An 8 month baby update

baby bath fun

OK, so I know this post probably isn’t going to be even the slightest bit interesting for anyone not currently immersed in the land of baby, so I’m sorry about that. But one thing I love about blogging is that it gives me a chance to document baby milestones. I have this vague idea that I might print these off for Baby Girl one day and say “Look! Mummy may have been rubbish at filling in your red book, but I did this instead!” Or something. I guess this is my way of trying to avoid poor second child syndrome…

So, 8 months. Baby Girl turned 8 months old nearly a week ago. With every day that passes we get another glimpse into her personality. She’s fun-loving, affectionate, laid back and mischievous. She’s SO physical, in a way that her hypermobile big sister never was at this age. While it’s fun, it’s also exhausting! Baby Girl has been crawling for just over six weeks now and, this week, she’s learned to pull herself to standing against furniture. I have a feeling it won’t be long before she’s cruising around the sofa, so we’re going to get the baby walker out of the loft this weekend. It will be the same walker Frog used at 18 months.

Baby Girl is always laughing. You only need to look at her and she’ll crack out a big grin…

8 month old baby

I have a feeling that she’s going to be a bit of a mischievous joker. Already, she doesn’t have the serious thoughtful thing going on that Frog did at this age. Instead, she’s gung ho! about things, bashing and climbing and laughing all day long. She’d far rather try to demolish the TV or empty a cupboard than play with her toys, for example.

Baby Girl loves swimming. We do a weekly swimming lesson and she can now hold onto the side on her own and, this week, started trying to pull herself out of the water. She’s also started launching herself into the water when she’s sitting on the side, which she finds hilarious. She has no fear.

Kneeling baby

I spend my days running around after her, moving things that she could potentially hurt herself on or break. We need to get a stair gate for the bottom of the stairs, after I found her trying to climb them yesterday. She’s eager for an adventure, always.

I’m constantly surprised that she’s not bigger, considering the amount of food she packs away. I think she’s probably burning up so many calories being so active though, which would explain how she can eat a whole banana, piece of toast and bowl of porridge for breakfast and still be hungry for a breastfeed an hour later.

Sleep-wise, we’ve got into a bit of a new routine this week. Up until recently we were co-sleeping, as from around 10pm Baby Girl just wouldn’t settle in her cot. We have a huge super kingsize bed that she snoozed in with us all night and it was rather lovely to have those nighttime cuddles. But a couple of weeks ago she wouldn’t settle in the bed either, trying to crawl all over us, bite our faces, pull our hair etc. So I put her back in her cot where she promptly fell asleep. Since then she’s stayed in her cot all night. It’s weird how babies decide they’re just ready to do something, huh?

She’s still waking up for milk in the night, but we’re getting longer stretches. For a sleep-phobic baby I feel like we’re making progress, as she goes to bed and tends to sleep from around 6.30pm until 10.30pm, wake up for a feed, then go back in her cot and sleep until around 3am or 4am, when she wakes for another feed. She’ll then sleep until around 6.30am – 7am, when she wakes ready to take on the day. It means that I’m getting woken once in the night, although now she’s in her cot I have to actually get out of bed and feed her sitting in a rocking chair in her nursery, which means I’m still pretty tired.

Baby standing

I’m still breastfeeding on demand, but she’s started dropping her milk feeds now, having one first thing (around 7am), one just before she goes down for a nap at 9am, another one just after lunch around 1pm and then she might have a bit after the school run or she might skip that one altogether and just go through until the 6pm bedtime feed. Of course this might change from day to day, but if we’re at home and doing what we usually do then I can predict when she’ll want a feed almost to the second.

In my quest for more sleep I’ve started giving her a bottle of Goodnight Milk when she wakes up around 10.30pm and she guzzles down 6oz of the stuff. This is all on top of three meals a day and plenty of snacks. I had her weighed a couple of weeks ago and she was nearly 17lb, bang on the 50th centile on the growth chart. I think I’ve been a bit more relaxed about everything baby-related second time around. I haven’t been hung up on routines or “bad habits” in the way I was with Frog. But, equally, I’ve been quicker to try new things (like offering a bottle of formula for that late night feed, for example) if there could be the chance it leads to more sleep.

Sisters on a tractor

As she gets bigger the bond between her and Frog is growing ever stronger. Baby Girl actively searches out her big sister first thing in the morning and will crawl into her bedroom and try to climb into her bed with her. Frog finds this funny or annoying, depending on what mood she’s in.

Here’s a photo I took of them this week, when Frog had a “Best of British Day” at school and went in dressed as Queen Elizabeth I. It made me laugh, because it kind of sums up their relationship at the moment – Baby Girl crawling around on the floor, getting on with her thing, while Frog sits regally above her, sometimes deigning to play with her, sometimes not…

Sisters - queen and servant

And that’s it for another month. Slow down baby, you’re growing up far too quickly.

Anyone else consumed by babydom at the moment? What’s up with you and your bubs this month? 

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Comments

  1. says

    Although I’m no longer in Babydom, I do love to read your updates and think back to when my Girls were similar ages!!
    I Love to read that mine are not the only ones with COMPLETELY different personalities – getting to know them as their own little person has always been one of the highlights of Motherhood for me!

  2. says

    I was interested! I love blogging for that reason too. Great photos and good to hear the sleep is getting better- hope it continues and she drops a feed for you soon. Happy 8 months :)

    • says

      Thanks Al! I fully expect to continue to be woken for a long time yet… mind you, now I’ve just written that it’s sod’s law she’ll probably wake up ten times plus tonight isn’t it?!

  3. says

    Aww bless her, she’s awesome! And I know exactly what you mean about the changes that come with speed crawling- I thought we’d be pretty baby proof by number 3 but it’s amazing what Pip can get into in mere seconds!

  4. says

    Oh wow, So much is going on there. My little girl who is 8 months old has chosen to not crawl. She doesn’t seem to interested in trying and is going for the laid back approach. :-) x

  5. says

    I love your updates too Molly, and she is SUCH a smiley baby! I think posts like this are way more interesting than keeping up with red books. I felt guilty that I stopped doing updates with Wilf around a year-18m and then pretty much totally stopped. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the new baby tbh in terms of updates but I hope I can keep them up for a while as they are so lovely to read back on! x

  6. says

    We co-slept until the same point and exactly the same thing happened! I love co-sleeping when it meant I actually go some sleep but when it meant they were just crawling around then I decided I couldn’t take it anymore! She is so cute, such a happy baby! x

    • says

      It’s like one day they just decide “No way, it’s way more fun to crawl all over mum and dad than to snuggle in”. She still comes in first thing in the morning for that early feed and sometimes drops off again but often tries to peel our eyelids open or pinch us instead!

  7. says

    How are they eight months already?! The photo with F dressed as the queen is brilliant. And look at her standing in her cot! (She looks so much like her sister in that photo too) x

  8. says

    Oh wow she is such a cutie and I think blowing is great for making notes of all the amazing milestones that are happening. Glad to hear she is managing to go longer stretches now at night – that must be a bit of a relief

    Laura x

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