Austin – Month 7
Month 6 to 7 seemed to go really quickly. I think it’s because Christmas was slap bang in the middle and it was really busy. It was really special having our first Christmas as a family of three. We went to Leeds Castle on Christmas eve and watched the Snowman together – although I’m not sure Austin was paying that much attention. We read Christmas books together before he went down to wait for Father Christmas. We actually took him to see Father Christmas for the first time as well. He didn’t cry, but he did look a bit wary.
New Year was a new affair for us too. No parties going on until the early hours. We were in bed by 11pm and we went out for a lovely walk and lunch on New Year’s Day.
But aside from the lovely break over Christmas, here’s what else he’s been up to.
Sleeping
The early morning wake has started to disappear a bit more regularly, which is lovely. We took out his Sleepyhead and he actually sleeps better without it. I think he was finding it a bit restrictive. Now he rolls around the cot. We often find him the complete opposite way to where we put him. But he regularly sleeps until about 5:30 – 6:30 now which is much better. He’s grown out of all his 3 – 6 month sleeping bags, so we have bought new ones. He now has one for the day and one for the night. The day one is a lot thinner as often the heating is on.
He’s still napping pretty well. He’s regularly having 1 ½ hour naps around lunchtime. He still has one in the morning and one in the afternoon too. He clearly likes his sleep!
Morning nap – 8:45am – 9:15/10:00am
Lunchtime nap – 12:30pm – 2/2:30pm
Afternoon nap – 4:30pm – 5pm
Feeding
He’s really getting the hang of eating. I’m still giving him predominately purée foods, but they are more complete meals now. My husband and I have batch cooking evenings where we make lots of little meals for him. He’s got a freezer drawer full of apricot and chicken curry, beef casserole, fish pie etc. It’s been great doing this together as it’s a lot of work after a full day of looking after a baby.
The only thing he’s not been keen on is papaya and plums. The plums have made him instantly sick, so I’m guessing the taste does not agree with him. He loves porridge and Weetabix, he wolfs down his breakfast.
Nappies
We’re using up the last of the size 3 nappies and we’ll be moving on to size 4. Now he’s eating solid foods, we need a nappy that’s a bit more substantial.
Mental Development
He’s coming on leaps and bounds with his talking. We’ve had a couple of ‘Dada’s to add to the ‘Mumma’ and Hello’ and he’s chatting a lot. 99% of the time I have no idea what he’s saying but it does sound more like words, rather than just noises.
We’ve also taught him to clap and wave. Sometimes he waves if you say hello or goodbye, but it’s still a work in progress. I can see him practising his clapping in the morning on the baby monitor. He also claps a lot when he’s sitting in his highchair.
Physical Development
He’s really good with his hands and he’s great at manoeuvring himself to get at the toys he wants. Most of the time they do straight in his mouth, but he passes them from one hand to the other. He’s much more capable at picking up bigger toys with both hands now. I have to keep a close eye on him with these because if he is laying down, he sometimes almost drops them on his head!
He’s got some toys with spinney parts on them. He’s really good with these and can get them spinning really fast. He also likes to get two toys (preferably hard plastic ones) and bash them together to make a noise.
He’s able to roll front to back and back to front now. He explores a lot of his cot this way. Edging himself up to find the toys or dummies tucked away at the top of the cot.
He’s still not able to sit up fully unaided, but he is improving. He can sit for about 10 seconds and then toppled over. He’s better when he’s occupied with a toy in front of him
We’ve got some more teeth bumps appearing. This time at the top of his mouth. I think one day, in particular, his gums were really sore as he was very sad and only wanted Mummy cuddles. I gave him some Calpol in the end and he perked up within 20 mins and was trying to crawl off my lap.
Hope you enjoyed reading this update!
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