Jackson {8 months}

Sweet Baby Boy -- I'm a few days late, but we just got back from our trip to San Antonio, and you are now 8 months old.  Developmentally, this past month has been a big one for you.  You have accomplished SO many things, and you literally do something new every single day.

Over the past month, you have started reaching for us, which is wonderful.  There's nothing that I love more than to have you reach for me after I've been away from you all day on the days that I work, and your dad and I literally pass you back and forth just because we love having you reach out to us so much.  Instead of rolling to get from one place to the next, you now scoot across the floor and do somewhat of an army crawl.  You drag yourself on your elbows while pushing off with your left leg and dragging your right.  You have also learned to sit by yourself, which you really seem to enjoy.  You still tip over every now and then {or lean back when you get excited!}, so I typically still sit right next to you so that I can keep you from falling over.  I try not to "baby" you too much, but what can I say?  I am definitely a first-time mom.

You also very much have an opinion of your own these days and are very quick to let us know if you're upset about not getting your way.  I often catch myself wanting you to "use your words", but I have to remind myself that you are still just a baby and don't have any words yet.  Whining and grunting are some of your only ways of communicating, but we will be teaching you "please" and "thank you" as soon as possible. ;)

Speaking of words, you said "momma" for the first time this month and now say it on somewhat of a regular basis now.  Although you don't yet realize what you're saying, my heart still melts every time.  The first time that you said it was a Tuesday evening.  Dad was at class in College Station, so it was just the two of us.  I was trying to get you to eat some baby food in your high chair, but you weren't really that interested, so you were babbling instead.  Suddenly out of nowhere, you blurted out "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma."  I tried to get you to say again {I really wanted to try to get it on video}, but anytime I asked, you said "da-da-da-da-da" instead. ;)

I love you baby boy, and I absolutely love being your momma.  You are definitely my greatest blessing, and I hope you always know that.

Love,

"Momma"

{8 MONTH STATS}

Measurements:

• Weight: 22.5 pounds {you haven't gained any weight in the last month, but you are getting longer and losing some of your baby fat -- all that scooting around is tough work!} 

Sizes:

• Clothes: in between size 12 and 18 months
• Diapers: size 4
• Shoes: size 4

Eating:  You still nurse or take a bottle every three hours, and we do our best to get you to eat at least some baby food each day.  Your pediatrician gave us the goal of 3 meals a day {2 servings of fruit, 2 of veggies, and 2 of cereal} by the time you are 9 months old, but because you're still not really a fan of anything besides milk, my personal goal right now is to get you in the highchair at least once a day and to get you to take as many bites of something as I can.  Sometimes you'll take 10 bites, and sometimes you'll only take 2, but for the most part, I can usually get you to take around 5 bites.  At your 6-month appointment, your pediatrician also said that he wants you to eat 6 tablespoons {!!!} of cereal a day for the iron.  We tried for about a month to get you to eat the cereal {warm, cold, thick, thin -- we tried it all!}, but I finally called the pediatrician's office this month, told the nurse that there was no way we were going to get you to eat 6 tablespoons, and asked what we should do instead.  She suggested that we try putting it in your bottle, so now we give you 3 tablespoons in your morning bottle and 3 tablespoons at night.  It's kind of a pain since we didn't typically give you bottles unless I was working, but we have to follow the doctor's orders!

Sleeping:  Thankfully, you're still a pretty good sleeper when it comes to both nighttime and naps.  You bounce back and forth between sleeping through the night and waking up once early in the morning, and I think a lot of that has to do with teething.  When you sleep through the night, you wake up at about 7 or 7:30 in the morning, but if your teeth are bothering you, you wake up somewhere around 5 or 6 in the morning, so I get up and feed you and put you right back to bed for another couple of hours.  After a few days, you start sleeping through the night again, and then all of a sudden, you start waking up again.  A vicious cycle to say the least, but I've gotten used to it, so it's really not that bad.  You typically take 3 naps these days, but the timing still varies on what we have going on that day.  If we go to stroller strides, you take a quick 15-minute catnap on the way there, and then I do my best to keep you awake on the way home and put you down as soon as I've fed you, which is around 11:30.  You usually sleep till about 1:00 and then go back down for another nap from about 3:00 to 4:30.  Because your late afternoon nap ends a little earlier than it used to, you have a harder time staying up as late, so we typically put you to bed about 30 minutes earlier than bedfore.  We usually start your bath time routine at about 7 so that you're in bed at about 7:30, and that typically works out pretty well.

Likes:

• When we come in to get you in the morning or after a nap -- you always wake up so happy!
• Sleeping with one of your stuffed animals -- your face lights up when you see them!
• Eating Gerber Puffs
• Drinking water from a sippy cup
• Walking out of your room after a nap or after you've been fed
• Reaching for the spare diapers behind you while lying on the changing table and throwing all of them on the floor
• Going to stroller strides and watching me and all of the other moms work out
• Sitting on your alphabet foam mat and playing with your toys
• Army crawling
• Playing on our bed
• Being outside and going on walks in your stroller

Dislikes:

• Eating baby food {purees or tiny pieces of soft fruit/veggies} -- so far you've had pears, sweet potatoes, apples, peaches, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, squash, asparagus, and broccoli, but you're not really a fan of any of it!
• Being put in your carseat
• Having your face wiped, which is something you'll probably always hate!