Trent can now take up to six unsupported steps. I can’t believe it after all of this time. It seems like we have been waiting forever – all of his little friends who are younger than him have already started walking and are now running around him. Trent sits in the middle of them whilst they are running around and looks at me as if to say ‘why can’t I do that?’ We’ve been practising and practising and it has finally paid off. But even now I literally have to prop him up and dad has to coax him towards him with a toy or something of interest – once we stop practising for the day he resorts back to his crawling. I know it will come soon but I can see the frustration in his face and I just want to help him. When dad gets home from work everyday he takes Trent out for a walk, holding his hand to support him, they’ve been doing this for months and we thought that one day he would try and do it by himself but he just isn’t interested.

We’ve now started joking that Roisin will be walking before Trent! But in his defence I think that the appearance of another two teeth has kept him more than occupied. He now has another big double tooth at the bottom, and one at the top, making almost a full set. I’ve also noticed that his vocabulary is improving by the day. ‘Mam’ is his favourite word at the minute, much to dad’s annoyance! He can also say ‘school’ and ‘bye’, and he has a good go at ‘Makka Pakka’. All in all his development seems to be on track. As for baby Roisin she has been an absolute pleasure. They say you never have two babies the same, but our two are both easy-tempered and sleep through the night – we’ve been very lucky.

Walking practise, a proper family affair!

Recently I have been concentrating so hard on helping Trent to learn to walk, that I was astonished to notice he had sprouted three more teeth without anyone even noticing. The teeth are the big double ones, two at the top on each side and one on the bottom left.
As soon as I spotted the teeth I realised that he’d not actually been eating as much recently and that what he had eaten he had really picked at. I’ve also been forever putting bibs on him as he has been slavering so much. Poor thing ¬– now his slow start with walking seems perfectly understandable, he must have been suffering with his teeth and unable to concentrate on anything else.
We decided to take the kids out for the day on Sunday as Trent has had such a hard week suffering in silence with his teeth. We walked to visit his great grandfather who lives in a nearby village, and visited the park and beach café there. It was obviously quite exhausting for the little ones, and they were both asleep by the end so we set off homewards. Trent perked up once we were back so we walked to the local park where he had great fun on the swings. He even got a bit adventurous and wanted to explore the bigger children’s areas.

An adventurous Trent enjoys his outing to the park:

Trent and Dad get in some walking practice:

It all proves a bit exhausting for Roisin:

Fun in the bath after a long day:

Trent is now over 15 months old and he is still not walking. I’ve been practising so hard with him but he thinks it’s just a game, and when I pull him to his feet he just throws his head back and laughs. I’m convinced he can, and does, walk when dad and I aren’t watching, but as soon as we look he drops to his knees. He can stand against things, climb the stairs (even though he is not meant to) and do lots of other things, but he just will not walk.
Last week Jayden, Trent’s best mate, came to play and I could see Trent jealously watching the way Jayden runs around. I was convinced he would attempt to get up onto his feet at some point and I was right. Trent crawled over to me, then climbed up against me, and eventually stood freely with no support for almost 30 seconds. After this I thought it would only be a matter of time before he started walking, but since then he has resorted back to his knees and hasn’t once attempted standing up again!
Most people are really encouraging and keep saying it’s nothing to worry about, that he will walk when he’s ready, but others make me feel like a failure when they say; “is he not walking yet?” Dad keeps telling me that you should never compare babies as they all develop at different rates, and he is right because although Trent can’t walk yet, he is very advanced at using his hands, and has no problems throwing and catching a ball and putting shapes into the correct holes in toys.

I can’t believe I am still sat here ten days overdue and not a contraction or hint of breaking waters in site. I was a week overdue with Trent but I never expected it this time around. In fact with all the time I spend running round after Trent I was convinced I might even go early.

The midwife has now visited on two separate occasions to perform what they call a “stretch and sweep”. I’m quite a private person and this is the first time I have had any kind of internal examination during my pregnancies – last time I was only examined whilst in labour and by then I couldn’t care less – so it was slightly embarrassing to go through. I can only describe it as like having a cancer smear. It was uncomfortable and slightly painful, but once I relaxed it was fine, and I soon forgot about it once it was done. Even so, as it didn’t work, it turned out to be a complete waste of time!

On the second occasion the midwife said I was about 2cm dilated, which confused me as by this time with Trent I was having contractions and in labour, she explained that each pregnancy is different and that once you have had one baby your muscles can loosen slightly!!

I’m now waiting for Wednesday, when I am booked into hospital to be induced. I have heard all sorts of horror stories about the procedure so I will report back and let you know as soon as it’s over and done with. The thing that is bothering me most about being induced is that they do it at night and send your partner home. We live 45 minutes away from the hospital, and last time when they sent Dad home – assuring him I wouldn’t have a baby until at least the following dinnertime – he almost missed the action! Just one and a half hours later I had Trent as Dad raced through the labour ward door to witness the final moments of the birth. Everyone always says that your second birth is quicker than the first so I have made him promise to sleep in the car in the car park if they chuck him out of labour ward!

Hopefully the next blog I write will include some lovely pictures and a video of my new baby. Dad was taking pictures of my now massive bump the other day and told me to include it in this blog but there is no way I’m going to put everyone through that sight!

Trent has been trying, unsuccessfully, to crawl for months. So much so that Dad and I thought he wasn’t going to be a crawler – neither of us were. How wrong were we! Crawling accomplished, our house is now chaos from the minute Trent gets up, right up until he goes to bed. Luckily I get a lot of help from my family, being so heavily pregnant I don’t think I could cope otherwise. I haven’t got the energy to run around and follow him all day and it’s as if Trent know that when mammy’s on her own he can do as he pleases. He loves his freedom and is so fast that you literally can’t take your eyes of him for more than a second or he will be at the opposite end of the room. I’ve taken to dressing him in tracksuit bottoms every day, even when it’s hot and sunny, because otherwise his knees are red raw. I sit and watch him and am so proud of him entertaining himself, scooting up and down carrying his toys, or going to the bathroom and getting his rubber duck and bringing it back with him.

The down side to this is that he no longer needs me to carry him around or play with him. Crawling is new and exciting so he doesn’t want to be picked up and screams the house down if I try to give him a cuddle when he could be on the floor investigating. He has also started climbing up things and standing up. Although he isn’t strong enough to support himself for long, he is very stubborn and won’t let you help him, so he often lands on his bum!

It definitely won’t be long until he is walking – then we will all have to look out!