A lot has happened in the last week....
We've had a lot of crying. Separation anxiety is at it's height! And lucky old me, it's only me that he wants. I blogged last year about Isla being a Daddy's girl and my OH reminded me recently that I did say that I wanted a Mummy's boy. Well, I'm not saying that I'd like to retract that but let's just say it's getting a bit too much. I can't even step more than a foot away from the boy without howls of distress. It's like a siren and it gets louder and louder. I'm pretty sure that Isla did a little bit of this, but definitely not to this extent.
We did an experiment a couple of times, just to check if there was actually anything wrong with him. It went like this. I'm in the room, right next to him, Noah is all calm and collected. I move away from him. Howling commences. I must add that he can still see me, I haven't gone anywhere far! The OH picks him up, this is still not good enough. He is sobbing, uncontrollably, snot pouring from his nostrils. I come back into the acceptable distance I'm allowed away from him (an inch) and he visibly calms a bit, but still howls. I take him from the OH and all crying ends and almost a jubilant look can be detected as he snuggles up to me as if to say, 'YES! I got what I wanted in the end!'.
It's draining and has gone on my pro's list for going back to work (another post in progress to address that!). I hope he stops it soon and I get my happy contented boy back, however I also think it is linked to the appearance of a tooth. At last. I really hoped that we'd have a few teeth done and dusted by now, so that on my return to work I only had about another 12 teeth to arrive and sleepless nights would be fewer. But no, he's decided to follow in his sister's footsteps and get his first one at 8 months like her. I don't have to worry about him needing them for eating though. He's storming through solids, with even the nursery admitting to me last week that they forgot to puree his food and he was eating rather large sized pieces of pasta for lunch! Go Noah!
Another milestone we ticked off the list this week is crawling. Now this is a double edged sword. Brilliant because it's a step towards me not having to carry around a 25lb baby everywhere I go (yes, he really is that heavy!) but not brilliant because he'll be getting into EVERYTHING! Ashamedly, this another one of my pro's for going back to work....someone else will deal with this while I'm at the office! Seriously though I do love it. I love seeing him grow and it does feel that between 6 months and 8 months a lot has happened. He's no longer a sicky baby, we don't have to change our clothes (mine too!) a million times due to reflux. He's also full of personality now. I love the interaction between him and Isla (well not all of it), he's always watching her and checking out what she's doing and she has become more interested in him too. However I do think I need to get Isla's hair cut a bit shorter as he is forever making a grab for it which results in lots of tears. The funny thing is that while she is crying her eyes out, he is laughing like Nan (you know the Catherine Tate character?), really cackling.
He is the hungriest baby ever still. I am slightly worried by the fact that most nights he has a late feed and then will still quite often wake in the night for milk too. I wondered if this was a habit but to be honest I don't think I could persuade him not to have milk if I tried as he goes completely mad until he gets it. I pity the neighbours, because he ROARS, although they swear that they never hear him. I know all babies are different and there can't possibly be a hard fast rule on how much food they should eat at each meal, but I do find it hard to judge how much I should be serving up to him when weaning and the very fact he wakes in the night for milk could mean I'm not giving him enough solids I guess? Any feedback on that welcome!
As I mentioned before I'm due back to work soon and the closer it gets the more it actually breaks my heart, he's really made this family complete and I couldn't imagine life without him. So on that note I'll sign off. More on my big baby's progress soon.
