Baby M's Developmental Check

We had Baby M's 7-9 month developmental check.  I wasn't really sure what to expect.

We haven't seen our health visitor since Baby M was 8 weeks old due to the fact she was off work.  Baby M kept looking at her with unsure eyes, can't really blame him.

Firstly she gave him some small blocks and watched him play with them. 

She then asked me a series of questions about how he moves, plays and eats. 

There is then a sheet she adds up the total 'scores' and she let us know how 'well' Baby M had done.

Seeing as the sheet was an 8 month questionnaire and he isn't 8 months old yet he did really well, I was very proud.  The only things he lost "marks" on was the fact that he won't feed himself a biscuit and he doesn't echo us back.

To be honest I'm not too worried about either, I think he enjoys being fed and whilst I have been continually trying him with finger foods I think it's something he will do in his own time and we just had to keep encouraging him.  As for the echoing, he babbles for Britain and we have constant nonsense conversations.  He also turns at his name and looks at me with puppy eyes when I say 'No' so I know there's nothing wrong with his hearing.

Baby M was also weighed and he's now 9kg - big growing boy!!

I know people say these tests aren't worth much and that you shouldn't worry about them but as a first time mum I found it really reassuring that Baby M is developing as he should.  Yes I know every child develops at their own pace but I worry that I'm not stimulating him enough or encouraging him do the right things.  It's good to know everything is well.

His next check will be at 2.5 years which seems ages away!!

Weaning visit from Health Visitor

We haven't heard from our health visitor since Baby M was 7 weeks old, we contacted the office last week as we were concerned that Baby M has been finishing his 7oz bottles.  It turns out our health visitor is on long term sick leave.  Another health visitor came out to see us to have a chat about our options with Baby M but also to give us our weaning chat.

Firstly we had a chat about Baby M and his development.  He loves standing and was doing his standing man when the health visitor arrived - she was really impressed and pleased with how strong he appears on his legs.  She thinks he might stand/walk before he crawls as he would rather be standing than sitting.  She was also happy with his babbling (he started to get tired not long after she arrived and he started his "dring dring" routine)

It was reassuring for us to hear everything was as it should be and that we are doing things that we should.  As first time parents we often feel we are winging it and making it up as we go along.

We then turned the discussion to Baby M and his appetite.  He has always been a hungry-ish baby but recently he has been having all of his bottles and instead of waiting 4 hours between feeds it's now 3 hours.  The health visitor informed us that babies go through a growth spurt at 4 months and this could account for his increase in appetite.  She encouraged us to stick with our current approach and see how we get on.  If we can manage to get to 5 months she stated this would be better to start introducing baby rice but she also recognised that we might not be able to wait that long. 

We then had a chat about weaning in general.  We are going to cook our own food for Baby M and use pouches/bottles at a minimum.  I've seen a great product from Fill and Squeeze that I want to get for when we are going out and about, that way we can have our own food in pouches - brilliant!!

We talked about the fruits that we can give Baby M (apples, pears, melons) and vegetables (all really but especially carrot, butternut squash, sweet potato, potato). After 6 months we can look at introducing meats and fish.  The health visitor gave us a great booklet to read that has lots of information in.

We need to get some round flat weaning spoons and some bowls.  We also need to get some tubs to store the food we make in as we will only need small amounts to start with.  I can see our freezer being full of tiny tubs!


Our next visit will be between 7-9 months old and they will check his development further and chat to us about the next stage of weaning. 

1 week old

Wow what an amazing/tiring/quick week it's been (or should I say 13 days)

Baby M & I spent 2 days in hospital following his birth and I couldn't wait to get home to Mr M.  Our first night home was awful, baby M wouldn't settle. We tried feeding him, winding him and nothing seemed to work. At 4am we phoned the ward who were brilliant and gave us lots of reassurance, they said that it sounded like baby had very bad wind.  They gave us some tips and said they would phone us back in 2 hours, which they did.  It was so reassuring to know they were only a call away.  They also stated they would ask the midwife to come see us for our visit first thing. 

Our visits from the community midwives haven't been very positive experiences to be honest, there has been conflicting advice, one was just plain rude and another made me feel awful as she arrived as baby was crying.  After 2 seconds in the house she was making judgements about us and made us feel rubbish.  

On a positive note we were discharged from the midwives to our lovely health visitor as baby has gained weight and is doing well. 

One thing I am getting fed up of people asking is "are you in a routine"!!! Really?!? How is a week old baby supposed to have a routine???! Also people are obsessed by how much sleep we are getting.  Some nights are good & he's up every 3-4 hrs for a feed but other nights he won't settle until 4am.  Although we are both shattered I'm not worried, how does a new baby know the difference between day & night?!? We are just going with the flow and taking the lead from baby.

Some people are being pushy about visiting us too, we've been firm so far with regards to a visitor ban but people have ways of making you feel guilty. 

I feel things are going really well, baby seems happy & the fact he has put on 5oz in 5 days shows he is eating well.  We will just continue taking each day as it comes & enjoy our new family