I’m Oh my goodness – seven months old already. Time is totally flying by!

This month has been a pretty miserable one for Gabe unfortunately. He had just got over a cold and croup (which thankfully only lasted a day or two) when he caught another cold that went on for over two weeks. He was so full of snot and there was tons of mucus coming out of his eyes as well which then ended up needing eye drops. It’s so horrible when a baby has a cold; it affects their sleep and feeding and there’s not really much you can do to help them apart from administer Calpol and cuddles.

It didn’t help that on top of the cold Gabe also had the first of his top teeth coming at the same time – poor boy! He now has three teeth and the second top one doesn’t look to be far behind either.

Despite all the illness Gabe has still been managing plenty of smiles, especially for his brother who he clearly adores. And Toby loves making Gabe smile or laugh too which is so lovely to watch.

He has been making some more physical developments this month too – he can now sit confidently and unsupported, he can roll both ways and he is starting to try and get his knees under himself when he’s on his tummy. He’s really starting to get interested in everything now, and will even sit and play with toys on his own for a while.

He now weighs 17lb 11oz and is 73cm tall. He’s mostly wearing 9-12 month clothes now – I do make them tall!

Gabe is still sleeping in our room in the Chicco Next 2 Me – I think we’re going to have to move him into his cot soon though as he’s starting to try and roll over in his sleep and keeps getting jammed up against the sides of the crib. Which means we’re going to have to make a decision about where we are going to put the cot. The long term plan is that Toby and Gabe will share a room but with Gabe still waking up between 4 and 5 am most mornings I’m not sure that’s such a good idea yet. The cot will just about fit next to our bed, but it’s going to be squeeze!

Talking of sleep; things were a bit disrupted with Gabe being ill but we seem to be back to going to bed about 6:30 pm and sleeping through to somewhere between 4 and 5 am. He sometimes wakes up earlier in the night but I can usually get him back to sleep by putting his dummy back in and giving him a rub on the back. I usually bring him downstairs when he wakes in the morning and after a bottle he will sometimes go back to sleep with me on the sofa. It doesn’t always work like that though and sometimes 4:30 am can see him up for the day!

We’ve got into quite a good routine with morning naps now and he will usually have another bottle between 9 and 9:30 am depending what time he got up and then nap in his crib for between an hour and a half to two hours. We’ve had two mammoth three hour naps this week, but I think that’s because he’s still recovering from all his illness.

Afternoon naps don’t tend to go so well though! At the moment I’m trying to get him to stay awake when we take Toby to nursery at 1 pm so that we can get home, have another bottle and have another nap but this doesn’t always work. The trouble is if he falls asleep in the car then that 10 or 15 minutes means he thinks he’s done sleeping for the afternoon, which of course is fine until he’s super-grumpy and ready for bed at 4 pm! We have managed to stick to the plan a few times this week, and he’s had his afternoon nap for an hour or so on me while I watch TV. In a way I’d like it if he’d have his afternoon nap in his crib as well but I do quite enjoy the sleepy cuddles too…

I suppose the big development this month has been weaning. I think Gabe had just had a couple of days on solids at his last monthly update – a month in and he’s really getting the hang of it. I wouldn’t say he has three meals a day but he sits in his high chair three times and has something to eat. So far it’s mostly just been bits of what Toby is having. He seems to quite like cucumber and he’s loving bread sticks – but I think that’s maybe just because they are easy to get in his mouth! He really likes yoghurt and those fruit purée pouches too and he seems just as happy being spoon fed as he is having finger foods.

I think that’s probably about it for this month. I’m hoping next month brings less illness and more sleep for everyone! And how could I finish this update without sharing this adorable picture of my little teddy bear?

Until next month then here’s Gabe from one week to seven months old…