7 month update

How has a whole month gone? I haven’t even managed to blog in between we’ve been so busy!

Millar is now 7 months old and it feels like things are changing daily. He isn’t sleeping very well at the moment and I’m sure it’s because his world keeps changing all the time – poor baby can hardly keep track!

But here are things as they stand now at 7 months:

Millar now weighs a whopping 19lbs! He is somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentiles and has followed that pretty much all along.

He is eating pretty well – we are doing baby led weaning which I promise I will write properly about…I’m aware I said that last month! He is starting to swallow a bit more and so far no tummy troubles. He tries everything, but is definitely a big fan of fruit and will always choose that first. He also loves anything bready and enjoys cheese, so the cheese sandwich he had in M&S while we were christmas shopping today went down very well!

He is sitting really reliably now and rarely topples over. He rolls everywhere and looks like he’s thinking about trying to crawl but hasn’t worked out how to get his tummy off the floor yet. It won’t be long. He also loves to stand and will stand holding the coffee table without me supporting him.

He now has two teeth! The last was a real bugger when it was coming through, and he still has all the teething symptoms so I’m pretty sure more are on their way. It is definitely helping with the whole eating thing.

He’s pretty much totally in 6-9 month clothes now, with the exception of a few pairs of trousers and some jumpers that are still 3-6 months. We are loving leggings at the moment as they give him so much freedom to wriggle around.

Our routine is about all over the place at the moment due to terrible sleeping over the last few weeks, but this is generally how it goes.

7am ish – first bottle (8oz)
8am – a nap in my bed with me. Best nap of the day!!
9 ish I get up and get dressed, while Millar watches some cartoons – it’s the only way I have the time to get ready. Bad mum, I know.
9.30 ish Breakfast. This takes forever. Hopefully, it will gradually get quicker!
10.30 we often have a group to go to or will take the dog out for a walk.
11.30/12ish – Second bottle (8oz)
12.30 Millar goes down for a nap. I still rock him to sleep with a dummy but it usually takes about 30 seconds to get him to sleep!
1.30 Lunch – again, takes FOREVER!
2.30 – We usually go out to see friends or to a group or go shopping or something.
4/4.30 – Third bottle (8oz)
Somewhere around 5ish he usually has a half hour nap. Usually in the car if we’ve been out. Sometimes if he hasn’t napped for very long at lunchtime he’ll nap again before the third bottle, then won’t want this later nap.
5.30 – I am usually out tutoring so this is Daddy and Millar playtime.
7pm – bathtime then a massage with coconut oil
7.45/8ish – last bottle (9oz with one sachet of gaviscon)
8.15/8.30ish bedtime. Again, I rock him to sleep. I know people will think this is a ‘rod for my back’, but for the moment it works for us.

In the night – at the moment – who knows!! At its worst, he wakes every half an hour. Sometimes he sleeps through. No rhyme or reason or pattern. I’m trying not to let it get to me. Last night I didn’t hear a peep from him all night – tonight it’s now 11.30pm and I’ve been in to settle him 3 times already. It might be a looong night 😦

So that’s him at 7 months! I will definitely write about baby led weaning asap as so far I am a BIG fan.

Millar’s amber teething anklet

I was never that sure about amber beads for babies. It seemed a bit more hippy than I was comfortable with and so hadn’t really thought much about using them for Millar.

But about a month ago, I was getting through sachet after sachet of Teetha and Millar still was so dribbly and chewing his hands frantically. I thought it wouldn’t hurt, so did a bit of googling and found Amber Anklets. I liked the idea of an anklet rather than a necklace as I’m a bit paranoid about him choking himself.

Amber is supposed to work by releasing a natural anti-inflammatory when warmed up against the skin.

The anklet arrived super fast and when it came I put it straight on him. He’s a chunky 5 months and it’s still a little big, but I always put it under a babygro or under a sock, so it doesn’t matter and I guess it means it will last throughout our teething journey.

It’s hard to tell what effect it’s having, as it isn’t instant. It was more a case that suddenly I realised I hadn’t given Millar any Teetha for a few days – none at all. He still gets a little bit dribbly, but isn’t soaking through all his clothes by lunchtime any more, and definitely seems less aggravated by his teeth.

And to top it all off, this week he cut his first tooth – and I didn’t even realise! It wasn’t until he gave my hand a good munch and I felt it biting me that I noticed! He hadn’t been any more grizzly or unhappy and had made no fuss at all. He’s been wearing the anklet day and night for the last few weeks and I’m sure this is why this tooth caused so few problems.

So I no longer see it as a strange hippy mother thing – it’s one very useful, very important piece of baby kit that I wouldn’t be without!

If I had to find one criticism about the anklet, it would be that the beads are a little sharp. I think next time I would go for one with smooth beads, as he sometimes gets a little upset if it slips down onto the bony bit of his ankle and he lies on it. There are smooth options, so I probably should have chosen one of these.

I wasn’t paid for or asked I write this review – I bought an anklet to see if it worked…and it did – so I thought I’d share my experience. 🙂

Update: the lovely Tamara from Amber Anklets has offered to send me a smooth bead anklet for Millar to try! Excited to see how this compares 🙂

A baby haul! (24+3 weeks)

The amazing clothes I picked up second hand today – they are several layers deep in this photo!

I have so many posts that I’m longing to write, but this week has been utterly chaotic and I just haven’t had any time. We are moving house at the weekend, having spent the last couple of weeks finalising very awkward details in the purchase. It’s our first house, so we are so so excited to be moving in on Saturday!

But that meant coming to school this morning was really frustrating. I desperately want to be at home, getting organised for the move. There’s definitely a reason I’ve always moved in school holidays in the past!

Baby-wise, I had a very exciting evening tonight. I went to see a friend whose youngest baby is 9 months now, so she is selling all her baby stuff. She has two boys and a house full of brilliant things.

For the bargain price of £93, I picked up the following:

• A White Company Moses basket and stand, with a mattress
• A travel carry-cot
• a bouncing rocker chair thing
• A baby donut – to plonk him in to play when he’s bigger, but not able to fully support himself sitting up
• A musical baby gym
• A Baby Bjorn carrier
• A car mirror
• A changing bag
• Some teething toys
• A huge bag full of muslins, towels and flannels
• Loads of baby socks
• A big stash of baby clothes ranging from 0-6 months
• Two gro-bag style sleeping bags

Writing it here now, I can’t quite believe how lucky I’ve been. We’re buying a maxi-cosi cabriofix car seat and base from a friend too for just £50, so we really are doing rather well for stuff now. My mum also announced this evening that she would like to buy our pushchair for us, which I really wasn’t expecting. Everyone is just being so generous. It’s already making me think that when I’m in the position that my friends are in and have finished with all my stuff, I desperately want to help someone else out, as we have been helped.

So it’s been a pretty productive day!

I’ve been doing my pregnancy pilates most days this last week, so I will post a review of my opinions of the DVD as soon as I can.