Hello hello! I can't believe the summer is almost OVER! And that means that the school year is starting, and that means I am getting WAY too close to having to go back to work! My maternity leave is over at the end of December so I will go back to teaching in January after the Christmas break. Now, I know some of you are shaking your heads and hating on me for getting a year at home with my girl and still complaining...such is one of the pleasures of living in Canada (and paying super huge amounts of taxes!!!) I think it would suck to leave your child weather they are 4 months or 4 years old!
Things have been good over here. We went on a great vacation to a resort in the Muskokas (cottage country in Ontario) and it was so fun to be there with Alexandra at 8 months old! She was loving swimming and the toys in the kids areas and it was fantastic! Soooo much better than our trip to Florida at 4.5 months! I am absolutely loving this 8 month stage. She sits, stands, moves but doesn't crawl yet. She loves toys and interacting but is not all over the place yet! Best stage so far!
One thing that is not so good about this stage is germs. She eats everything and since we go to a lot of play groups she eats toys that other kids eat. Gross. Germy. We got our first cold. It sucks to see your baby all snotty and congested. She was (and still is) congested and is having a hard time nursing. She is dripping from the nose and its gross. When she's sick I feel like I have to quarantine her from the play groups so that we don't infect everyone else. This means we are cranky and bored and stuck inside the condo. NOT FUN. Even more not fun, I got the cold. And even MORE not fun, Alexandra got her first tooth simultaneously with getting her first cold. She was MISERABLE. It was so sad! She now has one lower tooth. I was hoping for two (the whining was enough to make me dread the other 19 that still need to grow in!). With the teething/cold she started waking more often at night. Atleast 2 to 3 times a night instead of the glorious one time a night we had gotten down to! Of course when she was sick/teething I went to her and I nursed her each time she woke. Well, its been a week now. The tooth is in. The waking is continuing. Any advice on how to break this night feeding/waking habit she has gotten herself into? I am thinking that at almost 9 months old we are ready to cut out night feeds. Do most people cut them out by now? I think I'm the last one around (in my mom groups atleast!) that still nurses her baby in the middle of the night! I just don't know how to cut out the night feeds without an enormous amount of tears. She fall asleep instantly while nursing but won't fall asleep when I just comfort her in the middle of the night. I know she knows how to put herself to sleep since I always put her to bed awake for naps and at bedtime and she goes to sleep after just chatting to herself for a minute or two. I just don't get what is so different for her in the middle of the night! I know people reduce night feeds by watering down bottles/decreasing amount given but Alexandra will not take a bottle and never has.
Another thing to compound this is that I think she might be hungry since with the sick/teething she also started refusing to eat. She barely eats any solids (except for Cheerios! Which she LOVES!) and is even nursing less during the day. Such a conundrum! Do other babies lose their appetites with teething?
Anyways, that's all that's new at the LTB household! I leave you with a couple pics from our holiday!
Gotta love those thighs!!!
Daddy is so fun!!!
They usually get cold-like symptoms when teething, so it might not be germ related.
ReplyDeleteMotrin and popsicles are your friend!
aww she looks so happy (and cute)!!
ReplyDeletenot being a hater about your maternity leave, though I am jealous. totally agree with you that they're probably hard to leave at any age! soak up every minute of these last few months :-)
oh and don't hate ME, but clara hasn't had a night feeding since she was 9 weeks old... so little A may not really need it but just be used to it. good luck!
ReplyDeleteRylin usually wakes up for a bottle around 5am once or twice a week and usually on a night where she didn't eat much so I go with it. To stop the midnight feeding I would give her a paci and rock her back to sleep. So no ur not the only one who feeds their babe at night lol! Rylin also eats less purees while growing a tooth! She's currently working on #4! Eep! Alexandra is getting so BIG!
ReplyDeleteOmg, love love love those thighs! Idont have any advice since my baby is much younger then yours, but you're obviously raising w happy baby over there! Xoxo.
ReplyDeleteAlex stopped night feeding at 2 months old but he's formula fed so that probably has something to do with it. To cut out the night feeds and waking whenever he would wake up I would give him his paci and rock him back to sleep instead of offering him a bottle and eventually he started STTN and not waking up at all until the next morning around 5am or so. I wish I had some definite sure fire answers for you as far as how to get Alexandra to STTN. Some babies just don't do it until after a year old unfortunately. But hopefully she'll do it sooner for you rather than later. Love the pictures. So cute!! Glad you guys had a good vacation!! And of course I'm jealous of your year of maternity leave but like you said, it's hard to leave your child at any age. I wish I lived in Canada!!
ReplyDeleteTruitt wakes at least 3 times a night to nurse, normally more like 4-5 so I'm no help on that other than letting you know that you're not alone! I know a lot of babies go through a regression around this time because of the huge spike in development and it passes after a few weeks for most. So nice to hear the update and see the pictures!
ReplyDeletewhat a cutie! she is getting so big, and her first tooth already!
ReplyDeleteI don't have any advice on the nightly wakings, but I hope you guys get back into the old routine soon.
Oh my God, I LOVE those thighs. Penelope still feeds several times during the night at almost 7 months, and she refuses solids (although we finally got her to take a bottle recently!). I have no clue how long I'll be doing night wakings-- surely not until she's 2?? Good luck!
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