9 Months Today...8 Month Low Down

Today is LL's 9 Month Birthday --Here's Her 8 Month Low Down 

Bedtime: Between 7:30 & 8:00 pm.  She is getting SO much better with sleeping.  After putting her down for the night, she usually wakes up about 2 hours later for a bottle and then will sleep for 7-8 hours straight.  Can I get a woot-woot?

Wake-Up: Lately she has gotten into the habit of waking around 4:30am.  At first, I didn't think anything of this because she was finally sleeping for 7 hours straight and I was so THANKFUL to be getting solid sleep.  But, now I need to think about how to break this. Hmmm?  

Naps: I think she is trying to transition into 2 naps a day.  She'll take her first nap between 8:30-9:00 and it's approx 1 1/2 hours.  Her second nap is around 12:30-1:00 and usually 1 1/2 hours. Her naps have finally gotten so much longer.  For SO long her naps were only 30-45 min long.  Man, I love turning this new sleep corner.

Bottles: She usually gets about 5 bottles a day.  I've been making them about 6 oz. to see if she'll drink more.  She was only drinking about 4 oz at a time.  She's getting better.

Nursing: NO MORE.  She was done at 7 Months.

Foods:  She has been eating so much better.  We found out that the Chiobani Yogurt she as eating was giving her a lot of gas and we think it was keeping her up at night.  As soon as we stopped giving her that, she stated sleeping better.  Coincidence?  who knows.  She eats some 3rd stage foods, and every time I give her a bite of my baked potato or sweet potato, she makes a horrible face and spits it out.  She only eats 1 1/2 containers of  stage 2 foods.  She's just not a big eater.

New foods this month: Gerber Wagon Wheel Finger foods/ Carrot and Apple flavor

Night Time:
She was sleeping with us at night just because we were both so sick of getting up 4 times a night to walk to her crib. So much easier to turn over and pat her back to sleep.  But for the last 2 weeks, she's been sleeping like a freakin' champ in her crib.  7-8 hours of solid sleep.  Like I said before, we stopped giving her the yogurt and she started sleeping better.  We even experimented one  night to see if that was really bothering her...and sure enough the day we gave her the yogurt, she was up off and on all night.

Developmental Milestones & Firsts:
It has been a slow month for milestones.  It seems that all of them hit at once last month.  I thought for sure she would have gotten her top two teeth, but they're not here yet.  Lots of drooling and I think I see them coming down.  She's walking a lot between furniture, along the walls and when we hold her hands.  Not sure if that means she'll be walking soon.  We got her a few "walking" toys that she seems to like.

Momma's Mental State:
It's amazing what sleep will do to your mental state.  For the first 8 months of Avery's life I was so sleep deprived and had the worst dark circles.  I pray very hard that Avery keeps up the great sleeping and that it only gets better.
There are 2 things that I was completely naive about and didn't give 2 thoughts about while pregnant....Infant sleep and recovery "down there".  Both things knocked me for a major loop.  I'm so glad both are behind us. knock on wood

Our Summer Music Class with Musikgarten!

8 Months 4 Weeks

We started our summer music class and we love it! We get to hang out with other mommies and babies which is also a big plus.

It's with Muskikgarten and I recommend you search to see if they have classes in your area.  We meet once a week for 45 minutes.  We also get a CD of all the music we are learning along with a shaker, a scarf and two sticks for banging.

Despite this serious face, she loves it and crawls all around looking for new friends to find.

LL acts like she's never seen other mommies and babies because she crawls up to each one squealing and laughing at them.  On the first day of class, she crawled right up into the instructor's lap and sat there for quite a long time.  I don't have a shy one.

Guess What????

8 Months 4 Weeks

LL slept for 10 hours STRAIGHT last night.  Yes, you are looking at the sweet face of a girl who is well rested with 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep... in her crib... all by herself.

"Yep i did it, Momma!  Slept 10 hours straight in my own crib!"

We are in complete shock.  This is the first time she has slept the entire night.  I went in her room around 1:30 am to check on her and she was sound asleep with her head facing the opposite end of where we put her.  Who knows, she may have woken up and played a little in her crib, but she never cried out.  I'm still shaking my head.

Bike Riding!

8 Month 3 Weeks

We found a bike in the street last weekend with a sign on it that says..."FREE TO GOOD HOME".  We'll take it!  A Schwinn bike in great condition.  So, then we went searching on craislist for a bike seat for LL.

We found a Topeak Bike Seat in great condition.  Here's daddy putting the bike seat on while LL supervises.

I thought she would be scared, but she was excited to ride.

Then we had to find a helmet.  It's just a tad too big, but I'm sure she'll grow into it in no time.

We've been out riding as a family and it's so fun.  Daddy has been the only one riding with LL but I'd like to try so we can go out riding when he's at work.  For some reason I have this crazy idea that I'll fall with her.

Swimming Classes: Sharks and Minnows

8 Months 2 Weeks

LL started her Sharks & Minnows class this week and it was awesome! She seemed to love it. I'm excited about what all she is going to learn.  It's nice because the class max size is 4.  It was daddy's turn to go in with her, but next week I get to swim with her.

LL is the youngest by far which surprises me.

The instructor taught us how to get out of the pool and how to walk down the side of the pool.  She used this duck as an incentive to get out of the pool.

And of course, we kicked our way down to the end of the pool.

Here we are walking down the side of the pool using our hands.

We meet 2x a week and during our next visit we'll be going all the way under! Yikes!





I also got her these reusable swim diapers! I like them...they have elastic around the leg opening and have velcro and a tie for a nice snug fit!

My Surprise Birthday Party

Momma turned 40 this weekend and Daddy decided to throw her a surprise party!  I cannot BELIEVE I'm 40....dang!  How did that happen??? 

Bryan had everyone down in the clubhouse with the lights off!

Here we are strolling up.  I thought we were coming to hang out at the pool with our other friends Ty and Laura!  I had no idea everyone was inside hiding.

My surprise as I walked into the clubhouse.

So overwhelmed to see my family!

Everyone hanging out.

Mom and Dad!

Me and Ansley, my youngest niece. Of course my mom had to also get a gift for Avery!

Me and all my teacher friends!  I was a Kindergarten teacher once upon a time!

This kiddie pool was AMAZING!  My friend Crissi found it t Target for 5$.  I am definitely going and getting one for Avery.

Avery having fun in her floaty!

It was such a fun day.  I was completely surprised....I can't believe Bryan pulled this off without me finding out!

First Time In A Shopping Cart

8 Months 1 Week

This was the first time I put LL in a shopping cart.....AND SHE LOVED IT!  She squealed and squealed the entire way through the store.  I was debating on getting one of those shopping cart covers, but I thought it would be one more thing to worry about.  So, I just wiped the entire cart down with anti-bacterial wipes about a bazillion times (so glad my store conveniently provides those right by the carts) and we were on on our way.  I didn't have my phone in the store or I would have gotten some pretty good shots of her squealing.

8 Months Today...7 Month Low Down!

Today is LL's 8 Month Birthday --Here's Her 7 Month Low Down 

Bedtime: Between 7:30 & 8:00 pm. We were putting her down at 7:00 pm but she was waking up after about an hour and was getting harder to get her back to sleep. 

Wake-Up: Anytime between 5:00am -6:30am

Naps: For the most part, LL is taking 3 naps.  One around 9:00, then again around 11:00-12:00 and the last one around 2:00-3:00.  Some days they are 30 min. and some days they are 1 1/2hours.  

Bottles: LL is strictly a bottle girl, now.  No more nursing.  She never drinks more than 4oz at a time and I try to feed her every 3-4 hours.  I'm amazed when I read about other babies drinking 6 & 7oz at a time.  I wish she would, I think maybe she would sleep better.

Nursing: NO MORE.  I really think LL weaned herself from me, rather than the other way around.  She was so ready to move on. 

Foods: She's not really interested in eating solids.  I mean she will take a couple bites but then turn her face.  I'm not sure if it's her teeth or what.  I'm actually tired of trying to figure it out.  She's just not a big eater.

New foods this month: yogurt...Chiobani Greek Very Berry Yogurt for children.  She loves it.

Night Time: Guess what??? This month of sleeping has been horrible.  Surprised?  Me neither.  Some nights she slept til 3:30am then til 6:30am.  Other nights (most nights) she was up 4 times.  Again, there is no consistency.  We have always had a diligent nighttime routine with her...and I guess we'll keep up the routine.

Developmental Milestones & Firsts:  Let's see... so much has happened for LL this month.

1.) Pulling up and standing
2.) second bottom tooth
3.) sitting up/playing sitting up
4.) babbling consonants 
5.) stopped nursing
6.) sleeping without sleep suit

Momma's Mental State: I'm feeling the same mentally as last month.  Tired and worn out.