Little Leaps – Determined Little Lady

For this week’s Little Leaps, I am focusing on Neve, who is making some huge developmental leaps at the moment.

I am loving that Neve’s personality is starting to shine. She is a happy little soul with lots of smiles and laughter, and is communicating well, responding to facial expressions and saying Dadda alllll the time. We are still working on Mama, but so far “boob” is about as far as she has got in gesturing for me (which explains a lot!)

The sleep is still as bad as ever, so much so that I went to see my Health Visitor today to beg for advice. Last night Neve didn’t settle to sleep until 3am, so despite going up to bed at 9pm myself, my head didn’t touch the pillow until around 3.30am. I am beyond exhausted, and seriously starting to question whether there is something medically up as opposed to her just being a bad sleeper. I know a lot of it is probably due to me feeding her to sleep – we have failed to teach her to self settle, and as a result she still wakes up regularly wanting milk. Lately however it also appears that she is uncomfortable, and thrashes around a lot. The Health Visitor suggested I talk to my GP about potential reflux issues, and whilst she is probably a little old for that, I think I will check it out. Better to be safe than sorry.

The health visitor also recommended I try and increase the amount of solids I am getting in her during the day, in the hope that filling her up more will stop her wanting milk as much at night. At the moment she is having four milk feeds a day, but then probably feeds at least another 3 times at night, which is way more than necessary and probably leaves her a little full when it comes to food weaning. Trying to increase food intake on a baby that barely opens her mouth is always going to be a challenge, but I will do my best.

Developmentally however, the health visitor said she is doing ‘perfectly’ which is always nice to hear. She is sitting really well and straight, and now leans and pulls herself to things that she wants, desperately trying to get her hands on Erin’s toys, something we will need to be extra careful of!

She is getting to the stage where she will pull herself and rock backwards and forwards so I have a feeling she will be crawling before I know it. Erin never really did the traditional crawl, so it will be quite a new experience for me to see it done ‘the normal’ way! I hate that she is growing up so quickly, but it is so lovely to see her determined little mind when she wants to do something. I admire her stubbornness, she must take after her mother! 🙂

Neve turns 8 months this week, and I am entering the last quarter of my maternity leave. My last maternity leave and my last baby *sob*. As hard work as she can be at night, I am loving our days together and will cherish every minute of them whilst I can. I just wish I wasn’t experiencing them through sleep deprived eyes!!

Someone needs to slow time down!!

Lucy x