So I’m rather late with this post since Izzy is already 7 months and 6 days, however in my defence I am currently living in a plague house! First I came down with a virus, then J, and finally Izzy. Unfortunately I am still not better nearly 2 weeks later (lack of sleep has a lot to answer for). Anyway back to the important things!
Last week Izzy turned 7 months. She is now officially closer to being 1 than she is to the date she was born. She is a petite little girl, weighing in at 16lb 3 oz and still wearing (for the most part) size 3 nappies and 3-6 month clothes. A couple of weeks back I bought her a Christmas outfit in 6-9 months anticipating that she would easily be wearing that by Christmas… it’s still pretty big on her!
Developmentally Izzy sits fantastically and rolls front to back with no problem. She also loves to stand holding on to things, however other than that she is pretty static. She absolutely hates being on her front (hence the rolling), and is showing no signs whatsoever of wanting to crawl. I can leave her sat on the floor and 9 times out of 10 she will be in the exact same position (the other 1 time, she will be lying on her back having leaned forward too far, fallen on to her front and then flipped over!). At least I am not having to babyproof yet! Izzy is a very social baby. She is always happiest when out or about or with an audience. Last week as I was so unwell my friend had her for a few hours (the first time she had been away from me for more than an hour!) and she was apparently a little angel. She played happily with her friend, ate well, napped well, the only thing she didn’t do was take a bottle of expressed milk although she did have a little water in a sippy cup. This not taking a bottle was more of a problem though on the Friday night that I went out with some friends. Izzy woke as soon as I was gone and for the next 2.5 hours was inconsolable. Nothing would settle her until eventually she took 1oz from the bottle and fell asleep. That 1oz was apparently enough to take the edge off… I am not really sure what to do about this. At the end of February I will be returning to work. I am going back on a part-time basis, 2.5 days a week, Monday to Wednesday morning. Izzy will be attending a day nursery for these 3 days, from 7.45 am through till 6 pm. I am not sure how much milk 9 month old babies still take during the day, but I am sure she will be requiring at least 1 feed during that time and if she is still refusing a bottle this could be a problem. It is frustrating for me as I would much rather not have to give her a bottle at all but I don’t have any choice but to return to work.
Food wise, Izzy eats 3 meals a day but they are all pretty small still. She eats finger foods with no problem, but her main meals are purees (her favourite at the moment is Butternut Squash and Apple) – she will normally eat 4 cubes followed by one sometimes 2 baby yoghurts. Breakfast is normally baby cereal. She breast feeds about 4-5 times a day and then the same again (if not more at night), however despite the large amount of feeding and the relative inactivity, she still only put on 3 oz in 3 weeks!
Finally sleep. Once again we are in the middle of one of Izzy’s sleep regression periods. She is waking anywhere between every 30-45 minutes to every 2-3 hours. Of course this has not helped by either of us being ill, and due to lack of sleep the only way I have been able to cope is to co-sleep with her (yes I know this is far from ideal!). I really am tearing my hair out with her and have no idea what to do next. I have tried the controlled crying, it worked for a week or so. A glorious week where she was sleeping 8 or 9 hour stretches, and then it suddenly stopped again 
