Henry turned eight months old on February 26! Henry's theme for this month was On the Move! He is constantly busy and into something.
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| Getting his monthly photo is becoming pretty tricky. He loves to grab for the blocks and pet his penguin friend. |
Sleeping
Henry is still doing well sleeping at night (knock on wood). We try to have him in bed by around 9:30, and he generally sleeps until 6:00 or 6:30, and sometimes longer. Now our goal is to put him to bed earlier, with an 8:30 target bedtime, so he will be in a good pattern for the future when he begins preschool. Napping is still not that great. I've nearly resigned myself to the fact that Henry just doesn't take long naps during the day. His pattern is several 45 minute to 1 hour naps, rather than two longer ones. I am not sure what else to do to promote longer napping, since we try to keep his room quiet and play background music for him. I may invest in blackout curtains to test whether the light is waking him up. If those don't work, then I'll conclude that Henry doesn't want to miss out on any fun by sleeping his day away, and go with the short naps!
Eating
Henry has increased his intake of solids and now eats three meals of solids a day. He gets yogurt in the morning, which he loves, a fruit in the afternoon, and vegetables at dinner. He also loves snacking on Mum Mums or puffs. Because Henry eats three solid meals, I've cut out one of his liquid feeds.
Henry also began using a sippy cup this month! We've put only water in them so far. Henry loves drinking from a cup. He really caught onto the concept pretty quickly and can manage the cup himself. He sometimes gets too much water, or it goes down the wrong pipe, and he coughs a bit. But he's doing well with this transition.
This month was also momentous because I said goodbye to pumping at the end of the month. I was encountering issues with pumping that were causing some injuries and a decent amount of pain. I was starting to dread feeding Henry, much less pump, and I want nursing to be an enjoyable experience for both of us. I tried all sorts of remedies and tried taking a couple days off of pumping to allow myself time to heal, but I was fairly confident that resuming pumping would just lead to the same result. I struggled big-time with the decision to stop, because breast milk is so beneficial nutritionally and developmentally. But I'm still giving Henry breast milk on the days I don't work, and in the morning and in the evenings on the days I do. Plus, I've read that the benefits of breast milk drop off after six months (I guess because kids get more nutrients from solids). So, I feel ok about this decision and am trying not to beat myself up too much about it!
Moving and Shaking
The biggest "physical" milestone for Henry this month is that he began pulling himself up! He started with his crib. I put him in his crib one morning just after he turned seven months and came back a couple of minutes later to discover that he was standing up, holding onto the rails and looking over the side! Here's some photographic proof of his skills:
We promptly lowered his crib to the lowest setting so he can't tumble over the side. He loves pulling himself up and smiling widely at us. He also loves to chew on the wood, as you can see, so we invested in some nifty rail covers to protect his future sibling's property! They cover the length of the sides of the crib and are made of a soft fleece material. Henry doesn't seem to mind gnawing on them in the least.
Since pulling up on his crib, Henry has moved on to pulling up on the ottoman, the couch, our legs, his musical activity table, dining room chairs, you name it. He also is able to reach over from one object to another while standing. So if he pulls up on my legs while I'm standing next to the couch, he'll let go and reach for the couch to hang on to. He's pretty proud of himself, and we're pretty proud of him!
Henry's also still crawling up a storm, and this month he learned how to go from a crawling position to a sitting position. Frequently, he'll take off crawling, stop, sit up, and turn around to look at you and make sure you're watching him. So cute!
Other Milestones
Henry is still jabbering away, and this month, he said "Mama" for the first time! He only did it once, and I know he doesn't know what it means, but it was still adorable. He has moved on from saying dada so often, and now he uses the "g" consonant a lot (gaga, ga, etc.), and he also says a lot of gibberish that I'm sure makes total sense to him. I can't wait until he says his first real word.
On a less exciting note, Henry had his first ear infection this month. He woke up screaming one morning at 4:30, which was unusual for him, and his right eye was nearly swollen shut. Like any first-time parents, we freaked out and called the pediatrician. Fortuitously, he already had a pediatrician well-check the next day, where the doctor diagnosed him with pink eye. But the following day, he began running a fever, and it increased to a high of 101.9. I got pretty nervous and we took him back to the doctor. One look in his left ear, and we were left with a "pretty severe" ear infection diagnosis. It turns out that the congestion he's had since his cold in November resulted in an eye infection (not pinkeye), which then lead to an ear infection. Poor guy. I'm hoping he will be well for awhile, especially with spring coming soon.
