It’s time for another monthly update already and I’d love to say it’s been a happy one but since last month’s update Gabe has continued to be ill pretty much constantly. He’s had another cold, conjunctivitis again, and although his cold has started to clear up in the last few days he now has an ear infection too! On top of all that he’s got another three teeth since last month making for six in total. No wonder the poor kid has been miserable!

Despite the ear infection though (which the doctor thinks is just external and has given us ear drops to clear up) Gabe has been much happier in the last week. He’s got his appetite back and his sleep has improved a bit too. We’re still getting a lot of wake ups most nights but we have had the odd night without him waking up until 4 or 5 am again which is about the best we can hope for from Gabe at the moment I think. His morning naps are mostly back on track as well but afternoons are still all over the place.

We did decide to put Gabe’s cot in our bedroom in the end. He was just getting too big for the co-sleeper and although there’s not much room in our bedroom now I think he is better in the cot. And as much as I loved the co-sleeper I am enjoying being able to get out of bed without having to slide down to the bottom first!

I really hope Gabe’s sleep starts to improve now he’s feeling better and there are no more teeth coming for the moment. Toby’s sleep was great when he was Gabe’s age but went really rubbish when he got to about one. He’s only been consistently well since Christmas so with that and being pregnant and then Gabe not sleeping I reckon I could count on one hand the number of really good nights’ sleep I’ve had in the last two years! I seriously can’t remember the last time I wasn’t tired.

So despite being ill and not having much of an appetite some days Gabe is continuing to grow at quite a pace. I haven’t actually had him weighed or measured him this month but he is comfortably wearing all his 9-12 month clothes now. I think he might be even bigger than Toby was at this age so who knows what he’ll be like by the time he’s a toddler! I’m not surprised though because he does love his food – we’ve probably been spoon feeding more than we did with Toby and Gabe is definitely having more shop bought baby food whereas Toby only really ate the same as us. We’ve got an exciting collaboration coming up soon that I can’t wait to share with you so I’ll be writing a lot more about Gabe’s weaning experience over the coming weeks and months.

As far as movement goes we haven’t got any crawling yet but like Toby at eight months Gabe is quite adept at spinning on his tummy and shuffling backwards. He’s managing to get up on his hands and knees but still isn’t really near properly crawling. I know I shouldn’t really keep comparing them but Toby was 10 months before he started crawling properly and to be honest I’m quite happy for Gabe to still stay more or less where I leave him for the time being!

I think that’s probably about it for this month. I really hope that over the next month we can have a lot less illness and a lot more sleep!