Celebrating Eight Months

Oh my Chetty! Where in the world has time gone? This month – 8 months – we have plowed ahead into the baby world with a lot more firsts checked of his list. He is now proudly smiling with almost 4 teeth. Two bottom. One full tooth up top and another so close. (just kidding – since starting this post a week ago, all 4 are now through). Out of his cute toothy mouth is coming so many wonderful baby babbles. He copies all the sounds we say. Hi-eeee is one of his favorites. Mamama, bababab, dadadeee are also among his favorites. He doesn’t call us mama or dada yet. I swear he calls the dog Ooofff (woof!).

Chet’s round bottom has also flattened out. He is sitting. Officially sitting. Sitting well enough for me to feel comfortable to walk away. On Monday he discovered the joys of the tupperware cabinet (I knew there was a reason I put this one down low). While I attempted to make soup, I let him explore. It was a success, and I managed to make a real family dinner while juggling both boys solo (Huge success for me. How did I survive as a single mom?).

Chet is all over the place. He isn’t crawling yet. His belly just won’t get off the floor – although yesterday I did see him raise to his knees and forearms for two quick rocks before he belly-flopped. Even without officially crawling, he is all over the house. He army crawls like he grew up going to bootcamp. He crawls up and over the dog. He crawls on top of the dog’s head. He wrestles the dog. He has crawled up and under our coffee table. He climbs up and over his brother. He’s pulling himself up on to his knees in front of his toy bin. If I blink, he is in another room.

I have to confess, I had a slight panic attack a few weeks ago when I weighed him at home. He wasn’t gaining weight. He wasn’t sitting yet. He wasn’t crawling yet. I got stuck in that ugly place of comparing him to other babies his age, and I got nervous. Knowing that he slowed down dramatically with his weight gain at his six month checkup, I called the doctor to see if little to no weight gain still was okay. We went in for a check up, and I left feeling reassured that our little guy is just fine. He is small but perfectly proportioned. He has now completely fall off the growth chart, but he’s healthy. He developing just fine. And I have since quit stressing.

Weight at just about 8 months: 14 lbs 8 oz. (about one pound more than his six month check up)

With my stress about Chet’s weight gain came my need to structure his eating. He used to get breakfast and dinner that consisted of real food. Every other feeding was breast milk. That has all been changed. His daily feedings now follow this pattern:

Wake up Nursing
Breakfast – Oatmeal + Fruit
Nursing/Bottle of Breastmilk
Nap
Lunch – Yogurt + another food of choice
Nursing/Bottle of Breastmilk
Nap
Dinner – Veggies + grain or starch or yogurt (sometimes fruit too)
Bedtime Nursing
Nursing ALL NIGHT LONG!

We’ve introduced him to all sorts of foods. I’m using Dr. Sears’ book The Organic Baby as my go-to reference, but I’m mostly just following Chet’s lead. We have ditched all pureed foods except for the fruits we put in his oatmeal. He completely lost interest in them. He is eating all finger foods now. We’ve added quinoa to his diet and I plan on introducing him to black beans tonight. Egg yolks are on the menu for this weekend. We’ve introduced him to raspberries, watermelon, and cantaloupe. Cauliflower has been introduced along with fresh beans from the farm. He introduced himself to a piece of wheat bread crust (i can no longer eat lunch while holding a baby on my hip) and cheese (no more snacking on string cheese with baby near by). We are sticking to a strictly organic diet for him and plan to keep his diet this way for as long as possible. I want him to eat the way we eat, and I really look forward to the next few months when he is eating dinner right alongside of us.

While all of the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, we are still lacking in the sleep department. 97% of the time I really don’t mind. I nurse him 2-4 times each night (mostly two times, but rough nights include all night long cluster feedings). I really feel connected and bonded to Chet in those late night hours even if I’m half asleep. And even if he is half asleep too, he always finds a smile to give me when I rescue him from his crib. Yes, I do have moments I really wish he would sleep (the night before I run a half marathon!). There are nights at 9pm when he is refusing to go to bed that I do everything I can to hang on to my sanity (days are long and start at 6am and don’t stop until after the boys are asleep, and even then I have things to do so 9pm baby bedtimes can push me over the edge). I do take comfort knowing he will become a great sleeper at some point in his baby/toddler journey. He won’t always want to nurse all night long. I’m embracing it (97% of the time) while I can because I know one day I will miss it. Sometimes I do wish he would c0-sleep, but he won’t. He loves his cribs. He loves night-time nursing. So this is our night-time story for this month. Who knows? Next month could be completely different.

And on a serious note………..I swear he gets even more cute every single day! Every day his little personality blossoms. He is becoming funny and comical and adventurous and life would be so boring (and sleep filled!) without him.