Addison Grace - 8 Months

That moment when you think you hit "save" before closing the browser on a finished blog post but you didn't and the whole thing gets deleted... :)

Weight: 20 lbs

Length: 28ish inches? It's hard to keep her still enough to measure her!

Wearing: 9-12 month clothes and size 4 diapers.

Likes: Trying new foods, playing in the bath, squeaking her Sophie, petting Lou & the cats, making silly sounds with daddy, riding in the shopping cart, singing songs, swinging at the park.

Dislikes: Getting dressed, laying on her tummy, the vacuum.

Eat

Still nursing about every 3 hours, but we've added a lot more solids into the mix! After some research and a little trial and error, we ultimately decided that Baby Led Weaning was a good fit for us, and that's how we've been introducing foods to Addie for the past month or so. Some of her favorites are bananas, avocado, shredded cheese, black beans, and buttered toast! It's been so much fun giving her new foods to try, and she gets so excited to feed herself. Cutest thing ever! She still only has the two bottom teeth, and we haven't seen any signs of more on the way. I will GLADLY take a break from teething for a while, and I'm sure Addie is happy about it too :)

Sleep

We have made a MAJOR sleep breakthrough y'all!!

A little background: Addie's sleep habits slowly started going downhill when we hit the 4 month sleep regression back in September. She went from sleeping 9 or 10 hours straight through the night and three solid naps (including a 3-4 hour one) every day, to waking multiple times over night and fighting naps like crazy during the day. It wasn't so bad at first, and the extra over night feedings really helped her pack on the chunk, but just before she turned 7 months, things hit an all time low. It got to the point where she was waking every 1.5-2 hours over night (sometimes for an hour or two at a time) and would only nap once or twice a day for about 20 minutes...

Oh yeah... It was miserable.

I was a complete zombie, Addie was grumpy, and I truly was convinced that I was never going to sleep again. Fast forward to January 2nd - Mike's first day back to work after the holidays - and I had truly reached my breaking point. I couldn't get Addie to sleep no matter what I tried! She didn't want to nurse, she didn't want to be rocked or sung to, she didn't want to be bounced or burped, her diaper was clean... I tried it all. Finally, out of sheer exhaustion, I kissed her, laid her down in her crib, and decided to let her work it out for herself. She cried for exactly 20 minutes (while I stood over the kitchen sink and also cried) and then suddenly, she was passed out. I didn't think it was going to last, and I was fully prepared to be up every 2 hours again that night, but she only woke up once. ONCE y'all. She slept from 7:20 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. and only woke up ONE time! I could've cried you guys, for real. Every night since then, I've finished her bed time routine, nursed her, and then laid her down to put herself to sleep and it takes 5 minutes (or less) of fussing before she's out. She's typically waking up twice over night now which is still a huge improvement from before, and I think it's pretty normal for babies her age.

Naps are still a bit of a work in progress. She puts herself to sleep about half the time and the other half I nurse/rock her to sleep. We're really pushing for a 2 nap schedule and it seems to be working pretty well so far! A lot of days her naps only last about 45 minutes, but they're starting to get longer and more consistent so we'll just keep trying!

*Note: I am not necessarily promoting "cry it out". I don't know if what we did even counts as CIO honestly! Every baby is different, and this is just what works for Addie right now and it took A LOT of trial and error before we figured it out!*

Play

Addie has really surprised us this month with her independence! She is perfectly happy to sit on her play mat and "play" with her toys (mostly dumping things out of their bins and banging them together) as long as mommy and daddy aren't too far away. She isn't crawling just yet, but she's become really efficient at scooting around on her little butt to get from one place to the next. She's a big fan of music and anything she can use to make noise. Her favorite right now is a little bell my dad got her for Christmas - she'd shake that thing all day if I let her! Sitting in the shopping cart and people watching is also up there on her list of favorite activities. She is seriously such a little creep, she'll crane her neck to peek around at all the people passing by! Bath time is still probably her number one favorite, and we finally transitioned her out of her infant bath seat with a little help from my mom. She gave me the idea to use a plastic laundry basket in the tub to keep her and her toys contained and it is seriously genius! She loves sitting up in the tub, splashing in the water, and dropping all of her toys over the side of the tub for us to retrieve ;)

Her trusty sidekick Lou is never too far away!

Addie's eighth month was pretty hectic. Mike started December off with an important and pretty intense 9 day stint in the field. We traveled to South Carolina to visit with friends and attend a wedding. We hosted my family at our house before and after Christmas. It was crazy, and fun, and so SO busy - it totally flew by! With the New Year comes the return to normalcy and routine, which has been really great for Addie but mostly really great for her schedule-loving mama ;)

The next month or so should be pretty laid back. We don't have any scheduled visitors, Mike's work load has decreased a bit for the time being, and we're looking forward to lots of down time together as a family! Next up for the Beards: Some low key Valentine's Day plans and a few projects around the house I can't wait to share!