Dear all,

Nicola is now almost 7 months old. In some ways the time has flown, but in other ways it seems like she has been around forever. Her latest tricks are sitting up by herself (with the occasional collapse) and rolling all over the place, but she is nowhere near crawling yet; my guess is that's at least a month or two away still. She has two teeth (bottom front), and is pretty well established on solids (twice a day at the moment.)

Nicola's favourite foods are apple and pear, broccoli and zucchini, sweet potato, and yoghurt. I'm coping much better with motherhood these days. Nicola is still a fussy feeder (I've threatened to wean her a number of times), but I'm coping OK and at the moment the advantages of breastfeeding still outweigh the hasslesof bottle feeding.

I've also got into a bit of a play routine with Nicola, which has helped me. After feeding and changing her, I put Nicola on the floor by herself with some toys for about half an hour while I do something like have breakfast (unless we're going out or something). Then I join Nicola on the floor and play with her for about half an hour, with toys, songs etc. Then if I have tasks to do I'll put Nicola in the bouncer or her high chair to watch me (and we have endless choruses of "This is the way we fold the nappies..." or whatever.) Or else we'll have a walk with the pram, or a drive to the shops or something. After that she's usually starting to get tired, so I might read Nicola a book or two, give her a drink, and get her ready for her nap. I leave Nicola in bed for an hour and a half morning and afternoon, but she might not sleep all that time. I'm lucky; if she wakes up early she's usually happy just to lie in bed for a bit until I'm ready to get her up for her next feed. It sounds deadly dull, and I must admit I get rather bored at times, but I make the effort to get out of the house on most days, which has helped. I've also managed to get out in the garden a couple of times, and Loris gave me a good book for my birthday, which I enjoyed reading, so I'm thinking I might frequent the local library on a regular basis. Well, I've raved on enough I guess.

Love to you all. Helen.