Dear Kate,
In two weeks, we’re heading on an airplane to go visit your Grammy and Papa in Florida and I’m a little nervous about you. Although you are very stationary, you are a social little butterfly and have become less and less cuddly over time. You rarely fall asleep in my arms–even when I try and snuggle with you before bed. You prefer to be on your back in your dark room–none of which are going to happen on an airplane. We have a long day of travel and I’m praying you’ll snuggle and sleep on my chest on our flights. Also prayers that nobody gets sick!
I know you’re only 8 months old and there is a whole lot of life to live but the bond you have with your sister has exceeded any expectations that I could have ever imagined. You whole heartedly love Lexi to death. I’ll start to raise my voice at Lexi to knock it off and leave you alone cause I think she’s going to irritate you, only to start hearing you giggle hysterically. She honestly will just look at you and start to laugh. Your head is on a swivel looking for her. I’ve started going into your room and closing the door (opposed to sitting on the couch downstairs) to nurse you as you’re so distracted by her. I pray that you continue to be the peanut butter to her jelly because sisters are awesome.
Sleep
Your fairly regular sleep routine has been disrupted this past month with the two little teethers that have popped through. The first one came about two weeks ago and then the second one came over the past two days. Overall, you have done really well and are still our super happy Beatle, but I can tell they have caused you some pain. You’re waking at night 2-5 times and the ONLY thing that will calm you down is to nurse. I’ll try and rock you and put your blankie next to your face and sing you songs but you just scream and squirm around in my arms like a limp noodle. You’ve also been taking some amazing naps 3+ hours twice a day! We’ve been giving you some medicine to help with the pain and that has made a big difference. However, you haven’t spiked a fever and haven’t been nawing on everything like you had in the weeks leading up to this. The only ‘symptom’ I would say you had was watery eyes. You must have a clogged tear duct because you always have gunk floating around in your eyes and they get excessively watery while teething and get some build up around your eyes. Bedtime is still around 7:30 and includes changing diaper, putting jammies on nursing and then being put down in your crib. You’ll sleep until somewhere in the 4-6 range, nurse and then go back to sleep. You’re down to 2 naps a day and the length totally depends on if Lexi has school or not. If she does, your naps almost always get shortened as you have to go get her but if it is a non-school day, you’ll snooze for 1-2 hours.
Development
You started sitting up last month and have continued to strength those muscles and are now a master at it. You love to play with toys, banging things together, chewing on them and just touching and feeling the different textures and sizes of things.
You love love love bath time. Now that you’re sitting, you go in with your big brother and sister from time to time. We’ll put about enough water in the tub that half of your ears are covered when you lie down to rinse off the soap.
With the addition of table food and the amount that you’re eating, you’ve started to poop everyday. They are pretty hard and painful for you. We’ve started to put an ounce or two of apple juice into your bottles to give you some extra fiber and for the most part it seems to be working.
This month you’ve learned to take your pacifier in and out of your mouth very consistently and will find it while you’re sleeping and pop it back in. You were pretty reliant on the paci for the first 6 months or so, but now, we’ve started to take it away a little bit more often so it isn’t always in your mouth.
You have yet to roll over and show no signs of doing it anytime soon. You are just so content sitting I don’t think you think there is a reason to learn to do anything else.
Happy 8 months little Kate the Great! We love you to pieces.
Love,
Mama
Stats:
- 3-6 month clothes
- size 3 diapers
Peanut Smiles 