I don't think I've ever been so late with a monthly update. Noah turned 11 months over a week ago, so I'm going to keep these updates restricted to those things he was doing at that time. Some things have changed quite a bit in this past week.
At 11 months old, here is where Noah is at:
-He weighs 20lbs 9oz totally naked, but after a lot of nursings. That's about 25th percentile.
-He is 31.5 inches long, about 100th percentile.
-He is less than 5th percentile for weight for height (he has tall, slim parents - he can't help it).
-He wears size 3 diapers during the day, and size 4 diapers at night.
-He wears 18 month clothing. His sleepers, onesies, and shirts fit perfectly, maybe a little on the small side. His 18 month pants are a perfect length.
-He has 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom.
-He started signing 'nurse' at 10.5 months, and ever since then we've been nursing much more than every 2 hours. He often wants to nurse again 5 minutes after we just finished.
-He still has just one formal "meal" of solids - mostly purees - at dinnertime. The rest of the day he snacks on various things, usually what I'm eating. He's still about 90% breastfed, with solids making up the other 10%.
-He goes to bed at about 7pm, sleeps until past 4am, nurses, and goes back to sleep again until about 7am, give or take. (This has changed since a couple of days after he turned 11 months... that post is still to come.)
-He has two naps a day, ranging from 30 minutes to an hour. The first nap is about 3 - 3.5 hours after he wakes up (he can make it to 4 pretty easily), and the second nap is 3.5 - 4 hours after he wakes up from his first nap.
-He is totally done with the soother, now. I take very little credit for this, although I recognize that my actions inadvertently got him to this point. He always needed it when he was being rocked to sleep. Then we had a few weeks where he was either nursed to sleep or put in his crib awake. I would give him his soother when I put him in his crib awake, but he never fell asleep using it. So after seeing if he still wanted it on several different occasions, I have come to the conclusion that he is definitely over it. It holds no appeal for him anymore.
-He's getting better at the sippy cup. Sometimes he'll drink a couple of ounces of water out of it in one sitting. He likes water now.
-He stands alone, takes a few independent steps (this was just an occasional thing still when he turned 11 months), cruises really well, speed crawls, and climbs.
-He loves to throw balls, play with his baseball bats, score points on his basketball hoop, and practice stick handling with his mini-sticks and hockey puck. His athlete father is so proud :)
-He's become extremely cuddly lately, often hugging us and laying his head down on our shoulders, draping himself over us, ect. He'll even fall asleep sometimes with his head laying on my shoulder, which he hadn't done since he was about 2 months old.
-He loves to give Mommy kisses (sometimes Dad gets one). He gives me probably a hundred open mouth slobber kisses each day. Sometimes he just seems overwhelmed with the need to kiss me. It's adorable.
-He's still a big mommy suck. He's getting a bit friendlier with other people (smiling, making faces, giggling), but will freak out if I start to walk away.
-He still has horrifyingly awful separation anxiety. He still can't handle if I'm not in his sight when we're at home, so I have to plan chores and things carefully. I can't even go to the bathroom without him.
-He just started doing this hilarious scrunchy face, sometimes doing it with a closed, pursed mouth, other times "showing off" his front teeth. He breathes really fast in and out of his nose when he does it. It's hilarious.
-He just started to lounge on the floor like a lazy toddler. Not for long periods of time, but before this he would never ever sit still or lay down during the day, but now he'll sometimes lay his cheek on the floor, or recline on some pillows in front of the TV (terrible... I blame Dad).
-It's always hard to know exactly how much an 11 month old understands, but we know for sure he knows the meanings of: Mom, Dad, nurse, up, night-night, hug, kiss, no, this, book, "say hi," and "say bye". He demonstrates understanding of those words through his actions. I'm guessing he knows a lot more, but I can't tell.
-He just started saying "Uh oh," but its often more of an "Uh uhhh" or an "Oooh oooh." Sometimes he does "Uh uh uh ohh." He mostly does this after he drops something and we say "Uh oh."
-He says "Dis," "Dat," "Mamamama," and "Dad" or "Dada". It seems like he says all these things in the right settings, but he also uses them at other times, so I don't know if he's really using them as words or just sounds.
-He loves to "read." He pulls out his books and sits and flips through the pages. His two teacher parents are thrilled:)
-We have this book called Who Do You See, and after "I see a bee" I say "buzzz" and he ALWAYS says "zzzzzzzz" as he strokes the bee. After "I see a lion" I say "Rooaaar!" and he sometimes gently goes "Raaaaa."
I'm sure there is much, much more I could say, but I am already 9 days late with this post. I am just going to finish it before I waste another day ruminating about it.
But, as a last thing, I have to say, Noah is becoming hilarious. His toddler personality that is beginning to emerge (although I still think 1 year olds are babies) cracks me up. I seriously could not love him any more. He is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, and I am incredibly, deeply grateful for him every second of every day!
Showing posts with label Waving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waving. Show all posts
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
10 Months Old
Here is where Noah is at at 10 months old:
-He's 31 inches tall, 100th percentile.
-He weighs 20lbs 5oz naked (after a good nursing). That's about 35th percentile, and almost a pound gain in less than a month!
-He is 5th percentile for 'weight for length'
-His head circumference is 19 inches..
-He wears size 3 diapers during the day, and size 4 diapers at night (we just switched to size 4s the night before he turned 10 months because of night-leaking).
-He wears 18 month clothing. His sleepers, onesies, and shirts fit perfectly, his 18 month pants are a little bit long.
-He has 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom.
-He nurses every 2 hours or so all day long (two nursings during each awake period), and once overnight. He nurses 7-8 times in a 24 hour period.
-He has one meal of solids (mostly purees) at dinnertime, and throughout the day he might have little nibbles of what I'm eating. I'm careful about what he has, but I don't follow a specific '3 day wait' rule anymore.
-He is obsessed with fruit. If he sees a piece of fruit and isn't allowed to eat it, he has a little hissy fit.
-He's still constipated pretty much all the time. We have only a couple of normal poops in a month.
-After a long break, he's starting to show a little bit of interest in the sippy cup, although he is really terrible at getting water out of it. he chews more than sucks. But at least it's water in there! He seems to love the taste of water now, whereas it disgusted him a few months ago.
-He goes to bed at 7, has one night nursing sometime after 4am, and wakes up around 7, sometimes later if he has a long awake period around 6am and ends up falling back asleep.
-He has 2 naps a day, each usually 30-40 minutes long (although sometimes he'll have an hour long nap). He's not on a strict schedule, and his naptimes start anywhere between 10-11am, and 2:30-3:30pm.
-He stands unassisted for far longer periods of time, far more frequently. His record is several minutes.
-He can stand up from a squatting position without holding on to anything, and can squat down slowly and gracefully from standing without holding on to anything.
-He's a much better cruiser now, and walks with his walker really well. However, on the hardwood floors he has a tendency to let it get ahead of him and ends up looking like he's charging through the house on a rampage.
-He's been hands and knees crawling and pulling up to stand for 3 months.
-He's been climbing stairs for at least a couple of months, but he's really fast at it now.
-If he loses something under the couch he'll crawl over, lay on his tummy, peer under the couch, and reach for the object.
-He waves "Hi!" when we say "Say 'hi'!" He lifts his arms when we say "Up!" and understands the word "No," but doesn't always listen to it (these are several months old). These are the 3 "commands" that we can tell 100% for sure that he understands.
-He still babbles a lot and says things like Dada, Dad, dat, dis, deh, that seem like words, but I'm not sure if he is really intending them to be words. He likes to imitate singular sounds we make like fff, sss, tthh, but not really any combinations of letters.
-Just started babbling "Mamama" again after a long break. I don't think he's calling me "Mama" though.
-He's still pointing a lot to things he wants or places he wants to go.
-His new fascination is with light switches. He loves to turn lights on and off.
-He puts objects in containers and balls into the holes they're supposed to go into.
-He plays with his "talking" toys a lot more purposefully now. Instead of mashing his hands around on things in an excited way, he carefully presses specific buttons to hear specific words and noises. It's need to see him become so purposeful in this area.
-We have this framed print in our house that has the line from the hymn: "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all." Noah LOVES it, and always points to go over to it. When we start reading it to him (we point to the words as we read them) he gets this huge adorable smile on his face, and sometimes starts giggling. It's so cute!
-He started dropping toys off his high chair tray all the time shortly after he turned 9 months. He would do this occasionally before but I always ignored it. Then Daddy made a FUN GAME out of it *rolls eyes and sighs*, so I'm trying to break him of this habit.
-He loves it when I spray water in his mouth with a spray bottle. He laughs and opens his mouth for it again and again. His face is hilarious. A squinty wince, with his mouth wide open... so cute.
-He's figured out how to undo the bottom of our top-of-the-stair gate, and he gets really ticked off that he can't pull it all the way open.
-His pincer grasp is about the same as last month. Not amazing, but not bad.
-He detests the playpen (immediately starts screaming if he's put in it), and doesn't like being in his jumperoo. So basically, he's a free man all the time. Therefore, I can't shower unless he's sleeping. I can't vacuum unless he's in the sling (or my husband is home).
-Diaper changes are still a big battle, but this past month he has added a freak-out everytime we lay him on the change table. Sometimes he'll cry the entire time he's being changed. It's ridiculous, really.
-He hugs and kisses Mommy (with a wide open slobbery mouth) all the time. He's been kissing me for months, but this month he started kissing Daddy! He'll only kiss his ear, though, because Daddy's face is too scratchy:) I find that hilarious. The few times he's tried to kiss his cheek or mouth he came away with an injured, disgusted look on his face. It cracks us up!
-He is an enormous Mommy-suck. He is so attached to me I can hardly even describe it. He cannot be distracted or dissuaded if he wants his Mom, and he wants his Mom often. After seeing any display of this Mommy-suckyness, people agree that if I were going back to work when my maternity leave is technically over in 2 months, he honestly might never recover. I am the be-all and end-all in his life, and if I disappeared I honestly think he might will himself to die.
A typical day in our house at 10 months old might look like this:
7:00am - Wake up
7:30am - Nurse
9:30am - Nurse
10:15am - Sleep
11:00am - Wake up
11:30am - Nurse
1:30pm - Nurse
2:15pm - Sleep
3:00pm - Wake up
3:30 - Nurse
5:00 - Nurse
6:00 - Dinner (solids)
6:40 - Bath time
7:00 - Nurse and bedtime (plus 1 night feeding)
That's what a typical day MIGHT look like, but we are by no means on a schedule and the timing of things can be different everyday. If a nap goes long, or he wants to nurse sooner or later, or he does seem to want to sleep... everyday is different. The one basically consistent part of our day is the wake, nurse, nurse, nap, nurse, nurse, nap, nurse, nurse, dinner, bath, bedtime (with nursing). Lately Noah has been nursing to sleep for his naps more often just because that's when his feeding happens to land. And I'm not a nazi about not letting him fall asleep nursing. I try to have him fall asleep in a variety of ways throughout the week so that he has "versatility." I want him to be able to fall asleep nursing, rocking, on his own, or in the car.
Now that Noah is down to 2 short naps a day I have even less time to get things done around the house. I use his first nap to shower (I have to finish getting ready while he's awake, usually), and his second nap I use to try and relax and eat something, since I don't have time to do that during the rest of the day. I do most of my chores when Justin is home because it's way easier to clean my house without Noah strapped to my body or trying to climb my legs.
We seem to have had a month off from teething, which has been nice. And it's been nice going down to 2 naps, which we did right at 9 months, even though that usually means I have less baby-free time. It's just been a lot easier to do other things now that Noah has awake periods of at least 3 hours, and can usually stay awake (and be happy) for 4 hours or more if we're out doing something.
Noah's 10th month has been lots of fun. It's crazy watching him grow up so quickly, and I can't believe he's going to be a year old so soon! I should start thinking about his birthday party...
-He's 31 inches tall, 100th percentile.
-He weighs 20lbs 5oz naked (after a good nursing). That's about 35th percentile, and almost a pound gain in less than a month!
-He is 5th percentile for 'weight for length'
-His head circumference is 19 inches..
-He wears size 3 diapers during the day, and size 4 diapers at night (we just switched to size 4s the night before he turned 10 months because of night-leaking).
-He wears 18 month clothing. His sleepers, onesies, and shirts fit perfectly, his 18 month pants are a little bit long.
-He has 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom.
-He nurses every 2 hours or so all day long (two nursings during each awake period), and once overnight. He nurses 7-8 times in a 24 hour period.
-He has one meal of solids (mostly purees) at dinnertime, and throughout the day he might have little nibbles of what I'm eating. I'm careful about what he has, but I don't follow a specific '3 day wait' rule anymore.
-He is obsessed with fruit. If he sees a piece of fruit and isn't allowed to eat it, he has a little hissy fit.
-He's still constipated pretty much all the time. We have only a couple of normal poops in a month.
-After a long break, he's starting to show a little bit of interest in the sippy cup, although he is really terrible at getting water out of it. he chews more than sucks. But at least it's water in there! He seems to love the taste of water now, whereas it disgusted him a few months ago.
-He goes to bed at 7, has one night nursing sometime after 4am, and wakes up around 7, sometimes later if he has a long awake period around 6am and ends up falling back asleep.
-He has 2 naps a day, each usually 30-40 minutes long (although sometimes he'll have an hour long nap). He's not on a strict schedule, and his naptimes start anywhere between 10-11am, and 2:30-3:30pm.
-He stands unassisted for far longer periods of time, far more frequently. His record is several minutes.
-He can stand up from a squatting position without holding on to anything, and can squat down slowly and gracefully from standing without holding on to anything.
-He's a much better cruiser now, and walks with his walker really well. However, on the hardwood floors he has a tendency to let it get ahead of him and ends up looking like he's charging through the house on a rampage.
-He's been hands and knees crawling and pulling up to stand for 3 months.
-He's been climbing stairs for at least a couple of months, but he's really fast at it now.
-If he loses something under the couch he'll crawl over, lay on his tummy, peer under the couch, and reach for the object.
-He waves "Hi!" when we say "Say 'hi'!" He lifts his arms when we say "Up!" and understands the word "No," but doesn't always listen to it (these are several months old). These are the 3 "commands" that we can tell 100% for sure that he understands.
-He still babbles a lot and says things like Dada, Dad, dat, dis, deh, that seem like words, but I'm not sure if he is really intending them to be words. He likes to imitate singular sounds we make like fff, sss, tthh, but not really any combinations of letters.
-Just started babbling "Mamama" again after a long break. I don't think he's calling me "Mama" though.
-He's still pointing a lot to things he wants or places he wants to go.
-His new fascination is with light switches. He loves to turn lights on and off.
-He puts objects in containers and balls into the holes they're supposed to go into.
-He plays with his "talking" toys a lot more purposefully now. Instead of mashing his hands around on things in an excited way, he carefully presses specific buttons to hear specific words and noises. It's need to see him become so purposeful in this area.
-We have this framed print in our house that has the line from the hymn: "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all." Noah LOVES it, and always points to go over to it. When we start reading it to him (we point to the words as we read them) he gets this huge adorable smile on his face, and sometimes starts giggling. It's so cute!
-He started dropping toys off his high chair tray all the time shortly after he turned 9 months. He would do this occasionally before but I always ignored it. Then Daddy made a FUN GAME out of it *rolls eyes and sighs*, so I'm trying to break him of this habit.
-He loves it when I spray water in his mouth with a spray bottle. He laughs and opens his mouth for it again and again. His face is hilarious. A squinty wince, with his mouth wide open... so cute.
-He's figured out how to undo the bottom of our top-of-the-stair gate, and he gets really ticked off that he can't pull it all the way open.
-His pincer grasp is about the same as last month. Not amazing, but not bad.
-He detests the playpen (immediately starts screaming if he's put in it), and doesn't like being in his jumperoo. So basically, he's a free man all the time. Therefore, I can't shower unless he's sleeping. I can't vacuum unless he's in the sling (or my husband is home).
-Diaper changes are still a big battle, but this past month he has added a freak-out everytime we lay him on the change table. Sometimes he'll cry the entire time he's being changed. It's ridiculous, really.
-He hugs and kisses Mommy (with a wide open slobbery mouth) all the time. He's been kissing me for months, but this month he started kissing Daddy! He'll only kiss his ear, though, because Daddy's face is too scratchy:) I find that hilarious. The few times he's tried to kiss his cheek or mouth he came away with an injured, disgusted look on his face. It cracks us up!
-He is an enormous Mommy-suck. He is so attached to me I can hardly even describe it. He cannot be distracted or dissuaded if he wants his Mom, and he wants his Mom often. After seeing any display of this Mommy-suckyness, people agree that if I were going back to work when my maternity leave is technically over in 2 months, he honestly might never recover. I am the be-all and end-all in his life, and if I disappeared I honestly think he might will himself to die.
A typical day in our house at 10 months old might look like this:
7:00am - Wake up
7:30am - Nurse
9:30am - Nurse
10:15am - Sleep
11:00am - Wake up
11:30am - Nurse
1:30pm - Nurse
2:15pm - Sleep
3:00pm - Wake up
3:30 - Nurse
5:00 - Nurse
6:00 - Dinner (solids)
6:40 - Bath time
7:00 - Nurse and bedtime (plus 1 night feeding)
That's what a typical day MIGHT look like, but we are by no means on a schedule and the timing of things can be different everyday. If a nap goes long, or he wants to nurse sooner or later, or he does seem to want to sleep... everyday is different. The one basically consistent part of our day is the wake, nurse, nurse, nap, nurse, nurse, nap, nurse, nurse, dinner, bath, bedtime (with nursing). Lately Noah has been nursing to sleep for his naps more often just because that's when his feeding happens to land. And I'm not a nazi about not letting him fall asleep nursing. I try to have him fall asleep in a variety of ways throughout the week so that he has "versatility." I want him to be able to fall asleep nursing, rocking, on his own, or in the car.
Now that Noah is down to 2 short naps a day I have even less time to get things done around the house. I use his first nap to shower (I have to finish getting ready while he's awake, usually), and his second nap I use to try and relax and eat something, since I don't have time to do that during the rest of the day. I do most of my chores when Justin is home because it's way easier to clean my house without Noah strapped to my body or trying to climb my legs.
We seem to have had a month off from teething, which has been nice. And it's been nice going down to 2 naps, which we did right at 9 months, even though that usually means I have less baby-free time. It's just been a lot easier to do other things now that Noah has awake periods of at least 3 hours, and can usually stay awake (and be happy) for 4 hours or more if we're out doing something.
Noah's 10th month has been lots of fun. It's crazy watching him grow up so quickly, and I can't believe he's going to be a year old so soon! I should start thinking about his birthday party...
Saturday, December 18, 2010
9 Months Old
At 9 months old, here is where Noah is at:
-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked). This is about the 25th percentile.
-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile
-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.
-He wears size 3 diapers.
-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick). The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small. Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big. We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.
-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.
-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.
-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger. And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction. "See?? Look at my toy!!"
-His pincer grasp is getting better. He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger. He could still make improvement in this area. But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.
-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day. Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.
-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day. More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.
-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.
-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total. He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep. He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit. If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45. He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night. In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.
-Naps are still crap. A usual day has three 30 minute naps. We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent. It's bad, I know.
-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark. The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.
-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in. So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.
-He had his fourth haircut today.
-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding. No such luck for me.
-He's very capable, physically. He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now. He's a great climber, too.
-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.
-He waves!
-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT. He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed. He thinks it's hilarious.
-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet. As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."
-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face. He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever. It's so cute.
-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.
-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer. He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it. Whatever!
-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror. This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.
-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often. He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped. It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.
-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment. It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.
-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month. Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine. But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again. He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol). And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it. Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper. After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing. But getting the diaper on is HARD.
This past month has had ups and downs. Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me. I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out. As a SAHM, this gets very tiring. I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me. Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping. It got tough after several long days.
I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though. It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut). Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.
Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits. 3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes. This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training. There are several reasons for this. One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train. Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep. He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times). It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.
Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu. I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great. Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.
There have also been good times this month. Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long. Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted! I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part. Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people. That's how bad a sleeper I am. But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience. And that being your NORMAL? It's fantastic.
There have also been GREAT times this past month. The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son. The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big. Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate. Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow. Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over. Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is. Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep. Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us.
I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah. He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us. I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here. And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different. He completes my life. I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child.
I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst. I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different. THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.
(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters? I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post. What is the purpose of that limit? Let people label as much as they want!!)
-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked). This is about the 25th percentile.
-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile
-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.
-He wears size 3 diapers.
-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick). The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small. Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big. We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.
-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.
-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.
-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger. And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction. "See?? Look at my toy!!"
-His pincer grasp is getting better. He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger. He could still make improvement in this area. But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.
-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day. Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.
-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day. More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.
-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.
-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total. He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep. He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit. If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45. He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night. In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.
-Naps are still crap. A usual day has three 30 minute naps. We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent. It's bad, I know.
-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark. The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.
-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in. So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.
-He had his fourth haircut today.
-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding. No such luck for me.
-He's very capable, physically. He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now. He's a great climber, too.
-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.
-He waves!
-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT. He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed. He thinks it's hilarious.
-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet. As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."
-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face. He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever. It's so cute.
-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.
-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer. He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it. Whatever!
-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror. This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.
-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often. He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped. It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.
-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment. It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.
-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month. Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine. But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again. He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol). And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it. Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper. After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing. But getting the diaper on is HARD.
~~~~~~~~~~
This past month has had ups and downs. Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me. I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out. As a SAHM, this gets very tiring. I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me. Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping. It got tough after several long days.
I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though. It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut). Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.
Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits. 3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes. This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training. There are several reasons for this. One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train. Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep. He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times). It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.
Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu. I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great. Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.
There have also been good times this month. Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long. Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted! I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part. Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people. That's how bad a sleeper I am. But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience. And that being your NORMAL? It's fantastic.
There have also been GREAT times this past month. The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son. The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big. Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate. Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow. Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over. Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is. Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep. Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us.
I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah. He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us. I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here. And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different. He completes my life. I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child.
I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst. I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different. THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.
(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters? I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post. What is the purpose of that limit? Let people label as much as they want!!)
Monday, December 6, 2010
8 1/2 Month Pictures
I have so many things I need to post on here and on FB. I decided to go with here first. I was just uploading pictures from my camera onto my computer and found some I just really want to post for my own memories. So, I bestow upon you a plethora of pictures.
Yes, Noah can hang from the top of his gate:
We bought his this Santa hat, size 12-24 months. He's 8 1/2 months, and the hat barely fits on his head. I had to shove it on. I think I'm returning it, but he looks sooo cute, doesn't he?
I was cleaning up after dinner while Justin got ready for his first basketball game of the season. Noah had just gotten up from his nap, and Justin wanted to know what to do with him. I told him to take him with him. I figured when I went in there (the spare bedroom where Justin keeps his clothes) that Noah would be crawling around on the floor. Instead, he was still in his sleep sack with his soother in his mouth, sitting in the middle of the bed playing with a hanger and his Dad's belt. It melted my heart.
Little stinker getting into my cupboards:
I want it!
And his little stinker face:
In a track suit:
He started waving this past Saturday!!
I think he looks young here:)
Mommy and Noah at 8 1/2 months... couldn't get a smile from him:
But we got a wave!!
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