37 weeks

At 37 weeks Eve:

Is in the 25th percentile for height and weight. Her limited diet has slowed down her growth rate, but now we're on special baby milk she's putting more weight on. She weighed 16lbs, 12oz on the 22nd April. (Charlie was much bigger at 30 weeks Eve was 16lbs whilst Charlie was 19lbs, 8 oz).

Is generally happy and smiley, she has her moments and is pretty strong-willed and determined to get what she wants (usually the cat), but eight and half months is a great age for her.

She's still commando crawling and can now go super fast and occasionally pushes her knees up a little, so I suspect she'll be fully crawling soon. She has also looked like she may start thinking about pulling herself up onto things, the sofa, my leg etc.

We have a food challenge and dietician dates in the diary for May and June. The challenge will let the doctors monitor what happens to her face when she eats cucumber, the dietician will give us more tips on what to try with her. We've added peas to the list of things she can eat and I'm also trying more wheat based foods with her now that she is ok with plain white bread. I made a sponge cake today with 'no egg' powder, vitalite vegetable spread, flour and sugar, fingers crossed she'll be able to eat it ok and then we can actually have something for pudding other than sweet potato or allergy free shortbread!

We're in the midst of controlled crying. She was waking up 4 - 6 times a night and now that the allergies are under control it was time to get her into a proper sleep routine, especially as I go back to work in a little over a month's time. It's slow going. Charlie took 2 or 3 days and was then fine, we're on day 7 with Eve and are still not there. She's now pretty good at going down for a sleep or nap, crying for less then 5 mins then falling asleep, but she's not so good at going back to sleep by herself when she wakes in the night. The worst night (day 4 of CC) she woke at midnight and didn't go back to sleep until 2.30am, but last night she only woke up twice and went back to sleep within 20 minutes. If she wakes before 2am I do the full controlled crying method with no touching, no feeding and a simple reassurance that I'm there every 5, then 10, then 15 minutes. When she wakes after 2am I give her a quick feed (she was used to feeding 6 times a night so I didn't want her to go cold turkey), then put her back into the cot whilst she's awake. I read that for some babies, particularly if they've never slept through the night on their own, it can take 2 weeks, so we're persevering and we're all definitely getting more sleep so that's good.

Has a gorgeous giggle, Tom is v good at getting her to laugh, she adores both him and Charlie and loves it when they come home from school or work. She also loves her grandparents, she went round the shops with Nana whilst I caught up on housework and made the dairy and egg free cake and she was v good without me! No tears, a happy girl and she even had a nap.

Loves playing with the fisherprice animal train, Charlie's old chunky elc cars, she'll happily roll and chase a ball around the room and likes to chew on any type of teething ring or toy, She's already chewed through the rubber teat on her cup, and a couple of board books!

Loves to be read to and enjoys all the 'That's Not My...; board books. She puts her hand out to touch all the different textures and turns the page (with a little help from me) when I ask her. In particular she likes the velcro scratchy paws in 'That's Not My Bunny' and the fluffy foxy tail in 'That's Not My Fox'. At night we read 'Jungle Colours' (given to Charlie by cousin Vicky) and I've just bought 'Goodnight Moon' to help her get into the mood to sleep...

Chats away all the time. She's so vocal I've had a few people come up to me in the street to say they could hear her coming! She coos and gurgles and shouts, still only has two definite words 'cat' and 'Daddy' and has stopped saying 'Gahee' for Charlie, but she knows lots of different sounds and you can generally tell what sort of mood she's in by the sounds she makes.

35 & 36 weeks

At eight months Eve:

- Had her visit to the allergy specialist and confirmed allergies to egg and dairy. We are going back to have food challenges on the fruit and veg rashes. She's also allergic to grass and has hay fever too.

- Is getting speedy! The rolling has given way to commando crawling and she loves following us all around. The cat is in constant peril as she constantly tries to stroke/poke/grab him.

- Is learning to clap, she'll copy me when I clap hands but hasn't quite mastered it yet.

- Is loving the springtime mini-heatwave we're currently having. Allergic to grass makes it tricky but big rugs on the ground and a mini paddling pool and water play toys keep her occupied. We had a picnic in the park last week with little Mr A, Eve ate so much, al fresco dining suits her!

- Had some movement on meal choices. Using vaseline on her face stops an immediate rash and we've added lamb, white bread and possibly almond milk to our can eat list. She's also taking the special baby milk ok, so is getting lots of lovely vitamins and minerals from that. Still breastfeeding but the formula ensures she gets the dairy and calcium benefits the limited diet was causing her to miss out on.

- Has a nursery place, she'll be going there two days a week when I start back at work in June.

33 & 34 weeks

A little behind with writing Eve's development posts as it's the Easter holidays and we've had Charlie with us every day, which is so much fun but also much more manic then usual!

Eve at 33 & 34 weeks:

- We're halfway through the Easter holidays and have had so much fun. We've been into London for the day, we walked along the South Bank and saw Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Nana came too and we met Daddy for lunch. We visited Charlie's friend little Mr T near our old flat in Sydenham, made Very Hungary Caterpillars at the library with him and played at Crystal Palace Park. We spent Easter Saturday with my brother and family and Bank Holiday Monday with T's family, Eve met Aunty Pat for the first time and we celebrated little Cousin M's 4th birthday. We've been to the the Red House and had a family day at Clandon Park, both had Easter Egg trails. We took them both to the funfair, C got cotton candy, went on the helterskelter and won a snake, E liked the bright lights. Mostly the two of them have been playing together lots and yes, there's too rough on both sides but generally they play well together and make each other laugh!

- Food allergies are a real problem now, we're getting fed up of waiting to see the specialist (one more week to go before our mid-April appointment). She's pretty much allergic to all food, I've added beef to the ok list but that's it, there's currently eight foods that she (and I) can have and it's getting tedious trying to mix up our meals.

- She's also allergic to grass (big red rash on legs and arms) and get's hay fever when we stay too long at the park or in the garden.

- Her eczema is controlled by me slathering her in cream at every nappy change, but she doesn't like having it put on!

- She still rolls everywhere around the living room and is getting really good and turning around quickly. She is obsessed with getting under the rocking chair or to the bookshelves.

- Has the best giggle, her and Charlie laughing together is such a good sound! She joins in laughter if we're laughing and will laugh if you make a funny noise or tickle her tummy.

- Responds to her name, if you call her, she'll turn around and look at you with a big smile.

- I've been slowly selling off her baby equipment, we've said goodbye to two play mats, the stripy bouncy chair and the Moses basket. It's sad to lose these, particularly the  Moses basket and the bouncy chair as these were brand new for Charlie and bring back good memories, but it's nice to have more space, finally our study is a little less cluttered with baby equipment!