11 Months Today...10 Month Low Down

Today is LL's 11 Month Birthday --Here's Her 10 Month Low Down 

Bedtime:
She is in the bath tub around 6:30 and asleep by 7:00.

Wake-Up:
Sleeping til 6:00-6:30

Naps:
We're still taking 2 naps a day.  The first one is around 8:00-8:30 and it last about an hour.  Her 2nd is between 1:00-2:00 and is usually around 1 1/2 hours. I also have been putting her down awake and she goes to sleep after about 15-20 minutes. 

Bottles:
She is now getting 4 bottles a day.  She is becoming less interested in her bottles and the amount she is drinking.  I always make 5oz. but she rarely drinks it all.  She is eating more solid food and it may be because of all the solid food she is eating.

Foods:

Her appetite has gotten much bigger.  She eats 3 average size meals a day along with 2 snacks.  She is still getting Stage 3 foods along with cut up fruits.  Texture is no longer an issue for her so she is trying and liking more foods.  We still have not introduced meat or cheese. 

New foods this month:

cut up bananas, and she LOVES the strawberry/banana smoothie from Smoothie King

Night Time:
It is so very nice knowing that when we put her down at night we know she's sleeping till the morning.  Stress level is gone.  Bryan and I are even going out more now.  We feel more comfortable knowing Avery won't wake up when a babysitter is here. 

Developmental Milestones & Firsts:
Nothing new to report this month.  In fact, it's been showing in the lack of blog entries.  Avery is going to look back at this month and ask why nothing was entered during her 10th month.  It really is because nothing new has happened.  No new teeth, still cruising the walls and furniture.  She did take a few steps and balance on her own.  But nothing major.  I will say that she is playing better on her own....throwing objects and going to find them, pushing toys around, dancing more to music.  She is also babbling more non-stop.

As you can see, it's becoming more and more difficult for Avery to stay still for her monthly pictures.  As soon as we put her on the chair, she immediately starts moving, wiggling and she reaches out for me.  *Sigh* this is definitely the beginning of me chasing her around and around.  I can tell her 2nd year is going to be full throttle forward.  

10 Months Today...9 Month Low Down!

Today is LL's 10 Month Birthday --Here's Her 9 Month Low Down 

Bedtime:
Between 7:00 and 7:30 pm. Her 2nd nap ends around 3:30 so she's more than ready to go down around 7:00.

Wake-Up:
Sleeping til 6:00-6:30

Naps: We're taking 2 naps a day.  The first one is around 8:00-8:30 and it last about an hour.  Her 2nd is around 2:00 and is usually around 1 1/2 hours.  I can finally say she's on a sleeping schedule because her night-time is so predictable now.

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.

Foods:
Avery doesn't eat much in the way of breakfast or lunch, but will chow down at dinner.  Doc said it's ok since she's getting the majority of her calories from formula now.  She has really been digging cut-up cherries, peaches, bananas, nectarines, and grapes.  She'll eat the pureed sweet potatoes & squash but no other veggie.  We're back to eating Chiobani yogurt the Honey-Nana flavor and she luuuuuvs  it.

New foods this month:
Cut-up cherries, grapes, peaches, nectarines

Night Time:
OH, GOOD LORD....Avery is sleeping ALL NIGHT LONG.  I have died and gone to heaven.  When she goes down at 7:00 she stays in her crib and sleeps til 6:00am.  We no longer feed her a bottle at 9:00.  If she does happen to cry out, we wait for about 5 minutes before going in.  Most of the time she goes back to sleep on her own before the 5 minutes is up.  If we do go in, we just put her pacifier back in, lie her down and back to sleep she goes.  It truly is the best thing in the whole world.  We feel like we've got control of our lives back.   

Developmental Milestones & Firsts:
We got our top 2 front teeth and 2 new bottom teeth this month.  She's calling for daddy when he walks in..."dada" and crawls for him.  It's so cute.  She says bye-bye and waves her hand up and down, "buh-buh".  She's also learned to click her tongue...which is so adorable because it's the first thing she does when I pick her up from her crib in the morning.  She's still cruising around walls and furniture a lot.  I pray she doesn't walk for at least 2 more months.

Momma's Mental State:
Momma is feeling so great!  Baby has been sleeping so great at night and it makes all of our lives so much better.  LL is happier during the day and so are we.  Now, we're actually planning an "out of town trip" with just Bryan and myself.  It will be our first time away from our sweets but I think we need it.  Let's hope we can pull it off.

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

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.  

7 Months...6 Month Low Down

Yesterday was LL's 7 Month Birthday --Here's Her 6 Month Low Down

Bedtime: between 7:00-7:30.  We moved her time back to her original bedtime.  We are so confused as parents.  We are forever going back and forth and experimenting with poor LL.  The bottom line...at this point in the day, she is tired and needs to go to bed at 7:00!

Wake-Up: Anytime between 6:00am and 7:30.  She is so all over the place.  There has never been consistency to anything LL does.

Naps: For the most part, LL is still taking 4 naps.  Depends on when she first gets up in the morning.  But I can see how she is trying to transition down to 3 naps.  Her first morning nap has become a long one...around 1 1/2 hours. Her last nap is around 3-3:30.  I won't let her take another one after that.

**On a side note:  We have been putting LL down in her crib while she is still awake for all naps and bedtime.  We stand over her crib and pat her stomach and hum and she goes to sleep on her own.
Sometimes it easier than other days, but she's getting the idea.  The goal is to just put her down and leave her to fall asleep solo.  I'm so jealous of moms who can do this with their babes.  We're hoping this will help with nighttime wakings and longer stretches of sleep.

Bottles: LL has been getting more bottles per day.  I would say around  4-5. I still pump a lot just to keep my milk supply up.  But for some reason, my left boob decided to become lazy and stop making any milk.  It all happened when LL was sick a couple weeks ago and stopped nursing/eating.  I should of pumped more then, but I didn't.  Now I know!

Nursing:  LL nurses about 2-3 times a day.  One time in the 3am area and the other first time in the am.  

Foods: LL JUST started eating 3 times a day.  I was only giving her solids in the am and pm, but she's been looking at the high chair in the middle of the afternoon and whining. 

New foods this month:  potatoes, cherries, apricots, pineapple, puffs.  I'm considering incorporating soy yogurt.  Anyone else try this?

Night Time: This month of sleeping has been horrible.  Back to square one with her.  I have officially given up on trying to figure her sleeping out.  She is back to waking up 45 min into her nighttime sleep and back up again around 11:30...sometime up at 1:30 or 3:00am or exactly 4:20 am and then up for the day between 6- 7:30.  There is absolutely ZERO consistency to LL's sleep.  Drives me bananas.

Developmental Milestones & Firsts:  Still scooting and army crawling all over the place!  We did buy her "cage" so that I would feel better about letting her crawl around without constantly looking at her.  She likes it for the most part.

LL is almost sitting up...she's been practicing using her kickstand also known as her tripod stance. She's almost gotten all the way to sitting position, then she does a face plant into the ground. ouch.

LL also got her first tooth!  Her lower right one came in about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  We are anxiously waiting for the 2nd one to pop up.  She's drooling and biting down on everything.

Favorite Toys:

Momma's Mental State:  Back to feeling tired and run day all day everyday.  It's getting very old.  Just when I feel like I get caught up on sleep, LL has a horrible night and here I am back to feeling like poo.  I keep telling myself that it won't last forever...but it very hard to be a good mom when you're tired all the time. 

6 Months Today...5 Month Low Down

Today is LL's 6 Month Birthday --Here's Her 5 Month Low Down

Bedtime: between 7:30 and 8:00.  We moved it..for some reason she likes this time better and sleeps longer.

Wake-Up: Usually around 6:30 but lately sleeping to 7:00.  I'll take it!

Naps: LL takes 4 naps a day.  The first 2 in the am are over an hour sometimes an 1 1/2 hours.  The 2 in the afternoon are shorter...about 40 minutes...one because she's usually in the bjorn napping. Her last nap is around 3:30/4:00 and it goes about 40 minutes. 

Bottles: LL gets 2 bottles a day.  The first one at 6:30pm (4oz of Isomil) and the 2nd one around 9:30 (4oz Isomil) for her dreamfeed.  We do not mix the breast and the formula together anymore she likes it by itself now. yay.

Nursing:  LL nurses about 5 times a day.  Right when she wakes up, between 6-7...then again around 9:30am, 12ish, 3ish then again sometime in the 3am area or when she wakes up at night.  I pump around 7:00pm.  It's amazing how your body will adjust to the supply and demand of your baby.

Foods: She eats 2x a day.  The first time is after her first nap around 9:00ish.  She usually eats 1/2 container of a fruit and a 1/2 vegetable. Then she eats dinner around 5:00ish...this time she usually eats 2 full containers.  Our ped said to start incorporating lunch sometime after her 6 month birthday.

New foods this month:  Peaches and Green Beans

Night Time: The night time sleep has been soooo much better.  We put her down around 7:30 and she sleeps all the way to 2-3am!!  So nice.  She no longer wakes up about 45 minutes after putting her to sleep which is also nice. After her 2-3am feeding, she sleeps till 6:30ish.  One thing we did differently is we blacked out her windows so it is completely dark in her room.  It has also helped with longer naps.  I also think the formula before bed helps her sleep longer, too.

Developmental Milestones & Firsts: LL is ALL OVER her play area.  I am constantly getting up to move her back to her "safe area".  I'm thinking of buying a gate type area.  I am currently looking at this...

I would purchase 2 of these to make the play area larger!  Seems cruel after looking at the poor girl alone in the picture with no toys or anything....but I would make it like a mini Disney World in there.

LL is not sitting up by herself, but when I sit her up she will stay and balance for about 3 seconds.

When on the floor on her tummy she will scoot both legs under her belly and lift her body up and rock back and forth...which I think is the beginning of a crawl which scares the sh!t out of me.  She has also just started to do the army crawl or the "low crawl" as my dad calls it where she scoots across the floor using her elbows.

She also rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls all around.

Favorite Toys: We bought LL this Baby Einstein Mozart DVD when she was 4 months old but she did not become interested in it until recently.  She LOVES it! 

Momma's Mental State: I'm feeling really good lately.  I'm taking LL out and about everyday!  I just put her in the Bjorn and off we go.  We usually wait until after her first 2 naps.  When she gets tired, I turn her around in the Bjorn facing me, put a blanket over her head, give her her pacifier and say "night-night" and she goes right to sleep.  Love it!  I should have done this from about 4 months on...but I was so scared to leave the house.  With my next babes, I know I'll be in a better state of mind plus not so freakin scared all the time.

I finally feel recovered "down there"!  I can walk 20 feet now without feeling like I need to tee-tee all over myself.  Sorry if TMI but recovering down there was NOT fun.  I really thought it would be like that forever.

****On a side note....went to my first consignment sale called Sweet Repeats last night and bought LL some fun new toys! I'll post on those next week.

Weekly Wrap-Up: 5 Months 2 Weeks

SLEEPING: Well....the first part of the week was just horrible.  LL was up and down all Saturday-Monday nights.  No particular times...just random times.  BUT...Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (last night) LL woke up ONE time at 3:30am and then slept till 6:45!!!!  Makes me me feel like I can run a  feakin marathon.
--Naps:  LL's naps are the same.  About 4 naps a day each about 45 minutes long.

EATING:  No new foods were introduced this week because LL had a reaction to the carrots she ate...at least I think it was the carrots.  She developed two red patches on her face a day after eating the carrots so just to be safe, I cut them out for now and did not start any new food.

LL has become a very efficient solid food eater.  No more waiting for her to figure out or process what to do with the food in her mouth....she swallows it right up and opens her mouth for more.

PLAYING: LL is still playing for long periods of time on her mat. She got a few new hanging toys from Target and I finally pulled out this Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes...which she loves and now really appreciates.

She's also still loving her Bounce-a-Bout a lot more too. It's like Pilates for babies.   She can stand and play in it for longer periods of time.

MOMMA'S MENTAL STATE:  Today I'm feeling FANTASTIC!  It's amazing how sleep can change your entire perspective.  Yesterday and the days before, not so much.  I was tired and feeling very BLAH.  We are headed out this weekend for MeMe and PawPaw's house and we are super excited.

Weekly Wrap -Up -- 5 Months 1 Week

SLEEPING:  She had  her shots Monday and everything has been off.  What has stayed consistent is her 1:45am wake up call.  Not kidding...to the minute....every night this week. 

EATING: We added squash and carrots to the mix.  She LOVES squash and only just likes carrots.

PLAYING: This week, she played for longer periods on her play mat all by herself.  She did a lot of push-ups...

 ...and a lot of crunches.  Every time I put her down on her back, she immediately goes into a stomach crunch.  She wants to sit up so bad.

LL's new favorite toy is this Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Puppy that her Nonna gave her for Christmas.  It sings and talks to her when she pushes certain parts of it.

LL's new thing is staring out the door.  We live in a condo and the door she is staring out of backs up to a somewhat busy street.  She will lie there and stare outside for what seems like forever...but in reality... about 10 minutes.  Not sure if she likes the sound of the cars or just staring up at the trees.  Check her out below...just chillin in the bottom of the picture.

MOMMA'S MENTAL STATE: This week in general has been pretty stable.  But, last night was challenging so I'm feeling sleep deprived and very crabby.  It took almost 2 hours to get LL to sleep....very uncharacteristic of her...she normal goes right to sleep.

5 Months Today...The 4 Month Low Down

I got this great idea from Beach Bum & Baby so I thought I would update LL's monthly happenings this way as well.  I added "Momma's Mental State" to the list because that changes just as much as LL does. haha

Today is LL's 5 Month Birthday -- 4 Month Low Down

Bedtime: between 6:30 and 7:00

Wake-Up: Usually around 6:30

Naps: LL takes 4 naps a day...each one around 45 minutes.  Lately, they have been going a little longer and  she misses some of the 4 o'clock naps  She may be transitioning to 2 naps a day.  When she does miss the last nap, we move night-night time earlier. 

Bottles: I just started to give LL a bottle for her 6 o'clock meal and her dream-feed meal at 9:00pm.  For those bottles I mix part formula/ part breast milk.  We're using the soy formula.   Each of those bottles are 4-5 oz. equal parts formula/breast.  I started doing this b/c 1.) my supply was really low in the late afternoon and 2.) I'm trying to get her used to the taste of formula.  She WILL NOT drink it by itself.

She nurses/bottle about 6 times a day about 4 hours b/w each feeding 5-6am, 9-10, 1-2pm, 5-6, 9-10, 1-2am

Night Time:  I read somewhere that at this age sleeping through the night was about 5-6 hours straight.  LL has done that on occasion.  But we are still very inconsistent with sleep at night.  She'll have 2 great nights of sleeping...then BOOM....back up every 2 hours.  Gotta love it. :)

Foods: She loves food!  We stopped the rice cereal and are now just sticking with Prunes, Pears, Apples, Bananas.  That may seem early, but the girl was literally grabbing at B and I's forks during dinner.

Developmental Milestones & Firsts: Rolling over both ways (she was just rolling from back to stomach but recently started rolling from her stomach to her back), eating, scoots around play mat, while on her stomach she pushes up with her forearms and stays there longer, plays & entertains herself longer.



Favorite Books: She LOVES books!  Hello, Baby! By Mem Fox,   Hooray For You By: Marianne Richmond ,  Goodnight Moon By: Margaret Wise Brown

Favorite Songs: Bryan and I both made up songs for her that we sing to her all the time.  They're both name songs. 

Favorite Toys:  Bright Starts Bounce-a-Bout, Sophie, Bright Starts Tug Tune Pig.
She loves any of those hanging toys that are normally clipped on to car seats, etc.  Her fav is the pig.  You can see it hanging on her Bounce-a-Bout below.

Momma's Mental State: I finally feeling like I'm pulling my head out of the sand.  My hormones seems to be under control.  I had no idea it would be that bad.  I heard it's just as bad when you stop breastfeeding.  Great.

I'm feeling more confident about taking LL out and about.  Before, I was having these strange visions of me dropping her or something totally irrational.

Believe it or not, I still feel like I'm recovering from having her...yes, I mean "down there".  How come no one talks about how traumatizing that is?