8 months. You’re officially 8 months old. At this point when you were 8 months in my belly I was starting to wind things down at work. I spent 2 weeks working from home, and then another 2 weeks waiting for arrival. I had a huge belly (I still have a belly: I’m working towards losing it but I’m not there yet).
So, what did you get up to this month?
The month of sickness
We had a horrid month for illness. I know this time will come again, and we will have some bad periods ahead. But nevertheless this was not a fun month, and I’m not in a hurry to repeat it.
Incident 1
It started when you had a fever. We used panadol to get it under control, but then you started throwing up, and got lethargic. It was the first time we had ever seen you like that, so we decided a trip to the hospital was in order. It was scary! I thought you were passing out in the car! When we arrived they ran some tests, and after a long time you were diagnosed with a virus and we took you home to ride it out.
Fun fact – trying to do a UTI test for a baby is bloody difficult. We pretty much took your nappy off and waited to try and catch your pee.
Incident 2
Just after you seemed to be getting better from the virus, one day you woke up with conjunctivitis. Your poor eyes were so red and looked so painful. I snapped this pic on day 1. You certainly didn’t enjoy us wiping your eyes down, but eventually you grew accustomed to the saline and put up with it. And after a few days it finally went away.
Incident 3…and 4….and 5….
After your virus I started to develop a cough. Which became a bad cough. And then became a chest infection. To top it off, I also copped an ear infection then too. I was feeling pretty terrible, but marching on and trying to get on with it despite coughing constantly and going deaf in one ear. At one point I went to work and lasted an hour before going home.
And then it ramped up a notch.
We copped gastro.
You can read more about it here, but to recap:
- Thursday: diagnosed with chest infection
- Saturday: diagnosed with ear infection
- Monday: gastro, hospitalised for dehydration
It sucked. But we got through it, and touch wood we all stay health for a little bit. We’ve had a rough run.
Skills
Clicking your tongue
One day you were pulling faces at Aunty Amy when she clicked her tongue at you. Suddenly you started doing it back! It was like you’d been doing it for days, and when I pointed it out to Amy that it was your first time she was surprised. You carried on with it for a few days, but you haven’t been interested in it ever since then.
Teeth
It doesn’t count as a skill as such, but you have teeth! Two bottom teeth and one top tooth so far. Your next top one is pushing really hard though.
Overall you’ve been pretty good with teething. Only recently have you had a few grizzly days, you poor thing. We’ve kept panadol and nurofen on rotation to try and take you out of your misery as much as possible. Otherwise it’s just a matter of letting you chew on things: oddly enough you don’t care for your teething toys.
New foods
You’ve been trying a few new foods this month, including:
- Peanut butter
- Steak
- Porridge
- Watermelon (you were finally happy to suck and eat it out of the feeder)
You absolutely loved the steak, but weren’t too fussed with porridge.
Other things
Fun at daycare
You have been having a wonderful time at daycare this month! You got to meet a bird one day even. You absolutely adore the girls there, and every morning you greet everyone with a smile.
I was thrilled to find out they do school photos at daycare; my first school photo of you! As luck would have it, the day we got discharged from hospital was the day of the photo shoot. We had come home, and because you were totally unaffected we decided to drop you off (so I could rest and clean the house from top to bottom).
I had totally forgotten that it was photo day, so just sent in you in a random assortment of clothing – nothing special. When I arrived they reminded me, so in a panic I found that we had your snoopy shirt in the backpack as spare clothes and changed you into that.
Apparently when the photographer arrived, you were all smiley again. But as soon as the camera was raised, you stared the camera down. No smiley faces here! Hence we got the following photo:
I love it. There’s absolutely nothing better than a hilarious photo with a story. I much prefer that to a perfect, smiling pose!
Other highlights:
- Your first state of origin (with a cute little hoodie to match)
- Sitting up in the trolley at the grocery stores now
- Playing on the lawn with missy
Weight:
By the time I took your weight it was closer to 9 months, so I can only really guess. I’m getting worse at this, aren’t I.
I’m pretty sure you would have been around the 9kg mark, give or take 100g.
Family update
Your dad has been a busy man! We have excavated the side of the house, with your dad, nonno, grandpa and a friend’s husband (thanks Shayne) all working together to build a new retaining wall. It’s still a mud pit, but we are in the process of changing that. As soon as we have time, there will be rocks to build a feature retaining wall at the front, a new fence, and garden planter boxes all down the side. It will hopefully look wonderful when it’s all finished.
I’m back at work 3 days a week now, which means you’re at daycare 3 times a week. You still absolutely love it, and the girls love you. We’re very lucky. I’m very much still enjoying the return to work as well, but I miss you dearly every day.
I had a mole cut out this month, thankfully it came back benign with no concerns. That was a relief. I keep hoping you have your father’s skin instead of mine – I burn so easily and I have to be so cautious when I spend time outside. That’s not to say I won’t be teaching you good skincare – you will absolutely be living and breathing “slip, slop, slap”.
I celebrated my first true Mother’s Day this year. We were in Brisbane at the time, so shared it with your Nonna and Zia (aunt). It was a lovely day. For daycare they organised some cute little artwork, which I now have proudly displayed on my desk at work.
Here’s some other cute photos from the rest of the month too.
Well, that’s it for this month! Until next month little man!
Oh, and by the way. I’m already looking back on the first few months and getting sentimental. How quickly you are growing!