Wallace | Eight Months

There is so much to write and seemingly NOTHING to write about life/our big boy who turned eight months old.

But we will start with 'something': I blinked and he is eight months old, what in the world?



Sleep is not my favorite topic at all after last night's debauchery. Yes, it was Daylight Savings Time and yes, it usually blows for all parents in the history of ever. Wallace was up at midnight, then again at 4:45am and he didn't return to sleep after that until 6:30am. He nursed four times and I am seriously exhausted, not sure what is going on but he's getting worse at sleep instead of getting better.

I'm looking at you, kid.


Someday he will sleep through the night and it will be a glorious occasion. But kid just loves to nurse and likely needs it for 'comfort' in the middle of the night, despite all of our sleep training efforts to make bedtime a solid routine that doesn't include nursing.



He gets a bedtime bottle around 6:30pm and then lights off around 7pm after jammies, books, songs. He now hates taking a bath so I'm not forcing the issue every night in the name of routine.



Naps are not quite consistent yet, but he will roughly nap for a total of 2 hours each day. Usually he takes the first one around 9am and the second around 1pm, and they range from 45 min to sometimes 2 hours long. It's a crap shoot because depending on how awful the night went, he may sleep in until 8:30 am which throws off the nap schedule entirely.

Yawn.

I'm tired of talking about how tired I am so let's just move on, shall we? Because my goodness, he's cute.



Wallace loves eating 'real' food now and is gagging less on non-purees. He enjoys protein pancakes, burgers, pizza, quinoa and rice, and baked sweet potato strips. Anything that he can hold himself is a winner and the messier the better! He still eats purees, too, and will down 4-8oz of the stuff during a mealtime. Because I'm being a little psychotic about sleep at night (ha!), I'm trying to get him full to the gills during the day---so purees actually pack more punch than chunky food at the moment.





He is an excellent nurser, too, and for that I'm eternally grateful. He nurses when he wakes up for the day, gets one 6oz bottle of breastmilk while I'm at work, nurses when I return around 2:30pm, and sometimes nurses again around 5pm before dinner, then that 6:30pm 5 oz breastmilk bottle happens before bed. I have been pumping at work and then also before I go to bed, but I told myself after he hit eight months I could drop the bedtime pump. I do have a hefty freezer stash leftover from the days of bottle refusal/return to work, and honestly if I have to supplement with formula here and there I vow not to care. Because right now, my mental health is going to suffer if I continue pumping before bed, working outside of the home, managing three kids, a house, etc etc etc. I have no doubt that Wallace will continue to nurse when we are together, even if I give a formula bottle at bedtime---so we will just cross that bridge when we come to it as my freezer stash dwindles.

Delicious skin.


Sidenote on nursing and sleeping: I mentioned the Precious Little Sleep book in my last post, and there is a section in the book that really stuck with me. It talks about 'boob babies' and how you know you have a boob baby when they are obsessed with nursing. It's like nursing is a chocolate cupcake to them, and they are not happy when you remove their beloved cupcake from them. Sure, they CAN sleep without a mouth full of cupcake, but why would anyone want to do that? Stand between a boob baby and his cupcake and you will feel their discontent. Wallace is a total boob baby and loves his freaking chocolate cupcake like woah. I'll try to focus on the positive in this, because although Porter was STTN by now, he also self-weaned at six months. You can't always have a good sleeper AND a good nurser, right?



An area of excellence for Wallace? Mobility. This baby is seriously crawling super fast, pulling up, sitting back down, he just climbed up the bottom step of our staircase, and he can easily walk along furniture now. The ottoman, couch, and trainable are his favorite locations to practice this skill and I've seen him reach from couch to ottoman, changing locations without a problem. YIKES. It's kind of my favorite to see him crawl like a maniac from room to room, and he will hunt me down when he hears my voice from afar.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E


How I shower:


For all of his amazing efforts in mobility, Waller McBaller still has not cut a single tooth. This is definitely late compared to my other children!!

Also, this past month was not the healthiest for our baby. He had his very first ear infection about a month ago, and then two weeks ago I had to take him into Urgent Care because he was hysterical at night. Also, the other three kids were also sick (Truman had an ear infection and possible strep, Cecelia and Porter both had tummy bugs). We had a total of four Urgent Care visits spanned over two weekends, Wallace going in twice and the other kids all went in once. It was a blast, let me tell you.





SADDEST.




Oh yeah, I forgot about the time his eyes were crusty and red and swollen last month, too. Let the good times roll.


ANYWAY, that first weekend of fun uncovered Wallace's second ear infection---this time only his left ear, but 'pretty bad' according to the doc. Since he had been off amoxicillin for only one month, they put him on Cefdinir this time which is stronger. It did help clear up the infection, but on day 7 he spiked a 103 degree fever over night and was crying the saddest cry ever, plus very tired. I took him back into Urgent Care and they swabbed him for Influenza, which was negative. Therefore it was some 'new' virus that gradually faded after a day or two, but the past few weeks have been pretty insane around here. See also: Nate has had a kidney stone for FIVE WEEKS NOW and has to have surgery to remove it this week. #StruggleBus

Because he's been weighed every time at Urgent Care, I know Wallace is a little over 19 pounds now and fits both 9 month and 12 month outfits. I feel like his forehead gets bigger every day and with his new-found scrunch face smile? Totally resembling Truman more and more, if you ask me.

His siblings are in love with this baby and the feeling is mutual. Wallace will giggle at all of them and although he usually destroys Porter's train tracks, big brother is being patient with the little trouble maker more than I expected. Truman and Cecelia are genuinely helpful as they play with Wallace, keep him out of trouble (sort of), and carry him around the house for fun.



Also, sits in BOB without car seat now!



ARE YOU KIDDING ME?


We call him 'Wallace' most often, but Ace, Waller McBaller, Wall-Ball, Wally Poppins, Mister Poppins, Wallaby, and Acey Basey are all common nicknames you'll hear us say to this nugget babe.

Bunch of (lovable) clowns


Well, this turned out to be complain-y pants, huh? I should know better than to write a blog post the day after getting horrid sleep. But I'm obviously not making time to write here much anymore, so when the opportunity presents itself I must blog, darn it.

Things to also note:
-Truman turned eight years old and is amazing.
-Nate's new clinic opens in a week!
-Did I mention Nate is having surgery this week?
-We signed the final draw for our addition. Still need to do a tour for you, I know.
-Other thoughts on this hectic time in our lives do sometimes surface, and I consider writing them down. But if a general monthly update is this negative (read: TIRED), I don't think I can do the positive side justice right now. So I just don't write and that's uncool, but maybe someday I'll dust off the cobwebs. After all, this little blog has been kicking for almost ELEVEN years, man. Insanity.