This was a good month! Nolan is becoming more predictable and easier to read, which makes it easier to figure out what he needs. Mostly he just wants food and to be cuddled by his mama. There were some challenges this month too, but overall it was good.
Nolan at 8 Months
Nighttime sleep- I am not going to go into too much detail since that backfired on me last month, but I will say things are very good in this category. A few weeks ago Nolan started staying awake at night even after I nursed him, just fussing and wanting to be held and rocked, so I figured his waking at night was not because he was hungry. I finally got the guts to let him cry it out, and after two nights of some crying, he hasn’t woken at night since. Hallelujah! there, we’ll see if that backfires…
Naps-Nolan takes 3 naps, each about 1.5 hours on average. Except the last one, which is usually about 45 minutes. Although one day this week he took two longer naps, and i can see the days of two naps coming soon! I love the two nap schedule. It seems like there is so much more time to go play! Ninety percent of the time he goes to sleep without a fuss. Sometimes if he is overtired, he will fuss or cry for a few minutes, but most of the time he will fall asleep all by himself.
Nolan Supports our Troops
Nursing- Nursing is still kind of a challenge with this kid. He pulls off a lot, bites on occasion, and grunts and cries afterwards. Sometimes he will burp and then be totally fine, but if not, I usually supplement with a bottle if he seems grumpy after nursing. I’m not sure if we’ll make it to a year with him, but I’m going to at least try to make it to 9 months. He gets much more comfort out of nursing than drinking a bottle at this point. He nurses either 4 or 5 times per day, depending on what time he wakes up in the morning, how his naps go, etc.
Solids – Nolan is becoming much more adventurous in the eating category. His interest in food is almost alarming to me. He wants to eat anything we eat, so I’ve started giving him bits and pieces of food, instead of just pureed baby food. He has tried puffs, bits of pears, bananas, noodles, and pureed sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce, oatmeal, rice cereal, peaches, etc.
Temperament – He is very much a mama’s boy, and absolutely LOVES to cuddle me. He cuddles anyone, but is pretty partial to his mama. His face lights up when I’m in the room, which is so cute (since Addie was very independent, she was never too attached to me). I sort of fear he will never get over this, but I’m enjoying it for now. He is now able to play by himself on the floor, but constantly looks around to see where I am. If he is in mama’s arms, he is the most happy, content guy. If not, he is a little more unpredictable.
Likes and dislikes – He LOVE to stand up and jump. He HATES to be on his tummy. We think he will never crawl, but he’ll just skip to walking. We’ve been working on getting him to start moving on his tummy, but all he can do is rotate about 90 degrees, and scoot backwards, a a rate of about an inch per hour. So progress has been slow:) I’m okay with this, since I don’t have to babyproof my house yet, but it seems like he would be so much happier if he could get to his toys all on his own. He also LIKES to chew on everything still, and will sit and chew for quite some time as long as there are toys within reach. He likes the exersaucer, but prefers to stand outside of it where he is free to roam, rather than inside where he is cooped up. He LIKES to be tickled, and has the most awesome belly laugh. Oh how I love to make this baby laugh!
Milestones – He wears 9 – 12 month clothes and weighs about 18 pounds. He can roll both ways, but doesn’t do it often. He still just has the two teeth. His hair is starting to come in now, and it looks like it will be light, like Addie’s. He can stand if he is holding onto something, but isn’t cruising yet. Crawling remains a mystery, but he sits up and plays with toys pretty well.
He is getting a little big for this bouncy seat...
Nighttime sleep – For the last week, Nolan has slept from 7:30pm – 6:30 or 7am almost every night! I’m hoping it is not a fluke, because I love getting a full nights rest.
Naps – Nolan takes 3 naps (one about 8:30 or 9:00am, one at 12:00 or 12:30, and one at 3:30 or 4). He is taking longer naps too!! He still has a 30 minute one every now and again, but most are over an hour now. He has also been so good to go to sleep without crying for the past few weeks. A few times he has fussed (or cried for babysitters…mama’s boy), but for the most part, I rock him for a minute or two, give him his pacifier, and put him in bed and he rolls over and falls asleep. This is a big reliever on my stress level.
December 15th update: I have learned to never ever proclaim that your baby is sleeping through the night, taking good naps, and not fussing before napping. The last two days, Nolan has woken up at night, taken short naps, and cried before almost every nap…and one nap he just wouldn’t take at all.I guess the joke’s on me!
Temperament – Nolan is a mama’s boy! He loves to be with me, and if I set him down or give him to someone else, most of the time he fusses until he is back in my arms. It is cute to have a little cuddler for me, but it would be nice if he could be in Zac’s arms or my parents arms and not always be searching for me.
Milestones – He is sitting! He started sitting up alone on Thanksgiving Day, and now likes to sit and play with toys (as long as I am in eyesight). And by “play with”, I mean chew on. He is also starting to roll over both ways when I set him on his tummy, so that he can see me and Addie, wherever we are. He is grabbing at EVERYTHING. If I pick up something, he wants to hold it. If I get a drink of water, he reaches for it until I let him have a sip. And he is playing with the toy on his high chair now. Finally, toys are starting to keep his attention! I love to watch his little eyes focus on something and imagine what he is thinking.
Sitting next to the Christmas tree
Nursing – He nurses 4 or 5 times per day, for about 10-15 minutes. Although he gets distracted SO easily, that sometimes it takes longer since he is looking around the room trying to see what is going on. It got so bad over Thanksgiving that I decided I was done nursing, and I was going to pump and bottle-feed from now on. That lasted 2 days. First, because it took SO much time to pump, feed from bottle, wash pump, wash bottles, feed solids, etc. I felt like I was feeding and washing bottles all day. And I don’t produce a ton of milk either, so I had to pump EVERY time he ate, and supplement a few ounces of formula if I didn’t get enough milk for him. Also, after the second day of bottles-only, he rebelled. He just wouldn’t drink from them anymore. He just cried and cried if I tried to feed him a bottle. So I gave in and went back to nursing. He is much happier now:)
Solid Foods- He is a champion eater. Nolan LOVES to eat. Everything I set before him, he will eat (except avocados, we tried them again this week and he was NOT convinced). He eats twice a day, at lunch and dinner time. He has started grabbing at the spoon, wanted to feed himself. But of course he has zero dexterity, so it ends up getting all over him. I am probably going to start him on plain cheerios or puffs soon, since he is so interested in feeding himself. I’m not sure if he’ll be able to get it to his mouth, but it will be fun to see him try.
Likes and Dislikes – Now that Nolan is sitting, it seems like there is so much more for him to play with. He still LOVES to chew on teething rings, baby keys, books, etc. Everything becomes food in his hands. He likes jumping and playing in his exersaucer. He likes the bath, I think. He spends most of his time in the bath kicking his legs furiously, with the most serious expression on his face. It is pretty hilarious actually. He also likes giving hugs, which unfortunately includes yanking on my hair and smashing his face into mine. He likes being read to, although again he tries to grab and eat the book. He DISLIKES being away from mommy, not getting fed soon enough, and sleeping at church (he is now incapable of falling asleep in our arms although Zac can sometimes swing him to sleep in his car seat:)
So Andrea and I have been talking about taking photos of the kids for a long time but haven’t ever gotten around to it. Today I didn’t have very many church meetings so I set up the backdrop and started taking some photos. I did a little Lightroom editing but really only to make the background fade to a dark black and do some little retouching to scrapes and stuff. Here’s what we came up with and maybe you’ll agree that we need to make more time to do this in the future because we have really cute kids (IMHO).
Nighttime Sleep – Nolan goes to sleep at 7:30ish and wakes up around 4 to eat, then sleeps until about 7:30am. Occasionally he will sleep all night, and wake up around 7:00am.
Naps – He takes 3 or 4 naps per day STILL. He is a catnapper, and I’ve decided there is nothing I can do to change it. His average nap is about 45 minutes. Some are 30 minutes, and some are an hour and a half. We’ll see if he ever consolidates his sleep during the day:)
Temperament – Nolan has been a little grumpier lately. I’m not sure if it is teething (I can’t find any buds yet), separation anxiety (he is a major Momma’s boy right now), or sleep deprivation, but he is starting to make his preferences known. He would like to be held by Mom all day long, please.
Playing in the exersaucer
Likes and Dislikes – He LIKES playing in his exersaucer, chewing on teething rings, sticking his tongue out, drooling, sleeping on his tummy, having us blow raspberries on his tummy, laughing at Addie being silly, and eating solid food, and standing up. His laugh is awesome. It sounds like a car screeching to a halt. I’ll post a video. He DISLIKES being away from Mom, drinking from a bottle, sitting, and being left to play with toys all by himself.
Milestones – Sleeping through the night is happening more often (4 days in a row after his 6 month bday), yay! He is not yet rolling both ways or sitting up, but he is standing with help ALL the time. I think he may walk before he rolls over:)
Watching a movie together
Eating – This kid LOVES to eat. He nurses about 5 times a day (every 3.5 hours or so), and eats solids twice a day. He has loved everything he has tried (except avocados). He eats sweet potatoes, peaches, applesauce, rice cereal, and bananas.
