Rose is Eight Months!

Over the past month I have noticed with amazement how rapid the learning curve is with an infant.  Rose started out the month still hating being on her belly and not wanting to tip onto all fours and by the end of the month made the complete transformation to crawling with ease.

Check out Rose's 8 month photos and some videos from this month below.  It doesn't look like she has much hair, but she does. It's just very light colored on top. I'll have to take a picture from the back where you can see lots of brown hair.

This week, I received an e-mail from thebump.com that gave me my baby's 35 week update. It said eye color is fairly permanent at this point. It's hard to say what her eye color is because it seems to change in different lights and depending on what she's wearing. They are mostly a blue-gray, with hints of brown and hazel mixed in.  Her eyes are the feature most people praise when they see her.

Here's Miss Rose's 8 Month Update:

The big milestone this month was that Rose started crawling on September 23, 2014 at 7.5 months. In the first two weeks of this month, she moved from hesitating while tipping forward onto her hands, to getting on hands and knees (rocking to music), to moving those little arms and legs in an efficient crawling motion. By 8 months she became a speed demon. Her main targets are wires/cords, mommy and daddy, her toys, Darwin, and the table or couch.

She still loves to stand and with her new mobility she now pulls herself up to standing in more places.  We set up pillows all along the coffee table, so that the table is a safe area for climbing.  She'll also try to climb up her crib, our legs, the kitchen island, the couch, and Darwin. I frequently leave Rose standing in a fun area at school when I drop her off to help with the transition.

Speaking of dropping Rose off at school...we are still dealing with a little separation anxiety, which is absolutely normal.  When the teachers are busy, I usually hold Rose a little longer or play with her a little bit before I drop her off. If they are free, one usually takes Rose and distracts her while I leave.

Since this was the first month of school, it's also meant our first visits to the doctor because of illness.  Right off the bat, Rose started with some congestion that really hasn't gone away all month. Most days she was fine, but she did have a fever and a couple of rough nights this past week.  We also had to take a trip to the doctor after a few days of diarrhea.  Thankfully, neither visit was serious or required any medications. They were both for piece of mind (and advice on how to take care of little Rose).

Despite the separation anxiety and colds, Rose has done very well at school. I think watching the older kids prompted Rose to make the step towards crawling.  She's also extremely attentive when I pick her up and put her in the car seat to go home. I think she's still in learning mode.  She has also started clapping when she hears music or when we clap and celebrate something exciting. I managed to get a video of it (see below). It's so cute!

The sound of the month has been the letter "f" and "th." Most mornings, while I'm getting her ready for school, she has been sounding out the f sounds. We proceed to work on the words they form...friends, family, fun, food, focus, etc.  Sometimes she gives me a "th" sound.

We haven't introduced too many new foods this month because of the week she had diarrhea and because we've been trying to adjust to the new schedule at home. Sweet potatoes continue to be a staple, along with carrots, green beans, cucumbers and oats. We had done salmon a few times and thought she didn't react to it, but she had the diarrhea right after eating salmon, so we've taken a break from it. To combat the diarrhea, we moved to bananas and oatmeal, but that worked too well and she was constipated by the third day. We occasionally do eggs - though she isn't a huge fan. She loves ground beef - which we've done a few times. And, I've been doing oatmeal mixed with prune juice for the past week or two, which she seems to enjoy, but Colin doesn't. He doesn't want to indulge a "sweet tooth."  I don't know if it is because I am a dietitian, or because we are just busy, but I'm finding the introduction of solids to be somewhat stressful.  It's hard to find the foods that give her good bowel movements, and sometimes her bum gets red and we worry it's a food allergy.

I wish I could say that Rose is sleeping through the night, but we do frequently get 5 hour stretches of sleep.  Unfortunately, we also frequently get 3-4 hour stretches. Some nights it doesn't seem too bad and other nights I'm just bitter and exhausted. I can't seem to cut out my morning coffee.

I have yet to give Rose any milk other than breastmilk, but I did finally break down and pick up a few bottles of formula to have on standby. We've been trying various things at night to see if it helps Rose sleep better. We tried using some disposable diapers instead of cloth thinking maybe she was waking because she was wet. Disposable didn't make a difference. As a side note, we actually didn't use any size 2 disposable diapers and skipped from size 1 to 3 because of our success with cloth. This month we used disposables a few nights to test our sleep theory and when she went through her diarrhea phase. In addition to the disposable diapers, we have also tried giving her more milk at night. My milk supply has dropped from 4oz every 3 hours to 3oz every 3 hours (during the day) and Rose completely depleted my extra in the first 3 months I went back to work.  The few nights we gave her an extra bottle, she did seem to sleep longer. The only problem is that I can't make the milk to cover the extra bottle.  Every time I would go to buy formula, I'd turn away after looking at the terrible ingredients. Corn syrup!?! Are you kidding me!?! Plus, I haven't been able to find small sample size and don't want to drop $25-30 on a huge can I may never use again if she doesn't like it, or has a reaction to it.  So, I found a good deal on Organic Similac ready to feed and picked it up. I haven't given any to Rose yet, but probably will very soon. It will be a sad day for me when I have to give it to her. For now, I'll keep pumping as much as I can to try and keep up with her demand. I really wanted to go straight from breastmilk to cow's or goat's milk.

Lastly, as another side note... an update on me...I have (not intentionally) dropped well below my pre-pregnancy weight. People are not kidding when they say breastfeeing helps mom lose weight.  I had a few extra pounds when I got pregnant, so I started a little high, but I am down to the thinnest I've been since high school. While this sounds like great news, it's problematic because none of my pants fit well (except a few jeans). They all hang loosely (and not in a flattering way).  I've been relying on skirts and dresses for work, but with the weather getting cooler, that is not going to be possible for much longer.  I love that I can indulge in more food, although this also means more preparation and grocery shopping.  I've actually cut back on working out (with the exception of playing soccer) to balance out my energy needs a bit more.

I can't believe I also forgot to mention that Rose is 17 pounds, 7 oz. While the doctor didn't give us a fancy printout of her stats on the growth chart, I've plotted her by hand right around the 50% percentile.

And now, onto the videos and images of my precious little girl!!

Miss Rose at 8 Months

Ready to go to school on her 8 Month Birthday

There was a cold day in October - we got to pull out a winter hat
Rose was sleepy on the way into school that morning.

 Here is Rose "talking" in her exersaucer after we spent a few days away from home.


Here is Rose dancing mid-September


Rose and Darwin enjoy the beach in this rather long video


Rose "clapping"


Rose is crawling!


Rose standing up


I welcome any feedback from other moms on introducing solids, building milk supply at 8 months post-partum, and/or exercising while nursing.