So, life and uni got in the way of updating, but I figure if I at least keep up the monthly posts it will be nice to look back on. Already, I look at photos from two months ago and she seems like a different baby. In the last month she's grown up so much and learned so many new things. She's giving kisses, starting to wave, walking along every piece of furniture (or holding anyone's hand) she can find, saying "mum", recognising people's names and looking for them when we ask where they are, pointing out things in books and learning to feed herself.
She's also finally starting to grow out of her fear of strangers and has started becoming much more confident and friendly. We don't have to worry that she's going to scream the place down every time we take her anywhere anymore, which makes life seem a lot more normal. Apart from the continuing lack of sleep. She's still waking up a million times a night and needs me to put her back to sleep. It's exhausting and some days I don't know how I function on the little sleep I've had. I get by by trying not to think about it. If I pretend I'm well rested it's not as stressful, somehow. But we're off to Tresillian on Thursday, so I'm hoping they can help without traumatising Olive (or me).
It amazes me when I see these people who have babies and seem to continue on with life as normal, when at 8 months the new baby fog seems like it's only just lifting. I don't know if we got a particularly challenging baby, if some people find it easier to just get on with it, or if everyone puts their old life aside for the first 6 months but you don't really notice unless you're the one with the new baby. Anyway, we got there, and now I feel like we're a little family, rather than two people who just had a baby and don't know what to do with it. It's nice.
