These past 2 months collectively seem to have gone by more quickly than any other month by itself, thus far. Our baby girl is 8 months old! Leighton is still the happiest baby on the planet and has us wrapped around her little finger more than she could know. You'd think that seeing your children smiling or laughing would become old hat. Not so for this family. Each times she smiles or laughs, we smile and laugh. It never.gets.old. I hope it never does. I don't ever want to take one of those precious smiles for granted.
Since I was being a slacker-blog-mom (ya know, actually spending time with her instead of writing about her) I am going to have to cover 2 whole months so take a deep breath...here we go...
Month 7:
There is no check up for 7 months, in fact her next one wont be until she is 9 months. So, I am estimating here with her weight and height. By my calculations she is 16 lbs and 26 inches. (I'm usually dead on with poundage but usually a little off in length, somehow.)
Highlights of Month 7:
BIG NEWS: THE REFLUX IS GONE!!!! I think it's safe to say that after over a month weeks of little to no spit up, no medicine, and no pain!! We are EXCITED, can you tell? No more administering expensive and complicated meds, no more throw -up all over everything, and no more doing laundry every day. THANK YOU all so much for your prayers. We weren't technically supposed to wean her off of her medication until October 1st, and we did so this early by accident. I guess the Lord was trying to show us she didn't need them anymore.
When we went on our family beach vacation a month or so ago, I had one pill left to give her and then I was going to refill them the next day at a pharmacy down in Orange Beach. Well, since we always gave her the medication at night, before dinner, I forgot all day to call and refill them. I was nervous that it was going to be a rough night with her screaming in pain and a ton of throw up, so I prepared myself. What actually happened was, well, absolutely nothing. No pain. No more throw up than usual. I was excited but didn't want to get my hopes up. So we tried another night. And another. Here we are, over a month later, reflux free! She only spits up occasionally and we still have to put the cereal in her bottle or it's too thin and she will spit it up, but we are OK with that! Thank you, Jesus!
Speaking of her bottle, this month we officially weaned her from breast milk to formula. It was a very hard decision and a rough couple of weeks of emotions/transition for me. I can't talk about it too much or I get teary eyed so I will just say that it was, ultimately, the best thing for both mommy and Leighton. As I have said before, I plan on doing a breastfeeding post, (the joys and the not-so-happy parts) eventually. I just have to muster up the courage to be totally transparent and real about the whole experience. It may take some time before I am ready for that.
Leighton is sitting up all by herself! We are so proud of her but I think she is equally as proud of herself. She LOVES the independence. She sits there, contently playing with her toys with this "look how cool I am, mom," smile. I love sitting on the floor playing with her. Oh, my baby girl is growing up so fast.
She is making more noises with her mouth now. She has actually started growling. It's pretty funny. She has no idea what she is doing except that she is testing out different sounds. Some of the noises she makes, I cannot even begin to imitate. Let's just hope she grows out of the growling thing before she goes to school; I'm not sure she'll make too many friends that way. Ha!
She loves to stare in to your eyes and touch your face with her hands when you feed her a bottle. It absolutely melts my soul.
We (finally) had Leighton's dedication at church this month. We wanted to follow the biblical example of Hannah dedicating her son back to God. (1 Samuel 1 26-28) Leighton is, after all, His child. He is her heavenly father, we are just her earthly parents.We were unable to participate in the church-wide one a few months ago due to some communication issues. However, it worked out perfectly because Leighton was dedicated with her sweet little friend, Annie-Elizabeth Bryant (daughter of our precious friends Karl and Jennifer). A-E is about 2 1/2 months older than Leighton so they will be good friends growing up, I hope. We had a wonderful crowd of family and friends come to be a part of this beautiful occasion. Thank you to everyone who came and loved on our sweet girl, our family could not be more blessed.
She went on her very first boat ride this month. We took our week- long family vacation to Perdido Key Beach, Florida. Mom and Mark had just bought a new boat. We took a day trip over to Pirate's Cove. This was my FAVORITE place growing up. Just docking at the pier flooded my mind with so many memories of family beach trips when I was a kid. Taking the boat out to Pirates Cove. Listening to Jimmy Buffet while dancing on my daddy's feet. Spending the day on the beach with halfway rubbed in sunscreen. Swimming for hours in the ocean. We miss living so close to the beach but are so glad both Jeremy and my parents still do so that Leighton can have the same experiences we did. She was very chilled out on the boat ride and enjoyed lounging in the ocean after lunch.
Leighton is now eating in her high chair and only her high chair. Before, she'd only eat on her Boppy and occasionally in her Bumbo. But when we'd sit her in her Bumbo she'd always lean to one side and it was awkward feeding her. Well, one day this month I put her on her Boppy, as usual, and she was so mad she began to fuss and was trying to sit herself up. I gave the high chair a try and it was a hit. She LOVES it.
She tried tons of new foods this month. She has tried Squash, Green Beans, Peas, Peaches, Pears, and Bananas. (We still mix all fruits with rice cereal so she doesn't get used to super sweet stuff and only want that.) She's loved them all and has had no reactions to anything thus far.
She has moved up to a size 3 diaper.
She has tried a training sippy cup a few times this month. She seemed to not even notice that it wasn't a bottle, sucking away like normal. However, it's so difficult for her to get the milk out of the sippy cup. She doesn't get frustrated but it's takes around 5 minutes just to drink one ounce. We continue to try it for one feeding per day with just an ounce or 2 for practice. She still eats 4 times per day usually at 7,11,3,7. Breakfast is a bottle and some rice cereal with fruit, lunch is a bottle and a vegetable, 3 p.m. feeding is just a bottle, and dinner is a bottle, rice cereal with fruit, and a vegetable.
She is still a great sleeper, although her routine has changed a bit. She was sleeping 8-6 and now she sleeps from around 7:45- 8:00 to between 6:30-7. I am so grateful she loves to sleep as much as I do!
She watched her first (true) Auburn game this month (there have been several more since then as it has taken me forever to post this!) Of course, Leighton didn't know what was going on but she looked ever so cute in orange and blue!
She had very much outgrown her baby bath tub so now she has this super awesome duck tub (thanks, Bella). She loves it!
We began teaching her sign language this month. No, she is not deaf (thanks be to His holy name). The point of signing with babies is to teach them to communicate with you before they can talk. When Leighton was screaming in pain as an infant due to her reflux, I remember myself saying over and over, "I just wish she could tell me what hurts." I am sure all mother's have had similar experiences. We didn't start until 7 months because we were told they can't really pick up on it before hand. Who knows. We have started with the words "More" and "All Done." This is for feeding time, as most parents wonder frequently if they are under or over feeding their children. She hasn't signed back yet. I have read this could take her up to her first birthday to figure out.
My favorite part of month 7 is that she is "reaching" for things and people, now. Ok, correction, she reaches for EVERYTHING. I love how curious she is but she, of course, always wants to reach for things that little babies don't need to be reaching for. But, oh, how it touches my soul when she reaches out for me, wanting me to pick her up, with the biggest grin on her face. It's my current favorite thing in the whole wide world.
8 Months:
There is also no Dr. apt for month 8 so my weight guestimation is just about 16 1/2 lbs.
Highlights of Month 8:
Leighton is scooting around on the floor now. Not crawling, but scooting. Well, correction, she CAN scoot around but doesn't really want to. ALL this baby wants to do is pull-up and stand up. She cannot actually pull up on any furniture yet, because she doesn't quite grasp the fact that if she lets go she will fall and hurt herself. However, she can and does pull up her own weight with us holding her hands. (She doesn't fall this way because, of course, we don't let go.) We think she may skip the crawling phase all- together and go straight to walking. This is what I did as a baby. We shall see.
She tried 2 new foods this month- Avocado and Yogurt. She absolutely LOVES the yogurt and absolutely HATES avocado. It's the only food she has refused to eat/ disliked so far.
Leighton met her sweet little boyfriend this month. Precious baby John "Hutton" Chapman III was born to my best friend Shannon and her husband on 9/10/11 at 9:49 p.m. and weighed 8 lbs 11 ounces. He is beautiful and his mommy adores him and I adore his mommy.
This has been a rough month in terms of her schedule. We are transitioning from 4 to 3 feedings per day so we are still working out the kinks.
Leighton has cut her first and second teeth! The first one came just a couple of days after turning 8 months and the second followed a couple of days later. So, essentially at the same time. I can SEE and FEEL the them! I'd say, "finally" since it feels like she has been "teething" forever, but babies can get their first tooth anywhere from birth (only 1 in 2,000) to a year, or more. So, I suppose 8 months is a good time. I was 8 1/2 months and Jeremy was an early bird at 5 months. She has her bottom right and left central incisors. (or in regular people terms, her bottom front teeth.) Teething with her has been no pick-nick but it really hasn't been as terrible as we expected. Not every teething baby makes their parents be all, "the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth, Help us, God!" Leighton has been a little more fussy and naps have been shorter but other than that she's been her same sweet self.
Leighton had her second set of professional pics taken. They are fabulous thanks to Stacy at Heart Photography. I have WAY to many favorites to blog them (this post is already long enough, eh?) but you can see them on my Facebook page.
Lastly, in her 8th month we have attended MOPS (mother's of pre-schoolers) twice. We both LOVE it. She gets to hang with the sweet nursery workers and I get 2 hours of adult conversation while learning how to be the best momma I can be, according to scripture. I'd say that's a Win-Win. Even better, the Montgomery MOPS group we attend takes place at First Baptist where we are members! Montgomery friends who are stay at home mommies to littles ages birth-5, come join us every other Weds. from 9:30-11:30. We'd love to have you! Oh, and we are collecting change all year to buy one of these for a family in need. Watch the shortened video, you will want to buy 50. If I could, I totally would.
My sweet, happy 8 month old girl; I am over the moon in love with you and this phase of your life. You are a growing, changing, curious, and precious child. I am so blessed to be able to love on you every day!
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