Oh No … Starting a new leap!

I don’t know if any of you are following the book The Wonder Weeks, I do and again it is telling me that my little baby is starting a new leap! This book can’t be any more specific!

Sienna is now 10 months and apparently, she has just started a new leap called Sequences and she will be going through this leap for the next 30 days! Therefore, I’ll be completely nuts by the end of this leap! She has been through 6 leaps already (Changing Sensations, Patterns, Smooth Transitions, Events, Relationships and Categories) and all of them have been difficult and VERY TIRING!!! 

For all of you who have not heard of this book before, it is basically about the mental development of your baby and what they can achieve after each leap. The book explains each leap, telling us what abilities your baby will gain through each of them, what signs we should watch for and it also advises us what can we do to help our baby go through each of them. It also has comments from other parents that are going through the same experiences. I think it is great to have a guide and an explanation of your baby’s crazy behaviour which helps us to understand our babies better. 

However, even though you have this information and you are kind of being warned about what is coming, it is still incredibly difficult to deal with it. You really end up on your knees asking for a miracle to please make your little baby back to normal because yes guys they really transform themselves from being such cute little angels into crazy monsters and you don’t have a clue where your innocent and happy baby has gone!! It can really leave you in tears!!

I think this leap has already started and so far, I have found it so much more challenging. I don’t know if it is because she is growing more every time and the skills that she is achieving are more complicated every day or what, but I’m really struggling this time!

Apparently, the book says that “in the world of sequences, Sienna learns to recognise and manage the flow of events and relationships over time. Eating cereal with a spoon, for example, means grab the spoon, put the spoon into the bowl, scoop some cereal onto the spoon, bring the spoon to your head, and put it in your mouth, not your eye. Sienna starts to link actions together to reach a goal such as feeding herself but may miss a component or two in the beginning. At this stage, Sienna likes to feel needed and will want to help.“

Sienna hasn’t done this yet. She hasn’t used a spoon to feed herself but she does like to hold it and play with it. What she is doing more lately is using her hands to feed herself. I haven’t done much of Baby Let Weaning with Sienna as I find it incredibly hard to leave her eating on her own and know that she will make such a mess of it!! I know it sounds silly but I can’t stand the mess. I know that I will have to control myself and let her experiment with the food more as it is for her welfare. At the moment, I let her eat foods that are not that messy like bananas, broccoli, carrots, etc, but I will try other foods soon. I have noticed that she enjoys doing this a lot so going forward I will do this more often.

According to the book the ABILITIES that your baby might have after this leap can be:

• Answers simple questions. For example, if you ask, “How big are you?,” she will raise his arms
• Says “hum” if your baby wants another bite
• Points at things, people, or animals if you ask your baby to
• Puts together a simple puzzle of three pieces
• Understands that you have to talk into the mouthpiece of a phone
• Stacks rings onto the ring pyramid
• Points where to go
• Repeats a game
• Tries to persuade you to help her with things she really could have done without you
• Imitates two or more gestures that you make, one after another (for example, the gestures of “Itsy bitsy spider”)
• Tries to put on his sock by himself but does not succeed

I haven’t seen Sienna doing all of this yet. I think Sienna has developed more her motor side than her language/speech side as she has been very good so far with her crawling at 6 months and now with her first steps at 9.5 months. She is not walking yet but she is now strong enough to stand for longer periods and do just a few steps. The most she has done so far is about 5 steps but in two motions. That was amazing! Regarding her speech, she does a lot of noises and she definitely knows how to make herself heard but she hasn’t said many things yet apart from “mamama” or “dadada”. I will have to practice more with her so she develops more her language/speech side.

The book also gives you some guide about the SIGNS that you will see in your little babies, so you know what to expect. Apparently, Sienna will “show more attachment behaviour but not in the literal way that she used at an earlier age. Now, your baby will keep an eye on you more, stay close to you, and will regularly come to you to sit on your lap as if to “refuel” mommy or daddy. On the other hand, it might be that your baby starts screaming if you leave the room. However, some babies like the old-fashioned way and literally cling on to you.”

Other signs and symptoms of this leap:

• Becomes angry when you put your baby down
• Unconsciously plays with emotions, such as naughty or nice, to get your attention 
• Sits quietly, daydreaming
• Often sucks the thumb
• Cries more often and is cranky, grumpy, or moody
• Chats less
• Whines more 

Sienna is definitely experimenting all of these signs. The screaming is really loud and ear piercing really. It is getting me crazy at the moment. She is really demanding for lots of attention and she can’t be left on her own. She cries when I leave her for two minutes just to go to the bathroom or to go to the kitchen for example. It is really hard for me and I have to control myself so I don’t get upset and start crying. It is incredibly challenging for me. The separation anxiety is in its highest at the moment. She sometimes doesn’t even want daddy to soothe her, so all the burden comes to me 😞. These are the hardest moments that you have to deal with when you have a small baby but I guess I just have to think that it is just a phase and things will be better soon. At least thanks to this book I now know that this crazy behaviour will last about a month. Fingers crossed and it passes quick.

Finally, this book tells you about what you could do to HELP your baby to pass through this 7th leap smoothly. Here are some tips that the book suggests that you could do to help to ease the process:

• Comforting your baby when she wants to be comforted. Show your baby that you are there for her.
• Paying close attention. Your baby will start to experiment and will sometimes do dangerous things. Your baby doesn’t know what’s safe and what’s not. So, while you always had to pay attention, now you have to be on extra alert!
• Letting your baby do things on her own if she wants to, including brushing her hair or handling a spoon. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work out really well as long as she is proud of the fact that she did it on his/her own. This way, his self-confidence will grow.
• Giving your baby compliments if she does something well
• Letting your baby help you with daily things and household things such as asking your baby to hand something over to you or letting your baby dust a little bit with a cloth.
• Play point-it-out-to-me games
• Playing a lot of singing and moving games

To conclude, these are such big milestones for our babies and even though we feel to give up and cry in tears for help sometimes we know that this type of behaviour means that your little ones are growing up and learning new skills every day and of course this doesn’t come easily. We just need to stay strong and be patient because you know that this is just a phase that will end soon and you will say goodbye to that little monster and hello again to your beautiful angel 😇

And what about you? Are your little ones going through the same leap too? Are they experiencing the same signs? Do you have more tips to help us to survive these leaps? 

Thanks for stopping by,

Love you all ❤️

Franca 💋