June 18, 2014

Jenson update: Eight Months Old

Jenson changed so much between 7 and 8 months. He’s so independent now and plays happily by himself now that he sits so steadily. He babbles constantly and has smiles for everyone. The best part of my day is getting home to see him. He always breaks into a huge smile, and when I pick him up, he squeezes around my neck. The squeeze is usually followed by him “biting” towards my face to let me know that he wants to eat. Even if he had a bottle recently, he still wants to each within an half hour after I get home.

Monthly Jenson update: May 7 – June 6, 2014

Age: 8 months
Weight: approx. 18 lbs, 12 oz.
Length: 27ish inches (just measured at home)
Size: Wearing 6-9 months mostly now, but some of the sleepers are getting short. He can actually still fit into some 3 month clothes if the length is long enough! He looks SO plump with all of his cheeks and chins and rolls, but somehow he’s still tiny!
Diapers: Cloth diapers, except at night. Our favorites seem to be Best Bottoms and Flips, and then Bum Genius Freetime for when he’s going to be in it for longer and we want him to feel dry against his skin. He wears disposables at night and wearing size 3 now. He’s been getting diaper rash more often now – I think it has to do with eating different foods.
Hair and Eyes: He has so much hair now – it’s really filled in. It’s getting long on his forehead and will be in his eyes soon. I swoop it to the side and Lo says its his young Republican look (or democratic…his choice). His eyes are more grayish blue now, and so big and bright.

Teeth: None still (“fine by me”, says the nursing mom). He’s got strong jaws and works pieces of food pretty well.
Sleeping: So much better now. We finally had to resort to a gentle form of sleep training. He was waking up 3 times at night starting at 11:30 pm, and nursing was the only thing that would get him back to sleep. I knew he didn’t need to eat at 11:30, so one night (when he actually woke around 9:30 pm), we decided we’d let him cry for a couple of minutes at a time and then go in to comfort him without picking him up. He’d calm pretty quickly after one of us would go in the room, so we knew he didn’t need anything. Once he calmed, we’d leave the room. When he’d start crying again, we’d start the clock. We didn’t let him cry for more than 3 minutes at a time (#pushovers), but he could REALLY get crying in that short amount of time. It was heartbreaking! We were seriously sitting on the edge of the couch watching the video monitor and the clock. But after about 25 minutes and 5-6 times going into the room, he fell asleep. And he slept until 5:30. I’m happy to feed him when he wakes at 5:30 for now, especially since he goes back to sleep. For the next couple of weeks he only woke once during the night. He had a setback and started waking again at 11:30 pm (and once or twice more), and I went with it for a few days in case he was having a growth spurt and needed the extra feedings (or wasn’t feeling well or whatever). After a couple of days, we redid the sleep training, letting him cry for 2-3 minutes at a time. This time it only took 20 minutes and going in the room 4 times – and he didn’t get as upset this time around either and eventually put himself back to sleep. Again, he slept until 5:30 and has only been waking once a night again (between 230 and 5 usually).
He likes the Cloud B Turtle Constellation Nightlight (and the frog one he has), and sometimes he’ll stop crying if I turn that on, and we’ve given his a small Aden + Anias security blanket that he’ll play with. When he’s trying to put himself to sleep in the night, he picks both feet up and slams them down together on the mattress, making a thumping noise. We can hear it through the wall in our bedroom! He usually does that 5-6 times and then goes to sleep.
Eating: He’s a very distracted nurser now – he stops and looks around with every noise he hears, or stops to “talk” or chew on his toes for a minute. It takes longer to nurse him that before because he keeps stopping now. It can be frustrating, but I realize it’s just extra time I get to hold him. He did a lot more experimenting with foods this month finally. He much prefers to be given food to feed himself, even if it’s with a spoon or the silicone feeder. He loved egg yolk and eggs, potato, chicken, mahi mahi, yogurt mixed with banana, mango, ground beef, pinto beans, zucchini, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things. He wasn’t a big fan of broccolini or cucumber though. He got a little rash from something one day – either yogurt or watermelon, but it went away by the next day.

Movement: He sits like a champ and rarely falls over. When he’s on his stomach or back, he can kind of squirm around to get to what he wants a little. He hasn’t rolled back to front, but gets SO close! While he doesn’t crawl, he’s started to pull his knees up under him a little bit. He loves pulling up to stand, and needs less and less support to do so. He can even stand at the little toy table by himself for a few minutes. When he’s sitting, he’ll start rocking and look like he’s going to rock forward onto his hands, but he doesn’t take the plunge.
He mocks our movements too – we were shaking our heads from side to side and making noises, and he started copying us randomly. He reaches for us when we go to pick him up now, and he’ll squeeze my neck when I pick him up and hug him. I love this.
He also drops things on purpose now, whether just playing with his toys, or dropping food (or holding his hand down for her to lick).

Words & Sounds:
His babbling is similar to last month with lots of Da da, and Ba, Ff, Ga. Now the da da is more like dada and less like da da da da. We aren’t sure he relates that to Lo yet though. He’s added “Te” and will sometimes take a nursing break to practice his words. He imitates sounds that we make a lot now. He’s very giggly and happy, but he will occasionally show a little temper now. Sometimes he’ll start crying when he gets frustrated, or he grunt and straighten his arms and clench his fists, which is really funny. It looks like this:

Milestones:
– First flight and vacation to Vegas! He got to meet his cousin Max, who is 4 months younger. He did SO well on the flights – either sleeping, playing, or hanging out in his seat mostly.

– First time in a swimming pool. We dipped his toes in while in Vegas, but the water was too cold. We were able to get all the way in at our friends’ house here though. It was still chilly, but he seemed to like it.

– Mother’s Day! We had lunch with my sister’s family at Pink Taco in the Hard Rock, and then the boys went home so my sister and I could get massages.
– Daddy’s first night away (for the Indy 500)
– Loren’s birthday

Favorite Toys/Activities:
– Sitting up and playing
– Watching Boof. He lights up when he sees her, and now that he’s eating, she’s more interested in him too.

– Having his picture taken, though sometimes he’s too busy to look at the camera.

– Walks with Boof (in the carrier or stroller) and with Braxton and their sitter in the double stroller.
– Zombie baby: he yells and bites at my face when he’s hungry. He’ll try to suck on my chin or nose.

– Chewing on his pacifier – he doesn’t usually want to suck on it unless he’s going to sleep or is upset, but he likes to chew on the side of it.

– He loves it when we sing to him, whether they are real or fake songs, but especially “Wheels on the Bus” with lots of extra characters, like Boofy and farm animal.
– Slamming his feet down when trying to put himself to sleep
– He loves kisses (thank goodness!), and have him cheeks, chin, and neck stroked lightly. Sometimes when he’s fussy and needs to nap, I can kiss him to sleep. I just kiss his cheek lightly over and over again, and he calms and the falls asleep.
– He loves to grab his feet, whether he’s sitting, or laying on his back, and now he can suck on his toes finally.
– My toes. I don’t know if it’s the red polish, or just feet in general, but if he catches a glimpse, he gets a little obsessed until I “hide” them again.
– Looking at books. It seems like he finally pays attention and is interested when we read to him.