Lucy 24 Month Update

Wow - it has been a long time since I have done an update on Lucy! She has changed so much in the past 4 months, I'll try to capture as much as possible here!

Stats:
Weight: 32.1 pounds (97%)
Height: 36.2 pounds (96%)
*Doctor said she is the average height of a 3 year old, which makes sense because all she wears is 3T and some 4T clothes
Sleep: This is currently back to normal (8pm-8am nights, one 2 hour nap around 1pm) but we had about a month when Lucy was skipping her nap (staying in her room the whole time talking) and/or staying up for and hour or two after we put her to bed talking. This was a tough time for me because I knew Lucy needed sleep (I could tell by her temperament during the day) but Lucy just kept fighting sleep. I'm not going to lie, this crazy sleep schedule stressed me out a little, I was definitely not ready for Lucy to give up her nap but luckily I had read about a lot of kids doing this at two years old, so we continued to stick with the schedule we thought she needed and she eventually got over her sleep funk (at least I'm hoping we are done with it!)

*side note, the day that I wrote this Lucy actually decided not to nap, I went up after an hour because she had started to cry which is weird for her and I discovered she had pooped (which I was thankful for bc we are having poop issues) but she had gotten it all over her sheets, blankets, 4 pillow cases, the wall, up her back, on her arms and legs... let's just say I spent the rest of the day cleaning and disinfecting.

Temperament: Lucy continues to be an extremely sweet toddler. She definitely has her moments, or sometime weeks, where she seems to be in full-swing toddler mode, but for the most part she seems to be a pretty easy going toddler. Our hardest moments are when Lucy is over tired and I want/need her to do something that she doesn't want to do. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this! Months 20-22 seemed to be a breeze and I thought maybe we had skipped over the whole terrible twos, but around the time we started potty training I saw the real toddler come out! I think potty training, bad sleep, and a momma who just didn't know how to manage a toddler led to several crazy weeks. We are through that time (although I'm sure we'll go through another phase soon) - I think a lot had to do with Lucy's bad sleep schedule and my needing to get a little more creative with my parenting (finding ways to make going potty fun instead of just forcing it, for example).

Eating: Lucy is a great eater and continues to love food - her appetite and palette continue to amaze me. I can't help but smile when she requests baby trees (broccoli) and hummus for lunch, this girl seriously eats better than her daddy!

Potty Training: I think I need to do a separate post with an update on this because it has been a major roller coaster, but I'll do a quick summary here - after about two weeks of great potty success it seemed things started back tracking with Lucy refusing to go to the bathroom and having lots of accidents... boy was I overwhelmed! W pushed through this, and Lucy seems to be doing pretty well with going pee on the potty now only having accidents every once in a while. A couple things I learned - I have to be creative with getting her to the bathroom most of the time, I need to remind her to go, especially if people are over, and a lot of times it is just easier to leave her naked if we are alone at home so I don't have to stress about helping her as much. Poop has been a challenge (she likes going in the potty, but keeps forgetting to stop playing to go) and we are currently working with the doctor to figure out how to keep Lucy regular by using Miralax... this has been awful for me to work through, and I've just been praying that she understands the importance of pooping on a regular basis soon.

Discipline: This is something I've been trying to read up on, ask friends about, talked to the doctor about, etc... It's tricky to know the best way to approach disciplining a toddler when you've never done it before! I've played around with a couple different approaches, but currently I am using time out as a last resort (for major offenses like hitting, running in the street, etc.) and trying to use options or "breaks" for the minor offenses (she likes and sometimes needs to take breaks in her room, which she loves because it's the only place she is allowed to have her pacis). I sometimes have to walk her through what I want her to be doing, but typically she is willing to go along with my requests. I have found ignoring unpleasant behaviors, being consistent in my discipline, and staying true to my word all to be important in parenting Lucy. I still need to continue learning about this and adapting as Lucy gets older, but for right now this seems to work for our family.

This girl continues to amaze me every day! She can count to 13 (this is the number of steps we have, which we count every time we go up and down), she knows most of her colors and major shapes, she can sing her ABC's (for the most part) and lots of other songs, she runs, jumps, kicks throws and climbs anything she can. She uses complete sentences most of the time (from what her sunday school teachers say she's very verbal and very independent!), I'm not sure there is a word she won't at least attempt to use (today while we were reading Hop on Pop she repeated back to me "Constantinople and Timbuktu"... it was pretty cute). She makes me laugh several times per day with the stuff she says or does - just the way she says stuff is adorable, everything she says is usually accompanied with a "momma" - i.e. "no mama, yes mama, read books mama?", she also loves to says things in exclamation (imagine the way Oprah welcomes people, literally) and shakes her hips back and forth - i.e. "We're going to the PARK-Y!!!", "I want PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY!!!", she also loves to make silly faces and look at her reflection while doing it... I think she's starting to realize just how cute she is. She's adorable, I wish I could remember more of the specific things she does... hopefully I'll write more in the future!

Lucy loves going to church, going to either of her grandparents house, going to the park, going on walks, playing with her baby dolls, doing puzzles, playing with blocks, playing in sand/water/noodles (or whatever thing I let her get into), playing with play dough, coloring, dancing/music, watching anything on TV or playing with my phone/computer (although I still really try to limit this, I don't like it to be a daily habit, not yet anyway!), reading books, her pacis (these are limited to the bed, but this girl would seriously want to have a pacifier in all day if we would let her!), and best of all snuggling!

We have had lots of play dates lately, but Lucy still seems to play pretty independently (I don't notice that she is super interactive with other kids unless it is fighting over toys, although sometimes she'll want to give hugs and hold hands with other kids). She has definitely become more possessive with toys and we have been working on playing nicely with others lately! Her favorite playmates are JJ, Jordyn and "Drew-Erin", I think because she gets to see them the most. She also loves all of my girlfriends who don't have kids yet and come over and shower her with love and attention. She's super outgoing and loves when people come over or when we go to visit people. She's also been getting better at playing independently at home for longer periods of time - very nice for Momma and Hank!

These last couple pictures make me crack up laughing. Lucy always wants to look at the pictures I take so I took her downstairs so we could upload them to the computer. She asked for some of mommy's coffee so I gave her a coffee mug with water in it. When I stepped back to look at her I couldn't help but snag a few more pictures because she looked hilarious - like a little business woman sitting at a meeting...




Look at all that hair!! Still business on the top, but major party in the back..

Hank 4 Month Update

Stats
Weight - 16 pounds 5 ounces (68%)
Height - 26.5 inches (95%)

This little guy is seriously a dream. He is so happy, he sleeps a ton, he eats great, he rarely cries... What a difference a couple months can make! I'm not sure what exactly has made him so great, but I think it's a combination of things:

1. He just is that way - after going through two extremely different newborn phases but parenting the exact same, I'm realizing that there are a lot of things out of your control as a parent. A lot of times the kid is who he/she is.

2. I'm a second time momma - I seriously have loved being a mom the second time around, and honestly it makes me excited to have a third kid some day (if we are so lucky) because by that time I think I'll really be a pro. I'm just not the type of person who likes new experiences, I hate the unknown. This time around stuff just doesn't stress me out as much, I'm much more accepting of the fact that everything really is just a phase and everything will pass!

3. I'm very strict about nap times! I know this may sounds silly, but I really think a well rested baby is a happy baby. And I totally notice a difference in Hank when we have a busy day out and he isn't able to nap as well.

This past month Hank was taking three 1.5-3 hour naps (usually they are around 2 hours) every day. He is a great sleeper, putting himself to sleep and staying asleep almost every time (still sleeping on his belly, sucking his thumb). If he wakes early from a nap it is almost always because he has a poop, which unfortunately seems to happen a lot! This past month I'm pretty sure Hank went through 3 sicknesses and a growth spurt, which all meant lots of poop (sometimes very green poop) and lots of changes in the schedule, but here is what a "typical" day looked like...

7:30/8am Wake and Eat
9-11am Nap
11am Wake and Eat, Playtime
12:30-2:30(ish) Nap
2:30-4pm Wake and Eat, Playtime
4-5:30(ish) Nap
5:30-7pm Wake and Eat, Playtime
7pm Bedtime (I try to sneak in an extra feeding here. I had been doing a dream feed at 9:30pm, but it didn't seem to help Hank sleep longer, so I stopped doing it, but it felt weird to have Hank's last feeding at 5:30, so the last two feedings are close together).
3 or 4am Night feeding

Hank has been doing 8-9 hour stretches at night, which felt AMAZING to me, but the doctor said given his size he could definitely do 12 hour stretches so I should push him to go a little longer at night. We'll probably work on this over the next couple weeks. His last nap is definitely starting to get shorter, and he is starting to be able to go longer between naps, but it still definitely feels like he is sleeping most of the day!

When he's not sleeping, Hank's little personality is starting to show. As I mentioned, he is super low key and extremely happy (as long as he has napped well!) He smiles and coos a ton, and I've been able to get him to laugh more and more. He loves squealing/screaming, grabbing on to anything in his reach (this is unfortunate when my hair happens to be near his hand) and blowing raspberries. I've also noticed a new found love for his sister. Hank now loves to watch whatever Lucy is doing and she often makes him smile.

He rolls over, belly to back a lot (typically in his crib when he is not wanting to go to sleep) but we have not seen him roll back to belly yet. He squirms around a lot, and can definitely turn in a full circle and move forward a bit while wiggling. He also has gotten pretty good at sitting upright although he definitely can't do it on his own, but he's getting close!

On the go - Hank still doesn't love to sleep in his car seat. If he is in it long enough he will eventually fall asleep, but he protests a lot and won't sleep that long. If we are out (which does not happen a lot) I usually try to carry Hank in the moby wrap still - he usually will sleep pretty well in that, although he is starting to get more and more picky about where he will fall asleep.


The crib shots were a little hard to get - Hank has a tendency to lean forward when he is sitting up right, as you can tell from the next series of photos...





woops! maybe I should have put my camera down and grabbed my son...

And teddy didn't stand a chance...


Anything in this boys reach goes right in his mouth


Unless of course his thumb makes it there first...


I've taken way too many photos so I think I'll end here without a comparison shot of Lucy, but let's just say they are still twinsies.

Hank - 1 Month

So this post is long over due, but I have a feeling this blog is going to be put on the back burner for a while from here on out. It is important to me to document these precious days though, so slowly, but surely I'll get things posted!

Hank is now 1 month old! This past month has been a whirlwind! We've been lacking sleep around here and have been running around celebrating Christmas and New Years - I'm looking forward to a calm January (and hopefully a calmer baby!)

I can't think of one way to sum up this past month, almost every day has been different! I guess that's what newborns are known for though. Some days I've felt like this whole two kid thing is impossible and I want to lock myself in a closet and cry - the days when Hank won't stop crying, won't let me put him down, the house is trashed, my body feels like crap, and I feel exhausted from not sleeping. Fortunately every day is not like that! And fortunately I have a husband that comes home to relieve me, family and friends that provide meals and company to keep us sane, a toddler who is very sweet and lovable and easy going, and I've been getting to see more and more of these lately...


I am also fortunate to have PERSPECTIVE! This is huge. Since this is my second time around, I now know how fast these newborn days go, how much I need to appreciate this itty bitty bundle, and that everything will pass with time. I know that if Hank has a day where he needs to be held a lot, it's ok, it won't last forever. At the same time if Hank has a day where he sleeps really well, I don't get used to it, it won't last forever either! With Lucy, I think Ben and I were paranoid that any stage would last forever - I was nervous that I was holding her too much, or not holding her enough, that I was letting her cry too much or not enough, etc. Now I feel a lot more confident in assessing the situation given my past experience, rather than trying to read 20 different books to figure out what to do with this baby. Just like any job, it's nice being experienced - I always hated being the new person on the job!

So, as I've mentioned before, Hank is a little bit more high maintenance than Lucy. I've researched a ton to see if there was anything wrong with him (food allergies, something in my breast milk upsetting him, acid reflux, etc.) but my only conclusion is that he's just a normal baby! Lucy just happened to be some type of freak baby that liked to sleep a ton and never cried... Hank did have a bad diaper rash (and seemed extra gassy and extra congested) that wouldn't go away with treatment so I did give up dairy for two weeks. The rash cleared, but when I reintroduced dairy, it didn't bring the rash back, so the doctor said I should be in the clear to eat dairy... the rash was just from having a poopy diaper a lot! So again, the only thing I can conclude is that Hank is just a normal gassy, rashy, congested little guy.

Another big difference between my babies - Hank loves to eat! We took him in for his 1 month appointment and he weighed 12 pounds 6 ounces (90 percentile) - that's 3.5 pounds more than his birth weight! For comparison, Lucy weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces at 1 month. He is also 24 inches long (99 percentile). Breast feeding has been going really well (obviously!). Hank seems like a really fast eater, nursing in 20-30 minutes (compared with Lucy's 45 minute nursing) and he is usually full off of one side, allowing me to pump the other side and stock up on my milk supply! And allowing us to give him a bottle each night. Ben usually does this at 9pm so I can get ready for bed.

Sleep is hit or miss, some nights Hank will go for a 5 hour stretch, and go down to sleep with out fussing. Some nights it takes several hours to get him to sleep between nursing and I usually give up and just let him sleep on my chest or next to me in bed (I know, not safe... but after several nights of getting no sleep a mom gets desperate!) Same with naps, some days he takes 3 great naps, some days he needs to be held for his naps. I think the big difference between the babies is that Hank has a hard time settling himself. Even with a paci, swing, noise machine, and swaddle, he still sometimes can't drift off to sleep on his own. Or can't make it through his different sleep states. Fortunately, I know as he matures he will get better at this, so for now, I just consider myself lucky if he makes it through a sleep session without needing to be picked up. The past couple days I've had some success getting him to nap in his crib on his tummy (again, I know this isn't the safest, but I keep the video monitor on and watch him the entire time so I know he's safe.) This has actually seemed to work pretty well, but again, some naps I have to go in and help "carry" him through his sleeps states - either picking him up or putting his paci in several times. We don't do this at night because I wouldn't feel comfortable letting him sleep on his tummy without watching him, so we are still having him sleep in the swing at night. This seems to work about 70% of the time.

He is on a really great schedule though, he seemed to organize himself into a eat/wake/sleep cycle on his own. Right now Hank eats around the following times (give or take 30 minutes): 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, then he'll sometimes stretch till 1 or 2am. Depending on that stretch he'll usually nurse 1 or 2 more times and then start the day all over again at 9am. Again this is different almost every day, but that's the general schedule for now.

Because of his fussiness, some people have asked if he's colic - I know he's not though. He really is a pretty happy baby overall, and just needs a little extra TLC to help him sleep. If he was held all day I don't think I'd ever hear him cry - unfortunately that's not possible! The toughest times are when we are in the car - depending on his mood, he typically cries the whole time we are in the car, and whenever I am unavailable (i.e. in the shower, helping Lucy, etc.) I've learned to use the moby a lot though, allowing me to hold him and still use my hands. And I've learned to pick and choose when I want to leave the house! Fortunately we've had tons of visitors so I haven't felt too stir crazy yet!

And during his wake time I swear he is one of the smiliest babies I have ever met (ok, I may be biased). But he really is so easy to get to smile (I remember we worked really hard to get Lucy to smile) and he has been cooing a lot lately too... that makes it all worth it, doesn't it?

Ok, I feel like this was an information overload, and no one probably cares about this as much as I do, but that's ok! It's helpful information that I will use when we eventually get brave enough to have kid number three!

And now for Hank's one month pictures - I decided to change up the positions a bit this time around.


For comparison, here's Lucy at 1 month.

People keep saying that Hank looks different than Lucy, but I don't think so... I think they look almost like twins! I guess we'll see as he gets older.

Lucy 15 Months- Stats and Updates

Since I last posted an update on Lucy we've had a couple tumultuous weeks! Unfortunately Lucy had been sick for about a month and a half so we are just now entering a state of "normal" in our house. She went from having a cold/flu for almost two weeks to picking up another cold/flu, and somewhere in between got two ear infections! Poor girl! She spent most of those days with a paci, sleeping whenever she wanted, watching TV (something she normally isn't allowed to do) and hanging out in mom's arms. Anything to make my little girl feel better!

So as far as normal, I still don't have a good grasp on what a normal schedule looks like for us. With the weirdness of her schedule before the sickness, then the sickness, then two vacations after the sickness I have just been taking each day as they come and trying to watch Lucy's cues as much as possible. Some days she takes two naps, most days she takes one. Some days she seems cranky but doesn't want to sleep so she goes down for some much needed quiet time in her crib. Some days she sleeps a normal 7:30pm-7:30am schedule at night, some days we lay her down at 7:30 and she plays until 8:30 or 9. Hopefully within the next couple weeks (now that we are down with traveling for a bit) we'll get a better routine going.

Fortunately though much of the crankiness is gone and Lucy has been much less clingy to me. Although she still loves a decent amount of mommy time, it has been fun to see how she now also prefers her grandparents, Jadyn, Jordyn and Ben and will even sometimes choose them over me (something I'm very happy about!)

We have been working on a couple things I spoke with the doctor about in the past couple days. One problem I was having was Lucy's desire to snack all throughout the day and eat half her meal in the highchair and half her meals in my lap. Instead of this routine, I am now trying to have set meal times (difficult when her sleep is all over the map though) and only let her eat in her highchair or booster (difficult when we are on vacation though). So far we've had some success with this, but it has been taking a lot of reinforcement!

The other thing we've been working on is discipline. This is a whole new ball park for me and something I have been asking many of my other mommy friends about and reading lots of books about! It felt like such an abrupt change moving from baby-hood to toddler-hood, I definitely was not prepared. Fortunately, Lucy does not get into trouble a lot, and typically if she does do something bad I know it's time for a nap or bed time. My doctor suggested, and I agree, that at Lucy's age time outs can be somewhat difficult so if she does do something bad (i.e. hitting mommy out of anger) I get on her eye-level, tell her "NO NO NO" and then walk away from her for 30 seconds. So for right now, we are trying that - so far I've only had to do it once or twice, like I said Lucy just doesn't seem to be getting into too much trouble yet.

Two funny things that happened this past week that I want to remember are when Lucy sneezed and as Ben was reaching for a tissue, Lucy grabbed my shirt and wiped her nose with it (thanks luc! I wasn't trying to keep that clean or anything!) and when I was sitting in the family room I watched Lucy climb up the stairs. I thought it was funny she would leave a room that I was in (she usually likes to be close by) so I let her do her thing. A couple second later she came back down the stairs, and was running over to me with a paci in her mouth looking as happy as could be. Apparently she had snuck upstairs on a paci hunt and was proud of herself for finding one!

Other than that, Lucy's personality continues to blossom and I find myself laughing with her throughout the day. She is so adventurous and continues to love being outdoors. A few shots from the past couple weeks...

On our way home from a splash park day and visit to Mimi's


Playing in a box of oatmeal...


Splash park one evening with Jaydn and Jordyn...


15 month check up stats:
weight - 25.4 lbs, 85%
height - 32 in, 91%
head- 18.5in, 80%

12 months

I have a lot of catching up to do! This week has been all about rest and recovery (well for me anyway, I don't think Lucy got that memo) since our house is now painted and Lucy's party is over.... but I don't want to forget my final month update!

Well, we did it! Lucy is officially 1 year old, and moving out of her "baby" months and into toddler-hood. So many things have been changing over the last couple weeks as she grows up and becomes more independent. We are officially done nursing, and fortunately, it was totally baby-led. I was nervous she was going to be upset when I tried to wean her, but I honestly think she was more upset that I was trying to nurse her towards the end. My busy-body little girl just did not want to sit still and eventually I think I just lost my supply... but I made it till she was 11.5 months old, so I feel very accomplished about that! She is officially drinking whole milk now and LOVES it.

She has still been taking 2 naps, totaling about 3 hours (although this past week that has changed... not sure if she is ready to drop down to one already???), and sleeps a good 12 hours every night. The best part is, even if she's awake in her crib, she sits and is content to play, so I've laid her down for naps a couple days and just heard her talking away... I suppose that's better than not having a break at all!

She is loving the warm weather and wants to be outside every second she can, and when I don't let her she has been throwing little fits - collapsing onto the floor and fake crying in hopes of getting her way. Hopefully she'll learn soon that her tactic isn't working! She is into everything and loves to open and close doors, cabinets and drawers and then empty out the contents of whatever drawer/cabinet she has uncovered... this has obviously made for a messy, messy house! This curiosity has also led her to discovering the toilet and what she can drop into it (like my iPhone!) and trying to climb up and stand on top of just about anything... I have a feeling we'll be using a lot of band aids in the near future.

She loves going to the park and going down the slide, or just exploring and watching the other children play. She LOVES other kids and always gravitates toward them whenever I put her down. One day I took her to the library and could not keep her away from another family... it was kind of awkward, she kept walking over to them and staring and pointing at the baby! She still loves reading and sits and reads with us several times throughout the day... and of course loves the TV whenever its on. I even have to turn the news off, otherwise she'll sit and stare at the TV... doesn't she know that's boring to watch? She loves going up and down the stairs, although hasn't mastered the going down part and usually likes me to give her a piggy back ride down.

She talks a lot, and we've made out mama, dada, dog, woof, baby and hi... but they are all still pretty inconsistent. She mostly just likes to babble and scream and make funny noises with her tongue... all of which make me laugh throughout the day. And it appears she is beginning to understand a lot of what we say... she'll bring me a ball, book, or baby when I ask, she'll wave bye-bye when we say "say night-night" or "say bye-bye". She'll even shake her head "no" when we ask her to give us kisses! Not sure if that's the response we want... but it's pretty cute. At least we can get her to blow us some kisses every once in a while.

She continues to be a super happy baby and pretty independent. She still loves her mama and needs to be held/cuddled every once in a while, but ultimately she's most happy running after Ruthie in the back yard... have I mentioned how much she loves dogs?

We went to the docotor this month... Lucy has gotten huge! I remember bringing my sweet girl home from the hospital and always being nervous about her weight gain. Well I have nothing to fear now, she loves to eat and drink and has shot up on the growth charts.

Weight- 23.3lbs (83%... her last two visits she was 52% and 38%)
Height- 29.8in (73%... last visit she was 58%)
Head- 18in (72%)

Doctor said she is healthy and everything looks on track with her growth and development... although she did discover Lucy had an ear infection, so I was glad we went when we did! We are lucky though, this is Lucy's first ear infection, so she made it an entire year without getting one!

Now for the birthday girl!


being a goof ball... as usual...


happy as can be!

9 Months

I meant to get this up a little bit ago (on the 17th, to be exact) but with the holidays and Lucy's exciting new skill, I got a bit behind... oh well!

This past month was a bit of a mixed bag - we were in GC for 10 days, so when you think about it, a third of our month was spent traveling. Throw in preparing for vacation and recovering from vacation, and it seems all I can remember about last month was TRAVEL! It did make me think about all of the places this little girl has been in 9 months... some vacations, some visits to see friends who have moved (many of our best friends moved this past year... giving us even more reason to travel!):
1. Pigeon Forge, TN
2. Lake Wawasee, IN
3. Lake Michigan, MI
4. Panama City, FL
5. Haubstadt, IN
6. Cincinnati, OH
7. Blacksburg, VA
8. And of course, Grand Cayman

What a well traveled little baby! Needless to say, I think we'll be staying in good old Indianapolis for the next couple months to recover a bit!

Anyway, no major changes in Lucy's milestones this past month (she walked the day after she turned 9 months, so technically she hadn't made any major changes from 8-9 months). Her personality did blossom a ton this month though, with much more laughter and squealing. She has become quite the little ham. My favorite memory from this month was when we went to Jenn and Nate's for "Thanksgiving" and everyone was going around saying something they were thankful for. Each time the group would laugh, Lucy would mimic the laughing right afterward... it was adorable, and everyone thought it was the cutest thing there! And my favorite quote from Ben - "I'm really starting to like playing with her"- hmmm, I guess I'll take care of the babies pre-9months, and he'll deal with them after. :) But in all seriousness, she really has become so much fun to actually play with - we love tickling her and wrestling with her and throwing her in the air and chasing her, she IS a lot of fun.

She also loves to nod her head "yes" and "no" in response to us talking to her (not sure if she knows what this means, or just likes the movement) and still loves to wave hi and bye a lot. She is babbling a lot more now too, with clear mama and dada's mixed in. We're pretty sure she uses mama to get my attention, but not sure if she has associated dada with Ben yet... do we dare say "Mama" is her first word?

She continues to mostly eat finger foods and will only be spoon fed if it's something really tasty. And she now eats just about anything and everything (although we're steering clear of the major allergic foods for now - egg whites, PB, etc). A typical breakfast consists of yogurt/cottage cheese, some cherrios, fruit, toast and/or eggs. Lunch is usually pasta, veggies, chicken, cheese and/or fruit. And dinner is usually a variation of what we are having or something from the above. We finally knocked out the middle of the night feeding, so she's down to four nursing sessions a day and the doctor says over the next couple months we need to work on slowly bringing that down to one nursing by the time she is a year... weird!

Which brings me to sleep - sleep has been mixed this month, the day after I wrote how amazing Lucy was sleeping in her 8 month update she got a cold and started teething and was not sleeping well at all... alas, I forgot that nothing lasts in the life of a baby. Another mom from my Bible study made a good point, whether it's good or bad, you can only expect your current state to last for about 3 weeks... then something is bound to change! The good news is, she's back to sleeping great (for now) and she dropped the middle of the night feeding on her own. She just started sleeping till 7-8am! She does still sometimes wake up, but the doctor recommended soothing her in other ways besides nursing because we know she doesn't really need that 5am feeding anymore.

Her schedule these days is wake around 7-8am (she has been waking about 7am to nurse and then snuggling/sleeping with me till 8am... this is my favorite part of the day), go down and eat breakfast. Play till about 10am, take a 1-2hour nap. Nurse and eat lunch around 12pm. Run errands, or meet friends for lunch (and by friends, I mean Beth and Court... they're the main people we've been meeting up with these past couple months). Home for a 1-2hour nap around 3pm. Nurse and Dinner around 4:30-5:30pm. Play with dad until about 7pm, then bath, story (she is finally somewhat interested in books!!), nursing and songs to prepare for bed (about 7:30-8pm).

We did see the doctor this month and got new stats. Despite all the food this girl eats (which is a ton) she dropped in percentile... the doctor said she wasn't concerned though, as she sees that happen with a lot of babies as they get older an level out.
Head - 17.3in, 52%
Length - 27.8in, 58% (every other visit she has been 90%+, so this was a major change!)
Weight - 18.1lb, 38%

Look at my adorable new hat!


Not sitting in one place... as usual!


Showcasing her two front teeth that are coming in... I think she's got 3-4 coming in right now


Such a happy baby!


Last one, no coat, no hat... just baby

8 months

Wow, 8 months feels way to close to 1 year for comfort... these months keep flying by! This month brought lots of needed sleep and a lot less tears...

Sleep: I was so excited to write this post because I can officially report that we've had an awesome month of sleep... I'm now a full believer in crying it out. I wrote about this in my last monthly update, but we had just started so I wasn't sure if it would work out or not, but it definitely did! We had 3 nights of crying when Lucy would lay down, the first night was an hour, the second night was 40 minutes and the third nigh t was 20 minutes... these nights she would also wake sporadically through out the night, but I wouldn't go in unless she continued crying over 15 minutes and typically she'd put herself back to sleep before that. After three nights of this, I now have a baby that goes down for naps and bedtime without crying and doesn't wake in the middle of the night except to nurse around 4-5am (of course this is about 90% of the time... we do have rough days here and there).

I was a little apprehensive about this whole "crying it out thing" but I was really at my wits end, and I was starting to notice that Lucy was becoming more manipulative with the crying, for example, she would cry for a minute than wait for a minute to see if we'd come get her, then repeat. She'd also gotten into the habit of crying till we'd come in, so we would do the 5, 10, 15 minute wait schedule, but she got used to knowing after a certain amount of time we'd be back in to soothe her and give her a paci and would never stop crying.

I think this, in combination with kicking the third nap has led to some amazing sleep! Her schedule right now is two 1.5-2 hour naps (9-11am and 2-4pm roughly) and then night time sleep is from 7:30pm-7:30am (with a nursing at 5am).

Eating: Lucy is still nursing, and is on a normal meal schedule (breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a bed time nursing and a middle of the night nursing). She rarely wants to be spoon fed anymore (totally her strong willed personality coming through) and mostly likes to eat finger foods so I typically give her frozen mixed veggies, cut up fruit (apples, grapes, pears, prunes), cheerios, or sweet potato chunks.

Milestones: Not many changes since last month, besides perfecting the skills she has already acquired - she still loves to practice holding no hands, cruising and crawling. She did recently start waving, but typically won't do at the normal "hi" and "bye" times, usually just randomly throughout the day... it's pretty adorable. She also can get up the stairs now... which adds a new dynamic to baby proofing the house! She is "talking" more, using her ba's, ma's and da's a lot, but hasn't associated them with anything yet. She still loves to squeal in delight.

Temperament: This month was probably one of my favorites so far in terms of easiness and routine... probably mostly because of the increased sleep I got, but also because I felt like things became a little more predictable. When Lucy was first born, she was very routine and easy for me to take care of, but months 4-7 seemed to be a little wild in terms of knowing why she was crying and what each day would bring. This past month I felt like I totally understood why Lucy was crying, what not to do to avoid the crying, and what to do once the crying started... now that I write that I realize 90% of my day is shaped around avoiding tears!

Some things I have noticed about Lucy's personality - she is constantly on the go and hates to be strapped down for a diaper change or in her car seat... she is such a go getter! She doesn't like to sit in my lap to read or sing songs, no matter how animated I get, she'd rather be crawling/cruising on to the next thing. She knows me! this is has been fun and not so fun, I love that Lucy sees me and wants me when she's sad, but at the same time, this has been difficult when I've been trying to do something and need to set her down or need someone else to hold her. At the same time, she's totally comfortable with other people (she typically only prefers me when she's hungry or sleepy), she has not showed any signs of stranger anxiety yet when she goes to the Grace nursery every Saturday for church or Ben's parents every Thursday for my Bible study.

New also this month have been little baby temper tantrums... I can't help but laugh when she does this... whenever Lucy wants to be held (again bc she's hungry or sleepy) and I set her down, she wips her head back or forward and starts whaling, like it's the end of the world... I know it won' t be later, but for right now, I just think it's so darn cute!

Stats - thinking Lucy is around 18 pounds

Pictures! Again, I could not get Lucy to sit still or really look at the camera... but I snagged a couple good ones.

This is how we started...


The she moved to one side...


The back...


Now to the other side...


Towards mommy...


Down to the ground...

7 Months

Lucy turned 7 months a couple days ago so thought I'd report on what's happening with us lately... Lucy continues to grow and develop extremely fast! She has mastered crawling, pulling up, standing while not holding on to anything (for 20 seconds or so), and is working on creeping... I think she'll be walking in no time! She still does the usually babbling (mostly screeming and grunting), nothing distinguishable yet, and she's actually been a little quieter lately (she did this when she was working on walking too... I think her brain is saying - "one skill at a time please").

She is in a bit of a transition as far as her schedule goes, some days she takes 3 naps, some days she takes 2, it all depends on how good the first two naps are and how long she last between them (some days the naps are 1.5-2hrs, some days they are more like 1hr). If she wakes from her second nap any sooner than 4pm, I know we'll need the third one that day. This all determines the number of times she eats - if there are 3 naps, she eats 5 times and if there are only 2 she eats 4 times (with solids at three of those nursings). And when I say she eats 4-5 times, I should actually say it's been 5-6 times a day because she has yet to go away from the middle of the night feeding that magically appeared when we got home from Florida last month... I thought it was vacation, I thought it was crawling, I thought it was teething... who knows! But whatever it is, it's here to stay... Lucy has been eating once around 4-5am and then keeps sleeping till about 7:30am or so. That still means she's doing an 8-10 hour stretch... so I guess I can't complain... plus I've been bringing her in to bed with me to nurse (bc I'm so sleepy) and I've been loving the extra cuddle time and the way she immediately passes out lying next to me once she's full.

Sleep continued to stink this month (carried over from last month). I'm blaming most of it on her first two teeth that appeared this month and then I think she just got used to us coming in to comfort her. Most of this month Lucy woke 3-4 times throughout the night, needing us to put her pacifier in each time. She has also been waking up mid nap about half the time needing me to put the pacifier in for her then as well.

I finally told Ben we had to do something because waking up all through out the night was driving me nuts so we finally decided to give Lucy the paci when she went to sleep but we agreed not to give it to her again throughout the night. The first night we only had one night waking (besides the feeding) and she cried for ten minutes, I went in to lay her back down and she picked the paci up and put it in on her own. The next night she started crying a couple times but each time only lasted 5 minutes or so and she comforted her self back to sleep, until about 1am - she started fussing and I turned the monitor down to make the waiting a little more bearable and ended up falling back asleep. Not sure how long the crying lasted but when I woke up an hour later it was quiet - I felt like such a bad mom for falling asleep... but I was secretly so glad I didn't have to lie awake listening to her scream! Plus, I figure she couldn't have been crying that long, otherwise I would have woken up... right?!? Night number 3 there was no crying except for her one feeding at 4:30 am... success? maybe... we'll see how things go the rest of the week... naps have still not been great.

We have gotten into the swing of things with solid foods, Lucy eats a good amount 3 times a day and seems to really like just about anything I give her. She has now tried banana, carrots, peas, plums, prunes, avocado, pumpkin, sweet potato and pears. Her favorites are the fruits and the sweet potatoes (I think she has a sweet tooth like her mama!)

She continues to be an extremely happy and smiley baby, honestly if she didn't have to sleep alone in her crib, I doubt she'd ever cry.

On a mom front - things have been going really well as I get more and more used to this mom thing... Lucy continues to surprise me daily, but I think I've gotten used to the surprises and have become a lot more relaxed about her schedule (I think anyway... Ben can correct me if I haven't). I've joined a Bible study with other moms that have young children and it has been such a breath of fresh air to hear what other moms are struggling with and to realize I'm not the only one going through the challenges of motherhood. And physically I am finally feeling 100% myself... I fully healed from surgery when lucy was about 5 months and I'm now back to my pre-pregnancy weight (give or take a few pounds... I'll blame on the extra milk I'm still carrying around).

No doctor appt. this month, so based on our home scale, Lucy is weighing in at 17.2lbs... finally double her birth weight!

There's something different about my smile...


Take a closer look and you'll see my first two teeth!


Being a dare-devil... like always...


Notice the tongue in all these pictures - she's been much more active with showing it since her first teeth came in...


Laid back...