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!

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 :)

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!