seven months old

my little girl is seven months old.

wow. This one really snuck up on me.
We celebrated by going to pancakes on the rocks and ordering chocolate pancakes. I felt just a little bad eating the delicious morsels in front of my sweet baby girl. But not too bad. When they arrived she stuck her hands right into the chocolate sauce. I had to quickly wash those hands before she tasted the sweet taste of chocolate and never ate healthy again.

Here are some firsts for this month
- First tooth. A little tooth is poking up out of her gum and it looks like there is one more following it.
- First ride in the car facing forwards. So so exciting.
- First proper meals. Lunchtime eating fun.
- First crawl backwards. Loads of moving around in circles. Sitting to tummy to back. This kid is mobile!
- First time she said dada. And now she wont stop!


little loves

- splashing in the bath oh so much.
- drinking water from her sippy and spitting it out again.
- having her face wiped after lunch.
- rocking and singing.
- standing up on her own two feet. (while holding hands)
- baloons!
- dada
- sitting in boxes.

little dislikes

- nappy changes while tired/hungry
- being alone
- sleeping in her cot
- plastic/newspaper/other fun stuff being taken away.

She is such a smiley little thing and such a joy to be around. I'm learning to filter out all the things I don't need to worry about when being a mum and trying to concentrate on being a happy mama.
Lucy is getting to be a cheeky little fella. I think we are going to have a bit of a trickster on our hands. But a loveable trickster.

Oh yeah, that's right.

Source: etsy.com via Jena on Pinterest

I remembered something today.

I wasn't going to read baby books. I wasn't going to try and be the worlds most perfect parent.
My plan was to me my little ones mama.

Way back when I  first found out about my little one I prayed this prayer.


I pray that you would know the God who made you.
That you would love Him and trust him to look after you.


I pray that you would always find joy even when things are tricky.


I pray that you would take chances. Do things that interest you regardless of what other people tell you is the right thing to do.


I pray that you would not be too scared to admit you are wrong when you do something that interests you and it blows up in your face.


I pray that nothing will hurt you but I know this prayer is futile. I pray that you have the strength to overcome those hurts.


I pray that you would love your Mama and Dad. That we would love you and that you would never be afraid to talk to us.


I pray that you would be healthy, energetic and fun. That the world might be your oyster.


I pray that you will have a contagious laughter, a gentle spirit and an inquisitive mind.


I pray that you will have friends to love and be loved by. That your family will adore you and that you will have siblings to boss around.


I pray that you will know that Jesus died for you and that fact will change your life. I pray that it deeply impacts you and you will live your life for him.


Amen




Nope, nothing in there about sleeping through the night in your own bed. Nothing about eating the right food, napping for 2-3 hours. Nothing about crawling, sitting, walking. 

Yet, for the last few weeks I have been beating myself up about these things. These things that simply don't matter in the scheme of things.

I forgot about being Lucy's best mama in the quest to be the worlds best mama.
I forgot about listening to her. 
I forgot about enjoying her.

So now I'm going to read those books with a hefty big grain of salt. I'm going to do things the way my heart and Lucy's actions tell me to. I'm going to remember this prayer I prayed for my little girl and remember that these are the things I want for her.

our day in the sunshine.

 

The loveliest girl in the world

I love Lucy.
But not as much as she loves herself.

We have video.
It will be coming out at her 21st.
There are kiss marks on the mirror.

mobility stage one

Lucy really wants to crawl. I can see it in her eyes.
She has well and truly mastered the art of sitting but sometimes things fall to just beyond her reach. She leans, reaches and misses. So she dives headfirst towards whatever it is she wants. Depending on the hardness of the surface there is either tears or laughter.

When I put her on her tummy she can get up into the crawling pose but that is about it. After a few minutes she gets frustrated and stuck.

Or, she falls to the ground in her skydiving/dead beetle pose.

This kid is a laugh a minute. It will be lovely when she starts moving herself around but for the moment I'm content to know exactly where she is.

Your daily dose of adorable.

You're welcome!

Sleep and the Baby Experts

Lucy has mostly been a good sleeper.

I barely knew how lucky I was when we brought her sweet little newborn self home and enjoyed her sleeping from 10pm-7am.

Recently things have not been so sweet.
I think it might be my fault. I have not much idea on what to do about it. I'm surrounded by scary baby experts.


You might have picked up that I'm a bit of an Attachment Parenting fan. Lucy seems to have responded really well to being close to her mama and dada and I've tried to listen to her signs and respond accordingly... until ... she kept waking up.

Lucy would wake up at night and not go back to sleep without a nurse.
At first I would just nurse her and be done with it. She would sleep the rest of the night in our bed happy as Larry. But then she started waking earlier and earlier. I began to worry. I began to fret.

Then I started talking to the experts. They told me that I MUST NOT feed my little one to sleep. She MUST sleep in her own bed. She MUST be awake when I put her there.

For a few nights I tried to put her to bed awake. She cried, she wailed, she kicked around. I cried I wailed, I kicked around. I panicked and Myl had to come to the rescue. The burden of my baby girls future weighed heavily on my shoulders. I told myself I was ruining and spoiling Lucy. She would never sleep properly unless I got her to sleep better. So I found a book.

The No Cry Sleep Solution. I read it cover to cover in a day and set about following it. The first night Lucy woke up six times. I gave up rocking her to sleep after a bad half hour of 10 minutely wakings. She came into our bed, had a nurse and fell asleep for the rest of the night. The second night was better. The third night she refused to go to sleep at all and wailed for a good hour before falling asleep in our bed.

They said it would be difficult for a week or so but after three nights of worse than rubbish sleep I gave up.

As frightened as I am to say it, Lucy sleeps like a charm nestled up next to me.
I'm frightened of the baby experts who say she won't ever leave.
I'm frightened of the baby experts who say she will sleep terribly.

I found the Sears website tonight and read the co-sleeping section with tears pouring down my face. People with medical degrees were telling me that co-sleeping is ok! People with grown up children were saying that co-sleeping hasn't ruined them.

I still feel that pang of guilt every time I put Lucy to sleep with a nurse. I find it hard to explain my behaviour to others. But every night I see the face of my sweet little girl calmly sleeping next to me I like to forget them all.

Guest Post @ That Mama Gretchen

Where did that week go?
I didn't blog the whole week!

You can catch me over at That Mama Gretchen today where I have done a guest post while Gretchen and her lovely family are on holidays.

Check it out!

solid

Lucy has started eating solid food.

 
 

So far she has tasted banana, pumpkin, apple, carrot, spinach/pumpkin mix and avocado in a mixture of spoonfed pulp (with added mama milk) and softened finger food.
Not to mention cream (thanks nana) and custard tart (thanks dad). Oh, and yesterday she ingested some paper.

So far banana and avocado are wins and packet foods are not. I must say I agree. I had a taste of the packet spinach and pumpkin mix and it tasted pretty average.

We have been at it for a week and so far it seems to be going alright. Lucy hasn't quite got the hang of the whole opening your mouth thing but I'm not sure if that's because she doesn't know how or she doesn't like the food being offered. She manages to gulp down a few spoonfulls each time and gets her body covered in tasty goop.

We are starting off with lunch. I give Lucy some food, she starts to fuss when she has enough and then I give her a breastfeed.
This week we have started fruit and veg and next week we will start cereals and grains.
After a month we are going to start breakfast and lunch and then after another month breakfast, lunch and dinner and then drop the middle of the day feed.

Well.  That's the plan.

It is a little sad to not be full time breastfeeding my little girl anymore but at the moment I'm still getting all her meals and she hasn't dropped any feeds. It's fun watching her explore food. In her mouth, in her fingers, on the table. It's a messy but fun little time of life.

swim fan

I took Lucy for her first swim yesterday.
She LOVED it.

You wouldn't think it from the photo. I had to use my phone and because the memory was full only had one shot left. She had been laughing and splashing and having a whale of a time but as soon as the camera came out she got all moody.

Anyway, the kid loved it. She had such fun splashing around and she looked pretty precious in her new swimmers. I think we will be going often over the summer.

l'enfant

A lot of our friends have had babies in the last few weeks.
Some we have met, some we have just seen pictures of.
They are all so small and precious.
It was really hard to believe that my little Lucy girl was ever that small.
But to remember I thought I would share a photo of my tiny newborn.

She has grown so much and will keep on getting bigger.
Every day is a joy. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes I go a bit hysterical. Sometimes Myles needs to step in, sometimes we loll about on the grass as a family of three.
But rain, hail or shine,
in laughter and tears,
our lives are forever filled with joy.

I look at my tiny baby and I think of long days spent stroking my full belly,
that belly being cut open to safely deliver her to my arms,
that girl pressed up against my belly trying endlessly to feed while we listened to the Unthanks on repeat.
My tiny girl who would sleep anywhere.
Who we wanted to poke so she would wake up and play.

My little one.

six months old

my little girl is six months old

It has been a month of firsts.
Lucy has sat up for the first time
said her first word - mama
had her first taste of solids - banana
her first Sunday at Rockpool (creche at church)
went to her first eisteddfod to see Uncle Jon and sang along with the choir.

She has changed her sleeping pattern again, but has a pattern!
Wears 00 clothes
grabs at anything she can get her hands on. Toys, mobile phones, food, hair.
has no teeth... yet
She can but isn't interested in rolling over.
She tries to crawl but gets frustrated and does a maneuver we like to call the stranded beetle.

She loves music - singing, listening, dancing. Any kind will do.
She adores her dada and gets excited when she hears the door opening in the afternoon.
She likes being kissed in her neck and on her tummy.
She has a maniacal cackle.
She loves the shower and puts her head under.
She loves reading books and also is partial to a tasty book for a snack.

She is a chirpy, friendly, happy little thing.
We love her very much.