Monday, September 21, 2015

15 months update

Weight: 12kg/26.5lbs(96th percentile)

Height: 84cm/33inches(97th percentile)



Health:
currently recovering from 4 days of fever but other than that she has been in excellent health so far.

Nicknames: Cheeky Chops

Eating: She's a good eater, but still wanting 'babyish' foods in sauce like the toddler meal trays or home cooked spaghetti Bolognese so I can't just put pieces of chicken and veg on her plate as she won't touch it.
For breakfast she has porridge, lunch either a sandwich or couscous fingers, fruit pieces or a fruit pouch for snack and then a warm dinner. 4oz milk on waking and before bed.




 



Teething: All 4 canines are currently popping through, which brings us to 16 teeth in total.

Sleeping: Emilia has successfully transitioned to one nap per day, which is lovely but slightly restrictive when wanting to go out.
She usually sleeps for 2-2.5 hours at 12:30pm
Nighttime sleep is 7:15pm-6:30am, generally not needing any 'attention' in the night but now that she's poorly, I have had to go in a couple of times to hold her.

Nappies:
size 4 or 4+

Clothing: 
18-24 months

Social:
She no longer has stranger anxiety as far as we can tell.
Soon school starts again, meaning the baby classes are starting up again.
We
don't have the money(or a car) to get to most of them, but we're going to make more of an effort to enjoy the free classes in the local library and children's centre.
Another Mum and I have been going to our soft play centre, which the girls enjoyed


Words:
All gone, 'yeah', Mama and she can say my partner's name, but doesn't call her mummy(or me Mama)
She definitely understands a lot more though, we can give her some basic instructions during playtime like 'bring me the ball' or 'go get the cups' and she will.

 
Likes:
*She LOVES dogs, whenever we see one on our walks she get's very excited and the entire stroller shakes
*she loves traffic lights and gets almost as excited seeing them as she does when seeing dogs

*She likes to sing nursery rhymes and says 'row row' for 'row your boat' and once I finish the first verse, she requests the second one by roaring like a lion :)
*She LOVES to 'eat' fruit or yogurt in pouches




 
Dislikes:
*being told no
*cuddling(much to Mama's dismay)
*having her nappy changed

Milestones:
*she has been cruising since April, but is not in any hurry to actually walk.
*She started climbing on the sofa

*She's a pro at stacking cups and getting a lot better with her shape sorter.
*She's been playing ball for months and likes to read books by herself.
*She can point to her tummy, nose, hair and head when asked in English and German
*she will grab our phones and have 'conversations'

*she's still mainly being spoonfed by me and uses her fingers to feed herself but has started to show an interest in feeding herself with pre-loaded spoons

Mama:
I'm sad about my 'baby' growing up so quickly. She's a big girl and people always think she's older than she is expecting her to be able to do things she is too young for.
She's outgrowing 18-24 months clothing meaning I have been shopping in the 'big girl' section, which feels just wrong considering she's only 15 months!
I'm sorting out all of her outgrown clothes and toys she no longer plays with and since we don't know if we can afford another baby, we are getting rid of them, which is super sad.




Fun things we did:
We flew to Germany when she was 14 months old and boy was it hard to keep her happy on the flight. It's the 4th time that Emilia and I flew on our own and it definitely made me think that for our flight at Christmas she will be having her own seat on the airplane!
But it was nice to catch up with some family members I haven't seen in 10 years as well as visiting my grandmother again, she might not live much longer and I want to make sure that Emilia has some memories of/with her.

What we are looking forward to:
Socialising more

What we are not looking forward to:
Money struggles as I am still not working

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Naples, Florida May/June 2015

A couple of months ago we spontaneously decided to join my partner's parent's, sister, brother in law and nephews for their upcoming holiday to Florida. We managed to get really cheap flights and cheap accommodation due to having a family friend in Florida who rents out holiday apartments.
My partner was nervous about travelling such a long distance with a 12 months old but I assured her, everything would be fine, when on the inside, I was dreading the journey just as much, if not more...

I did some research about how to survive the long 9/10 hour flight with a squirmy toddler travelling as a lap infant as we didn't have the funds to book her her own seat.

The long anticipated day finally arrived May 31st and we were on the way to the airport with two massive suitcases, a stroller, a car seat and 2 pieces of hand luggage.
Emilia and I have flown to Germany 4 times already, so we know the drill at security and I pack my bag sensibly and also buy most of her milk/food at the airport as we have well stocked drugstores after security!
We settled into our seats on the plane when we noticed a lot of empty seats in the back of the plane. The pilot made his welcome announcement and asked us to remain in our seats for now and then, once seatbelt signs went off we were free to take any of the empty seats.
I kindly asked the flight attendant if there was any chance we could have a row of three seats as it would be lovely for us to have that extra space with a baby and she came back a minute later telling us to move seats before take off as otherwise all seats would be gone.
We really appreciated having the spare seat.
Take off went smoothly and I was smug when Emilia fell asleep quickly after her bottle and slept for two hours...but that would be all the sleep she was having for the remainder of the day. But to be honest it really wasn't bad. She sat in the middle seat just enjoying life, snacks, our attention and the flight map on the screen in front of her.


That 9 hour flight flight really went quickly and soon we landed in Miami.
The crew and other passengers complimented her on her excellent behaviour and her mummies were proud!
By the time we cleared immigrations and customs, got our cases and the shuttle to the hotel it was 5:30pm so I decided to just try and keep her up until as close to 7pm, which is her bedtime at home, though obviously this would be almost midnight at home.
She had been awake for 10 hours by the time she went to sleep and only napped for 2 hours all day.
The first night went ok but Emilia and I got up pretty early trying not to wake up my partner.
We took a walk around the hotel and then went to have breakfast.
The staff were awesome and paid Emilia so much attention, she loved it!

After breakfast Emilia had a quick nap and then we drove from Miami to Naples, where we would stay for the next 12 nights.



We had the most amazing time, Emilia did so well considering we were pushing her to her limits every day and she was still getting over the 5 hour time difference and temperature change.
Every day we went to the beach or pool in the morning, then home for lunch and naptime. Afternoons we did some exploring before going out for meals in the evening. Often we'd meet my partner's family for dinner.




Afterwards we quickly stopped by the shops to pick up supplies and Emilia was never in bed before 8:30pm.

Wherever we went, people were asking us if Emilia was always this happy, she just smiled so much. People said she had made their day by smiling and waving at them.
Oftentimes she'd wave at people who weren't even looking at her(for example people at the table across the room in the restaurant) but once they caught sight of her, they waved and smiled back, then Emilia would engage them in a game of peek-a-boo. She really was a lot of fun!
In supermarkets she was offered free cookies and bananas and one afternoon at a bakery, she was given a yogurt tube for free :)



We had a bit of an issue with food, she wasn't a fan of the baby food available in the shops and we weren't prepared to buy her the kids meals in restaurants, so we reverted back to feeding puree pouches or 7 months jars(instead of the toddler meals she would eat at home) and lots of bread and bananas...
Then in the second week she seemed to have got a tummy bug, so we tried to give her a simple diet of bread, bananas and apple sauce but by that point she was fed up of bread and bananas...
If we are travelling again while she's still on some baby jars, I would definitely bring more of the ones she is used to.



We spent our final night in Miami and once again decided the city just isn't 'us', so we will remember this and fly into Orlando next time!

The return flight didn't go quite as well as the outbound flight. Emilia had napped only 45 minutes all day and to top it all off, our flight left 2.5 hours late, 9:30pm instead of 7pm. Emilia was really starting to lose it at that point. I had tried my best to get her to sleep in the airport, carried her in the sling and sang endless nursery rhymes to her, but she just couldn't settle.
The crew was slow to get the drinks and meal services out and by the time the cabin light was finally dimmed, it was well past midnight.
Emilia slept 3 hours, in my arms, waking up crying every 15 minutes.
The crew was lovely though, giving up their own seats(in the last rows) to give us a third seat again plus always offering extra meals for Emilia.
Then to top the 'not so good'(but definitely not terrible) flight off, Emilia decided to throw up her yogurt all over ME just after the 'fasten seatbelt' sign had come on in time for landing. Perfect :)

We are so, so glad we decided to go on this holiday, it was an amazing time as a family of 3!!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Emilia's Birthday Cake Smash

I just knew that I wanted to do a cake smash for Emilia's birthday, my partner wasn't a big fan of it and rolled her eyes when the pink fluffy tutu arrived in the post, but in the end she helped me and we got some lovely pictures

As I have been a stay at home mum for the past year, the budget didn't allow for a professional photographer, but I think our little DIY session worked out well and was perfect for what we wanted and didn't break the bank. The tutu was £8, the cake £3(plus whatever ingredients we already had at home) and the bunting cost me £3 for tissue paper.

Emilia wasn't too sure what to think of the whole thing and didn't get as dirty as I expected considering she normally gets super messy when feeding herself pasta bolognaise









Sunday, April 12, 2015

10 months update

Weight:
22lbs11oz or 10.3kg(98%) at 9.5 months

Length:
30 inches/76cm! She's between the 98th and 99.9th percentile on the UK chart. (measured at 9.5 months)

 


Health:
nothing to complain about this month

Nicknames:
stinky pants

Eating:
OMG Emilia loves to eat, it's her favourite thing!
She still has a bottle first thing, which can be anytime between 4am and 7am, followed by some porridge with fruit for breakfast, a fairly big lunch(200g/7oz of  vegetable puree) plus some fingerfoods and fruit, a small 4oz in the afternoon(this should be phased out in the next few weeks), another big portion of dinner, this time including fish or meat and another 4oz of formula before bed.
So far she's eating anything I put in front of her, but she loves grapes, banana, bread, mandarin oranges
She is a bit lazy when it comes to feeding herself and the only fingerfoods she will have are fruit and carbs.
 


Sleeping:
Bedtime is at 7 and she's asleep within just a few minutes, I even stopped putting the classical music on for her to make sure she's not too dependant on it.

Some nights she wakes up at 4am or 5am, I give her a bottle and she goes back to sleep. If she has her bottle after 5:30, she's unlikely to go back to sleep :(

2 naps a day, 60-120minutes in the morning and another 45-60 minutes around 2/3pm. I think we need to work on transitioning her to a shorter morning nap and a slightly earlier afternoon sleep with the idea of her having only one nap around her birthday.

Nappies:
Size 4/4+

Clothing: 
12-18 months

Social:
We've been attending a few classes at our local Children's centre, luckily for me these are free to attend and Emilia really enjoys spending time with the other babies.
We still haven't made 'friends', so sadly she will not be having a birthday party this year :(

 
Likes:
*playing with Mama's and Mummy's hair
*when you blow your nose
*brushing her teeth, one night she even left 1oz of milk in her bedtime bottle because she spotted the toothbrush next to the bed
*reading books before bed
*Watching Baby Einstein(Mama feels guilty about that one)
*Looking at pictures or videos of herself on our phones
 
Dislikes:
*having to lie down to have her nappy changed
*being strapped into her pushchair or highchair, she arches her back, something I have never experienced this young with any of the children I have looked after
*being told 'no' when repeatedly switching the tv receiver box off



Milestones:
She's mobile! She's not crawling but she is definitely getting around simply by pulling herself along.
Also, whenever I ask her a question(in a question tone) she will reply with ja/yeah...grandma asked the other day if she wanted a Gin&Tonic with her dinner and Emilia said 'yeah' :)



Mama:
Still super broody, to the point where just like 2 years ago I cannot stop thinking about it. I had always said that (especially if I had a girl) I would be happy with just the one. But now I want a little playmate for Emilia, I want to be pregnant again and have another good labour.

Fun things we did:
We went to London, as a family, and I had not one, but two nights out!
The first evening Mummy C. looked after Emilia while I went to a gig of our favourite band, I stayed out until after midnight! It was very strange leaving Emilia, even if it was with someone who knows her just as much as me, but Emilia was totally fine of course!
The second night, one of my best friends(a professional, qualified nanny) looked after Emilia. I put her to bed and then joined my partner and all of our friends at the concert venue for a second night of great music. Again, Emilia did totally fine, she only woke up when we got home due to being too hot as we had trouble keeping the flat cool(in February!)

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

8 months update

How did my baby girl get to be so big already? She was exactly 35 weeks/8 months on Tuesday 20th of January.

 


Weight:
22lbs 3oz or 10.1kg between 91st and 98th percentile

Height:
29inches or 74cm,  98th percentile

Health:
She was very congested for almost 3 weeks, luckily she wasn't too bad during the day, but she needed a bit more love during the night when she couldn't breathe.


Teething:
She now has 8 teeth(the last one broke through on the 27th of January), when she's teething, she gets a bit crazy, shouting and screeching. Not actually crying.
Next up are the molars :(

Nicknames
Cheeky monkey, cheeky chops

Eating:
She hasn't refused anything yet.

She has a 4oz nightfeed at 4/5am, porridge at 8am, lunch about 12pm, 4oz bottle around 3pm, dinner 5:30 and a 7oz bottle at 6:45pm.
She will eat 120g/roughly 4oz of solids each meal and sometimes she has a little yogurt or fruit puree for dessert.

Next step is reducing the amount of milk she has in her bottles, with getting rid of the afternoon bottle completely.


 
 
She always takes off her shoe and socks(often only the left ones), I had to start putting tights on her and make sure we don't lose the shoes when we're out and about.


Sleeping:
Between wanting to practice rolling over in bed and being congested, she was waking up a little bit more earlier this months.
For a while she would wake up around 12/1am and I'd try to settle her back to sleep, but she would cry every time I put her down. In the end I let her sleep a bit on me(upright position helped her breathe) and then put her in her bed asleep. Luckily she has stopped that again now.
She still wakes up for a nightfeed as well around 3/4/5am, which I was really hoping to have stopped by now.

Daytime napping is great, she has two naps lasting about 1:45hrs-3hrs in total.
We don't have definite napping times yet as it all depends on what time she gets up in the morning, but she tends to have her longer sleep around 10am, then another shorter one early afternoon.

Nappies:
Size 4 during the day and 4+ at night. I still change her whenever she has a nightfeed


Clothing: 
9-12 months but I have started buying 12-18 and just roll her sleeves up. Her winter coat is a size 12-18 to make sure it fits until April/May





Social:
I've been a bit lazy going to groups so all we've been doing is our weekly sensory class. We only have one session left and I haven't signed us up for any other classes.


 
Likes:
She's loving life! She really is a happy baby.
She loves pulling on Mama's and Mummy's hair.
She thinks Mummy is hilarious(she gets more giggles than me) and loves to be sneaky and pull her glasses off.
She loves it when I sing the 'Say Hello' song from our class.

 
Dislikes:
Going for a nap, though she does eventually sleep, but that initial moment of being put in her crib is greeted with grumpiness.

Milestones:
She can definitely sit up now, she will just sit between the sofas and play with her toys, which is lovely.
She's pushing herself up like a seal when she's on her tummy and sometimes she lifts her bum, but no crawling yet. But we're not in a hurry as we will need to babyproof once she's mobile.

She has started shuffling down to the bottom of her cot and rolls over like a champ.

She has just started waving, which is very sweet, but she seems to only wave at my partner.


Mama:
I am very broody. I was ready for the next baby a few days after I gave birth. Sadly we cannot afford another child.
I currently don't earn any money and have trouble finding another nanny job so won't be eligible for maternity pay again.
My partner is only receiving a stipend for finishing her PhD.
We are VERY good with money, don't drink, don't have a car and don't really go out anymore, otherwise we would probably struggle with the little we have left after paying rent, bills, food and baby essentials like nappies and formula.

Other than that, let's not talk about my pre-pregnancy body ok? ;-)
My hair stopped falling out, but now I have crazy re-growth, which drives me bananas.



What we are looking forward to:
Going to London again, either 2 nights or possibly extending it to a 4 day stay.
If all goes well, one of my nanny friends will babysit Emilia while we attend a concert together, first time I'm leaving Emilia longer than 30 minutes.


Friday, January 2, 2015

7 months update - Christmas edition

 
(not that impressed with the lights)
 


Weight:
21lbs! She's getting heavy!
People often mistake her for being older and expect her to be able to wave/crawl or do things a 1 year old could do, they are shocked when I tell her she's only 7 months old!


Health:
Still doing well, she didn't let her cold bother her too much.
She got a bit whingey just before Christmas and we thought she was coming down with something, but turns out, she was teething again!


Nicknames:
Cheeky Chops, Cheeky monkey

Eating:
3 solid meals every day plus about 19oz of formula, 4oz in the night, 4oz when she wakes up, 4 oz in the afternoon and 7oz at bedtime.
She has porridge with fruit for breakfast, vegetables for lunch and veggies with meat for dinner.

I have gone a bit crazy filling the freezer with baby food plus I bought a few baby jars for convenience, I think we're sorted for a while.
She LOVES eating and wants a try of everything we have!
I'm not quite brave enough for babyled weaning(and could not deal with the mess), but I do try and give her bits of fingerfood every now and then.




Sleeping:
Still generally sleeping from 7pm until about 3am, quick feed and nappy change then back down until 7:30am.
BUT these past couple of days, she has been keeping me and herself up by constantly rolling over and getting stuck.
I put her to sleep on her back, then I leave her room and I can see (on the video monitor) how she's working hard to get onto her front, getting her arms stuck in between the bars, despite mesh bumpers. She's quite pleased with herself and will fall asleep for a bit but then wake ups very unhappy.
Let's hope this phase doesn't last long.

Napping twice a day, first nap around 10am, then again around 2:30, totaling 2-3 hours per day.


Nappies:
Pampers Baby Dry size 4 and 4+, still trying to find a cheaper alternative I like as much


Clothing: 
9-12 months



Social:
We're back to having stranger 'anxiety', she's all smiles from the safety of my arms, but the minute we hand her over, she gives the pouty lip and then bursts into tears.
It's a shame, because we have many friends and family members wanting to love on her, but she's having none of it.



 
Likes:
*eating!
*taking a bath
*anything that makes a noise or lights up
*empty baby wipes packs
*Mama's singing

*being carried in the Ergo


 
Dislikes:
*being strapped into her pushchair, though it's just the initial strapping in, she does love going for walks
*tummy time




Milestones:
She's getting better at sitting up, but I wouldn't go as far as saying she can sit up on her on yet.
We prop her up inbetween the sofas and she loves being able to play with her toys.


She still only rolls from back to front, but when on her front she will do press ups and push ups when she's on her back.

We discovered tooth number 5 on Christmas day and number 6 a couple days later, soon she'll be eating steak!

 


Fun things we did:
It's been a bit quiet in terms of baby groups we attend as they all went on Christmas break, but we're going back next week.
Our sensory class has 5 sessions left and unfortunately I don't think we will be able to renew after that as I won't be able to get there anymore.
I don't drive, so another lovely mum gives us a lift to the classes, but I think Emilia will outgrow her infant car seat soon, so we will no longer be able to go with her.

Emilia and I flew to Germany for a few days just before Christmas and just like before, she did amazing on the flight. People always pull a face when they see they're seated next to me, but then they're pleasantly surprised when she just smiles at them or sleeps :)


What we are looking forward to:
A family trip to London in February and possibly a holiday in Florida at the end of May

What we are not looking forward to:
Having to find a job to fit around Emilia