12 months

weight and other stats:  21 lbs 11 oz (76th%), 30.5 in long (88th %), and her head is still in the 99th %, not a surprise!

size: 12 months and a few 12-18 month items.  All the 9 month clothing has been packed away.

sleeping:  pretty much never STTN this last month.  May be teeth (her canines and molars are coming in), may just be a phase we’re in.  We are considering doing some kind of night time sleep training soon, after we are done with our travels and after she has transitioned off of formula.  I don’t think she really needs the middle of the night bottle(s) so we’ll probably address that soon.  Still taking one morning nap and 1-2 in the afternoon.

eating:  After 11 months of daily tracking every.single.bottle. I stopped tracking her formula intake a couple of weeks ago.  It was weird but also freeing 🙂   Gretchen really started to eat  a variety of foods this last month, which was exciting.  Some of the things she now eats regularly: broccoli, tomatoes, black beans, cauliflower, banana, cheese, peaches, strawberries, plain and greek yogurt, puffs, mum mums.  We still have a bunch of pouches leftover but usually mix them up with yogurt instead of feeding them to her straight.  She really got the hang of the sippy cup this last month, although she refuses to take anything but water out of it.  We tried formula and pedialyte (when she had a stomach bug) and she refused the cup both times.  She had her first taste of something sweet, a bit of birthday cake while we were visiting Tyler’s family.  We continue to introduce new foods to her but she tosses much of it to the pugs, which they love of course!  Spaghetti was rejected tonight, although she did smear the sauce all over her head.

likes:  Saying “dada” and breaking her mama’s heart ;), pulling up on everything, cruising, crawling, exploring, giving high 5s, turning the tv on and off, babbling, swimming, playing with her cousins, going up the stairs, trying to go down the stairs, finger puppets, looking at the covers of books (but not the pages), walking with her push toys, blowing raspberries, taking off her diapers.

dislikes: long car rides, being told no and being blocked from grabbing stuff she wants, when we leave the room after a middle of the night feeding.

11 months

weight and other stats: nothing official this month but her one year appointment is coming up soon!

size: Most of the 9 month outfits have been retired and she is wearing 12 month clothing, lots of fun summer dresses!

sleeping:  not much change. One morning nap, and one long afternoon, or two short afternoon naps.  She still wakes up most nights for a bottle, anywhere from 3-6 oz, then she goes right back to sleep.  She will STTN a couple of times a week.  It seems to take her longer to go down for naps now that she has figured out how to pull up in the crib!  It was really bad when she first learned to pull up because she couldn’t figure out how to get back down, but fortunately after about a week she figured that out.  One funny thing she’s done this last month is fall asleep while sitting (she lays her forehead down between her legs).  She’s done this at naptime and while playing!

eating:  Usually 28-30 oz of  formula a day, she only has a few weeks left on formula, crazy!  She has really figured out baby led weaning this month, hooray!  She loves to eat broccoli and banana.  She is an expert at eating her puffs, cheerios, yogurt melts, and mum mums.  She has also taken some bites of quesadila, bell peppers, grapes, strawberries (from our garden!), beans, rice, cheese, chicken.  Basically she is trying many of the things we put on her tray, which is so exciting and a huge relief since she will need to rely on solids more once she hits the 1 year mark.  She still takes a veggie puree at lunch and a fruit puree at dinner.  On the tooth front, in addition to the 8 teeth she has already, one of her canines has started to come in, before her one year molars!

likes: she has mastered crawling and can speed crawl all over the house, she LOVES pulling up, which she figured out how to do a few weeks back.  She is tentatively trying to cruise along furniture with not much success yet.  Enjoys playing with laundry, her big wooden activity cube, talking to us and the pugs (still lots of mamamama, dadadada, duhduhduhduh, and shrieking).  She also loves making a clicking noise and having you repeat it back to her, then she clicks again.  Splashing in the tub, stealing food off of our plates, grabbing pug tails, crawling up and down the tiny step in our entry (over and over again), new toys, hosting playgroup (last month she cried, the stranger anxiety has fortunately passed), pulling glasses off Tyler’s face and grabbing his nose.

dislikes: Tyler put on a baseball cap and she freaked out, being fed solids (she likes to feed herself, except for purees), being held for too long, car rides, having her diaper changed, having her faced wiped after meals, sitting on grass, falling down (which she’s done a lot of this last month!)

10 months

weight and other stats: nothing official this month but I’m sure she’s broken the 20lb mark

size: I pulled out all of her summer clothes which are 12 month and she’s able to fit in some of them but 9 month clothes still fit better.  Fun to have new outfits to put on her though!

sleeping:  Still one morning nap and 1-2 afternoon naps and the very rare evening nap though she’s mostly phased those out this last month.  She has started STTN more often, maybe 2-3 times a week.  If she wakes at night it’s just once to eat and she goes right back down. We introduced a lovey this last week, not sure what she thinks of it just yet but it does seem to help her go down more quietly and we’ve found her snuggling it a couple of times already.  It is very rare that we rock her to sleep anymore, just for the occasional nap when she’s fussy.

eating:  Her formula intake has dropped a bit and averages 20-30 oz most days, she is just so busy during the day getting her to stop and take a bottle is difficult.  The last couple of nights she’s been taking a couple of big bottles in the evening though.  We continue to do purees at lunch and dinner, her favorites have blueberry in them but really she likes them all.  She has mastered the pincher grab this month but still has problems getting the food into her mouth (puffs and cheerios).  She is showing a bit more interest in feeding herself and can now eat an entire mum mum.

likes: army crawling allllll over the place (and up stairs!), feeding the pugs, playing with anything that isn’t technically a toy, the song Baby-O, her stuffed grover, PUPPETS!, pulling her socks off, playing with her rubber duckies in the bath.

dislikes: being on the changing table, being sick (got her first cold this month and it was 2 very not fun weeks), grass, strangers (or really anyone that isn’t me, Tyler, or her daycare provider), pug fights, hats.

9 months

weight and other stats: 19.8 lbs (72nd percentile), 27.75 in long (56th percentile), 18.5 in head circumference (99th percentile!)

size: we are gradually packing up most of her 6 month size clothing.  She is still wearing 6-12 month size and now 9 month clothing (most of which is whale themed, whoops).

sleeping:  Gretchen typically takes one nap in the morning (3o-60 minutes) and a long one in the afternoon (90 minutes-2 hrs, today it was 2.5 hrs!)   She also ends up conking out for about 30 minutes in the evening a few days a week.  We’ve tried just putting her to bed early but she wakes up after 30 minutes ready to play, so for now we’re just following her cues and letting her take the weird after dinner nap!  She STTN most nights, although sometimes she wakes up to eat in the middle of the night if she didn’t get at least 30 oz during the day.  She is often so busy playing during the day that she won’t stop and eat.  We alternate who gets up with her.  Usually she just downs the bottle and goes right back down.

eating: Averages about 32 oz of formula a day.  She takes solids at lunch and dinner.  We mostly do pouches now, and won’t be using Gerber baby food going forward after learning about this.   She pretty much loves everything we have given her, though she still won’t eat straight peas.  We are encouraging her to feed herself but she hasn’t shown much interest.  We recently introduced mum mums and she will sometimes put one in her mouth and take a bite.  Then she hands it to one of the pugs!  She is great at picking up any food we offer her, but very rarely actually puts it in her mouth.  It will come in time I’m sure!

likes: pug toys!!! Her little people Noahs ark animals that I got at a consignment sale.  Pulling off her socks, scooting across the room (not quite crawling, but close!)  jumperoo, walks in her stroller (we took off the carseat adapter so she rides facing out now), watching the pugs play tug or fetch, music, sitting up and playing with her toys, talking (she will babble mamamamama and dadadadada).

dislikes: having toys (especially pug toys) taken from her.  Still hates peas.  Doesn’t like it when we try to get her to hold her own bottle, even though she’s perfectly capable.  She gets fussy and squirmy on the changing table, I don’t think she likes being on her back now that she knows how to get around on her tummy!

8 months

weight & other stats: next appointment is at 9 months, my best guess is that she’s about 17 lbs right now.

size: We packed up the last of her 3-6 month clothes and she is in 6 month, 6-12 month, and a few 9 month (mostly pants for the length).

sleep:  Gretchen has been waking up in the middle of the night a few nights a week for the last few weeks, I think it’s a growth spurt thing.  Sometimes she STTN, you just can’t predict.  She still only takes 2 naps at daycare but usually 3 at home.  One in the morning and two in the afternoon.  She naps longer if I let her nap on my chest or in the bed with me so sometimes if I’m in need of a good nap we go that route 🙂  Usually she naps in her crib though.  We are trying to phase out rocking her at nap time, usually if we keep her up til she is super tired she will fall asleep on her own.

eating:  Gretchen has 5 teeth now and more getting ready to make an appearance.  2 on the top and 3 on the bottom.  Despite her numerous teeth she shows no interest in feeding herself.  We offer her things and she will pick them up and hold them or squish them up but she never brings the food to her mouth.  We feed her a veggie puree at lunch and a fruit puree at dinner.  She LOVES the purees with blueberries in them and gobbled up prunes like it was chocolate pudding.  I think we’ll add solids at breakfast when she is 9 months old, maybe she’ll show more interest in finger foods at that point.  She still averages about 32 oz of formula a day, but there have been some days during a growth spurt where she ate 37oz up to 43oz!  Crazy!  She usually takes 5 oz at a time, sometimes 6 or 7 first thing in the morning if she STTN.  We are trying to teach her to hold her own bottle but it is hit or miss.  She is easily distracted (by the pugs!)

likes:  sitting and playing with toys.  She still falls over pretty often so we make sure the boppy is there to catch her.  She still loves her jumperoo and finally figured out how to actually jump in it.  She will play in there even when she’s tired (we’ve found her nodding off to sleep in it!)  The pugs bring her endless entertainment, she laughs and laughs when they play tug.  She loves rolling all over the place and pushes up on her arms and attempts to crawl, but still hasn’t figured out the mechanics of it.  Any day now!  She loves to grab whatever book we are reading and attempt to turn the pages (usually about 5 at a time!)

dislikes:  The car wash freaks her out and makes her cry.  Not being able to reach the toys she wants.  She is a really happy baby 99% of the time.

7 months

weight & other stats: nothing official this month but I think she’s probably between 16-17lbs at this point.  Her next appointment with the doctor is at 9 months so I’ll have official stats again then.

size: Still fits some of her 3-6 stuff but is mostly into 6 months/6-12 size.  We retired a bunch of jammies this month that just weren’t long enough anymore.

sleep:  now that Gretchen is in daycare a couple of days a week her sleep schedule has changed some.  She takes only 2 naps a day at daycare but they are often 90 minutes to 2 hours long.  At home she still takes 3-4 short naps.  She typically refuses to nap after 4pm so her bedtime is moving back gradually, closer to 7:30 or 8.  We can typically put her down with her crib soother and white noise machine and she’ll fall asleep by herself.  Most nights she sleeps about 10 hours, with the occasional middle of the night waking for a bottle.

eating:  We switched over to Costco brand formula in January which saves us about $20 a month. The switch was seamless.  Gretchen eats about 32+ oz of formula a day (mostly 5 oz bottles but she takes a 6 oz one first thing in the morning so we moved up to the bigger size Tommee Tippee bottles).  We made a couple attemps at table food thinking we’d go straight to baby led weaning (brief synopsis of the method here) but Gretchen is not yet at the point where she tries to put things in her mouth.  So she just squished the food around on her tray and never put any in her mouth.  We decided to do purees until she has more interest in grabbing food and it’s gone really well.  She loves: pears, peaches, apples, bananas, green beans, squash, sweet potato, and carrots.  She will not eat peas unless we mix them in with something else.  Her top two teeth came in this month so she has 4 teeth now!

likes:  rolling around on the floor (she can now roll back to front).  She likes hanging out in her exersaucer and her jumperoo and has figured out how to manipulate the toys on them.  She really enjoys her kindermusik class and listening to music and playing with instruments at home.  Also loves splashing in her tub, talking (a lot of babababa dadadada yayayaya), playing in the ball pit at daycare, sitting up like a big girl, and she ADORES the pugs.

dislikes:  peas! She also doesn’t like it when we leave the room, I think it’s the beginning of some separation anxiety but it’s not really a consistent thing yet.  Also not a fan of teething (and neither are we!)

6 months

weight & other stats: 15 lbs 14 oz and 25.75 in long (both 45th percentile), head is 17.5 inches (dropped a bit to the 96th percentile).

size: 3-6 months, moving into some 6 month stuff as well.

sleep:  Gretchen was a great sleeper this past month. Still STTN more often than not.  No belated 4 month sleep regression as I’d feared so I think we were one of the lucky ones that didn’t have to experience this (watch it hit super late now, lol).  Around Christmas we moved Gretchen’s rock n play to the nursery for a couple of nights, then made the jump to the crib.  We thought for sure she’d have trouble sleeping flat after so many months sleeping on an incline but there were zero issues at all.  Now most days she naps in the swing or RnP (mostly 20-40 minute naps, usually at least one long one that is 60-90 minutes) and then she’ll sleep 8-10 hours at night in her crib.  We’ve started using our Motorola video monitor and LOVE it.  Spying on her is so fun, heh.  Gretchen started daycare last week and slept really well there which was a relief.  We sent our spare white noise machine to help block out noise of the other kids and she slept well in their pack n play.

eating:  Gretchen is still exclusively formula fed, well up until today as we are starting baby led weaning tonight! She has her bottom 2 teeth and her top gums are swollen so the top 2 may be on their way.  Most days she eats anywhere from 28-32 oz of formula, taking a bottle every 2-3 hours still.  We are just finishing up our last can of Similac and switching to Costco brand formula which will save about $20 a month.  Money that will go towards buying her solid food I imagine!  We are kind of on the fence about organic vs. non-organic food for her.  I think we’ll follow the dirty dozen list and buy those items organic, at least to start.

likes:  toys that light up and make music, touch and feel books (she loves feeling different textures right now).  She is always watching the pugs and has started smiling/laughing at them and petting them if they sit close by.  Her favorite thing to do is lay on a blanket and roll/scoot around.  She hasn’t quite figure out how to roll back to front but she’s very close.  We tried the Ergo again the other night and she loved it.  She was able to look all around and finally fell asleep while Tyler was wearing her at Barnes and Noble.

dislikes:  being overtired, which has happened more recently since she’s so aware of things and easily gets overstimulated.  Not a fan of the paci again all of the sudden.  Her relationship with it runs hot and cold!

5 months

weight & other stats: not sure since she doesn’t have another visit with the doctor til January, but my guess is she’s between 14-15lbs.

size: 3-6 months, although some 0-3 pants and sleepers still fit just fine.  I did pack up most of her short sleeved onesies and clothes she just wasn’t wearing much to make more room for her cold weather clothes.

sleep:  More often than not Gretchen is sleeping through the night at this point.  Sometimes that means she’s up at 5, other days it’s closer to 7.   Her bedtime fluctuates depending on the time of her last bottle.  We usually want to make sure she eats one last time after 8pm, so some nights she goes down at 8:30, others closer to 10.  A week ago we stopped swaddling, which I thought would be a huge ordeal but turned out not to be.  Gretchen was outgrowing her miracle blankets and kicking her leg out of it and waking herself up.  So I tried swaddling just her arms which worked great at naptime, but then overnight she got her arms out and pulled the blanket over her face….mom fail!  So the next night we decided to try a sleepsack and see how she did.  Fully expecting her to wake up in the middle of the night and need to be swaddled.  Nope!  She STTN and we’ve been using the sleep sacks ever since!  I miss my baby burrito a little bit, but I’m glad to see she’s so flexible and has easily adjusted to having her arms free.  No 4 month sleep regression YET, but I think it may come late since she was born a month early.  We shall see…

eating:  About 2 weeks ago we were able to move up to the level 2 nipples without a fight!  Now it takes Gretchen less than 10 minutes to take a bottle, which is awesome!   Gretchen is consistently eating 3.5-4 oz at each feeding, and sometimes she sucks it down and wants more so I’ll give her another 1-2 ounces.  Her daily intake has gone up a bit from last month, she typically takes 25-28 oz a day now (up from 21-25oz).  A few days ago she ate 30 oz, her new record!  Still no cereal or solids.  I am picking up Baby Led Weaning from the library today so we can start preparing for next month!   And not sure what category this should go under but this one works: Gretchen sprouted her first tooth this last week!  It is one of her front bottom teeth.  There were no real signs of teething that we picked up on, although she had been drooling and chewing on her hands a bit so maybe those were tooth related.  I just noticed one day that she had something in her mouth and put my finger in there and sure enough, it’s a tooth!  Hopefully the arrival of all future teeth is just as anticlimactic and fuss-free (yeah, right!)

likes: laying on her back and kicking and flailing her arms, especially if there is a ceiling fan to watch at the same time.  She wants to observe what is going on around her, so her preference is to sit in our laps and face out.  However she does like when we make faces and sign to her so she’ll tolerate looking at us as long as we are hamming it up.  She is still entertained for short periods of time by her playmat and her bouncy chair.  She likes to grab the toys but now that she’s interested in bringing toys to her mouth she gets frustrated  easily.  Gretchen really loves her pacifier again, I think our long trip to KY (11 hours in the car both ways!) made her want to use it more, it helps her fall asleep more easily.  Now that her arms are free from the swaddle she is figuring out how to get the pacifier back in her mouth (yay for wubbanubs!)

dislikes:  being on her stomach.  In fact she started to hate it so much she figured out how to roll over!!  I was totally astounded.  I had decided to stop stressing over her lack of interest in rolling (she wasn’t pushing up on her arms at all) and then out of the blue she just rolled over.  I managed to capture it on video to show Tyler, but when he came home from work she rolled over again for him like it was no big deal!  She is rolling from stomach to back both ways but typically rolls to her left.  Gretchen also doesn’t really like being reclined and is always grunting and trying to sit up without much success.  She definitely has strong core muscles!  I can’t think of anything else she doesn’t like…she is generally a very happy and adaptable baby!

October: a review

books read:  didn’t read anything, speaking of, have you seen the leapster commercial that starts with “once there were books…” It cracks me up, since when did books become extinct?

movies watched: I think I watched Juno on tv?

tv show obsessions: The Good Wife is back, and it is sooooooo good.  Highlight of my week.

new recipes tried: Mushroom-herb mac n cheese. Spaghetti with zucchini, walnuts, and raisins. Pan fried chicken fingers with spicy dipping sauce.

favorite purchase: all my purchases from Ikea!!!

low point:  ABC Family pulling Friday Night Lights from syndication.  Bastards.

high point:  sister road trip to Minneapolis.

favorite pug photo: it was a good month for pug photos, but this one makes me laugh every time.

September: a review

Um yeah I know I’m a week late with this, but in my defense, I was out of town and then I had a lot of tv shows to catch up on 😉

books read:  The Help, Savannah and Hilton Head, The Thorn, Frommer’s Portable Savannah

movies watched: Easy A

tv show obsessions: pretty much anything NEW!  Also very dedicated to watching season 1 of Gilmore Girls and Friday Night Lights on ABC Family each day.

new recipes tried: none!  I have pretty much stayed out of the kitchen

favorite purchase:  black dress I scored on sale at Macys

low point:  I can’t pinpoint anything specifically, but I was in a bit of a fog this month, which is never a good thing. 

high point:  Labor Day weekend at the lake with the hubs and the pugs!

favorite pug photo:

“don’t let Boopers sneak up on me while I’m warming your feet Mama!”