Gerrit: 9 months

July 28, 2015July 28, 2015 nk3304 Comments

Age: 9 months on 27 July 2015
Weight: 21.8 lbs
Height: 28.3 inches
Teeth: 2
Clothing Size: 12 months
Diaper Size: size 3
Milestones: army crawling, clapping, pincer grasp, making sounds with his tongue (like the beginning of making the ‘nuh’ sound), sleeping solo all the time, sitting up from laying down, growing more hair (finally!), crawling, looking for attention

Gerrit went from a speedy army crawl to the occasional “real” crawl right before he turned 9 months old. He usually starts crawling the “real” way, then it’s back to the belly because it’s faster right now.

As for the looking for attention? I mean that literally. He will lean over and cock his head to the side to try to get into my line of vision if I’m not paying attention to him! It’s pretty cute, and it always works. 🙂

Sleeping: I’ve really started worrying less about Gerrit’s sleep lately, if you can believe that. I mean, he has good nights, he has great nights, and he has some not-so-great nights. And it is what it is. I still keep track of how much sleep he gets, but I don’t fret so much about his sleep unless he’s getting much less than normal all of a sudden.

This month I started pushing 2 naps instead of 3 each day. That third nap is such a battle most days, and since it takes so long to get him to sleep, it ends up going too late so I have to wake him up. Which I hate doing! That being said, if his first 2 naps are short, I definitely go through the pain of giving him a third nap.

Speaking of naps, I have stopped napping with Gerrit completely now. I was noticing that his first nap was getting increasingly difficult: he would try to roll around or crawl instead of laying and nursing next to me, and he would wake up a bit, see me, and be wide awake, cutting his nap too short. So one frustrated morning, I put him in his crib to nap. And he took a great nap! I was honestly sad to lose that cuddle time with him. I’m realizing that that nap together was more for me than for him at this point in time. Oh, but don’t worry, I still take a nap when he naps in the morning. 😉 I was surprised how much I felt like I still needed it. Sometimes I think I will never catch up on sleep.

A good portion of Gerrit’s 9th month was spent in another Wonder Week: Leap #6 – The World of Categories. I was expecting the worst with this one, because reading other peoples’ accounts of this Wonder Week made it sound awful. Some people even said it was the worst one! But nothing really changed. Gerrit’s sleep was still pretty good. He is so unpredictable with sleep & eating, that things would have to be significantly worse than normal for me to notice a change. Other moms complained that their child would scream when they put them down at night or wake frequently, wanting close contact with Mommy all night. Gerrit just kept nursing to sleep, occasionally falling asleep on his own, and having 2-3 wakings a night. If anything changed, it was that I heard more sounds while he slept: whimpering or the occasional grunt or groan. Once we got to the “stormy week,” I did notice more crying (due to frustration, it seemed), worse sleep (we had some 30 minute “crap naps” and frequent night waking), and general crankiness from Mr. G. We should be coming out of it in the next week or so, so my fingers are crossed for better sleep soon!

Eating: In terms of breastfeeding, Gerrit continues to do fairly well. I still struggle to get him to nurse anytime that he’s wide awake. He takes a full feeding right before naps or bedtime. If I offer the breast when he’s not tired, he will usually nurse for a minute tops, then pull away and want to go play. I’m hoping that if he continues this way, he starts eating more solids to hold him over between feeds!

In terms of solid foods, Gerrit may be eating a bit more FINALLY! He has really come a long way with the pincer grasp, so I’ve started cutting his food into smaller pieces. The smaller pieces are more manageable for him, and I think it’s much easier for him to eat. Don’t get me wrong, most of his food still gets squished and thrown around, but I have seen evidence of more actual consumption! I have started offering more of the foods that I cook instead of just single items (some chili cornbread casserole vs a strip of bell pepper for example). It makes things much easier, since I just save a small amount of our dinner in a container for him to eat the next day. I have started reading more into the BLW cookbook I got for some recipe inspiration too.

Mommy Update: This mommy is doing pretty good! Summer clothes are making me more self-conscious about my tummy area, but I tell myself I will have plenty of time to deal with it after Gerrit stops breastfeeding. Mood-wise, I’m doing really well. I’m usually in good spirits, but that might be because I spend all day being silly with Gerrit!

I seriously love the time I spend with Gerrit now. Yeah, sometimes it’s exhausting, especially when he’s being crabby, but there is nothing better than knowing that I put the smiles on his face.

Best Moments: Definitely watching Gerrit learn and master new things. I love watching him sit and inspect things. He’s so serious about it!

I also love watching him get braver with standing on his own. He can stand by himself for about 5 seconds right now. It really surprised me the first time I saw him do this!

We’ve heard more laughs and giggles out of Gerrit this month too — I LOVE it! Just the cutest sound ever! I think he has figured out that I like it when he giggles… so sometimes I think he forces/fakes it, haha. He’s a smart cookie!

I also love doing sensory and art activities with him. Gerrit likes anything new and different, and I’m pretty sure he thinks “the messier, the better!”

Finger painting with colored rice cereal

Likes & Dislikes: Have I mentioned that Gerrit likes standing and walking? 😛 This is still true!

He has gotten pretty obsessed with walking. Sometimes that is ALL he wants to do. And he isn’t easily distracted from it! He will try to climb me, take my hands, and whine until I help him stand. And then he wants to take off walking, expecting me to help him along, haha.

Gerrit has gotten very quick with his army crawling! He will often go up on all 4s, but he still drops down to his belly to scoot across the floor. Since he’s so fast, I really have to be aware of anything he can get into. He loves going after electrical cords, but this is really only a problem in our bedroom (lamps, phone chargers, his baby monitor, the fan… lots of temptation!). He also likes shoes and sandals and tries to eat them.

So I have gotten much better about putting my sandals in the closet when I’m not wearing them! Who knows what he’s going to ingest after sucking on one of those… gross.

Gerrit’s mobility has gotten him stuck a few times too, haha.

Gerrit likes our hair. He’s getting good at giving Andrew scalp massages when Andrew puts him up on his shoulders. With me? Yank, pull, twist… OW! As soon as he gets his hands on my hair, he uses a death grip and goes to town waving his arms around. My hair is almost always way up on top of my head to prevent this, but he never misses a chance to snatch it if he can. I tell him, “No, no, that hurts Mommy’s head,” and he just grins.

Gerrit has always enjoyed us reading to him, but lately he has become really into books. When I open his closet doors (where all his toys are), he crawls straight for the books on the bottom shelf. These are a few of his favorites:

Along with books, Gerrit likes music! His face lights up when he sees the Pandora app opening on my phone, haha. This is one of his favorite songs. I try to be pretty silly and exaggerated when I sing it, which he loves. He also likes “If You’re Happy & You Know It” and anything I add my own dramatic flair to. 😉 Sorry (not sorry), I don’t have any videos of that!

What does Gerrit dislike? Us walking away from him! He will fuss or start calling, “Mamamam!” and army crawl as quickly as he can after us. He also dislikes getting his pajamas on. I’m pretty sure he knows the bedtime routine well enough to know what’s coming after the pajamas go on. Despite that, he really is not difficult to get to sleep at night. Another thing he dislikes is us trying to sit him down when he’s standing, haha. He will lock his legs to try to prevent it! What a stinker…

Memorable Events: Gerrit celebrated his first 4th of July! And we celebrated our first 4th of July in the USA since 2011!

20150704_202939 — Celebrating at our friends’ house

We also got some family photos done this month! You can check those out in a separate post, but here’s my favorite:

Overall, we had a great month! It was a hot one, so we didn’t spend a lot of time outside, but I do try to get him out every other day or so for some type of activity once the patio is shaded (after 4pm). These months are starting to fly by now that Gerrit is so much more active. Here are a few more from his 9 month photos… he has some funny expressions!

20150727_151125 — Haha! Sick of photos already?

20150727_151134 — He doesn’t stay sitting for long!

Guess he didn't care for the flash — Guess he didn’t care for the flash

20150727_151111 — Happy 9 months, Gerrit! We love you!

Daily living

Summer Family Photos

July 23, 2015August 18, 2015 nk3304 Comments

I absolutely loved Gerrit’s newborn photos, and I was hoping to get photos done around 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months to remember his first year. But moving to another country kind of threw a wrench into those plans! We hadn’t gotten any proper family photos done since Gerrit was less than a month old, so I have been itching to get some done.

Well, I came across someone local who is starting up a photography business and was offering FREE photo shoots for a small number of people. Heck yes! I jumped on the opportunity and had us scheduled for a weekend in July. I figured that even if we only got a few nice photos, you really can’t beat free!

I was thrilled to receive quite a few cute photos of the three of us, plus some cute daddy-and-me and mommy-and-me photos. And some cute ones of Baby G, too, of course! He wasn’t very smiley, but that didn’t surprise me much; he’s been pretty wary of strangers for the past month or so. We still got some cute shots!

A few of just Gerrit:

Doesn’t he look proud of himself sitting in that little rocking chair? Haha… I love him.

He just loved this furry blanket! Gerrit really enjoys his super soft blankets at home too, but this was just too much fun for him to pull on.

My good-looking guys!

A few mommy-and-me photos with my cutie!

Overall, I really like the photos we got! I’m surprised I didn’t look like a sweaty mess by the end, haha. These North Carolina summer days are HOT!

Are you in the area and looking for some new family photos? Check out Blue Birds Photography on Facebook!

Daily living · Parenting

Gerrit: 8 Months

July 14, 2015 nk33010 Comments

Wow, this month seemed to fly by! I felt like we had just done Gerrit’s 7 month photos, and here we are doing the 8 month ones.

Age: 8 months on 27 June 2015
Weight: 21.2 lbs
Height: 28.25 inches (a rough guess… he was very wiggly while I tried to measure him!)
Teeth: 1 — it started coming through right before he turned 8 months
Clothing Size: 12 months
Diaper Size: size 3
Milestones: actually sleeping through the night (9+ hours!), sleeping in the crib all night, creeping, standing with less support, saying “Mama”

Sleeping: First of all, yes, Gerrit slept through the night!! Once. One single night. But I took it as a very good sign! I was not expecting him to keep doing it, since that just isn’t the way Gerrit works, haha.

I started playing around with his naps this month. I wasn’t sure if he was ready to transition down to 2 naps, because he usually fought me hard on that last nap of the day. He mostly took 3 naps during this month, although there were some days of only 2 naps. It usually depended on how early he had woken up that morning (5:15 was our earliest morning) and how long his naps were that day. Gerrit & I still usually napped together for the first nap of the day, since I was still needing the extra zzz’s! Naps ranged from piddly little cat naps (half an hour to 45 minutes) to fantastic 2 hour naps (usually with me). His worst day of naps was a 1-hour morning nap and a 45-minute afternoon nap. Seriously… how was he functioning on that little sleep?! He slept great that night though, which is why I considered dropping the 3rd nap. Other days with only 2 naps resulted in frequent night-waking though. As did days with 3 naps. I’m telling you, this kid is not consistent!

At night, Gerrit’s sleep ranged from no night wakings (can I get a hallelujah?!) to 5 night wakings (shoot me now), although 3-4 was the norm. His nights with only 1 waking were the nights he slept 6+ hours during the first stretch, 7+ hours in a stretch, and then the night of 9.5 hours of sleeping bliss. That amazing night was June 17, and I keep waiting for a repeat of that night. 🙂 It was about a week after that that Gerrit was probably teething, so I shouldn’t be surprised that he was a bit more restless.

The first few days of his 8th month, I was still bringing Gerrit to bed with me between 4 & 5 in the morning, because he refused to go back to sleep in the crib at that point. But then he started doing better with going back to sleep in his crib, and it continued almost every night! It was really weird for Andrew and me at first, haha. We woke up and the sun was up, but there was no baby in the bed. Crazy! I’ll admit, I kind of missed it at first, but I think that’s why I continued napping with Gerrit for that first nap of the day: I needed that snuggle time with him.

Eating: Breastfeeding is going well. I feel like since he turned 6 months, breastfeeding has been a fairly low-stress activity. Gerrit eats well, takes solid feedings before sleeping, and has gotten really good at latching back on quickly if he comes off and realizes he’s being sprayed in the face with milk. 🙂 He also started handling my boobs more. What I mean by that is, he would position them like a baby with a bottle might. It just seemed like he was gaining more control with his hands and fingers this month.

Just as a side note, I now know why moms enjoy breastfeeding so much. When a child nurses well, drains a breast, and stays latched on, breastfeeding is wonderful! I had no idea what that was like until the past couple of months. I was seriously dreaming about the day Gerrit would be done nursing, because it was a chore for both of us. But if things continue like this, I’ll be happy to breastfeed past 12 months if he wants to.

Gerrit + solids = play time. I felt like the finger foods I was giving him were just being used as teething toys for the most part. Occasionally, I would find bits of food in his diaper, so I knew he was eating something but you could see he was still primarily breastfed. Which isn’t bad, of course, I just figured that by now I’d be seeing more solids in there.

So I started offering purees and rice cereal mixed with fruit puree. No luck there either. He would make a face and spit it out. Every time. I had a little success getting purees into him if I let him use the spoon, but that spoon usually got flung at the wall or on the floor at some point, so that got pretty messy.

I’m trying not to get discouraged or worry about it, but it does disappoint me a little. I just thought he would get the hang of things more quickly than he is. He genuinely seems to enjoy the finger food though. Nothing seems to taste bad to him, and he likes to mash things around in his mouth, but most of it just comes back out again. We will get there though!

Mommy Update: I’m doing well! Still at about the same weight, but I have no interest in trying to lose any weight while breastfeeding. I have a great supply right now, and I don’t want to mess with that while Gerrit is still almost entirely consuming breast milk.

(Did I seriously not get a picture of the two of us this month?!) 😦

Best Moments: I think one of the best moments was hearing Gerrit say, “Mama.” At first, I was sure it was just babbling, because he would just repeat the “ma” sound all the time: “mamamama.” But he smiles when I say “Mama” back to him, and he’s more likely to say it when he’s upset and actually wants me.

Another best moment was that night that he slept through the night! Seriously, it feels so good to sleep like that after getting used to sleeping in 2-3 hours increments all the time.

Likes & Dislikes: Gerrit still likes standing & walking with help. Sometimes it seems like that’s all he wants to do! He’s often trying to crawl on top of me to stand on my lap, and he will fuss and whine if I don’t help him out.

Gerrit likes practicing his crawling to some extent. He will get up on all 4s and rock back and forth, then drop down on his belly and try to move. He gets frustrated fairly quickly though.

He still really enjoys sensory activities, especially anything to do with water! He splashes around in the bath and makes quite a mess, haha!

I also introduced “sand play” with Gerrit:

It’s just white cornmeal, not actual sand. I’m glad I did cornmeal, because one of the first things he did was grab a handful and put it in his mouth! It’s messy though (the powder gets everywhere), so we usually do this outside.

Here is a sensory box I made for him:

It has a different texture on each side. His favorite side is definitely the one with bubble wrap!

Gerrit still dislikes being left alone for any extended period of time. But he is getting better at playing by himself:

He also dislikes when you don’t help him walk around when he wants to! I’ve tried letting him try out his walking toy, but he doesn’t have the balance for that yet. So I’m usually either stuck with sore knees or a sore back from helping him walk around the house.

Memorable Events: June was pretty low-key for the most part. Andrew celebrated his first Father’s Day though! Gerrit and I made a picture for him and framed it:

I also got another shirt set like I did for Mother’s Day:

Other than that, I just made a special brunch for the three of us. I made honey-ricotta pancakes with blackberries and oranges. I let Gerrit have some, but left out the honey-ricotta topping. I didn’t take any photos of our brunch, but here is the recipe I used if you want to try it! We thought it was delicious!

This is not actually a memorable event, but this IS one of my favorite outfits on him:

I think the worst part about baby clothes is that they grow out of the cute ones so quickly! Gerrit is definitely getting more wear out of his clothes now that he isn’t packing on the pounds so fast, but it still seems like I am packing up a too-small size too often.

So that was Gerrit’s 8th month! Like I said, it really seemed to fly by, and part of the reason is probably because Gerrit is so much more fun to play with now. As we head into month #9, we will be baby-proofing things, I’m sure!