“May your coffee be strong, and your baby’s naps be long.”
As I’d written a post when Reuben had become three months and six months, it felt only right that I wrote a nine month one too. The first thought that comes to my head about Reuben being nine months old is that he’ll be one in just three months. One! It’s crazy. It makes me feel happy but sad, too. I am now technically no longer on maternity leave, my nine months off has ended and I’m on annual leave until March. I can’t quite believe where the time has gone.
So what was in store for us over the past three months since my last update? Illness. Lots of it. It’s been driving me mad. Up until Reuben was seven months old, other than teething and the after effects of his vaccinations he hadn’t been poorly at all, not even a little sniffle. I thought, excellent, it’s true what they say that breastfeeding helps them to build up their immunities. Well, as soon as the seven month mark arrived he got hand, foot and mouth and tonsillitis, which I caught too and we were both so poorly. It resulted in two A&E visits because he wasn’t drinking or eating at all and he became dehydrated. He recovered from that quickly enough, but then got a cold and he has just caught another one too, not fun when it’s combined with both of his top teeth on their way! On the plus side, hopefully all will be well by Christmas and we’re getting the bad stuff out of the way now.
We also went to the Lake District in late November and we stayed in a beautiful little village called Grange, about ten minutes outside of Keswick. We stayed in a 3 bedroomed AirBnB cottage called Pennybrig and it was lovely, I would highly recommend it. The weather was drizzly but we all had a lovely time just wandering and relaxing. We also made little trips into Keswick, Ambleside and Bowness. Reuben loved his little trip and behaved so well!
Reuben is just a delight in every single way. He’s cheeky, happy and so, so sweet. He is adored by everyone that meets him. Fortunately we haven’t been hit with any 8 month sleep regressions (yet) and he is sleeping solidly through the night the majority of the time. He has become much more independent with naps too; I’ve found that since I’ve stopped breastfeeding he doesn’t want to be cuddled or fall asleep on me anymore. I have to leave him in his cot with the curtains drawn and he will fall to sleep on his own. It’s brilliant that he’s learnt this skill but I do really, really miss the sleepy snuggles.
In terms of his other skills, it’s fair to say that Reuben is a little bit lazy! He is capable of rolling from his back to his front because he’s done it, he just doesn’t bother to try most of the time. He still can’t sit up for more than about a minute without toppling over. We know that he is physically capable and strong enough to do these things, he just doesn’t seem to know how. He’s just happy lay on his back and bouncing in his jumperoo. He is nowhere near crawling and I don’t think he will ever crawl; he hates lying on his front and has never really enjoyed tummy time. To develop their gross motor skills and strength babies need plenty of tummy time, but even if we put Reuben’s favourite toy in front of him he’ll just roll straight onto his back. It doesn’t bother me if he is a little bit behind with his milestones because all babies reach them eventually. He can stay my little baby a while longer.
Reuben is still under the care of Derby Royal Children’s hospital because of his curved spine. Unfortunately we have received very poor service from the hospital, I have had to chase up every appointment and Reuben’s consultant has now left so we’ve been told we pretty much have to start the process all over again with a new consultant which is incredibly frustrating. He had x-rays and there was no abnormality however we were told that he will still need to be closely monitored as he grows.
It’s Christmas next week and the Christmas songs are permanently on in our little cottage at the moment! I am getting so excited, I am going to write a separate Christmas post shortly.
Thanks for reading!
x
Charlotte's Little Thoughts... 