Likes: her brother's toys, smiling at people, nursing, her family, eating real food, the doorway jumper, playing peek-a-boo, and waving on command which always gets a huge reaction from her nutso parents.
Dislikes: being dropped off at daycare, naps, having her nose wiped with a Kleenex, most car rides, being left alone to play for more than 3 minutes at a time.
Biggest Achievement of the Month: sleeping through the night two whole times! Coming close a handful of other times.
Biggest Challenge of the Month: getting her to nap longer than 30 minutes at a time. Sleep. It's always sleep that's a challenge around here.
(every parent must have at least one picture like this, right?)
The Mecca (aka Sleep): Naps are freaking ridiculous and I'm not joking when I say that 30 minutes is her max at home, and she will go most days clocking less than an hour total of nap time. Ridic for a baby that is eight months old, right? She is pretty happy and content though, so whatever. Mama just needs a break every now and then! And Cecelia naps for over 3 hours total at Lori's, always getting two decent naps in for her---do not understand why my children are like different creatures at daycare.
Nighttime sleep is better lately. I'd say that most nights she is up just one time, around 3 or 4 am, and takes a bottle for Nate without a fuss, returning to bed without a fuss, and is up for the day around 6:30. But some nights she is up twice, sometimes she is really loud and fights returning to sleep, and sometimes she needs to nurse immediately AFTER a 6 oz bottle because apparently she is starved/needs to nurse for comfort. Definitely have our nights about twice weekly when she is up for 1.5 hours at a time. So draining! It's like she is just ready to be up for the day at 4 am, happy, yelling, playful. Um, no.
Luckily the norm is waking just once. And sometimes she will even sleep until 7 am which feels like sleeping until noon for most families;) Plus there were two nights when she slept all the way through the night without waking. Holla!!! Let's hope those golden nights become more and more common up in here.
(napping in the Ergo--an act of desperation)
Temperament/Personality: She's the best baby I know (biased, yes). But seriously---she is so happy, smiley, nosey, social, curious, and pretty laid back. Unless she is tired or if she can see me across the room when someone else is holding her. Then The Diva comes out to play. As Lori says, 'Cecelia is a girl who knows what she wants.' Most of the time she is chill but when she isn't, watch out. She's still my cuddly girl who prefers to be held and carried around, but yet she kind of wants to be down and in everyone's biz at this point, too. I think that is why she hates to nap, too---doesn't want to miss anything exciting!
Also, she has her first cold right now and is handling it like a champ. Cannot believe we made it 8 months without any real illness for this baby. She had a touch of a GI bug when she was 3 months old but nothing since. Which is amazing because Truman had his first cold at 3 weeks and then had one literally every month of the first year of his life. Love my healthy girl! Hope it stays this way and that she kicks this runny nose/wretched cough/congestion stuff quickly.
(video of her amazing giggles)
Talking: New category because baby girl is just so freaking loud and I have a feeling we will have a chatterbox on our hands very soon. She loves to shriek and yell and then she will just grin at us like, 'I'm so awesome and don't you love how I shattered glass three doors down with my antics?' She is consistently saying 'yayayayaya' and 'dadadadada' and 'bababababa.' Truman will tell you that she says 'Dada' and 'Mama' but I haven't really heard the 'M' sound too much just yet. She loves to repeat the letter 'T' over and over again. What do you want to bet her first word will be 'Truman'? ;)
(videos of the chatter)
Eating: Still eating 12 oz of milk in two bottles at Loris, then will nurse before daycare, right after daycare and before bed. Nighttime feeds are usually just once but can be 0 or 2 times, too. That means it's usually 5-7 times per day that she is feeding. I have no idea what she does on days we are home together since I basically just nurse on demand or when it seems like it's been awhile. I would estimate we nurse about every 3-4 hours at home, probably a little more frequently than she'd eat on daycare days.
She is now eating 3 solid meals per day, sometimes only eating 1 oz and other times housing 4 oz at a time. She loves to feed herself chunky foods and we haven't come across too many flavors that she dislikes yet. At least ONE of my children will eat ;)
(something on her face?)
The Superficial: Still wearing all 12 month clothes, maintaining her signature 'long red bang' look, and knocking you dead with her big blue eyes. I feel like she is actually getting a little chunkier somehow, because I just noticed that she has legit wrist rolls now. Do not remember those last month!
(Belly!)
(wrist rolls!)
(chunk!)
(eyes!)
(bangs!)
Teeth: still only the bottom two but for the love of GOD, I better be able to report that at least 2 more poke through in the next month. I am shocked that the top 4 and other 2 on the bottom are still hiding out. The amount of drool we experience on a daily basis is just absurd. I'm tired of jamming my fingers into her mouth each day expecting to feel a new nub of a tooth, too.
(drool)
(teething!)
Motor Milestones: I feel like she is on the cusp of SO much in this category. She is so close to being up on all 4s and loves to spend her free time popping her hips up when she is on her tummy, trying to get those knees under her gut. She sort of army crawls if she is on the hardwood, but on carpet she can't really pull forward as well so she just spins on her belly in a full circle, or rolls to where she wants to go. Definitely mobile now---able to make it across the room and she will get stuck under chairs or against walls. She loooooves that, of course. ;) The other really awesome thing she is doing now is waving on command, and trying to copy our deranged 'Sooooooo Biiiiiiiig' requests.
Video of said tricks:
She sits without the boppy for insurance most of the time and can get onto her tummy from sitting pretty easily. Doesn't know how to move from laying down to sitting up just yet but she will get there. And the grabbing---oh, the grabbing. Sister has to explore everything with her hands and her mouth.
(waving again)
Out and About: The Dells trip was pretty huge, as it was only the second time she's slept anywhere but our house. She loves to be my shopping partner, mostly preferring to be ON me in the Ergo, and I love running errands with my girl while the boys do their own errands on the weekend. She sort of hates her car seat again and I've found the best weapon against a backseat meltdown is to turn on music on my phone and aim it back towards her head a bit. Not ideal to have one hand on the wheel and one hand holding my phone, dangling above my baby but it works! Desperate times...
Firsts: First cold, first time in doorway jumper, first waves, first time REALLY getting into a pool, first time on mommy's back in the Ergo, first time in a high chair at a restaurant, first time to Cranky Al's---a local (amazing) donut shop. She liked the little bites I gave her, obvi.
(Cranky's---little head!)
(first time in a high chair---not a fan. Rough dinner out with two kids. I remember why we've only done it twice since CC was born now.)
(The Dells!)
(bored)
(video of her first time in the doorway jumper)
Favorite Baby Gear: Doorway jumper, Ergo, wooden 'bead box' that Truman got when CC was born (whoops!), and our old play table on two legs.
(tried the back carry with the Ergo--I like her in front better, but she sure does look cute!)
(doorway jumper)
Little Sister and Big Brother:
I love reading back over Truman's monthly posts because it's the best way for me to admit that I'm losing my mind. And I remember SO LITTLE from when he was eight months! In my head, I remember the 8 month mark being when Truman started STTN (no) by us trying the big 'bottle-before-bed' attempt. But no, we had already tried that at this point and he was still waking up at least twice per night. WHAT? Not what I remember at all. I think the stuff must have really hit the fan with Truman's sleep closer to nine months---because I do remember it getting really awful before it got better, and I remember that giving him only bottles at night helped him sleep better than letting him nurse. Also, impressed that I was so focused on breaking the nurse-to-sleep association with Truman at this point. I was really into that with CC, too, but now we are slacking off again and I'm sure that isn't helping her naps. Girl loves the boob, though, and I'm in that 'too tired' phase to do anything about it. I would like to start reading her books at night before bed, though, instead of her frantically searching for my boob and promptly passing out for the night.
I also remembered that my milk supply started to drop at this point last time but apparently not---still going strong back then. Very odd. But it's also fun to see the striking similarities between my children at eight months. Both just learned to wave (again, I thought Truman did that way later!), both weren't really crawling but they are getting around now, both are waking in the middle of the night, both aren't napping as well at home as they are with Lori (although Truman was still giving me two solid hours at home, so Cecelia loses in this category). Both love solids but I am definitely giving CC more of the finger foods this second time around compared to when I was a little more nervous about that with Tru. And both kids are really vocal at eight months:)
Present day brother-sister relationship is still the most heart-warming part of my days. I love watching Truman give CC toys to play with (mostly to distract her from the trains she REALLY wants to have, but whatever). Whenever she fusses he immediately comes to find me and says, 'Mommy, CC needs you. I think she wants to nurse.' He does not like to see her sad, and now that she has a cold he is always like, 'Oh, poor baby girl. I sorry you sick.' Such a sweet heart big brother! And CC adores Truman, too, of course and he is the one that always gets the biggest smiles out of her.
(big girl sitting in the double Bob with brother at the zoo!)
(Saturday Daddy tickles!)
(Twins!)
(Reading together in mommy and daddy's bed)
(Love, love, love them playing together nicely)
I love you, little lady. You're the best.
