Bye Bye Month 7!!!

Today Abbie is 8 months old. I must admit that month 7 has not been the easiest on us. Don’t get me wrong – Abbie is still a GREAT baby with a wonderful demeanor. We just love her personality. She is not afraid of other people that she doesn’t know. She smiles at everyone and stares at other children constantly when we are out. She doesn’t miss a thing, ever. But the challenge lies with the sleep. My friend Elisa said the other day “It’s about progress, not perfection.” I am trying to remind myself of this statement! Really though, just when I think I am going to have a breakdown, we have a good night and it brings back my faith that we can do this!! I suppose I should elaborate a little more. You see, before our trip to Florida over Christmas, Abbie was sleeping well in her crib and things were good. Then we were gone for over a week, and I guess it is taking her some time to get used to being home again, and being at her sitter’s again. All last week was pretty bad – she was not going down easily at all and was basically wailing for a long time (even while we held her and rocked her). We were asking ourselves – do her teeth hurt? Does her belly hurt? Is she having separation anxiety? And on and on…She was not taking good naps at her sitters, and I was still trying to keep her up until 8 at night. Then I came to a realization, with the help of friends and more importantly prayer, that maybe she was not getting enough sleep, and that is why it was so hard to get her to settle in at night. So over the weekend she took LONG naps because we were travelling, and I swear she slept so good at night. I was relieved. Last night was a little trying again. I tried putting her down around 7, because she seemed very tired again, but she woke up for about an hour at 1 and had a hard time getting back to sleep. So I think the formula for good sleep at night is good naps during the day, and unfortunately I can’t always control what happens at her sitter’s house. I can try to emphasize to her sitter the importance of naps, but I know sometimes Abbie doesn’t want to sleep because there is too much going on. And she is the youngest, which means she is the one who needs the most sleep. So we’ll see how things go over the next month. Of course I am still not completely convinced I have all the answers…Sheesh, you’d think by now I’d have all of this figured out, but that’s just not the way it goes!

So here is what Abbie is up to these days:

Crawling very fast and getting into everything – she loves power cords, cups, water bottles, and cell phones still. She will grunt real loud if she sees something she wants. It’s hilarious. She is a baby on the go, from the moment she gets up to the moment she goes to sleep.

She is starting to cruise now – meaning she stands up and takes steps while holding on to furniture.

She raises her hands high in the air when you say “how big is Abbie” and we say “SO big!” Now I know I said she was doing this previously, but I think I was a little premature. Now she is really doing it!

She can wave bye-bye sometimes, and it sounds like she is trying to say it.

She is saying dadadadadadada over and over. Every now and then I think she says mamamama but it’s mainly when she’s fussing.

She has no teeth yet! This is another sleep problem we think, because there have been some nights where it seems like she is having teething pain. She just started smacking her lips and chewing on her tongue again this week, and she is drooling like a St. Bernard – ok, not that bad, but I am just trying to make a point here.

She is still eating 3 good meals a day in addition to her nursing/bottles, and she just cut out her noon time milk feeding. She loves all the fruits, and orange veggies – carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash. We give her Yo-Baby and applesauce too. And I just bought some of those teething biscuits from Earth Fare, and she loves them. Oh yea, and so does Brandy : )

She is so sweet when she babbles, but sometimes she gets REALLY loud. We’ll be in a restaurant, and, as our friends that were with us this weekend can attest, she’ll just start babbling at the top of her lungs. I always turn beet red and just laugh. I mean, what can you do?! This is usually a sign that she is about to crash.

Let me end this post by saying that Wes and I are truly blessed to have a wonderful child that God has given us to raise. While this gig is the hardest thing we’ll ever do, we wouldn’t have it any other way. She lights up our life!