Still not budging

Most babies Hollie's age are at least well on their way to crawling and becoming mobile but Hollie is just not interested! She has always been very good at standing and this hasnt changed - she can now stand on her own for a few seconds (very scary) - but she aint bothered about getting anywhere! This is probably a good thing as I think my life would be a lot harder if she didnt stay pretty much where I put her, plus we would have to mega baby proof the house. Ive told her to hold it off at least untill the 5th of January so that my time with her is a lot easier (selfish i know). But theres always a little bit of you thats so proud and desperately wants her to do new things, even if they will be a pain in the long run! But if she walks this early it will be mayhem as she just wont have the ware withall to know what shes doing!
On another note, she has learnd to make a coughing sound. At first we thought she actually had a cough, but no, its just a sound she makes.
She now has 3 teeth! She has actually been very good with the teething so she obviously hasnt inherited my stupidly low pain threshold! We went to the dentists last week which was fun and we brush her teeth 2 times a day, which she loves!

raaa raaa raaa raaa!

This is the latest noise from Hollie and, along with all the other noises she makes you can now have quite a comprehensive converstaion with her! And if you enjoy screaming competitions then you may meet your match in Hollie!
I am currently cooking her first roast dinner as she is now eating EVERYTHING! And my house is covered in it.

A* for development, D- for table manners!

Its been a while since i wrote on here, mainly due to orange's incompetance at getting my internet sorted (it was down for 3 and a half weeks!).

Well in that time Hollie has changed loads and has done lots of new things.

The main new thing is her eating. When I first started weaning her it was pretty futile and she wasnt really at all interested. She would only eat baby rice made with water at first and slowly progressed onto single mashed vegetables or fruits. I slowly started adding 2 veggies together but she still wasnt really interested or eating very much. I started giving her finger food and just persisted with the other stuff. She became a bit more receptive and started to eat a very small amount of what I gave her. Then she started to eat with us and had a tiny amount of whatever we had and suddenly one night she just ate LOADS! I gave it to Pete to feed her and told him she would probably only have a few mouthfulls but she ate it all! And since then there has been no looking back! She is now on three meals a day plus snacks. She always has a bit of finger food such as veg or bread while we eat and then first to finish feeds her. But, as you can probably imagine, its a messy business! She has also decided that she doesnt like breast during the day so she only has that at night now.

As well as eating she is also doing loads of new stuff. She was sitting but seems to have forgotten how to do that now! She can stand independantly, holding onto something so it looks like she may be an early walker which just fills me with delight- having a baby who can walk but has absolutly no sense about it sounds just great!

She is chatting loads and its soooooo sweet. I think its one of those things that is absolutly gorgeous with your own baby but you wouldnt even notice in someone elses!

We had Becka and Dan to stay last week which was really nice. We were really lucky on the saturday and had a spell of bright sun so we went to the Botanical gardens and Hollie had her first taste of ice cream and, needless to say, it was a great hit!

Rollin rollin rollin

Hollie has reached her first major physical developmental milestone! In France last week (will post that at a later date when I have figured out the photo thing!) she did her first solo roll! It was my mum who saw it and, as much as I kept my beady little eye on her, I didnt actually see her do it for a couple of days! But it was really funny to see her on her back one minute, look away, then look back and shes on her front with a really surprised look on her face as if to say 'what on earth has just happened to me?! how did I get here?!' But the funniest thing is she cant roll back yet so she gets really frustrated after a bit and needs turning.

Shes also come up with some new sounds since being in France (maybe influenced by all the singing??). I think she has discovered that you can make sounds with your lips as well as your tongue so shes doing loads of raspberry type sounds its so sweet!

Iv added a little photo of her at exactly 25 weeks (6months- v scary, not sure when that happened!)

Cornwall 2008

Well, as you can see from the picture, the weather wasnt too kind to us in Cornwall but that didnt stop us from goin out and having fun! It wasnt cold, just rainy so as soon as the sun poked itself out if we snuck out before the rain could start again. We didnt go too far because we wanted to relax but we got to St. Mawes which is a small fishing port and had lunch in a pub and we also got to the beach twice. The small village we were staying in was lovely and we wandered round there a few times and had proper cornish ice cream. For the beach we bought a little tent like shelter which was a bugger to put up in the wind (it didnt help that we chose the most exposed part of the beach!) but once it was up it was a godsend and it kind of kept the sand away from Hollie.

We spent a lot of time at the house just relaxing and watching the olympics, which Hollie loved! We had two bbqs, both of which Pete did and I had a glass of wine every night which was great (any excuse!)

One day I will find out how to get the pictures in the text so it will look better and be all hunky dorey!

Hollieday!!!

After much discussion on the best time to leave so as nt to disturb Hollies sleep too much, we finally left at 6.30 on Sunday morning and now, here we are, in Cornwall on our first family holiday! We were so excited and now we are having a lovely relaxing time!
The weather has been a bit mixed so weve not done a great deal which is nice cos we both needed a bit of a break from doin a lot. We strolled into the little village and had some proper Cornish ice cream which was yummy and yesterday we went to the beach whilst the weather was a bit better. There were people swimming in the sea but we whimped out of that one! In stead we strolled and jogged along the beach, sat on some rocks whilst I fed Hollie and did a small bit of sunbathing. In the evening Pete did us a bbq and we wined and dined in the conservatoire!
Hollie is sleeping very well- not sure why, maybe its the sea air?!?! So we are both getting a well deserved break!
All that plus in 2 weeks me and Hollie are going to France as well!
Very posh!

An Oympian in the making!!!

Iv got up with Hollie this morning and were just watching the Olympics Breakfast on BBC1 and she is absolutly facinated! She does love the tv anyway so maybe its just that but I like to think she will win gold one day! Pushy mother!

Le photo pour la passporte

Voila:

Its a bit of a funny size cos i scanned it but its quite sweet. I got up early this morning to take her to Meadowhall cos someone told me there was a woman there who does it but when I got there she had a booking and told me to come back in an hour which was a real blag so I put Hollie and the buggy back in the car in the rain and drove to the OTHER end of the city to get it done there. It was a mission and a half but here it is!

Passporte d'enfant

Well, Hollie and I are going on our vacances a la France in 4 weeks avec les grandparents de dyer (Pete cant come cos its the 1st week back at school :() and we only just figured out, with the help of grandmere, that we need to get her a passporte! It was something that hadnt even crossed our minds before untill my mum saw an advert about fake passports and made the connection! We nearly got to the day before without one!
So i've got a form to fill in and tomorrow we are going to get our photo taken. All very exciting!

Fully fledged breastfeeder

Yesterday I had my graduation party for the breastfeeding peer support course I have been doing. So, along withm my book, rather pasionately titled 'The womanly art of breastfeeding,' I am now able so support woman breastfeeding, wether they have a major problem or just want someone to chat to who knows how it feels. Shffield is on a mission to become a breastfeeding city so courses like this are there to help spread the word and to get breastfeeding women supporting breastfeeding women. Cos after all breast is best! And I think a lot of people dont fully know how much better it is. Everyone is aware of health benefits, but a lot of people dont know quite how extensive they are, and many people do not know the practical advantages of breastfeeding- indeed many women think that formula feeding us easier! So its all about education and most importantly support.
But anyway, my graduation. All my friends from the course were there aswell as the 2 breastfeeding councillors at the surestart centre. We also had a few people of note there. There was a buffet laid out and a display of the students breastfeeding stories we had written. As soon as I got there Hollie did a massive poo which needed to be changed and then she fell fast asleep. But just before my name was called out she typically woke up and so had to come up with me to collect my certificate! But it was ok cos she got to be in all the pictures with me. It was a nice afternoon and it was nice to see so many people who are so passionate about breastfeeding. We just need to keep spreading the word now!

Fishy

As Hollie gets closer to going on to solids I have been trying to be a bit more creative with my cooking and thinking about how I can adapt our meals so Hollie can eat the same as us cos, lets face it, im pretty lazy and definately dont want to be cooking 2 meals at a time if I can help it.
Its been really fun experimenting rather than just cooking the same thing all the time.
Tonight we had salmon cos iv seen lots of people feed it to their babies so I reckon it must be good. I had never cooked it before and Pete didnt think he liked it so I was quite excited! I cooked it in the oven with garlic, onion and peppers and we had rice and crunchy steamed brocoli with it and it was scrummy! Plus Pete really liked it so its definately on the cards!
More new and exciting food coming up...

THREE injections!!!

Yes thats right, Hollie has had THREE injections today, 2 in one leg and the third in the other. This was her last lot for a while which I am very pleased about. They were the third lot so far and each time I have got progressively worse about them. The first time I was very able to just think 'its the best thing for her, no pain no gain... etc,' but I have crumbled and today had to have Pete there with me to hold my hand. And after all that the little madam only gave us a little whimper and Pete just gave me a look as if to say 'and you needed me here for this?!?!?!' But really I am pleased that she is ok and now she is fast asleep after a feed as soon as we got in.
And on a different note, howbad is the weather today??? I have just had my tesco delivery and it poured, it was like a monsoon! Of corse as soon as the poor guy left it eased up so he will go to his next delivery where he will be able to park right next to the front door and wish he had done it the other way round! But now I have a kitchen and hallway floor to clean due to wet boots...

Messed around by the heat...

This warm weather is wonderful of corse! We went for a picnic with Granny, Grandpa and Oscar on monday and its great for me and Pete to just chill in the evenings. However, it does mess Hollie's sleeping and feeding around somewhat! Shes really thirsty all the time which is fine but she cant get a drink quick enough and doesnt always appreciate that it takes time for the milk to come down! I think im going to try her on a trainer cup with a little water to solve that one. But mostly it has affected her sleep as she is either too hot, or too cold if I over compensate for the heat. We really need a vest that has detachabale sleeves and legs so I can add them later when it gets cooler without waking her. So theres a money making thing!
But all in all the weather is lovely and I hope others are enjoying it too maybe with a glass or two of wine...

The beginning- 4 months on

I have decided to start a blog all about baby Hollie as I obviously have much more sense than time on my hands! But really I want people who know her but who live far away (most of my family) to be able to follow her progress and life more closely. Please feel free to post comments or posts so that it can be interactive.

As im writing this Pete is sat on the other sofa cuddling Hollie and holding her upright on her legs (her new favourite thing) and counting how long she can stay up for (top right pic). He is very ambitious and wants her to be the youngest baby ever to walk!

Anyway... Hollie is now 4 months old and has gone from a tiny lump of gorgeous baby to a mega cuddly interactive mini human (but still a baby of corse!). She is still purely breastmilk and doing v well on it- definately not the tiny baby I thought I was going to have! She can fully hold her head up and has started to roll onto her side but not quite making it to her tummy yet. She has loved her sleep from the start which has been a bit of a godsend! Last week I bought her a bumbo (in the top left pic) which is a kind of seat thing which she can sit up in to get a bit of a different prospective of the world!

She keeps changing every week and ill keep you updated on all these changes and other things that we get up to in our busy lives so watch this space!