OH. MY. WORD. The minute I think he can’t get any busier, he proves me wrong. This was a heck of a month. This was the month of mobility, independence, and bumps and bruises. Our boy is constantly busy, constantly learning, and constantly keeping me on the brink of a heart attack. He loves to clean out the contents of a cabinet (Chase’s bathroom cabinet is his favorite), he has learned to turn his sound machine on and off, he knows how to unplug his monitor (from his bed!), and has learned to pull himself up to his feet! With the discovery of his legs has come a lot of bumps and bruises. The boy always has a mark on his forehead from a pull-up that went awry.
Baby Update:
Pushes up to sitting from laying like there’s nothing to it. This happened early in the month and was a BIG milestone in his independence. He would army crawl to his toy basket, press himself up, and pick out one of his favorites. I think he realized I was wasting his time by pulling out all the toys HE DIDN’T want. It was much faster to do it himself.
He slept 12 hours STRAIGHT. And continues to sleep 12 hours straight. Right after the last blog post where I publicly announced that the middle of the night nursing session was my favorite, he took it away from me 3 days later. Since Chief was 4.5 months old he has gone to bed between 6:30-7:30 p.m. and woken up between 6:30-7:30 a.m., with a few feedings sprinkled in the mix. As he’s gotten older he’s gone from 2 feedings in the middle of the night, to one feeding around 6-7 months old, and now, right after he turned 9 months old, he dropped the middle of the night feeding all together. He’s quickly turning into a little boy and leaving the baby business behind him. (Cue the tears.)
Dad turned 31! Dad is so fun. He thinks baths are optional, loves to share popsicles, and always makes up the best games.
This itty bitty American celebrated his FIRST 4th of July. He couldn’t stay awake for the big firework display, but he endured his fair share of “booms!” I was so worried that the fireworks would bother him, but they didn’t in the slightest. They would grab his attention and he would look frantically for where the sound was coming from, but they never seemed to bother him too much. He spent hours on the lake, watched planes fly overhead, went on lots of golf cart rides, and saw his Aunt Erin from New York!
He saw Grandma Edy! My grandma, Chief’s great grandma, has been in the hospital since mid-March. At this specific time, she was out of the hospital and in a rehabilitation facility. On the 4th of July, she got to leave the facility to come have lunch with the family. It was such a great day! We celebrated her birthday (which was in mid-May), she met the 2 newest great grand-babies that had been born while she in the hospital (not including Chief), and we got to have conversations without doctors and nurses coming in every 10 minutes. It was such a wonderful day! She has recently suffered a stroke and been placed back in the hospital. We’re hoping she’ll get to come home soon.
Diaper Changes… Oh, diaper changes. I loathe them. I don’t think I’ve changed a diaper where Chief is laying on his back in a month. We’ve tried enticing him with new toys dangling overhead or objects from around the house; we’ve tried singing songs and playing pat-a-cake; nothing works, he’s over it. I’ve picked up more poop from the floor this month than I care to admit.
He said “Dada!” It was music to Chase’s ears. Chief now says it with confidence and associates it with Chase. It’s so fun to see his little mind work.
He’s pulling up! At the beginning of the month Chief was pulling up to a kneeling position, now he’s pulling up to standing, climbing over obstacles in his path, and getting dangerously close to pulling his body over his bed rail. We had to lower his bed this month. With the lowering of his mattress came a host of new challenges. His baby monitor plugs in behind his bed, and he’s learned that if he REALLY wants to get Mom & Dad’s attention, he should unplug it. Works every time. #babygenius
Crawling Update. Chief has been army crawling for months now. Well, he’s been doing what we call the “Wounded Warrior” – pulls with the left arm, pushes with the right foot. He drags the left leg behind him and uses the right hand to clear his path. We concluded that was going to be his primary form of transportation. The dude was totally sandbagging us. Weeks ago, I had him in the bedroom with me in only a diaper – he was army crawling per usual but as soon as he hit the cold, bathroom floor, he immediately popped up to his knees and crawled to his destination. What?! When he made it back to the carpet, he plopped back down on his belly. He had us fooled.
That was three weeks ago and he has since decided that he can cover more ground on his hands and knees. With the new discovery of pulling up to his feet, he now bear crawls on hard surfaces. Why is this happening so quickly?!
The dude can EAT. Chief can clear out the pantry, let me tell ya. We still do a puree or two at every meal, but the rest of it is just finger foods. Because he can eat and eat and eat, I’ve been trying to incorporate more protein and fats into his combinations. He loves chicken and carrots with cumin, curried sweet potato barley with full-fat coconut milk, full-fat yogurt with pureed or mashed fruit, avocado on pieces of toast, eggs, black beans, sliced turkey, soft cheeses, and ALL the berries! He’s a berry eatin’ machine!
Tiny Carnivore
Mama Update:
His first birthday is looming over me like a spring storm in Oklahoma. How did this happen?! I remember when he was 6 weeks old, thinking that the 12 week mark seemed SO. FAR. AWAY. Now, everything is happening at warp speed.
I’m having a hard time letting go of our baby routine and incorporating a more toddler appropriate schedule. For example, he now only nurses 3 times a day. This was a HUGE adjustment, more so for me than him. He had been giving me the signs he was ready to drop a feeding for weeks before I consulted with a pediatrician and lactation consultant to make sure my plan was “okay.” Even after dropping to 3 feedings, I still pumped a fourth for nearly a month. In my head, he wasn’t old enough for this.
Around the same time of dropping a feeding, he dropped a nap too! He now takes 2 naps per day, eats 3 solid meals, 3 nursing sessions, and when he’s not eating or sleeping, he’s moving.
A friend of mine, who had twins around the same time I had Chief, convinced me to go to a more structured workout class this month. I’ve been doing garage workouts for months, but as you probably know, workouts at home have to be done in 20 minutes or less, because – baby. At the beginning of July I started going to Crossfit 3 days per week. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, my alarm goes off at 4:45am so I can pump, get ready, and get to class by 6am. As much as I hate that 4:45am alarm, I love getting home at 7:15am knowing my workout is done for the day.
Chase and I are loving every minute with our busy boy. As busy as he is, he forces us to slow down and notice all the little things that we used to ignore. Because if we don’t, he eats them.
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