This month has been none stop. Little has become a lot more mobile which means I constantly have to be vigilant. She’s also had a cold much of the month and we’ve both been sleeping really badly. Hopefully she is starting to get better now.

Urgh. Babies with a cold, teething etc are a right pain to feed. Little doesn’t have many feeds during the day as she is often too distracted, but at night we have been spending hours feeding. It’s got to the point recently where some nights I have had enough and have had to remove her. 

She continues to eat a lot of solids and we haven’t found any foods she doesn’t like yet. She is starting to develop her pincer grip so she can pick up much smaller pieces with her fingers, but she is still mostly using her whole hands. Little now has two teeth (both on the bottom) which has helped her munch through some of her food faster.

We have given her some milk and water in a sippy cup which she is getting used to using. This is great as it should mean she can have both food and drink when away from me. We introduced a cup that she needs to bite to get the liquid out which she has found it quite easy to get used to, we hadn’t previously had any success with a bottle.

Again I could start this section with “urgh”. Sleep has been really really bad the last few weeks. This week I got a 4 hour stretch of sleep and I was shocked because it was my longest stretch in a while. There have been a number of nights where I haven’t managed 4 hours sleep in total. Little has been really struggling and a whole list of problems have been keeping her awake: a cough, a snotty nose, pain, her sister. This has also affected her naps.

She is generally having one nap around 9 and another around 1, but it depends what we are doing and how she is feeling on how well she manages to sleep. I’m hoping we get a bit more of a routine again next month.

Little now weighs about 8.6 kg and measures 71.5 cm so there hasn’t been a lot of growth this month. She has gone up to size 4 nappies, largely because I ran out of size 3. Size 3 still seemed to fit, but the size 4 fit ok too. She is mostly wearing 6 to 9 month clothes, with some 9 to 12 months as well.

Little is now confidently crawling. She has built her speed up and doesn’t often stay still. Her tummy is now fully off the floor when she crawls. Most of the crawling is on her hands and knees, but she does some with straight legs too (downward dog style). Obviously this wasn’t enough for her as she is now pulling herself up on everything. This has lead to her falling over quite a few times as she often chooses light items which she pulls over. She isn’t yet cruising or putting one foot in front of another, but she is getting more steady on her feet and can hold on with just one hand. She can go from crawling or standing to sitting and back again.

Little has recently worked out how to open the kitchen cupboard doors and pull things out, I think I have some more baby proofing to do this weekend.

Little is clearly communicating her likes and dislikes. She will ask for things, but we don’t always know what she is asking for. She is very verbal and makes a lot of repetitive sounds, my favourite of which is “ma ma ma ma ma”, she's obviously talking about me right? She makes singing sounds and lots of different notes. Little keeps sticking her tongue out, which is either due to teeth or just exploring the use of her tongue.

Little is starting to recognise some words, she knows her own name, “Mummy”, “Daddy”, “Sister” and her sister’s name. She also waves hello sometimes when one of us walks in the room.