Actually I wanted to make a post about first half year with the baby but Nolan became 7 months old before I could write about it. Baby changes very fast during first year so it also makes sense to write the update every month (I do it in my notebook) but since time is limited I will just cover the longer time frame. This also gives the chance view the improvement and see the change of behaviour.
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| In our garden in Estonia 💚 (7 months old) |
NIGHT SLEEP
Baby`s sleep is always a hot topic. Looking back I can see that sometimes it gets better and then it gets worse again so it is like a rollercoaster. I guess it depends on the mental development. From the beginning Nolan`s crib has been by our bed. At the beginning there was a babynest inside. When he was small I always put him back to his crib since I was afraid that if I let him stay in our bed then I will hit him during night or the blanket will fall on him. Then during 3-4 months his sleep got worse. If at the beginning he slept 4-6 hours without waking up then now it was every 1,5-3 hours and I was so exhausted. And he tend to wake up when I lifted him on his crib. So I just let him sleep in our bed. Kevin had by the time moved on a couch to get a quality sleep before work. So I squeezed myself to the other side of the bed. About 5 months Nolan´s sleep started to improve and I put him back to sleep in his crib. By the time we also moved to our new apartment so the idea was to get him to sleep on his room when he is 6 months old. And that did happen. First 2 weeks I slept on the matras in his room but now he is there alone with a baby monitor 😇.
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| My little devil 🙈 (Picture by Familiis) |
DAY SLEEP
People say that you should sleep when the baby sleeps. But what if the baby sleeps only when you are pushing the wagon while walking, or in a baby carrier that was our case. During first months I got some minutes sleep since then Nolan made a 3-4 hour naps during the day in the wagon, so after I walked in a room with him, he still remained a sleep in his wagon. Around 3 months he started hating his wagon and every time when I went out with him he started crying hard or if I were lucky then he only slept 40 minutes. We even changed to the stroller seat in a hope that he just likes to look around more. So walking with him was more like formality. And the same in a baby carrier. So I was just sitting and reading a book. So it was beneficial in that way that I got to read quite many books 😉. Daysleep started to improve around 5 months. He still did not sleep in a wagon longer than 40 minutes but we started to laying him on his crib after he fell a sleep in a baby carrier and he remained a sleep. Sometimes I had to do it 3 times though. So when he was 5 months old, then I finally had a chance to have lunch nap. 😆 During hard times I just had a nap in the evening when Kevin was home from work.
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| Not sure how he could sleep hand up like this.😂 He is on a Nomi highchair. (1 month) |
EATING
I have been breast feeding Nolan since the birth. Before corona times I also pumped milk out and Kevin gave the bottle about 1-2 times a week. When the corona arrived, then I did not have a reason to go out without Nolan and so we did not give him bottle. We did that about 1,5 months later and then Nolan did not take a bottle anymore. Not sure if it would have happened either way or we should have bottled feed him regularly.
Luckily from 4 months you can start giving a baby solid food and that is what I did since Nolan did not gain much weight and it should help. At the beginning it is just a 1-2 spoons at a time but by 6 months he could already eat quite a lot. With the solid food the poop also changes and starts to stink a lot. Luckily it is not that liquid any more, so clothes do not get dirty.
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| Sneeky baby 😜 (6,5 months old) |
From 5 months I started giving also porridge. Then we also discovered that Nolan has cow milk allergy since the baby porridge was based on milk and he went instantly red and itchy after I gave one spoon to him. 😢 Will write more about it later.
Sometimes the feeding can be quite annoying since Nolan is wining then you need to make funny faces and distract him so that the feeding would be more fun. In the end it is quite exhausting. From 7 months I started also reducing the breast milk since I have to go back to work. If before I fed him 6-7 times a day so now I try to keep it 4 and so that one break during a day is at least 8 hours. When giving solids I also noticed that he did not want that much breast milk either way since he was full.
Giving solid food is also quite messy and the spots do not come off from the clothes that easily.
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| Slowly getting stronger (picture by Familiis; 6,5 months old) |
COW MILK ALLERGY
When his skin went all red then we called the hospital and the asked to come in. It was during the corona times so only one parent was allowed. So I took a taxi and went alone with Nolan. They checked him there and gave antidote and his skin went instantly better. He had so nice skin after that. We had to stay overnight for monitoring. It has been so far the only night that I have spent alone with Nolan. I was not prepared to stay at the hospital for a night so I did not have any extra clothes. Thank god I took the baby carrier with me. I do not know how I could get him fall a sleep otherwise. It was still a bit annoying since Nolan had a wire around his leg for monitoring heart so it was more difficult to get him in the carrier and keep the wire on. Luckily it was a long wire. At night he slept quite well since his skin was not itchy anymore. He fell a sleep after feeding but I did not dare to lift him to his crib so I left him sleep in my bed and I went to sleep on a couch. 😀
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| Estonian Independence Day with socks in his hands (2,5 months old) |
Due to the allergy I also had to stop eating all the milk products and become "megan" (vegan who eats meat). I must say that it is super annoying and you would be surprised to know that there is milk in so many products. And it also quite expensive hobby. I would say that it was easier to give up alcohol than all the milk products 😭.
DEVELOPMENT
I would say that the highlight of the development was when Nolan started to smile around 2 months. He is super happy baby and it does not take a lot to make him laugh. He already turned around 3 months and did the ass crawling but then he stopped for some time and started turning again at 5 months and now we can see that he slowly starts crawling at 7 months old. Not the fastest baby but as I have understood every baby is different. He has liked being on a tummy since first weeks. At the beginning not for long though. He also has now 2 teeth below that started growing at 6 months. One of the cutest development was also when Nolan discovered his feet and started sucking his toes. Babys are so flexible. 😄 Now at 7 month he can also go on his all 4 but just for short time. In a vocal wise he is at the moment saying "mamama", not sure yet what does he mean by that but usually he does that when he is complaining. 😝
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| Toes taste so good! 😋 (Picture by Familiis) |
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| He might learn to fly before walking 😅 (3,5 months old) |
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| Training with toys! (7 months old) |
CLOTHES
Since Nolan has grown and gain weight slowly, I have had a possibility to use same size of clothes for about 2-3 months. At the beginning they might be a bit big and in the end a bit tight. I also used socks a lot since I put them on Nolan´s hands, so that he could not scratch himself. After we received hormone cream, I do not use the socks as a gloves any more. I guess he is already so advanced too that he can just pull them off. Granny has bought most clothes, I have just got some cute outfits for mini B-day pictures.
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| Mr. Handsome in 6 months photoshoot 😎 |
TOYS
Toys started interest him when he was around 6 months old. We got Done by Deer hanging toys that have entertained him for many months. At the beginning he was just looking them since they had a contrast colours, then he bang them, then pull and now he tries to eat them 😝. I bought it second hand as many of other toys. Another good deal was BabyBjørn bouncer. First he tried it at my brother`s place and then we got him one when he was 2 months old. And at first we could even bounce him to sleep there. Good old times. 😄 Now he knows how to pounce himself and he has been enjoying eating the toys and pulling himself up.
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| Sleeping in a baby bouncer! ✌ (2 months) |
A ball that he can put a fingers through has been also good since he can practice putting hands together and giving a toy from one hand to another. And of course all the toys that he can shake. In Estonia, my mom had looked up for the toys when I was small and these old soviet toys where also exciting for him. Buying Nomi high chair has also been very practical. At the beginning we let him just chill there and look the lights coming from the window, take him to the dining table to watch how we eat or to the kitchen, when Kevin cooks or I do the dishes. He likes to look us working. It was also useful when we started giving solid food since Nolan is not yet sitting by himself. Otherwise we had to keep him on our lap or use car seat.
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| Now he is trying to eat these toys! 😁 (1 month) |
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| 3 months old! |
TRAVEL
When Nolan was 3,5 months old, we got an electrical cargo bike by black iron horse. It was very good buy since Nolan really enjoys sitting there. He has a baby seat. It is also very practical to get around Copenhagen and it is much faster. Sometimes I unpacked also wagon and went to the park since with public transport it is not so convenient from our new place.
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| The Black Iron Horse and it´s rider 😎 |
Due to Corona we did not have a chance to travel a lot. We wanted to go to Tenerife when Nolan was 4 months old, but it got cancelled. However we managed to go to Estonia twice. First time Nolan was 8 weeks old and then we just went for a long weekend. One of my friend had a baby shower and I also got to visit the hair dresser. Then also my family met Nolan first time. My mom was here after the birth, so she had seen Nolan already. It is actually not so convenient to travel with a baby. I do not mean the plane ride, this went very well, but generally at home you have all the equipment ready. 😊 During the take off I breastfed or gave a pacifier (generally Nolan does not take a pacifier, he sucks his fingers now 💣).
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| With my brother and Nolan´s nephew during first visit 😊 (8 weeks) |
I was very happy when the borders started to open again and we managed to go to Estonia for a bit more than 3 weeks when Nolan was 6,5 months old. This was amazing since Nolan was a bit bigger and I did not need to breastfeed him so often and then my mom could take care of him and me and Kevin got quite many free evenings. It is such a blessing to have grandparents around who like to take care of a grandchild and it makes parenting so much easier.
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| Boys during second trip 💙 (7 months) |
During second trip I did not give Nolan a boob during the flight and I did not notice that he got fussy because of the ears. Both ways he slept most of the flight.
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| Face masks now! And still his favourite place to sleep! 😊 |
In Estonia we discovered that Nolan hates car seat. It was 50:50 if he will fall a sleep or cry. Kevin tryied so hard to entertain him. So for some trips we just took the train instead of a car since then we could pick him up when he wants. This time Nolan also met his great granny and many of my friends that was lovely. 💚 In Estonia we also went to swim with him first time in a spa and I also took him to the steam sauna. He quite enjoyed it and did not whine at all.
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| First swimming in V-spa (6,5 months) |
I will write more about the maternity entertainment like baby massage course and play dates on the next post where I will look more back to my whole 9 months maternity leave that started 6 weeks before Nolan was born. 😊
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| Nolan and Mr. Panda from 1 to 6 months 💗 |
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