Wednesday 26 October 2011

Dear Alice - 6 Months


Dear Alice,

This month seems to have flown by! And it's your half birthday! Where have the last 6 months gone to? When I look through your pictures I barely recognise my tiny newborn - I seem to have a bouncy little girl now.

If you were rolling last month, now you are a rolling champ. I turn around for 10 seconds and you are completely on the other side of the room. More baby proofing is needed around the house I think! You're not crawling yet, but you seem to get around just fine without it with a combination of wiggling and crawling.

You hold your head up and look around at the world. You also love to be standing with support, and your little legs are super strong.


You will entertain yourself really well now on your mat or in the bumbo, as long as I'm in the room and you can look at me when you need to! I have a little den set up for you in each room to keep you safe.

You have been eating more and more! We're doing a combination of pureed weaning and baby led weaning / finger foods. You now have 3 meals a day, and 50% of the food ends up on you rather than in your mouth but that's fine!

You get super upset if I try and feed you so I normally just let you make your messy food paste and it's amazing to see you feed yourself so well! You love toast, fromage frais, watermelon, pear, apple, cucumber and cheese - all of which you can feed yourself which is an incredible feat with no teeth!

You still have no teeth but you've had a lot of red cheeks and unsettled nights so hoping they'll either come through or stop hurting you soon.

You don't sleep very well but you love a cuddle with mummy so that's fine.

You are talking and yapping away like a champ and you get annoyed if we don't reply! You like to make the mamamamama and dadadada sounds, so I'll just pretend you're talking to us :P

We have giggles and biiiiiig smiles which make everything worth while. Especially if mummy is singing! Which means I now look crazy pushing my trolley round Tesco and singing! You're favourite songs this week are Wiggly Woo and Twinkle Twinkle.

Your eyes have changed, so you won't have your daddies blue eyes, but probably my hazel eyes. You have gorgeous big eyes with lovely long eyelashes.

You have also chunked out a lot! You fit in some 6 - 9 month clothes, but you won't be in the sleepsuits for much longer. I think you must be eating steak when I'm not looking!

And of course, we love you more and more every day little duck!

With love and light xo

Yawn!

I haven't posted for ages, and it seems the longer I leave it the harder it becomes - so much changes every day and I struggle to catch up with it all.

I think one of the reasons I keep putting it off is our sleep issues. We've had a really bad few weeks, and I just don't want to sound like a moaner. Last week I was just fed up. I felt lonely, and I felt embarrassed - like it was completely my fault she wasn't sleeping.

I kept thinking it was because we've "spoiled" her. She's never been left to cry for a prolonged amount of time. She gets fed when she wants it. Cuddled when she wants it. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I think there's a lot of pressure to get your baby to be a "good" baby. And good seems to be defined by sleep. They can do whatever they want in the day time, as long as they sleep 7pm - 7am. Alice doesn't sleep, but she is an amazing baby. She giggles and laughs and plays and is just amazing to be around.

But, that doesn't mean I don't get tired! And I got myself in a bit of a downward spiral - I'm not prepared to let her cry but that doesn't mean I don't want to moan about it and vent. It doesn't mean I enjoy getting up 5/6 times a night still. But it also doesn't mean I should be guilted into doing something I don't feel comfortable with.

I'm lucky to have a lot of amazing support around me. But last week, I felt lonely. And tired.

I felt like I was failing. We were all tired, and I was completely blaming myself. Plus it was a miserable cold week, and we were stuck in the house a lot. I was just generally feeling a bit grey. And I like to act like everything's fine, so I wasn't talking about it either.

This week, I feel less tired, and happy! Alice still doesn't sleep but that is fine. Besides, who wouldn't want to wake up to a smiley baby face! It's half term so Mitch is able to help more with the mornings, and I'm getting an extra 30 mins sleep in the morning.

I also want to catch up and do some blogging, as Alice is just changing so much. What happened to my tiny baby who just lay there? I also have about ten million pictures and videos to post which I'll hopefully get round to doing soon.

Moral of the story - some babies don't sleep. Bring their mums chocolate.

With love and light xo

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Baby Halloween Costumes


This blog from Pregnant Chicken is amazing! Wicked Baby Halloweed Costumes!

Will blog soon - promise. x

With love and light xo