7 months
8 months
I was so late with Ty's 6 month post that I decided to forgo the 7 month update and wait for 8...and here we are! EIGHT months. Seems so big. This time last year I was roughly 22wks pregnant and we were busy registering for baby items and putting the nursery together. I still have Ty's 20wk ultrasound picture taped to my monitor. Its the best profile pic of him we got. Funny, it really looks just like him.
Not many milestones happened in the last month or so. We've been on the go a lot, visiting family and hanging out with friends. The next 4 weekends in a row we will be traveling to spend time with both sides of our family, going to a friend's wedding and a couple's baby shower! And we wonder why time flies...
Ty is not crawling yet, but (even though I said this before) he is SO close! He gets on all fours and rocks back and forth...then sits himself back up. When put on his belly, he just gets mad. He has never liked tummy time though and just because he has amazing head control, strong back and neck muscles doesn't mean he likes being on his belly any more than before. Once he gets mad, he rolls himself to his back. So I think the key to crawling will be (1) something super motivating (I'm thinking he might just follow me somewhere), and (2) starting from a sitting position so he doesn't realize he is anywhere near his belly.
I'm guessing Ty weighs somewhere around 18lbs. We don't go back to the doctor until his 9 month visit March 13. Holy geez, that's less than a month away... We are finally using up our last pack of size 2 diapers, which are labeled 12-18lbs. They still fit and we've had minimal leakage, but diapering a wiggle worm with diapers that fit just so is quite a task! Little peanut is still wearing 6 month clothes too! Actually, depending on the brand, some 3-6 month clothes still fit (like the white onesie above). I held up a 9 month onesie the other day and the buttons went down to his knees. He's stayed pretty true to size since birth though. He usually doesn't grow into the next size until he reaches that particular age. He's short and stocky!
Tyler still has NO teeth! Every excessively fussy day, every day that he drools uncontrollably, get blamed on teeth...yet they still have not shown up. I'm still okay with it though! Cooter asked me the other day, "when can he start eating real food?" I said, "when he get real teeth!"
Solids are still going great. The boy can eat! He has loved everything we've given him with the exception of avocado (unless mixed with pears or bananas), and a couple days ago he had an aversion to green beans (which he's eaten many times before). I keep trying new things, including the foods that aren't his favorite. I want him to like a variety of foods and having a love for fruits and veggies is so important. We recently added broccoli to his diet. I waited so long to try broccoli because its a known gassy food, and poor Ty gets gassy from pretty much anything. It went well though! Tonight he gets spinach! Two days ago, we added a small lunch meal to our routine. Ty thinks he needs to eat when we do and I find during my lunch I am squishing up veggies off of my plate to keep him happy. Ty is also completely off of brown rice cereal. He's had constipation issues since starting solids and after giving up cereal, he is a new boy! So he now consumes 2tbsp of organic oatmeal, mixed with 1oz of breastmilk and 2oz of fruit and/or veggie mix for breakfast and dinner, and 1oz of veggies at lunch. He gets puffs for snacks. Oh he loves puffs! I am also super proud to say he is still exclusively breastfed! The more mobile and distracted he gets, the harder it is, but I am determined to make it a year.
thinking he needs to eat the icing from Aunt Sis' cupcake
I have pretty much given up on any hope of bottle feeding, which means I have severely limited my time away from Ty. I certainly don't mind, but at this point I am ready for a little break every now and then. Instead of spending more money on finding a bottle he likes, we started sippy cup training, which is going well. He drinks water from his cup by himself every day. Only problem is, he continues sucking when he pulls the cup away causing excess water to go everywhere and all over him. I'm not willing to waste pumped milk like that just yet. He'll get there soon enough. We've also learned that he loves water just like his momma!
Ty has been pulling up on things since before Christmas. The things he can pull up on are still limited because he's too short to reach the couch or coffee table. Poor kid. He does like to put up on your hands (and he gets oh so proud of himself) and he now can walk forward with his arms supported. He laughs while he walks. He little feet still dangle in his walker though.
standing with help
standing by himself!
The last couple of months has been HUGE in the sleep department. After Christmas I decided that getting up repeatedly throughout the night to put his pacifier back in his mouth was not an option anymore. He had been in his bed for a good month at that point, and sleeping well, just wasn't able to self-soothe and put himself back to sleep. I swore I would never let my baby cry it out. Well, excuse me while I eat my words, because I did and it worked. After consulting with many of my friends over our babies' sleep habits, I learned from many that the good sleep habits actually formed from letting them cry it out. The first attempt came at 3:30 one morning. I had been up so many times and I was becoming zombie-fied. He cried for 20 minutes (felt like for. ever.) and went back to sleep. Cooter and I were wide awake, of course. We couldn't believe our ears...so immediately we thought something was wrong. Cooter went to check on him and sure enough, he was back asleep. The next night, he woke up within 45 minutes of being put down and he cried another 20 minutes and was out for the rest of the night. Little by little, the time spent crying shortened and in less than a week he slept through the night...the WHOLE night, without waking up at all! Praise God! I'm not saying that happens every night (last night was rough), but most nights, he either sleeps all night, or he might wake up 1-2 times, fuss a little and go back to bed. Sometimes I can't even remember if he woke up the next morning, which means he hardly fussed. The only problem now is that Ty scoots in his sleep. He scoots upward in his crib until his head is pressed into the side (and I put him down with his feet touching the opposite side, knowing he makes his nightly travel). He cries madly when he gets stuck and I do have to go scoot him back down and he goes right back to sleep. How do I keep that from happening?!?
I've made some great personal strides in the past couple of months towards my post-partum anxiety. I keep promising to blog about that one day...I seriously need to. The content is way too deep to add on to Ty's monthly updates. I have finally been able to sit out with friends and enjoy myself once again. I've even had a couple beers! Anxiety still strikes and causes me to want to run far, far away, but I deal with it as I can. Its so hard to not be protective of my little guy!
I still sit back and am just floored that we have an 8 month old. It seriously feels like I was pregnant days ago. I'm already planning his first birthday party...sigh. And of course, thinking ahead to adding another baby to our family (not just yet!).
Here's my favorites from 7 and 8 months...
