Elias: 8 Month Update

Age: 8 Months. How? I'll never understand. I swear to you, he was just born last week. No. Freaking. Way. Is he 8 months old. No. Way.

And, I know. I'm a terrible, terrible mom for missing month updates. Ugh. I tried. I failed. I'll work on it. But, let's do a quick pic recap to make me feel a little better about my mother failure.

 

Stats:

Weight: About 20 pounds. Bub is SOLID. He's got rolls for days and I love every inch of them.

Height: No freaking clue. I think he's short for his age though. We'll see at his 9 month check up.

Diaper/Clothes Size: 6-9 month clothes, Size 3 diapers (4 overnight)

Sleep: We're a LOT better!! We did a gradual CIO method for overnight, MOTN sleep around 6 months. It took a few nights. It was miserable. It was horrible. I slept so little I was delirious. But, he started to get it. Then he got sick and it all went to shit. My life. So, we had to do it again, but it was quicker and much less painful that time. It's still not perfect. He's way, way less consistent with sleep than Bailey was, but it's better.

99% of the time, he goes to sleep mega easy. We do a bottle of about 7oz of pumped milk at 6:30pm. Then, we change into overnight diaper & PJs and get into the sleeping sack (he'll go to college wearing one of those suckers if I can help it). We read 2 books with Bailey, since You Are My Sunshine, and at 7pm put him into his crib wide awake with his paci, turn the mobile and a fan for white noise on, and walk out. 99% of the time, he goes straight to sleep without a peep. If he does fuss, it just takes 1 re-paci and he's out.

We used to do a dream feed at about 9:30pm, but we cut that a week shy of 8 months, so we're officially done with that. We cut the dream feed cold turkey with no issues whatsoever. 

Staying asleep has always been his issue. I'd say 75% of the time, he stays asleep til 5am. Which, is pretty damn good, I'd say. The other 25%, he'll wake once sometime around 3-4am simply for a quick re-paci. Stinker. Here or there, he'll make it all the way from 7pm-6:30am, but usually he's up at 5am for either a quick re-paci or h

e'll need 4-5 minutes of nursing and then he'll go back down til 6:30am. It's not perfect. We're still working on it. I have no idea when or how we'll get there. But we will. Somehow. I hope.

Schedule:

Our schedule has always had to be a bit more flexible and fluid than I ever was with Bailey. Poor 2nd kid. But, we do have a schedule that I work hard to maintain most days.

His schedule is generally:

6:30am: Wake, nurse, change

7:15am: Solids & I pump

8:30-10am: Nap 1

10am: Wake,nurse, change , play

12pm: Nurse, then solids

1-3/3:30pm: Nap 2 (also when Bailey naps)

3:30pm: Wake, nurse, change, play

5pm: Solids, then play

6:30pm: Bottle of pumped milk (6-7oz)

7pm: Bed

I work hard to try to get naps at home, in his crib. But, sometimes I have to wake him early or we do naps in the car so we can do something. It is what it is.

Eating/Nursing:

It's going well! We nurse 4 times a day and he gets a bottle of pumped BM once. I pump twice a day, once during breakfast and once after kids are in bed. I hate pumping, but it's working for us. Nothing super exciting about nursing. It's going.

Solids are going in full force! Super exciting!! We started around 5 months with traditional pureed baby foods and baby oatmeal and 1 meal. We moved to 2 meals around 6 months. Around 7 months we started really focusing on slowly transitioning away from purees and to real solids. With Bailey, we did BLW and really did very little baby food. That was always my plan with Elias, but we started earlier and I just felt he needed the food before he was ready for solids. So, we didn't start straight with BLW, but we're there now. We still do occasional purees here or there for convenience, but mainly we're doing plan ol' regular food. And, let me tell ya-- bub LOVES it. He loves every food he's tried. Broccoli, cheese, peanut butter, sweet potatoes, pears, sausage, chicken, waffles, eggs... you name it. He loves it and can't get enough. I legit have to cut him off. He's a beast. He doesn't quite have the pincher grasp down yet, but he's getting so close.

Likes:

His sister! OMG. He just loves watching her. It's adorable and makes my heart explode. He loves his bouncer, Sadie, being held by his mama, and eating. Oh, and he LOVES being outside. Often, if he's fussy, just going outside makes him turn into a totally new baby. It's amazing.

Dislikes:

He's a big mama's boy, so he's a little hit or miss when basically anyone else holds him. Stinkerbutt. He hates being poopy, being hungry, and being overtired. He's a total schedule baby and doesn't do great if I try to push him to be awake too long.

Special Moments:

Well, like a gazillion since I've missed so many updates. He started rolling over back to belly around 7 months and rarely belly to back at the end of 7 months. He's cooing and making so many more noises. He started sitting up unassisted at about 6 months. He's not crawling yet, but he's working on it. He's getting super close to being able to hold his own bottle. He can stand on his own holding onto something, but can't pull himself up yet by himself.