10 Months
Probably the biggest thing to discuss from this past month is her sleeping habits. I hate to talk about sleep when things are good, it seems like every time I do we have a sleep regression! But this past month Kayla has been consistently sleeping through the night. I will nurse her to sleep when she is ready for bed (usually between 9-10), and she has been sleeping from then until about 7 or 8 when she wakes up to nurse.... then she will go back to sleep until she's gotten usually 11-12 hours of sleep. Some nights she does wake up crying, but she is able to calm herself down pretty quickly (really before she ever actually wakes up) and go right back to sleep, with no intervention from us. This is a huge change, as previously she would wake up screaming and standing and unable to calm herself down without our help. I can't even explain how amazing it is to not be woken up at nights. She has slept through the night on many occasions prior to this past month, but it was never a consistent thing. And I'm always concerned that tonight will be the night that she starts waking up again... and I'm sure we aren't going to have great sleep for the rest of her life. But the bottom line is that the good nights are majorly outweighing the bad nights, and that is a major breakthrough. I have to say that I am very happy with how things went. We did not force her to sleep all night on her own... it was something that she did when she was ready for it. Not to say that we didn't try different ideas to help her sleep more. But she wasn't ready for it, and it's not really something you can force. As I said, it's not like she was just waking crying and able to settle herself. She was waking screaming, and if we didn't attend to her she would escalate (if that is possible!).
As for naps, I have resigned to the fact that she can easily go on two 30 minute naps a day and be totally content. Sometimes she surprises me and sleeps longer, but most times you could actually set your watch to when she wakes up because it is almost exactly 30 minutes later. I am trying to work on her going down for naps on her own. I have been rocking her to sleep, but the last few weeks it has involved much screaming on her part, and much frustration on my part. So, I am trying new things. Wish me luck! :)
As for eating, about a week ago I started feeding her lunches. She seemed to need more nourishment, and I was planning on starting 3 meals a day soon anyway. So now I nurse her at 7 or 8, feed breakfast around 9:30-10... nurse her around 11-12 (either before or after her nap, depending on how things go), lunch when she wakes up from the nap. Then another nursing around 4-4:30, dinner with us around 6:30, and nursing her around 9 for bed. For the most-part she eats what we eat. I have to say, it's been good for me to think about adding more veggies and healthy foods to our own eating habits! It is really fun to have her be a participant in this part of our daily lives. She continues to be an extremely messy eater! She is often rubbing the food in her hair, behind her ears, all over her face, not to mention on the floor! Sometimes she doesn't make a mess at all, but often cleaning her up means practically giving her a sponge bath with the washcloth, if we don't just take her directly up to the bathtub! New foods she's tried: asparagus, turkey, pork, sausage, cheeseburger, steak, rice, cool whip, blueberries, ham, cream cheese, mushrooms and pineapple.
We've also introduced the sippy cup and give her like 1 part juice, 100 parts water (or so David says I do, he makes it more like 1:4), and she is getting much better with that. She is best when she is lying down or when we are helping her hold it up! But she is at the beginning stages of mastering this skill.
Walking.... yeah, every day she is choosing to walk places rather than crawl. She has increased her step ability from 2-3 to like 6-7 on average before she plops down and crawls. She is still learning how to keep her balance, but she is getting much better. In fact, the last several days she has walked more like 10-12 steps and can go from one end of the living room to the other, touch base and then set out walking again. She is still much faster at crawling and cruising, so those are easy to rely on, but she is really going with the walking. It's fun!
Climbing... didn't think I'd need to start talking about this yet. But this weekend she has learned to climb up on the couch! She has done it 3 or 4 times since, so it wasn't just a fluke! Oh my.... now nothing is safe! :)
She is majorly into things in the kitchen. She likes to open drawers, try to climb inside the dishwasher, get into the drawers in the fridge, explore the closet... it makes working in the kitchen interesting. I am constantly trying to distract her to one side of the kitchen, then quick run to the other side to do what needs to be done before she gets there.... then I run to the side she just left and do something. It's quite a project! I try to make the most of the time I have when she is in her feeding chair so I can work without worrying about her getting into things!
She loves peek-a-boo. She has started playing on her own (like she holds up something over her face and then uncovers herself). It's pretty cute.
She LOVES Wesley. She is always so excited when she sees him walk into the room and immediately goes to him. Often she flops her whole self on top of him, like she's giving him a huge hug. It's pretty cute, and he is (to a fault) extremely patient with her. Sometimes I wish he would just run away or climb up to where she can't get him, because I always have to patrol their petting sessions. I say "gentle", and show her how to pet him nicely. But as soon as I let her go on her own she comes up with a fist-full of his hair!
She is curious about everything. This was her first experience watching a fan - it was hilarious! While I must have said 1 million times, "we don't touch fans", she made a noise that sounds like "wow" like 1 million times! It was cute!
Teeth update: her last molar popped through the surface this weekend, making a total of 12 teeth!
We have a membership to Meijer Garden's, and we chose to upgrade to the kind that allows us to bring 2 free guests every time we go. We did that so when family comes in town we can bring them there, but also to allow me to invite my friends there for play dates! I have been there 2 times in the past 2 weeks, and it has been really fun. I didn't think Kayla was old enough to enjoy things yet. I figured it would be fun to be outside and enjoy the weather, walk around the park, look at the beautiful flowers, etc. But they have 2 water areas which Kayla LOVED. She had such a blast. I'm looking forward to many more trips there this summer!!
Motherhood gets better and better the older she gets. It is so amazing to watch her enjoy life and to have her participate in daily experiences. I know it sounds silly, but the older she gets the more and more she is becoming a person (as opposed to just a baby) and that is really exciting to me.
At the doctor's she weighed in at 18 lbs 13 oz which keeps her in the upper 30 percent. She really is a busy-body; she honestly never sits still. She's started to lose a little baby fat in her thighs, which weren't really that chunky to begin with!
1. Her eyes are still a pretty blue color.
2. Her left tear duct is still plugged.
3. She very rarely spits up, and when she does it is usually just a little dribble.