Waybuloo & In the Night Garden

I'm just sitting with Ava on the sofa while she drinks some prune juice and watches her favourite TV shows, Waybuloo and In the Night Garden. Yep - constipated again! It must be the formula that she's on. I recently switched to a different one that helps constipation and colick and she had no problems at all but I thought it might be a little too gentle for her and I was worried she wasn't getting enough nutrition from it so I put her back on the Follow On formula and within two days she's already having problems. I guess I'll have to pick up some more of the special stuff today and keep her on that for a while.

She had also been sleeping much better at night as well but last night she was terrible! She had me up three times and finally the third time I just decided to stay up because we had to get up in 45 minutes anyway to take Graham to the airport. He's off to Ireland until tomorrow night.

It's surprising that a 7 month old can have favourite TV shows, but she actually does. As soon as she hears the music from them she goes very quiet and sits on the couch and watches both shows. Sometimes when she's a little bit hyper she squeaks and smiles at the tv too. I'm beginning to think Upsy Daisy is her favourite character on In the Night Garden because she always seems happiest when she's on the screen.

Usually after she's had her juice bottle and watched In the Night Garden it's time for a nap. Today she doesn't seem too interested in that idea though... I hope she starts to get sleepy soon, we have to go out in an hour and she's always much happier after she's had a nap.

(kind of) On the move

Ava's really starting to become active. Even though she's not crawling yet she's getting very good at wiggling and dragging herself around when you put her on the floor.

She babbles all the time and likes to grab at everything, including hair and faces. She loves to watch your mouth when you're talking or eating and if she's close enough she'll try to grab it.

Her sleeping habits are getting better, she only wakes up once a night at the moment and she's pretty good at having her two naps upstairs in her crib around 11:00am and 4:00pm.

Still no signs of any teeth but I'm sure they'll find their way out eventually. (Probably just as she starts regularly sleeping through the night.)

I'm trying to increase her food intake and mix it up a little bit as well. At the moment her schedule looks a bit like this:

7:00am - Morning bottle
9:30am - Porridge
11:00am - Nap
12:30pm - Fruit or yogurt
1:30pm - Bottle
4:00pm - Nap
5:00pm - Dinner
7:00pm - Bath, Bottle, Bed

I need to mix up her breakfast a bit more, make her lunch a little larger and reduce the amount of her lunch time bottle.

She's also struggling with textured food and really fights it whenever I offer it. I really hope she comes around soon, it's getting frustrating and it's such a waste of food.

Valentines Day in Paris

This weekend Graham, Ava and I spent Valentines Day in Paris. We left on Friday and got back late last night. His boss was taking his wife for the weekend and he said Graham could bring Ava and I along with him. Even though the weather wasn't great on Saturday we decided to take the train into the city centre and have a look around. We've already been to Paris once before together so we didn't need to go up the Eiffel Tower again.

We're actually on Google Earth streetview in front of the Eiffel Tower from the first time we went there in April 2008. If you go to Google Maps and type in 'Eiffel Tower' and you zoom in to the intersection Quai Branly and Pont d'lena and then drag the little streetview guy to Quai Branly (the lane closest to the tower, heading kind of North-east) and if you face the tower, we're walking along the side walk near a green stand. Here are some pictures of it.

That's me in the black and white top holding the white coat and Graham is wearing grey pants and carrying an orange bag.

Unfortunately this time around I was really sick and we didn't have a very good time. We spent Saturday in the city and I wasn't too bad but I started to lose my voice and by the time we got back I felt terrible. All night I kept waking up because I couldn't breath and I would have little panic attacks. I hated being in a hotel in a foreign country feeling like that. It was the longest night ever.

Anyway here are some pictures of Saturday in Paris.

 

At the Louvre

  

  

  

 

Ava was desperately trying to eat Graham's crepe.

  

Daddy gave in and let her taste a strawberry

  

She didn't like it very much

  

But it didn't stop her from trying again

  

  

I don't think Graham noticed the food on her chin when he took this

  

Crazy baby!

It's too bad I was feeling so crummy, Paris is actually a beautiful city. I'd like to take Ava back there in the spring or summer when she's a bit older.

Sick Mummy again!

Whatever it is that I have, it's horrible! My voice sounds like a mans, my throat is sore, my nose is stuffy and I have a cough that comes at the most inconvenient times - like 5:00 this morning!

I was so worn out and run down yesterday that I was ready to hand the baby to anyone just so I could go find a hole to crawl into and go to sleep. All these sleepless nights have really caught up to me and when I got this cold it hit me really hard.

Ava was an angel last night though, she must have realised I was at the end of my rope and she slept from 8:30pm until 6:30am without waking up once! I gave her a bottle at 6:30 and when I woke up again at 9:30 she was quietly playing in her crib :)

Giggling at Daddy

Recently we discovered that if we 'hide' on Ava she'll start giggling. I found this out when I was changing her diaper and I bent down to get some wipes out of the drawer and she cracked up laughing. Every time I ducked down she would laugh her little head off, it was so cute!

7 Months

She's 7 months old today and I know I say this every single month but where has the time gone?? I just can't believe how fast it goes by and how fast she's growing up. Yesterday I was cleaning out her cupboard and I found a teeny tiny little white dress that she had as a newborn and I just couldn't get over how small it was. It was even a bit too big for her when she first wore it too! She's turning into a toddler so quickly.

Today I took her to the baby weigh clinic and she's now just over 17lbs, exactly where she should be. She's following her growth line perfectly and is right on the 50th percentile.

She's sleeping reasonably well at night, and has two daytime naps (in her crib!) She's happy most of the time and is always so pleased to see Graham and I. She really likes her morning porridge and her bottles. She's not too crazy about her dinner meals but she loves the fruit I give her for dessert.

She finally did it!!

My little Ava Lou slept through the night for the first time ever!

And it only took 7 months.

As amazing as it is, unfortunately she didn't exactly choose the best day to do it. Graham had to be at the airport for 7am so we were up at 6am after having gone to bed at 11pm, (double episode of 24 was on, it's impossible to resist!)

Graham is stuck in Bournemouth this evening so I'm on my own tonight. Hopefully she sleeps through again, but I can't help thinking it might have been a fluke and she'll never do it again.

Oh well... one (almost) full nights sleep in 7 months isn't too bad..... right?