Category — Baby Milestones

One of my bestest friends on the planet had a gorgeous baby boy a couple of months ago. Of course, we had to visit the happy new family. We actually bought plane tickets months ago, before my friend’s baby was even born.

At the time, I thought, “Wow, the girls are going to be eight months old when we go visit them!” Back then, the girls were portable and easy and just starting to be able to see their hands. What I didn’t realize was that, at eight months old, a baby can be a little complicated. She’s eating solid foods. She’s teething. She’s undergoing major developmental milestones. She has separation anxiety. She really likes routine and mama and boobies and familiarity in a way that she wasn’t aware of even a couple of weeks — hell, a couple of days – ago.

I had everything prepared. Seriously prepared. Like, an itemized list of shit to bring for the babies. I was extremely conservative with everyone’s luggage. I checked TSA guidelines. I called the airline to ask them to please not destroy our stroller. We pre-packed the car to make sure everything would fit.

This trip was going to go perfectly.

Do I really need to tell you what happened next?

For most of the 3.5-hour flight out, they screamed — and I’m talking not just cried, but SCREAMED — for probably 65% of the flight.  Oh yes, it was as bad as you can imagine.

For the flight home, I thought, fuck this, I’m doing “it.” By “it,” I mean, I’m taking Benadryl and nursing the babies so that they’re knocked the fuck out subdued.

Oh, come on. Don’t judge. You know you’ve heard of it.

Problem is, it didn’t work. Like, not. at. ALL.  We ended up with a drowsy-yet-terrified mama and two babies who screamed at the very threat of sitting down in a seat. That meant that Chris and I had to stand up with the girls in the Baby Bjorns the entire flight home. When we had to sit down for landing, Elise screamed so hard that she fell asleep in the Bjorn the second the plane touched down. We were quite a sight.

Our beautiful, angelic, perfect, well-adjusted little babies. WTF.

Anyhow. It sucked and I highly advise against flying with infants when they’re undergoing any sort of major developmental milestone whatsoever, such as learning to breathe.

I’m behind on updates so I figured I’d start with the most expired news and work my way up.

The girls turned eight months old (almost two weeks ago…woops) and they’re changing by the day.

Milestones

Both have been teething for a couple of weeks now, culminating in the appearance of Althea’s first top tooth! Elise’s teeth are torturing her, visible right under the gums but refusing to poke through.

Both girls have  sitting and crawling DOWN. Althea continues to show her gymnastic ability by standing up pretty regularly now. I’m starting to find her standing in her crib after naps now.

Althea standing in her crib

Babbling is crazy-fun frequent, with tons of sounds — ta, ba, dada, ma, pa, th, ch, derr, and lots of vowel sounds. Althea’s taken to shrieking too. Fun, right?

We’ve reluctantly given up our beloved Double Snap ‘n Go stroller and infant seats and traded up to a big-girl stroller and car seats. We like our new Jeep Traveler Tandem and we opted for the Graco My Ride 65 car seats — it has the highest rear-facing weight limit at 40 pounds, goes to 65 pounds forward-facing, has DOUBLE cup holders bitches ‘cuz that’s how we roll, is super soft and cushy, and was a technically-reasonable-but-still-painful-to-shell-out $150. (Each, of course. Yeah, ouch.)

New car seats, yo

New stroller

Sleeping

Sleeping has been . . . rough. After months of sleeping through the night really well, they reverted back to newborn behavior, waking two, three, sometimes four times a night. Of course, this has coincided with the teething, crawling, standing up, increased babbling, etc. We’ve gone back to two consecutive nights of sleeping through again, so hopefully we’ve overcome this bump.

I wish I had known not to get so smug about babies who sleep through the night because just when everything’s golden, they go and start growing up on you.

Still taking two good naps in the morning and afternoon, with an occasional evening catnap if they’re cranky.

Eating

The girls nurse five to six times a day and are now eating solids for breakfast and dinner. We started meats last week, which has resulted in stink-awful poop. Then again, more solid poop means the end of blowouts. Gotta love that.

While I love love love breastfeeding, I have to admit that I’m pretty much over it. I would like to have my body back for a bit. I just want to make it to one year so I don’t have to buy any formula, then I hope to start the weaning process. At the same time, the thought of weaning, of not seeing those four bright eyes peering up at me, of not having their tiny hands exploring my face, arms and chest, of not being needed – kind of breaks my heart.

To complicate things, I think the girls are now grown-up enough to like breastfeeding. Sure, they’ve always liked it in the sense that it’s warm and snuggly and delicious, but now I think they’re aware enough of what they like and dislike to show a desire to  nurse when they’re not hungry. They climb on me and whine and tug at my shirt, even after eating. I feel bad to turn them away. I feel like a bad mom for not being a human pacifier. But . . . well, I refuse to be a human pacifier. It’s rough. Sigh.

Sizes

We’re just about ready to move into 9-12 month clothes. Waaahhhh, another expense. Can they just go naked till they’re ready for school? Still in size three diapers. I’ve gone back to cloth diapering part-time, actually. That’s another post altogether. I’m guessing they weigh about 16.5 pounds now.

In other news, we did finally get a Big Badass Camera. We opted for the Canon Rebel EOS xsi. Love it! Very easy to use. Here are some recent photos.

Althea 8 months

Elise 8 months

Bookends

The girls are teething. Really, really teething.

With the bottom two teeth, Althea suffered badly while Elise hardly complained. As you might have guessed, Althea’s hardly bothered while Elise is a VERY miserable little baby. She purses her lips together in a way that makes it look like she has a mouthful of braces. She moans and moans and moans. She cries. She clings. She wants to nurse, then pushes me away. She wakes up several times a night.

It’s a freaking nightmare.

It’s been getting rough. This past week, I was home most all of the week, even taking care of three babies for a few days. I barely managed to shower, let alone get anything else done (well, except get busted cheating on my husband with a gnarly-looking handyman).

Cabin fever started to set in. Add to that the cries and whimpers and pain of teething, and you can just imagine the thoughts that ran through my mind. Shall I pluck my pubic hairs out, one by one, with splintered chop sticks? Or perhaps pierce my eyeballs with rusted corn-cob holders? Oh, I know! I’ll brush my teeth with some Ajax and floss with barbed wire!

One day, I was very very very close to LOSING MY SHIT. I generally stay pretty chipper and humorous with the girls, even when they’re both crying. But man, this was tugging on my last nerve.

So I went old school. I plopped the girls in the middle of the kitchen floor with some water-filled Tupperware and measuring spoons.

All day long, hugging and singing and playing and distracting, to no avail. But some measuring spoons and plastic containers? They were quiet and happy as pigs in shit for 40 minutes, until we had to tear them away for bath time. Go figure.

When Althea learns to do something, she wants to do it ALL the time. When she learned to roll over, she didn’t want to do it just once in a while – she wanted to roll halfway across the house. When she started babbling this month, she quickly went from the ocassional “Dadadada” to complete, nonsensical monologues and shrieks.

So when she figured out how to pull herself up to her knees, she certainly didn’t want to keep this new talent hidden from the world. First, she started pulling up to her knees in her crib.

Then, she decided to scare the living shit out of us by practicing her agility on the changing table. (I always wondered why they tell you to not put a changing table or crib by a window. This is why.)

Before long, she figured out how to use props to get into a semi-upright position.

Until finally, she found the perfect tools to help her all the way to her feet.

Every time she stands up, I knock her ass down. I don’t need my life to get any more complicated than it is.

I’M KIDDING. I just casually stick my foot out so she “accidentally” trips.

Seriously though, how proud can I possibly be? She hasn’t been doing it regularly, but boy oh boy, is she ever on her way.

Elise’s off-kilter behavior led me to schedule an appointment with the pediatrician. After talking with some friends and reading yesterday’s comment on my post, it seemed possible that she had an ear infection.

The appointment was for 4 p.m. I should have known to not bother showing up on time. A same-day, late-afternoon appointment with a doctor? Yeah, don’t bother.

Anyway.

We waited for an hour and a half. AN HOUR AND A HALF. Not only did the girls not get a full afternoon nap due to Mommy Group earlier in the day, but I had to wake them up early from the short nap they did get in order to nurse them and get to the doctor’s office on time.

Are you trembling with fear yet?

Well wait, there’s more. We missed our “dinner” of solid food in order to do all of this because I’ve never fed them solids outside of the house so of course it didn’t occur to me to bring the stupid jar of food with me to feed them on the road.

An hour and a half. I only brought two lame toys. They were strapped in carseats in the Double Snap n Go.

I was PISSED. Well, that and SCARED. Because two crying babies for 1.5 hours is just unpleasant for everyone.

However, because I have the most amazing babies on the face of the planet (no offense to your own amazing baby, of course), they didn’t cry or fuss one single time during the entire ordeal.

Well, until Elise was finally examined. An hour and a half of waiting and a three-minute exam later, the pediatrician pronounced that her ears looked great.

The problem?

Teething.

Teething??? Son of a bitch. Didn’t think to look at her gums. But the doctor pulled back her upper lip and we saw a white bump on the right side, swelling up her gums and threatening to poke through.

Freakin’ teething.

“Welcome to first-time mommyhood!” chuckled a friend.

It’s a bit of a shock since Elise didn’t flinch while teething with her two bottom teeth, but hey, those top chompers are a real bitch, eh?

Over the past week, I’ve noticed Elise undergoing some changes. Right after nursing, she gets very fussy and starts to cry. As soon as I sit her up in front of me, she’s cool. It’s like she gets irritated or bored. I wonder if it’s an independence streak emerging, and it makes me fear that she’ll start to refuse nursing. I’ve read it’s rare for a baby under one year old to “really” self-wean, so what gives?

Then, the past three nights, she’s had issues falling asleep at night, which is totally out of the ordinary. She’ll fuss, moan and even cry and scream. I’m not a big fan of crying it out, especially since crying to sleep is so rare for them that I feel like something must be wrong when it happens. I’ve ended up nursing her to sleep in the end. She has to take both sides in order to get drowsy enough to konk out once she’s done eating.

She’s been very vocal lately, babbling a lot (finally! I was afraid the girls would never babble and instead start spewing Foucault or Faulkner. Or both, which would pose a whole different set of problems). In particular, she has started to look at an object and announce one single, strong syllable: “BAH.” or “GAH,” as though she’s naming it. I’m trying to help her along, asking her “Que es el BAH?” (“What is the BAH?”) “Esto no es un BAH, es un JUGUETE.” (“This isn’t a BAH, it’s a TOY.”)

She looks at me and goes, “Screw you, Ama, I’m calling it a BAH.” My smart little girl.

Growth spurt? Milestones? Weird food? Help please?

PBBBBLLBPPPPLLLL.

Today, I saw Althea learn to sit up all by herself.

She was on all fours. Then she slowly tilted her body toward the back left so that she sat on her left butt cheek. Then she teetered into an upright position and found herself happily sitting up.

All by herself.

Things are a little rocky right now. Sometimes I question why I’m not working full time. I question if the financial difficulties and the stress and the constant cleaning and cooking and feeding and rapidly deteriorating sense of self is really worth it.

And then I see Althea learn to do something for the first time, the very first time she does it, on the very day she learns to do it.

And I think, when it’s worth it, it’s really, really worth it.

Due to recent events, I’m a day late in celebrating the girls’ 7 month-day.

For those not really interested in the fact that this blog essentially serves as an electronic baby book, then you can shove it check back soon for something more exciting. Here goes:

Eating

The girls nurse five to six times a day now. My milk supply seems to be doing better these days. Huge relief.

For solids, they each get about an ounce of fruit with 2 tablespoons of cereal in the morning, then about two ounces of vegetables plus half a tablespoon of cereal in the late afternoon.

I make most of their food at home, using fresh, organic fruits and veggies. (The girls definitely eat better than we do.) I’m really not sure how I feel about it. There are some foods that just aren’t worth it for me — they either cost more to make than the jarred stuff, or take way more effort than I feel like putting in.

Also, I don’t particularly enjoy the process. Between the shopping, washing/peeling, steaming, pureeing, straining and adding water, freezing, storage, and cleanup, it takes for-fucking-ever. It’s like, wow, carrots take two hours to make? It’s fucking carrots. They aren’t even seasoned. And with two babies, a lot of effort yields very little food in the end. You go through it twice as fast. I’ve been lusting after this Beaba baby food maker, but it’s $135. Sigh.

Tips for making it easier?

Milestones

Both girls have been rolling like crazy for months, but recently started rolling in both directions (they used to only roll to the left). Elise scoots using her left arm and right knee. Althea scoots a little bit, but she looks like she’d rather forgo the scooting in order to figure out crawling. Both girls love to get on all fours and rock back and forth. Althea even goes so far as to do downward dog. My little yogi.

Both girls also sit well unassisted, but they haven’t figured out how to get to a sitting-up position by themselves.

Other small things:

• They hold on when being held
• They’re starting to lift their arms up to be picked up
• They love to bounce

The most amazing thing that’s emerging these days is the spontaneous laughter. They just look at you and start cracking up.

Even cooler, though, is that they’re finally starting to show interest in one another. They first noticed each other at three months old, but they didn’t really care about the other until the past week or so. Just this morning, some unfamiliar noises on the monitor stirred me out of my sleep. It was Elise and Althea, “talking” to each other and making each other laugh. I walked into their room and found them peeking at each other over their crib bumpers and busting up. It was as cute as it sounds.

Sleeping

Hallelujah, after the issue with my boobs (or perhaps a growth spurt mixed in with that), they’re back to sleeping from 8 p.m. to 7-ish a.m. They nap in the morning for about 45 minutes, then take a cat nap in the evening for another 45 minutes. They have one long nap at about 1 p.m.

Personalities

Althea continues to be the firecracker and Elise is the mellow joker. They both love to laugh, smile and flirt. They do have a bit of stranger anxiety, which first started at about five months. They seem most wary of people with dark hair and ladies with a lot of makeup, jewelry and big hair.

Talking and playing

Althea’s kept mum for quite some time. Just recently, she’s started more frequently with lots of vowel sounds. She also likes to purse her lips out, like a duck, and blow raspberries. Today, she discovered how to stick her tongue between her lips and make the “PBBBBBLLLL” fart sound.

Oddly, Elise’s favorite sound right now is the “th” sound. She does lots of vowels too, but has also moved on to consonants — g’s, d’s, p’s, b’s, some m’s and r sounds.

They still put everything in their mouths. They’re able to entertain themselves for good stretches of time, maybe 20 – 40 minutes.

Size

Wearing 6 – 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. They’re about 15 1/2 pounds and over 26 inches long by now.

in dresses

Elise eating Mum-Mums

Althea eating Mum-Mums

Elise is scooting. Now, I need a baby cage.