Gabriel is three years old

The birthday boy 10 days before his actual birthday

I am writing this sitting in Starbucks as Gabe has his second settling in session at his new nursery. At just three years old this will be the fourth nursery he’s gone to so we’ve been through all this several times before. I know he’ll be fine, and I really think that once he’s settled this nursery will be better for him than the preschool he was at before but it doesn’t make leaving him upset any easier. Read more

Gabriel is 18 months old

Well, OK, Gabe is actually 19 months old by the time I’m finally getting round to writing this, but hey, who’s counting?

So what can I tell you about Gabe at 18 months old? Well, I could start with his vital statistics, except I only know he’s about 83cm tall, and is wearing size 4 shoes. I have no idea how much he weighs! He is mostly wearing 18-24 month clothes (or 86 in European sizes) so he is definitely smaller than Toby was at this age – he was already moving into 2-3 clothes at 18 months, and had size 6 feet!

Gabe the cheeky chops is 18 months old

There are quite a few similarities between Toby and Gabe at 18 months though. At this age Toby could only say Dada, hiya, see saw, what’s that and shoe. Gabe’s vocabulary so far includes Read more

Living Arrows 45/52 (2016)

I’m late again with my Living Arrows post this week. It’s been busy round these parts again – the kitchen is heading towards finished with a bit more painting to do, a new floor to go down and a new table and chairs to get. I’m really pleased with it and but I didn’t really enjoy spending a whole day unpacking all the boxes again and finding a place for everything!

Barry spent the weekend painting so on Saturday I took the boys for a walk into town to get them out of the way. It was really cold but we wrapped up warm and Toby had a lovely time collecting leaves and then running through all the dried leaves along the path.

Toby enjoying collecting autumn leaves

Gabe’s personality has really been coming out even more these last few weeks. His reflux mostly seems to be under control, we saw the paediatrician last week and she’s happy for him to continue on his meds and review things again in six months. The teeth that have been coming over the last few weeks have all finally cut now too – so that’s four molars and four canines in about three weeks! We’ve had quite a few grumpy days and nights but at least he should be over the worst of it now, and there are only four more molars to come before he has all his teeth! He’s coped remarkably well really, it must have been so painful for him – you can see the rash round his mouth on this week’s photo too, teething drool isn’t pleasant!

Gabe has been suffering with teething and has a rash round his mouth

His sleep has been slowly getting better too – a couple of nights recently he has made it until 3 am before his first wake up, which is a massive improvement on the 10 pm of a few weeks ago. There’s not much of a leap to make now before he’ll be sleeping all night….I hope! He has to sleep all night one of these days.

Gabe’s big news this week though is that he has started walking!! It was only two weekends ago that he started letting go when he was standing up, and managing to stand up without holding on to anything. He started trying to take a couple of steps last week but he’s really started to get the hang of it this week. So I’ll leave you with this….

Living Arrows

Gabriel is nine months old

I’m a bit late with this month’s update – Gabe was actually nine months old last week while we were on holiday at Center Parcs but with that, house viewings and the chicken pox I’m only just getting round to writing this.

Gabriel is nine months old

Well in last month’s update I said I hoped there would be less illness this month but unfortunately that hasn’t really been the case. On top of his habitual cold Gabe has also had a stomach bug which he caught off Toby but whereas Toby was just sick a couple of times then back to normal after a couple of days, Gabe had really nasty nappies for almost two weeks. Almost as soon as he got over that Toby got the chicken pox and then it was inevitable Gabe would get it too. His first spot appeared on Monday and today he’s still only got about 10 so I’m really hoping that is it and he is going to escape with only a mild dose of the pox. On top of all that he is still suffering with his reflux, particularly it seems at bedtimes, and our paediatrician appointment which was scheduled for 17th June (already about three months after we were referred by the GP) has now been moved to 15th July!

What do you mean it's the wrong way round

On a happier note Gabe hasn’t had any more teeth this month, although I did think he nasty nappies were due to teething for a while. Weaning has been a bit all over the place, along with Gabe’s appetite this month. He’s still being spoon fed most of his meals but he is getting much better and chewing lumpier food, and at picking different foods up and eating them himself. Rice cakes and yoghurt have been firm favourites this month along with lots of different pouch meals (we’ve mostly been using the HiPP Organic 7+ month ones). We’ve also changed Gabe’s formula to HiPP Organic this month. I’d heard that a lot of reflux babies find it gentler on their tummies, and I was also hoping the prebiotics in it would help get his insides back to normal after the stomach bug. I don’t know if it has actually made any difference but he isn’t any worse so we’re going to stick with it for the moment.

Gabe enjoying lunch

With all the illness, and the disruption of a holiday sleep is still rather illusive. We’re having lots of night waking still but whereas I used to be able to settle him with his dummy and a rub on the back or a cuddle now he nearly always needs milk to get back to sleep. I’m pretty sure this is because of his reflux rather than hunger as Toby used to be exactly the same. It never made any difference how much he ate during the day he would still need milk if he woke in the night. At least for now Gabe does usually go back to sleep quickly after he’s had his milk so I don’t have to be awake for too long in the night. We’ve been doing quite a bit of co-sleeping this month too – mostly when he wakes for the second time at about 4 am and isn’t that keen on going back to sleep. Usually if I bring him in bed with me at that point we manage another hour or two of sleep.

Crawling takes concentration

The big development this month has been that Gabe has started crawling! He started off just commando crawling but in the last few days he’s pretty much crawling up on his hands knees. Which means nothing is safe any more and we’ve had to break out the playpen again. Gabe isn’t a huge fan for any length of time but at least it gives me somewhere safe to put him for a few minutes while I go to the loo or something!

Crawled for the first time

I haven’t had Gabe weighed for ages now but using the probably very inaccurate method of weighing myself then both of us together he weighs 19lb 3oz. He’s still wearing 9-12 month clothes but I think we’re going to have to move into the next size soon, at least for sleepsuits as he is so long, especially with a massive night time cloth bum too!

Gabriel from 0-9 months

I think that’s all for this month, I just really, really, really hope Gabe makes it to 10 months without getting ill again!

Gabriel is eight months old

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!

Gabe is eight months old

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.

Big smiles and a sore nose at eight months old

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!

Can't quite reach it...

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!

0-8 months

Gabriel is seven months old

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

Today I am seven months old

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.

A half smile

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.

Playing with toys

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?

Seven month old teddy bear

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

0-7 months