Liam: Eight Months

Likes: Swimming, being tickled, crawling, pulling himself up, watching iPad

Dislikes: Getting teeth, not getting what he wants

Biggest Achievement of the Month: Actually crawling

Biggest Challenge of the Month: Teething

Sleep: So after last month and having issues with sleeping this month was going so much better. He was going down pretty easy and staying down until Cody woke up (6:30 to 7) and then he started teething at the end of the month. Then it all went to hell.

Apparently if he is in pain the only way he will sleep is if he is with mom so I have had (since it has just started it has only been for 3 nights so there will probably be some in next months post too) 3 nights of falling asleep with him in bed with me, one night of him being there all night and one night of him being there from 4am on.

So he is a bit attached right now, there has been lots of feeding to get him down and some use of baby iboprofun but we are surviving. He won't even take naps without me right now (which means I have up to 3 hours of just sitting there with him in my arms). And just screams when dad tries so it is up to mostly me. Hopefully it will be over soon and we can go back to having a baby that sleeps again.

Temperment/Personality: Very happy although not with everyone anymore. If he doesn't see someone on at least a weekly basis he seems to forget who they are and will just stare at them with a blank expression. No crying, not even if they hold him, he just stares and doesn't smile.

He is starting to get into everything so I am really keeping an eye on him and he is starting to cry when I take things away that he shouldn't be playing with (garbage cans, papers I need, things that he can choke on) but I don't do too much when he does that. It normally makes me laugh and I just give him the binky and tell him that it doesn't matter if he cries, he is still not getting it back (I do talk to him with full sentances because of course he can understand me).

Other then that he loves to play with us now. He grabs our faces and laughs when he pulls my hair (oh yeah he is going to be a fun toddler) and is much more interested in us now. We can intereact with him more now too, he will play peek-a-boo, and a fun game where we put a blanket on his head and he pulls it off. It is getting really fun to play with him.

Eating: He is a boy that loves to eat. We are still doing three main meals a day (breakfast, lunch and bedtime) and he has a variety of vegetables, fruits and cereal. We are starting to try finger foods and he won't eat the cereal puff things at all for some reason but have recently found out that we can get him to eat yogurt melts (and he feeds them to himself).

He is breastfeeding (or having a bottle depending on where he is) 4 to 5 times a day so he is still going strong on that too. And because of the teething thing, it seems to be a comfort thing right now too so there have been nighttime feedings for the first time in a long tim.

The Superficial: He is getting so big. He is probably around 18 lbs now so it is getting fun to carry him around. He is still in 6-9 month clothes and in size 3 diapers (something that I have not been recording but I should have been). He is still getting more hair and depending on the light, it is either blonde or strawberry blonde.

Milestones & Firsts: He is saying dada and mama now. He is crawling and has gone from doing an army crawl to crawling with one leg kind of up, to normal crawling to crawling with his butt in the air. He is pulling himself up on everything, he loves to stand.

He has had his first finger foods and feeding himself. His first falls, once when in his rock and play at night (obviously we are no longer using it) and the other off my mom's bed but it was onto carpet. There were no major injuries from those, just some bumps but since he is so pale, we thing everything shows really easily.

Liam: Seven Months

Likes: Moving around, being tickled, swimming, being held, chickens (he has loved those for quite awhile now but I keep forgetting to mention it)

Dislikes: Green beans, not being able to see people, sleep,

Biggest Achievement of the Month: Almost sort of crawling

Biggest Challenge of the Month: Sleep

Sleep: So sleep has been hard this month.  It started out like normal with him doing well and then it started going downhill.  We were having real problems not only getting him down to sleep but keeping him asleep once he is there, and this isn't only for naps, night is included.  One of the major problems was that he decided that he hated his father at bedtime and wouldn't tolerate even being held by him so either I had to get him down by the time I go to bed (which is decently early because I have to work at 5 in the morning) or let him scream with dad until he passes out from exhaustion. 

Something had to change. The next day I did a bunch of research and found out that the fact that my child barely napped at all had a lot to do with why he slept like crap at night, and that we were thinking that putting him to bed later meant he slept later (like a normal person) which is also wrong.  So I talked to my amazing babysitters and asked them to try and get at least an hour of nap time when they had him (if they can, I get he can be difficult if he wants to be) and then always on the way home from the sitters he falls asleep in the car, so I figured if I could get him out without waking him up, that would be his second nap of the day.

So he has now been napping 2-3 hours a day and is going to bed earlier and is sleeping so much better not only through the night but going down too. Granted sometimes it means napping for an hour and a half on mommy but if that is what it takes for him to sleep at night, I guess I will just have to hold the cute sleeping baby.

Temperment/Personality: He has the best personality. And he is so happy like 90% of the time. All it takes is the right person smiling at him and he is grinning like a maniac.  He still only cries normally when he is tired (he is more on a schedule to eat now so he doesn't really cry much anymore when he is hungry).  He is still so cuddly too, which I adore and I hope it is something that never goes away but he is a boy and I am pretty sure he will outgrow it sadly. He is still sticking everything in his mouth and is so curious about everything.

Eating: He loves food.  It is hard to believe that I had issues getting this kid to start solids because now he loves them so very much. We were having him eat cereal in the morning and then fruit or veggies at night (I read somewhere that is how you are supposed to do it) but when we started having sleep issues hubby suggested we swap it (so that he gets carbs at night and it will make him sleepy) and it really has helped. And then he gets the boob after his food.

I have not gotten my act together yet and am still buying packaged baby food but it is hard to get the time together to even get started.  He is having one 2nd foods size thing of fruit or veggie in the morning and 5 TB of cereal at night now. The only problem with feeding him real food is that it is screwing up my milk supply for when I am pumping (he seems to get plenty when he is eating straight from the source) so that is something that I am trying to work on.

The Superficial: He is still cute.  He is getting more hair and depending on the light, it is either strawberry blonde or just blonde (and it isn't just sunlight it is one color, it depends on the day too, it is really weird).  I am 90% sure his eyes are going to stay blue, yay!  He is still nice and chunky which is awesome.  He is still in the 6-9 month clothes and they seem to be fitting nicely.  I am trying to keep his nails short and keep an eye on them, that way he doesn't always have scratches on his face and I'm not always having to explain to people why they are there.

Milestones & Firsts: He has said dada, he was babbling and so I try saying mama to him a bunch (I was ever hopeful) and then clear as day he said "dada" and I was like, well crap. But he is saying it easily now.  He had a stye on his eye, which isn't that big of a deal except that it seemed to hurt him and it looked weir because one of his eyes looked red when it was closed.  He is sort of crawling.  Well my mom looked it up and apparently crawling now is a generic term and it includes army crawling which seems to pretty much be Liam's style but he is still trying to crawl on all fours but he seems to get bored of it easily and goes back to what works for him.

He got to see his first fireworks and it was way pas his bedtime so he saw about half of them and seemed fascinated and then got tired and fell asleep.  It was adorable.

Liam: Six Months

Likes: Getting tickled, being held, his feet, sitting up, standing, his bouncer, swimming

Dislikes: Getting changed

Biggest Achievement of the Month: Sitting up on his own

Biggest Challenge of the Month: None really

Sleep: Going so so well.  We put him in his own room and to sleep in his crib this month and I was really nervous about how it would go (I had been told that we would have a couple bad nights while getting him used to being in his own room and in the crib) but it went so well.  He didn't have any problems and it lets us use our amazing video monitor. 

He still gets up once or twice some nights but that is expected and most of the time we can put his binky back in and he will go right back to sleep.

Although because he is now in a big open crib instead of his confined rock and play he now loves to sleep in the weirdest positions   I found him once on his stomach (which I know is bad), at the edge of the crib with his arm hanging out the side.  In general we put him to bed on his back and he normally ends up sleeping on his side.

Depending on the night, if he wakes up around 3 or 4, on hubby's nights he will pull him into the rock and play in the room just to make sure if he starts fussing he isn't running across the house a ton.  On my nights, if he wakes up after 5 I will pull him into bed with me so that I can sleep later (if he is with me, he normally lets me sleep until at least 8).

In general though, he isn't even eating at night, probably fed him 3 or 4 times total at night all month so I am so proud of him.

Temperment/Personality: Still so happy. But I can see his personality developing more.  He is so interested in everything.  He tries to grab everything, stick it all in his mouth.  I can see hubby in him, he kind of does what he wants.  And if you are not doing what he wants he lets you know.  If you are having him sit and he wants to stand, he will arch his back and fuss until you stand him up and then he will be all happy again.

His crying face is the most adorable thing ever. He is just so expressive and he shows everything he is feeling, it is the most awesome thing.  He is also very cuddly, like you do something to make him smile, and he smiles at you and then hides his face in your neck/shoulder.  I know he won't be like that with me forever so I just treasure the time that is he like that.

Eating: Breastfeeding is going wonderful.  On days I work he eats about 3 times with me and on my days off around 5 so that is going well.  On eating cereal, he is doing great with that too.  He has 4 TB of rice cereal mixed with pear juice in the morning and evening.   And he just chows down on it.  We have given him a couple jars of baby food and I am starting to get everything together to make his baby food myself.

The Superficial: He is freaking adorable and pretty much everyone compliments him on how cute he is.  He is starting to get very chunky, so so many rolls on him now.  He is definitely getting hair now and you can see that he is going to have a widows peak.  The problem is that it is so light colored that unless you are close up and looking, it still looks like he is bald.

His nails grow so freaking fast, I tend to notice they need to be cut once Liam has scratches on his face from scratching himself.

So my mom pointed out that his clothes might be a bit too tight and that I should try a bigger size, and that he needs to stop wearing pants in the summer heat.  So I tried a 6 to 9 month outfit and it fit nicely. Crap.  In case you didn't remember, he was still in 0 to 3 month outfits.  So apparently we have mostly missed the 3 to 6 month size.  So I went through the boxes of lager clothes and pulled everything that was in the right size and for appropriate for summer. 

Most of them were 6-9 months but there were some 3-6 month ones that worked.   I don't know why I wait so long to change his outfit sizes, it is so fun that every few months he gets a brand new wardrobe.  We also picked up some more outfits from Costco but we still need some more shorts for him and then he will be good for awhile.

Milestones & Firsts: He is sitting up on his own now, sometimes he does still fall but in general he is doing really well with it.  He is trying to crawl, he has got the position down and gets in it and rocks, sometimes lunging for whatever toy we have put out of his reach to try to encourage him to move for us. He rolls over both ways and always wants to be on his stomach, which is making changing him so much fun. He is very vocal and does baby talk conversations with us.  He is starting to recognize people, he definitely knows his family and our close friends verses strangers or acquaintances who he doesn't smile immediately at.

He had his first out of town trip (went went about 2 hours away for only one night to visit my hubby's brother) and it went really well, he slept on the car trips both ways so we had no issues like that but he didn't sleep well at night.  I'm guessing he figured out he was someplace different and even trying to have him in bed with me, he still didn't sleep very well. 

He also slept in his own room and in his crib for the first time.

Favorite Baby Gear:

My amazing video monitor that I have had since my baby shower and have not used because why did I need to use a monitor on the baby that is right next to me?  I had hubby mount it on the wall and it makes it so nice.  It beeps when he makes a sound (it also beeps whenever anyone closes a door nearby but that isn't that annoying) and then we can watch him to make sure he is actually waking up versus just fussing a little.  I know it was from Target and the picture and link are the ones that look closest to it that I can find.

A toy that he loves right now is his Bright Starts Lights and Sounds FunPad.  It not only lights up but it sings to him which he loves.  It is also light enough that he can easily hold it himself which he loves because that means he can eat it.  I love it because it is easy to take in the diaper bag and it isn't so loud that it is annoying when it keeps going off.

Liam: Five Months

So I am going to be doing these a little different from now on.  Instead of doing it every 4 weeks (which should technically a month) I am going to write them on the 7th of every month (his birth day) so I might have more then 4 main pictures.

Likes: Being thrown up in the air, being naked, being held, sitting, standing, looking at the chickens, Curious George

Dislikes: Carseat (he really hates getting put in that thing), laying in his carrier (he tries to flip over in it)

Biggest Achievement of the Month: Having and sleeping in his own room

Biggest Challenge of the Month: Sleeping for mommy

Sleep: It has been so on and off.  Some night he will sleep all night and not wake up until Dad has to get him ready for the day and some nights he wakes up 3 or 4 times although the nights he gets up the most are my nights, which is just awesome for me.  In general he is a decent sleeper and normally gets up only once to eat.  We did put him in his crib in his own room a couple days ago and so far it has been good and bad.

The first night he got up 3 times, once to feed and then 2 times 15 minutes apart afterwards, apparently he just wanted mom in the room with him when he fell asleep but he slept until 8:15.  The second night wasn't as good, I went in there like 7 times because he did not want to sleep for me, and once it was around 6 I pulled him into bed with me like normal (I always do that on my days off so that he will sleep later) and he let me sleep until 9 and last night he woke up when I was getting ready for work so around 4. 

I think it has gone really well considering the horror stories I have heard about putting your kid in their own room.  

Temperment/Personality: He is starting to get more of a personality.  He is having bad days and good days.  There are days where all he wants to do is fuss unless he is being held and others where he is happy to play in his jumper and on his play mat all day.  He does have more good days then bad and his good days are so wonderful.  He does seem to be having more preferences about people as he is learning that not everyone is the same.  Nothing is better when I pick him up from the sitter and he sees it is me and just smiles at me.

Eating: He still loves the boobie and per my pediatricians orders we have started feeding him multigrain and rice cereal.  At first he really did not like it but I have been patient and used every trick I could think of (eating in front of him, having George playing, using the binky to help calm him down, giving him toys to play with during) and now he is eating really well.

We are trying to feed him twice a day and are using flavored cereals (Banana Apple Rice Cereal, and Sweet Potato Apple Multigrain Cereal)  We started at 2 tablespoons but he is still so hungry all of the time I have upped it to 3 to 4 tablespoons.  We mix it with breast milk but because that means we are using my supply that I pump (which isn't that large right now) I am going to try to switch to pear juice (which is the other option I was told I could mix it with) and see if he likes that.

The Superficial: He is still so pretty.  We get lots of compliments on how adorable he is.  At his last appointment he weighed 14 lbs and 3 oz so he has almost doubled in weight size since birth.  He is still in 0-3 month clothes but he is almost too big for them so I am sure within the next month we will put him in the 3 to 6 month.

He is starting to get hair and it is looking blonde so I am hoping that is the color it is going to be but we won't really know until it fills in more.  His eyes seem to be staying really blue so I am excited about that and they are so beautiful.  

Milestones & Firsts: He has done lots of things this month it feels like. He rolls over both ways now, which is fun (from back to front and from front to back).  He is also sitting up really well, for at least a couple minutes at a time but we still keep a really good eye on him just in case. He is also getting better at standing to the point that he has grabbed onto something when we were helping him stand and help himself up with it (we still had our hands on either side of him just in case)  He is also grabbing at everything including people.

He went swimming for the first time and loves it (we love it too because he is so sleepy after and because he looks so darn cute in his swim diaper) First time eating real food.  First time sleeping in a room without his parents (and once his room is decorated I will show pictures)  Oh and he found his feet.  I was really wanting him to do that and now that he has I have realized how annoying it is when I am trying to change him and he is trying to eat his feet.  

Favorite Baby Gear:

My new Solly Wrap.  I adore this thing, I got a Moby right after Liam was born and loved it but I wore it one day when it was warm out and I thought both him and me might die from overheating so I knew I had to get a more lightweight one.  After googling a bit I found the Solly wrap and it came in a cute striped patern and was made from bamboo cotton (same as my nursing cover) so I had to get it.

It is a little more stretchy then the moby so there was a learning curve again but I love it.  I can go out in the Southern UT heat and not worry that my kid is going to die.

I saw the OBall on another blog I read and thought that Liam might like it so I went to Target and bought it (it was only $4, why not) and he loves it.  He grips the sides and tries to eat it but since there is no way it can fit in his mouth, he just has an open mouth held against it as he keeps trying.  It is the funniest thing to watch.

Now this item I knew I needed but could just not bring myself to spend the money on it.  A Bumbo.  It lets him sit up by himself and I can feed him in it.  So I was at a friends house and they have a daughter and I thought I had seen her in it once upon a time, so I asked if I could try it and see if I could convince myself and hubby to spend the $40 to buy our own.  So they let me use it and then offered to let us borrow it since their daughter is too old for it and their new one is too small for it.

So I was at a kids consignment store in town (Caroseul Kids) and saw Baby Einsteins Musical Motion Activiry Jumper for half the price that it is in stores and I had to get it.  Liam is a little small for it (his feet barely touch the ground) but he still loves it and it gives him a chance to stand by himself.