Saturday, March 30, 2013
8 Months Old
Dear Mackenzie,
Happy 8 months Smiley! Wow! Every month it is just crazy to me that you are getting so big. This month has been exciting.
Last month I mentioned how you weren’t really babbling yet. To be honest, you don’t really “babble” in the traditional sense of the word but you definitely talk to us all the time. You don’t often use those repetitive syllables like mamamama over and over again. You can say ma, da, na, ne, ba, and a lot of other sounds though. One day you even said “mom” clear as day. I am not under any false assumptions that it had any meeting behind it, but it was still cool to hear. Your daddy actually was in the other room and asked me who said that because he thought it sounded like a child instead of a baby. I had been getting sort of worried of your lack of babbling but we have decided that it definitely doesn’t worry us anymore because you are talking so much and using so many different sounds. You just don’t really seem to get hung up on any one sound… yet.
You also learned to sit up on your own this month. When I say that I don’t mean that you can sit by yourself without anyone holding you. That, you have been doing for months. I mean that you go from laying down to sitting up without any help. It sort of threw me off at first. I went to get you up from a nap one day and you greeted me with the biggest smile sitting at one end of your crib. I guess you were proud of yourself. You have done it a number of other times but you are always more likely to do it in your crib it seems. You also learned to pull up using our hands this month. If we hold our hands out at the right height, you can pull up on your own to a stand. You have only pulled up on something other than our hands once so far. That was a walk behind toy and you managed to get to a stand but otherwise you haven’t tried it on furniture or anything yet. You also took a couple of steps this month with me holding your hands. You definitely lack balance right now though. You always seem to lead with your left foot and then sometimes bring your right along with you. Most of the time when you tried that though, you would take a step with your left, think about it for a minute, take another step with your left and end up in an almost split until I helped you out with moving your right. You are working on it though.
We have noticed that you have developed quite an attachment to me. Not surprising I guess seeing as how we are together 24/7. Sometimes when Daddy comes home, you still want me to hold you and play with you. However, if I leave the room and you can’t hear or see me, you are fine. If Daddy takes you out somewhere, you are fine. It is just when I am within sight or earshot. You also went into the church nursery on your own for the first time this month. I think you lasted around 20-30 minutes before someone had to come get me because you wouldn’t stop crying. Almost as soon as I got there and got you settled though, you were fine. I sat with you for the rest of the service. We were going to try you again last week but I ended up sick and wasn’t feeling well enough to go to church and cough through the entire service so we will try again tomorrow (which also happens to be your first Easter.) I know it could take a while for you to be okay in there without myself or Daddy but I think it will be good for you eventually. You don’t get a lot of interaction with other children, especially babies close to your age so I welcome the thought.
Speaking of sick, you managed to miss this one. We are unsure if that is because it might have been a severe sinus infection, which wouldn’t have been contagious, or if you just got enough antibodies because you are breastfed. Regardless, you didn’t get it and that made me super happy. This was a miserable sickness and I was terrified you were going to end up with it. Unfortunately, Daddy came down with it (or something similar) a couple of days ago so we are a bit touch and go at the moment just hoping you don’t get anything from him. I’m still not 100% so it has been a rough couple of weeks. Usually Daddy can help me out a lot when he comes home and when I first got sick, he did so much extra to help, but with him being sick now too and us not knowing what it is, we are be very careful with your contact with him until he feels better.
Your nursing sort of stayed the same this month. I keep debating dropping that fifth feed during the day but I think we are going to hold on to it a bit longer. Maybe around nine months you will want to go down to four feedings a day. You honestly don’t seem to eat much during one of your nursing sessions and I don’t think you would really miss it but I am still having this fear of dropping it and my supply dipping. Although you usually nurse five times a day, we have had a handful of days where you wake up around 5am and refuse to go back to sleep so I will nurse you and then lay you down until 7:30. We have also had a few days that I added in another day time feeding. That was mainly when I was sick so that we could make sure you got all the antibodies possible as well as hekp keep my supply up because it isn’t uncommon for breast milk supplies to drop when moms are sick. We have made it this far without formula (except for those couple of days when you were first born before my milk came in) and my goal was always one year of breastfeeding. I think we can make it, but I still worry about my supply at times. I also decided to try to give you some breastmilk in your sippy this month just to see what you would do. You ended up drinking all of it and really liked using your sippy. You don’t take bottles very often and I don’t really like to pump too much but it was good to know that you will take something other than water in your sippy so now if someone has to give you milk while I am away, they can let you do it yourself. You never really learned to hold your own bottle because you just don’t get bottles so it might be easier and more enjoyable for you to do it on your own with the sippy. You are also still eating solid meals two times a day. Usually it is breakfast and dinner. However, if we are going to go out to lunch then you might skip breakfast and have lunch in its place. You are also getting to be a good chewer. I was sort of worried (notice a pattern with my worrying… I do it a lot) that I would be pureeing your food into kindergarten. You enjoy the puffs that we started last month but this month we went ahead and introduced the ultimate toddler food… cheerios. You LOVE them. You also really like banana chunks. We are still working on your pincer grip but it is getting better. When you first started eating finger foods, you rarely got anything into your mouth. Now you get much closer and around 50% of the time, actually get the food into your mouth. This month we started using couscous in place of some of your oatmeal at times to give you a bit more texture when you eat. You weren’t too sure at first but ended up really liking it mixed into other foods. You are also getting really good at going out to eat. Now that you can eat puffs and cheerios, you can amuse yourself for a while then I can feed you while eat like we do at home so you often make it all the way through a meal without too much fussing.
I mentioned last month that we were going to begin to wean you off your Zantac. I am proud to report that you haven’t had a drop of that medicine in around 2-3 weeks and you have only spit up on maybe three occasions which I don’t count as anything out of the norm for a baby. We were told you would grow out of your reflux, but it was so bad for a while that I was beginning to worry that it might be something you would have to deal with for your entire life.
This month we also kept with just two naps a day. We are officially on the 2-3-4 schedule. Though our “4” is usually between 3 ½ and 4 ½ hours depending on your last nap length. You still wake up at 7:30 am (and rarely get up during the night so you get 12 hours of sleep), go down for a nap at 9:30 am and your second nap usually starts between 2 and 2:30pm. Bedtime is between 7 and 7:30pm. I am considering lengthening your morning awake time just a bit to see how you do because you are shortening that morning nap. I know it will likely be the next one you drop or that we will slowly move it more towards the middle of your day and you will drop your second one, but that really shouldn’t happen yet for you. You need those naps to function. You are still a bit fussy as bedtime rolls around but generally you are able to stay happier for a longer period of time.
Last month I told you that we ditched the baby tub. Well, this month we ditched the seal tub. He is still waiting for any trips we take but we decided it was time to start using the actual tub. You are still not 100% sure about that. You are somewhat tentative and towards the end of your bath you seem to get a bit frightened sometimes and cry wanting to get out. When that starts I can sometimes distract you with toys but sometimes we don’t have a “play time” in the tub just because it upsets you more. You are doing better and better each time though. Your new favorite thing to do when taking a bath is try to catch water that I pour out of the cup we use to rinse the soap off of you. It is funny to watch you concentrate so hard to catch that water that you just can’t seem to get. You also like to try to dip a washcloth in the bathwater and then suck the water out of it. I don’t think that is really that great an idea and you get really frustrated when I take the washcloth away. The last week or so you have enjoyed splashing and making “waves” for your boats. You just laugh hysterically when you do that. If I help make waves you think that is even funnier.
Sometimes when you want something and it isn’t safe or shouldn’t be touched (like the row of spaghetti sauces you attempted to take out at the store last week) and I tell you “no” and redirect you, you get frustrated with me and cry. You have realized what you want, what you don’t, and when you are not allowed to do something you want to do. You are not one to stay quiet either and you voice your displeasure with Daddy or me when we remove whatever it is from your possession.
Speaking of “no”, that is one of the signs we are working on. I can’t recall if I mentioned the signs we are using before so I will tell you again. We use eat, more, all done, water, no, bird, milk, and ball. You haven’t signed back yet but I’m hoping to see it one day. You learned to clap this month too. It just happened in the past week. It is by far the most adorable of all the milestones you have hit so far I think. Smiling is still one of my favorites but you get so excited with yourself when you clap and whenever we say “yay” or “good job” and clap for you when you do something, now you clap too. It is so very cute. It also means that you can meet at the midline now. So, now I’m hoping it is just a matter of time before you start signing things like “more” and “ball” since those signs require that skill.
I left the best news for last. This month… you crawled!! Well, sort of. You have been working on that skill for almost 2 months now. First you started rolling more and more. Then you started pushing up really high on your arms but could never get your knees under. Then all of a sudden, you started getting up on your knees periodically. Last week you started rocking some back and forth and then you just started moving forward. So far you have only moved inches before you collapse but you then try it again. You don’t go backwards near as often (though that does still happen). We were super excited to see you hit this milestone. Yes, I hear everyone telling me that life becomes difficult when you are mobile but I can’t help that think that while I will have to be on my toes even more, you will be happier because you will be able to get to what you are wanting without help most of the time and you will be less frustrated. That was the worst part, you were realizing what you wanted but couldn’t get the strength and coordination together enough to get to it.
This next month should be interesting (and fun) as you learn to perfect your crawling skills and we get to learn new things together. Each month there is a new experience (for both of us) and I am loving every minute of it with you.
Happy 8 months baby girl!
Love,
Mommy
8 Months Old
Dear Mackenzie,
Happy 8 months Smiley! Wow! Every month it is just crazy to me that you are getting so big. This month has been exciting.
Last month I mentioned how you weren’t really babbling yet. To be honest, you don’t really “babble” in the traditional sense of the word but you definitely talk to us all the time. You don’t often use those repetitive syllables like mamamama over and over again. You can say ma, da, na, ne, ba, and a lot of other sounds though. One day you even said “mom” clear as day. I am not under any false assumptions that it had any meeting behind it, but it was still cool to hear. Your daddy actually was in the other room and asked me who said that because he thought it sounded like a child instead of a baby. I had been getting sort of worried of your lack of babbling but we have decided that it definitely doesn’t worry us anymore because you are talking so much and using so many different sounds. You just don’t really seem to get hung up on any one sound… yet.
You also learned to sit up on your own this month. When I say that I don’t mean that you can sit by yourself without anyone holding you. That, you have been doing for months. I mean that you go from laying down to sitting up without any help. It sort of threw me off at first. I went to get you up from a nap one day and you greeted me with the biggest smile sitting at one end of your crib. I guess you were proud of yourself. You have done it a number of other times but you are always more likely to do it in your crib it seems. You also learned to pull up using our hands this month. If we hold our hands out at the right height, you can pull up on your own to a stand. You have only pulled up on something other than our hands once so far. That was a walk behind toy and you managed to get to a stand but otherwise you haven’t tried it on furniture or anything yet. You also took a couple of steps this month with me holding your hands. You definitely lack balance right now though. You always seem to lead with your left foot and then sometimes bring your right along with you. Most of the time when you tried that though, you would take a step with your left, think about it for a minute, take another step with your left and end up in an almost split until I helped you out with moving your right. You are working on it though.
We have noticed that you have developed quite an attachment to me. Not surprising I guess seeing as how we are together 24/7. Sometimes when Daddy comes home, you still want me to hold you and play with you. However, if I leave the room and you can’t hear or see me, you are fine. If Daddy takes you out somewhere, you are fine. It is just when I am within sight or earshot. You also went into the church nursery on your own for the first time this month. I think you lasted around 20-30 minutes before someone had to come get me because you wouldn’t stop crying. Almost as soon as I got there and got you settled though, you were fine. I sat with you for the rest of the service. We were going to try you again last week but I ended up sick and wasn’t feeling well enough to go to church and cough through the entire service so we will try again tomorrow (which also happens to be your first Easter.) I know it could take a while for you to be okay in there without myself or Daddy but I think it will be good for you eventually. You don’t get a lot of interaction with other children, especially babies close to your age so I welcome the thought.
Speaking of sick, you managed to miss this one. We are unsure if that is because it might have been a severe sinus infection, which wouldn’t have been contagious, or if you just got enough antibodies because you are breastfed. Regardless, you didn’t get it and that made me super happy. This was a miserable sickness and I was terrified you were going to end up with it. Unfortunately, Daddy came down with it (or something similar) a couple of days ago so we are a bit touch and go at the moment just hoping you don’t get anything from him. I’m still not 100% so it has been a rough couple of weeks. Usually Daddy can help me out a lot when he comes home and when I first got sick, he did so much extra to help, but with him being sick now too and us not knowing what it is, we are be very careful with your contact with him until he feels better.
Your nursing sort of stayed the same this month. I keep debating dropping that fifth feed during the day but I think we are going to hold on to it a bit longer. Maybe around nine months you will want to go down to four feedings a day. You honestly don’t seem to eat much during one of your nursing sessions and I don’t think you would really miss it but I am still having this fear of dropping it and my supply dipping. Although you usually nurse five times a day, we have had a handful of days where you wake up around 5am and refuse to go back to sleep so I will nurse you and then lay you down until 7:30. We have also had a few days that I added in another day time feeding. That was mainly when I was sick so that we could make sure you got all the antibodies possible as well as hekp keep my supply up because it isn’t uncommon for breast milk supplies to drop when moms are sick. We have made it this far without formula (except for those couple of days when you were first born before my milk came in) and my goal was always one year of breastfeeding. I think we can make it, but I still worry about my supply at times. I also decided to try to give you some breastmilk in your sippy this month just to see what you would do. You ended up drinking all of it and really liked using your sippy. You don’t take bottles very often and I don’t really like to pump too much but it was good to know that you will take something other than water in your sippy so now if someone has to give you milk while I am away, they can let you do it yourself. You never really learned to hold your own bottle because you just don’t get bottles so it might be easier and more enjoyable for you to do it on your own with the sippy. You are also still eating solid meals two times a day. Usually it is breakfast and dinner. However, if we are going to go out to lunch then you might skip breakfast and have lunch in its place. You are also getting to be a good chewer. I was sort of worried (notice a pattern with my worrying… I do it a lot) that I would be pureeing your food into kindergarten. You enjoy the puffs that we started last month but this month we went ahead and introduced the ultimate toddler food… cheerios. You LOVE them. You also really like banana chunks. We are still working on your pincer grip but it is getting better. When you first started eating finger foods, you rarely got anything into your mouth. Now you get much closer and around 50% of the time, actually get the food into your mouth. This month we started using couscous in place of some of your oatmeal at times to give you a bit more texture when you eat. You weren’t too sure at first but ended up really liking it mixed into other foods. You are also getting really good at going out to eat. Now that you can eat puffs and cheerios, you can amuse yourself for a while then I can feed you while eat like we do at home so you often make it all the way through a meal without too much fussing.
I mentioned last month that we were going to begin to wean you off your Zantac. I am proud to report that you haven’t had a drop of that medicine in around 2-3 weeks and you have only spit up on maybe three occasions which I don’t count as anything out of the norm for a baby. We were told you would grow out of your reflux, but it was so bad for a while that I was beginning to worry that it might be something you would have to deal with for your entire life.
This month we also kept with just two naps a day. We are officially on the 2-3-4 schedule. Though our “4” is usually between 3 ½ and 4 ½ hours depending on your last nap length. You still wake up at 7:30 am (and rarely get up during the night so you get 12 hours of sleep), go down for a nap at 9:30 am and your second nap usually starts between 2 and 2:30pm. Bedtime is between 7 and 7:30pm. I am considering lengthening your morning awake time just a bit to see how you do because you are shortening that morning nap. I know it will likely be the next one you drop or that we will slowly move it more towards the middle of your day and you will drop your second one, but that really shouldn’t happen yet for you. You need those naps to function. You are still a bit fussy as bedtime rolls around but generally you are able to stay happier for a longer period of time.
Last month I told you that we ditched the baby tub. Well, this month we ditched the seal tub. He is still waiting for any trips we take but we decided it was time to start using the actual tub. You are still not 100% sure about that. You are somewhat tentative and towards the end of your bath you seem to get a bit frightened sometimes and cry wanting to get out. When that starts I can sometimes distract you with toys but sometimes we don’t have a “play time” in the tub just because it upsets you more. You are doing better and better each time though. Your new favorite thing to do when taking a bath is try to catch water that I pour out of the cup we use to rinse the soap off of you. It is funny to watch you concentrate so hard to catch that water that you just can’t seem to get. You also like to try to dip a washcloth in the bathwater and then suck the water out of it. I don’t think that is really that great an idea and you get really frustrated when I take the washcloth away. The last week or so you have enjoyed splashing and making “waves” for your boats. You just laugh hysterically when you do that. If I help make waves you think that is even funnier.
Sometimes when you want something and it isn’t safe or shouldn’t be touched (like the row of spaghetti sauces you attempted to take out at the store last week) and I tell you “no” and redirect you, you get frustrated with me and cry. You have realized what you want, what you don’t, and when you are not allowed to do something you want to do. You are not one to stay quiet either and you voice your displeasure with Daddy or me when we remove whatever it is from your possession.
Speaking of “no”, that is one of the signs we are working on. I can’t recall if I mentioned the signs we are using before so I will tell you again. We use eat, more, all done, water, no, bird, milk, and ball. You haven’t signed back yet but I’m hoping to see it one day. You learned to clap this month too. It just happened in the past week. It is by far the most adorable of all the milestones you have hit so far I think. Smiling is still one of my favorites but you get so excited with yourself when you clap and whenever we say “yay” or “good job” and clap for you when you do something, now you clap too. It is so very cute. It also means that you can meet at the midline now. So, now I’m hoping it is just a matter of time before you start signing things like “more” and “ball” since those signs require that skill.
I left the best news for last. This month… you crawled!! Well, sort of. You have been working on that skill for almost 2 months now. First you started rolling more and more. Then you started pushing up really high on your arms but could never get your knees under. Then all of a sudden, you started getting up on your knees periodically. Last week you started rocking some back and forth and then you just started moving forward. So far you have only moved inches before you collapse but you then try it again. You don’t go backwards near as often (though that does still happen). We were super excited to see you hit this milestone. Yes, I hear everyone telling me that life becomes difficult when you are mobile but I can’t help that think that while I will have to be on my toes even more, you will be happier because you will be able to get to what you are wanting without help most of the time and you will be less frustrated. That was the worst part, you were realizing what you wanted but couldn’t get the strength and coordination together enough to get to it.
This next month should be interesting (and fun) as you learn to perfect your crawling skills and we get to learn new things together. Each month there is a new experience (for both of us) and I am loving every minute of it with you.
Happy 8 months baby girl!
Love,
Mommy
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