey is growing fast! I can't quite believe he is 5 months old already.

The last month has been a bit of a blur - thanks to the lack of sleep. 

Since sleeping more Fred now giggles a lot more and his balance has improved considerably! It may just be a coincidence but I think it's related.

Fred now sleeps loads better. He generally has two naps a day one much longer than the other. Over night for 4 of the last 7 nights he has gone to bed just after 7, woken once for food and slept until the morning. It is amazing! I feel like a whole new person. Although now that some of the fog of tiredness has lifted I am noticing how much I HATE my hair. (something I am going to be sorting out today!)

Currently Fred's favourite toy is Terry the Triceratops. Terry is bright, jingly, crackly, squeaky and even has a chewy ring. 

Last week we started swimming lessons. He hated it. He sucked my shoulder the whole time. I have been told we will like it better this week. We shall see!

He is nearly rolling over, but he would prefer to be able to sit himself up. He spends most of the time that he is on his back doing a baby version of crunches.

We have started letting Fred play with food, currently he just gums bits of cucumber and sucks out the juice, he is really enjoying it though. As we are going to do baby led weaning I feel it is OK to let him explore food now so that he will start eating when he is ready. 

I'm afraid that once again I have no idea how much he weighs, just more. He has nearly grown out of his 3- 6 month sleep suits. 

I am hoping that this month his sleeping continues to improve, we avoid illness and he learns to like swimming.

AWOL - Struggling

 Sorry I have been missing from this blog for a couple of weeks. We have been having a difficult time and suffering from a severe of sleep. We are now doing a lot better, but it is always hard to find my blogging mojo again after a couple of weeks off. I have many blog posts planned - I am nearly a week late with Fred's 5 month update! 

As I said we are now doing loads better. We have even managed to catch up on some sleep! I wrote the following post at the height of my sleep deprivation. I think it is important for me to publish it as it is part of my story and it is only right that I blog about some of the hard things of motherhood as well as the good things.

Struggling

So this is what sleep deprivation looks like. 

What it feels like is drowning in tiredness, exhaustion and emotion.

For 5 nights now Fred has been waking too many times for me to cope. He has never been a great sleeper. I have become used to a mild amount of sleep deprivation and a manageable amount of tiredness.

 Waking 4 times a night now seems a luxury compared to this week. Last night has so far been the worst nights sleep since Fred was born. He slept for less than an hour at a time. A few times his slept for less than 10 minutes before he needed settling again. It is soul destroying.

I honestly feel that if I don't get more sleep soon my body will stop working. How can an exhausted body feed a ravenous baby? 
How can an exhausted body rock him to sleep yet one more time? 
How can an emotionally drained Mum love him as much as he deserves?
How can an exhausted Dad help over night and still manage to go to work?
How can you help a baby to learn how to sleep when you aren't even sure you remember how?
How many times do I have to say if he slept life would be perfect for it to happen? 
How many times can I be expected to pray for sleep before giving up?
How can we make this better?

Baby Fred - 4 Month Update

Fred is now changing every day, he comes out with new noises and experiments with a new expression or two every day. He has just learnt to squeal. It took 3 days if experimenting and practicing, but he now has it down.

He is a strong baby, he is determined to stand as much as possible. 

Once he grabs a finger he has to be persuaded to let go. He enjoys practicing sitting up, but he hasn't got the control to hold himself up yet.

I got Fred weighed last week and he is a pudgy 16lbs 4oz. He has nearly doubled his birth weight!

This month Fred's sleep has been terrible, he has been waking up almost every 2.5 hours and it is not unusual for him to be awake for over an hour in the very early morning. It has been exhausting. I'm praying that it is over. Last night he slept for a solid 6 hours- the first time he has done this in 4 weeks.

We at still very much fans of our cloth nappies. We are taking a break from them at the moment though because we can't keep up with the sheer amount of washing being generated by Fred's illness. We thought at first he had a tummy bug, this theory was confirmed by the doctor but ten days later we are still going through a ridiculous amount if nappies! (We going back to the doctor tomorrow) 

This month we have all been ill. Jamie and I have been hit by bad colds thankfully we are now recovering. It will be such a relief to be well again. Looking after a baby while ill is hard. - There has been some crying.

 Despite being ill Fred is generally laid back and happy. Though I'm concerned he has developed a taste for calpol. 

I hope our 5 month update is happier with less illness and more sleep. If you pray we would appreciate your prayers!

Ordinary Moments; Teething

This week as well as having to deal with a bad belly (read - soooo many dirty nappies!) Fred's teething has been turned up a notch. 

Dribbling, gnawing on anything that will fit in his mouth, sucking his fingers- when he remembers that he has them, and some grumpiness.

We have many teething toys, but many are currently a little too big for Fred's mouth or a bit unwieldy. Most of the time he doesn't manage to get them to his mouth without help.  I bought the teether above on a whim from the central isle in Aldi and it is a hit! It is small enough to fit in his mouth and light enough for him to control it.

It is strange that these small things mean so much to me now. It is because they mean so much to me that I now realise how much my life has changed. Of course life has physically changed; we don't go out for dinner anymore, sleep is at Fred's mercy, I spend my days with him and don't go to work. But the biggest change is internal; my motivations and passions are different.

I now get excited about teething toys.

The old me is rolling her eyes. ;)

My life has changed a lot and I love it (most of the time).

Ordinary Moments; tummy time

Tummy time is not something Fred has enjoyed, it has been endured.

Why mummy insisted on putting him on his front so he was left licking the floor was beyond him.

Until recently. Suddenly he has the strength to hold up his head. To look around and to wiggle his butt!

There is definitely no rolling yet but it will come, for now we are happy to look around at what is going on until his neck gets tired.

Lifting his head for a few minutes without face planting or crying has been a long time coming. We practice a little every day. This extraordinary feat is my ordinary moment this week.

I have linked up again with Mummy Daddy Me. I hope you like my ordinary moments posts. My aim is to join in every week : )

 

http://www.mummydaddyandmemakesthree.co.uk/index.php/item/the-ordinary-moments-14-3-a-week-of-bugs

If you like my ordinary moments post you should have a look at all of the others!

Help my hair is falling out!

While pregnant my hair was lovely, shiny and full of volume. It grew long and I loved it!

This photo was taken in July, I was 6 months pregnant

Then I gave birth and over night my hair changed, it became dry, fluffy, brittle. I thought it could be fixed with a good haircut, it could not. 

The below photo is was taken 6 weeks postpartum. 

It's So Fluffy!!! (and not in a good way)

A month ago my hair started falling out. I knew it was going to happen, (it is one of the things they do remember to tell you) but I didn't expect this volume of hair loss! Clumps of hair fall out every time I wash, brush or tie it up. some areas of the house look like scenes from a wild west movie with hair balls blowing along in the wind! I exagerate, I hoovered yesterday. 

 It is quite horrible and hard to deal with, not only do I have less time to 'do' my hair, I have horrible hair to work with. I have just taken to tying it up in a low bun, but that doesn't solve the problem of my wayward fringe...

 I have two questions that I have yet found the answer to; When will it stop? And will my hair ever do what I want it to again? 

 Yours sincerely Baldy (previously known as Emily)

Ordinary moments- Difficult nights

This is the first blog link up I have done. I don't know why I haven't linked up before but I do know that this is a great place to start. I have enjoyed reading all of the ordinary moments linked up on Mummy Daddy Me for a while now and it is about time I joined in. So here is my first go...

My first Ordinary Moment was taken on my phone late at night. 

Fred had his second lot of injections on Thursday, they have ruined our bedtime! On Friday night Fred had a temperature which was really sad. :( 

It is taking a lot longer to settle him at night and he is more irritable in the day. 

But he will get better soon and we will work on his night time routine soon, but until then. Jamie is very good at soothing Fred to sleep. 

I love my boys!!!