Willow's Christening

It's taken me awhile to sit down and sort through all the photos from the christening, but it's lovely to look back at them a month on and be reminded what a lovely day we had. I feel so sad though that there were so many people there that I didn't get any photos of, but it was such a busy day! We are so lucky though, to have such incredible friends and family. 

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11 Month Willow Update

This seems like a bit of a cop out considering she's one on Friday but I had taken the photos at the beginning of the month and with training for my new job just haven't got round to sitting down for long enough to write about my little tree.

Weight When I had her weighed on Tuesday she was 18lb 10oz. Still a little dot compared to her cousin Nathan who is over 20lb and 3 months younger than her.
Routine Our evening routine is pretty much the same apart from the fact that more often than not I bath Willow in the morning now, just because by the time Kyle's home from work and we've had dinner it's getting late, especially as she can spend over half an hour in her chair eating dinner. She enjoys bath time so I hate rushing her. We have it every other day after breakfast now, then we potter around upstairs and she heads off for a nap.
Sleeping We seem to have had a bit of a break through at night time. I say that as if she's been a bad sleeper, when I think I've been extremely lucky overall. She's recently started sleeping through the night, from about 7/8pm to 6/7 sometimes 8am. She has been a little poorly recently and the odd night, probably once a week she's woke up for a feed but she's been so good lately. Even day time naps she still naps for up to three hours.   Feeding I'm still breastfeeding, but for the last couple of weeks because my training was pretty much full time she's just been having cow's milk when I'm not around. My boobs just don't fill up enough anymore to express and after a small bout of mastitis I just wanted to focus on being able to feed her when I was with her. Food wise, I still can't think of anything that she doesn't like. Her little tortilla pizzas I used to make for her do tend to end up on the floor more so than what ends up in her mouth. I just try and make sure she tries lots of different things. Scrambled egg is most definitely her favourite breakfast, which is good because I have eggs for breakfast everyday. Sizes She's in 9-12 months now, apart from her sleepsuits which are 6-9 months, and even then I'm still having to roll the feet up. She does still fit into a lot of her 6-9 months clothes. She just seems to grow at a very slow speed bless her. Which is great, it means we get a lot of wear out of her clothes. 
Milestones I think the biggest milestone has to be walking. She totters round everywhere now, which is just the cutest thing, she just looks so little! I don't even know when she took her first steps, because for a while she was just testing the waters, then gradually she just started getting braver and braver at letting go.  She also finally got her first tooth! Kyle noticed it on 28th August when she was eating scrambled egg with a metal spoon. Since then she's had three more, three at the top and one at the bottom. She did cross cut them and she looked ever so funny when she smiled. Luckily she's not bitten me too much when feeding, a lot of people tried telling me when she got teeth I'd have to give up breastfeeding her. She now claps her hands on request, and she's slowly learning the right way to climb off the sofa and down the stairs as opposed to just going head first. She loves to climb! I turned my back the other day and she was at the top of the step ladder. She's also managed to climb in her walker and loves getting in and out of her Mamas and Papas baby snug.   
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Sensory Play: Rainbow Spaghetti

I decided that when I went back to work I wanted to make up for the time I lost out on with Willow. Obviously now I have to cram a lot more in the days I am at home, be it washing, hoovering or just general cleaning, but the last thing I want to do is take away from time with my little tree. I thought that once a week I would try to set up some sort of activity, something a bit different to just playing toys that we could enjoy together, or in this case with Auntie Abbie and Auntie Em.

The best thing about this is that it cost me less than £3. The spaghetti was 29p a packet and the food colouring was around 70p each, all from Aldi. It probably kept her entertained and in one room for longer than any of her toys. Normally after about 10 minutes she remembers that there's cupboards in the kitchen full of things for her to empty and off she goes. I'm pretty sure the Boo's packets of cat food spend more time spread around the floor than in the cupboard these days. I thought I'd talk you through how I made it.

• Start by cooking your spaghetti as you normally would. Drain and rinse under cold water.
• Divide the spaghetti into bags depending on what colours you want. I considered adding in purple and orange but thought given it was my first attempt I wouldn't overcomplicate. I would also recommend zip lock bags over ones that you can just tie up.
• Add the food colouring to each bag and a drop of vegetable oil. This helps to coat the spaghetti better. I think my blues and greens looked a bit paler than I'd hoped but don't be afraid to start small and add more colouring in.
• Seal your bags and shake and squelch your spaghetti to spread the colour around.

• Once the spaghetti is coated, open the bags and just let them sit for as long as possible to let the colour fully soak in. I left mine for about 15 minutes and I think it could have done with being left for longer.
• Rinse each colour just to remove any excess colouring off, then I tipped it straight into the plastic tub to dry off a little bit.

And then the fun can begin...

I don't think Willow was even sure what to do to start with, but that only lasted about 10 seconds, then her hands were straight in there and a handful of yellow spaghetti went straight in her mouth. She played for probably about an hour, kept quiet with Auntie Abbie and Auntie Em. Needless to say it was a hit - thank god!

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10 month Willow update

Last month's update was a complete right off. My Macbook charger stopped working so I ordered a new one online, then spent about two weeks thinking I'd been conned by a fake website. Just as I was about to report it to the bank it arrived. Then within days my phone and Macbook both ended up being locked by a hacker that managed to get into my Apple account. A week spent on the phone to Bryan from Apple and a trip to Birmingham to the Apple store and everything is back to working again thank god!

Weight When I had her weighed the end of June she was 17lb 3oz, by the end of July she was only 17lb 6oz. On the chart she had started leveling out but the health visitor didn't seem worried. She said with her being so active now she will start to slow down with her weight gain.  
Routine Our evening routine is still more relaxed, but still pretty much the same. It goes dinner, bath every other night, then she plays upstairs between her bedroom/the landing and the spare room whilst I follow her trying to get a nappy on, cream and pyjamas. I feed her in mine and Kyle's room just because it's darker and she knows when I sit on the bed and get my boob out that it's time. 
Sleeping She still doesn't fully sleep through which really I'm not too fussed about. Of course a full nights sleep would be wonderful but it's not very often I wake up feeling like I've been hit by a bus. The last few weekends at the caravan she was waking at about 6am for a feed but then would not go back to sleep. We'd get up until about 8am then go back to bed for a couple of hours. At home her first night feed is anywhere between 1-3am then 4-6am, but then some nights she would only wake once. More often than not these days I put her in the cot awake, then she'll roll around for 10 minutes before falling asleep. Her daytime naps can vary from an hour and a half to three hours! Who knew what you could get done in three hours!
Feeding I can't think of anything sitting here now that she doesn't like. She loves cheese, there's no doubt about that. I tend to do her cheese on toast for breakfast or wheatabix and a handful of fruit. I've given her strawberries and grapes for the first time this month and she loves them both, definitely a little sweet tooth. As much as I can I give her what we're having for dinner so she's had spaghetti bolagnase, chicken stir fry, lasagne, toad in the hole. It's only occasionally when we have something spicy like fajitas or curry that I make her something different.  She's still breastfeeding and she's at an age now where she pulls my top down and reaches for it. She's very possessive over my boobies, if Kyle pretends to drink the milk she'll come over and take over. Now I'm back at work I've been expressing but I don't tend to get much off, only a couple of ounces.  Sizes I've decided that I'm not buying anymore rompers from H&M. I bought her a lovely summer one in February in 6-9 months along with a load of other summer bits. She's wore everything else, but the romper was just sat on her rail so when I went back to work I found it in 4-6 months so thought I'd just exchange it, but even the 4-6 months is too long. I've been told since going back to work though that H&M are quite generous on the kids sizes. The little spotty outfit in the pictures is 4-6 months and that fits her better now than when she was actually 4-6 months.  I'm just starting to pick up some 9-12 bits now but only because she needs some long trousers for chillier days, and some new sleepsuits, but I've decided I prefer sleepsuits without the feet in them, so much easier for her whilst she's constantly climbing up and down things.
Milestones I feel like developmentally this month she learns something new every other day. Obviously it's been quite a gap with missing her nine month update but she pulls herself up and down on the sofa like nobodies business and she cruises along it too. If she's feeling brave she'll sort of turn herself round from the sofa and move to the coffee table, but only if there's not much of a gap between them. She's also mastered the stairs, and when she knows she's snuck away from you she gets half way up in record time! I've been teaching her to come back down too, which she's mastered. There's a little step by the bath and her only way to get down before was to fall, but she knows now she has to put her foot behind her and drop down that way. All she wants to do now is go up and down now, which means I don't always have to be on edge whilst I'm having a wee that she's going to launch herself backwards. She'll give a high five if you put your hand out, although it's more of just a touch at the moment. If you clap her hands together for her she'll carry on clapping - she's not quite there clapping herself but I think it's coming soon. She's given me and Kyle one kiss each when we asked but she doesn't do it anymore. She kisses other babies though which is cute, but it tends to end up just being a big open mouth slobbered all over their poor bewildered face. The cutest thing has to be her dancing. Anytime her picnic basket or any of her toys play music she looks at you and starts wiggling. She does it stood up too, which looks more like a bum wiggle. The  She will also walk along with aid. She's got an old wooden walker with the bricks in the bottom that we keep in Kyle's Mum's club (she can do big laps in there because it's so big) but the first day we gave it her she wouldn't play with the bricks she just wanted to walk constantly, after about 20 minutes her little legs were tired and she was getting clumsy so Nia had to hide it away for a bit. 
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What Willow Wore #1

H&M bodysuit [pink version]

H&M shorts

Primark hat

I first shared a picture of Willow's outfit on Instagram a few weeks ago, and I've been meaning to do this blog post ever since. I enjoy buying clothes for her far more than me these days. I'm still finding my feet with my own style since becoming a mum, so being able to shop for Willow is a welcome distraction. I could go wild with the amount of summer clothes I've got saved in my favourites in my H&M account, but I've kept it quite minimal considering we only get a handful of really hot days in this country.

The white bodysuit and shorts are both H&M. I think having worked there for so long their style in baby clothes is definitely to my taste, and the prices are pretty reasonable too, even without the staff discount. The shorts are only £2.99 and the bodysuit is £5.99. I can't find the white bodysuit online anymore but I've linked the pink one which would also look nice with the shorts. The little hat is from Primark, but getting her to keep it on is a whole different ball game these days.

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Eight month Willow Update

We're a whole week late of this month's update. We've just been so busy and by the night time when I get to sit down and write I've either started it and fallen asleep or just not got round to it. My party trick lately is falling asleep on the sofa until 1/2am - wild!

Weight I completely forgot about the clinic the week before we went away but I tried the whole weigh myself then weigh me and Willow trick and it came out about 17lb 8oz. Obviously that's not entirely accurate and I reckon she lost a little bit of weight when she was poorly last week.
Routine This month I'd really like to get into a routine in the morning. I'm sick to death of not getting dressed until she goes for her morning nap and I hate the fact that for the last 8 months 9 times out of 10 I look like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards. Just a little makeup and a bit of TLC on the hair front can make all the difference.
As for the evening she we still have the same sort of routine. I only bath her every other day though and she's definitely not in bed by 7 every night.
Sleeping It's been hit and miss this last month. She started off waking a couple of times a night which I thought was probably because she was sleeping in a travel cot whilst we finished decorating her bedroom. As soon as she went in her cot she slept through the night. She had a rough week at the caravan, there was a couple of nights that I saw every hour but she had a viral infection and for a few days it really knocked her about. 
Back home now and she's not sleeping through but I said to Kyle she's learnt to crawl and pull herself up pretty much within the week. Her little mind is in overdrive learning all these new skills, no wonder she can't sleep through! Although pulling herself up on the side of her cot at 4am is not my idea of fun. She knows how to keep us on our toes!
Feeding Oh my god, she gets so hangry at times! Kyle jokes that she's going to be a little fatty she loves food that much. She has grown to love peas, oh god I love watching her eat peas. She really enjoys her Wheatabix for breakfast too. We started on three meals a day this month but it doesn't always happen, some days she seems happy enough just with milk. 
Sizes She had an outfit on today that is 4-6 months from H&M and it was hanging off her, I think she probably lost a bit of weight when she wasn't very well. The only thing that fits her well at the moment is dresses, her little 6-9 month shorts hang off her little waist and her jumpsuit that is 6-9 months is far too long on her. I had her in a 3-6 month bodysuit today and that actually fit her really well. Maybe I need to hold off buying anymore summer clothes in bigger sizes, at this rate her flowery shorts will still fit her at Christmas
Milestones Where do I start?! She crawled for the first time on 20th May, then she forgot and went back to doing her little slug along the floor. She properly mastered it when we were at the caravan for the week last week. Within a day or two she was pulling herself up on things but is still very wobbly. For months now we've always shared a bath but I've had to stop getting in with her because she just wants to climb all over me.
I swear I say it every month but she's becoming such a character now. She gets angry and her little arms go all stiff, she's going to be a right little madam! She's discovered my glasses and constantly wants to play with everyone's jewellery. If you tell her no she goes 'AH!' which I don't know if that's her way of protesting.
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Seven Month Willow Update

Weight She was last weighed on 25th April and was 16lb 4oz. People still say how little she is, but she's following her centile line perfectly now. 
Routine We're still pretty much sticking to the same routine in the evenings, but like I said last month I've chilled out on her having to be in bed by 7pm. 
We also seem to have cracked the daytime naps again. When we were at the caravan for the week over Easter she got into a great little routine of going for a nap just as Kyle went to work then when she woke we'd have a stroll down to him and she'd be happy as larry. I worried when we got home she might forget how to sleep in the day but she's been great, minus Saturday and today when she only had 20 minutes. I'm hoping they're just one offs!
Sleeping She's been a bit off the last few nights, last night she woke up three times, I'm convinced we're not far off from getting a tooth now (I feel like she's been teething more of her little life than she hasn't). She still goes to bed good, but there has been a couple of nights when about an hour later she's woken up really distressed.
Feeding I think she got a little bored of having toast for breakfast so I took to Pinterest for some new ideas. We've since tried eggy bread and two ingredient banana pancakes and some days she has Wheatabix. Her favourite food has to be little fromage frais yoghurts but this last week I made her some tortilla pizzas and she really enjoys them bless her.
She still only has two meals a day, I might start introducing lunch sometime this month but at the moment she doesn't seem fussed by it. It's sometimes a bit harder to tell how much milk she's having whilst I'm still breastfeeding on demand but I've decided that for now as long as she still wants it and I've still got a good supply then I'm going to carry on. I decided I hate the whole 'weaning' term, something about it just doesn't sit well with me, why don't people just call it feeding? And why do people take such an interest in whether you give your baby a carrot to pick up and suck on or whether you mush that carrot and feed it them with a spoon. I find it very weird.

Sizes She's still got 3-6 month clothes that she fits in and we're back to the stage where her age clothes are big on her again. Big head's summer hat is age 12-24 months though haha! I did buy some shorts the other day in 9-12 months because I thought they'll fit her between like July-October, which fingers crossed, will be the hottest time of year. Then I realised that she's always a little behind so they probably won't fit straight away so I'm just gonna change them for 6-9 months. From now on I'm just going to buy for the age she is now because I can't predict the seasons and what size she'll be at the time.
Milestones Before we went away at Easter Mum told me she'd start crawling, she didn't. She did master a funny backwards manoeuvre that meant turn your back for two minutes and she'd end up stuck up a corner. She's since mastered army crawling or some sort of slide along the floor but not properly crawling. She gets up on her knees and rocks backwards and forwards but that's it so far. 
Her party trick at the moment are big dirty raspberries. The kind that you don't really appreciate when she's got a mouth full of yoghurt and you wear glasses. I feel like every week she becomes more of a character and we still get people telling us how happy and well behaved she is. 
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6 Month Little Willow Update

Weight When she was weighed on the 28th March she was 15lb 6oz so she'd put on 1lb in a month. What a little chunk! 
Routine We had a cracking little routine going in the mornings earlier in the month, one that even allowed me to fit in a quick HIIT workout whilst she played in her little table. That went well out the window when the clocks changed. Now she's a bit all over the place, some mornings she's up at 7am some it's 8.30am. 
Our evening routine has slackened off a bit too since the clocks changed. I'm starting to worry less about doing certain things at certain times. I'm glad we did for a while but now that Willow knows what happens in the evening then it doesn't really matter what time we do it. If I always stuck to bed at 7pm we'd never do anything in the evenings. We took her to the pub this evening with Mum, Dad and Grandad when she would have been going to bed and she was happy enough sat in a high chair sucking on chips and tomatoes, but went to bed perfect when we got home at 9.30pm. It's such a change from a couple of months ago when it would hit 7pm and she'd be screaming to go to bed.
Sleeping Like I said above she still goes to bed wonderful. There's been a few nights at the caravan when she's had late nights, but if there's lots going on around her she's not interested in feeding. She still wakes in the night but she'll feed and go straight back to sleep. It really does vary what time she wakes but it's never before midnight. 
Feeding Most mornings I have scrambled egg on toast for breakfast, so I do Willow a slice of toast and she has a little bit of egg. I don't think she's keen though. There's a few things she doesn't like and they just so happen to all be green: cucumber, broccoli, guacamole and peas. I think peas will grow on her though. 
I get a bit stuck for ideas for dinner time and I really want to start giving her what we have for dinner but for so long now me and Kyle have had dinner when she's gone to bed so we've just gotta break that routine and start preparing earlier. I picked up a free Ella's Kitchen recipe book and I've downloaded a few apps so I think now she's hit six months I'll get stuck in a bit more and be more adventurous.

Sizes She still doesn't fit in her 4-6 months H&M clothes properly, but all her 3-6 months sleepsuits are getting a bit fitted now. I've started stocking up on some summer bits in 6-9 months but then I'm trying to split everything I like between 6-9 months and 9-12 months because that is going to be the height of summer (I hope!).
Milestones She's gotten so good at sitting on her own, there's only been a couple of occasions when she's shot forward and bumped her face. I tend to still sit behind her at the moment just in case but just because every now and then she'll throw herself back and snuggle in. I think she'll crawl before she has teeth, she's so eager to go! I love watching her play, she'll pick things up and grab things. She talks to them and more often than not they'll end up in her mouth. It's the sweetest thing.    Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin

Five months Little Willow Update

Weight I took her to be weighed last week on 28th February and she was 14lb 6oz. She's in between the 25th and 50th centile now and the health visitor said she's not worried about her at all. She's definitely gotten longer too, she's filling out her 3-6 month baby grows now.
Routine There's certain things that I find myself doing at certain times of the day. I won't take her for a bath any earlier than 6pm because straight after bath time it's bedtime. Normally in the evening our routine goes: 5.30pm: dinner, 6pm: bath time, 6.30pm: booby milk in the bedroom. On the days that I don't bath her I push dinner time back until about 6pm. It seems to be working for us, she's an absolute dream to get to sleep. We've also somewhat tackled the whole day time napping, I normally take her up to the bedroom anytime between 12pm and 1pm, close the curtains and blind and feed her on the bed like I would in the evening then pop her in her basket when she's finished feeding. To begin with she would have about an hour but then a few days last week she had an hour and a half. All that being said, she's hit five months today and decided to skip nap time. I'm pretty sure she started to regret it by about 3pm.
Sleeping Like I said she's a dream to put to bed, but for the majority of this month she's been awake by 6.30am. Our first night at the caravan she woke at 5.30am. By the time Kyle woke at 9am it felt like midday. She has started going down until about 7am again now though which is a relief, I was getting a bit worried that I was going to be one of those Mum's whose day starts at 5.30 every single day. Her night feeds have been a bit all over the place this month, but there was only one night that she's done a 12 hour stint. Some nights she only wakes once, some nights twice. She always falls back to sleep whilst feeding apart from one night when it was about 4.30am and she finished feeding and was busy craning her neck looking round. I thought that was my day starting so I chanced it and put her back in her basket. She lay there blowing raspberries for ages and when I next woke she'd obviously nodded back off.
Feeding We decided this month to start combining a little bit of food into her diet. She was always so grizzly in the day and my Dad suggested that maybe she was hungry. She had to be, she's so nosey in the day now, if she hears the slightest noise whilst she's feeding whips her head round to find out what's going on. Every bit of advice recommends waiting until 6 months but starting early was by far the best decision for Willow. She's so much happier now. She doesn't have a lot, I give her half a rusk in the morning which she just tends to make the end a bit mushy, then in the evening she has a bit of porridge. She's had a taste of yoghurt too and I mashed up some carrots for her last weekend. She seems to enjoy everything she's had so far so I'm not to fussed about rushing to give her every option of vegetable available anytime soon.

Sizes She fits lovely in her 3-6 clothes now but has still got a lot of growing room in her H&M clothes that are 4-6 months. She'll probably still be wearing them when she's 7 maybe 8 months. She's such a little dolly dot bless her.
Milestones She's mastered the art of raspberries, which are cute, but not at 4.30 in the morning. She does lots of laughing now, which absolutely breaks my heart, it seriously is so infectious. She also rolled from belly to back a few times this month, not too much though, she bumped her head a few times so maybe it put her off haha.  If she's on your lap, she much prefers to be stood up with you holding her weight and over the weekend she's almost got to grips with sitting on her own. She's becoming such a character, she smiles at anybody that acknowledges her and she's just starting to snuggle up for a cuddle.
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February in Photos

Another month over, just like that. February offered us our first trip to the caravan in Wales and became the month we started little Willow on some grub other than breast milk. I'd say a four month Willow has been the hardest. I've spent a lot of time hoping she'd nap just so I could get some housework done. I told myself to stop being so hard on myself. Relax and enjoy my little baby falling asleep on me halfway through a feed, because she's not going to want cuddles forever. I'll go more into our weaning story when I do her five month update next week but I will say that any new parent should follow their instincts. Health visitors encourage you to wait until six months but even just the tiniest bit of food everyday has worked wonders for her sleeping pattern. They say 'food is fun before one' and that's exactly how we're treating it. 
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