Tuesday, June 30, 2009

First crawl step

This evening Bella managed her first crawl step. She's been a bit out of sorts the last few days and I put it down to more teething or a sensitive tummy, but it could well have been a developmental phase. She's so desperate to crawl properly. She can get about by her commando style shuffling, dragging and rolling but she obviously wants to do it properly. This evening she got everything off the floor...head, body, bottom...took one crawl step, wasn't sure what to do next so collapsed and cried! Bless her, I think she will have the hang of it very very soon. Luckily we spent last weekend baby proofing the house!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Early to bed...

...hopefully late to rise!

We decided to change Bella's bed time as before she was going to bed at 9.30pm, which I know is quite late but is the norm here in Spain as days start and finish later. It was working well and she was waking around 8.30am so getting a good 11 hours of sleep. Recently she started waking between 6am and 7am and it was hard work to get her back to sleep until 8.30am. She'd doze for 20 minutes, wake, doze etc. I though that maybe Bella needed to go for a natural wake up time of around 7am so decided to start putting her to bed at 8pm. It was a bit of a shock for me and Chris initially as the first morning she woke at 6.15am, the second at 6.45am and we were starting to wonder whether we'd made the right choice as that kind of time is completely alien to us. Anyway, this morning we woke her at 7.45am!

I hope it will be a much better sleep schedule for her as the restlessness now comes at the beginning of the evening when she goes off to sleep, but it's much easier to get her back to sleep when she rouses at the beginning of the evening than in the morning. With the mornings it tends to be once she's awake she's awake now. This is the 4th night with the new time and I think her body clock is readjusting as tonight she went off to sleep with minimal fuss and not heard a peep out of her since.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

6 month checkup and jabs

Well, today I felt thoroughly told off during our 6 month checkup. I knew there was going to be some issues raised with our chosen method of weaning but didn't realise quite the extreme between the US/UK and Spain. We're following baby led weaning (BLW) route where it's a kind of "anything goes" and encourages the baby to explore different flavours and textures. I'm also of the ilk that milk is the primary source of nutrition for a baby of this age and should be up to a year with exclusive breastfeeding being the optimum for the first 6 months, which is what we did.

The difference in Spain is amazing. The doctor was surprised that I hadn't started weaning at 4 months, and then I thought she was going to fall off her chair when she heard our choice of foods! She couldn't believe Bella had so much milk a day and said she only needed a bottle in the morning and one before bed with the sugar laden spanish cereals in it. She said she should be drinking juice the rest of the day and eating 4 meals a day by this age. She said best fruits were apple, pear and orange which is a huge contradiction to the UK/US where they say citrus fruits should be avoided until one year as they can cause diarreah and stomach upset due to the acidity and that apples should be cooked. Also UK/US guidleines suggest that juices should be avoided due to dental decay and plain water offered instead. The doctor claimed that cucumber was an allergen, that I shouldn't be feeding her peach or melon and especially not avocado due to the hight fat content...at least it's healthy fat as opposed to the "everything dripping in oil", fried spanish variety! I think the doctor and I will have to agree to disagree on this topic and blame it on cultural differences.

On a different note, Bella was very good with her jabs...minimal fuss and tears. She now weighs 17lbs and has grown 3cms to 68cms. She is a very healthy little girl :)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Babblings

So far we've had a very clear mama and baba, but no dada yet. She still prefers to shriek more than anything though. No further progress on the crawling front apart from the same shuffling with her body off the floor but her head planted down. It's amazing how far she can travel like this...she went 3 feet yesterday! We're off to her 6 month checkup and yet more jabs tomorrow. The vaccination schedule is rather gruelling here but only one month to go until we get a break from them.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Crawler alert!

I think we may have the beginnings of a crawler! Three times today when I have put Bella down on her tummy she has lifted her whole body off the ground and shifted forwards a little. While it is by no means "proper crawling" she did manage to go about a foot on all occasions. I really don't think it will be long before she's off!

Friday, June 12, 2009

First birthday as a Mommy!

I had to put a post up today because as the title suggests, today is my very first birthday as a mommy! I've had a lovely day with my little girl, although we celebrated as a family yesterday as Chris had the day off from work. Couldn't think of anyone better to spend it with :)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Good Night Milk...

...does what it says on the tub...or at least it did last night! I bought some Aptamil Feliz Noche (good night) milk yesterday in an attempt to get little Miss to sleep through the night again. After a shaky start it was an exceptional finish. We out her down to sleep and she woke 20 minutes later crying so I picked her up and cuddled her and laid her down on her tummy and she went out like a light...until 7am! Chris then took her in to bed with him and carried on sleeping until 9.30am. Now it could all be coincidence but either way I feel refreshed and I'm sure she does too. I guess tonight will tell whether it really is "good night" milk or just lucky.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

6 months on...

I can't believe we've had Bella in our lives for half a year! While in some ways I can't remember what life was like before her, it also feels like time has flown. Six months seems to bring big changes. She is going through an unsettled phase at the moment but it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. Her night time sleeps are a constant cause of wonderment in our house...wondering just how many times she'll wake, and will there be tears or just cooing? I put it down to teething initially but think it may be more to do with her developmental stage. She's at that point where she's exploring emotions and becoming worldly wise, and she's also desperate to crawl. It's like her mind knows what to do but her body lets her down; I don't think it will be long though before she's flying around and chasing the kitty cat! However I still do think it could be teeth as she's been fussy feeding the last couple of days so could be due to disturbed gums. I've made the decision to wean off breast feeding now and start to claim my body back so we're slowly introducing formula feeds. Tonight we gave her "Good Night Milk" so we're hoping that is what it will provide.

Bella is revisiting her repertoire of sounds and the baby dinosaur has been back at full screech since yesterday. She's trying to blow raspberries which are great when she has a mouthful of milk! While she could test the patience of a saint with her night time antics right now, I absolutely love this stage. Her personality is really starting to develop and she's constantly laughing and getting the joke, rolling around with sheer determination and basically being "the entertainer". Every night we talk excitedly about the new noise she made, thing she did, reactions to new foods, how she copied a sound or a facial expression...how she pulled the cat's tail! Every day is a new exploration for her and for us too. I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

First night in own room - progress

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I love her nursery, it's a warm, cosy, restful room so think I felt very relaxed putting her to sleep in there. She woke around midnight and was a little unsettled for about half hour but finally went back off to sleep until 5am. I went in to her and got her back to sleep and she woke again as soon as I left the room and got back in bed so I went back in and decided to sleep in there on the spare bed I've put in for emergencies! She was sound asleep again by 5.30am and I didn't hear another peep out of her until just gone 8am. Not bad for the first night. Tonight she was a little harder to get off to sleep so hoping it won't be a bad one.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

First night in own room

She's been asleep for an hour and I'm missing her already! Seriously, it was time to move her as I think she needs her independence from us. We were starting to wake her when we came to bed, with alarms going off in the morning, Chris' snoring...! In an ideal world I'd have her right next to me at all times but know that isn't practical or realistic so we made the decision this week to move her. In all fairness her room is lovely, a room fit for the princess that she is. I started by getting her to nap in there during the day over the last few days, all be it on me in the nursing chair, but it got her used to going off to sleep and waking up in there. We've also had several play sessions in there too. She's in her cot which she was using in our room anyway so at least her bed is very familiar.

She wasn't up for settling initially even though she was really tired, so I picked her up out of the cot and sat with her in the nursing chair and she was asleep within a minute or two. I transferred her to the cot and she stirred, rolled onto her side (her new favourite sleeping position) and went back off to sleep. Fingers crossed for a good nights sleep for us both, although I'm sure it will be easier for her than it is for me! It will be quite liberating having our bedroom back to ourselves after close on 6 months!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Sitting Unaided

Sorry I haven't updated in a while but it's been a busy couple of weeks with Chris having a weeks holiday and also Bella reverting back to newborn "wake every couple of hours" stage! She's been going through big changes recently and her sleep pattern went haywire for a bit but it seems as though we're back on track. She's finally taking decent naps in the day, 3-4 hours worth of good length naps, and it appears as though it's helped with her night time sleeping too. We're down to just waking once or twice and she self settles again pretty quickly. I would love to get back to the 11-12 hours straight through but am happy it's not 6 times a night again!

Anyway, Bella decided to sit all on her own yesterday! She managed to balance for about 20 seconds before toppling to one side, but today she was even better. She sat up and also realised she could suck her toes at the same time much to her amusement. She's also started a backward shuffle to move around. I'm wondering just how long until she's crawling properly!