Age: 9 Months – I Think?

Gabriele at nine months is becoming an extremest stair-climber now and stands up with one hand to balance, shout and lean back when he gets to the top! He has absolutely no fear of heights and races up each step like a mechanical monkey and it’s hilarious to see. And he motors along the landing into the bedrooms to try and pull over as many things as possible without us noticing, although his plans are often short lived as we’re always standing over him, but he still tries bless him. 🙂 I say I think he’s nine months as it all depends on how you count it! By weeks (4 weeks to a month) he is nine months old today, but by calendar months (4 weeks + the odd days over) he is eight months and one week? My lady zone is telling me nine months and never again, and my heart is telling me he’s still a little baby and I need to have some more! x

He’s been terrorising us every night this past week by waking up every couple of hours screaming and howling and refusing to sleep. We were particularly worried a few days ago when he was absolutely inconsolable for four hours; we’d tried everything, milk, nappy, playing, teething gel, a chilled dummy for his gums, singing, showing him the fish that he loves to watch swimming in the tank, but he just wouldn’t stop screaming and got himself in a terrible state. We preserved in vain to tuck him into bed with the lights off and a warm bottle, his snuggle bunny and a tickle on his forehead but he was still howling in agony and hasn’t been like this since he was a newborn and couldn’t tell us what he wanted. It was terrible to see and we felt helpless and dumbfounded, but just as we were considering taking him to A&E for fear of a hernia or internal pain he suddenly let out a massively loud burp and fell fast asleep with a little whimper.

So I reached for my phone and googled babies having wind at eight months old to see if this week-long chaos could have possibly been down to trapped wind and so many mother reported the exact same thing. It seems that when babies go onto solids almost full-time the milk starts to give them wind again as their stomachs adjust to handling food instead. Some mothers said at two years old their children still suffered from awful stomach pains and wind, and others only reported it up until a year, so I’m hoping Gabriele will even out sooner rather than later. And it only seems to be at night that he’s getting the trapped wind as in hindsight I’ve noticed he is now burping very frequently throughout the day but as he gets tired at night it’s obviously been harder for him to shake his wind.

Some mums keep food diaries and note down which foods give their babies most wind and try to avoid them, with the only problem being that it can take up to a week for a baby to react to a food that didn’t agree with them so the results are very slow to achieve and you can’t be sure exactly what is causing the wind unless you only feed a baby the same meal morning, noon and night for an entire week.

We’re going to go with the option of only giving water past a certain time in the evening, and as our cheeky cherub is very much a night baby we’re aiming for no milk past eight. We’re also introducing a dummy to soothe him instead of food, although he’s never properly taken to one since his three day stint as a newborn. And we’re also trying weetabix mixed with warm comfort milk as a dinner as it’s more filling than his baby puree. He tried some for breakfast for the first time this morning and managed to eat a whole bowl so fingers crossed it will be equally as satisfying at bedtime!

I’ve been trying to get back to my gym routine since being ill and slacking off over Christmas, and it’s amazing how just skipping that little amount of time has reduced my stamina when working out and I’m really struggling now. We’ve had a lot of junk food and a few too many take aways recently as each weekend Luca and I tell each other “We’ll start eating healthy on Monday, this is our last treat!” But we’re now into 2013 and still eating in preparation for a famine. Somewhere along the line I managed to pick up an upset stomach and as I was working out at the gym I suddenly felt the worst trapped wind, but as I was in public and listening to music on my headphones I couldn’t be sure I’d get away with a cheeky squeak as knowing my luck it would be more of a sonic boom. I’d also forgotten to bring a towel to wipe away drops of sweat whilst doing my cardio and was dripping wet, bright red-faced and my insides churning like something out of a comedy film. Somehow I hobbled on and held it in until I got home and I’m so glad I did. When I hurriedly got to the comfort of my bathroom, for fear of putting you off of your dinner, let’s just say it wasn’t human and it came out of nowhere, I’ve had prettier experiences giving birth!

So as I feel like my insides have now been vacuumed out I’ve been trying to eat healthy breakfasts to firm up my day so to speak, and going to the gym during the morning instead of in the evening. The only problem being that I would normally have my massive dinner at night and then go for a workout after, but now going in the morning means my breakfasts just don’t cut the same energy levels and I’ve been dragging my eyelids on the peddles of the spinner and holding my head up on the weight stands. My best worst pre-breakfast workout fails so far have to be a salad and a brussel-sprout soup, as I only seem to realise when I stat exercising that I should’ve had a more substantial breakfast. And sods law will be the day I go again at night I’ll have a workman’s breakfast fry-up and a salad for dinner and fall asleep on the machine. My memory is absolutely nappy-filling at the moment and I need a good dose of common sense.

But I’m still tinkering along and gradually getting back on form. There is a gradual sign of stomach muscles appearing and I definitely feel more toned than in my entire life so that’s a bonus! My hopeful six-pack is at present still a one-pack which I blame on last weeks Indian take out, bombay mix, semolina and family sized box of chocolates. Willpower, how you evade me, but one day I will conquer you for good!

And I have a ridiculous grin on my face as not only have I shed 2lbs this week, finally broke the 9st barrier and found some muscle tone, but I now weigh the same as what I did at the age of seventeen, BB – before babies! I would have taken this opportunity to feel smug and do cartwheels around the lounge but I currently have a baby nuzzling on my lap for his afternoon nap and an adorable Millie cuddled up under my arms watching cartoons on the sofa as I type. With fear of my elbows giving my children black eyes from my celebratory chicken dance I will use this time to reflect on my hard work by shutting off my mac and having a whole-hearted, exhausted, mouth-open, head-back dribblefest doze.

Millie is back to school in the morning after a lovely Christmas break and Luca is tinkering with the bodywork on my car in preparation to sell it in favour of a people carrier/sportscar we still can’t decide between practical or ridiculous! Hmm…