So little
So far 8 months has been VERY bad for us, but that's a post for the future? Spoiler alert, our sweet, happy baby that I'm going to tell you about during this post (who was sleeping MUCH better!) has been replaced by a screaming grouchy MONSTER who wakes up every hour at night. Teething? Separation anxiety? The dreaded 8-9 month sleep regression? I'm not sure yet but it's BAD.
But that's a story for another day.
7 months for Baby J brought sitting up like a champ! He's sweet and happy and loves to play with anything and everything. It's tricky to keep him entertained, but he's very very busy!
Weight: He's also a BIG boy. At 6 months he was nearly 20 pounds, but his weight gain has slowed a LOT. I would guess he's about 21-22 pounds now at 8 months. While he flew through the newborn, 3 month, and 6 month clothes, his 9 month clothes have just now been 100% put away, and he still technically fits into most of them. So now he's officially in 12 month clothes. He's such a big boy! I hold my friend's baby, who's the same age but at least 5 pounds lighter, and it's crazy what a difference that makes for carrying them around!
Health: Early in January he had his one and only sickness (to date). We've been really lucky in that department so far (knock on wood). He had a fever and it was SO sad and horrible to hear his terrible crying that couldn't be comforted no matter what we did. It was reminiscent of his little baby days but that hasn't happened for MONTHS, so you know he felt terrible. It's so so hard to just be helpless to make him feel better. Poor little guy. He got baby tylenol for the very first time and man did that help! But then it wears off and you can't give him more for another hour and even then it takes awhile to kick in and oh that time in between is just so so so sad! I can bear the fussy crying - it's the full-on crying with REAL tears that are just the saddest thing in the world. But it really only lasted one day, one doctor's visit, and then he was much better.
Eating: Eating is still hit or miss. He usually wants to eat dinner, and will eat at least a few bites of the main vegetable / protein dish, followed by many many bites (usually the whole thing!) of the fruit "dessert". AKA, he loves fruit, not that fond of veggies. He also LOVES puffs, though he's still working on his dexterity so can't quite get them from the tray to his mouth yet. Also - eating real food is MESSY.
It's especially messy because he loves to feed himself!
No crawling yet: We're not even REMOTELY close to crawling! I have a feeling it's going to be a lonnnggg time. His belly is just too big! But we are sitting up on our own like a champ and he loves to stand (with help, of course).
Sleeping: I've started a post about this that I'll probably never finish, but we finally did do one bout of cry it out (*gasp*) right after 6 months. Although we'd been diligent about putting him to sleep "awake but drowsy" apparently it was always too drowsy and he did have some nursing to sleep associations. It was one horrible night (really just one horrible 40 minutes really) but it helped TREMENDOUSLY. It seriously changed my life. It brought him immediately from 2-3 wake-ups per night to 1 wake-up (rarely 2) per night. It was AMAZINGGGG!! And it's been like that since - we've even been talking about doing it again in a few weeks to try and remove that one feeding... until 3 nights ago when for some reason things have DRASTICALLY changed for the worse, but again, that's a post for another day.
First snow: I already told you about our fun in our first snow! There was sledding (not such a hit?) and a snowman!
First kiss and first cart ride: Baby J got his first kiss from his future wife! He loved it. He also got to ride in a cart for the first time and LOOVVVEEEDDD it. He loves going places and looking at stuff (he LOVES Costco) so riding in the cart instead of the ergo or his car seat is like a dream for him! It's also a lot easier for me. Though sometimes he gets tired / fussy and it is rather difficult to both carry him and push a cart. So that's why you see abandoned carts full of stuff in stores.
First big boy bath: He was way big for the infant bath since he's a monster baby and all, but not sitting up that well (when we started the big boy bath), so he needed spotting! It's fun, he still LOVES baths so it's fun for the whole family. Now we have bath toys and everything.
Showing off his flexibility
Baby J's Favorite Things: pretty much everything! Jumping, kicking his piano, playing his piano sitting up like a big boy, rolling around, playing in his car, stroller rides, bath time, talking. His favorite words are "da" (that's the most popular one), "dee", "gee", "hee", "hey", "hi". JMan swears he's said "Da-Dee" already but I have my doubts! He's also obviously already said "hi" and I swear he's used it appropriately! As you can tell there's no way he's saying "mama" anytime soon. He also LOVES Cooper - he thinks he is HILARIOUS especially when he runs around and does tricks. I have an adorable video of him laughing constantly at him but I couldn't get it to load.
He grabs EVERYTHING that's near by and will eat it if possible.
He loves to eat anything, including his feet, except food.
He loves to play "pick that up!" by knocking everything you put on the tray off as quickly as possible!
Loves to swing! I wish spring would hurry up and get here.
Loves to jump!
Tummy time's not so bad either now that he can get out of it whenever he wants.
First trip to the zoo: We took our first trip(s!) to the zoo! We went to the Oregon Zoo and then to the Pt. Defiance Zoo. The Oregon Zoo was kind of disappointing because all the animals seemed to be sleeping or off hiding somewhere. At Pt. Defiance there were baby leopard cubs that were playing and chasing each other and it was the cutest thing EVER!
Watching the giraffes
And now we're a big 8 month old boy all of a sudden!
