Annndddd Chloe turns 7 months old! 

Heaps happened in her 6th month, and I mean heaps. She started crawling (!), she started her first solids, calls out “Mamaaaa” she’s particularly desperate for me, separation anxiety hit her like a freight train, and so did that little thing called the 6-month-growth-spurt. ZOMG.

 

It’s like EVERYTHING came at once for her. All this developmental milestones, her whole digestive system having to learn how to process solids, her discovery – and utter delight – of food, etc. 

She’s now 6KG. That’s absolutely tiny in comparison to babies her age. Her brothers were both DOUBLE her weight at this stage. And yet, she actually eats quite a bit (breastfeeds 7-8x daily, plus 2x solids of 100ml each). Where does all the food go??????????

 

Chloe also did her first photoshoot, with Elly,, for their 2018 Chinese New Year collection (super gorgeous clothes for kids and adults btw, so pop on over to have a look!). Unfortunately for us, she was in a bad mood. And I mean, BAD. We woke her mid-nap and the diva was having none of it. So she screamed and fussed and cried through the entire thing. She fell asleep once we got back into the car, then woke up happy as a peach for the rest of the day – sigh. 

Both her brothers did fuss if they were tired, but not on the same decibel range as her. Hers is completely epic. 

Loudest. Baby. Ever.

 

Happy as a lark in the morning, when she first wakes up. And, extremely, extremely active. I used to grimace in pain when she kicked me when I was pregnant.. and now I see why it used to hurt so much. Her legs are constantly in motion, and she can dish out the hardest of kicks!

 

She crawls! She started crawling at 6 months 1 week old..  and can do the command crawl pretty quickly now. Miss FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) cannot handle any action that’s going out without her in the middle of it, so she’s pleased she can now crawl over and tumble all her brothers’ toys or get herself into various prickly situations. 

She is active. REALLY ACTIVE. She’s on the go nonstop, especially now that she can crawl around the place. However, still as demanding of attention as ever. Almost the exact opposite of her brothers.. that were extremely chill and could self-amuse for ages. But nope, the only thing that Chloe deems acceptable is 110% attention from me, ALL THE TIME. 

 

Her default face – wide eyed stare. The exact opposite of Carter, who was a total happy pill at 7 months old.. and full of joy and glee. Chloe, on the opposite end of the spectrum, stares at everything with wide eyed amazement… or raises the roof with her screaming. 

Hunter always had the same wide eyed stare. But the difference was that he just did that quietly all the time, with little/no screaming or fussing. 

Frankly, Chloe often makes me feel like a bad mother.

She rarely smiles (unprompted and un-bribed), she’s always yelling about something or another, and she constantly has me feeling like I’m walking on eggshells. All I can say is, thank goodness I’m a third-time mum, so I (generally) can take it all. Pretty sure I’d be in a panic if I were a first-time mum, not to mention allllll the unsolicited advice I’d likely receive that would stress me out more. 

Luckily, when I do get a brief smile from her, it just MAKES MY WHOLE DAY!

And, well, I secretly-not-secretly am totally smug about the fact that she has mega separation anxiety and has eyes only for me. My two boys were nowhere near this clingy! She has to have full body contact with me almost the entire day.. which means she’ll scream in the stroller, and she’ll scream on other people. It’s exhausting for me..but it makes me feel kind of proud inside that I’m all she wants. It kind of makes it all worth it.

 

Trying out solids!

She LOVES to eat. Hunter was utterly disinterested, Carter loved eating, and so does Chloe. She downs an entire 100ml of food in record time, and could easily have more if I let her. So far her repertoire of food includes, in order

* baby cereal
* avocado
* carrots
* broccoli
* potato
* Greek yogurt 
* bananas
* pear
* purple sweet potato

 

A video of her having solids for the first time. Wide-eyed wonder! I’m really grateful she enjoys her food, and hope it stays that way. Though I wonder how she can eat like a monster, yet still be only 6KG and ultra petite??

 

And we’ve also started on self-feeding, something I didn’t really do with the boys. I spoon-fed my boys as I was too lazy to clean up, but with a third child, I need something to keep her occupied while I’m fussing with the other two kids, so I let her play and eat her food. 

I figure, it’s good to work out her hand-to-eye coordination anyway right? She can be kept pretty occupied picking up pieces of banana or baby biscuit, and stuffing them into her mouth. Major greedy guts, remember?

 

A sweet video of Hunter feeding Chloe. She eats ten tens faster than he does, so I hope he’s taking some good points from her here!

 

Her sleep is destroying me because she still wakes up once a night! And on a really bad night (ie. this week as she’s going through a mega growth spurt) she can wake up…… every hour. Kill me now. 

I wish I hadn’t taken my boys’ incredible sleep-through-the-night-at-8-weeks-old talent for granted now.. because I am a walking zombie most days. The combination of myself being older, having to juggle 3 kids, a crazily high-needs baby, AND being sleep deprived is making my brain fritz. 

I know she’s doing weird things to my brain, because despite all the above, I look at her and I feel SO much love for her that I find it overwhelming sometimes. Any body else doing this to me and I’d love murdered them by now.. but I hold her and smell her and I feel like she puts me under a love spell. 

 

Speaking of love spells, she’s also cast one on her brothers the day she was born. Carter always wants to make her smile and will eagerly play with her.. while Hunter is insanely protective and tender toward her. 

We walk Hunter to school, and he will talk to her and hold her hand along the way. Frequently, he’ll suddenly burst out, “Mummy, can you stop for a minute? I just HAVE to cuddle Chloe!” and he’ll reach into the stroller and cuddle her tenderly. 

She saves her best and widest grins for her brothers!

 

Her favourite spot, on her favourite person 😉 Complete with a nobody touch me or I’ll scream my head off look. 

She’s feisty, she’s loud, she’s demanding, she drives me C-R-A-Z-Y! I could just throttle her sometimes! But ohhhhh the amount I love her has surprised me. She’s my living doll, and I’m intoxicated with her. 

She’s just perfect to me. But, erm… maybe a bit less screaming, eh Chloe?

 

Hunter’s 7 month post here.

Carter’s 7 month post here.