Eight.Months.Old

EIGHT Months Old!!

 

 

 

Only 4 more months and then we have a ONE YEAR old? I cannot believe it. I've already started planning your party :)

 

Things just keep getting better and better with you. The past two months I can often be heard telling people that "we have the best.baby.EVER." It's true, we do!

 

At EIGHT months, you:

 

Have now had green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, bananas, & pears

Sleep ten to TWELVE hours a night (she get it from her mama!) :)

Have started trying to play with toys

Got your 2nd haircut on July 20th

Are quite possibly starting to get your 2nd tooth!

Will put one foot in front of the other when we hold you to "walk"

Are getting more sturdy standing

Still are not entirely trustworthy sitting up alone

Much prefer your bottle over food

Cannot resist drinking out of our glasses (or the ends of our straws)

Are holding your bottle a little better (because I'm forcing you)

Your hernia might be getting smaller

Are more difficult to take places as you don't sleep at all when there's action

Started scratching the back of your throat like your Mama, aunts, and Grandpa Doc

Are ravenous when home from daycare no matter when you last ate

Are starting to like sitting in your jumperoo

Are starting to explore more with your hands

Usually play by yourself when you wake up until we come get you

Seem to be getting longer by the day

LOVE to kick your legs - nonstop!

HATE being on your tummy

Do not roll back to front

 

As far as a schedule, on daycare days we wake you up around 6:45 and change/dress you and take you to daycare. (Not sure about your schedule there). We then pick you up between 4:00-5:00 and bring you home and you usually eat 6-8 ounces, play for a little bit, and then naptime from 5:30/6:00 - 7:30/8:00. Sometimes we wake you and others you wake up on your own, but we then try to eat some food and play for a little bit. Around 8:00 or sometimes a little after we start bath and then a bottle around 8:30. You hang out for just a little bit and then we go lay you in your bed and you go right to sleep. We have only heard even just a peep out of you only a couple times, otherwise you must play quietly and fall right to sleep in your crib. On weekends when we don't have to wake you up, you will sleep 10-12 hours then get up and eat and usually will go back to sleep around 8:30 and sleep until 10:30/11:00. You will then be up a good part of the afternoon and take a late afternoon nap around 4:30 or so for a couple hours.

 

You are not a good eater. There have been more than a few nights that you just simply will not open up to take bites of food. Something tells me that feeding you might always be a challenge. We have discovered that if we trick you by filling up one of our water glasses and passing it in front of you ,you will open up every single time, while we manage to sneak in another bite of food. It took you a night or two before you figured it out, and from that point on you would make sure the glass was in swiping distance where you could get your hands on it and would then open only when we had it to your mouth. For the record, this was Daddy's idea. HILARIOUS!

 

So far, your favorite foods are peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Foods that you seem to dislike the most are peaches. And pears. And apples. 

 

I started forcing you to start trying to hold your bottle more on your own, and if I hold it out in front of you, you will bear hug that thing and bring it straight to your mouth like you are annoyed that it is taking so long. You must have known how to do it all along because just as soon as I started it, you had it figured out and knew how to get what you wanted. Now we are just working on getting you to actually hold it the whole time you drink it.

 

I know it's a shocker, but you still HATE to be on your tummy. We have been working with you quite a bit to get you to roll better and to try doing back to belly but you have figured out how to avoid that. I grab your opposite arm when you are laying on your back and try to roll you towards me, and you stiff-leg your top leg so that it is impossible to get you on to your belly. Refuse to do it. And then when I force you to bend the leg so I can get you over it, you flop around like a fish out of water trying to get back onto your back. You hold your top arm straight in the air thinking that is going to help you to roll back over, and are not smart enough to figure out what to do with that bottom arm. You are one special child, I tell ya! Can we say stubborn?!?! At this rate, you are probably going to be that child that walks and just never rolls over. Hey, at least you're smart and have figured out how to get out of it. That's gotta count for something?

You have also earned a new nickname this month - Squishy. I just love to squeeze your juicy little arms and legs and your squishy cheeks get kissed more times a day than you would prefer!

 

I still love waking up to this cute little face.



3rd Anniversary flowers from Daddy - the 2nd
bouquet of roses he has given me...a great
surprise at work!

You know I had to throw in a bath picture - girl is in her element!

Rach came to meet you for the first time this month!

First time sitting in your big girl highchair!

 

An out-take from our monthly shoot that
I thought was too cute not to post. This, of course,
was followed by a loud screech!

Gettin' so BIG!!

 I haven't mentioned anything about it on the blog previously, but Daddy got a promotion/somewhat new job a month and a half ago! He is now a manager of the non-invasive services, so he is in charge of the Nuclear, EKG, and Holter departments. It was kind of a bittersweet thing because there were definitely perks of his old position (worked 4 10-hr days, guaranteed 40 hrs pay/week, less responsibilities, etc) but we decided that it was a career advancement that he couldn't pass up. Even though he won't have to be doing any more west routes (which is a big bonus), he now has to work 5 days a week (which is a big bummer)! It has been stressful lately because he is essentially doing both jobs at the same time because it wasn't a quit one job-start the new one kind of thing but I'm sure it will get better as time goes on. He has 2 girls at home who are nothing short of proud of him! God has done some pretty cool things with both of our careers this past year, and we are thankful for every bit of it. It is fun to think about the big picture of our careers and how we are both where we are so early in our lives when neither of us thought it was even possible just one short year ago. I still could not love my job any more than I do, and I thank God for the opportunity every.single.day that I drive to work. I still cannot believe that I have the opportunity to work where I do doing what I love so very much.

To the sweetest little girl we have ever met, we love you!

Daddy's Birthday

We didn't do a whole lot for Daddy's birthday other than going to the Watering Hole for dinner and drinks with Grandpa and Grandma Matthes, but you and I had a great time wrapping his presents. Swiper kept grabbing the wrapping paper and thought she was pretty funny (ok, so maybe she was right).

I love this ornery little face so, so much :)

 

When we got home that evening, you helped Daddy open his presents quick before you went to bed. I think you're going to like opening your own presents in just a few short months after seeing how much you loved that wrapping paper!

 

Happy birthday to the man of our lives - the one who treats both of his girls like princesses day after day and unselfishly puts us both ahead of himself time and time again. We love you, Daddy, and CHEERS to many more years!!

Levi & Clara Turn One!

One year has flown by, and the twins are ONE! We went out to their house for their "Cardboard Box Celebration," and enjoyed an afternoon with family. Everyone had a great time watching them open their presents, play in their cardboard box setup, and especially watching them smash their cakes!

 

Great Grandma Matthes sure loved holding you!

Clara had a ball crawling through her cardboard box maze.

Picture stop with Mommy :)

Grandpa and his girls.

An adorable cardboard box train her Mommy and Daddy made.

The little man with his Mama.

This was the best we could get of the three of them :)

Still too little to join in on all the fun.

LA with her Grandma.

Levi only took a little bit to warm up to the idea of smashing his cake, and
Clara played around a little bit more. By the end, both cakes were pretty
well destroyed and both were quite proud!

A celebratory clap for all the family!

The remnants of the fun...straight to bath they went!

We don't get to see these two enough, but it sure has been fun watching them grow this past year. We have many more years of fun in our future, and we are all looking forward to all of the memories to be made. Thank you for letting us celebrate your FIRST birthday with you, Levi and Clara!

Seven.Months.Old

Mommy completely missed taking the 7 Month pictures :(

Over half a year old already...time sure does fly! This month has been a big month for you with lots of exciting "firsts." At SEVEN months, you:

Weigh 13 lbs, 11 ounces (up from 12 lbs, 14 1/2 ounces at 6 mo)

Head circumference is 17" (up from 16 3/4")

Are 26" long (up from 25 1/2")

Started wearing size 2 diapers around 6.5 months

Finally started wearing some 6 months clothes

Still absolutely despise laying on your stomach

Are not anxious to roll over - you get mad and forget you know how

Sleep 9:00 pm to 6:15 every night

Usually take 3 2-hour naps during the day

Started eating cereal at 6.5 months

Started eating food at almost 7 months (Peas > Beans!)

Laugh at anyone and everyone

Seem to love daycare

Are still not a big eater - usually only 28-30 ounces/day

Have self-weaned the pacifier - you much prefer your fingers

Still have at least one diaper blowout daily on average

Appear to be growing - you feel "thicker" everyday now

Sit up pretty well but are still wobbly and fall over easily

Usually wake up from a nap and hang out in your crib til we come check on you

Love to listen to Mommy and Daddy sing to you

LOVE to drink out of our glasses (and wear most of it)

Got your first diaper rash at about 6.5 months

Love to stand (being stabilized, of course)

Are not taking any medications for your reflux

Are extremely ticklish - especially at the base of the back of your neck :)

 

We are still doing more formula/ounces of water (2 scoops for every 3.5 ounces of water) and this seems to be helping with your weight. At our 6 month check, Dr. Petersen wanted to see you back in a month to check your weight again to see if we were catching up at all. So right at month 7 we took you back in and, you grew just a little bit in each category. She was encouraged that you were growing this past month but I think we were all hoping it would have been a little more (I thought you felt a lot heavier this past month...so I was surprised it was as little as it was in all areas). For now we are going to keep mixing your formula a little stronger and just keep doing what we are doing. She was ok that we had just completely stopped your reflux medication as long as we didn't think we were needing it (which we don't). In terms of development she said that you were just at the low end of normal for your age and wasn't too concerned about it. You are still doing what you are supposed to be doing, but you aren't a kid that is going to be doing it early by any means. I really wish we would have switched pediatricians earlier because I credit her for catching you up on the size chart. I also love that she is proactive about things and wanted to follow you closely. I now know that our last pediatrician was a total bimbo.

We made an executive decision to stop your medications for reflux. Even though the pediatrician wanted us to keep doing them, we really did not think they were helping and decided to just quit them altogether. Since stopping them, I really don't think they were helping in the first place. We were still taking you to the chiropractor usually once a week, but this past month has been pretty crazy and I think you have only gone once and seem to be doing ok. Well, aside from this....

(pic from Dan's phone).

I'm pretty sure you had a little bit of a stomach bug that caused this, because both Daddy and I had been puking the day before and felt terrible. You were maybe just a little fussier than normal but mostly just didn't act like your normal smiley self for a couple days. So I'm convinced that it wasn't the reflux flaring at all.

You weren't so sure about the whole cereal thing at first. We started you with rice and you seemed more ambivalent about it than anything. Knowing that we were just doing it to get you used to eating textures and using a spoon, we didn't push it too hard. We did that for about a week and then started doing oatmeal. I can say that you definitely prefer oatmeal to rice. You weren't so sure about it at first, and even gagged on it the first several spoonfuls, but you quickly got the hang of it and would open when you were ready for more. As soon as we got the hang of that down we started green beans. You weren't disgusted by them but you also didn't seem to love them.

First bite...Not sure you're a fan!

Still not impressed, but curious.

By the end of the bowl, you got the hang of it and
were actually opening for every bite.




Big girl thinks she needs to help all the sudden!



First bite of foods - Green beans!

 

You guys done takin' pictures yet?

 All in about a weeks time we went from most certainly needing a pacifier at all times to not needing them at all. Like, not even having to take them to daycare anymore. One day you just decided that your fingers were better and you started spitting out the pacifiers when we tried.

As you started to get more mobile this past month we took the crib bumpers out. After finding you like this 3 days in a row, we decided we probably needed to put them back in.

Day 1 of bumpers out - Mommy thought it was cute.

 

Day 2 with bumpers out - Still sleeping peacefully, but
with all the leg chubb you were stuck!



Day 3 of bumpers out - Don't worry, you did cry like this for too long
but you were definitely not happy about this. Stuck again!

 

This is what I find every morning when I come in to wake you up
for daycare. What better way to start my day?!

 

Just waking up from an afternoon nap.

You received a big package from Great Grandma Deaver this week.
I have always loved how she addresses her packages.

 

I just love this little "I'm real mad that I'm laying on my belly" face :)

Started out underneath while we were eating dinner, and looked over
and you had migrated a ways. If we didn't know better, we would have
thought you were crawling!

 

Sure do love you, Sweet Girl!