7 Months Old!

Well, my baby girl is 7 months old already.

Over the past month she’s really developed her own little personality. She has such a sense of humour already and remembers how she gets reactions from us. She’ll ‘bite’ my nose to make me do a pretend scream and then giggle as I wipe her dribble off my nose on her tummy which tickles her. She spends much of the day laughing at her big brother acting the clown – it’s like you ‘knows’ he’s being silly and eggs him on with her grins and chuckles! She’s so desperate to play with him (which he’s not so interested in yet – he’s happy entertaining her for now!).

She’s still not sitting completely although is getting much better now I’m making a point of sitting playing with her. She’s far too much of a fidget and, as Noah’s always on the move and Freya wants to be where he is, there’s no reason for her to sit still!! She’ll get there. Noah was sitting at 5months and, although I don’t compare them as such, it’s interesting just how different they are and how they’ve done things at totally different times.

Freya’s not crawling yet either. She’s so very close but hasn’t managed that one shuffle forward yet that’ll make her little brain think ‘so that’s how you do it’. Backwards? Not a problem! She’s up on all fours, wiggling her bottom and shuffling backwards as she goes and you can just tell she’s meaning to go in the other direction...towards the toys, not away from them!

She used to be a little bit of tearful baby at times but is completely different now - she’s so happy and laid back and is a very sociable little thing. She really loves the days we go to toddler groups where she watches the children play with real interests and tries to roll towards them to join in with the action. I think I’m going to have my hands full when she does decide to crawl as she’ll be into everything! She already has a passion for wires/newspaper etc.! Time to baby-proof the house again I think!

She’s now on three meals a day. Breakfast (Weetabix, porridge etc. with or without fruit), lunch (still using up my vast selection of vegetable purees!) and tea (our dinners whizzed up). We’re working on the lumps and she’s not too bad with them. She’s trying very hard to learn how to chew at the moment and keeps poking her little tongue out as she tries to move the food around her mouth with it....very messy! Her breastfeeds have cut right down to 4 or 5 in a 24hr period. First thing in the morning, between lunch and tea, between tea and bedtime and at bedtime. Sometimes one during the night if she wakes (which she’s doing less and less now). When I’m working and she’s with her Grandma or her Daddy, I’ve been luckly enough to be able to go and feed her in my lunch hour (helping to keep my supply up, empty me so I don’t leak at work, and save us a few pennies on formula). On those days she has a bottle of formula in the afternoon which she’s still not convinced about and sometimes gets cross about but will usually take!

Freya is a really beautiful little girl. She gets so many comments on her beautiful big, brown eyes. Up until recently everyone told me how much she looks like her Daddy but over the past few weeks I’ve had a few more people compare her to me. She’s definitely changing. I often wonder what she’ll look like as she grows. Will her hair be curly or straight? Will it stay dark? Will she be tall? I have no idea. She’s the complete opposite of her brother and it’s so lovely to have two such individual children – completely different in every way and so unique!

Happy 7 month birthday Froggy!

Formula :(

I've decided (sadly) that as, when I return to work next week I'll now be doing two days instead of one, Freya's going to have to have some formula. I could've expressed enough for working one day during the week but not for two.

We went out last night after the kids had gone to bed but Freya has a cold so I thought she might wake up so bought a couple of cartons of formula just in case. Well, she woke up, was given a bottle and guzled 6 of the 7oz in an instant! I'm pleased she took the bottle well and liked the formula but there was also a part of me that was really sad! I haven't done it all completely myself anymore and she'd cope alright without me (I want her to need me, lol!!).

I'm pleased really. I've gotten over that hurdle. For now she'll only have it the days I'm working as I'm so enjoying feeding her myself still. Freya's obviously still loving it too. I was hoping to nurse her for a year and not bother buying expensive formula at all but to just go straight on to cows milk when she's 12 months (I'll probably get to a year and STILL want to continue feedin her!!). We'll see how she goes.

New things

I gave Freya an almost proper meal tonight. So far she's only had fruit/veg/baby rice for dinner from puree I've frozen but tonight when we were eating out roast I slipped in a bit of chicken with some broccoli and carot for her and she loved it! Coped really well with the rougher texture too!

I was also thinking about the whole 'baby-led weaning' thing that the health professionals have decided to encourage THIS month so gave her a broccoli floret to see what she did with it. She loved sucking on it and mashing it between her fingers (and flicking it across the table and wiping it in her hair!). It was really funny watch her stare intently at tiny bits of it on her high-chair tray and try to pick them up! Fine-motor skills? Not so developed yet!

Also I was thinking about the fact she's not interested in sitting at all and is still really floppy when I realised I hardly ever try sitting her up. She's such a skilled roller I just leave her to it on the floor to play. So, I tried sitting her up today and she's SO MUCH better. Was holiding herself upright for a good half a minute or so and was able to balance herself herself when starting to flop forwards or to the side but not when she went backwards! But, she's geting there!

Dainty little lady

I had Freya weighed for the first time in 2 months today! She's 15lb 4oz and hovering under the 25th centile (which is where she was last time).

She's not skinny in the slightest,I think she's just compact as she has chunky thighs and wobbly cheeks! Think she's going to be a short-arse, again - totally the opposite to Noah! She's still in her 3-6m clothes, although 2nd hand, well-washed 6-9m tops fit her.

She's having 2 decent meals a day now, although is on the move a fair bit. Anyway, she's doing well and it was soooo nice to see our old HV again (first time since we moved) as she's absolutely lovely!