This past week our Annie turned eight months old!
Annie is crawling all over the place now and pretty quickly. We have sunken stairs into our living room. This past month, Annie learned to crawl up them. She hasn’t even attempted to crawl down the stairs yet, but she crawls up them all the time.
Annie is sitting independently now. Sitting has very much been a secondary priority for her. Annie would rather be on her belly, crawling, or working on pulling herself up. She sits for short stints before moving on to something else.
Annie works to pull herself up constantly. She’ll pull herself up on someone or anything that isn’t too tall. Annie also loves having someone hold her hands so that she can work on standing. She’s very confident that she can stand on her own, but of course, she can’t yet.
Not surprisingly, more than anything else, Annie wants to be on the move. You can’t put her down anywhere without her immediately moving toward toys, crawling across the room, or crawling into a different room. Annie will still do short stints in the Exer-saucer, Baby Einstein, and pack ‘n play. I try to save these stints for when I’m getting ready in the morning, doing dishes, making dinner, or giving one of the other kids a bath.
Annie’s desire to be on the move so much has also made diaper changes exciting. She’s constantly trying to flip over while I’m changing her. I’m almost always giving her a headband or a diaper to distract her for a couple of minutes. Sometimes, Annie even tries to crawl off of the changing pad. I know that many people prefer to do diaper changes on the floor for this exact reason. But my back can’t handle more than one or two floor diaper changes per day.
Through a lot of the last month, Annie’s nose has been very runny. Toward the end of the month, she had a few days of watery eyes with a little yellow discharge. Otherwise, it seems like the runny nose is the beginning of teething. She isn’t cutting a tooth yet, but she’s chewing on things quite frequently. Annie has remained in very good spirits despite the constant nose running.
Annie is wearing size 2 diapers. As soon as we run through the current stash, I’ll move her up to size 3. Annie is wearing a mix of 3-6 month and 6-month clothing. She can still fit into a handful of 0-3 month pajamas without feet. As the weather gets warmer, I’ll transition her into more 6-month clothing.
Annie remains steady with eating four to six ounces at a time every two to three hours. Now that she’s sitting up, I have her eating with us at dinner every night. Annie has wanted to join us so much and loves sitting in her high chair, even when she doesn’t eat much. Most nights I give Annie puree that she feeds herself with a spoon and either yogurt melts or a teething cracker. Sometimes, I’ll give her tiny pieces of soft food as well, such as scrambled eggs or salmon. Annie does so well feeding herself and has been game to try everything that we’ve offered her.
Annie continues to take one or two naps during the day. It just depends what we’re doing on any given day, the time of day and length of her first nap, and if she’s crashing by mid or late afternoon. When Annie does take only one nap, it’s a long nap, usually around three hours.
There were only a handful of nights that Annie woke up during the night and was able to resettle quickly. Annie goes down between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. and wakes up between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. There have been a few times that Annie woke up before 6:00 needing a bottle and was able to resettle afterward for at least another hour or so.
You can find all of my baby/toddler updates for all of the kids as well as general family updates and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
