8 Months Old

Syd Pid is 8 months old!

one week old:

one month old:

two months old:

three months old:

four months old:

five months old:

six months old:

seven months old:

eight months old:

She's always sitting like this with either her ankles crossed or the bottoms of her feet touching.  Such a lady.

EAT:
This past month has been full of routine busters, so we haven't stuck to much of a schedule lately.  She's still nursing at least 4 times a day...sometimes 5, sometimes 6....sometimes it's a full feeding, sometimes it's a snack....sometimes she likes the right boob, sometimes she doesn't (most of the time she prefers the left).  Meh.  This is what happens with the second child...you just go with the flow.  She also gets her oatmeal and veggie/fruit purees twice a day; well, sometimes it's three.  Basically, I just feed her when she looks hungry. ;)  It's beginning to look like we might have a picky eater on our hands.  Anytime I include avocado in her meal, she refuses to eat it.  Gags.  This has also happened with a baby food pouch of carrots and broccoli (must've been the broccoli because she eats carrots fine).  And it has also been happening anytime I add butternut squash into her meal, which is very frustrating since I made a huge batch of butternut squash puree that's taking up room in our freezer.  I'll keep trying though.  Millie still eats avocado so well...Syd can't shun it forever, or I'll be so disappointed!  New this month: I've introduced a sippy cup with water.  She always looks surprised when she actually gets some out.

I've tried adding some dairy back into my diet, but she isn't quite ready for it.  Whenever I have cheese, she spits up the entire next day - it's an awful, vomit-smelling spit up.  It must taste terrible because she makes a disgusted face when it comes up.  That's really all that happens though.  She doesn't get the terrible diarrhea that Millie did, so that's good news.  In fact, she's quite the opposite: constipated a lot, so I have to give her pear juice, and while in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago (milestone alert!), she had her first suppository.  Poor baby.  It's too bad she has this issue because she  LOVES bananas in her mesh feeder, but I'm really trying to limit the bananas now.

Still no teeth yet, but there has been plenty of drool.

She has a habit of sucking in her bottom lip so that it pretty much disappears.  It really changes her appearance.

SLEEP:
She's still sleeping like a champ 99% of the time.  There are still random nights where she'll get up and need attention, but most of the time, she's able to put herself back to sleep.  I usually go in to feed her between 5-6am and then she'll go back to sleep until 7ish.  However, we've traveled two out of the three weekends in January, and she's formed some bad habits that are going to take some effort to undo.  She's used to sleeping with a paci again (arggghhhh!), and she's been a little more fussy when I lay her down in her crib to go to sleep.  She's been a tad spoiled, so this week is off to a rough start.

The above pic is her very last time trying to nap in the pack-n-play, which didn't end up happening.  No more naps in the pack-n-play...that era is officially over!  She now does all of her sleeping in her crib.  I fixed the blackout curtain in her room to make it super dark, so she now takes a much better nap in the afternoon.  Just two naps during the day; we've dropped the catnap around dinnertime.

PLAY:
It's all about the standing these days!  She's starting to cruise just a little bit, and she'll take some steps holding onto our hands.  She's getting better at using the walker too.

Her feet seem so tiny...I'm amazed they can hold her up.  She can now cruise from one side of this Fisher Price jungle toy to the other side; it's in a semi-circle shape.

 

I'm really surprised she isn't full-on crawling by now.  She gets up in position and then hops her back legs up under herself again and again...then she gets tired and lays down.  She can get to what she aims for by inching on her belly though.  I guess it's sort of a crawl, but not really.  I was surprised to find her in the middle of my oatmeal bowl I had left unattended in the living room one morning.  She's definitely resourceful.  Maybe it's just her laid-back nature that's causing her to take her sweet time.  It's almost like we can read her mind when she's trying to crawl towards something...then she gives up and is all like "yeahhhh, I don't really need that" and rolls over on her back and starts babbling.

I took her to the doctor 2 weeks ago when she was sick...she weighed 18 lbs, 1oz and was 26.5 inches long.  Hubba hubba.

Millie continues to be her favorite person; she can crack Syd up like no one else.  It's the best sound in the world.  Syd is learning to be vocal though; when she's had enough of Millie messing with her, she lets out an ear-piercing scream that makes Millie cry.  Ha!

Dear sweet Syd,

You're such a little person now, constantly watching us wherever we go.  I love to see your big blue eyes light up when I meet your stare from across the room.  You definitely know who momma is, and the adoration is mutual.  Just a few days ago, you reached for me for the very first time...awwww.  I love to hear you squealing and giggling with your sister - my dream come true.  You're so vocal now and make all sorts of sounds, but "da" or "dada" is the most common.  We've come up with a new car seat game where you make a sound and we all repeat it.  It makes all of us laugh.  You make my day better every day, Sydney.  Baby of mine, you're loved more than you'll ever know.