8 Months Old

One hour from now, Maya will be eight months old! She has hit a lot of milestones this last month and I'm still amazed at all she can do!
* Stands when holding on to something (& brave enough to just hang on with one arm)
* Began 'creeping' a week ago, and then crawling two days later- we knew she could do it!
* Prefers real food over baby food- not a fan of purees, but she eats them anyway
* Eats pieces of banana, cheerios and corn flakes, plain macaroni noodles, pieces of toast, crackers (her favorite)
* Says da-da ALL THE TIME (and na-na, ma-ma, ba-ba)
* Is starting to mimic (repeats da-da after I say it, has waved back when I waved at her (though she doesn't connect the wave to "bye bye" yet), will sometimes laugh when she hears someone else laughing
* ALWAYS smiles when she sees the dogs and laughs at Jack when he chases his ball around the house
* Beginning to enjoy peek-a-boo, itsy bitsy spider, and silly songs
* Hums when she hears music or when she's tired- she also clicks her tongue when she's falling asleep
* Still taking two naps a day (yay!) and is doing better with sleeping
* LOVES to pull things off shelves, loves magazines and paper, always goes for the dog food, and is starting to take an interest in looking at books and feeling the touch-and-feel animal type
* Starting the temper tantrum phase
* She's really a happy baby and so goofy and expressive- and she laughs all the time now which we love!

Update: Goodnight Maya

This big girl has been sleeping through the night for the past 3 nights. Yay! We all feel a lot more rested. I took someone's (okay, several someones) advice and started putting Maya to bed awake (after eating and rocking a bit to settle down). She still has a hard time with me putting her to bed and leaving the room, she cries pretty hard for a few minutes at most and then falls asleep. The other thing I began doing was letting her cry a bit during the night when she woke up. I can't say I didn't feel like a terrible mother when she was crying, but I felt like this was the best solution and the results speak for themselves.

Goodnight, Maya

When she was just a few months old, Maya started sleeping through the night. She would easily sleep from 7:30pm to 5:00am, waking up occasionally for one feeding around 1:00am. After waking at 5:00 in the morning, I would feed her and she would be out until 8:00am. We thought we were pretty lucky to have such an excellent sleeper on our hands.

Then Maya turned 6 months old. She began to get distracted when I'd feed her. She had a hard time settling down for naps and bedtime in her crib. She started waking up several times during the night. She wanted to explore everything and touch and taste and look at everything around her, and sleep? Well, that was just an inconvenience and something to be avoided so playtime would last 24/7. In her mind, anyway.

So, I (and she) developed a habit of nursing her to sleep. Because it worked like a charm (or like an Ambien).

And when she would wake up in the night, I'd take her to our bed- because who the heck thinks about their baby potentially forming a bad sleep habit from their actions at 3 in the morning?! All I wanted was a sleeping baby and a sleeping mommy.

So this nursing-to-sleep thing was a bad idea. Because what'dya know- now she relies on it. She doesn't know how to comfort herself. I put her to bed after she's fallen asleep eating and rocking. I cross my fingers and hope she doesn't wake up in the laying-down process (which is all the more difficult with a lowered mattress- my long arms simply aren't long enough and the last couple of inches are more of a gentle-ish drop) 90% of the time, her eyes fling open and the realization hits her that she is indeed in bed and that mommy will leave the room.

Awhile ago, I started letting her "cry it out" if she did wake up when I was laying her down. She typically cries for 5-15 minutes when this happens.

Right.

Well, as I've been told, babies wake up several times during the night (in fact, most people do). It's natural. And normally they stir and maybe whimper and sleepily cry and then they go back to sleep. But we have our bad little habit and when Maya wakes up in the middle of the night, the only way she knows how to find comfort is via her mom. And so, when I hear her over the baby monitor, I go to her room and feed her and rock her and within a few minutes she's asleep and she goes back in the crib.

She now wakes up every two to three hours during the night until 6:30 or 7 when she's up for the day.

At her 4-month checkup, her doctor let us know we could start eliminating night feedings because she had no physical need for it.

4 months later, here we are.

Now this is a boring and confusing admission of my (unintentional!) poor judgement. But whatever. I feel better, and determined.

It'll be brutal listening to her cry and making her learn to soothe and comfort herself. But because I don't want to be rocking (or nursing- HAHA) a four, five,six-year-old to sleep in the future, I think we need to make a change!

We'll miss you, Uncle Shaun and Aunt Chelsea!

My brother Shaun and sister-in-law Chelsea are moving to Denver this week. While we're sooo sad to see them go, we're excited for them to start this new chapter in their lives (one they are more than ready for!)

We love you!

Maya vs. the Pizza Pan & some pics

Reading in the tub

Helping with laundry

Beach Bum

We went to the lake with my family tonight- it was Maya's first time. I didn't think she'd like it, since the water was a little cold, but I was wrong! She loved the water, the sand, the mud (she even snuck in a little taste), the grass, everything.

7 Months Old

Miss Maya is 7 months old. Meaning she's closer to her one year birthday than her birth day. EEk.

Our little critter is so active and just bursting with personality.

She says 'mama' and 'dada' (it's just meaningless babble at this age to her, but music to our ears for sure)

She eats "finger foods" - Cheerios, crackers, bits of banana and bread...

She's doing really well with her sippy cup

Maya LOVES to ride in the seat of the shopping cart when we go out

She rolls all over the place and is THIS CLOSE to crawling

When she sits, one foot is ALWAYS on top of the other. It looks kind of funny- you can see an example in one of the pics.

She sleeps on her stomach now- I lay her down on her back and she immediately rolls over.

She can pull up to a standing position on her own! This was quite a shock when we put her in her crib, looked away for a minute, and then saw her standing holding onto the crib. So we lowered the crib to prevent any disasters.

Her favorite toys include the TV remote, keys (ewww), anything plastic and crinkly, the keyboard, and things that open and close.

She also loves to empty out the diaper bag- she takes each item out and inspects it, puts it in her mouth, then throws it out of her way and goes in for the next item.

Maya smiles and laughs ALL. THE. TIME!

She loves peek-a-boo, funny faces, pat-a-cake (done with her feet) and pretty much any silly song sung with a high voice and ridiculous expression.

Maya's definitely at the most fun age so far and she does a wonderful job entertaining us!