Athena’s 8 month update

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As I didn’t do a proper 7 month update I made an effort to do a proper one this month, more for me to look back on than anything else! Athena turned 8 months old this week, she is now on the 91st percentile for weight & height and is a chunky 20.5lbs! She’s in size 4 nappies and 6-9 month sized clothes mostly, a few 3-6 tops are still fitting and a few leggings at 9-12. I was given back a bag of newborn sized bits we’d lent out a couple of weeks ago and was so shocked at how small she was once! 
Sleep: I will have completely jinxed this now, but this week we had two nights of uninterrupted sleep of 13 hours. I know, crazy. Before that she was waking up twice or more a night. If it lasts I will be over the moon, if it doesn’t then ce la vie! She’s still being fed to sleep, much to the disgust of my health visitor who rolled her eyes and told me off. I’m lucky that for me it’s water off a ducks back and i’m old enough to not let it bother me but I do worry about the impact that the way HV speak to people could have on young and impressionable mothers. She also seemed to think that breastfeeding on demand should have stopped by now. Considering they want babies to be breastfed till 6 months I think asking an 8 month old not to feed on demand is a bit rich!
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Doing things: This kid LOVES to empty things. The coffee table drawer. My hand bag. The basket of nappies. She has not yet learnt to put things back, annoyingly. She’s now crawling backwards and getting stuck under the sofa a fair amount, she can do about 2 wobbly movements forward but then just sits back on her bum and looks pissed off! [EDIT: as of today she is crawling forwards fairly steadily, serves me right for writing the post before I publish it!] She can now go from laying on her back to sitting in a matter of seconds, which surprised me as I didn’t think that would happen till a lot later! So now she’s often found sitting in the corner of her cot posting things through the bars first thing in the morning, annoyingly. She can happily support her weight on her legs if we hold one hand or lean her against something, but has only pulled herself up in the cot once so I think it was a fluke!
Eating: we’re predominantly doing baby led weaning now as she gets so outrageously annoyed if I try and spoon feed her for more than a few mouthfuls. She has eaten all sorts of things and the only thing she didn’t like so far was a bit of boiled egg. Gherkins and marmite were both successful, good lass! It was odd, it used to be that she’d mostly throw toast on the floor but then a couple of weeks ago I went to pick the bits up and there were none, she’d eaten a whole slice cut into fingers on her own. She can inhale a Banana in seconds too.
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Breastfeeding: Still going strong, still feeding 4 or 5 times a day (r more!) even though she has 3 proper meals too. I think it is comfort as much as anything, and she now giggles when she hears or sees me unclip the fasters on my nursing bra, which is a little creepy if i’m honest! However I have no plans to wean her off it until she’s ready, she loves the boob, and that’s fine with me! She will drink formula from a bottle if necessary on the rare times I am away from her as I am finding it more difficult to pump anything these days.
Voice: she’s found it! She makes all the normal noises a baby makes and imitates us too (especially yum yum yum, which is cute!) She is also a lot more vocal when I take things off her she shouldn’t have, like the TV remote but as soon as she gets distracted by the next thing she stops, I don’t rise to it. She says ‘mamamam’ and ‘dadadadaaaa’ but at anything/anyone so I’ve not got too excited about that! Oh, and still no more teeth but I can see some bumps coming up.
That’s it for now, I can’t believe in another 4 weeks she’ll have been outside for as long as she’s been in!

4 thoughts on “Athena’s 8 month update

  1. Ah Athena is the cutest baby. Ever, and she sounds like a dream! Love these posts about her 🙂

    Sophie x

  2. such a lovely post. her name (and adorable lil face) is just gorgeous. I had a china doll called Athena as a child and from then had always said my daughter would have that name :):)) x

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