Daddy’s girl
T usually wakes up around 6am and as I’m still sleepy I usually bring her into our bed and we snooze for a little bit.
A few days ago I woke up to T smiling and babbling “da-da da-da.”
It was the first time I’d heard this and suddenly I was wide awake.
T kept on beaming and repeating “da-da da-da.” I wasn’t sure what to make of this new development. Was she calling for her daddy who had just gone to work?
We got up; I changed T and got her dressed ready for the day. I took her into the living room and she started playing with her toys. After a short while she stopped, looked at me and repeated “da-da.”.
I called my husband straight away as I felt I needed a second opinion. When I told him what T was doing he replied nonchalantly, “Oh I know, I heard her this morning too. They say babies often start off with da-da as it’s easier to say.”
I don’t know whether or not this counts as T’s first word. I guess the determining factor might be if she says it with meaning. She says it every day, mostly in the morning or the evenings. I don’t know for sure if she’s referring to her daddy but it makes me smile every time she does it.
Photo credit: K Todd Storch
T at 8 months
I swear, each month whizzes by quicker than the last. It seems like T hit 6 months 2 seconds ago, not 2 months ago.
T is becoming stronger and stronger which is so cool to see. She doesn’t seem that close to crawling yet though. When she’s on her tummy she prefers to roll around onto her back or her side as opposed to move forwards.
Her default position is to sit but I’m trying to get her to discover just what her legs can do. She’s now getting better at bearing weight on her legs and loves hopping around in the door bouncer.
Eating is proving interesting. Sometimes I feel like it’s two steps forward followed by three steps back. T’s not keen on breakfast but eats lunch and dinner with varying degrees of success. Some days she eats everything with no fuss. Other days she’s resolute and won’t eat more than a spoonful. This morning she literally gagged on the mango, melon and pineapple on offer and after 40 minutes still couldn’t be coaxed to eat it.
The best development from the past two weeks is how increasingly aware and communicative T’s become. Her expressions, actions and range of babbling sounds have all accelerated. It feels like we’re starting to get a clear glimpse into the little person she’s morphing in to.
It’s funny how tiny things can leave you speechless. At the supermarket this week the guy at the checkout was talking to T while she was in the sling and I packed the groceries. At the end of the transaction he handed her some World Cup stickers and she smiled and took them. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but to me it was huge. That’s what big kids do!
T loves to sing to herself when we’re outdoors and she’s fascinated by paper and pens. This week, while watching her daddy draw, she kept reaching out trying to grab his pen and help him with his sketches.
Watching her explore the world is making me look at things in a whole new light too. She’s teaching me to appreciate so many things. I love it.
Photo credit: Leo Reynolds
Eat. Milk. Drink. More. Finished.
T and I are learning baby sign language after joining the summer term at Baby Sing & Sign this week.
Eat. Milk. Drink. More. Finished. are the core 5 signs we started off with and this week I’ve been using them with T (as and when I remember). The easiest one to remember so far is Eat as T and I do that a lot. We also learnt some animal signs so I’ve been doing Quack Quack a lot at bath time.
The Sing & Sign class is led by Vesna, a lovely Serbian lady, who is blessed with a rich resonating voice that T finds mesmerizing.
While T is captivated by Vesna’s voice, I am in awe of her memory. Vesna knew the name of every single baby, mummy and daddy in the class without prompting and introduced us all to one another. This is no mean feat, especially as I figure Vesna must be teaching hundreds of babies and parents across London.
I, on the other hand, generally remember the names of the little ones we encounter at the various baby activity classes but always forget the mummy names. Without fail.
In addition to signing we sing songs and play instruments with our little ones. It’s a lovely way to spend a Monday morning.
Vesna told us how a 6 month old in one of her previous classes would sign when she needed her nappy changing. Right now T looks at me with amusement when I sign. I’d love it if she starts signing back one day. We’ll see…
Endless giggles
Today T and I had a late lazy lunch with my friend Lisa who’s expecting her first baby this autumn.
Lisa looks amazing and chatting about her pregnancy brought it all back to me, as exactly one year ago I was at the exact same stage in my pregnancy. It’s funny how time flies… a year ago I couldn’t even imagine what life with my baby would be like. Now T’s here, yet I can’t imagine what our life will be like one year from now when T will be a walking, talking toddler…
Lunch was lovely and Lisa surprised T and I with gifts for us both. T helped me unwrap her gifts and chewed on the wrapping paper.
T was pretty tired after our afternoon out and about and I’ve just put her to bed, content and happy after our best bath-time yet. I decided to introduce one of her gifts from Lisa, a set of bath squirts. T started giggling the minute she saw them. She squealed with delight when I squirted her with ducky and the giggles continued all the way through bath time.
It’s the first time I’ve heard her laugh so hard and for so long. It made me laugh too. It feels incredible to see her reaction to her new toys and just how much joy they gave her.
It’s at times like this I really wish we had a camcorder. Mind you, I wouldn’t be able to hold a camcorder, bath a slippery baby and squirt her toys at the same time I guess!
Little Miss Sunshine
One of the things I love about being T’s mummy is the start of the day.
I usually wake up at around 7.30am to the sound of T babbling away to herself in her cot. When I enter her room and T catches sight of me her face lights up, her little legs and arms kicking and waving with excitement.
T’s sunny nature in the morning is totally infectious. My husband, who hates weekday mornings, now sets out for work with a smile on his face every day, rain or shine. It’s impossible not to be cheery when you have a little person beaming at you while you eat your cereal.
I adore the way T brings out the best in both of us. With my husband, it’s a tender, gentle side that warms my heart. For me, the arrival of T has made me more patient, appreciative and focused.
I often spend the morning watching her play with her toys, marvelling at how lucky we are to have her. When we cuddle, T’s new favourite thing is to explore my face with her hands. It’s her way of saying hello and it feels magical, it makes me melt every single time.
Photo credit: Denis Collette
Weaning tips from other mummies
T is currently on Day 21 of her new food diet, she’s still not eating much, it takes about 30 minutes to get through 4-5 baby spoonfuls but I guess that’s how it goes.
Over the past few weeks I’ve received some great weaning tips and recipes from other mummies that I wanted to share -
Mixing it up and soothing sore gums
“Mixing a little freshly squeezed orange juice or tomato paste through veggie mush, if it’s one of my less tasty creations, seems to make it a bit more palatable to my baby! My baby absolutely LOVES full fat Greek yogurt mixed with fruit. But be careful, as I have to stop myself from spooning most of it into my mouth, it’s so delicious!”
“Buy lots of spoons as they get thrown on the floor a LOT. Also, I find the very long handled, narrow spoons are the best for getting the maximum amount of food into baby’s tiny mouth.”
“I freeze small strips of melon (any kind) and then give them to baby to suck on – it seems to soothe his sore gums. Apparently you can also freeze whole bananas for the same purpose.”
- Lisa, mother of 7 month old baby
Creating yummy recipes
“I got a hand held blender and my favourite baby dinners were:
- creamy mashed potato with mash carrots (or raw finely grated) and spinach
- creamy mash sweet potato and mash avocado
- mashed raw banana with the organic baby oats
- organic baby rice and mash avocado
“I used to add a slither of butter sometimes, but this time round I will be adding the immune boosting coconut oil. I generally avoid the made up baby foods (even organic ones) as they are madly overpriced and you can’t beat your fresh cooking.”
“For a travel dinner once when I went to Bristol for an event all I took for my baby was a ripe avocado and a fork. That alone and milk sustained her for hours!”
“As I had more children, to save money and hassle I would usually incorporate the exact same dinner items I cooked for the family (minus meat and seasoning). But, be prepared for mess, mess and more mess when they start to want to feed themselves!!”
- My sister-in-law, mum of four
Getting the balance right
“No. 1 tip is to start introducing the new foods you want to give. Hide away the foods you want to stop. Don’t give in.”
- Joy, mum of four
Good habits for the future
“As soon as your baby can hold a spoon and has teeth, introduce a toothbrush after each bath time and slowly teach him or her to brush their teeth. Along the way, brush your teeth at the same time as they are as babies learn best by copying/mimicking. Buy different fun toothbrushes every 3 months and try different toothpastes.”
- Rhoda, mother of 2 year old toddler, Lula’s World – http://www.mylulaworld.blogspot.com/
Thanks everyone! x
Mummy milestones
T was six months old last Friday. As first-time parents, there’s a tendency to spend a lot of time noting/obsessing over your baby’s milestones as they hit each key stage. I’ve found myself repeatedly cracking open the baby books as each month passes to double check the developmental stages that T should be reaching.
However this time round, with this 6 month milestone, I didn’t rush for the books again. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still keen to know if T is progressing along the right lines. (I’m immensely proud of the fact that she can now sit without tumbling over for a couple of minutes and that she’s developed the cutest, most infectious laugh I’ve ever heard.) However, instead of scrutinising her, I’ve spent the past few days since T’s 6 month birthday mulling over how I’ve fared in my new role as a mother.
In many ways, with routine mummy tasks – like feeding, changing, bath time, bedtime, playtime, soothing baby – I feel that I finally get what it is I’m supposed to be doing. T and I have found our way around the major obstacles, sometimes in a bumpy fashion, but these things have gradually become second nature. I guess this means I’m no longer a “new” mum – probation is officially over.
As I reflect, I think my proudest achievements so far are learning to recognise the differences between T’s cries and learning how to multi-task. With regards to the latter, I always thought I was good at this before. Funny that. As it turns out, I had yet to face my ultimate test.
A few multi-tasking lessons I’ve learnt over the past few months include:
- Don’t skip lunch just because you think you have your hands full with tending to baby and are too exhausted/don’t have time to fix anything. You’ll crash and burn if you do. Put the baby down and eat something. Even if it’s just cous-cous (my newest favourite thing, after biscuits, as “cooking” requires boiling a kettle and letting it stand for a matter of minutes)
- Certain tasks that used to take you 20 minutes in your uninterrupted life pre-baby (like fixing a proper lunch for example) may now seem like insurmountable obstacles. If it’s important to you, find a way to still do it. If it isn’t important or not possible to complete in interrupted intervals, forget about it or put it off until that magical time when your baby is asleep.
- Always, always, always stockpile washing powder, nappies, wipes and your own personal essentials, whatever they may be (for me currently, biscuits). That way you’ll have an emergency stash and never have to do a panicked dash to the supermarket when you’re already running late doing whatever else it was you were supposed to do.
I’ve learnt tons over the past 6 months but in other ways I still feel a bit lost. Inside I still feel like the old me, pre-baby, but everything on the outside is totally different. At times, my old life feels like I dreamt it up. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I had a lot of fun over the past decade but by the time I hit 29 I wanted a baby really badly. I felt I was ready to move on to the next stage and embrace whatever it was that held for me.
While I’m still figuring out some important bits, namely how my new role as a mother sits alongside the rest of my life, having a baby really has brought everything into focus. My perspectives have shifted in lots of ways when it comes to determining with what is really important to me and our little family. I guess when everyone tells you “nothing will ever be the same again” it’s true, but how you interpret what that means to you can be thrilling and scary at the same time.
Baby goes organic
This afternoon, T ate her very first prepared meal – a teaspoon of organic baby rice, mixed with a tablespoon of mummy’s milk followed by 3 sips of water.
I’ve been a bit apprehensive about weaning T. I could see she was ready – she’s 6 months old next week, she’s sitting up well with support and she watches us eat with fascination – but I was nervous about the unknown territory I was about to move in to.
It was a multi-stage process to get ready. First of all I had to pick a highchair and wait for it to be delivered. Then I had to buy feeding equipment and special bibs. Finally I had to research how to actually go about it.
As with almost everything baby related there seems to be a myriad of opinions on the best way to move your baby onto solid foods. My knowledge on this topic was pretty much zero so I had to educate myself on baby led weaning (which I’d never heard of until 2 weeks ago) versus conventional weaning.
I decided to go the conventional route and decided to take the plunge this afternoon after we completed a shopping trip on Upper St.
I unpacked one of T’s new feeding bibs, which come down to her knees, complete with sleeves. I washed and sterilized her feeding items and re-read the instructions for fixing her first meal. It felt really odd; T has never had formula so it was the first time I’d had to prepare a feed for her.
She was really hungry by the time I finished getting it ready so we started off with her regular milk feed. I cut it short after four minutes and winded her. Then, I opted to prop her up on sofa next to me so I could sit as close to her as possible and put a small spoonful of the baby rice to her lips.
T was completely perplexed by it all. She tasted the rice with a furrowed brow. A lot of the mouthfuls ended up around her mouth but over the course of ten minutes she ate the entire thing.
Tomorrow I’m going to buy a hand blender and that’s when the fun really starts! Next week, we’ll start experimenting with vegetables or fruit…
How do you handle a clingy baby?
Over the past week or so I’ve come to notice that T has evolved into a clingy baby.
I’m not sure how this happened, up until recently she’s always been pretty calm and content with other people. Now, it’s completely different. If I leave her for a period of time in the care of anyone else she screams the house down.
It became apparent I have a problem at Pilates class last week. I’d been so excited to be accepted onto the Pilates term at the new Barnsbury Community Centre after trying the class for the first time last month. The Kate Greenaway nursery provides a crèche for T and the Pilates instructor is brilliant. The class is free and the crèche is free, I feel so lucky to be included.
T seemed to enjoy crèche for the first two weeks. Each time when I came to collect her she was sound asleep. Last week it didn’t go down so well.
The crèche is located in the room adjacent to the pilates room and T’s full-pitched screams reverberated across the building. I had to abandon the class on three occasions to tend to her. In the end I gave up, as each time I left she was inconsolable.
This week I decided to get to the crèche half an hour early at 9am to feed her and settle her in before dashing off to join the start of the class. When I left her at 9.30 she was chilling on a caterpillar cushion and looked like she was about to doze off. No such luck. 10 minutes into the class I could hear her loud and clear, as could everyone else in the class.
I figured she would eventually settle. I left the class to check on her once at the midpoint and eventually her cries subsided after around 40 minutes. By the end of the session I found her fast asleep. I think she’d literally worn herself out.
It’s hard to know what to do, as I’m T’s sole carer during the week so she spends the bulk of her time with me. A lovely lady who runs a baby massage class immediately after the pilates crèche gave me some advice this morning. She said it’s probably a passing phase and that my husband and I should try massaging T for longer periods more frequently, in particular in advance of any spells without her mummy, as it will make her more relaxed.
I’m going to give it a go and see if it helps. Right now I give T a quick massage after her bath but it’s usually rushed, as she’s impatient for her bedtime feed.
If anyone else has other tips please let me know!
Teaching T to sit
Watching your baby discover the world and learn something new, whether it’s a big new thing or a little new thing, is the most incredible feeling in the world.
My little girl is getting closer and closer to being able to sit upright all by herself and it’s so much fun helping her along.
I discovered the almost able to sit thing by accident. I had been more focused on trying to remember to give T adequate amounts of tummy-time with the goal of getting her playing with toys while lying on her front and maybe thinking about starting to crawl.
The prospect of sitting upright all by herself began when I took T to baby bounce last week. I had placed her in a fabric support seat as I looked for somewhere to put her things when I noticed how good she was at sitting up and playing. One of the mummies suggested I buy her a Bumbo.
I’d never heard of a Bumbo so when I got home I looked online. I mulled it over for a few days and even tried one out by chance on Tuesday (I had the good fortune of attending a business conference with a crèche, lovely crèche staff and an abundance of baby seats and toys).
The Bumbo looked interesting but I feared it might not teach T to find her own balance and sit by herself as it provides all the necessary support. So, I figured as she was close to figuring it out this would be something I would need to help her do.
I started “teaching T to sit” with earnest this week. She’s spent the past few days propped up with cushions or sitting in front of mummy with my legs and arms outstretched ready to pre-empt a tumble.
This weekend we went to stay with my Mum and she bought the best thing for T – a play nest. It looks like a huge inflatable doughnut. T sits in the middle of it and it provides cushioning in case she tumbles and there’s just enough space in the middle of the doughnut for her to play with her toys.
She looks like such a big girl when she’s sat in it. I’ve been taking tons of photos… again! Mum also bought her one of those bouncy things that you dangle her in from the door. T looked like she was in the circus as she was suspended about a foot above the floor at first. She had a huge smile.
I wish I could hit pause on this time… it’s just so precious…
