Eve at six months old

The time has flown like you would not believe and now we find that our littlest baby is suddenly sitting in a highchair and eating dinners!

Eve is 25 weeks now and we have been weaning since 21 weeks. She was an enthusiastic eater from the off and now has decided she likes solids so much that milk is just soooo last month!

Her favourite foods so far have been parsnip, carrot and sweet potato. But it has been a resounding NO to courgette, no matter where I try to hide it!

Because she has enjoyed weaning so much we found ourselves moving from one meal a day to three more quickly than we planned, because she is drinking less and less milk at the moment. Where I used to always make her up 6oz bottles I now only make up 5oz, and it is very rare she’ll finish one of those (the main exception being at 4am when she is in the habit of waking…)

Her early issues with wind, which made her seem quite a tense baby, have pretty much gone. Now she seems much more laid back, full of smiles and only cries and fusses when she’s tired or hungry. She is still more than capable of screaming the street down when she’s not happy though – her piercing scream can still vibrate your eardrums if she fancies it!

Looks wise, she remains strikingly similar to Lilly at the same age, although daddy says she has his big ears! We still can’t tell for sure if she has blonde hair, or whether there is a hint of strawberry lurking in there…

She hasn’t yet rolled over completely, but she isn’t far off. She can’t yet sit up on her own, but she will sit happily propped up by cushions.

She absolutely loves playing with all her teething toys and she has a rattly pink poodle toy that she is quite fond of. At night we still use her Ewan the Dream Sheep to help her off to sleep, she likes the music setting and isn’t keen on the white noise, but it seems to be losing its magic a little now. (Hearing it certainly makes me feel tired though!)

At the moment, we think she is teething. There is no sign of any little white buds peeping through just yet, but there is a lot of dribbling and sucking of gums.

Sleeping wise, she has got a lot better recently in terms of going down for naps. She still needs her dummy to get to sleep, but one night last week she actually went to sleep sucking her thumb – which I’d prefer as then I wouldn’t have to keep getting up in the night to put her dummy back in!

In the last few weeks, Eve has started at nursery. She and Isla are doing two days a week, and Tony’s mum looks after them the rest of the week as both he and I are working full time again now.

I wasn’t really worried about Eve starting nursery, apart from feeling bad about her being the littlest one in there (just as Lilly and Isla were when they started). But I knew that really she is too little to be too upset, and will just take everything in her stride. I didn’t bank on the fact that, on her second settling in session (when I left her for an hour) I would return to find her screaming the place down! Apparently, she had been fine, but then Isla came in to visit her because Isla was a bit upset in the toddler room next door, and it seemed to set Eve off. She was heartbroken! But still had a smile for anyone who smiled at her, in between huge sobs…

Eve already seems to have grown up so much, but we know exactly how much more growing she will do over the next few months and years, having seen it twice before. We just can’t wait!

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Isla at 14 months

Isla seems to have grown up so much in the two months since her birthday.

It seems that every few days you look at her and think: “You’ve changed since yesterday!”

Her biggest physical development since turning one is that we now have those gorgeous wibbly first steps. She has been walking for a few months now with the aid of her walker, but on our return from holiday last week she took her first proper steps completely on her own. Well, we were chuffed to bits to see them – I don’t think anything quite beats the thrill of seeing them take their first step – but Isla herself was completely over the moon!!! I think she has been frustrated lately trying to walk and talk and when she realised she’d really done it she was hysterically excited, giggling her head off and wanting to do it again again again! Her face was a complete picture of pride and amazement… just a wonderful sight.

Her enthusiasm means that now she is, quite literally, trying to run before she can walk… the more walking practice she does from me to daddy and back again, the more excited she gets, the faster she tries to go, and she completely forgets to try and get her balance in a standing position first – she just throws herself forward!

Her speech is coming along too – most exciting development lately being the word “Lilly” – she pronounces it “Law-Law” and shouts it at Lilly to get her attention, or when she can’t see Lilly and wonders where she is. “Mumma” has returned and is now definitely used in context. There are also a lot of words that we don’t understand, but which seem to mean something to her – on holiday everything was a “bish!” But we also had other words like “Bo” which meant boat. She doesn’t try to say thank you but whenever you (or Lilly) hand her something, such as food or a toy, she will accept it, then pause and give you a huge cheesey grin for a second as a way of acknowledging that she is happy you gave it, before she eats or plays with it.

Food wise she can eat almost whatever Lilly eats now (in fact, probably more as Lilly is going through a very fussy stage). But she has no intention of using a spoon herself – she never tries to grab it from you and is quite content to be fed, Queen of Sheba style. She will do finger foods though, although if you were to offer to put it in her mouth for her, she’d be quite happy with that… lazy bones!

Isla is definitely a daddy’s girl at the moment – she looks to her daddy first for comfort if she bumps herself or is hard done by in some way (usually by having a toy snatched from her by Lilly). She isn’t shy but she can be a bit sensitive around other people outside mummy, daddy and Lilly at first – even grandparents. She just needs five minutes to take in the new surroundings and new faces before she feels comfortable.

And her sense of exploration is definitely being fully exploited – she loves climbing, especially on chairs and up the stairs (which we only allow her to do under close supervision of course!) Like any 14 month old she has no sense of danger whatsoever! Recently she discovered the joys of slides and can’t get enough of them. We have a tiny one in the garden which we’ve had since Lilly was a baby and she will never get tired of whooshing down time after time.

At night she sleeps fairly well – on holiday recently it was world war 3 every bedtime with screaming and creating no matter how tired she seemed. Luckily, since we came back she has started going to sleep without a fuss, and generally sleeps through the night. However, on the occasions when she does wake up – it always takes at least an hour to settle her down again… exhausting! We have stopped giving her milk in the bedroom before putting her down – she now has it downstairs half an hour or so before bedtime with Lilly. And she doesn’t need milk the instant she wakes up either – she has water on waking then milk a little later on like her sister – so I think we can finally do away with those blessed SMA cartons that’ve been costing a small fortune but were so handy to keep by the bed!

I just love seeing Isla grow and develop – between the ages of one and two there is literally never a dull moment. (is there ever?!) Just can’t wait to see what the next couple of months will bring…

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Isla at 10 months old

Isla is now 10 months old – it seems impossible that my littlest baby is coming up to her first birthday so fast!

She is now much more mobile, she’s crawling and practicing doing a “bridge” with her feet and hands on the floor and her bottom sticking up in the air! She isn’t fully able to pull herself up on the furniture, although she is starting to try, and I am trying to encourage her to put more weight on her feet at the moment in preparation for walking. We have just got out the trusty old VTech walker for her, which she loves pressing buttons on (when she gets a chance because it is also Lilly’s new favourite toy too!)

Her personality is lovely. She remains largely chilled out but, since becoming more mobile she has become a little bit more demanding, and can be grizzly if she is hungry, tired or frustrated! Her face when Lilly has a tantrum is a picture – at first there will be a flicker of concern, then usually just amusement, or bemusement! In the last couple of months she has become much more of a smiler and laugher – her first few months she was very serious, as though she was taking everything in before deciding how to react. Now she will smile and wave at strangers in shops and she giggles more. I also love the fact that now, when she hears music of any kind, she will start jigging away!

Isla’s favourite things are baths – she loves splashing her hands and especially when Lilly joins in – she doesn’t even seem to mind being splashed in the face in the process! She also loves the sensation of being dropped downwards – even walking down the stairs with her in your arms makes her smile. She really loves her big sister. When Lilly comes into our bedroom in the morning and Isla is awake already, Isla will get really excited and start bouncing about on the bed when she sees her, which usually gets Lilly excited too – so generally a lovely start to the day. And Isla has started giving out lots of sloppy, open mouth kisses to people – usually me, daddy, Lilly or Nanna. She is a much cuddlier baby than Lilly was at this age (Lilly was always fiercly independent and didn’t “do” cuddles until she was probably about 18 months! - although she makes up for it now) and will still sit happily on your lap for quite a while. She loves to be carried around the house with one speculative arm out ready to grab anything that it comes across!

Food wise we are making progress. (I must confess that my work in the kitchen making homemade baby meals went through a bit of a slow patch recently – finding the time while working and also trying to make all mine and Tony’s meals from scratch for our weightwatchers diet left me with little time to batch cook. But we’re back on track now with a freezer full of food…) Anyway, after a slow start with lumps Isla is now eating sandwiches and toast, and managing slightly lumpier food. She is  down to just two milks a day – one at bedtime, one on waking. Yesterday, she ate one of Lilly’s chicken and apple balls which was great. I always have a mind on the fact that we’ll be going away to France in 3 months and I want her to be able to eat as “normally” as possible by then. And so far, she hasn’t been fussy in terms of flavour, she’s enjoyed all the jars and homemade things we have made for her. She even reattempted a strawberry the other day!   

Touch wood the last few weeks have been relatively illness free (she finally shook of her bad chest and cough with the help of antibiotics) and teething seems to have slowed for now – she still just has the six teeth and the dribbling is nowhere near as bad as it was a few months ago. Isla seems to be finally settling in nursery – we had a few weeks during which she wasn’t sleeping in nursery at all and was coming home in a dreadful state – red faced, overtired, really grumpy. One day I stayed in nursery and tried to settle her down for her post-breakfast nap but couldn’t – in the end she became completely hysterical everytime I tried to leave – in the end I just had to leave with her crying, it was awful. And then she started crying when I dropped her off. But for the last couple of weeks we have been taking her sleeping bag into nursery with her and they have tried her sleeping on a beanbag instead of in their cot and we seem to have had a breakthrough – she will now have 30 mins after breakfast (compared to an hour at home) and an hour after lunch (compared to 1-2 hours at home), and she comes home a much happier baby. I try to leave while she’s eating her weetabix in the morning, so that she doesn’t cry seeing me go and when Tony picks her up in the afternoons he says she is generally happy and playing when he gets there, which is a weight off both our minds.

At the moment she is going through a bit of a clingy stage though. It’s just little things like her reaction when I come home from work. She is really excited to see me, but then if I walk into the kitchen to take off my coat and shoes and I go out of site, she’ll cry. I have to come in and give her a cuddle first! And the other day I came back from the supermarket and was making a few trips to the car bringing in the bags. Everytime I appeared at the door she would be exicted and laugh, but then everytime I went back to the car she would cry!!

Isla has also started to take notice of animals, and she loves them! First it was Nanna and Grandad’s cat, Alex. Whenever he walks into the room she’s clench her fists, stretch out her hands and say “Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!” as if she can’t contain her excitement! On our trips to the local pet shop and garden centre, rabbits and guinea pigs have got the same reception, and she remains totally fascinated and hypnotised by fish. Lilly was the same with Alex at that age but she never wanted to actually touch him, she was always a bit too wary about how he would feel, I think! But Isla is much braver, she just goes for it and tries to grab him! She was even brave enough to try and touch Grannie’s tortoise the other day, something Lilly still needs a lot of encouragement to do!

Isla’s favourite game is opening and shutting doors – now that she is mobile she loves to sit in the doorway playing with the door – obviously not a very good idea as she is always getting stuck behind it, and in constant danger of trapping her fingers so mean mummy is always taking her away from the door and saying “We need to buy a doorstop”, but hey. Isla also likes opening and shutting the oven door on Lilly’s play kitchen, and her favourite toys are probably plastic bottles or empty (or full) packs of baby wipes! She also enjoys eating books when she can. Her biggest ambition in life is to chew my iphone. She also has a new toy where you press buttons and things pop up and has just started to work out how the cause and effect element of that works, which is fascinating to watch.

Language wise she now says a lot of “mamamamamama”, especially in the mornings when she wakes up and wants attention! I would like to count it as a first word, but then again I wouldn’t let Tony count “dadadada” as her first word a few weeks ago because we couldn’t be sure it was in context and not just a sound, so I think I have to wait for more definite verification!

And her sleeping remains good, she is usually exhausted by just after 6pm and will go down without fuss and sleep until about 5.50am (yes, it usually is that precise!) Lilly and Isla are still in seperate rooms – ie Isla is still in with us – but hopefully we can think about moving them back in together in a little while as they are both – touch wood – sleeping well these days.

Oh, and Isla has had her first pair of shoes. However, all she wants to do is eat them, and if they stay on her feet more than five seconds I am lucky! I’ve pretty much given up on them now, to be honest… seem to spend most of the time carrying them around in the changing bag!

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Back from five days among the trees

Last week we enjoyed another lovely week at Center Parcs – I think this is the fifth time we’ve been in the last three years.

For the second time we went to Whinfell Forest, in the Lake District, and were lucky to reap the benefits of the unseasonably sunny and warm first week of spring, in fact the best weather we have ever experienced at Center Parcs I think.

Make A Memory

For the first time we tried out quite a few activities – Lilly did Make A Memory (making a handprint in clay and decorating the box to keep it in), Little Kickers football, Active Tots (which, at three years old was probably a bit too babyish for her, but she still enjoyed it) and Party Hour in the Time Out Club (they play party games while the parents get an hour to themselves – in theory. That was, of course, the one hour of the holiday when Isla decided to throw a bit of an “I-don’t-want-to-sleep-in-my-pushchair wobbler). We also did the usual swimming and had a game of bowling, which Lilly loved.

Little Kickers

Other highlights included spotting frogs by the edge of the stream and Lilly helping me with the shopping by pushing one of the little trolleys (she was a little bit better at steering it this time!), and the animals we spotted from our window – all kinds of birds, red squirrels, rabbits and even a deer.

Visitor to our garden

 

Looking at frogs on the boardwalk

Sleeping wise we had much more success than last time. We learnt the lessons from staying in a two-storey house where Lilly wouldn’t sleep because it was a strange environment and because mummy and daddy were too far away (i.e. downstairs). We went for a single storey villa this visit and Lilly went off to sleep great every night and (except the first night) slept right through. (In fact, both girls even slept through my unfortunate setting off of the smoke alarm incident - a tip for other visitors: use the extractor fan while cooking…) It took Isla a little while to get used to the new place – the first night she went to sleep fine but then started waking up crying every hour. For a few days she protested loudly about napping in the cot. But it wasn’t a major issue and after a few days she was fine. As for Tony and I, we were so exhausted after all the walking and activity with the girls during the days we were asleep by 10pm most nights!

We decided not to hire bikes for ourselves this time, because it is a bit expensive and Isla is a little bit too small to go in the back of one of the carriages. But we hired one for Lilly and we were both impressed how good she was at riding it. Our main error was not hiring a helmet – our theory being that she wasn’t going to go very fast – but obviously we hadn’t accounted for the park being quite hilly in places and Lilly having not yet mastered the art of braking. Thankfully there were no accidents but in order to prevent them we had to stick close by her and hold onto the bike whenever we were going downhill – but to be fair we would’ve been doing that whether or not she’d had a helmet! But all in all the bike was a real success, she loved riding it and never complained about being too tired (which she always moans about when walking, even a short distance). In fact it even became a useful ‘exit strategy’ when trying to get Lilly to leave playgrounds etc without tears – “do you want to ride your bike now, Lilly?”

This time I really expected Isla to LOVE the swimming, because she really enjoys bathtime and splashing with her sister. But, just like last time, she remained very serious faced throughout the experience with an expression that seemed to say “Er, mum, you sure this is safe?!” I think it is the noisy atmosphere that she’s unsure of, rather than the actual pool. But there was less crying and screaming when it came to getting dressed again at the end, which made the experience less stressful than when we went in September! Mind you, they have the changing rooms so hot that by the time we were all dry and dressed Isla had gone redder faced than I have ever seen her before and we were actually a bit worried about her so dashed outside to cool her down.

Watching Lilly playing was a joy – she is such a sociable little thing and just loves other children. Whenever we went to one of the softplay areas or playgrounds she was making friends – all I could hear was her chatting away to other children and introducing herself saying: “I’m Lilly! I’m three!” She still doesn’t entertain the idea of sliding down any “tunnel slides” which she is scared of, even if one of her new found friends tried to persuade her to try it. She is brilliant at taking turns, to the point where she will happily let several children overtake her! There was one incident where a little boy was nasty to her (we didn’t see what happened) and she said she was going to “run away very fast” but apart from that it was all good. Isla had a little sit in the soft play areas too – there’s only so much she can do as she still can’t quite crawl yet, but she seemed to enjoy watching what everyone was up to.

And Tony and I remained steadfastly on the Weight Watchers – we expected we would fall right off the wagon and although we did drink wine every night we managed to resist the numerous chocolate, doughnut, cake, pizza and bread shaped temptations that were winking at us in the supermarket. We packed salads for our picnics everyday and because we were so active and too busy to sit and snack we actually both managed to lose a few pounds – result!

All in all we had a really great time with only a few tantrums from Lilly (including two in the car on the way back – making us worry a bit about our road trip to France in a few months time, but hey, that’s another story!) and we wished that we were staying a full week (although it is so blinking expensive to do that!)

With a three year old my recommendation would be to book plenty of activities for every day – one for the morning, one for the afternoon (allowing time for swimming of course) because plenty of activity and stimulation tired our little one out nicely. Take or hire a bike but beware of the hills! If you’re worried about them sleeping, go single storey. Don’t pay to reserve a villa in the central area only to realise that if you have bikes you have to go the long way round anyway to get to the village centre because the direct footpaths don’t allow bikes. Take some chalks for the blackboard in the villa if you are staying in a “new style” as it will keep the kids entertained for quite a while (and they never supply adequate chalks themselves)

But yes, we remain big fans of Center Parcs and I am already persuading Tony that we need to book another break for later in the year, when Isla will be a little older and able to join in the fun even more.

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A week of changes

This week was my first week back at work after maternity leave. It was been a much planned for and anxiously anticipated week.

It was also the week when Isla would start nursery properly, and Tony would take charge of the children in the mornings, having to get them to nursery by himself on two of those days.

It has gone pretty well, all in all.

Work have been very gentle with me and eased me in slowly, but at the same time, I know there is plenty of interesting work ahead to keep me challenged and interested in the coming months, so no complaints there.

Isla has reacted well so far to nursery. I wouldn’t say she has “settled” as I would imagine feeling truly settled at nursery will take quite a few weeks yet for such a little person. The first day Tony took her, she cried at first because of somebody’s loud voice (she can be quite a sensitive soul at times) but the tears weren’t to do with being left at nursery and she was comforted and happy before he left. She has even settled herself to sleep easily both days – twice on the first day, and although she isn’t yet sleeping the two hour stretches she manages in the afternoon at home, she is doing pretty well I think in a totally new environment with new people.

The mornings have been the thing we have dreaded most, I think. Me trying to leave the house early in order to achieve my hours for the week, and Tony having to handle breakfast and the nursery run on his own for the first time. This has gone pretty well, apart from the fact that Isla has chosen this week to become a super-early riser. It has ranged from 4.50am to 4am to 4.30am to 5am. And she will not go back to sleep until an hour or so later. And by that time she has woken Lilly. So Tony and I have been very tired going to work this week – not great as he has to drive more than 300 miles a day. So we’re both keeping our fingers tightly crossed that Isla sorts herself out a bit and sleeps in a little later very soon.

Oh, and yesterday, Isla’s first tooth finally popped through! We’ve been able to feel it through her gums for a week now, and she’s been dribbling for England. But when I picked her up from nursery yesterday and she gave me a big, coy smile, I noticed the little white line on her bottom gum! She’s growing up so fast!

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The baby monitor isn’t working…

… And now I can’t relax!

Our baby monitor has served us well for three years… until today when it developed a syndome akin to the ‘red ring of death’, started beeping incessantly and the light flashing red.

We only live in a small 2 bed house, and, in truth, we can hear when either of the girls cry. But I’m dependent on the monitor for reassurance, that all really is quiet, and nobody is choking, or coughing, or on the verge of waking.

When I have the monitor, and the girls have gone to bed, I can go in the kitchen and cook dinner quite happily, listening to Radio 5 Live and knowing that I’ll still hear the slightest snuffle.

And ironically, when the baby monitor is not working, all I can hear is babies crying and toddlers shouting in the back of my head all the time.

I know some of my friends with babies say they stopped using their monitors after a few months. But we slept with the monitor on Lilly right up until Isla was born, when Lilly was two and a half.

So, I am not ready to give up the habit yet. And tomorrow, we will be rushing off to purchase another monitor… and evening relaxation (or not!) will be restored.

RIP, faithful friend

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Isla at six months

My darling baby Isla, you are now officially six months old. And in the last week you have become more animated than ever, you seem to have suddenly gone from a babe in arms to an inquisitive little person!

You are still a very placid & laid back baby, you only ever cry for food or when you’re tired. (Or when we’re trying to put a coat on you, you HATE that.) You definitely have a serious side to your personality, and you often fix people with a bemused stare, as if you are trying to work out who they are, and what on earth they are trying to say. But when you smile, you have such a cheeky look it’s almost as if you are trying to hide your amusement! You are quite ticklish and you love it when people sing and shake their heads from side to side. You also love the sensation of dropping down quickly, either being jiggled on somebody’s lap, or as a game when somebody is standing up holding you. Don’t worry, we are very gentle with you! In the last day you have started to find your big sister quite funny too, and have started laughing at her when she smiles at you, which she loves. 

You still have your long hair, which seems to have mellowed a little from jet black to brown. Some has fallen out, but most of it has stayed, and we always get comments about it (usually from old people) when we’re out and about! When you have just had a bath your hair goes all crazy and sticks up, because you’re always so tired after a bath that you usually fall asleep before your hair is completely dry. You don’t watch TV, as such, although you do see TV programmes when Lilly is watching CBeebies. You are transfixed by Waybullooo, probably because of the colourful characters with the huge piercing eyes.

You have become really great at rolling, and you can flip over really quickly from your front to your back. You can roll back now too, although you haven’t mastered that quite as well yet. You are sitting up unaided, although only for a few seconds at the moment before you start leaning to the left or right. You have discovered your toes and you love to grab them, and, if possible, chew on them!

We have started you on solid food, and, although we had a bit of a shaky start when you had a few bugs and went off the idea a bit, you are now  eating well and eating more each time. You really love porridge and sweet potato, you’ve also tried broccoli and cauliflower, apple, carrot and parsnip.

You seemed to enjoy yor first Christmas, although you didn’t really have a clue what was going on. You liked chewing the wrapping paper and your favourite presents were probably books, chunky keys, and other things you could chew.

We have just got you down Lilly’s old “Standy Uppy Thing” (we’re never sure what it’s called, according to Google it’s an activity station), which you took to straight away. We’ve just packed away your playmat because all you want to do on the floor is roll and the bars were causing an obstruction!

You go to bed between 6-7pm each night and usually sleep through until 5-6am. You are starting to share a room with your sister though, and you sometimes wake each other up. Also, you snore quite loudly!

You are always babbling away and the main sounds you make at the moment are “gagagagaga” and “dadadadadadada”, which of course, your daddy loves!

You are quite cuddly and will often fall asleep on people’s laps. You’ll sit happily for ages just relaxing with somebody holding you, and there are no shortage of volunteers wanting a cuddle with you.

Soon I will have to go back to work and you will start at nursery two days a week. I don’t know yet how you will take to it. It will be strange leaving you and I will miss you lots. But I am so excited about the coming months, seeing you blossom and develop, learning new skills and becoming even more of your own little person.

You have been a wonderful addition to this family and we all love you so very, very much.

Mummy xxx

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Four months old

Isla is now 19 weeks old and turning into a chubby, happy and curious little lady.

Her personality, since birth, has been very calm and chilled out. She very rarely does that screaming crying thing that Lilly used to do all the time, and if Isla does do it, we know something’s up! She is a great eater and loves her milk, but you generally get plenty of notice that she is getting hungry as she will start making the occasional cry and get agitated. (With Lilly, it was like switching on a light. One minute, fine, next minute “WAAAAAAAAA I’M HUNGGRRRRRRRYYYYYYY“). If there is a serious delay in milk, Isla can build herself up to that level, but it is rare. The only other times she might really let rip with crying is a bedtime or  nap time, if she has become a little overtired.

Her sleeping is really good. We managed to get into a bedtime routine around eight weeks old, and she started to sleep through at 10 weeks. Now she tends to go to bed between 6-7pm and wakes around 5am. A couple of times, she has woken earlier, and sometimes I have fed her and put her back down, but usually that’s her, up for the day *yawn*.

At first I struggled getting her to sleep at night without lots of crying. Tony works afternoons-evenings so he is only here for bedtime at the weekends. I was determined to get both girls in bed at a decent hour, so that I’d have time to myself in the evenings to tidy up, cook dinner and maybe even relax a little! So I persevered through the crying and she would eventually drop off. But when Tony was home he didn’t like hearing the crying so he tried putting her to bed. And he managed  it without the crying – which showed it was possible – just plenty of cuddles and distracting her by smiling etc – and bedtimes have been a lot easier ever since. Now, she will generally shuffle about for five minutes then drift off without a fuss, sometimes with a dummy, sometimes with her thumb.

Up until a week or so ago we had also used the white noise app on the iPhone for those times when she has fussed and cried a lot before settling – or, if all else failed, the real hairdryer! But then she started being just as soothed by a teddy which plays the lullabye ”Go To Sleep, Little One”, which seems a bit nicer all round, really! She seems to love it and it really helps her relax and drift off. (None of this would EVER have worked on Lilly!)

Like her Big Sister, Isla is a thumb sucker and recently learnt how to suck the thumb on her left hand too, for a bit of variety! Like Lilly, you know that once that thumb goes in, there’s a good chance sleep will follow!

Development wise, she does lots of smiling, and has been making a sound like a “Huuuuuuuurrrrrrrrr!” for a while, which is a giggle trying to come out! And yesterday, it finally emerged – a lovely little chuckle! I rushed to get the phone to video her giggling, but should have known better – she isn’t a poser for the camera and whenever I bring the camera out she stops doing what she’s doing to look at the camera inquisitively instead!

I can tell she has reached that stage where she has begun to get frustrated at times at her lack of mobility. She no longer likes sitting in her bouncy chair for very long, as she always strains to be sat upright. She doesn’t like to be held in a cradle position unless she’s really sleepy. She is happiest when sat on somebody’s lap or if somebody holds her upright while they’re stood up. I remember Lilly being the same. She also loves kicking about on her playmat by herself (although that is a rare luxury as Lilly rather likes joining her, which means poor Isla is rather pushed for space!)

Her neck muscles still aren’t particularly strong, so we really should do more tummy time than we do. She used to hate it, but she’ll tolerate it a little longer now. The other day I was letting her hold my finger and helping her roll over, she was really helping by using her leg mucles and now she has started trying to do it all by herself. She’s not quite there just yet!

She still sleeps in her moses basket in our room, but is rapidly outgrowing it. I am happy to note that she has not grown out of the carrycot on her Sola yet – Lilly was out of the pram part of her Silver Cross 3d by about two months, so we were always keen that Isla’s pram would have a bit more longevity to it. She has a lot of her naps in the pram still, but we have also been trying to get her to nap in her cot. When she was newborn she could sleep for hours even with a noisy toddler playing in the same room, but nowadays she only gets a really long and quality nap if she gets a little bit more peace!

Soon it will be time for Lilly and Isla to share a bedroom – which I am looking forward to and dreading in equal measure! Lilly is still waking up in the night and crying, which will disturb Isla, and Isla wakes up at the crack of dawn, which will disturb Lilly. I think we will be in for a bumpy ride when we make that transition…

Isla’s favourite things at the moment are baths (full of smiles), my singing and daddy’s funny faces (which make her giggle), her Loopy Links, milk (she’s feeding every 3 hours, max), and her playmat.

Oh, and she has well and truly found her voice. I woke up this morning to that lovely baby cooing. Such a nice sound that manages to make that 5.30am wakeup call just a little bit more bearable! In the right mood she will make all kinds of sounds and is on the verge of a happy squealing sound. The effect of this is that Lilly now also likes to lie on the playmat and make “baaaaaaaaa baaaaaaaa naaaaaaaaa naaaaaa” noises! Seems she is regressing and growing up in equal measure since becoming a big sister!

Isla is a little chunky chops like her sister was and has just made the transition to 6-9 months clothes. I must confess I haven’t taken her to be weighed since (ahem) she was (ahem) six weeks old (bad mummy!) so I have no idea what she weighs. But I do know she’s eating well and growing well, so no worries there.

All in all she is a total joy and although I want her to stay a little cuddly baby forever, I also can’t wait to see her personality develop and watch her take all those lovely milestones. Next up, rolling over and sitting up solo…

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Three months in

Well, here we are – Isla is three months now, and Lilly is motoring very fast towards three!

Isla is still a very good baby – sleeps a lot during the day and has been sleeping through the night for about three weeks now. She remains extremely placid and chilled out in character – in fact, the only time she really gives me any ‘trouble’ is at night as she likes to fight sleep. I have just started giving her a bedtime bath as I think that has made the night time put down a little easier, but sometimes I have to push her in her pram or put her in her bouncy chair on the “vibrate” mode to get her off to sleep, transferring her to her moses basket later.

Development wise, she is smiling and very close to laughing – she finds my singing most amusing of all, and twice has given herself hiccups trying to chuckle. She is also reaching for things and grabbing them – she loves being under the playmat and batting at the toys hanging down. She has finally mastered the art of sucking her thumb – something I could tell she was desperate to do since birth. She will still have a dummy sometimes, but usually it is a poor second place to her own thumb, and sometimes it seems to make her even more frustrated. She can make cooing noises and is getting a lot better at holding her head up – although she violently hates tummy time!

I have been combination feeding (breast & bottle) but since she has dropped her night feeds my supply has been drying up, and I think it can only be a matter of days. After failing to breastfeed Lilly I am really pleased that I got this far, but she is quite happy on her bottles and as long as she’s happy, I’m happy. The only thing I really worry about is that, on those nights when she is very difficult to settle, only a breastfeed seems to work. Not sure what I am going to do when this is no longer an option!

I have also noticed that Isla has begun to watch her big sister with what I imagine is something like curiosity and admiration. Isla seems to really enjoy interacting with Lilly, and gives her big smiles, even on those occasions where I am watching nervously wondering if Lilly is going to accidentally poke Isla’s eye out or something. We have had a few incidents where Lilly’s “love and affection” has lead to screaming from Isla, but usually Lilly is more upset than Isla with the shock! Then I have them both wailing!

However much Lilly loves Isla though - and she really does love her, I think – there is definitely a hint of the green eyed monster there. She doesn’t take this jealousy out on Isla – it’s just when I am busy taking care of Isla, Lilly is much more likely to play up – doing things she knows are naughty, like climbing on the sofa, or asking for things and getting very angry when I can’t get up and get them for her straight away. Lilly has also started saying to me “I’m your special baby, aren’t I mummy?”, and I always hug her and tell her yes, she’ll always be my special baby, and Isla is my special baby too, which she seems happy with.

Yesterday, I was taking Lilly to Tumble Tots and Tony took Isla round to his mum’s house. Lilly and I were getting ready to leave and she started calling out “Isla! Isla Smiler!! Where are you!?” I said: “She’s gone with daddy to Nanna’s house, remember?”. And Lilly said: Oh, yes. I am very upset!”

Oh, and yes, I forgot to say that the two sisters are also conspiring together to get up bright and early the last few days – 5am seems to be the favourite time. Up until now, Isla had been sleeping in later than Lilly, to six or seven most days. But now the little one is taking hints from her big sister and has been the first one up the last two days. Aah well. *yawn*

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Pools, playgrounds and playing up… our Center Parcs holiday

Last week we spent Monday to Friday at Center Parcs in Cumbria – Whinfell Forest.

We are big Center Parcs fans, and have been twice to Elveden Forest (East Anglia) and once to Sherwood Forest (Nottingham) since Lilly was 10 months old.

This was our first time at Whinfell – Elveden being our favourite so far, but also being a ridiculously long drive from where we live in the North West. Whinfell is a much more civilised 1 hour 45 minutes away, and even that felt long enough! In fact, we made our first parental error of the holiday on the journey there – waiting too long before stopping at the services meaning Lilly fell asleep in the car and napped for 40 minutes – which came back to haunt us later!

Arriving at a rainey Whinfell Forest Center Parcs

First impressions of Whinfell were very good – plenty of parking (unlike Sherwood) and we really enjoyed walking in the rain in our waterproofs through the trees to discover the  Village Centre for the first time.

The Village Centre is all undercover, unlike Elveden, and, as there was plenty of rain showers the week we were there, it was just as well. We spent our first afternoon enjoying a rather large (and expensive) beer in Bella Italia and admiring the indoor water fountain before having a wander to see the Sports Plaza and enjoy a Starbucks on our travels.

The villas are a little different at Whinfell – as they were built when the park was an Oasis – and ours was a two storey wooden house. It looked lovely from the outside – much more aesthetically pleasing than the standard issue Center Parcs bungalows – but inside it could have done with a bit of a revamp – the white goods were a good 10 years old and the decor a little bit tired. We didn’t really mind that though, but could’ve done without the super creaky staircase and no downstairs loo which meant we spent most of our evenings trying not to need a wee in case going upstairs would wake up a very light sleeping toddler….

Our first night was not to be a peaceful one, as that illegal in-car nap formed a lethal cocktail with ‘First-night-in a new bedroom syndrome and resulted in, yes, you’ve guessed it, “I’m NOT tired!!” “I don’t LIKE my new bedroom!” There’s a squirrel at my window!!” “I’m SCARED!!”. We ended up bringing Lilly downstairs with us, which wasn’t too bad as she was chatting away and making us laugh. When 10pm came around, Lilly still wouldn’t go to sleep in her own bedroom alone, so Tony had to sleep in with her before she would settle.

When she woke up the next morning, early, lack of sleep had transformed her into A MONSTER with absolutely zero tolerance for anything and with with her emotions balanced on a knife edge…

But, before we fully comprehended just how terrible a mood she was in, we took the two girls swimming first thing in the morning. It was the first time Isla has been swimming, and she remained very serious looking throughout her short experience – then promptly fell fast asleep!

Tony took charge of Lilly while I got out with snoozy baby. In a fit of unusual recklessness, he decided to take Lilly on a rather big waterslide, which she seemed to enjoy first time around, despite getting water in her face. Second time around I watched – only to see both of them go right under the water in the plunge pool. A screaming Lilly soon emerged from the water – Tony (who was frantically holding Lilly up above the water while trying to steady himself) took another five seconds – Lilly was terrified!! Not a very good second waterslide experience but quite funny for a spectator (bad mummy!)

It all started to go a little bit wrong after that. Lilly wanted to go for a wee, so I walked with her to the changing rooms. On the way there, she slipped and managed to take me down with her, so that I landed right on top of her foot! She was screaming and I was panicking because I thought I’d broken her foot. I managed to carry her to the disabled toilets where Lilly said she couldn’t stand on her foot and then, in all the upset, did a wee all over the floor, all over herself, all over me! I had visions of hospital visits and plaster casts, but luckily after a while she calmed down and was able to walk again… phew.

Soon afterwards we decided to get out and have lunch. Bad mistake at 11.30, as every other family decided to do the same, so there were no changing rooms available, and people queueing waiting for them to become free. Isla started wailing – she wanted her bottle. Lilly started whinging – “I’m hungry, I want a snack, I’m hungry, I want a snack, I’m cold, I want a snack…” on and on and on.

In the end, I took Isla into the disabled toilets to dress her while Tony and Lilly found a too-small cubicle to get dressed and I fed Isla her bottle standing up – not very comfy!

We thought the worst was over once we got out of the pool – oh, how wrong. Lilly’s mood was awful, we couldn’t go five minutes without a tantrum. We had screaming, lying on the floor, “NO! NO! NO!”, hysterical crying, refusal to walk anywhere, running off, you name it, we had it. We gamely attempted a coffee in Starbucks and some soft play near the bowling alley (they have an big open area in the bar where they play CBeebies on a big screen all day!) By about 3 O’Clock we couldn’t cope with anymore public tantrums so we all went back to the villa and prayed Lilly would go to bed ok later. Luckily, 7pm came and she went to bed fine, on her own, so we breathed a massive sigh of relief and poured a large glass of wine…

I’m happy to report that the rest of the week passed off much more harmoniously. Better sleep meant we got our good girl back, for the most part, and we had lots of fun in the playgrounds and back at the CBeebies bar (genius idea, Center Parcs!) One of the other highlights was shopping in the supermarket with the mini trolley – Lilly absolutely loved it, and looked just too cute pushing it around the aisles and loading all the items onto the checkout.

Back at the villa, we hung out three bags of peanuts on the tree outside our window and watched all kinds of birds feast on them for three days. We also had pheasants and a red suirrel come to visit – and spotted a rabbit emerging from a large rabbit hole outside once too. While we were there we had loads of fun spotting different plants and trees with Lilly on mini ‘nature walks’ – there were loads of different types of mushrooms growing everywhere. Typical though, that the main thing that Lilly remembers from these little walks was an old discarded baby dummy: “we saw a dummy, didn’t we mummy?!”

On Thursday, we had my pretend birthday (it was my 30th on the Friday, when we were travelling back), so we ate our lunch at Bella Italia (delicious) and had a takeaway for our evening meal.

We also learnt, while out and about during the week, that Lilly can do a wee in the bushes if neccessary!

All in all, we had a great time, bar an extremely stressful second day. Sleep is absolutely the MOST important factor in determining Lilly’s behaviour, and Lilly’s behaviour is the one and only key to whether or not we have a wonderful day, or the day from hell!

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