8 Months Old!

Today Cordelia is 8 months old....

Let's see, during month 7 she did some exciting stuff.  She sat in a high chair for the first time at a restaurant. She is continuing to work on crawling and is starting to lift up her butt and be on her hands and knees in proper crawling position.  She can even pull herself forward a little bit, especially if there is something she really wants, like Auntie Alison's phone!

At the beginning of the month Cordelia did have a Physical Therapy appointment about the torticollis of her neck.  Jason took her while I was at work.  She did great and they said her case is extremely mild and we do not have to go back! Yay!  They said to keep her out of the carseat or stroller as much as possible (baby carrier is preferable) and do lots and lots of tummy time.  They also gave her some exercises to work on her righting-reflect... you hold her and tip her to the side and wait for her to straighten out her head.  Jason is much better at it than me.  I'm glad we do not have to do any thing where we have to hold her head while she resists or cries, like I was imagining.

This month, I also spent more time away from C than ever before.  I have attended to school-related classes after work now.  They were really good... as Gillian phrased it... it must be nice to have some time with other adults and to do some professional development.  This is TRUE.  Plus, the classes were something I really enjoyed and was really interested in.  Plus, even as tough as it was to be away from Cordelia for sooo long, let's face facts.  She was still awake to see me when I got home!

My last two posts were about how sleep was going, or not going.  For the last few weeks, we have completely abandoned the crib.  Cordelia sleeps with me and Jason has voluntarily moved to our floor mattress.  That's makes a bit more room in the bed (our bed is small) and also keeps the cats away.  LBC keeps trying to get between us and sit on Cordelia.  She has no boundaries, and we don't want a repeat of the scratch on her eyelid.  (It still hasn't vanished... she may have a scar!? fortunately so tiny.)
Co sleeping is great.  Cordelia stills wakes up several times in the night, but I can soothe her without picking her all the way up.  Also, I am only having to nurse her in the night on very rare occasions.  My boobs are still in shock to not be used and feel horribly full upon waking up.

Cordelia's naps are still pretty short.  She fights going to sleep.  She's afraid she will miss something.  Also, I tried to set up a "nap routine" and she started fighting it too, instead of getting used to it. She was like, oh no!  This is a trick to make me go to sleep.  I thought babies loved routines and consistency for a schedule.  But Cordelia learns there is a pattern to things and once she wises up--- the battle begins.  That's how I knew she was feeling pretty sick this weekend, when she took two 2 hour naps.  What baby is this?!  She was so congested she couldn't nurse and I fixed her a bottle.  I have never given her a bottle, but she knew just what to do and gobbled it up.  I was then able to nurse her a bit after, to top her off.  She wasn't flipping out by then and could handle it much better.

Other changes are on the horizon that I am very anxious about.  We are going to move.  We are buying my brother and sister in law's mobile home (and they are moving to a real house).  I love our apartment, but it is getting too expensive and a bit small for a crawling baby to be, and it is not very accommodating for houseguests. The doublewide has lots more space-- two bedroom, two bathroom, lots of storage, even laundry.  We can't afford to buy a house, so this is a pretty good compromise for more space and cheaper monthly price.  I hope this is the right thing to do for Cordelia.  I am going to miss our home very much.  We lived here since 2010, and it was nice to live in a place for longer than one year.  We are currently starting the process of going through our stuff and boxing it up.  Ug,  the next few weeks will be insane.  I wonder how long it will take us to get settled.

2014!

We got to ring in the New Year for our baby girl!  Welcome to 2014!  Cordelia is 7 months old and adorable!  She can scoot around in a circle on the floor and also go backwards.  She can push up, but not lift up her butt.  She loves to play with toys, and on stuffed animals and blankets her favorite thing is .... the tag!  On her wacky dog, she loves to gum the tag to death.

Sleep training was a bust.  Cordelia can cry for over an hour.  Cry it out was not my plan, but I felt like we were never giving her the chance to put herself to sleep if we always picked her up.  They say some babies will cry for 15 minutes... half an hour... an hour.... no.  Cordelia would sometimes quiet for a moment, giving me hope, but then she cried for over an hour and a half.  Or she just screamed if I sat with her, but wasn't picking her up.  It was hell for all involved.  She seems to be having separation anxiety and crying even if we move out of sight and too far away from her.  So no progress forward, even a step back.  We are now co sleeping.  She starts the night in her bed.  But when she wakes up, I just put her in our bed.  And then: she sleeps.  She sleeps all night.  She doesn't ask to nurse.  She just sleeps, in comfort, in warmth, in the safety of being with mommy.  So this is the turning point.  Sleeping through the night, but in our bed.  So hopefully she will start doing it in her bed. (yeah right, I know!)  Months from now, we will be struggling to get her out of our bed.  We are trading one "bad" habit for another.  But it is what feels right to both me and Jason.  In the days we were focusing on her sleep so much, we were all becoming really stressed.  She was not her usual happy self.  We weren't playing as much, because we were trying to start bed and nap routines earlier.  And the minute she would start to sleepy, she would start to fight it, scared to go to sleep on her own.  The last two days she has also had a bit of a runny nose, thanks to me.

Yesterday, I swear she saw a picture of Jason on the wall and recognized it as Daddy. He was at work, but she got SO EXCITED about the picture.  Was it the frame? Could she see her reflection?  I think she saw Daddy and was happy to see him!