I have had several people in the last couple days ask me how old my baby is. I couldn't believe it when the words "eight months" came out of my mouth. During the last month my life was made immeasurably harder by my mobile baby. It was made insanely more difficult by a baby who has turned intensely clingy. It is also definitely more awesome than another other month because I have a little girl who thinks I am by far the funniest, snuggliest, most fun, awesomest person ever. She wants to sleep next to me, play with me, snuggle on me, watch me and talk to me all day, every day. I am her favorite person. So, I will try not to complain too much.
April 24-May 24
Highlights of the Month:
It would be a lie if I told you this was an easy month. It was definitely rough, but there was also some very fun days for all of us.
We started the month with some family time. Dinner with Tori and Kaitlin on Charlotte's 7 month birthday and then Sarah came to visit for the weekend. Mama had a fun time that weekend at a baby wearing class. It was fun to meet other mamas and Charlotte loved playing with the other babies. There were lots of babies her age. I got to practice some carried with some pretty wraps too.
Matt finished the 1st semester of graduate school. Hooray daddy! It was a rough couple of weeks at the end, and a final day with 12 hours of homework help from me. He did great this semester. I don't know how he does that while at the same he is being a super hands on daddy to Charlotte and a great husband to me.
The best day of the whole month was Mother's Day. I always enjoyed having family time on this special day growing up. As a mother I really love mother's day. It was a great day. We went to church and then had the rest of the day to ourselves. This was the first weekend Matt wasn't working on homework in months so it was perfect. We went to Matt's studio at school so he could pack up his stuff from the semester. Then we went to the park, overlooking Lake Michigan and had some snacks, did a crossword puzzle and watched Charlotte roll around on the grass. We went to Starbucks for a treat and then read children's books at my favorite book store. After that I got to pick out the movie we watched at home. I certainly picked a good one. It was a fantastic day. I can't wait to see what next year has in store.
As soon as Matt finished the semester he went back to working full time. This left me without a car for a week. My mind went to a sad place that week. Matt usually carpools with his brother and friend to work, but they switched to the second shift until July. So, Matt had to drive himself. I was stuck at home without a way of seeing any friends or getting to know new friends. I couldn't do errands or just drive to the bookstore. After several breakdowns and real talks Matt told me that he would work the 2nd shift so that he could carpool and I could have the car. He didn't want to see me so depressed. I am loved by a great man. Also, he got a $1 pay raise to work the night shift. So, now he works from 4pm-2am (overtime). It is rough for us and I miss spending time alone with him, but it is only temporary. We get a few hours together in the late morning/afternoon. He gets to see Charlotte more, because she isn't asleep when he is there. We will be VERY happy when this is over.
The happy news for this summer is that my sister moved in with us on May 19th, for the summer. It is a joy to have her around. It is beyond wonderful to have someone to talk to and someone to do stuff with. It is also a huge relief to have some help with Charlotte, especially now that Matt is gone at night. I believe the saying about a village being needed to raise a child. I finally feel like it isn't just Matt and I, but now I have a little bit of the village help as well. Charlotte was a little untrusting at first but she is warming up to her Tante. (Norwegian for aunt) I am even planning a little evening out with Matt for this weekend.
We visited the Children's museum with a friend. I LOVE children's museums and can't wait until Charlotte can really enjoy them in a couple years.
We ended this month with 2 trips to Madison in one week. Charlotte and I went to see our visiting friends Rynn and Caleb. They were visiting from Seattle. I miss them so much and they hadn't seen Charlotte since she was a newborn. We got to see the lovely O'Brien family as well. Charlotte had a blast playing with little Oliver and all his toys. Then a couple days later we went to New Glarus/Madison for Memorial Day weekend. Matt worked on his sister's new floors while Emma and I (and Charlotte) got to visit Kristin in Madison. We had so much fun!
Other things: Charlotte is super clingy to me and I am clearly her favorite, I am watching all of Parks and Rec and I am a little bit more than obsessed and we are clocking in tons of miles every week walking. I shoot for 10 miles a week and with a 20lb baby on my back this gives me a great workout. I have 8 pounds left of baby weight to lose and by the end of the summer it will be gone.
And, with that... Charlotte turned 8 months old.
So, the moral of this story is that some weeks or months are rough. It doesn't mean that my whole life sucks, it doesn't mean that it will always be this way and it doesn't mean that there are not a whole ton of people who love me. It just means that some times certain things suck. Never fail, the optimism in me will live on.
Important Stats:
Eating: Charlotte finally likes food. She is starting to really like it a lot. Here is a list of some of the food she has tried and loved:
-plain toast
-rice crackers
-yogurt... her absolute favorite!
-sweet peas
-apple slices
-frozen blueberries
-sausage
-grilled chicken
-scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs
-pureed pears with oatmeal
-cuties
-green beans
-bell peppers
-bananas
-quesadilla
Things she doesn't love:
-broccoli
-applesauce
-plain oatmeal
-carrots
There are other things, but these are the ones I remember the best. The things we eat the most are toast, yogurt, eggs and apple slices. Then we just eat whatever veggies or other fruits that are on hand. Usually I give her something for breakfast around 10am and something for dinner around 5pm. Sometimes I skip the dinner meal if I am lazy. But, she chows down at breakfast. Charlotte nurses every 2-3 hours. As much as it was a pain for quite awhile I am starting to think I will miss our nursing snuggles. I was very adamant about being done at 12 months, but now I guess we will just see how it goes.
Sleeping: Hooray! So much better! After the hell that last month was this is heaven. It got so, so bad that it needed to change (at any cost). Doing a cry it out method was hard for me for awhile. We had several failed attempts that led to the month of waking up every 1-2 hours for 10 hours every night. At the start of this month we were all fried. Charlotte was cranky all day, she wouldn't take any naps and Matt and I were just done. So, we did another round of crying it out. It only took a couple nights and Charlotte was sleeping from 8:30-5:30, only waking once for about 5 minutes. This is the schedule she has kept. Her bedtime has moved up a little bit and it is now closer to 8:00, and she wakes up a tiny bit sooner, about 5:00. So, I get her and bring her into bed with me. I nurse her and we both fall back asleep until around 7:00. Naps are still iffy, but she definitely takes them if I am laying next to her. For the most part I am ok with that. I can usually go for an afternoon nap.
Pooping: Grown up poops! Ever since she has starting eat more normal food her poop is awesome. (odd sentence) I'm not sure why people complain about this. No more super watery breast milk poop!
Growing: Now that she is on the go, Charlotte is not gaining weight like she used to. She pretty much didn't gain any this month. I guess I am gonna have to try hard to keep her fat. She did grow an inch, so I think we might have a tall skinny girl on our hands before too long. She is too long for her 9 month clothes now, and it is also getting a little warm out so she is wearing her 12 month summer clothes as well as her footless 9 month clothes. The 12 month onsies are so huge on her though. The pants and shirts fit pretty good, but not the onsies.
nicknames: Char-char (since she likes saying ma-ma I call her char-char)
Charlotte's favorite things during her 8th month:
1. yogurt
2. getting into the movies/books/records
3. pulling herself to her knees
4. going for walks
5. crawling
Mama's favorite things during Charlotte's 8th month:
1. going for walks
2. the moment when Charlotte first crawled across the room to her
3. sleeping through the night
4. Mother's Day
Charlotte's least favorite things during her 8th month:
1. When Mama walks away
2. When Mama takes away the remote
3. Not getting to see grammy and grandpa
Mama's least favorite things during Charlotte's 8th month:
1. super slingy baby
2. baby getting into everything
3. being lonely
4. 2nd shift
Charlotte's new skills
-On May 19th Charlotte did her first official crawl. She crawled across her entire bedroom into my arms. It was easily one of the top 10 best moments of my life.
-She pulls herself up to her knees all the time and almost gets up to her feet
-sleeping through the night
The happy news for this summer is that my sister moved in with us on May 19th, for the summer. It is a joy to have her around. It is beyond wonderful to have someone to talk to and someone to do stuff with. It is also a huge relief to have some help with Charlotte, especially now that Matt is gone at night. I believe the saying about a village being needed to raise a child. I finally feel like it isn't just Matt and I, but now I have a little bit of the village help as well. Charlotte was a little untrusting at first but she is warming up to her Tante. (Norwegian for aunt) I am even planning a little evening out with Matt for this weekend.
We visited the Children's museum with a friend. I LOVE children's museums and can't wait until Charlotte can really enjoy them in a couple years.
We ended this month with 2 trips to Madison in one week. Charlotte and I went to see our visiting friends Rynn and Caleb. They were visiting from Seattle. I miss them so much and they hadn't seen Charlotte since she was a newborn. We got to see the lovely O'Brien family as well. Charlotte had a blast playing with little Oliver and all his toys. Then a couple days later we went to New Glarus/Madison for Memorial Day weekend. Matt worked on his sister's new floors while Emma and I (and Charlotte) got to visit Kristin in Madison. We had so much fun!
Other things: Charlotte is super clingy to me and I am clearly her favorite, I am watching all of Parks and Rec and I am a little bit more than obsessed and we are clocking in tons of miles every week walking. I shoot for 10 miles a week and with a 20lb baby on my back this gives me a great workout. I have 8 pounds left of baby weight to lose and by the end of the summer it will be gone.
And, with that... Charlotte turned 8 months old.
So, the moral of this story is that some weeks or months are rough. It doesn't mean that my whole life sucks, it doesn't mean that it will always be this way and it doesn't mean that there are not a whole ton of people who love me. It just means that some times certain things suck. Never fail, the optimism in me will live on.
Important Stats:
Eating: Charlotte finally likes food. She is starting to really like it a lot. Here is a list of some of the food she has tried and loved:
-plain toast
-rice crackers
-yogurt... her absolute favorite!
-sweet peas
-apple slices
-frozen blueberries
-sausage
-grilled chicken
-scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs
-pureed pears with oatmeal
-cuties
-green beans
-bell peppers
-bananas
-quesadilla
Things she doesn't love:
-broccoli
-applesauce
-plain oatmeal
-carrots
There are other things, but these are the ones I remember the best. The things we eat the most are toast, yogurt, eggs and apple slices. Then we just eat whatever veggies or other fruits that are on hand. Usually I give her something for breakfast around 10am and something for dinner around 5pm. Sometimes I skip the dinner meal if I am lazy. But, she chows down at breakfast. Charlotte nurses every 2-3 hours. As much as it was a pain for quite awhile I am starting to think I will miss our nursing snuggles. I was very adamant about being done at 12 months, but now I guess we will just see how it goes.
Sleeping: Hooray! So much better! After the hell that last month was this is heaven. It got so, so bad that it needed to change (at any cost). Doing a cry it out method was hard for me for awhile. We had several failed attempts that led to the month of waking up every 1-2 hours for 10 hours every night. At the start of this month we were all fried. Charlotte was cranky all day, she wouldn't take any naps and Matt and I were just done. So, we did another round of crying it out. It only took a couple nights and Charlotte was sleeping from 8:30-5:30, only waking once for about 5 minutes. This is the schedule she has kept. Her bedtime has moved up a little bit and it is now closer to 8:00, and she wakes up a tiny bit sooner, about 5:00. So, I get her and bring her into bed with me. I nurse her and we both fall back asleep until around 7:00. Naps are still iffy, but she definitely takes them if I am laying next to her. For the most part I am ok with that. I can usually go for an afternoon nap.
Pooping: Grown up poops! Ever since she has starting eat more normal food her poop is awesome. (odd sentence) I'm not sure why people complain about this. No more super watery breast milk poop!
Growing: Now that she is on the go, Charlotte is not gaining weight like she used to. She pretty much didn't gain any this month. I guess I am gonna have to try hard to keep her fat. She did grow an inch, so I think we might have a tall skinny girl on our hands before too long. She is too long for her 9 month clothes now, and it is also getting a little warm out so she is wearing her 12 month summer clothes as well as her footless 9 month clothes. The 12 month onsies are so huge on her though. The pants and shirts fit pretty good, but not the onsies.
nicknames: Char-char (since she likes saying ma-ma I call her char-char)
Charlotte's favorite things during her 8th month:
1. yogurt
2. getting into the movies/books/records
3. pulling herself to her knees
4. going for walks
5. crawling
Mama's favorite things during Charlotte's 8th month:
1. going for walks
2. the moment when Charlotte first crawled across the room to her
3. sleeping through the night
4. Mother's Day
Charlotte's least favorite things during her 8th month:
1. When Mama walks away
2. When Mama takes away the remote
3. Not getting to see grammy and grandpa
Mama's least favorite things during Charlotte's 8th month:
1. super slingy baby
2. baby getting into everything
3. being lonely
4. 2nd shift
Charlotte's new skills
-On May 19th Charlotte did her first official crawl. She crawled across her entire bedroom into my arms. It was easily one of the top 10 best moments of my life.
-She pulls herself up to her knees all the time and almost gets up to her feet
-sleeping through the night
