A whole 9 months

Loves the jumperoo

breadsticks and apples, favorites when teething

So at 8 months Harry wasn't sleeping, I was working and we were all ill so I ended up never writing a post to celebrate that month which was a shame since he had become a proper little character.
Today Harry is 9 months young and not only the day but the whole week was full of news.
It seems we are out of the clingy stage - at least a little - and there is hope on the sleep matter.
I'm still not sleeping brilliantly but last night I had the most sleep on the past few months - probably had about 6 hours in total so not bad at all.
This week I started working from home and we had a babysitter coming in to allow me time for work. She is lovely and lill guy clearly enjoy her company although I find sweet how it can't seem to go much longer than a couple of hours without one of mummy's cuddles.
Watching my little baby lifting his arms up to someone other than mummy or daddy was reassuring and odd at the same time. After having hardly any sleep on Monday night, I was thinking of sending the nanny out with Harry for Tuesday's Library Sing Song session. The plan was for me to get some sleep. we were all set, only I couldn't get myself to put baby in the pram and send him out with a stranger Don't get me wrong she is lovely and experienced but in my mind she was going to take my little boy away and I would never see him again.

Becoming a very mobile boy

Oh well so turns out I am over protective, nothing new then.
Not too bad now, when I was just sending them out so I could go for a kip but what about when June comes and I have to go back to the office? Who knows?!
Last night not only we had a good one but at 3am when Harry couldn't go back to sleep after his feed I was able to just leave him in the cot watching his stars light show and he actually got himself back to sleep, until 6am. No rocking him for hours only for him to wake up as son as I put him down. so that was a plus.
This little guy is turning into a chatter box. He is so inquisitive, will even move mummy out of the way so he can catch a glimpse of whatever has grabbed his attention. He is still breastfeeding and won't take a bottle. No teeth on sight and finally seems to be taking to solid foods, it only took us 3 months lol.
He has been trying to craw, he gets to the right position but flops after a little while, we are almost there. This evening we were laying in the front room, daddy, Harry and I. Watching In the Night Garden - our new pre-betime routine. He actually pull himself up from sitting position. That was a first. What an amazing achievement for your 9 months celebration.
I still need to weight and measure him so we can do a milestones post but I really wanted to share some of what's going on at the moment as he seems to change a little everyday

poorly baby playing on the sofa bed, I know that little look,
he was curious about something.

my top model 

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6 and 7 months - my little guy is so big now

Monday the 14th Harry turned 7 months but it sure feels like it was just the blink of an eye. With all that has been going on - ear infection coming and going - I almost left this post for the next month, but that already happened on the previous month so today I found a bit of energy deep inside of me to stop by and let you know how we are doing.

Well after 3 course of antibiotics he seems to be settling in and hopefully the infection is now gone gone. 

Of course teething is still here - although there are no teeth to tell you of - and that means sleepless nights and fractious days. I really cannot wait for those little chompers to cut through and hopefully bring him some relief.

On the feeding front we are still going with breast. Little monkey won't take a bottle. I've been trying all  tricks i read about on the web but no results. My next step? I'm planning on leaving him with a childminder for a couple of hours - I have a good recommendation for a local one - to see if not only he starts getting used to other people but also if she can get him to take a bottle. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to wean him off the breast just yet but with him feeding every 3 hours 24/7 for most of the past few weeks, i could do with a break every now and then.

All the infections and antibiotics and side effects means there hasn't been that much activity on the solids front. Partially because he doesn't seem very interested and partially because up to here it just felt like I had too much in my hand to also have to persuade little guy into experimenting with new things. On the past few days I felt he seemed a bit more interested on what I eat so I'm hoping to start the while solids story a bit more seriously this week. Of course I need a certain amount of planing and organisation to get anywhere but there is still hope.

Despite all the challenges of the past 2 months lill guy managed some to learn some new skills and whenever he is calm enough you can see his lovely character coming through. So our smiley little boy is now 17lb5oz - 7.850kg and about 28 inches, that around 72cm. Wants to sit up all the time and only recently started to do this fake cough whenever he wants some attention, cheeky!

MILESTONES

 

Sits without support - CHECK! i am particularly proud of this achievement because with the ear infection and the cold we haven't played on the floor for over a month so he had to learn to sit up on the soft sofa seat. He still a bit unstable but his skills seems to improve by the day.

Reaches for things with a sweeping motion - OH yes! I still amaze myself watching how agile little guy has become. 

Imitates speech sounds (babbles) - not much, he's making up his own new noises but i don't think he is imitating anything as yet.

Combines syllables into wordlike sounds - not at all but he has a very cute new trick, whenever we get to a a new place, or he wakes up somewhere different he looks around in admiration and says uuuuuhhhh. The cutest thing ever!

Begins to crawl or lunges forward - he started lunging forward as soon as he started to sit up. Harry isn't bother about rolling over as he found out he can get to his tummy by lunging forward from sitting postion. 

Stands while holding onto something - nope...but he sure loves when we hold him up so he can bouncy like a tennis ball.

Waves goodbye - not sure about that one, he does try to copy our hand gesture whenever we tell him to say goodbye AND for the past couple of days he starting waving both arms so hard it looks like he's ready to fly.

Bangs objects together  -AAAAALLLLL THE TIME

and so it continues

Just as I thought;  after a whole month fighting Harry's cold, ear infection and diarrhea our poor little boy  is now teething.

The diarrhea started with the first antibiotics treatment and lasted until yesterday (week and a half after finishing the second treatment) and it was breaking my heart as most nights would include a full change of clothing as well as sleeping bag and bed sheets, after poor little guy has filled up his nappy with a runny number 2. The sight of his baboon like little behind was reason enough to lead me to tears.

Just my luck! When I thought we would start to get some sort of normality at night times, lill guy went all ratty and nervous and last night woke up every hour from midnight until 4am when, it seems, he gave up sleeping all together. Main problem was; he wouldn't t sleep but wouldn't wake up either so after a bit of a feed all we had was a screaming baby and a daddy whose alarm clock was about to go off at 5am.

We ended up the three of us in our bed, daddy enjoying his final half an hour of sleep, baby enjoy mummy's cuddles and eventually having a kip and mummy laying in bed in the most uncomfortable position ever and freezing her behind because all she could through over her was a thin fleeced blanket.

Finally at 6am, after being up and down every time Harry woke up and wouldn't stop crying - probably because he never slept in my bed before and didn't understand where he was - we both managed to sleep for an hour as this time he fed to sleep laying in bed so I could get myself comfortable enough to catch some shut eye.

So now my dilemma is, do i give him Calpol for the night and risk the diarrhea coming back or do I try to make do with bonjela  I'll leave this one for daddy to decide as i don't wanna kick myself for whatever happens lol

Result so far is that baby is tired and moody, mummy is moody and comfort eating - as well as really unlucky as the house if full of Christmas treats left overs - and daddy has another early morning tomorrow so won't be much help...oh well, I can always come here and moan about it.

a hard day's night

Since the my last post our night time activities have been up and down and right now it feels like they are on an all time low, hence the reason why I haven't posted for a few days even though my brain is over floating with ideas. 

Now guess what? Baby is teething.

Little guy is only 15 weeks and for the past week has been drooling liters a minute, nervously brushing his hands against his gums (whenever he manages to put his hands to the mouth as due to age he is still mastering that skill), grunting like a really annoyed puppy and waking up many times a night, which isn't his normal thing but then again, considering what he is going through I'm just happy he is sleeping at all. Add to all that the neediness during the day and mummy doesn't get much of a break at all. 

So far I've tried Calpol, Bonjela, homeopathic powder, rubbing his gums and cold dummies and no, nothing seems to work. Does anyone suggests something else? My mum told me to rub honey to his gums but the fact that the health advisers tell you not give them honey until they are 2 years of age gets me a bit worried. 

I know I know, "that is motherhood for you" right? 

Of course it is but that doesn't man we need to bottle up and keep quiet about it, or does it? 

Highs and Lows

Chilling on a good day

To say that no two days are the same when you have a newborn in the house is an understatement, no two minutes are the same is more like it, the little ones sure like to keep you on your toes.

Little Harry is a good sleeper when it comes to nights but doesn't excel on day time naps still the one thing i can usually count on is his little kip after the first feed of the day, he will usually sleep for an hour, maybe two if he is about to start a very good day. The one thing is sure is that if something goes wrong with that first kip I know we are off to a harder-than-usual day.

Yesterday I was really happy as Harry had a 2 hours kip in the morning. I had time to eat, shower, update the blog, browse the web and - if I knew he was going to sleep for that long - I could have done a lot more, including having a little nap myself.

This morning after his first feed Harry went back to his cot as every morning but only lasted enough for me to have my breakfast - and it was just as well as that was the last meal I've managed through the day - after that he started to fuss and it took me a few attempts to get him to sleep. I knew we were off to a bad day as in the morning he usually doze off on his own.

For the rest of the day I was stepping on egg shells with a 3 month old that is teething and because of that and MAYBE SOMETHING ELSE doesn't feed for longer than about 10 to 15 minutes every 2 to 3 hours. New mum's nightmare as health visitor told me to make sure he was feeding for at least 20 minutes after his weight went down on the last two weeks. Add to that the sudden pain he seems to get every now and then - again we are putting that down to teething but there's no way to be sure - and even his usual nap when we go out for a walk didn't go as planned.

After a few hours of crying -that's both the baby and I - many frustrated attempted to feed him - when it usually took me about 20 minutes to make sure he actually fed for at least 10 - some playing with daddy to wait until bath time - and then cry all through bath time - the little bundle of joy fed for half an hour, with some fussing, and went down without a sound.

Yap, little boy took the day to keep me on my toes.