She’s hit double digits! I can’t believe my baby is 10 months old already. Since I last wrote, things have gotten much more calm in our household. We survived the dreaded when-will-this-cold-ever-end and I-can’t-believe-a-child-can-produce-this-much-snot phase and we’re really enjoying things now.
The deets
Baby O weighs 21 pounds 14 ounces.
Sleeping
Sleeping is back to normal…oh I just caught myself in an evil giggle at the mere fact that I actually typed the words ‘sleep’ and ‘normal’ in the same sentence! Have I learned nothing? Let me rephrase: sleep has returned to predictability, consistent with Baby O’s patterns before she got sick. Naps continue to be the wild card for us, as it seems they are with many of our friends. She will get on a streak of good naps (1.5-2.5 hours) and then she will go through a phase of 45 minute naps. These are the hard days.
We have found ourselves a little stumped…she’s been a 2-a-day napper for awhile, but recently went through a regression where she really didn’t want to go down, sleeping for 45 minutes or less on a few occasions. By late afternoon, she was exhausted, fussy, and not very happy. But when we would try to put her down for a 3rd nap, she was absolutely not having it. We’ve settled on 2 naps and “quiet time,” resting together on the couch in the afternoon if her second nap isn’t very long. For now, it seems to be working.
Night time continues to be smooth. She goes down between 7pm-7:30pm and is an awesome little sleeper. Around 4am or 5am, she will stir and I will go get her, feed her a bit and put her back to sleep in bed with us. It’s a carry-over from when she was sick, and she doesn’t need this now, but both Missus Scooter and I love this time. I am up by 6am on weekdays, so having an hour of snuggle time in the early morning is really sweet. Somewhere in the back of my mind I am saying “we shouldn’t be doing this” but then I remind myself that whenever I find myself using the S word (“should”), I’m usually being influenced by outside opinions rather than listening to what’s working/not working for us. Having her in bed with us in the mornings is working for us now, so we’re going to continue to do it.
bed head!
Teeth
Baby O’s bottom teeth continue to grow, which is so fun to see! They actually look like real teeth now. She also cut her two top middle teeth. Every time we try and feel them, though, she bites down real hard with those bottom chompers. Ouch! She’s using them for chewing these days; it’s really cute. We also brush her teeth every night at bath time. She loves the toothbrush and opens her mouth real wide every time she sees it.
Communication
We’re working on blowing kisses – Baby O is pretty stingy when it come to trying new things, so I’m not really sure when she’ll do it, but I know that one day she’ll just DO it and I will be surprised. This is just how she rolls. She also started squealing and growling. This I find soooo fun! She’s a big flirt, especially with men. She smiles and tilts her head to the side and loves to feel their faces, especially their whiskers. Missus and I remark a lot that we’re in big trouble.
Baby O getting into trouble in the dog’s water bowl
Motor Skills
The child loves to move! I am sure all parents go through this, but Missus Scooter and I are routinely amazed at just how fast this kid can get around! She is all over the house now. She’s also using furniture to walk around. Occasionally she will try and stand without holding on but that doesn’t last long. We borrowed a little walker from one of our friends and she really likes that.
Eating
Baby O’s appetite is back to normal post-sickness. She is really loving soups right now – minestrone, chicken noodle, white bean, black bean. We add little bits of meat – steak or chicken – in the soup and she devours it. She’s also loving tomatoes. It seems as though she would eat them non-stop if we allowed it. She’s really into avocados now, which previously were never her favorite. She is still a fruit lover, and we end each meal with a bit of fruit. Berries are her favorite. She is drinking a breastmilk bottle before each nap and sometimes in the late afternoon if she doesn’t have a solid snack. I still breastfeed her at night before she goes to bed. During the week when I go to work, it’s hard to believe she only breastfeeds twice, and one of those times is at 5am when she’s still half asleep. It’s sad…
t-r-o-u-b-l-e
Personality
Baby O’s cognitive skills are quite noticeable on a daily basis. She listens, she mimics, and she understands. She is sweet. She is starting to get irritated during diaper changes and she will kick her legs really hard. It’s that little bit of feisty personality we get glimpses of that really make me wonder what she will be like.
Baby O hamming it up with mama’s sunglasses
Mama(s)
Missus Scooter and I are thankfully also back to our healthy selves. Missus Scooter is training a lot (she’s on a Crossfit competitive team) while I am feeling stuck in an exercise rut. A few of my friends signed up for a half marathon around St. Patrick’s Day and I am regretting that I’m not running. I am only making it to yoga twice per week which is so not enough. I need to commit to making time to get my workouts in. They help me feel good all the way around. Missus Scooter and I also want to be better about date nights, because we are averaging about 1x per month. It seems like the “to do” list is always longer than the days are.
We’ve been having some really beautiful mild California weather and have taken full advantage of it by getting outside! At least once per day (often more), we will get O outside for a walk in her wagon, to the park, or to walk the dog by the river. Missus Scooter and Baby O have also been going to swim lessons at the Y and O loves it. She holds herself up on the side of the wall and blows bubbles in the water. She also loves to splash a lot. We took O to the zoo for the first time last weekend. We live half a mile away, so we bought a season pass for the family for $60!! We can’t wait to go again.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
What a sweetie!!
blogger / pear / 1964 posts
What a cutie!! I need to tattoo your advice about the word “should” across my forehead – I forget if often!
honeydew / 7444 posts
Sooo cute! Our LOs are similar in age, so it’s great to read your updates. Their personalities also sound very alike!
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
I love her! I think I said this last month, but your updates are just far enough away from Little M’s current age that I get a “aww” nostalgia reading them, but they’re still close enough that I can vividly remember him doing the same stuff (and he still does do the same stuff). They sound like they have similar personalities. If we weren’t a country away, they could be buddies and partners in crime.
In re: naps…watch out, Little M dropped to one nap and a 5:30 bedtime at 8m! It just worked better for us since he really fought that second nap most days.
coffee bean / 30 posts
love reading! Question – after having the cold / sick… did sleep return to “normal” naturally?
blogger / cherry / 247 posts
@lauk80: yes, sleep returned to normal fairly naturally. we had a transition period because she was sick for about 5 weeks and patterns developed – multiple wake-ups during the night, sleeping with us, sometimes sleeping ON us, etc. but once her congestion significantly cleared up, it’s like her body knew she just wanted to sleep. it probably took about a week to slowly transition back to her normal patterns and we let her dictate that process instead of forcing anything.
coffee bean / 30 posts
Thanks so much. My LO has an ear infection still on antibiotics but he seems to be doing longer stretches at night so might just have him slowly transition back on his own. Thanks again!