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.

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!

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.  

High Chair!

6 Months 4 Weeks

 

We finally bought a highchair for LL this past weekend.  The bouncy seat just wasn't cutting it anymore.  Besides, she needs to learn to eat sitting up.  And I want her to start practicing picking up her food.  We also introduced Puffs.

Speaking of Puffs, I have only heard of this finger food through other blogs.  I went to babies r us and found the ones below.  Are these the right ones?  They seem really too big  for her mouth.  I keep thinking she is going to choke on them.   I tried them and they do dissolve rather quickly, but I'm still a Nervous Nelly!

She loves her sippy cup!  At dinner, we've started putting her milk in her cup so we can all sit as a family at the table!

It's so fun to see her practice with the Puffs.  It's hard work getting those things in the mouth!

We settled on this Eddie Baur high chair.  I wasn't too concerned with the padding OR the reclining action of the other chairs.  Besides, this is the kind we all grew up in...except I think mine was a metal frame.

Our First Case Of The Sickies

6 Months 2 Weeks

LL has been sick since Monday.  My guess is that it's a good ole fashion cold.  She woke up extra early Monday morning and was snorting and so grumpy.  It was the first time I got to use the Nose Frieda.  It initially worked the first few days, but now that the snot seems to be multiplying...it's harder to get out. 

Bryan had to leave town Monday morning for work so LL and I packed up and went to MeMe and PawPaw's house to stay for a few days.  I got ZERO sleep because LL was up every 2 hours.  It's so not her fault and she's so pathetic when she's sick.  We pulled out her Rock N Play again so she could sleep in an incline.  Seems to working.

We've also pulled out her Frog Humidifier that was gifted to us from Bryan's Uncle D and Aunt M.  It's like walking into a Rainforest when I walk into her room. 
 

On top of all of that....I got the sickies too.  Yuck.  Very sore throat and all over body ache.  Bryan got home last night, so I took my NyQuil and went to sleep early.  If you have any suggestions for relieving congestion for babies, please do tell.

Weekly Wrap-Up: 6 Months 1 Week

SLEEPING: Were back to crappy sleeping this week.  Waking up at 11:00pm, 4:00am...blah, blah,blah.  Last night LL woke up at 4am and I heard her let out this big SQUEAL...like she usually does at 7:00ish in the morning when she wakes up.  I was all like "Oh no, she did NOT just do that!"  and Bryan was like "yup."  I went to get her, brought her back to our bedroom, tried to nurse her but she just wanted to play...(lately she is so curious about everything around her she wants to see EVERYTHING)  So I laid her down in the middle of our bed facing away from us and guess what.....after about 10 minutes of playing with her paci....passing it back and forth between her hands....she fell asleep.  I hope it's the prankster in her pulling an April Fool's joke on us.
**I should note that flameless candles are so great in the middle of the night with baby.  They are portable and put off just the right amount of light.  I just carry it with me to the bed and if it's too bright, I just cover it up with the covers.

EATING:  We re-introduced carrots into mealtime yesterday.  Plus, I pulled out the Beaba and used it for the first time.

That thing rocks!  I made Butternut Squash and Apples and she loved it. Not sure I care for the Beaba sillicone multi-portion trays.  One was gifted to us and we need about 3 more, but I'm not crazy about the price.

I also started giving LL 1 veggie at lunch time. So now she's up to 3 meals a day.  I'm getting kind of nervous because she is starting to become uninterested in nursing.  I have to research that to see if that is normal or not.

PLAYING:  SCOOTing and ROLLing  everywhere.  I ordered that cage for her.  IGriza suggested this cool cage.  but we had already ordered the one from Wal-mart. 

LL is also WAY more curious about her surroundings.  Stops and looks at everything and just stares and stares at it.  SOUNDS...she loves sounds.  She noticed an airplane up in the sky last week.  She looked at the plane, then me...then the plane again, then me.  I was like "yup, crazy how those things can fly, right?


She also can't stop staring at her right hand.  She first discovered her hand when she was about 2 months and  now the fascination is back.  She looks at it, turns it around, looks some more...practices pulling it to her mouth and back again.  Maybe she's practicing getting ready to eat.



MOMMA'S MENTAL STATE: I'm too tired to talk about my mental state.  Actually, I feel pretty good. I guess my mind and body are getting used to this baby thing and adjusting accordingly.  When I first had LL I didn't think I could handle another newborn/infant again.  But now, I definitely know I can.  I'm not gonna lie, the adjustment to LL was the hardest part for me.  Even though it took us 5 years to have her, and wanting her so badly, it was kind of like someone threw a bucket of cold water in my face and said..."Here's your baby".  BUT, now after my hormones have calmed down, and I'm getting used to this routine of ours, I wouldn't change a thing.  She has been the BEST addition to our lives and it just keeps getting better!

Raining, Raining, Raining!

6 Months 1 Week

It has been raining here in our neck of the woods for 3 days straight!  We need it for sure, so I'm not complaining but it is hard to get LL out and about in this. You can even see a tree limb down in the picture and the power was off last night for about an hour.  Soooo.... we have been busy cleaning out her drawers....goodbye 0-3 months and 3-6 months clothes.

 We divided short sleeve outfits, long sleeve outfits, onsies and pants according to size in hopes that when we go looking for them...it won't be a hassle.  Kind of sad to see them go.

We also put together LL's new umbrella stroller.  LOVE it.  So light.  I can carry her and the stroller up the stairs at one time.  It's the Conours Kolcraft in Tangelo.

We even managed to take a walk in between the rain!

"Guess what?? I love this new stroller, too"

LL's first pool time experience will be this weekend!  So excited to get her reaction.  I also ordered that Swimways Baby Float from Walmart.com.  I hope it gets her before then.  Wal-Mart is pretty darn fast with shipping so I'm anticipating it any day now.

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.

Weekend at MeMe and PawPaws

5 Month 3 Weeks

We had such a good time at MeMe and PawPaw's house this weekend.  We also got to visit with Great Granny Polly.  She loves to sing "You Are My Sunshine" to LL and LL just laughs and laughs during the song.

We went to the church I grew up in and also where LL will be baptized in a few weeks. We wanted her to see the inside and get familiar with it so we have no freak-outs the morning of.  The cuteness beside us is my fab niece Ansley-Sarah.

Out of all the fun toys that MeMe has to play with, LL wanted to play with this homemade one the most...it's a Gladware with 4 wine corks in it.

I bet if we painted the corks a bight color she would be even more excited with it.

We also pulled out LL's Beaba 3-Stage Training Cup that was gifted to us from Bryan's Cousin J.  She's also the one that gifted us the Beaba BabyCook maker.  She loves this cup.  We put a little water in it and she sits there during dinnertime happy as a lamb.

"One handed, Momma"

"I'm a big girl now, Momma"

We also tried peas for the first time.....it was NOT a hit.  LL put up with it for about 4 bites and eventually kind of turned her head when the spoon came towards her mouth. haha

"Ummm...no."

And we took lots of walks around the nearest lake which LL loves to do.  Anything in the stroller is considered "Happy Hour" to her.

"Nothing better than outside in the stroller"