Look at me getting an update out on time!!
Each time I write the titles to these updates it amazes me how quickly time is passing and this one means it’s the last one before she turns 1!!!!
Time seems to race past and I fear I’m missing/missed so much of her being a baby and I’m going to look at her one day soon and she’ll be a teenager. I think with your first you’re so full of anxieties and time that every second is relished (and feared) so time goes at a more steady pace. With the second, you’re just so busy with life and the older sibling(s) that you’re not aware of how quickly time is passing you by. No time for soaking in those naps spent on your chest.
This last month has been a funny one as DS has been quite poorly for most of it meaning we haven’t been up to much. We went over to Lyme on the 19th February for a week but ended up having to come home the next day because he started with a fever and all three of us in one room, with an illness to boot, is not ideal. As it happened it was the best decision as he was really very unwell for 10 days and then remained full of cold (ear, throat and chest problems) for the remainder of the month and into March.
We have all thoroughly enjoyed watching the snow come as Storm Emma brought unusual amounts of snow to our coastline which left us all stranded due to drifts and ice. The snow back home in Lyme was immense and only wish we’d been stranded in Lyme when it hit as it reached 6 inches of blanket cover. At times like this I’m grateful we have moved out of the flat and are in a nicely insulated, and heated, house.
On the 5th March we started a Baby Yoga course which was fun seeing as she wouldn’t sit/lie still enough for me to actually do the movements on her. She was just WAY to excited hanging with children her own age.
So let’s get back to our beautiful little girl’s development and see what happened when she was 10 months old.
Health
We have been hit hard this month by the worst cold known to man. And DD is still suffering it’s side effects as I write this update. It started with DS when we were in Lyme and I had to cut short our visit to get him home (being all in one room is challenging enough, without one of the small being ill). It was a good call because he developed a high temperature which didn’t drop below 39 for over a week and left him with a terrible cough. After 10 days DD developed it and is, as we speak, full of catarrh, snot and has a terrible cough. Her temperature, thankfully, is behaving.
Sleep
This is so random at the moment. She either has a really good night of one wake up between 1830 and 0500 or she has a terrible night with many wake ups. Ironically when she wakes just the once it’s the hardest to get her back to sleep, she screams and throws her body backwards for up to 10 minutes before I can bring her round enough to have some milk and get back to sleep. Usually to do this I have to turn on her cot mobile music and talk to her telling her that ‘Mama’s here’. Ironically, when she wakes frequently we don’t get these episodes and she’s back to sleep in a couple of minutes, with or without milk.
Naps: Depending on the night she had, she’ll have an early morning nap of half an hour, a late afternoon nap of the same and an early afternoon nap of again, half an hour. I try to make sure she doesn’t sleep after 2 else it’ll put bedtime back and this can be a problem if OH is away and I’ve got them both to settle.
Development
Verbal: She continues to babble and is saying Mama and Dad with more continuity now, though Mama is more Wahwah but is definitely her term for me.
Mobility: She’s well and truly off now and crawling everywhere. She’s yet to start cruising but is pulling herself up to standing everywhere she can and will take a few steps when you hold her hands, and is intent on wanting to let go of you so that she stands independently.
Pointing: This month has seen her start to point at things she wants. I properly noticed this on the 1st March when, at the table, she pointed at what I thought was her spoon (it wasn’t) and she got very irate until I looked further afield and her stacking cups were behind her bowl and when passed to her she busily went about playing with them.
Clapping: on the 5th March DD FINALLY clapped properly for the first time (whilst eating butternut squash pizza).
Cause and Effect: She has suddenly become very interested in doing things that make something happen and delights in the fact she has been the instigator. I reckon this first started at the beginning of February when I sat her in her cot to put away some laundry, she discovered that when she rolled the roller on her cot mobile, the mobile started working. Now she’s pushing and spinning anything in the hope it has an effect. Of course, if she gets the desired effect she’s after she is absolutely delighted in herself, and the object.
Schemas: She’s still displaying posting and rotating schema traits and we get out her Orchard Toys Postbox Game whenever we can. She is also absorbed in opening and closing too which has called for us to fit door guards in all the doors now to prevent trapped fingers.
Leap
She is currently going through her seventh leap which is the world of Sequences and I’m seeing so many examples of this already, despite her still going through it. She is desperate to help and relishes in being told she’s a good girl for handing us things when we hold out a hand (usually for the tiny toy of DS’ she’s picked up from somewhere). She’s insistent on feeding herself with a spoon now and will hold the spoon, put it in the bowl, scoop up food then put it in her mouth with such pride.
The pointing is also a part of this leap
Favourites
TV: Teletubbies, Bing, Justin’s House, Twirlywoos to name but a few. As a rule of thumb if they’re bright or musical, she’s absorbed
Music: She just loves music!!!! She loves bopping to anything with a good up-beat and is easily calmed when music is introduced, be it sung to her, or played.
Toys: She has found a new love for the Beat Belle we bought he for Christmas. I think it’s because of the cause and effect it displays… she pushes a button and something happens. When DS was little my best friend gave me a Playskool Ball Blower that her children had as babies. This month I finally got round to replacing the batteries and she just LOVES it. She very quickly mastered that she can push the button to start it and will crawl over to play with it on her own volition, again, cause and effect being displayed.
Firsts
Snow!!! On the 1st of March Storm Emma brought us a massive snow storm, one which actually left snow on the ground of a good few centimetres coverage, with a few inches in drifts! It also left us stranded in the house as the road became a treacherous ice rink thanks to it turning into frozen rain. Unfortunately she was too poorly to take out into it but she loved watching DS and I playing in it through the window. She was fascinated watching it fall and build up on the lawn.
On the 2nd March she celebrated her Daddy’s birthday for the first time.
Weaning
Although the cold she has had has put her off the amount of food she normally eats, she is still ticking away three meals a day. She is boobing more mind and before her cold took hold I would say she has breast milk Morning, lunchtime and bedtime and a couple of times in the night.
New Tastes: Butternut Squash ‘Pizzas’, Tofu, Risotto
Teeth
Her upper left incisor is right the way through now and I’m sure something else is going on as she permanently has a finger rammed in her mouth.
Growth
Weight: 18Ib 12oz (25th centile)
Clothes: 6-9 Months on the whole though she is still in a few 3-6 month items that always came up on the larger size. In fact her 11 month photos were taken in a 3-6 month outfit.
Nappies: Size 3
Me:
I’m doing ok despite extreme tiredness thanks to everyone else’s illnesses.
I suppose the biggest news to hit the headlines here is that OH has FINALLY been given special dispensation to say he is now, officially infertile. It could only happen to him that he’s had to provide sample after sample before getting a final result. Apparently although there are still sperm in his samples, they are less than 10,000 in total (apparently it takes over 2 million to result in a pregnancy) and these are immotile. The letter basically said that if he was seeing an infertility specialist, with those numbers he would be told he was infertile.
I can say with a great deal of confidence that my hair seems to have stopped falling out.
Linea Nigra is very faint, but still evident.
Crepe paper belly is still a scourge to my midriff.
Still no sign of my menstrual cycle returning (this is met with much joy, I don’t relish their return now we’re not having any more children)
Weight: 9 stone 1 Ib which means even after an atrocious couple of weeks off plan I have maintained my weight, this in very happy about but need to find my slimming world mojo to shift the last half stone.
fearfullyhopeful 