Brooke: 8 Months

For the first time since Brooke was born I can honestly say that I would happily re-live this last month.  Yes, it was that good.  Especially these last 2 weeks.  I can't count the number of times I've looked at Brett and said something along the lines of "whose baby is this?" because she is growing up all of a sudden and not acting like the little Brooke we used to know.

Happy 8 Months little girl!

This little one is now 18 and 1/2 pounds according to our bathroom scale. 

This month started with a emotional boost that was much needed.  I found myself talking to a few different moms and received some much needed validation.  One in particular has a little boy that is about 4 months older than Brooke.  In her words our kids were made "from the same mold".  From co-sleeping at the beginning and then waking up every 2 hours all night long to nurse and not napping to being excessively active and easily bored and fussy.  Our kids are one in the same.  She then shared that her son's sleeping got better (but still not great) once he was able to crawl around and really tire himself out.  This concept was one that I could actually see being successful with Brooke and provided hope. But more than that, the fact that this mother has 3 older sons was comforting.  She reported that her other 3 sons were completely different from this little guy.  The idea that a "veteran mother" struggled with similar things as me (a first time mom) reassured me that our difficulties weren't simply because I was a bad mom who had no idea what I was doing.  I mean, I know all moms have struggles and each baby is unique but hearing from someone who was practically identical was great. This took a lot of the pressure off that I was feeling to "fix" things and took away the guilt I was feeling because Brooke wasn't acting the way I felt like she should. Learning this lesson was very freeing and was a great way to start the month.

What is not to love about this little face!

This month then ended with a physical boost that was also greatly needed.  One night Brooke slept for two 4 hour chunks back to back.  This was a huge deal and felt great! But even better was the next night when she went 8 hours straight!  8 hours people.  This was unprecedented and a huge surprise.  But even better is that in the week and a half since that night she has proven time and time again that she can sleep through the night.  Each night is a little different but it has been consistent enough that I feel safe to say that Brooke is FINALLY sleeping through the night.  For the last three nights I haven't even had to get up once in the middle of the night and go into her room.  She has woken up briefly at times but successfully put herself back to sleep each night within a matter of minutes.  She still takes a few times to get her down for good, but once I'm in bed, I can stay there! It is like she is a completely different baby.  Its hard to explain but everything about her sleep is different.  From the way she falls asleep, to how squirmy she is while nursing, to how tense her body is when I lay her down, to how she reacts when she wakes up slightly, to the way she cries when she fully wakes up.  A whole different baby.  And she changed all on her own.  I'm not exactly against sleep training but it never felt right for us and I am so glad that we got to this point without trying to force her to do something she wasn't ready for.  Now I'm not naive enough to think that all our sleep problems are gone and things certainly aren't perfect, but I am enjoying this stage while it lasts.  In all honesty, I'm terrified for what will happen when we are visiting Oregon this summer for 3 weeks.  A time zone change, new sleep space and a more chaotic day schedule will be sure to throw her for a loop.  We will just have to wait and see how she does. 

What a happy well rested baby!

In conjunction with her night sleep, her day sleep has also improved immensely. You may remember that at the beginning of the month we transitioned from 3 naps to 2.  This has worked great and I think played a large role in her sleeping better at night.  She now takes a two hour nap in the morning and a hour and a half nap in the afternoon.  It is MARVELOUS! And, are you sitting down for this?  I often have to wake her up from these naps (and even sometimes in the morning).  Now if you would have told me a month ago that I would be waking my child up because she was sleeping too long I would have laughed in your face.  But it is now my reality.  If I don't wake her up, she sleeps too long (who's baby is this?!) and then isn't ready for her next nap/bedtime.  It has been working great and I am greatly enjoying the down time every day.

She has even fallen asleep in the car after church a few times!

Like I said at the beginning, I'd gladly relive this month.  Being well rested myself and having a happy well rested baby probably accounts for most of this statement but Brooke has also been up to a lot of fun new tricks. 

In an attempt to try and touch the fridge, she often "walks" over to it only to realize the tray is in the way and the spring from the jumper is eager to pull her back. 

KISSES! My favorite new skill is that she gives the most adorable (and wet) kisses.  They melt my heart every time. Good night kisses have always been part of our bedtime routine but she now gives them back.  She opens her mouth and softly presses it against our cheeks.  Sometimes she'll even give them during the day, complete with both hands on my face.  So sweet and gentle and loving. Melts my heart!

Sitting outside in the bumbo

Sitting.  We spent most of the month practicing sitting.  This little mover was always more interested in the toy just out of her reach than she was in sitting.  But after countless stories read while sitting in her boppy pillow (books were one of the few things that would keep her engaged enough to stay still) she is finally sitting on her own!  Such a big girl!


For some reason I assumed she had to be able to sit on her own in order to sit in a shopping cart. I realized this wasn't the case at the beginning of the month so we also had lots of practice sitting in shopping carts and high chairs at restaurants.  She loves it and I love not having to lug around her carseat.

Brooke can not be bothered to look at me/the camera when there is so much other new stuff to see

Learning how to sit also created some interesting bath times.  One night while giving her a bath Brett yelled at me to come watch.  She was using all her might to sit up (her bath sits her at a recline) and she was reaching for the side of the little tub.  Turns out she wasn't even trying to sit up, she was trying to stand! Silly girl is growing up too fast.  We have since been able to take out the infant seat and she just sits in the tub part but I think we will graduate to just using the normal bathtub soon.

Sitting has not been without incident.  One day I left her sitting on the floor and as I walked by a few minutes later she turned to watch me. This resulted in her toppling over.  Not usually a big deal but this time the toy she was holding hurt her somehow (still not sure exactly) and she erupted in a pained cry.  I picked her up and comforted her and watched the one single tear drop from her eye.  Brooke doesn't usually tear up when she cries.  Like maybe 5 times since being born.  So this broke my heart.  Luckily she is a trooper and was back to playing in no time at all. 

I'm sitting... no wait, I'm falling!

Whenever she is not sitting, this little girl is on the move.  She is still army crawling but has practically perfected it and is quite a bit more graceful.  She can still get wherever she wants but is slow enough that I have time to intercede if necessary.  She also gets up regularly on all fours and rocks back and forth and sometimes even uses the momentum to lunge herself forward. She often uses  all this forward motion to come to me, which I love! Sometimes if she gets bored or fussy while playing alone I can entice her to crawl to me instead of having to get up. Lazy? Maybe but definitely more fun.

Just hanging out under my jumperoo... because I can!

This is the look Brooke gives me when I call out her name and try to tell her "no, she can't go play with the shoes"

She also started doing another cute thing to get around.  If she is on her back and something catches her eye she will arch her back so the top of her head in on the ground and look backwards to see it.  Then she uses her feet to push her backwards towards the item (usually me).  This usually only lasts for a little bit before she decides its faster to roll over and crawl. 

One thing that hasn't changed about Brooke is that she is still a social butterfly.  This little one loves people!  One of the perks of sitting up in the shopping carts is that she can see and interact with more people.  She is used to everyone coming over to say hi and loves rewarding them with smiles.  Seriously, I can't go out of the house without multiple people coming up and telling me that she has adorable eyes and is beautiful and happy and "oh my gosh, I just love your little girl."   We even were told twice this month that she looks like the Gerber baby.  I'm not complaining though...  I fully agree she is adorable!

What is funny though is how Brooke reacts when someone walks by without so much as a glace in her direction.  I will watch her stare down the stranger as they approach with longing in her eyes.  And then if they don't pay her attention she will start making noises/breathing loudly.  If they make it all the way passed us without so much as a smile Brooke will look up at me with this puzzled look in her eyes like "why didn't they say hi?!"  Its kinda funny and has happened multiple times.  Poor little girl is in for a rude awakening when she realizes the whole world doesn't revolve around her. 

Brooke has started enjoying church which has made our life a lot easier.  I used to feel so stressed at church because a) 3 hours is a long time and b) for so long the only way to calm her if she got upset was to nurse her.  Now that she is more easily distracted and soothed we spend less time in the mother's lounge and more time playing with friends.  She has a "friend" who is 2 months older than her and they love to play together during sunday school and relief society.  They often switch toys and each enjoys playing with their "new" toys. They also love staring at each other and making faces/noises at each other.

Playing on the ground at church

Food.  Eating solids is still going great.  We are up to three solid meals a day.  Usually a fruit/oatmeal combo in the morning.  Meat/Veggie for lunch and Veggie for dinner with fruit for "dessert."  She eats when we eat and it has made meal time lots of fun. You may have seen the adorable video I posted on facebook where Brooke got distracted by the spoon's shadow and played with it instead of eating.  It was a perfect example of how easily distracted she is and how curious she can be.  It also showed how determined she can be.  Every few days she tries to get the shadow and I have to coax her back into eating.   

We also started some finger foods within the last week or so.  We were at Costco the other day and one of the samples was multi-grain cheerios.  I decided to give Brooke one and see what she did.  The first face was priceless.  It even got the family walking by to laugh.  She quickly warmed up to the idea and started moving the cheerio around with her tongue and gumming on it.  Once she was done she started panting (indicating she wanted more) and ate quite a few while we finished our shopping.  I had tried some of the baby puffs a few weeks prior to that and she wasn't interested/didn't even attempt to chew so I was surprised how much she loved the idea of eating.  Since then we have given her cheerios after every meal to practice her fine motor skills (which still need a lot of improvement...haha).  We even fed her some watermelon from our meal last night and plan to introduce other non-pureed solid foods this month. 

Cheerios and Watermelon!

For Brooke, the worst part of eating is getting her face wiped down after.  I'm not sure many babies enjoy it (at least not for long...  She was okay with it the first few times).  In order to keep her from fussing I've learned that if I count to 3 she thinks its a game or at least she is more prepared and smiles while pushing me away.  This helps a little bit but we often leave the house and get to a store where I look down at her and realize she is still covered in food.  Whoops! And for the record, my least favorite part of her eating solid foods is the drastic increase in quantity and quality of dirty diapers!  Gross. 

Speaking of going out, can I just tell you how nice it is that she doesn't throw a fit in the car anymore.  Like I said, who's baby is this?! The other day we had to go 45 minutes away for a quick errand. That meant she was in her carseat by herself for over an hour and a half. She was such a trooper and was only a little fussy to express her boredom.  This is a huge improvement from the loud screaming that used to occur anytime she was in the car.  Its the little things people.

I jokingly told Brett earlier this month that Brooke is a city girl.  Let me explain. We were at some friends house for dinner and were out walking around their property looking at their chickens/pigs.  They had a couple dogs running around and one ran over to say hi and licked Brooke's foot.  This gave Brooke a real shock and she had a little melt down.  She kept looking at the dog with fear in her eyes.  Poor girl.  We got a little laugh out of it though.

Well, I think I've rambled on long enough.  I sure do love our little girl and am so blessed to be her mom.  She brightens the lives of everyone she is around and brings pure joy to my life and entertainment into our home. Here are some more random pictures that didn't fit above.

Getting in our walks while we can, before the summer heat hits!

Brooke had a blast pulling each bag out of the box of fruit snacks.  She would play with each one like it was a new toy oblivious to the fact that they were in fact all the same. 

Having lunch with my two favorite people in the whole world!

Showing off her strength after emptying the basket of all the toys

Her hair is getting long enough that I sometimes try to put bows in without a headband.  It doesn't always last though.

This is one of Brooke's favorite faces to make.  It is usually accompanied by a heavy breathing/panting noise and means she is excited and wants something.  In this case, my phone. 

"Wait a second, there is nothing in this cup.  Maybe if i try this side..."

I had a lot more pictures that I thought.  Maybe its time I get instagram now that I have a fancy phone so I can share them more regularly and avoid a post with approximately 2,657 pictures. 

Can you believe that next month Brooke will have been outside my body for longer than she was inside?!