Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Ella 8 Month Update

(it went to 17 lb 7 oz after this and stayed there but I liked this pic better)
Stats:
  • Weight: 17 lb 7 oz  - 48th percentile 
  • Height: 29.6 inches - 99.7th percentile  (we measure in cm and it was 75.2 cm but I converted)
  • Head Circumference: 17.1 inches - 54th percentile (but I think this might be slightly large since it was a jump from previous measurements. I probably did it wrong)
  • Diapers: Size 3 
  • Clothing: Disney 6-9 month, Spasilk 9 months, Steelers 6-9 month, Leveret 12-18 mo ones yet.  Carter's 9 month dresses and 12 mo onesies. I've put her in a few 12 mo things just because I have them. They are a bit wide though. Sometimes the neckline is far too large on the tank top type dresses. Most of her shorts are size 12 months. The 12 mo pants are entirely too loose. She's been wearing 12-18 month socks for a while now.
Sleep
Ella is more consistent I think.  She is sleeping in a little later and going to sleep a little earlier than she had been. She mainly has 2 naps a day with one being 45 minutes and one being 2 hours. Sometimes she has 1 nap and sometimes 3. If she has a third one it is for a half hour near 5 PM. She rarely has that unless she didn't get a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. I thought she was consistently napping 12-2 plus or minus a half hour but then the past week, she's gone crazy.  She's refusing her first nap and might not get a nap at all until 2 PM.

She's also less consistent with her wake-up time. She used to wake up pretty much daily at 6:30 but that has varied. She even slept until 8 AM twice.


Eating
She is now nursing between 1 and 2 hours a day. She continues to have pumped milk a few times a week.  Mostly when we leave the house, rarely at home when she's just refusing to nurse.  This reduced time is not reduced time for feedings though since I'm giving her baby food 1-2 times a day. She eats 1/3 of the 3.5 oz or 1/3 of the 4 oz purees at a time. At every meal she has some sort of finger food, too. At a bare minimum has Cheerios or puffs. She has also had steamed carrots, peaches, banana, strawberries, potato, or cucumber. Sometimes she has lil' crunchies but not as often. At restaurants we give her a lot of the puffs, cheerios, and lil' crunchies to keep her occupied. I do the same at the park since we are there so long. I haven't actually fed her a baby food puree out. I enjoy the snacks of Cheerios, puffs, or lil crunches because they are not messy.


Sample Schedule:
She still doesn't have a specific nap time or food time yet. It is so hard to plan anything but it is getting easier. She might stay up consistently for 2-3 hours between naps but her wake-up  time varies by 2 hours so then every shifts by that much.  Also naps can range from 1-3 hours long.  
Basically she sleeps for a long period of time starting at close to 8:00 PM. She sleeps until about 7:00 (but it also ranges from 6:30-8:30).  Then she says awake for 1-2 hours playing and chilling with Dave. Sometimes she wants another nursing session only a half hour after she wakes up. She barely eats when she first wakes up. Then she goes to sleep for maybe an hour.  But this nap only happens maybe half the time. On Monday she won't nap at home but will range from no nap to a half hour nap while I run. 
She most often naps 12:30-2:30 but she can start her nap as late as 2.  She sometimes naps at 5 PM for about a half hour.  She eats solids when we eat dinner around 6 or 7. She will have solids around 3 some days at home. She has solids around 4 or 5 on Wednesdays when we are at the park. She will have some snacks depending on when we are at the park so that time varies but being on a blanket is consistent for her. 
Her bedtime routine starts by 8 I'd say but usually earlier. It ranges between 7 and 8 but the last week if it was earlier she fell asleep on me but days it was later (also days she had a later nap) then she went into her crib awake.  For a while we were extra consistent with the time but sometimes she's not tired at all and sometimes she's super tired so we start it earlier. We read her not the clock.

She nurses after she wakes up most of the time and before she goes to sleep again. Her bedtime routine involves Dave swaddling her and then taking her around the room/house to try to find me to nurse. But lately I'm closer because she won't even let Dave take her and leave me or she cries. Those days she is also a little overly tired. When they find me, she sees me and gets all excited. If I swaddle her and walk her to the chair it's just not the same. I like being at some other place in the house. For those couple minutes I'm productive. I put laundry away, clean up dinner, put dishes away, etc. 

I haven't been keeping up to date on my sleep chart that is grayed out when she's asleep but I plan to update it and I'll post that when I do. It's just so fun to look at!


Special Moments:
On July 20, she brushed her hair with a spoon of food! We gave her a bath after. She had fun at least.
On July 21, she learned to open dresser drawers. She also had her first yogurt bites. She had strawberry and loved them. 
On July 22, I vacuumed with Ella in the same room. It was the first time I did this. She watched from her exersaucer. 
On July 23, she had her first Cheerios. She tasted someone else's at the park. 
On July 24, it sounded like she said "thank you" after Dave started to read to her.  She also had her first bite of egg and it was scrambled from Pearl's Cafe.
On July 26, she said Mom when I walked into the room. Dave and I both did a double take. It was probably coincidence but I still enjoyed it. We attended our first 1st birthday party.
On July 27, she sat on my shoulders and then on Dave's. She loved it. Dave had to keep her to the living room dining room because her head would hit the ceiling going into the kitchen. I only had her on my shoulders while seated. 
On July 29, she went from lying to sitting and I saw it. She had done it a few times before but I never saw her do it. She also crawled 1 step with her belly up. She still sticks to an army crawl though. 
On July 31, Dave was particular about putting on his helmet to make sure Ella knew it was still him. Then she went and waved bye to him. 
On August 1, she went 1-2 steps at a time with her belly up while crawling.  She had sips of her first jambajuice. She loved it.
On August 3, Dave gave her a tiny taste of his cookie. She had her first part of a  baked potato. She crawled on all fours more too. 
On August 4, she pulled herself up in her crib and then we lowered the crib. 
On August 7, she tasted mustard and soft pretzel. You can attribute all the foods that aren't specific vegetables or fruits to Dave.
On August 9, she had her first strawberries. She had a pretty good attempt at clapping.
On August 10, she went from lying to sitting but I didn't see it. 
On August 11, she greeted me in the crib sitting. She went from lying to sitting twice. She waved goodnight to Dave.
On August 12, she went from lying to sitting in her crib again. She had a few good steps crawling. She tasted guacamole and re-fried beans. 
On August 13, Ella went to her first pool party and since the kid pool wasn't heated, we went in the big pool. Ella loved it. She did not love her hat though.
On August 15, she ate sand and stood in sand for the first time. She loved standing in sand. (This was just at a park not at a beach.)
On August 16, she pulled herself up to kneeling and almost standing then to standing with help. She had her first peaches. She was excellent going from lying to sitting throughout the day.  We taught her to pull herself up to standing. We had to lower her crib again because she was pulling herself up. (Then I wished we would have waited to teach her how to pull herself up to standing.)
On August 18, Ella climbed up a step at the park. This was a step going up to a slide but it wasn't a ladder. It was more of a normal step. 
On August 19 and 20, she pulled herself up to standing herself by pulling up on the leather chair. She went over to the chair herself too. She also crawled over to me (probably an army crawl but I wasn't paying attention) then pulled herself up to standing. I was sitting on the red couch.
On August 20, Ella crawled over to me then started pulling up on me to go up to standing. It's an awesome feeling to have that happen.


Development:
Pinching food is doing a lot better. She doesn't always pinch between finger tips but does fingertip and the side of her thumb. She picks up multiple puffs at a time and will get them all in her mouth. 
She's also started picking up a puff that fell. 
Ella's army crawl has turned into more of a crawl with her belly off the ground (which is a step in the right direction).
Ella crawls after Poly using her army crawl and gets so excited by it. She's also the quickest at crawling when she is chasing Poly. 
She's had more kinds of food to eat herself. We even just bought some more. I can't wait to try more. Ella loves steamed carrots.
She puts everything in her mouth but seems more drawn towards eating paper this month. 
She waved bye a few times but really it was rare. 
She has continued to help us dress or undress her. We tell her to help get her arm out and she does.  We also ask her to help get her arms in the car seat and strollers and she does. She helps get her arms in her shirts too. But now that she has done this sometimes she'll be sitting there and start to disrobe.
She's started to pull herself up and loves to do it. I wish we had a better toy for her to use to practice.
She's way more talkative this month.
Ella throws more food on the floor if you aren't eating at the same time as her.

Other Tidbits:
Likes
She still likes to play a lot! 
She loves to army crawl around. She likes being more mobile.
She especially likes if she crosses a barrier like getting into the hallway. Then she giggles like she knows something is up.
She gets so excited to get her Vitamin D at the end the night.
She likes to sit by herself and play. She also likes to move from spot to spot to play then sit again.
She likes to be held when she wants to.
She likes to talk and smile at us. 
She likes to look at her mobile. She just loves those planets. She likes to reach and touch them if we are holding her.
She likes when Dave makes her fly. (She doesn't love it as much when I do it.)
She likes it when I sing to her which sucks because that cheers her up a lot but songs are hard and I definitely won't sit if anyone else is in the house.
She loves to squeal with delight.
She likes to kick those feet when she's lying on the ground.
She loves to grab everything including my face. 
She likes to put everything in her mouth.
She loves to pull my hair. 
She loves seeing Poly and trying to get at her. Luckily she squeals really loud when she's almost there and then this scares Poly away.
She loves when you get out Tylenol. She tries to help get that syringe in her mouth. 
She likes to laugh. (same link as last month)
She likes to eat actual food. She much prefers to be able to feed herself over eating purees. 
She likes to swing. She likes to be thrown around. I think she likes all things that are like a dare devil.
She moves around in her crib until she is all the way to one side. She tends to like to sleep with her head against the breathable bumper.

Dislikes
She hates when you take something away from her that she shouldn't have and protests!
(The following are all the same as last month.)
She doesn't like to nurse if I'm talking or if anything is going on. 
She doesn't want to nurse during the day without being swaddled if she wants to fall asleep next.
She doesn't want to fall asleep in the car and she protests and cries for a bit. 
She doesn't like to be anywhere she doesn't want to be. She could be happy on the floor playing then change her mind and you better pick her up or she's crying.
She now hates staying still on the changing table. She rolls over. She squirms about.
She hates to be left alone without a warning that I'm just going to the other room quickly for something. (With a warning she is fine.)
She hates to wake-up to a person that is not me.
She won't go to sleep without nursing first if we are home.


Fun Facts
Longest time sleeping: 13 hours 6 minutes  (786 minutes)
Days with a sleep greater than 5 hours: 31 (all)
Diapers used (from August 1-19): 6.7 per day (decrease from last month)
Time spent nursing (from August 1-19): 104 minutes (1:44) per day (increase from last month)
Feeding average per day (from August 1-19): 1.1 oz (decrease from last month) (this is just pumped milk)
Time spent sleeping (from August 1-19): 13.9 hours per day  (increase from last month)

Favorite Toys
Blocks
Walker
Books (I count them as toys) 
Exersaucer
My camera (not a toy but she thinks it is)
My phone (not a toy but she thinks it is)
Rings
Little music thing (we call it her ipod)
Everyone else's toys at the park

Favorite Songs
All of Me
Happy
When You're Happy and You Know it

Favorite Books

Trains go (prefers it when Dave reads it to her)
My Update
I'm more consistently below pre-pregnancy weight. A pair of shorts I purchased in summer of 2012 were able to be buttoned but they were pretty tight. I still have a belly but I can see some leg muscles returning.
This is what happens when you take pictures with the stuffed animal and then try to take the stuffed animal away.
This was from earlier in the day. She got to the couch and pulled up.

I repeat what I said last month: I feel like there is so much more. She's always changing but I just can't think of it now sitting here. I need to learn to write these as the month goes on.

2 comments:

  1. I can't believe she's so big now.

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    Replies
    1. I can't believe it either. I still think she looks bigger than her stats show. I can't wait to make a comparison photo.

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