Oh my, it is is a long time!

Oh gosh! I didn't really realise it was so long.

Well...now, what have we been up to?!

We purchased a new adventuring vehicle. It is very large and green and Baby Girls seat fits in it and we should be able to find one that will fit when she eventually needs a bigger one. We have been a couple of places in it - to visit all the grandparents at various places, including one long journey to Wales so that Daddy could have an interview. Didn't get the job, but we had a nice time staying with Granny and Grandad in a nice B&B near a river.

There has been a birthday too, just ten days or so ago. Baby Girl is a whole one year old. It barely seems believable to either of us. It's either about ten minutes, or a hundred years. Passing the significant marks - a year since she was born, a year since we came home from the hospital - have felt like huge milestones. Not things we've talked about much, but noted their passing.

Food gets a little easier now that there are more teeth - two through and a third one coming. This one is at the top though, which is clearly quite painful. She holds her face a lot at the moment. She still likes sausages and fish, and has had an interesting time with tinned spaghetti fairly recently! I wasn't sure how she would find that but the answer was clearly "quite good actually" - there have been some adventures in babysitting too....and discovering other children, dogs and other animals.

We continue to have a good time going to our regular activities. This week we are hoping to try the Soft Play session that happens just opposite our home, we continue to go to Baby Signing and also to Edward Bear. We're working our way back to Rhymetime on a Wednesday, after a long absence.

Eventually Adventures?

Yesterday we became the proud owners of a new vehicle. In fact, at the moment we own two, which is rather alarming to be honest. Especially as we're not sure that the new one will fit in the garage yet! The first jobs for (both?) vehicles will be to clear out said garage.

So finally we might be able to have some adventures with our baby girl. Maybe the moose will come as well. :) Our present car seat fits in, and we can get a next stage one. We have to call the Honda garage to see about keys and stuff but it's all good.

BG is doing good. She had her 8-10 month development check and the Dr. is very pleased with her. Only concern is that she's a little lighter than they would really like her to be. (9.5 months and just under 15 lbs) We however are not at all worried, and think that if she could only get rid of the snot she would manage eating a lot better. Still drinking plenty of milk so.......

Skillz:
Clapping (hands and feets)
Bum Shuffling
Reaching and rotating on her bottom to get where/what she wants
Pointing - not very directional though!
Babbling
Likes anything musical and will "dance" to any kind of sound, including the little tune on the digital thermometer and mobile phone ringtones. LOVES the baby signing session on Thursdays and Edward Bear on Fridays.

Bedroom almost ready, hoping to move her out in the next few days.

We are alive, I promise!!

RL has just been a bit either frantic or boring....

There is STILL snot. STILL. I took BG back to the Dr. last week and he says it's just a cold and we kinda have to put up with it. No stress, just working on it day by day. We dispense the relevant items. We're still having serious night waking issues but honestly it seems to be because she is so congested.

In a bit of a rut food wise....need to get braver but need more time and as BG gets more mobile my time and things I can do change yet again. We are still looking for a new vehicle, and although we had a hot lead, it didn't lead anywhere yet.

We started at baby signing and it's fab. We both love it. It seems to come very naturally to me and I hope it will work for BG as well.

So anyway, how've you been?

Spatial Awareness and Chicken.

Hmmm

Not such a good food day today, although more was eaten at breakfast time today than has been eaten then lately. Tonight she had a chicken thing and some fruity stuff from a jar that she particularly likes. As she learns to drop things, we are having to feed her more again, but that's ok. There is also a LOT of snot again, which makes eating and drinking much harder anyway.

Still worrying about a car.

New stuff the last two weeks:
Nodding - not at any particular point, just in general.
Two handed stuff - moving towards waving
Lots of reaching and going for things - can feel her shifting weight around in new ways.

Daddy has been on a half day today so we had lots of fun all together. I did a LOT of sorting out in BG's room today and it's looking a LOT better in here now. A friend brought me two books about sleep - one is the "controlled crying" one, one is the "no cry" sleep solution. We have to transition her out of our room and we have to sort out her sleep/waking nightmare stuff. Hopefully then she will get better and we'll all be saner. Next we need a blackout blind and screening for the shelves and we'll be almost set.

Far, far, faaaaar too complicated for real life....

Ok, so we went to look at a possible car today. It's hard to have Baby Girl Adventures without a suitable vehicle and the one we have now is just too small to get kit in so we can go away from home. And we have trips we need to make. Car was beautiful, very well looked after and all the things we need.

But Baby Girls car seat did not fit in it. And she isn't going to be ready for the next one for some time. She may be 8 months old, but she only weighs about 14lbs, and needs to weigh 20 before she can have a front facing car seat. We may be here some time.... The only other option is to fix her current car seat into the front passenger seat until she gets to that weight..but who knows how long that will take. She's not even double her birth weight yet.

Nor will she be anytime soon if she doesn't eat!! The snot is still present so there hasn't been much eating going on and she's been very bitey today. I think that she's teething busily again and that the ongoing "cold" might be part of that pattern. There's been a lot of dribble. Hmm..perhaps the stuff I gave her isn't stimulating to the gums enough? She ate most of a cold sausage at lunchtime, and bit on the crust of my toast in the morning..... I think we need to start letting her loose with things a bit more foodwise but until I can stop pumping I don't have time to cook the way I would like to for that to happen. She is also very clingy and tired...nights are sucking big time at the moment. The last two none of us have slept that much. I am exhausted, my dh is exhausted too (and has to be at work at 0730 in the morning tomorrow, so I am going to be prepping like a LOON in a minute so that we are ready tonight for tomorrow). I don't know what to do with our precious girl! So many things we need to sort out for her...sleeping arrangements, physical space, need to book development check.... aaaargh!!

We need more time, and the spare hands of anyone available. Thanks!! xxx

Baby Talks like a Pirate..

*L* It is international talk like a pirate day in my kitchen today *L*

Welcome new friends and followers *L*, that sounds funny!!

Well, we've had an ok week. Sleep still a struggle, although there have been some better nights as well. Not full nights, but better ones. Still diong well with foods, still not brave enough to let her loose with the plate. Got cot sheets at last this week but still struggling to have the time and energy and people resources available all at once to get things sorted out in the second bedroom. A whole LOAD of stuff will hopefully be going to some friends for their baby very soon, so that might help, but it might not. I need my Mum to come and help me, or a massive amount of manpower from people who understand how I do things.

And every time I think I have five minutes to do anything, I remember something I haven't done.

Weekend Update

OK! So we had a bit of an unexpected week with some extra people around. But BG has coped well with the extra people and with some different foods (baguette, tuna mayo, I forget what else) but today we have a triumph.

After having a conversation with a lovely friend earlier in the week I bought BG some fishfingers - she had one the other night and did really well - but while I was in the supermarket I remembered vegetable fingers so I got some. I just gave her one for lunch and it went down really well! I had to take the end off (like a cigar!!) but after that she got on fine. The veg is lumpy/textured and she just nanged her way through it. I am very impressed. She also had half of one of those party sausage rolls. (I had some in the freezer so I thought I'd try it) There was a looooovely mess with that but it's all good. I need to write a book list and stuff for here, stuff I've been reading about parenting and food and other related things.

Sunny here, washing on the line.

Sausages and other things...

The sausage seemed to go down very well actually. I had to peel the skin off - and she went after it like a banana. Wasn't interested in the smaller pieces of it that I cut up!! Tonight she had some (quite a lot) of a mixed vegetable puree on a spoon, and some pieces of satsuma.

I am wondering if we have a manifold problem with nights/feed and stuff. BG still has a tank up "dream feed" at about 11, and she still takes a significant amount at that feed (80-120 ml) and I'm wondering if we need to start to draw that back gradually until later on, when she gets to less milk and more food, it becomes "a mug of milk at bedtime" type stuff. I'm still having trouble getting her to take anything other than her bottle though, for anything. I need a doidy cup or two as she seems to get the idea of a regular cup (I've done it a couple of times with a regular plastic beaker) although she does spit the water out again.

After sleeping through from 7.30-late feed and late feed - about 7, she started waking at about 5am soon before 6 months. She has been rattling at night for nearly two months now, and while I think some of it is to do with teething and physical discomfort (was about when we started solids, so think her tummy was just getting used to it all) I don't know what the rest is. I am a PCOS mama, and I get very, very tired, very, very fast. So one full night of sleep per week (which is the current average) isn't really enough. I feel guilty saying that, but it is true. Even more than my life ever was before, this mother existence is dichotomy personified.

Hey ho.... We're working on it. A day at a time.... :)

Monday morning...

Mondays are usually frighteningly domestic at the little house and today is no exception. I'm a bit of a flybaby (sometimes) so beds get changed on Mondays, and it's fine so I want to hang stuff out.

BG is bunged up again, which is deeply annoying. I am wondering if we're all passing something back and forth here. Nasosal is helping LOTS but she's very tired and coughing. At the moment, is lying on her back in her new crib playing with her hands and waving at the dangly animals on her mobile.

Food for the day:
Daddy gave her some plum at breakfast but she was busy downstairs so mainly smeared it all over her face, the high chair and her bib. The washing machine is currently full of mucky bibs and tea towels!!
Last night we had sausages so I'm going to give her one for lunch - partly cut up into pieces, partly as a whole chunk. If she can handle banana...... I'm still not totally confident to let her loose with plates but if I put stuff into her highchair tray she is happy to pick it out from there, so we'll roll with that for now. I also need some plastic plates for her.

Still having difficulties with transitioning her to her new bed...advice gratefully received.

Hello Everyone :)

This blog is going to be about our adventures with the Baby Girl.

As of today, she's almost 8 months old, into bananas and wiggling.

I pump breastmilk.
We are experimenting with Baby Led Weaning (and will do more when we get braver!) and it's going pretty well.
We play with our friends, go to Rhymetime and Edward Bear Club and hope to start doing baby signing soon.

Come and join our adventures.