8 Months
Several milestones to report from this past month.
She learned to crawl, as I've mentioned previously. She's pretty quick now, although I know she will get even faster. Sometimes we call her "tripod", because she crawls with 1 knee and 1 foot, like she is 1/2 walking, 1/2 crawling! It's hilarious! She isn't close to walking though. When we hold her hands and move around with her, she is almost too excited to concentrate on not having jiggly legs, and her whole body shakes with glee!
While on spring break, she learned to get herself in a sitting position (from laying down, crawling, etc). That is nice that she is able to do that by herself! Now she can do whatever she wants (sit, lay, roll, crawl) and get to whatever she wants to, and then prop herself up to play with it. It's also weird, when I go to get her in the mornings and she is sitting in her crib!
Since we've been home from Florida, she has learned to pull herself up on furniture. She can pull herself up on the couch... and this past weekend when I went to get her out of her crib, she was standing. Yikes! She changes so rapidly! I was just getting adjusted to seeing her sitting in the crib! This new stage of pulling up means that all my previous baby-proofing efforts of putting stuff on the couch is no longer safe. I left to get a drink today, and came back and Kayla was typing on my computer (which was on the couch... which was far away from where she was when I left her). Yikes! She also has learned to (sometimes) slowly ease herself down to her butt... but sometimes she crashes down and it's no good. She has yet to get seriously hurt, maybe just scared herself really good. I try hard to be right by her when she is standing, just in case. But obviously it's not possible 100% of the time. She gives Wesley a run for his money too, as he is no longer safe on the couch. He remains forever paitent, as she wrestles him, pulls his tail, grips hard, etc. I try to warn him she's coming and get him to move, but he's too lazy. She got hold of his foot and hurt him this morning - he meowed, and when she didn't let go he hissed at her.... but he didn't nip or scratch (I was right there while this was happening too), so I am very proud of his responce to her overall.
She is at the beginning stages of cruising. She will very slowly walk along the couch if a toy is just out of reach. I am sure that in the next few weeks she'll master that skill.
As for feeding, she has really taken control of this. She doesn't enjoy being fed nearly as much as being able to feed herself, so I've run with that. It's much easier on me to have her do it herself, plus it's exciting that she is taking on that initiative. However, it is MESSY! Messy, messy, messy. She likes to squish things in her hands before she eats it, and then later in the meal she needs to rub her eyes, pull her hair, grab her legs, etc. It is messy. Very, very messy. And I'm told it gets worse before it gets better. Fantastic! But, I am doing my best to let her go with it, and trying to enjoy it as much as she clearly is! I try so hard not to correct her, or squash her efforts. I mean, what's a mess? Something that can be cleaned. And I want her to improve, which she will never do if I don't let her explore things on her own. New foods she's tried this month: bread, plums, cheese, cheese quesadilla's, mango, ravioli, crackers (like for soup), sweet potato fries, grapes, garbanzo beans... maybe a few other things. I'm trying to give her something from what we are eating for dinner, as well as some of her staples. I have been giving her small chucks of sweet potato, avacado, carrot "chips", cheese cubes, banana chunks and Cherrio's, as well as 1 combination of food that I feed her with a spoon (apple and spaghetti squash or several fruits combined)... and then a graham cracker for dessert. It takes her about 30 minutes or more to do this all, which means that David and I can eat our dinner, clean up from dinner, and then begin cleaning her off! She is still only eating 1 solid food meal a day, but I am going to start adding another meal this week. I think my (very tentative) plan is to have her eat 2 meals for the next 2 months, and then add the 3rd meal after 2 months of this. We'll see how things play out.
I think we might be down to 4 nursing sessions a day. She has been sleeping incredibly more or less since we've been back from vacation. She's sleeping through the nights withouth needing to be nursed at all!! I'm nursing her when she wakes up around 8:30-9, and then again around 12-1, and then again around 4-5. Then she has dinner (solids) with us around 6:30 or so, and then I nurse her at bedtime, usually around 9. She takes 2 naps: 1 about 2.5-3 hours after waking up, and another about 3-3.5 hours after waking up from the first one. Her naps are typically 30 minutes on the dot, but actually since she's sleeping better her afternoon nap is more like 1 hour or even a little more on occasion! Hopefully we continue this trend.
She is sick for the first time this week. She had a runny nose 1 time before this winter, but it was only for a day or so and didn't seem to bother her at all. Today she is very snotty and has an 80-year-old smokers cough. It is quite pathetic. Hopefully we get over it soon (I am also sick).
I took her to the doctor's just to weigh her in. She weighed in at 17 lbs 2 oz, which puts her at just the 37th percentile! You can tell she is quite active, since she isn't gaining much weight. She's burning it all off! Lucky girl!! LOL. And on my little mat at home it shows she is 28 inches long, putting her in the 90th percentile.
One last note, we just passed the end of the "bucket seat" era with Kayla. I am still mourning it because it was easier not to have to take her in and out all the time! But she is well too long for the carseat. So, into the Britax she goes. Here's a picture of her on the day we brought her home, and then one of her last day in the bucket seat - my has she grown!!
1. Her eyes are still a pretty blue color
2. Her left tear duct is still plugged.
3. She doesn't spit up right after eating now. When she does spit up, it's 1-2 hours after eating! So, no warning!!