What we got up to this month

After experiencing some quite nice weather in May, June has been a bit of a washout really. During the first week it was half term and we went to a ‘beach party’ at the Children’s Centre which ended up being indoors due to the weather. We also had a family visit to the dentist and a trip to the Southbank to have lunch with Sarah, Arnaud and Connie at The Green Room.

The following week I took Tabitha (and Polly) along to her playgroup’s ‘street party’ in honour of the Queen’s 90th birthday. All the children ate party food outside at a long table while wearing crowns and waving flags.

Then it was Polly’s first birthday, which Tom had the day off for and Grandad Roger and Nana Margaret came down for. We had a pizza tea at Valentina’s on the day and then a family do on the Saturday. The do was meant to have been a picnic in the park, but as it was damp and cloudy we had it at ours, which worked well in the end. Polly’s birthday was also the day Tabitha stopped having a dummy overnight.

The day after Polly’s party was Father’s Day. We had brunch at The Bear Kick and then a late lunch at Annie’s with Grandad Roger and Nana Margaret.

The following week it was back to reality for Polly as she had her jabs – four in total – which was horrid for her (and me).

We saw quite a bit of Millie this month: Tabitha and I went over to play one Sunday morning, and then I took both girls round for their tea the following Thursday. Then we had Millie round the week after for tea, to return the favour. We also saw them at the Mortlake Fair (which we managed to get to between rain showers), and we all went for a quick drink at The Tapestry afterwards. Earlier the same day, me, Tom, Tabitha and Polly had ventured to the Thomson House summer fair, however it poured with rain and we spent most of our time there sheltered under a flimsy marquee!

Towards the month’s end, Polly tentatively took a few steps unaided; will July be the month she properly starts walking? We shall see!

 

Polly turns ONE!

I cannot quite believe that I am writing this already, but our baby girl is one today! The past year has flown by in a sleep-deprived haze, and somehow in just twelve months Polly has transformed from a tiny newborn to a robust almost-toddler in the blink of an eye. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a baby changes in the first year of their life.

This past month has been a particularly exceptional one in terms of milestones for Polly. On May 19th she walked across the room using her walker for the very first time, and then on June 2nd she stood unaided for a few seconds for the first time. She’s now often found cruising round the room using the furniture, or anything that can be pushed along! She has also added nananana and mamamama to her babbles.

What she still does not do is sleep through for us, and wakes at least once, without exception, every single night for a feed. There has, however, been a bit of an improvement in the self-settling department, and occassionally if she wakes for a second time we can leave her to cry for a minute or two and she will put herself back to sleep. Some nights it doesn’t work like that and we’re up with her for a while, whereas other nights she doesn’t even stir again until morning. There has also been a slight improvement when she first goes down for the night; Polly no longer needs rocking every evening (although she seems to have regressed again on this over the past week).The recent hot weather and the fact that Polly’s top teeth have FINALLY cut through her gum do not help with the sleeping either. And with her new top teeth comes the teeth grinding which she’s already discovered!

Polly is still predominantly on two naps a day, although more and more it’s just the one, which works so much better in terms of her being tired enough to go down at a decent time for the night.

She LOVES her food and will happily sit for ages picking her way through a plate-full of finger food. She’s mostly doing baby led weaning, because a) she seems happy with that and b) it means I can get on with other things rather than sit and feed her. Even things like yoghurt and porridge she tackles herself; using a spoon which she is very good at or – her prefered method – her hands! We’ve been gradually weaning Polly off Aptamil and onto cows milk over the past couple of weeks, and as soon as the current tub of formula runs out that will be it. We’ve also stopped sterilising too.

One of the funny things Polly likes getting up to is emptying the laundry bin and sorting through the dirty washing. She enjoys draping items of clothing over herself, and on more than one occassion I have found her crawling round with a pair of knickers round her neck! She also likes clapping – especially when she hears music – doing row-row-row your boat, and doing walkie-round-the-garden (which she attempts to do the actions for).

It has become apparent how much Tabitha keeps Polly entertained, as on the couple of mornings Tabitha is at pre-school Polly is a lot harder-work and much clingier. I actually manage to get more done when I have both of them here, although I do relish the mornings where I only have one child to look after; it’s a lot quieter!

This past year has been fun at times, not-so-fun at other times, monotonous and  repetitive much of the time, and exhausting and tiring all of the time. However, it is an honour and a blessing to share these formative years with my two girls and I know I will never regret doing so (no matter how stressful it can get!).

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY POLP!

 

 

Polly at 11 months old

I can’t believe our baby girl turns one next month!

Polly has been pulling herself up to standing for a full month now (she first did it on April 16th). However, she does not cruise or make any attempt to take steps yet, so she’s still a way off walking – at least three months I’d say. She does push the wheelie panda along walking on her knees and she can now crawl up steps, having finally mastered the ones in our hallway at the end of April. Now that the weather has warmed up, she’s been coming out of the pram at the park a bit more, which of course she loves. It won’t be long before we have to get her first shoes!

Polly loves waving and responds whenever she hears someone say hello or goodbye. She also recognises Buddy’s name and turns her head to look for Bud when she hears us say it.

We’re still waiting for Polly’s next lot of teeth – she only has two bottom ones at the moment, but you can see a whole row at the top waiting to cut through. Her sleeping is still very up and down. Quite a few nights this month she has been up for hours at a time overnight, whereas other nights she sleeps pretty well after waking for her milk (I’m still not sure when or how we’ll tackle this late feed situation, and despite the annoyance of it, one of my favourite moments of the day is how sleepy, cuddly and calm Polly is when she has finished that cheeky late feed). During the day she is still having two naps in her pram, and largely still needs rocking to sleep for bedtime, although I am starting to see a small improvement in the self-settling department.

Just like her sister before her, Polly has a fascination with the bathroom and I often find her stood up against the bath dropping things in (usually toys and torn up toilet tissue!). She also loves playing with Tabitha’s new kitchen and emptying the DVD cupboard on the occasions when the door’s been left open.

With the sudden arrival of the summer season, I once again find myself extremely grateful that, not only have we had a second girl, but that they were also both born in the same season, meaning Polly suddenly has an extensive new summer wardrobe that didn’t cost us a thing!

So, only four or so more weeks until we have a one year old and we can stop sterilising bottles and stop using formula. Now that’s a milestone I’m looking forward to! 

Polly at 10 months

At 10 months old Polly is back-arching with gusto, especially while having her nappy changed or being dressed. She’s surprisingly strong for such a little one.

She is suffering from separation anxiety at the moment and I find it hard to put her down or leave her sight without her moaning. She does an annoying little whinnying noise, which is better than full on crying but is still tiresome!

She now crawls properly on all fours and pulls herself up to her knees. She can stand against things quite well too if she’s placed in the standing position.

It’s been a month since we cut out Polly’s second night feed. For a good week or more she’d wake up and take about two hours to re-settle, which was knackering. It had finally got to the point where she was mostly sleeping through after her first feed (which happens any time between about 9.30 and 12.30), however the past few nights she has been really unsettled again and waking up for long periods in the early hours. On the nights she does sleep she is waking for the day SO early – sometimes just after 5am, so either way it’s tiring. I do want to cut out the remaining feed soon too, but can’t bring myself to yet!

To get her to sleep in the evening, we more often than not have to rock her in our arms. It’s very rare Polly will settle herself in her cot, as she won’t stay laying down, and because she’s in with her sister we can’t just leave her as she disturbs Tabitha. 

Polly’s learnt to wave over the past month, which is so cute. She especially loves waving at her reflection in the mirror, and her little hand starts to go whenever we pass a mirror!

Polly’s meals are a mixture of finger-foods and purées. Her favourites include banana, avocado, tomatoes, grated cheese, Heinz spaghetti, chicken, ham and cucumber dipped in hummus.

  

Polly’s nocternal habits

Up until about the age of 6 months Polly was a fairly good sleeper; usually only waking once per night for a feed in the early hours, sometimes going right through until about 5am. But for the past month or so, her wake-ups have increased to two, sometimes three times per night – when she wakes she always needs a full feed, she no longer settles with water or a dummy. 

One quick search of the Internet assures me this is pretty common – a developmental phase – but that doesn’t make it any easier. When you know your baby is capable of sleeping long stretches it is frustrating when she doesn’t. 

At the same age that Polly is now, Tabitha was an appalling sleeper too – but the big difference was Tabitha didn’t need milk overnight because she was hungry, she just needed a few sips to get her back to sleep, which is why I was happy to wean her onto water at around 6 months old. Polly, however, usually finishes a full bottle each time. 

Annoyingly though, throughout the daytime Polly never finishes a bottle as she gets too distracted – so she grazes on little amounts every few hours and has just a small amount of solids at mealtimes. Which is why it gets to nighttime and she gets so hungry. It’s a catch-22, and I fear it is now a habit too.

Also, Polly needs her morning nap at about 10.30am at the moment, which is always exactly when we’re at a busy, noisy playgroup. It’s getting harder to get her to nod off – again she gets too distracted – so often her nap is late or cut short. I’m sure things like this don’t help her overnight habits.

Once Polly is taking on more solids, I’ll go about the watering down her milk process in the night, but for now I think we’re just going to have to put up with her increased nighttime feeds and hope it gets better, not worse.

The girls at 33 months and 7 months

  
The past four weeks have been taken up with Christmas and new year celebrations, with visits to both Clacton and Stoke. Both girls have had colds over Christmas and as we started the new year both me and Tom came down with it too. This, combined with Polly’s overnight shenanigans, made the first week of 2016 rather difficult. However, it’s good to be back to normal again and this weekend just gone we took the girls swimming which was lovely. Tabitha was a tiny bit apprehensive initially but she soon overcame that and loved every minute. Polly had a huge smile on her face and enjoyed splashing and kicking in the water.

T A B I T H A

• Tabitha is now two-and-three-quarters! Her third birthday is just three months away.
• I’ve noticed that she no longer refers to herself in the third person but rather calls herself ‘me’.
• Since the new year Tabitha’s managed several wees and even a poo on the potty. It’s amazing what the incentive of a white chocolate button can do! I’ve not attempted her without a nappy for any length of time yet, but at least it’s a baby-step in the right direction. 
• ‘I might fall down’ is a phrase I’m hearing a lot at the moment, which is Tabitha’s pre-warning of displeasure at not getting her own way. 
• ‘My poor back is hurting’ is another thing she says all the time, to the extent that I took her along to the doctors just before Christmas to see if anything was wrong. However, I think it’s just another thing she automatically says when things are not going how she wants them to.
• Often when we ask Tabitha to do something or fetch something, she’ll pick up the nearest thing to her and say ‘I can’t my hands are full’.
• Unfortunately Tabitha’s going through a (hopefully short) phase of hitting (usually Polly on the head either with her hand or a toy), which we repeatedly tell her she mustn’t do. She’s also forever snatching toys out of Polly’s hands which drives me round the bend.
• Buddy’s not excluded from Tabitha’s brutishness either – she’s constantly bashing Buddy’s cage, closing her doors and terrorising her with big toys. Thankfully Buddy seems to take it all in her stride. Tabitha’s pretty obsessed at the moment.
• Over the past month it hasn’t been out of the ordinary for Tabitha to have a nap in the day (I think because we’ve been so busy). And her sleeping overnight is amazing now. It’s very rare that she wakes up in the night and sleeps in until about 8am at the moment. 

 

P O L L Y (Poll-Poll-a-ding-dong)

• Polly’s sleeping has taken a turn for the worst in the past few weeks, leaving me and Tom constantly exhausted. I don’t know if teething or a change of setting triggered it, but while we were up north Polly would spend hours at a time awake overnight. Since being back she has improved slightly but now always wakes for at least a couple of feeds (the first around 11ish, the second around 3ish) and often won’t settle straight back down after the second feed. I used to be able to settle her a lot more with the dummy, rather than have to do a feed, but that no longer seems to work either.
• I feel happier now that I’ve got Polly onto three meals a day and batch-cooked her some meals for the freezer (although now it’s a constant stream of milk feeds and solids throughout the day). She’s currently enjoying Annabel Karmel’s lovely lentils, salmon and sweet potato, and Mediterranean medley as well as porridge, weetabix, yoghurt and banana, yogurt and avocado etc. She now uses the highchair and Tabitha sits in her new Oxo tot booster seat.
• Polly now sits up very well unaided. She is still yet to crawl but can turn herself around 360 degrees on her tummy.
• She’s forever babbling dadadadadadada – especially in the middle of the night when she’s meant to be sleeping.
• She currently has two naps a day (both in the pram) and goes at least 3 hours between sleeps, if not longer.

 

December update

As the year nears its end, I find myself becoming more and more frustrated by the combined force of my children: Tabitha’s outbursts over everything and anything and Polly’s increasing reluctance to nap without being rocked in the pram. Months of disrupted sleep are finally taking their toll on me and I lose my patience with both girls far too easily. This is something I want to change – easier said than done when tiredness takes over – but I am going to make every effort to stay calm and collected in the face of turbulence, tears and tantrums!

With the festive season underway, we’ve been doing some nice Christmassy things including Kew after dark, seeing Father Christmas at the Lyric and a couple of Christmas fairs.

T A B I T H A (or The Poppet as she affectionately calls herself!)

• This month Tabitha has continued to slowly settle into playgroup. I always feel anxious in the lead up to dropping her off as she usually cries when I leave her. However, it gets better with every week that passes and she does enjoy it when she’s there. She’s becoming more confident and joining in with the drama sessions, and apparently when another little girl was upset she went and asked her if she was ok, which was very sweet.
• Tom, Tabitha and myself took a visit to the dentist – Tabitha’s second ever visit – and the dentist managed to get a brief look in her mouth. One of her teeth has a stain – at first the dentist thought it was the beginnings of a small hole, but she looked closer and is pretty certain that’s not the case. Tabitha does consume too much sugary food – she loves cakes, biscuits, chocolate… anything she can get her hands on really. 
• Tabitha is a nightmare to take food shopping now – grabbing at everything in reach and throwing random things in the basket. I tend to only go shopping with the girls when I really need to, so usually poor Tom has to go on his way home from work!
• On our way to our various playgroups, Tabitha spends a lot of time giving a hug and a kiss to inanimate objects – usually a bollard or a lamppost! She also likes to keep me supplied with stones and sticks – how kind! Luckily we’re never in too much of a hurry as we never get anywhere fast.

P O L L Y

• Unbelievably, Polly has hit the six month milestone – where has the past half a year gone?! Weaning is well under way and she seems to enjoy tasting the different mushed-up fruits and veg I am offering her.
• Our gorgeous girl has won herself the title of Baby of the Month over at the Baby Website, and we’ve been sent a personalised blanket as her prize (which is being wrapped up for her Christmas present).
• As mentioned above, Polly is harder work to settle off to sleep at the moment, especially during the day. I often put her in the pram and rock her – something I really hoped I’d avoid this time around. Mind you, she’s nowhere near as bad as Tabitha was!
• She’s going through a really scratchy, grabby phase – getting a handful of neck or face in her pincer grip – I’m covered in little scratches!
• Polly still wakes up in the night – usually once or twice for a feed. Again, she’s nowhere near as bad a Peachy was at this age, but the constant sleep disruption is still unwelcome.
• I don’t think it’ll be long before our Poll-Poll is on the move – she can push up really high on her arms now and is desperate to get up on her knees too. She’s still not sitting up, but is getting sturdier with every passing day.
• She has also started to cackle like her big sister used to, which is very amusing.

  

Our weaning journey begins

On Thursday I took Polly to the clinic to be weighed. Even though I feel like she’s filled out a bit recently, the scales suggested otherwise. Weighing in at 13lb 12oz, Polly has dropped to just below the 25th centile. The lady at the clinic thought we should wean her a bit early – she suggested in a couple of weeks time, at 24 weeks, but said there was no harm in starting straight away. So for the past couple of mornings Polly’s had a nibble on some buttered toast! I think she quite enjoyed it.  

Polly at 3-months

Polly has now hit three months old – a quarter of a year! The ‘fourth trimester’ / newborn stage is sadly over and it’s now a whole year ago that she was conceived. 

On Friday just gone Polly did her first ever laugh out loud. I’ve been trying to get a giggle out of her for weeks and typically it was Tabitha waving her Upsy Daisy wand about that got the laugh. Polly adores her sister – she happily sits in her bouncer chair and watches Tabitha playing.

I think we’ve finally cracked bedtime with Polly now and she is always asleep for the night at about 7pm – she usually wakes once for a feed about 3am. As I reported previously, she has slept through a few times, but I think that’s more of a rarity than the norm. We’ve now got her a cot which is set up in the corner of our bedroom. She’s still sleeping in her basket at the moment though and will do for a few more weeks until we’ve been up to Stoke. During the day she’s in quite a nice 3-hourly ‘eat, awake, sleep’ routine which is working quite well for us, although it does somewhat dictate when we can leave the flat. It’s not as easy to get to things on time anymore and I feel like we’re at home a lot at the moment, which is also partly down to Tabitha’s new love of staying in.

Polly is a very smiley baby and especially loves having little kisses on her face and being gently lifted up and down. This weekend she had her first go in the door bouncer!

  

I’ll be interested to find out how much she weighs and what percentile she’s in at her weigh-in on Thursday. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s dropped down a bit as she still only has about 4-5oz of milk at a time. She’s also a very sicky baby and is regularly puking over herself or me!

Ten weeks today

Polly has reached double figures in weeks and to celebrate she slept through the night for the very first time! Yes, for the first time since Polly arrived we were not disturbed by either child until AFTER Tom’s alarm had gone off, which is amazing. Needless to say I was awake on and off from about 2am – I’m not sure I’m capable of sleeping through the night myself anymore! Anyway, I was very pleased to reach this milestone with Polly and hopefully we’ll have many more nights like that. I know from experience though that a good sleeper at this age doesn’t necessarily mean a good sleeper forever. However, it is quite remarkable the difference just a few weeks makes; to think Polly spent her first few weeks unwilling to sleep in her Moses basket, only settling on me, and waking frequently through the night for feeds.

The weather is all over the place at the moment – today it is throwing it down, so we’re stuck indoors, whereas a couple of days ago it was over 30 degrees. We did enjoy a couple of picnics in the park over the weekend before the weather took a turn for the worst. 

I’m making a conscious effort to eat healthier at the moment after weighing myself the other day and finding I’m over 12 stone! I couldn’t believe it – that’s at least a stone and a half heavier than I’d like to be, and seeing as I barely do any walking or exercise at the moment, eating less is the only option. I had gotten into particularly bad habits eating-wise so it feels good to be being a bit healthier.